13 Jan End Poverty Of All Forum (SDG – Goal 1)

On our previous blog we talked about SDGs and the importance of it.We learned how and why was it proposed and how we can make a difference by valuing those goals and practicing sustainable habits.Today we are going to discuss in detail about the first goal of SDG by the United Nations, “End Poverty Of  All Forum”.

SDG GOAL-1

What is Goal-1 aim for?

SDG 1 aspires to eradicate all types of poverty worldwide. Its goals include ensuring that everyone has equitable access to economic resources, basic services, property and land control, natural resources, and innovative technology, with a focus on the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.

Why is it so Important?

 It is extremely unfair and endangers the well-being of millions of people, the rise in poverty also exacerbates inequality, which weakens social cohesion and worsens economic progress.

The main cause for poverty is unemployment, social exclusion etc. This raises concerns with increased malnutrition, access to education, discrimination, and marginalization while promoting inequality. All of this raises social and political strain and causes all forms of conflict. This is a very concerning situation that the world is facing at the moment. If we fail to manage it now, it will only get worse with time. As mentioned before in our previous blog SDGs are interlinked, solution to one goal will help us to achieve others.

Let’s talk numbers.

Over 700 million people, or 10% of the world’s population, are currently living in severe poverty, which means that they hardly have enough money to meet even their most basic needs. Furthermore, the dire situation is far from improving. The rising tendency has slowed over the past few years to reach 8.2% in 2019, although having increased progressively from 36% in 1990 to 10% in 2015. Due to the COVID-19 problem, which is driving millions of people into extreme poverty, the situation could now get considerably worse. In 2020, it’s anticipated to reach 8.8%.. It would result in the first increase in poverty in more than 20 years (according to the 2020 SDG Progress Report).

To make matters worse,reports show evidence that extreme poverty is a gender issue: there are 122 women in that age range who are living in extreme poverty worldwide for every 100 men in that same circumstance. Furthermore, Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are the two regions with the highest concentration of residents living below the poverty line. With an additional 32 million people battling to survive below the international poverty threshold in Southern Asia and 26 million more in Sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the global epidemic, we may anticipate the greatest increase in severe poverty levels in these regions.

The working population is also predicted to become more impoverished. Extreme poverty among workers has gradually decreased over the past ten years, from 14.3% in 2010 to 7.1% in 2019. However, as firms and other places of employment started to close in April 2020, 81% of employees and 66% of independent contractors faced the effects. Only 87 nations had national laws governing unemployment protection in place as of February 2020, and only 34 of those nations provided coverage for independent contractors.

How can we put a stop to it

We laid the disturbing numbers in front of you to make you realize the gravity of the situation. Now it must be very clear why the UN has put “End Poverty in all forums” as their first Sustainability goal but the question remains how can you help the situation?

To come up with the solution the entire global community has to join hands and work very closely together. We have to address the problem from a very grassroot level, only then we will be able to end this problem.

You can also support organization who are dedicated to fight poverty.We are listing few of such organizations below : 

I) Yuva being one such organization founded in 2015.Yuva is one of Africa’s & India’s largest and most active youth-led organizations.

II) Oxfam International is a global development organization fighting poverty by mobilizing the power of the people. It functions as a global confederation made up of 19 organizations that collaborate with local communities in about 90 different countries.

III) An worldwide non-governmental organization (NGO) called the Organization for Poverty Alleviation and Development (OPAD) actively strives to reduce poverty through advancing climate change, sustainable development, and human rights.

IV) A global humanitarian group called Concern Worldwide works to end poverty, fear, and persecution. It steps in to support the most vulnerable citizens in the world’s poorest nations. The organization’s main objective is to eradicate extreme poverty.

V)A Canadian non-governmental organization (NGO) called End Poverty Now (EPN) works ardently to promote the rights of hungry, impoverished, and politically underrepresented people all over the world. The group works to reduce poverty all around the world through grassroots projects and educational programmes.

You can also help pull out people in need directly. For example, you can provide a source of earning to clusters by providing them some work. You can also shop handcrafted products from artisans in order to promote fair economic distribution.

There are also academic institutions who are actively taking part towards societal development. ESEDS School of Design is one such institution who work closely with clusters and artisans. Workshops by local artisans at ESEDS is a very common scenario. Very recently students of ESEDS witnessed an amazing workshop taken by artisans Maina Chitrakar and Jaideep Chritrakar from Ghatal. The students from both fashion and interior design had interacted and also painted the artform Patachitra along with the artisans. The use of natural pigments was one of the prominent sustainable factors behind the artform. All the students of ESEDS had extraordinary exposure to sustainability and ethnicity.

In the end let’s all work together for a better tomorrow.