Poverty Alleviation needs to be top priority: PM Manmohan Singh

With over a billion people living in abject poverty globally, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday emphasised the need for "inclusive growth" and said poverty alleviation should be a top priority for the international community.

"The problems of over a billion people living in abject poverty around the world need to be attacked more directly," Singh said in his address to the UN General Assembly.

Poverty remains a major political and economic challenge and its eradication requires special attention and a new thrust, he said.

"This priority should anchor the post-2015 Development Agenda, which should be shaped by the member states so that it enjoys the broadest possible support and acceptance," Singh told the international leaders at the UN headquarters in New York.

He said the issues of peace, security, human rights and governance are important and need to be addressed.

"But we will fall short of realising an ambitious post- 2015 development agenda if we focus merely on governance issues at the cost of robust economic growth," he noted.

"This agenda should not be merely about reprioritising domestic spending, but also about fostering genuine international partnership between the developing and developed countries to bring about change," he said.

Stressing that countries need the policy space necessary to set their own domestic priorities, Singh said no one knows the condition of developing countries better than the developing countries themselves.

"It is, therefore, important that the UN set clear and concise goals and provide practical and well-defined means of implementation, including adequate flow of resources and transfer of technology, taking the views of developing countries fully into account," Singh said.

The Prime Minister said a meaningful post-2015 agenda must place equally high priority on food and nutrition, health, education, infrastructure, water, sanitation, energy and discrimination against women.

"Especially critical is women's equal access to economic opportunities, and that they do not become victims of violence or targets of prejudice," he said.