SDG 1: eradicate poverty globally

The first global goal is to eradicate poverty worldwide once the SDGs are due in 2030. While reaching this goal is tied to numerous challenges, the global community has already been successful in drastically reducing poverty in the past decades.

Video Transcript

The first of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is to “End poverty in all its forms everywhere.” 

A person is said to be living in extreme poverty if they subsist on less than a dollar twenty-five a day. The global community has set itself the target of eradicating this form of poverty completely once the SDGs are due in 2030. But because different countries enjoy different living standards, the definition of poverty varies from country to country. This so-called ‘relative poverty’ is measured according to the economic well-being of a country and SDG 1 also aims at cutting the proportion of people living in relative poverty at least in half. 

To reduce poverty on a global scale, countries need to put into place specific systems that allow them to tackle the problem of poverty more efficiently: Especially important are so-called “nationally appropriate social protection systems” - These are social systems that can care for the most vulnerable and poor people and ensure that everyone - all men and women regardless of wealth or privilege -  must have equal rights and access to the most basic commodities of society. This includes economic resources, and basic services, such as shelter, food, health care, education,  transport, information (access to libraries and the internet), as well as a variety of public services like policing and firefighting. 

In order to achieve these goals, we must “ensure the mobilization of resources”. This requires governments worldwide to cooperate so that Developing Countries receive enough resources to be able to develop the necessary programs. Resources along with adequate policy framework that will provide

 The global community has long been committed to fighting poverty. In 1990, over thirty-five-percent of the world population lived in extreme poverty, but in 2015, that proportion had shrunk to just ten percent. But the rate of poverty reduction has slowed in current years. Estimates today show that around eight percent of the global population lives in extreme poverty , down just two percent in the past five years. The data also shows that there is a big difference in progress between regions:  East Asia and Europe are both very well on track to meet the goals set by 2030, but Sub-Saharan Africa is far behind meeting its targets.

Because of that, it is especially important to cooperate on a global scale and support countries that struggle the most with reaching their goals. This means that the global community, and especially more developed nations need to provide financial support to developing countries which are further away from meeting their targets. Only through international cooperation we can make sure to reach SDG 1 by 2030 and eradicate poverty on a global scale.

There are several roadblocks that must be overcome in the quest to eradicate poverty.