A battle that we cannot afford to lose

The biggest challenge that governments across the globe face today is that of the poverty. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has marked it on top priority. It is the biggest challenge that humanity is facing even today. Poverty alleviation programs have shown some results across the globe but the fact remains that too many are still struggling for basic human needs

Rapid progress in developing countries like India and China have lifted millions out of poverty, yet millions and millions survive on less than two dollars a day and lack sanitation, clean drinking water, and food. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are the most affected by this menace. They account for almost eighty per cent of the total population living under poverty. The new challenges like climate change, food security and conflicts have made the task of bringing people out of poverty even bigger.
A United Nations report says that ‘SDGs are a bold commitment to finish what we started and end poverty in all forms and dimensions by 2030. This involves targeting the most vulnerable, increasing basic resources and services and supporting communities affected by conflict and climate-related disasters properly’. The question is how to deal with it?

The Challenge
The reports are conflicting and we very often do not get the actual figures. But according to a UN report ‘the world attained the first Millennium Development Goal target – to cut the 1990 poverty rate in half by 2015 – five years ahead of schedule, in 2010’. A World Bank report of 2015 says that in 2015, one in ten people was living on less than USD 1.90 a day. While in 1990 more than a billion people were living under extreme poverty, the figure in 2015 was 736 million. The WB projections also put an alarmist situation and show that if we continue down a business-as-usual path, the world will not be able to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. The biggest sufferers of poverty are children. Nearly 29000 children die every single day from preventable causes such as diarrhoea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth – which are more often than not highly correlated with poverty.

Why is this important?
This becomes important as on one hand poverty is about lack of income and access to resources, it also manifests itself in diminished opportunities for education, in social discrimination and the inability to participate in decision-making processes. In developing countries, for instance, children in the poorest households are four times less likely to be in school than those of the richest. Extreme deprivation is not just about lack of well-being and opportunity; it is a question of survival itself. In Latin America and East Asia, the poorest children are three times more likely to die by age 5 than the richest.

Addressing the problem
Ending poverty in all its forms is the first goal of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. It calls for “ensuring social protection, enhancing access to basic services, and building resilience against the impacts of natural disasters which can cause severe damage to people’s resources and livelihoods”.
The global community and governments agree that within the Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030, economic growth must be inclusive, as it aims to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030.

SDG targets to eradicate poverty

• By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than USD1.25 a day.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

India and Poverty
In the last couple of decades, global reduction in extreme poverty was driven mainly by Asia, notably China and India. If we go by official statistics, between 2005-06 and 2015-16, the incidence of multidimensional poverty in India was reduced by almost half, climbing down to 27.5 per cent from 54.7 per cent as per the 2018 global Multi-dimensional Poverty Index report. Many disputed this figure as governments change the basis for measurement of poverty from time to time. But going by the official figure, within ten years, the number of poor people in India fell by more than 271 million (from 635 million to 364 million).

Is India on track?
On 30th December NITI Aayog released the second edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index, which has tried to comprehensively document the progress made by India towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets. This index has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), United Nations in India, and Global Green Growth Institute. It was launched by Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog. At the launch, he said ‘This government, led by Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will not leave any stone unturned to make sure India achieves Agenda 2030. There is commendable traction and no complacency. NITI Aayog has committed itself to building capacities and monitoring progress at the state level. Close coordination with the states over the next 5 years will further accelerate SDG localization and ensure greater improvement.’
At the launch UN Resident Coordinator Renata Dessallien said “in 2020, the world enters the final decade for achieving the SDGs – the ‘Decade for Action’. And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us that we have 12 years left to save the planet from the worst effects of climate change. So, the time to act is now. The SDG India Index 2.0 and the dashboard enables India to both track and encourage accelerated progress to meet the SDGs across all its States and Union Territories”.
As the world enters the last ten years to achieve SDGs, India has mirrored its development agenda in the same frame. India plays a crucial role in this global goal as the country is home to about one-sixth of the world’s population.
The SDG India Index 2019 gives us a better picture than the first edition. That is so because of more robust data on account of wider coverage of goals, targets, and indicators with greater alignment with the NIF. As per NITI Aayog, “the Index spans 16 out of 17 SDGs with a qualitative assessment on Goal 17. This marks an improvement over the 2018 Index, which covered only 13 goals”.
While claims are being made by the governments and agencies that we are on course to achieve the set goals by 2030, the picture does not appear to be so rosy. Every continent is under conflict, climate change and social unrest; and on top of that, while world leaders are talking about meeting these challenges, the domestic political urgency takes precedence over the stated goals. Down the line will the conflict become rich versus poor or will the gaps be closed. SDG number 1 is all about that.