Poverty is on the retreat. Despite the global economic downturn, the World Bank and UN reported this year that the number of people living in extreme poverty has dropped in every region of the world for the first time since record keeping began. Though progress on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals has been uneven, we should be heartened that we have already reached the first of these eight goals – that of halving the number of people still living on less than $1 a day. However, we risk allowing these gains to come undone if we fail to strengthen the rule of law in developing countries.
貧困正在離我們而去。儘管全球經濟處於下行之中，世界銀行(World Bank)和聯合國(UN)今年的報告仍顯示，世界各地區的極端貧困人口都出現了記錄開始編制以來的首次減少。聯合國千年發展目標(Millennium Development Goals)的進展並不一帆風順，但我們應該感到欣慰的是，我們已經實現了這八大目標中的首個目標：靠每日不到1美元維生的人數減半。然而，如果我們不能加強發展中國家的法治，這些成果就有可能會付之東流。