Poverty is one of the most urgent problems of the world, which makes sense for eradicating it to be the first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of the United Nations.
It has many dimensions, but its causes include unemployment, social exclusion, and high vulnerability of certain populations to disasters, diseases, and other phenomena that prevent them from living productive lives.
SDG 1, or eradicating extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030 is a pivotal goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Its targets include eradication of extreme poverty, reduction of multidimensional poverty, and building better social safety nets especially for vulnerable populations. In order to achieve this, there is a need to mobilize resources via governments and the wider development community.
Extreme poverty is currently defined as surviving on less than $2.15 per person per day, and based on this metric, the global poverty headcount ratio is at 8.5 percent, or 659 million people. The COVID-19 pandemic only made things worse in the fight against poverty, and the number of individuals living in extreme want increased for the first time in a generation.
However, even before the pandemic, the momentum of poverty reduction had already been slowing down, making the goal of eradicating poverty by 2030 a difficult one.
Despite this, the UN has not given up on SDG 1 and it continues to push governments and the private sector to work towards the goal. Implementing strong social systems will be key in mitigating the effects and preventing more people from falling into poverty, and countries will have to implement nationally appropriate and sustainable systems for all in the long term. An enabling government that will generate productive employment and job opportunities for the poor and the marginalized will also be necessary.
The private sector’s role is also critical, as it can promote economic opportunities for the poor and encourage transformational change in communities.
The deadline is coming up fast, and momentum is going the other way, but we simply cannot give up on the effort to eradicate extreme poverty, which has been and still is a problem in the Philippines. Government and the private sector will need to work harder together if any progress is going to be made towards that goal.*
