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More than 2.2 billion people are "poor or near-poor," with financial crises, natural disasters, soaring food prices and violent conflicts threatening to exacerbate the problem, a United Nations report said Thursday.

While poverty is in decline worldwide, growing inequality and "structural vulnerabilities" remain a serious threat, said the report by the United Nations Development Program, released in Tokyo.

Nearly 1.5 billion people in 91 developing states live in poverty while another 800 million are teetering on the edge, it found.

"Eliminating extreme poverty is not just about 'getting to zero;' it is also about staying there," the agency's 2014 Human Development Report said. "Those most vulnerable to natural disasters, climate change and financial setbacks must be specifically empowered and protected.

The report, entitled "Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience," called for making basic social services available to all and putting full employment at the top of the development agenda.
"Providing basic social security benefits to the world's poor would cost less than 2 percent of global GDP," it said.

About 1.2 billion people survive on the equivalent of $1.25 or less per day, the report found.
"If you are poor, you are less able to handle several shocks; you may also be disabled, you may also be older. So you have more layers of things against you," Khalid Malik, the report's lead author, told reporters ahead of its release Thursday.

Key to dealing with the problem was focusing government policy on jobs and social safety nets, the report said.

"Structural vulnerabilities are often manifested through deep inequalities and widespread poverty," it said.

UNDP chief Helen Clark and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were set to deliver speeches in Tokyo Thursday following the report's launch.

"By addressing vulnerabilities, all people may share in development progress and human development will become increasingly equitable and sustainable," Clark said in a statement accompanying the report.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team