Minorities often have disproportionately high rates of poverty. Minorities frequently have less access to employment, credit and education opportunities, reducing economic security and decreasing opportunities to improve human capital. Such groups tend to live in areas with lower government investment in infrastructure and social services, thus diminishing their human development and market access. Land rights for minorities may be less secure, placing them at higher risk of displacement, eviction and landlessness. In times of crisis, minorities may find it harder to access emergency aid. Access to justice may be less secure for minorities, leaving them unable to benefit from protective laws and more vulnerable to harm and exploitation. Minorities may be poorer because they have been denied citizenship, lack equal access to social services and full public participation.

Many experts argue that the decision to call for a 'reduction by half' in extreme poverty and hunger leaves open the possibility that minorities may constitute the majority of those persons still living in poverty and suffering from hunger in 2015. As a consequence, it may be that minorities not only fail to benefit from MDG 1 strategies, but that they could also experience significant increases in inequalities. This could further harm national prospects for growth: the World Bank (2005) found that "the growth elasticity of poverty reduction falls with greater income inequality. In other words, the impact (of the same amount of) growth on poverty reduction is significantly greater when initial income inequality is lower" (p. 9). MDG 1 strategies could provide disaggregated measurements of poverty in order to ensure that – at a minimum – inequality levels do not increase as a result of the MDG poverty reduction strategies.¹⁷

Minorities face difficulties in poverty reduction that should not be ignored. Mainstreaming human rights can help to improve the impact of MDG 1 programmes. The Millennium Project Report called upon States to ensure that special attention is paid to groups like minorities in the elaboration of poverty reduction strategies, in a manner that is consistent with human rights:

National MDG-based poverty reduction strategies should be consistent with the principle of equality and non-discrimination laid down in applicable international human rights standards. This implies that strategies are designed to reach the entire underserved population, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, regional background or gender. It also implies taking steps to ensure that the most underprivileged and marginalised sections of society can exercise their rights. (UN Millennium Project 2005, p. 119)

Violations of the right to non-discrimination are an overarching factor in poverty. Discrimination can impair access to health, education, financial credit, housing, employment, citizenship and justice – each compounding the likelihood of living in poverty. Minority women may be further disadvantaged because of gender discrimination.

Discrimination can be overcome through non-discrimination legislation, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms and special measures in development programmes. Providing support that enables minorities to access justice mechanisms on an equal basis with others is a good starting point, helping to ensure that existing laws of protection are enforced without discrimination. This could include, for instance, improving access to information on employment law, legal clinics and registration of land title. Legislative and policy reform may also address direct or indirect discrimination barriers. Key sectors include robust labour laws that prohibit discrimination in the public and private sectors, that support employment tribunals, and the development of equal pay monitoring mechanisms.

The ICERD allows States to adopt "special measures" (i.e. specially targeted programmes) for minorities where disaggregated data reveals inequalities for these groups. These may include affirmative action policies in employment, housing or education to overcome discrimination. Increased resources to minority areas can reduce inequalities in access to basic social services. Supporting economic development opportunities in areas where minorities reside may increase prospects for sustainable employment and investment.

	GOOD PRACTICE IN POVERTY REDUCTION MDG reports show that many States are taking action where minorities have higher rates of poverty, including by: Publishing disaggregated data on poverty; Undertaking baseline studies on the experiences of poverty by minorities; Adopting national strategies to reduce poverty for the poorest minorities; Using affirmative action policies to increase public employment opportunities for minorities.

Monitoring the impact of development programmes on minority groups can help prevent discriminatory effects of such interventions on minorities making better use of public funds by averting increases in inequality.

A failure to consider the right of minorities to participate in decision-making that affects them may result in an absence of attention to minority issues in national dialogues on development. This produces negative effects for minorities and for development prospects overall. For example, the World Bank found that growth is more sustainable where access to political power is more evenly distributed, thus producing development decisions that are more likely to benefit all rather than a select few (World Bank 2005, p. 124). Increasing minority participation may produce development policies that include consideration of the causes of poverty for minorities. This can contribute greatly to a shift away from clientelistic practices and towards greater public deliberation on development plans (Fritz et al 2008).

Minority participation may be improved by various means. These may include: access to information by minorities on development proposals that impact their communities and levels of inequality in key sectors; the creation and/or engagement of national minority councils in development planning procedures; transparency in budget planning and capacity building of minorities to monitor and engage in these processes; support to minority associations within trade unions, increasing their capacity to secure non-discrimination in labour laws and employment; creation of UNCT mechanisms for minority participation, including designated working groups and consultative/advisory structures;¹⁸ and advocacy for the participation of minority communities at all stages of the poverty-reduction programme. Such participation will aid policy makers in preparing better strategies for poverty reduction that respond both to the expressed needs and the rights of minority groups, and to the issue of discrimination.

Rights to identity and culture also play a role in overcoming poverty and hunger. Food has certain cultural aspects, which are associated with how a community or people grows, prepares and eats its food. These are fundamental aspects of the culture and values of a community and of its identity. Cultural acceptability is a core aspect of the right to adequate food.¹⁹ When a community's food-growing capacity is constrained or their ability to secure traditional food is curtailed, elements of its culture may be threatened. The Human Rights Committee noted, with respect to article 27 of the ICCPR, that the right of minorities to practice their culture might encompass traditional activities, such as fishing or hunting or the use of land resources.²⁰ For example, for pastoralist minorities in East Africa, cattle rearing is an integral custom, a source of food and income, but may be jeopardised by economic development policies. Therefore, sensitization to the integral links between minority cultures and food production is important, as is devising strategies to ensure this is protected in the long-term.

Cultural and religious identity may also impact priorities and interests in poverty reduction. Cultural and religious preferences can shape the way groups invest their income. For example, pastoralists will be more inclined to invest wealth in livestock. Development planning could take into account these preferences as they can impact on how policies affect the economic security of minorities. Minority groups may wish to emphasise preservation of traditional livelihoods as a component of poverty reduction. This could be supported, for instance, through capacity building that will make the livelihoods more market-accessible, such as the development of cooperatives, language training and better management and marketing strategies.

How poverty is measured could also be culturally-sensitive, taking into account differing cultural perspectives of what constitutes poverty. For example, some communities may prioritise security of land rights over increased income as a measure of improvement in their standard of living. Overall, it is important that development proposals are evaluated for their impact on the cultural and religious identity of minorities to ensure that development does not become a vehicle for involuntary cultural erosion and assimilation.

Disaggregated data can be collected to monitor any increase or decrease in inequality for minorities Discrimination is a key barrier to achieving MDG 1 Minorities have a right to participate in development planning that affects them Cultural identity rights can impact on livelihoods, land rights and food access or use