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African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance 2007, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- State Parties shall institutionalize good economic and corporate governance through, inter alia: Poverty alleviation;
- Body
- African Union
- Document type
- Regional treaty
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2007
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The contribution of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development to the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals 2009, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Also calls upon Governments, in cooperation with the international community, to reaffirm their commitment to promote an enabling environment to achieve sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development and to eradicate poverty, with a special emphasis on gender, reducing the debt burden and ensuring that structural adjustment programmes are responsive to social, economic and environmental concerns in order to achieve the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2009
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Assessment of the status of implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 2014, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing also that population and development issues are interlinked with sustainable development at the subnational, national and international levels, requiring a multi-stakeholder and international approach, and acknowledging the need to integrate population dynamics into development planning, including its implications for human rights, dignity, quality of life and poverty eradication, at all levels, in order to achieve sustainable development,
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Assessment of the status of implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 2014, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Stresses that the full implementation of the Programme of Action and the key actions for its further implementation, which would also contribute to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, as well as those on population and development, education and gender equality, is integrally linked to global efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development, and that population dynamics are all important for development;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fertility, reproductive health and development 2011, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon Governments, in formulating and implementing national development plans, budgets and poverty eradication strategies, to prioritize actions to address challenges relating to the impact of population dynamics on poverty and sustainable development, taking into account a differential approach to people living in the most vulnerable situations, keeping in mind that universal reproductive health-care services, commodities and supplies, as well as information, education, skill development, national capacity-building for population and development and transfer of appropriate technology and know-how to developing countries are essential for achieving the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals and can contribute to economic and social development and to poverty eradication;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development and people of African descent 2015, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- In a period of economic and financial crisis, principles of participation, equality and non-discrimination should be integrated into all development activities where the realization of rights, including with respect to the fight against poverty and access to education, health, employment and political participation, are the goals of development. The Working Group also stresses that repairing the catastrophic damage done by enslavement and the slave trade would contribute to development.
- Body
- Working Group of experts on people of African descent
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Development and people of African descent 2015, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- Consistent with existing human rights commitments, States should also address poverty alleviation that eliminates racial discrimination, including through the implementation of development initiatives aimed at realizing the rights of people of African descent, in a manner appropriate to their culture and identity; ensure the full, active and meaningful participation of people of African descent throughout development programme cycles; and adopt measures to preserve, protect and restore the traditional knowledge of people of African descent.
- Body
- Working Group of experts on people of African descent
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The poverty-reducing potential of more equitable land distribution is further illustrated by statistical analyses showing that "a decrease of one third in the land distribution inequality index results in a reduction in the poverty level of one half in about 12-14 years. The same level of poverty reduction may be obtained in 60 years by agricultural growth sustained at an annual average of 3 per cent and without changing land distribution inequality". Land reforms in Asia following the Second World War resulted in a 30 per cent increase in the incomes of the bottom 80 per cent of households, while leading to an 80 per cent decline in the incomes of the top 4 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Agroecological practices require the supply of public goods such as extension services, storage facilities, rural infrastructure (roads, electricity, information and communication technologies) and therefore access to regional and local markets, access to credit and insurance against weather-related risks, agricultural research and development, education, and support to farmer's organizations and cooperatives. While this requires funding, the investment can be significantly more sustainable than the provision of private goods, such as fertilizers or pesticides that farmers can only afford so long as they are subsidized. While many efforts have been made since 2008 to reinvest in agriculture, too little attention has been paid to the differences between the various types of investment required and to understanding their impacts on the reduction of rural poverty. This has led World Bank economists to note that "underinvestment in agriculture is […] compounded by extensive misinvestment" with a bias towards the provision of private goods, sometimes motivated by political considerations. Research based on the study of 15 Latin American countries over the period 1985-2001 in which government subsidies for private goods was distinguished from expenditures in public goods indicated that, within a fixed national agriculture budget, a reallocation of 10 per cent of spending to supplying public goods increases agricultural per capita income by 5 per cent, while a 10 per cent increase in public spending on agriculture, keeping the spending composition constant, increases per capita agricultural income by only 2 per cent. In other words, "even without changing overall expenditures, governments can improve the economic performance of their agricultural sectors by devoting a greater share of those expenditures to social services and public goods instead of non-social subsidies." Thus, while the provision or subsidization of private goods may be necessary up to a point, the opportunity costs should be carefully considered.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- The impressive growth of aquaculture is seen, in part, as a response to the challenges discussed above, in particular to the stagnating wild-capture fisheries. While this holds true in Asia, fish farming is minimal in Africa, the Pacific and Latin America. Consequently, it remains difficult, in the absence of adequate data, to assess whether aquaculture is genuinely supporting food availability and accessibility for people living in poverty. Although small-scale aquaculture can contribute significantly to local food security, considerable investment and growth in aquaculture is for the benefit of exports or for middle-class urban consumers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- With the Millennium Development Goals reaching their target date in 2015, the international community is currently reflecting on the progress made to date. The establishment of the Goals reflects the most significant collective effort ever made at the international level to tackle extreme poverty and hunger. While significant progress has been made over the past 14 years, much remains to be done. As mentioned above, the international community is discussing the possible successor framework in the form of the sustainable development goals, which are currently under negotiation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- The emergence of the Social Protection Floor Initiative at the international level has been well documented. In telegraphic form, most analyses begin with the harsh adjustment policies associated with the "Washington Consensus" of the 1980s, the reaction to those policies by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other actors, the World Summit for Social Development in 1995, the poverty reduction strategies championed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), starting in the late 1990s, and the focus on poverty in the Millennium Development Goals. Social security then began to re-emerge as a priority concern, thanks in large part to the engagement of ILO. It launched a global campaign on social security in 2003, followed by the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization in 2004, along with a series of other steps endorsed by the International Labour Conference.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 23c
- Paragraph text
- [At the international level, definitional issues continue to be controversial, especially in terms of whether social protection floors should be seen as a matter of human rights and whether they should be universal and unconditional. Before examining those dimensions, it is appropriate to take note of the approach reflected in ILO recommendation No. 202. As the culmination of many initiatives, both within and well beyond the ILO context, it has become the principal benchmark against which social protection floors should be designed, implemented and evaluated. The main elements of recommendation No. 202 are as follows:] Protection is to be universal, rather than selective and is to be aimed at "preventing or alleviating poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion";
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- The report of the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group was especially critical of the Bank's approach and its critiques are still largely pertinent today. In the report, the Advisory Group noted that: In the social safety net approach, social policies were considered as residual to economic development. The implementation of such measures was driven by the need to provide relief to the poor and vulnerable during structural reform by cushioning the effects of the structural adjustments and facilitating political support to them. These measures were generally temporary, fragmented and targeted to the poor and vulnerable in a needs-based framework.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- While the Bank has participated in the deliberations of the Social Protection Inter-Agency Cooperation Board, recent developments appear to confirm that it is doing so very largely on its own terms, built around risk management and safety nets, and remains reluctant to buy in to the Social Protection Floor Initiative in a meaningful way. Its response to that remark would doubtless be to point to the fact that 870 million of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty, as defined by the Bank, are not covered even by safety nets. Under those circumstances, surely it is only prudent to begin with minimum aspirations? However, the Initiative envisages a gradual ratcheting up of aspirations, rather than the immediate introduction of full-blown social protection floors in low- or medium-income countries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- The role of the World Bank in relation to the Social Protection Floor Initiative is crucial. Based on policies pursued to date, it is the single actor most likely to undermine and frustrate the overall Initiative. Unless there is a change of heart on its part, the development community will continue to be pushed to focus on ill-defined social safety nets aimed at a limited number of the extreme poor and as a matter of bureaucratically defined and designed welfare policy, rather than as a matter of human rights. It is therefore indispensable that the human rights community should shine a spotlight on the policies and practices of the Bank in this area and the Human Rights Council should call upon it to embrace the Initiative in all its dimensions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- In the realms of human rights and the Initiative, the current draft of the post-2015 agenda is a considerable disappointment. The almost complete omission of substantive references to human rights in the draft is a throwback to the United Nations development decade strategies of the 1960s and 1970s. However, they were drafted at a time when the human rights framework was in its infancy and development was seen largely as a technocratic process. Similarly, the very low standards set in relation to social protection are inconsistent with the high-flown rhetoric of ending poverty in all its forms everywhere. As it stands, the first goal proposed by the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals might be considered to be in violation of deceptive advertising laws designed to protect consumers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- When acting as a member of an international organization, a State remains responsible for its own conduct in relation to its human rights obligations within and outside its territory. This includes identifying the possible human rights impact of measures agreed at the international level, including the impact on persons living in poverty. Therefore, when a State makes decisions about loans as a member of an international financial institution, careful consideration of human rights obligations would mitigate against imposing conditions regarding fiscal policies that may jeopardize the human rights of the borrower State's population or undermine that State's ability to use maximum available resources to realize economic, social and cultural rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Taxation policies also have the potential to reduce income and wealth inequalities, depending on their level and progressiveness. This is a crucial goal, because inequalities have been shown to slow the pace of poverty reduction, create intergenerational poverty traps through uneven access to health and education, and increase the vulnerability of societies to economic crises. Some research has shown that improvement in income distribution is the key channel for poverty reduction. In most economies, the redistribution achieved through income taxes is even higher than for means-tested social transfers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Overall, high tax rates for goods and services and low rates for income, wealth and property bring about inequitable and discriminatory outcomes; indeed, it has been shown that the negative effect of indirect taxes on the income of people living in or on the verge of poverty can be greater than the positive effect of cash transfers. Such regressive tax structures also restrict the redistributive aspect of social programmes, resulting in them effectively being funded by the very persons whom they seek to benefit. Thus, although each country's situation is different, the higher the prevalence of regressive taxes in the mix of revenue-raising sources, the more likely it is that a State will run afoul of the principles of equality and non-discrimination and that the minimum essential enjoyment of rights by the poorest will be threatened.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the workplace 2016, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- In recent decades, economic globalization, implemented with as few regulations on companies and capital as possible, has been touted by many economists as an essential vehicle to global prosperity and the end of poverty. The economic system that grew out of that philosophy has indeed led to a rise in global economic productivity and wealth, but it has also contributed to a dramatic rise in the power of large multinational corporations and concentrated wealth in fewer hands. At the same time, States' power to regulate those business entities has eroded. Further, the world's recent economic growth has not been shared equally. Productivity and economic output have increased, but so has inequality, with the fruits of that growth going primarily to the wealthiest.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Health financing in the context of the right to health 2012, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- The primary financial barrier to accessing health care in most States is out-of-pocket payments. Out-of-pocket payments are payments for health goods and services made by the user at the point of service delivery. In 2007, in 33 mostly low-income countries, out-of-pocket payments represented more than 50 per cent of total health expenditures. Out-of-pocket payments may also lead to catastrophic health expenditures. Every year approximately 100 million people, in mostly low-income countries, are pushed into poverty owing to excessive or catastrophic spending on health care. At a minimum, the right to health requires States to reduce out-of-pocket payments for health and eliminate those payments that disproportionately impact on the poor. The pooling of prepayments for health goods and services reduces out-of-pocket payments for all users and may eliminate these payments for the poor. Pooling thus insulates users against catastrophic health expenditures through the cross-subsidization of financial risks associated with expenditures on health.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Credit was increasingly awarded to households that, in normal circumstances, would not be eligible for loans, generating what is known as "sub-prime" loans. Although these lending policies were intended to enable access to housing finance for low-income households previously excluded from the mortgage markets, they are still in effect extremely discriminatory with respect to the poor. Mortgage lenders classify loan applicants according to the risks that they pose to both lenders and investors. Credit scoring facilitates risk-based pricing by allowing lenders to charge higher interest rates for borrowers with low scores (bad risks) and lower interest rates for borrowers with high scores (good risks). Lenders became more willing to issue credit at a relatively high price to higher-risk borrowers. In the United States, a typical sub-prime borrower would pay $5,222 more during the first four years of a $166,000 mortgage than would a similar borrower with a normal mortgage (see A/HRC/10/7).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Demand subsidies linked to mortgage finance or savings usually do not target the poor and in effect benefit the better-off (middle- and even upper-middle-income households). Income tax deductions of interest payments or a broad-based interest rate subsidy for mortgage loans tend to be regressive, as they increase with the amount of the loan and benefit those who can afford larger loans more than those with smaller loans. In the Philippines, interest rate subsidies account for 90 per cent of the value of housing subsidies; however, 77 per cent of the country's population cannot afford a formal-sector loan even at subsidized interest rates. Part of these subsidies may also leak out to benefit others in the housing systems and raise the value of existing dwellings and land.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Although the rationale for the implementation of subsidized mortgage markets is supposedly to reduce State intervention in the housing sector, support for savings banks, interest-rate subsidies and tax allowances mobilize a large amount of public money. The Government is committed to long-term subsidy payments, which are hard to control during the contract period. For example, in Spain and Hungary, tax-exemption schemes were recently cancelled owing to serious fiscal problems. The Special Rapporteur believes that a State's sole reliance on mortgage subsidies may be considered incompatible with its obligation to employ the maximum available resources to promote the right to adequate housing without discrimination. This is particularly the case when States devote the majority of their budgets to these policies while at the same time dismantling or failing to promote social housing programmes or other alternatives that specifically target the poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The Chilean model has been praised as a best practice for its transparency, the scale of its shift of housing provision to private market providers (which were seen as more efficient and effective than Government in addressing the diversity of housing demand) and its targeting of the poor. The model has been widely replicated in Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)). Outside Latin America, the capital-grant approach has been implemented on a large scale in South Africa since 1994.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Attempting to complement resources, some States have promoted the involvement of both private banks and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in supplying low-income households with microcredit, in addition to the State subsidy. These programmes act as institutional and financial intermediaries between the poor and the State, enabling the poor to "bridge the finance gap" in order to be eligible for the subsidy. However, research indicates that the combination of housing microfinance and subsidies has not been successful. Problems emerge, particularly in instances where the same microfinance institution manages both the need-based subsidy and the demand-driven loan, as the amount of the subsidy is inversely related to the amount of the credit.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- However, in the 1980s a new finance paradigm emerged, one that appeared to be able to address poverty through the expansion of small, informal-sector income-generating credit: microfinance. Private financial investors became convinced of the profitability of microfinance and came to regard the poor as "bankable". The result has been a dramatic rise since then in the flow of private investment capital (supported by donors, multilateral banks and international organizations) into the microfinance sector and, more recently, into housing finance services adapted to support incremental building processes. The growing commercial presence of major Western banking groups in developing countries and their interest in microfinance (including for housing) has been based on the idea that the "bottom of the pyramid" represents a large untapped market.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- Housing microfinance is offered by a wide variety of institutions including microfinance agencies, such as Grameen Bank and affiliates of the Accion organization; banks and commercial institutions, such as HDFC Bank in India and the CEMEX company in Mexico (the Patrimonio Hoy programme); and intergovernmental organizations and NGOs specializing in shelter provision, such as the Rural Housing Loan Fund in South Africa and Habitat for Humanity. A distinction can be made between financial institutions offering micro enterprise loans and institutions whose main purpose is improving the shelter situation of the poor, which may or may not be financial institutions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Although microfinance agencies' interest rates are typically lower than those of informal moneylenders, they are much higher than those charged by formal financial institutions and have much shorter maturities. In most cases, the interest rates range between 20 per cent and 50 per cent. For example, MiBanco in Peru charges a 37 per cent annual rate and Compartamosbanco in Mexico charges almost 70 per cent interest on its housing microfinance programme. The poorer the client, the more likely the housing microfinance agency will attempt to manage default risk by reducing the time over which the client must repay the loan, increasing the interest rate and reducing the size of the loan. In some cases, the small loan amount is not sufficient and needs to be supplemented by additional borrowing from external sources, which carry very high interest rates and expose the household to increased risk. The use of floating rate interest also leads to increased interest over the repayment period, sometimes up to double the original rate. High interest rates increase clients' indebtedness and reinforce a vicious cycle of poverty and the likelihood of default. In some cases, long-held family assets (such as equipment or land) need to be sold, or other income flows (remittances, pensions) to be diverted into repayment. These "fallback" strategies account for the generally high repayment rates of housing microfinance, but reduce household equity, economic resilience and housing affordability. As is often the case in sub-prime mortgage lending, housing microfinance clients have been penalized for their "low profitability" by being forced to pay higher prices for access to housing finance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph