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Consigning Poverty to History: The Challenge of Our Time

17 October 2023

A group of people in Mali gathered in a farm — Caption: Leaders need to deliver clear actions on alleviating poverty and suffering for all people — from transformed food and education systems, to decent jobs and expanded social protection.

Photo: © UNDP Mali

We are halfway to the deadline set by the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, our best and only chance of leaving the world better than we found it.

While decades of progress have lifted more than a billion people out of poverty, COVID-19 and a series of geopolitical shocks have resulted in serious setbacks. But there’s still time to finish strong—if we course correct.

SDG 1, eliminating poverty in all its forms, is the all-access key.

But first, let’s strip 'no poverty'—the bedrock of all the SDGs—down to its basics.

“What IS poverty in all its forms?”

Poverty isn’t just lack of money. It’s a trap. It’s poor health, sub-standard or no education, and lack of political power.

As the Secretary-General put it, "Over a billion people are deprived of basic needs like food water, health care and education. Billions more lack sanitation and access to energy, jobs, housing and social safety nets. Meanwhile, conflicts, the climate crisis, discrimination and exclusion — particularly against women and girls — are deepening the distress."

Poverty steals dignity and hope. It deprives us of one of our most basic desires—to see our children have a better life.

This relentless cycle condemns billions, through no fault of their own, and often just by accident of birth and place of living, to hopelessness and insecurity.

But having a job is not a guarantee of being out of poverty. According to the International Labour Organization, 13 percent of the world’s workers are moderately poor and 8 percent are in extreme poverty.

Three people crouched over bags of wastepaper in a workshop — Caption: Employment should be a vector to lift people out of poverty, but this is only true if job quality is sufficient, including adequate earnings, job security and safe working environments.

Photo: © Shutterstock/UN

Simply put – one in five of the global working population are the ‘working poor’.

And poor people are often treated unfairly in justice systems. UNDP supports justice for all, particularly for those living in poverty and the disadvantaged, including women, children, minorities, people with disabilities and those living with HIV/AIDS.

In 34 countries, 32 million people have now realized their legal rights and protections.

How does poverty harm the human family?

Poverty is a dragging anchor that holds entire countries back, and worse. It weakens the social fabric. History provides plenty of examples of how quickly unequal societies flail and fall, often violently.

One of the great changes in mindsets of recent decades is that we have recognized that poverty is not ‘natural’ or an inevitable fact of life. It’s the very unnatural outcome of failing to truly recognize, or care, that every human is equal in dignity and deserves the same opportunities. It is a byproduct of unjust biased laws, policies or institutions that deepen marginalization.

In more than 30 countries, women and girls do not have the rights to inherit or own land.

The World Bank says about 90 percent of the land in sub-Sahara Africa is undocumented. With about 80 percent of poor people live in rural areas, land titling could have a significant impact on poverty levels and food security.

We built the systems that created poverty, which means we can also take them down.

What is the quickest way to do this?

One thing we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic is that economic priorities are not set in stone. During the global health emergency, resources were quickly re-deployed to support social protection programmes that kept families and businesses afloat.

At least in the countries that could afford it.

In the last three years alone, more than 190 countries rolled out more than 3,333 social protection measures, with 73 percent of low-income countries and 66 percent of lower-middle-income countries relying on social assistance measures, mainly cash transfers.

UNDP advocates for a Universal Basic Income, which has the potential to restore dignity and create a cushion against future shocks. UNDP research showed how even a temporary basic income given to hundreds of millions of women would have stemmed the tide of rising poverty and inequality, particularly for women, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A woman in a green dress bending over crops in a dry farm — Caption: In more than half of all countries, women's access to land is curtailed by laws or customs, which in turn undermines women's economic empowerment.

Photo: © UN

We are at a point in history where change is imperative.

The SDGs are our big idea. Achieving each requires a shift in attitudes and priorities. The entire UN family is doubling down on its commitment to bring all of them across the finish line by 2030.

This has been extracted from a in-depth feature on ending poverty by UNDP. To read more click here. Learn about how UN Country Teams and the UN Joint SDG Fund are helping eradicate poverty on the ground: