SDG 1 - No Poverty
31-03-2020
SDG 1 - No Poverty
31-03-2020
'No poverty' is sustainable development goal 1. The goal is to reduce the amount of people living in extreme poverty to less than 3 per cent of the world's population by 2030. The decline of global extreme poverty continues, but has slowed. Will we reach the goal that has been set?
The share of the world population living in extreme poverty declined to 10 per cent in 2015, down from 16 per cent in 2010 and 36 per cent in 1990. The progress slows down each year. This is because people who live currently in extreme poverty face deep, entrenched deprivation often exacerbated by violent conflicts and vulnerability to disaster. This makes it harder to keep on reducing extreme poverty.
Most poverty is found in Africa. However, Africa is the continent with the fastest growing economies in the world. Some countries have growth rates in excess of ten per cent, so it's not because of that.
The thing is, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. If we take Ethiopic as an example, at least 37 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line of one dollar a day. Because of the economic growth food prices have risen and that is beneficial for farmers, but the poorest have become even poorer because they can no longer afford the food. Ethiopia is no exception in this case. There are many more countries in Africa where things are going the same way. Corruption and bad governance make it possible for poverty and especially exclusion to worsen, despite growing economies.
I think to reduce poverty to less than 3 per cent of the population in the world, we have to look further than we do now. We have to take care of different problems in the world that has a indirect correlation to poverty. This way we can end poverty. I think we need to look global and work all together to make sure poverty will end in some way. We need to create jobs worldwide, work together instead of making the rich even richer so that the poor can be poorer. We need to share our skills, knowledge, and money to make sure poverty will be ended. What do you think? How can we end poverty?
Although the Netherlands is one of the richest countries, 8% of the children grow up in a poor family. There is a lot of 'silent' poverty: It's often not visible that people can't pay their rent or that children leave the house without breakfast. As a result of the continuous cutbacks, facilities such as various money supports are becoming less and less accessible.
Work is seen as the mean factor to get out of poverty. However, a group that is often forgotten are the people who have a paid job but do not earn enough money to make a living. Of all adults in poverty, a third of them have paid work as their main source of income. How can people in a country like the Netherlands still live in poverty?
Author
Lynn ten Kate