essay on ending poverty

How can we eradicate poverty by 2030?

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This is part of a series on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development , in collaboration with the Stockholm Resilience Centre . This article focuses on goal 1 – End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

The first goal in the soon-to-be minted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is quite a curtain-raiser: it calls on us to work together to end poverty in all its forms, everywhere . This intention to eradicate, not just reduce poverty, represents a major leap forward in terms of ambition compared with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and is echoed in the commitment to “leave no one behind”.

But when I go to New York to join those ushering in these new goals I will be wondering whether we are prepared to do what it takes to make such a goal come true.

The predecessor to this goal, MDG 1, asked us to halve extreme poverty rates (at 1990 levels) by 2015. We met the goal five years early, but this achievement was marred by stark regional differences. In my own continent of Africa, almost one out of every two people still lives in extreme poverty. This is more than four times greater than the world average.

We are a long way from eradicating poverty and leaving no one behind. What’s more, we have been busy making our task harder: globally we face the growing challenges presented by extreme economic inequality and climate change – both of which seriously undermine the fight against poverty.

I still firmly believe that we can eradicate poverty by 2030, but that will require us to do things very differently from the MDG period:

Implementation requires us to be political

Delivering these goals is not a technocratic exercise. Success will require us to challenge power and vested interests. Are governments – rich and poor – prepared to take on vested interests: those who profit from maintaining global emissions or those elites who get ahead in an unequal world? Will civil society have the ability to combat these vested interests and hold governments to account?

If we are asking poor governments to take on more responsibility, then power and control of resources must shift too

Poor governments will have a responsibility to change policy priorities and spending allocations, and look to their own domestic resource mobilization. But we have to watch out for a certain hypocrisy here where rich governments are happy to share responsibility but not to share the power and control of resources that poor countries will need. A case in point is the need to reform global tax rules to prevent revenues of about $100bn each year being lost to developing country treasuries. We made a disappointing start at the Financing for Development summit in Addis with the failure to agree a global tax body to help ensure fair global tax rules. We must do better.

Private sector delivery and financing is not a magic bullet

Private finance is needed and the willingness of companies to engage in the SDGs is welcome. But, so far, there are inadequate checks and balances to ensure public-private projects work in the public interest, safeguard people’s rights, or best serve local communities. The dangers of going ahead without such safeguards are evidenced in Oxfam’s investigation into the Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital in Lesotho, which was built under a public-private partnership. The Ministry of Health is locked into an 18-year contract that already consumes more than half of its health budget. This is a dangerous diversion of scarce public funds from primary healthcare services in rural areas, where three-quarters of the population live.

If these are the big structural changes that I think will make a difference, what about some signs that we are on the right track? In the next 12 months we need to work to ensure that:

The UN climate change summit delivers

Climate change and extreme economic inequality will reverse, in no time, decades of hard-won progress in the fight against poverty. A strong agreement in Paris is a vital step on the road to zero hunger and to achieving the global goals.

All governments, rich and poor, make national implementation plans

These should be clear and binding – with targets broken down in three- to five-year milestones. They should ensure the full participation of citizens and civil society in the delivery of these goals, and ensure that participatory monitoring systems are put in place to enable citizens to hold governments to account. Remember, the richer you are as a country, the more international responsibility you bear as well as responsibility to your own populations.

Redistribution is no longer a taboo

Governments must make the fight against extreme economic inequality central to their national SDGs strategies – it is a structural cause of so many issues the other goals aim to tackle. A commitment to progressive policies that redistribute resources to close the extreme inequality gap as well as eradicate poverty would also signal a clear and permanent goodbye to the kinds of policies that have allowed such a growing gap between rich and poor to develop.

None of this is easy: It involves taking on the power of the 1% in favour of the interests of the most poor and most marginalized. I am looking forward to welcoming these new goals later this month. But now the real work starts.

Have you read? 10 things to know about the Sustainable Development Goals What are the SDGs?

Author: Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, Oxfam International.

Guest editor of this series is Owen Gaffney, Director, International Media and Strategy, Stockholm Resilience Centre and Future Earth

Image: A man takes a nap along a street next to his belongings as pedestrians walk past at Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district November 16, 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino

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Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Eradicating extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030 is a pivotal goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Extreme poverty, defined as surviving on less than $2.15 per person per day at 2017 purchasing power parity, has witnessed remarkable declines over recent decades.

However, the emergence of COVID-19 marked a turning point, reversing these gains as the number of individuals living in extreme poverty increased for the first time in a generation by almost 90 million over previous predictions.

Even prior to the pandemic, the momentum of poverty reduction was slowing down. By the end of 2022, nowcasting suggested that 8.4 per cent of the world’s population, or as many as 670 million people, could still be living in extreme poverty. This setback effectively erased approximately three years of progress in poverty alleviation.

If current patterns persist, an estimated 7% of the global population – around 575 million people – could still find themselves trapped in extreme poverty by 2030, with a significant concentration in sub-Saharan Africa.

A shocking revelation is the resurgence of hunger levels to those last observed in 2005. Equally concerning is the persistent increase in food prices across a larger number of countries compared to the period from 2015 to 2019. This dual challenge of poverty and food security poses a critical global concern.

Why is there so much poverty

Poverty has many dimensions, but its causes include unemployment, social exclusion, and high vulnerability of certain populations to disasters, diseases and other phenomena which prevent them from being productive.

Why should I care about other people’s economic situation?

There are many reasons, but in short, because as human beings, our well- being is linked to each other. Growing inequality is detrimental to economic growth and undermines social cohesion, increas- ing political and social tensions and, in some circumstances, driving instability and conflicts.

Why is social protection so important?

Strong social protection systems are essential for mitigating the effects and preventing many people from falling into poverty. The COVID-19 pandemic had both immediate and long-term economic consequences for people across the globe – and despite the expansion of social protection during the COVID-19 crisis, 55 per cent of the world’s population – about 4 billion people – are entirely unprotected.

In response to the cost-of-living crisis, 105 countries and territories announced almost 350 social protection measures between February 2022 and February 2023. Yet 80 per cent of these were short-term in nature, and to achieve the Goals, countries will need to implement nationally appropriate universal and sustainble social protection systems for all.

What can I do about it?

Your active engagement in policymaking can make a difference in addressing poverty. It ensures that your rights are promoted and that your voice is heard, that inter-generational knowledge is shared, and that innovation and critical thinking are encouraged at all ages to support transformational change in people’s lives and communities.

Governments can help create an enabling environment to generate pro- productive employment and job opportunities for the poor and the marginalized.

The private sector has a major role to play in determining whether the growth it creates is inclusive and contributes to poverty reduction. It can promote economic opportunities for the poor.

The contribution of science to end poverty has been significant. For example, it has enabled access to safe drinking water, reduced deaths caused by water-borne diseases, and improved hygiene to reduce health risks related to unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation.

Facts and Figures

Goal 1 targets.

If current trends continue, 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty and only one-third of countries will have halved their national poverty levels by 2030.
Despite the expansion of social protection during the COVID-19 crisis, over 4 billion people remain entirely unprotected. Many of the world’s vulnerable population groups, including the young and the elderly, remain uncovered by statutory social protection programmes.
The share of government spending on essential services, such as education, health and social protection, is significantly higher in advanced economies than in emerging and developing economies.
A surge in action and investment to enhance economic opportunities, improve education and extend social protection to all, particularly the most excluded, is crucial to delivering on the central commitment to end poverty and leave no one behind.
The global poverty headcount ratio at $2.15 is revised slightly up by 0.1 percentage points to 8.5 percent, resulting in a revision in the number of poor people from 648 to 659 million. ( World Bank)

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023

1.1 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $2.15 a day

1.2 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

1.3 Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable

1.4 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

1.5 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

1.A 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

1.B 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

United Nations Development Programme
UN Children’s Fund
International Monetary Fund
UN Global Compact
UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

Fast Facts: No Poverty

Infographic: No Poverty

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ENDING POVERTY. FOREVER