“Poverty: Punishment for a crime you didn’t commit”
The Sustainable Development Goal 1 aims to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. Extreme poverty is a fundamental problem worldwide and it has been targeted by the United Nations through the 2030 SDGs.
Poverty is a violation of basic human rights and dignity
It is shocking that 1% of the population controls 50% of the world’s wealth. At the same time, a great percentage of the world’s population faces life-threatening problems. These include hunger or malnutrition and lack of access to a proper education among others. Other problems for this unfortunate segment include social discrimination, inequalities and exclusion. It is also very common for them not to participate in decision-making.
According to the United Nations the numbers are disappointing
Less than $1.90 a day: that is amount of money 20% of people living in developing countries have to live on. At the same time, 800 million people live on less than $1.25 a day.
Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are the two regions mostly hit by extreme poverty, while conflicts and small size seem to affect a country’s percentage of poor people.
Concerning children, 25% of them under the age of 5 have insufficient height for their age.
SDG1 Targets:
The United Nation’s SDG1 prioritizes men and women having access to basic human needs and people having equal rights and access to economic resources. It also encourages governments to develop social protection systems for all people.
According to the United Nations, the SDG1 targets include the following:
- By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, measured as people living on less than $1.90 a day
- By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
- Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable
- By 2030, ensure that 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
- By 2030, 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
- Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions
- Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions
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