The sharp price increases in staple foods and fuel earlier this year

For the poor, finance is always about much more than economics. In practical as well as philosophical terms it is a matter of basic human rights. As the dust begins to settle on the global financial crisis it is certain that all economies will suffer. For the rich, OECD states, stagnation or recessionary losses are predicted, and for the emerging (BRIC) economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, growth will significantly slow. But it is in the poorest, least developed states that we will likely see the most dramatic effects, simply because they have less to lose.
On top of the sharp price increases in staple foods and fuel earlier this year, least developed nations are especially vulnerable to reductions in foreign direct investment in their economies, in export trade, in the levels of remittances (which in respect of money sent home by Mexican migrants working in the US, for example, has already dropped sharply in the present quarter), or in the quantities of economic aid they receive (legitimate fears of aid reductions are well founded, given the estimated 25% drop that followed the Asian financial crisis last decade).
This was the stark warning that came out of the recent UN meetings in New York on the imperilled prospects of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (of halving world poverty, instituting universal primary education for boys and girls, substantially reducing infant and maternal mortality rates, halting the spread of HIV/AIDs, arresting environmental degradation, and promoting economic development in the poorest states) by the scheduled 2015
Though short on detail, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been long on doom-laden rhetoric, warning that the turmoil in global financial markets could have "a very serious negative impact" on the ability (or more likely, enthusiasm) of rich nations to meet the goals. That is despite the sums required to do so being considerably less than the $700 billion bailout package put together to rescue ailing Wall Street banks (the annual aid budget of the US is currently around $25 billion, while that of the World Bank stands at approximately $38 billion; according to the OECD, the total aid commitment from all the world's major donors in 2007 was just over $100 billion).
This temper of concern was echoed in the communiqués emerging from this month's annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington DC. Douglas Alexander, the UK's Secretary for International Development who was attending the latter, was especially candid in stressing that "in this interdependent world, co-ordinated action from governments, the IMF and the World Bank is not only a moral imperative, but in our self interest".
The fundamentalist undertones of such an exhortation flows from the circumstances that nearly one billion people face everyday. For without the means by which they can secure adequate housing, health care, education, and enough to eat and drink, and without protection against exploitation, discrimination, and (perhaps worst of all) disdainful disregard, the poorest of the poor will live, if they manage to stay alive at all, only barely.
Poverty does not cause human rights abuse. It is, primarily, the actions or inactions of governments that cause human rights abuse. However, the incidence of poverty is a reliable sign of attendant human rights problems, and an indicator that states are not fulfilling their obligations under international human rights laws.