Somalia: UN releases first socioeconomic survey

The United Nations has launched a new socio-economic survey for Somalia, the first since the civil war broke out in 1991. Launched on Wednesday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, it is the product of a joint initiative between the World Bank, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and several other UN agencies. Somalia is considered one of the poorest countries in the world, a situation aggravated by the civil war and the absence of a functioning national government for over a decade. According to the survey - also referred to as the "Somalia Watching Brief 2003" - 43 percent of Somalis live in extreme poverty with an income of $1 a day or less.