SDG 1: No Poverty
By Celine Pang
Context
There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to achieve by 2030, adopted by the United Nations Member States in 2015 [1]. They are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all countries. The challenges include poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. These goals should guide the actions that governments, businesses, civil society and the general public take and have them work together to achieve these goals.
‘No Poverty’, is the first SDG which aims to ‘end poverty in all its forms everywhere’ by 2030 [2]. To define poverty, it entails more than just lack of income and resources to sustain livelihoods, hunger and malnutrition [3]. The two main reasons that cause poverty are, risk and vulnerability [4]. People living in extreme poverty usually experience discrimination, exclusion and stigmatization and are not recognized as equals in society, thus preventing them from gaining the opportunities and resources needed to improve their lives, such as basic services and education. In addition, gender inequality is a major obstacle to the abolition of poverty. Some people living in poverty are also experiencing or recovering from conflict, which typically has a weak and under-resourced system of governance and so a lack of policies to support them. This includes social, political economic, security and environmental context. Their living conditions cannot afford the negative impact from natural disasters, climate change and economic crisis.
The SDG 1 consists of seven targets to achieve by 2030 aiming to reduce poverty by improving resources, gender equality and policy enhancements:
1.1 Eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.90 a day.
1.2 Reduce Poverty by at least 50% of men, women, and children at all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
1.3 Implement social protection systems under national appropriation. This measures for all, including floors, substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
1.4 Ensure all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance.
1.5 Build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.
There are two targets focusing on policy changing:
1.A Mobilize resources to implement policies to end poverty. Ensure significant mobilization of a variety of sources through enhanced development cooperation, to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries and especially least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies.
1.B Create pro-poor and gender sensitive policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions.
The Challenges
From Figure 1 below, in 2015 around 10% of the world population lives in extreme poverty [1, 5]. Before Covid-19, the deceleration of poverty decreased, and the estimated population in poverty by 2030 is also missing the global target with 6% of the world population, where the target is to have no more than 3% [3]. The international poverty line is currently set at $1.90 a day with young workers twice as likely than adult workers to be living in extreme poverty. Also, approximately one out of five children live in extreme poverty.
From the World Population Clock and World Poverty Clock websites, the world population is currently 7.81 billion, with 742 million (9.5% of the world’s population) living in extreme property [6, 7]. The pandemic has caused the first increase in global poverty in 20 years, with an addition of 88–115 million people having been pushed into extreme poverty in 2020 [8]. Despite having the progress in vaccine development, it is difficult to reverse the increase in poverty in just 2021. The world is also anticipating the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression, which has led to a sharp increase in unemployment and underemployment. The pandemic was more than a health crisis, it is also a socio-economic crisis, which has affected us as individuals and as communities [9]. Figure 2, 3 and 4 below show the distribution of poverty around the world in which the most significant countries with the worst poverty are mostly in Africa, Southern America and South Asia. Poverty in Africa is increasing, as shown in Figure 2, with 28 of the poorest countries in the world, 27 of those are in Sub-Saharan Africa with a poverty rate of over 30% as shown in Figure 4. From Figure 3 it can be seen that Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and India have the highest percentage of poverty relative to the rest of world.
Development of Potential Solutions
Economic growth can reduce poverty and improve the quality of life in developing countries. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the economy globally with an estimated over $220 billion that’s going to be lost in developing countries and around 55% of the world population will have no access to social protection too. Thus, a strong social protection system is essential to mitigate poverty.
The United Nations has come up with a ‘UN Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund’, which aims to support low- and middle-income countries. The Fund contributes to three objectives:
1) Tackle the health emergency: Enable Governments and Communities to suppress the transmission of the virus.
2) Focus on the social impact, the economic response and recovery: Mitigate the Social-economic impact and safeguard people and their livelihoods.
3) Help countries recover better: Strengthen and test national preparedness measures and invest in effective delivery to achieve inclusive and sustainable economies.
With the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is now extremely difficult to meet SDG 1 by 2030. However, to eradicate poverty in all forms everywhere, it is important to mitigate the basic issues such as breaking the vicious cycle of inequality and to include all people everywhere. The importance of the economies being rebuilt gives more opportunities for employment, and ensures everyone has equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services and protection from natural disasters. UN Human Rights Council representative Oliver De Schutter said, “Eradicating poverty means building inclusive societies that shift from a charity approach to a rights-based empowering approach.”
Bibliography
[1] “United Nations,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal1.
[2] P. Everyone, “The Global Goals For Sustainable Development,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.globalgoals.org/.
[3] “United Nations,” [Online]. Available: https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/poverty/#:~:text=In%20April%202013%2C%20the%20World,and%20which%20ones%20do%20not..
[4] “Concern,” [Online]. Available: https://www.concern.org.uk/poverty-definition-statistics-and-causes?gclid=CjwKCAiAr6-ABhAfEiwADO4sfYWn0A4BRz5q_J_GpOeP6dAw9JeroGL0GZBMBkUEtg7l98cBXIjIURoCUugQAvD_BwE.
[5] “United Nations,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020/goal-01/.
[6] “worldometer,” [Online]. Available: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/.
[7] W. D. Lab, “World Poverty Clock,” [Online]. Available: https://worldpoverty.io/map.
[8] C. Lakner, N. Yonzan, D. G. Mahler, R. C. Aguilar and H. Wu, “World Bank Blogs,” 11 January 2021. [Online]. Available: https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/updated-estimates-impact-covid-19-global-poverty-looking-back-2020-and-outlook-2021.
[9] U. Nations, “United Nations Comprehensive Response to COVID-19 Saving Lives, Protecting Societies, Recovering Better,” 2020.
[10] “United Nations,” April 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_response_and_recovery_fund_fact_sheet.pdf.
