poverty and hunger essay brainly

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• A/69/700 - The road to dignity by 2030: ending poverty, transforming all lives and protecting the planet [Arabic] [Chinese] [English] [French] [Russian] [Spanish]
• 2017 HLFP Thematic Review of SDG 1: End Poverty in All its Forms Everywhere

• improving access to sustainable livelihoods, entrepreneurial opportunities and productive resources;
• providing universal access to basic social services;
• empowering people living in poverty and their organizations;
• addressing the disproportionate impact of poverty on women;
• working with interested donors and recipients to allocate increased shares of ODA to poverty eradication; and
• intensifying international cooperation for poverty eradication.

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Poverty in the Philippines: Causes, Constraints and Opportunities

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Poverty and inequality in the Philippines remains a challenge. In the past 4 decades, the proportion of households living below the official poverty line has declined slowly and unevenly.

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• http://hdl.handle.net/11540/191

Economic growth has gone through boom and bust cycles, and recent episodes of moderate economic expansion have had limited impact on the poor. Great inequality across income brackets, regions, and sectors, as well as unmanaged population growth, are considered some of the key factors constraining poverty reduction efforts.

Note: See the latest available poverty data on the Philippines.

Causes of Poverty

The main causes of poverty in the country include the following:

• low to moderate economic growth for the past 40 years;
• low growth elasticity of poverty reduction;
• weakness in employment generation and the quality of jobs generated;
• failure to fully develop the agriculture sector;
• high inflation during crisis periods;
• high levels of population growth;
• high and persistent levels of inequality (incomes and assets), which dampen the positive impacts of economic expansion; and
• recurrent shocks and exposure to risks such as economic crisis, conflicts, natural disasters,and "environmental poverty."

Key Findings

The report's key findings include the following:

• Economic growth did not translate into poverty reduction in recent years;
• Poverty levels vary greatly by regions;
• Poverty remains a mainly rural phenomenon though urban poverty is on the rise;
• Poverty levels are strongly linked to educational attainment;
• The poor have large families, with six or more members;
• Many Filipino households remain vulnerable to shocks and risks;
• Governance and institutional constraints remain in the poverty response;
• There is weak local government capacity for implementing poverty reduction programs;
• Deficient targeting in various poverty programs;
• There are serious resource gaps for poverty reduction and the attainment of the MDGs by 2015;
• Multidimensional responses to poverty reduction are needed; and
• Further research on chronic poverty is needed.

The report comprehensively analyzes the causes of poverty and recommends ways to accelerate poverty reduction and achieve more inclusive growth. In the immediate and short term there is a need to enhance government's poverty reduction strategy and involve key sectors for a collective and coordinated response to the problem. In the medium and long term the government should continue to pursue key economic reforms for sustained and inclusive growth.

• List of Tables, Figures, Boxes and Appendixes
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Part 1 Executive Summary
• Part 2 Introduction
• Part 3 Poverty Profile
• Part 4 Causes of Poverty
• Part 5 Impacts of Poverty on Economic Growth and Development
• Part 6 Institutions and Governance in the Poverty Response
• Part 7 Summary of Key Findings and Recommendations

Additional Details

• Philippines Key Indicators on ADB's Data Library
• Poverty Data: Philippines
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Poverty Drives Hunger

Around the world, 648 million people live in extreme poverty. They survive on less than $2.15 a day, an amount which is impossible to support a healthy livelihood in any part of the world.

Without sufficient and sustainable incomes, families cannot afford access to nutritious food, clean water, or health care. As a result, one in three children in low- and middle-income countries suffers from chronic undernutrition. Without treatment, hunger can lead to stunted growth, limited mental and emotional development, and even death.

Download 7 Facts About Hunger >>

No child should die from hunger. Action Against Hunger helped 28 million people last year gain access to sustainable sources of income, clean water, nutritious food, and health care – but there is still so much to be done to end poverty and hunger for everyone, for good.

Key Facts About Global Poverty & Hunger

Half of the World's Poorest People Live in Five Countries: Bangladesh, DRC, Ethiopia, India, and Nigeria

Average Proportion of Income Spent on Food in Poor Countries vs. 25% in Rich Countries

Children Living in Extreme Poverty Around the World

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The Rising Cost of a Healthy Diet

More than 3 billion people in the world are unable to afford the average cost of an inexpensive healthy diet. In both wealthy and poor countries, insufficient incomes to meet rising cost of nutritious foods can have serious impacts. Consumption of low quality foods can lead to malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and other health problems.

What Causes Hunger?

Power determines who eats and who goes hungry, who lives and who dies.

Climate Change

The climate crisis is driving hunger and malnutrition around the world.

Seventy-five percent of the world’s malnourished people live in conflict zones.

Disaster & Emergencies

Humanitarian emergencies disrupt and destroy livelihoods for millions of people.

How We Fight Hunger

To fight hunger, we help families living in poverty access incomes, livelihoods, and nutritious food.

Research & Innovation

Research is essential to creating a better way to deal with hunger.

Nutrition & Health

We treat and prevent hunger in more than 50 countries.

Food Security & Livelihoods

We work with local communities to tackle the root causes of hunger.

Water, Sanitation & Hygiene

As part of our integrated approach, we help communities access clean water, safe sanitation, and good hygiene.

Emergency Response

We help communities affected by natural disasters or conflicts.

We advocate to policymakers to increase humanitarian assistance and raise awareness of hunger issues.

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Mental health effects of poverty, hunger, and homelessness on children and teens

Rising inflation and an uncertain economy are deeply affecting the lives of millions of Americans, particularly those living in low-income communities. It may seem impossible for a family of four to survive on just over $27,000 per year or a single person on just over $15,000, but that’s what millions of people do everyday in the United States. Approximately 37.9 million Americans, or just under 12%, now live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau .

Additional data from the Bureau show that children are more likely to experience poverty than people over the age of 18. Approximately one in six kids, 16% of all children, live in families with incomes below the official poverty line.

Those who are poor face challenges beyond a lack of resources. They also experience mental and physical issues at a much higher rate than those living above the poverty line. Read on for a summary of the myriad effects of poverty, homelessness, and hunger on children and youth. And for more information on APA’s work on issues surrounding socioeconomic status, please see the Office of Socioeconomic Status .

Who is most affected?

Poverty rates are disproportionately higher among most non-White populations. Compared to 8.2% of White Americans living in poverty, 26.8% of American Indian and Alaska Natives, 19.5% of Blacks, 17% of Hispanics and 8.1% of Asians are currently living in poverty.

Similarly, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous children are overrepresented among children living below the poverty line. More specifically, 35.5% of Black people living in poverty in the U.S. are below the age of 18. In addition, 40.7% of Hispanic people living below the poverty line in the U.S. are younger than age 18, and 29.1% of American Indian and Native American children lived in poverty in 2018. In contrast, approximately 21% of White people living in poverty in the U.S. are less than 18 years old.

Furthermore, families with a female head of household are more than twice as likely to live in poverty compared to families with a male head of household. Twenty-three percent of female-headed households live in poverty compared to 11.4% of male-headed households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau .

What are the effects of poverty on children and teens?

The impact of poverty on young children is significant and long lasting. Poverty is associated with substandard housing, hunger, homelessness, inadequate childcare, unsafe neighborhoods, and under-resourced schools. In addition, low-income children are at greater risk than higher-income children for a range of cognitive, emotional, and health-related problems, including detrimental effects on executive functioning, below average academic achievement, poor social emotional functioning, developmental delays, behavioral problems, asthma, inadequate nutrition, low birth weight, and higher rates of pneumonia.

Psychological research also shows that living in poverty is associated with differences in structural and functional brain development in children and adolescents in areas related to cognitive processes that are critical for learning, communication, and academic achievement, including social emotional processing, memory, language, and executive functioning.

Children and families living in poverty often attend under-resourced, overcrowded schools that lack educational opportunities, books, supplies, and appropriate technology due to local funding policies. In addition, families living below the poverty line often live in school districts without adequate equal learning experiences for both gifted and special needs students with learning differences and where high school dropout rates are high .

What are the effects of hunger on children and teens?

One in eight U.S. households with children, approximately 12.5%, could not buy enough food for their families in 2021 , considerably higher than the rate for households without children (9.4%). Black (19.8%) and Latinx (16.25%) households are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity, with food insecurity rates in 2021 triple and double the rate of White households (7%), respectively.

Research has found that hunger and undernutrition can have a host of negative effects on child development. For example, maternal undernutrition during pregnancy increases the risk of negative birth outcomes, including premature birth, low birth weight, smaller head size, and lower brain weight. In addition, children experiencing hunger are at least twice as likely to report being in fair or poor health and at least 1.4 times more likely to have asthma, compared to food-secure children.

The first three years of a child’s life are a period of rapid brain development. Too little energy, protein and nutrients during this sensitive period can lead to lasting deficits in cognitive, social and emotional development . School-age children who experience severe hunger are at increased risk for poor mental health and lower academic performance , and often lag behind their peers in social and emotional skills .

What are the effects of homelessness on children and teens?

Approximately 1.2 million public school students experienced homelessness during the 2019-2020 school year, according to the National Center for Homeless Education (PDF, 1.4MB) . The report also found that students of color experienced homelessness at higher proportions than expected based on the overall number of students. Hispanic and Latino students accounted for 28% of the overall student body but 38% of students experiencing homelessness, while Black students accounted for 15% of the overall student body but 27% of students experiencing homelessness. While White students accounted for 46% of all students enrolled in public schools, they represented 26% of students experiencing homelessness.

Homelessness can have a tremendous impact on children, from their education, physical and mental health, sense of safety, and overall development. Children experiencing homelessness frequently need to worry about where they will live, their pets, their belongings, and other family members. In addition, homeless children are less likely to have adequate access to medical and dental care, and may be affected by a variety of health challenges due to inadequate nutrition and access to food, education interruptions, trauma, and disruption in family dynamics.

In terms of academic achievement, students experiencing homelessness are more than twice as likely to be chronically absent than non-homeless students , with greater rates among Black and Native American or Alaska Native students. They are also more likely to change schools multiple times and to be suspended—especially students of color.

Further, research shows that students reporting homelessness have higher rates of victimization, including increased odds of being sexually and physically victimized, and bullied. Student homelessness correlates with other problems, even when controlling for other risks. They experienced significantly greater odds of suicidality, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, risky sexual behavior, and poor grades in school.

What can you do to help children and families experiencing poverty, hunger, and homelessness?

There are many ways that you can help fight poverty in America. You can:

• Volunteer your time with charities and organizations that provide assistance to low-income and homeless children and families.
• Donate money, food, and clothing to homeless shelters and other charities in your community.
• Donate school supplies and books to underresourced schools in your area.
• Improve access to physical, mental, and behavioral health care for low-income Americans by eliminating barriers such as limitations in health care coverage.
• Create a “safety net” for children and families that provides real protection against the harmful effects of economic insecurity.
• Increase the minimum wage, affordable housing and job skills training for low-income and homeless Americans.
• Intervene in early childhood to support the health and educational development of low-income children.
• Provide support for low-income and food insecure children such as Head Start , the National School Lunch Program , and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) .
• Increase resources for public education and access to higher education.
• Support research on poverty and its relationship to health, education, and well-being.
• Resolution on Poverty and SES
• Pathways for addressing deep poverty
• APA Deep Poverty Initiative

Poverty eradication

Related sdgs, end poverty in all its forms everywhere ....

Description

Publications.

The 2030 Agenda acknowledges that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.

The first Sustainable Development Goal aims to “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”. Its seven associated targets aims, among others, to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty, and implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable

As recalled by the foreword of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals Report, at the Millennium Summit in September 2000, 189 countries unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration, pledging to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty”. This commitment was translated into an inspiring framework of eight goals and, then, into wide-ranging practical steps that have enabled people across the world to improve their lives and their future prospects. The MDGs helped to lift more than one billion people out of extreme poverty, to make inroads against hunger, to enable more girls to attend school than ever before and to protect our planet.

Nevertheless, in spite of all the remarkable gains, inequalities have persisted and progress has been uneven. Therefore, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its set of Sustainable Development Goals have been committed, as stated in the Declaration of the Agenda, “to build upon the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and seek to address their unfinished business”.

The theme of the 2017 High-Level Political Forum was "Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing worl” ", and it included SDG 1 as one of the focus SDGs

From Agenda 21 to Future We Want In "The Future We Want", the outcome document of Rio+20, Member States emphasized the need to accord the highest priority to poverty eradication within the United Nations development agenda, addressing the root causes and challenges of poverty through integrated, coordinated and coherent strategies at all level.

In the context of the multi-year programme of work adopted by the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) after the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), poverty eradication appears as an "overriding issue" on the agenda of the CSD each year.

Poverty eradication is addressed in Chapter II of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (2002), which stressed that eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, particularly for developing countries.

Priority actions on poverty eradication include:

• improving access to sustainable livelihoods, entrepreneurial opportunities and productive resources;
• providing universal access to basic social services;
• progressively developing social protection systems to support those who cannot support themselves;
• empowering people living in poverty and their organizations;
• addressing the disproportionate impact of poverty on women;
• working with interested donors and recipients to allocate increased shares of ODA to poverty eradication; and
• intensifying international cooperation for poverty eradication.

The General Assembly, in its 1997 Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 (paragraph 27) decided that poverty eradication should be an overriding theme of sustainable development for the coming years. It is one of the fundamental goals of the international community and of the entire United Nations system.

"Combating poverty" is the topic of Chapter 3 of Agenda 21. It is also in commitment 2 of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development.

Agenda 21 emphasized that poverty is a complex multidimensional problem with origins in both the national and international domains. No uniform solution can be found for global application. Rather, country-specific programmes to tackle poverty and international efforts supporting national efforts, as well as the parallel process of creating a supportive international environment, are crucial for a solution to this problem.

The years following the 1992 Rio Conference have witnessed an increase in the number of people living in absolute poverty, particularly in developing countries. The enormity and complexity of the poverty issue could endanger the social fabric, undermine economic development and the environment, and threaten political stability in many countries.

For more information and documents on this topic,  please visit this link

Sustainable Development Outlook 2020

Economic growth has slowed down dramatically and poverty is on the rise everywhere. Questions therefore have arisen whether these setbacks will have a permanent effect, jeopardizing progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)....

A Free World from Child Poverty

While there is great diversity in the almost 200 countries in which children live, there is much about children and their childhoods that are universal: in almost every country in the world – richer countries and poorer – children are more likely to be living in poverty than adults, and everywhere t...

Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom, We recognize that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for su...

Human Development Report 2014

As successive Human Development Reports have shown, most people in most countries have been doing steadily better in human development. Advances in technology, education and incomes hold ever-greater promise for longer, healthier, more secure lives. Globalization has on balance produced major human ...

A Measured Approach to Ending Poverty and Boosting Shared Prosperity

This Policy Research Report is structured in three parts, mirroring the three broad aims of the report. The first part provides a general overview of the conceptual underpinnings of the two goals and their assessment. Chapter 1 describes the World Bank’s approach to poverty measurement and assesses ...

Children of the Recession: The impact of the economic crisis on child well-being in rich countries Innocenti Report Card 12

Twenty-five years after the Convention on the Rights of the Child became international law, many of its commitments remain unrealized, and the developed countries most capable of delivering on them are losing ground. The Great Recession, which was triggered by a financial meltdown that started in th...

A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development

The Panel came together with a sense of optimism and a deep respect for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The 13 years since the millennium have seen the fastest reduction in poverty in human history: there are half a billion fewer people living below an international poverty line of $1.25 a ...

China Sustainable Development Report 2013 - the road to ecological civilization: the next decade

South africa: the challenge of sustainable development, iran: energy and sustainable development in iran.

Iran is heavily reliant on energy-intensive industries for domestic economic production and export. It also has a high dependence on oil products to meet primary energy needs and for its petrochemical and metal industries. Despite diversification of energy sources for domestic consumption, energy pr...

Indonesia: Low Carbon Development Options for Indonesia

The report on ‘Low carbon Development Options for Indonesia’ produced by the World Bank in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance for Indonesia, puts forward a series of economic development options for Indonesia that will help in the transition to a green economy. The phase 1 report recognises ...

Thailand: Supporting Sustainable Development in Thailand: A Geographic Clusters Approach

Market forces and government policies, including the Tenth National Development Plan (2007-2012), are moving Thailand toward a more geographically specialized economy. There is a growing consensus that Thailand’s comparative and competitive advantages lie in amenity services that have high reliance...

2024 SDG Global Business Forum

 The 2024 SDG Global Business Forum will take place virtually as a special event alongside the 2024 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), the United Nations central platform for the follow-up and review of the SDGs. The Forum will place special emphasis on the SDGs under

Expert Group Meeting on SDG 1 and its interlinkages with other SDGs

The theme of the 2024 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) is “Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda and eradicating poverty in times of multiple crises: the effective delivery of sustainable, resilient and innovative solutions”. The 2024 HLPF will have an in-depth review of Sustainable Development Goa

Expert Group Meetings for 2024 HLPF Thematic Review

The theme of the 2024 High Level Political Forum (HLPF) is “Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda and eradicating poverty in times of multiple crisis: the effective delivery of sustainable, resilient and innovative solutions”. The 2024 HLPF will have an in-depth review of SDG 1 on No Poverty, SDG 2 on Zero Hu

International Workshop on “Applications of Juncao Technology and its contribution to alleviating poverty, promoting employment and protecting the environment”

According to the United Nations Food Systems Summit that was held in 2021, many of the world’s food systems are fragile and not fulfilling the right to adequate food for all. Hunger and malnutrition are on the rise again. According to FAO’s “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023

Fifth UN Conference on the LDCs (UNLDC-V)

Cdp plenary 2020, 58th session of the commission for social development – csocd58, ending child poverty as part of the sdgs: indicators and implementation under goal 1.

For the first time, the global community has recognized the centrality of children to address global poverty. As part of the new SDGs proposed to end poverty, the new agenda aims to ‘reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all dimensions acc

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2015

The 2015 Commemoration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP) will be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York, focusing on the theme - "Building a sustainable future: Coming together to end poverty and discrimination".

• January 2015 SDG 1 Goal 1 aims to "End poverty in all its forms everywhere" and its targets aim to: 1.1 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 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 action
• January 2012 Future We Want (Para 105- 107) Future We Want recognizes that, while there has been progress in reducing poverty in some regions, this progress has been uneven and the number of people living in poverty in some countries continues to increase, with women and children constituting the majority of the most affected groups, especially in the least developed countries and particularly in Africa. Sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth in developing countries is identified as a key requirement for eradicating poverty and hunger and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore, Future We Want highlights the importance to complement national efforts of developing countries by an enabling environment aimed at expanding the development opportunities of developing countries. In paragraph 107, Member States recognize the important contribution that promoting universal access to social services can make to consolidating and achieving development gains. Social protection systems that address and reduce inequality and social exclusion are essential for eradicating poverty and advancing the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
• January 2008 2nd UN Decade for Eradication of Poverty The General Assembly declared the Second UN Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008-2017) in December 2007 and selected as theme “Full Employment and Decent Work for All”. This Second Decade was proclaimed to support the internationally agreed development goals related to poverty eradication, including the Millennium Development Goals. It has stressed the importance of reinforcing the positive trends in poverty reduction, experienced by some countries as well as the need of extending such trends to benefit people worldwide. This Second Decade recognizes as well the importance of mobilizing financial resources for development at national and international levels and acknowledges that sustained economic growth, supported by rising productivity and a favourable environment, including private investment and entrepreneurship is vital for rising living standards
• January 2002 JPOI (Chap. 2) Chapter 2 identifies eradication of poverty as the greatest global challenge facing the world today and as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, particularly for developing countries. JPOI recognizes the primary responsibility and role national governments and policies have for ensuring their own sustainable development and poverty eradication strategies. The JPOI at the same time highlights the importance of concerted and concrete measures at all levels to enable developing countries to achieve their sustainable development goals as related to the internationally agreed poverty-related targets and goals, including those contained in Agenda 21, the relevant outcomes of other United Nations conferences and the United Nations Millennium Declaration.
• January 2000 Social Summit +5 As recommended by the World Summit for Social Development, the General Assembly convened a special session in 2000 to revise and assess the implementation of the outcome of the Social Summit and to identify new and further initiatives for social development. The GA held its twenty-fourth special session, entitled “World Summit for Social Development and beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalizing world”, in Geneva from 26 to 30 June 2000. Agreement was reached on a wide array of initiatives to reduce poverty and spur job growth in the global economy. Reducing poverty, promoting job growth, and ensuring the participation of all people in the decision-making process were the main objectives of the agreement. To achieve these goals, countries endorsed actions to ensure improved education and health, including in times of financial crisis. The General Assembly adopted an outcome document entitled “Further initiatives for social development” consisting of a political declaration reaffirming the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development; a review and assessment of the implementation of the outcome of the Summit; and proposals for further initiatives for social development.
• January 2000 MDG 1 MDG 1 aims at eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Its three targets respectively read: halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day (1.A), achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people (1.B), halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger (1.C).
• January 1997 GA 19th Special Session A GA Special Session (UNGASS-19) was held in June 1997 in order to review and assess progress undergone on Agenda 21. With Resolution A/RES/S-19/2 delegates agreed on the adoption of the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21. The Programme appraised progress since the UNCED, examined implementation and defined the CSD’s work programme for the period 1998-2002. For the CSD’s subsequent four sessions, poverty and consumption and production patterns were identified as dominant issues for each year by the work programme. Delegates also agreed on the sectoral, cross-sectoral and economic sector/major group themes, endorsed the IPF’s outcome and recommended a continuation of the intergovernmental policy dialogue on forests. Subsequently, the Intergovernmental Forum on Forest (IFF) was established by ECOSOC under the CSD.
• January 1997 1st UN Decade for Eradication of Poverty The First United Nations Decade for Eradication of Poverty was declared for the period 1997-2006 by the UN General Assembly at the end of 1995. As theme for the Decade, the GA established at the end of 1996 the following: "Eradicating poverty is an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of humankind."
• January 1995 Copenhagen Declaration (Social Summit) The Copenhagen Declaration was adopted at the end of the World Summit for Social Development (WSSD), held in March 1995 in Copenhagen. Being the largest gathering of world leaders at that time, this event represented a crucial milestone and pledged to make the conquest of poverty, the goal of full employment and the fostering of stable, safe and just societies overriding objectives of development. Chapter 2 is entirely devoted to eradication of poverty with a particular attention to the strategies to be adopted to achieve concrete results in this matter, to improve access to productive resources and infrastructure, meet the basic human needs of all and to enhance social protection and reduce vulnerability.
• January 1992 Agenda 21 (Chap.3) Chapter 3 of the Agenda describes poverty as "a complex multidimensional problem with origins in both the national and international domains". The Agenda notes that no uniform solution can be found for global application and identifies country-specific programmes to tackle poverty and international efforts supporting national efforts, as well as the parallel process of creating a supportive international environment as crucial tools for a solution to this problem.

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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The vicious cycle of poverty and hunger

Oct 25, 2022

There’s no way around it: If we want to end poverty, we have to end hunger.

There is a strong regional overlap between the world’s hungriest countries and the world’s poorest countries . Malnutrition is highest among the poorest 20% of people in most countries, and when one rate is high in a county, it’s a sure bet that the other isn’t too far behind.

Somalia is one country that sits high on both lists. The country’s rural northern region is home to Nimco, a young mother of six children. The worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in 40 years has turned the pastoralist landscape of Nimco’s village into a dust bowl. The soil is parched, and any remaining animals are thin and weak. All surface water sources have dried up. Since May of 2022, the community has been decimated: Those with the means left months ago. 

Nimco and her four children are among those who stayed, though this was not out of pride or sentimentality. They simply couldn’t afford to leave. Nimco’s husband went off with their few remaining sheep and goats to find water and pasture in other regions. Unfortunately, Nimco — unlike some of the other families in her village — doesn’t have a relative in the city who can help her with buying the bare necessities.  

“It was a very difficult situation,” she explains. “We couldn’t afford to buy water or food, and we couldn’t pay our debt.” The combination of poverty and hunger trapped them in a cycle from which they struggle to escape.

Learn more about our work to end both poverty and hunger — and how you can help

What causes world hunger.

Hunger is something we’ve all experienced for a variety of reasons. But when we break down hunger into issues like malnutrition, undernutrition, or specific deficiencies (like Vitamin A or Iron), we can more easily measure and design solutions to hunger that work .

That said, there are many causes of world hunger . To narrow things down a bit, we can put these causes into one of two larger categories: physiological causes and poverty-related causes.  

Physiological causes of hunger

At certain points in our lives, we need more food and nutrients. The first 1,000 days of childhood are crucial for the right amount of nutrients to ensure that we continue developing to our full potential. When puberty hits and we reach adolescence, we go through another phase. For pregnant people, that need once again crops up. 

While these life cycles aren’t “bad,” they are causes of hunger in that our nutritional needs increase in this time. Mothers like Nimco often face tough decisions during their pregnancies. 

Poverty-related causes of hunger

That’s because of the millions of parents who face restricted resources and are unable to meet their most basic needs. Nimco, for instance, had relied on credit from local shops to feed her young family. As her debts accumulated, however, the shops stopped selling to her.

The top 10 causes of world hunger

One out of every 10 people go hungry each day — but why? Learn about the top causes of world hunger, and what we're doing to solve them.

Both hunger and poverty can be intergenerational

Generally, stories like Nimco’s don’t happen out of thin air. The cycle of poverty often runs from one generation to the next, with children born into poverty more likely to live in the same cycle as their parents if there is no intervention. Likewise, hunger and malnutrition can be intergenerational. 

Malnourished mothers are also more likely to have malnourished infants. About 20% of stunting in children is attributed to malnutrition in the womb as a result of maternal undernutrition. This means even children who manage to survive being born to malnourished mothers are still less likely to reach their physical and cognitive potential in life. 

Furthermore, many of the poverty-related causes of malnutrition, such as food insecurity or poor access to health services, endure for multiple generations of the same family or community.

How does poverty affect hunger?

Issues relating to hunger can go hand-in-hand with poverty — particularly climate change , conflict , and forced migration . However, all of these situations usually boil down to three key issues. This is a framework Concern uses, one that was developed by UNICEF: 

Poor or no access to a quality diet

In some cases, the question is simply whether people can find anything to eat. There is already an overlap of countries experiencing both high levels of poverty and hunger. The human cost of a food shortage will hit on this overlap, leaving those furthest behind with the fewest options in a situation of low supply and high demand. 

In South Sudan , people fleeing war have described eating water lilies to survive. In Haiti , a common recipe in areas that face food shortages is bonbon tè, which are cookies made with a special dirt mixed with salt, fat, and water. Pastoralists in drought-struck northern Kenya boil animal hides. 

However, even in less dire straits, people with the fewest resources are more likely to lose out on a well-balanced diet and key nutrients, relying on crops like corn for the majority of their diet. 

Lack of knowledge, skills, and support to ensure optimal care for women and children

Education and poverty are also linked , especially when it comes to health and nutrition. The harmful patriarchal and gender norms present in many low-income countries (particularly in rural areas) mean that many women don’t realize the care they need to take while pregnant and nursing. Many parents also rely on traditional methods of treating their children when sick, many of which are ineffectual — and some of which can even be counterproductive. 

Educating parents about proper prenatal and pediatric care (and giving them access to trained professionals, no matter how remote their community is) is a key aspect of ending hunger. When caregivers are informed about how to prevent, detect, and treat malnutrition, lives are saved. When expecting parents are aware of how nutrition is passed on to a child during pregnancy, they can take the care to get the nutrients they need in order to start their child off on the best possible foot.  

Poor or no access to water, sanitation, and essential health services

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) as well as other key health services are also linked to poverty and hunger. Sometimes, people (especially children) eat enough. But if they live in an area with insufficient sanitation or poor hygiene practices, they may be susceptible to diarrhea or other waterborne illnesses that prevent them from absorbing those nutrients. Making sure that drinking and washing water are uncontaminated can save a life — in more ways than one.

Likewise, essential healthcare services are, well, essential to ending hunger. This is especially true for women and children, who often don’t get adequate care or nutritional screenings at key moments in life. 

Drought is also a key issue. “Before the drought, we had 40 sheep and goats. We depended on our livestock as we used to sell milk, meat, sheep, or goats,” Nimco explains. She lost all but 11 of her flock. “This is not the first drought,” she adds. “The drought has been here for the last two and a half years. Now we do not have anything to trade or anywhere to go. We are trapped in this tiny village.”

Why we need to tackle both poverty and hunger

Concern’s mandate is to end extreme poverty (whatever it takes). But we won’t end poverty until we also end hunger. If poverty is a combination between inequality and risk, then unger creates vulnerability. This in turn feeds into the risks that fuel poverty. Food insecurity itself can also be an inequality within a community, or simply signal the other inequalities within that community. 

Currently, our nutrition strategy focuses reducing hunger and malnutrition among adolescent girls, women of reproductive age, and children under the age of 5. Some of our projects focus specifically on the first 1,000 days between conception and a child’s second birthday to prevent malnutrition in this critical time. Other programs, like Community Management of Acute Malnutrition, screen and treat children up to the age of 5 (and even older) with overwhelmingly positive results and standard-setting cure rates. 

Back in rural Somalia, Nimco has found some relief from the poverty and hunger trap into which her family had fallen. Unconditional cash transfers from Concern have allowed her to buy food and water, and to pay off some of the debt that was weighing the family down.

It’s a short-term solution for sure, but it has slowed a spiral from which the family might never have recovered. Meanwhile, programs that support alternative sources of food production and income generation are the bedrock upon which families like Nimco’s can build their resilience to poverty and climate shock. For Concern’s team, it’s programs like these that will ultimately help break the vicious cycle that ruins so many lives around the world.

Concern’s work to end hunger

From Afghanistan to Yemen, Concern’s Health and Nutrition programs are designed to address the specific, intersectional causes of hunger and malnutrition in each specific context. Our projects often combine two or more of the following areas of focus: agriculture and climate response, maternal and child health, education, livelihoods, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). 

We played a key role in developing Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM), which has been recognized by the World Food Program as the gold standard for treating malnutrition. Other recent successes, like Lifesaving Education and Assistance to Farmers (LEAF) have seen entire communities not needing humanitarian food aid for the first time in decades due to holistic and systemic shifts in agricultural practices and community care. 

Last year alone, Concern reached 9 million people with health and nutrition programs in 21 countries. Your support can help us to do even more in the year ahead.

Donate to Concern

More on poverty and hunger

How much will it cost to end world hunger?

9 World hunger solutions to get us to 2030

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Women hold the solutions to tackling climate change and hunger. Just ask them

• Women suffer disproportionately from climate change and hunger, often eating less and growing less food.
• However, when climate change impacts women's food production and income, it also means less food for men and children.
• It is long past time for women's voices to inform strategies for climate adaptation and crisis-response planning.

In Diffa, one of the poorest regions of Niger, climate change has led to more frequent droughts and floods that have created severe food insecurity and malnutrition. But despite entrenched gender inequality, communities in Diffa are seeing what happens when women lead and power resilient climate adaptation.

Women small-scale farmers have stepped up and joined forces to change the landscape of possibility. With support from local civil-society and aid organizations, these women learned about climate change, found new ways to collect and conserve rainwater, and scheduled plantings of millet, okra, and peanuts for when rain was predicted.

They set aside savings against anticipated bad weather. They convinced the local government to build new wells. Today they have a voice in the local government's scenario planning and spending decisions. Their lives, livelihoods, families, and communities are at less risk from climate change and from hunger.

In order for this story to become the rule instead of the exception, we desperately need to scale up this proven strategy: integrated climate and food-security responses that are locally led - and developed by and for women.

Woman suffer disproportionately from climate change

New research shows lethal intersections between extreme weather, hunger and gender inequality. As with poverty, women suffer disproportionately from climate change and from hunger.

During an extreme weather event, women - whether they are refugees in Uganda, earthquake survivors in Nepal, or drought sufferers in Honduras - eat less, grow comparatively less food, and are more likely to die than men .

Women remain chronically underrepresented in disaster planning and they are overwhelmingly less likely than men to be asked about their needs. Without a seat at scenario-planning tables, women are unable to access the same climate information, support, or leadership and financial opportunities as men.

The world is investing far too little in helping people cope with, and build longer-term resilience to, climate change. Response planning still treats increasingly frequent extreme weather events as point-in-time incidents that each need a timebound follow-up - when research shows that each extreme weather event impacts people's food security for up to five years. Weather extremes are the main driver of hunger in 18 countries where 72 million people face acute climate change.

Heat stress and flooding widen the income gap between men and women by $53 billion every year . Extreme heat causes women to lose 8 percentage points more income than men do; flooding causes women to lose 3% more production. And because women have less access to climate information and to digital technology, it's harder for them to take action to react to or guard against climate shocks.

Persistent gender inequalities mean that food insecurity affects women more than men in every hunger region. In Honduras's Dry Corridor, one of the most climate-vulnerable places in the world , 61% of women are in food crisis, but only 11% of men.

In Zimbabwe, one woman told CARE, "Children and men eat first and I will eat after they have been fed." Yet, because women are likely to be both growing and buying families' food, when they lose production and income there is less food for everyone.

How women farmers are creating their own sustainable future

When women lead, the story changes. In mountainous northern Vietnam, women small-scale farmers are sharing seeds to shift to drought-resistant crops, rotating maize and peanut production to regenerate soil, and using indigenous plants as compost.

Women in Zimbabwe who had resources and support to plan for their changing environment organized to build new water-harvesting tools after recurring droughts dried up their old wells. "Our livestock no longer have to travel over 5 kilometers in search of water," another Zimbabwean woman told CARE. "We now have good nutrition, and we can sell excess vegetables and get money for our village lending and savings as well as for school fees."

Lasting hunger eradication will require shifting from growth-centric policies to those that prioritize equality and sustainability. In economies where gross domestic product (GDP) is growing but inequality is high, hunger goes up, not down. In 57 economies around the world, GDP is growing and so is hunger .

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there would be 45 million fewer hungry people in the world if global food systems treated men and women equally. Evidence shows that every dollar spent on truly inclusive local scenario planning saves $4 in potential losses and that women lead the way to better, faster responses.

In Malawi , each dollar invested in helping women in local savings groups get upskilled and represented in local disaster planning yielded $29. In the Philippines and nine other countries, women-led organizations are leading pioneering, locally owned response platforms that adeptly assess and respond to climate and other crises.

In Timor-Leste, women who joined forces now sit on village disaster-planning committees. They protect food supplies and important family documents from flood damage, save money in preparedness funds, and spread the word when extreme weather is forecast.

"In the past men were the chiefs and sat in parliament, and we women had to be in the kitchen," one woman told CARE. "Now we have formed this group through our own initiative. We are not asking for handouts or airplanes or cars - we are asking for our voice to be heard."

The world needs to hear their voices. Women tell CARE that the biggest challenges they face today relate to climate change and hunger: food insecurity, lack of clean water, drought, conflict, pests.

It's not enough for planners to say we look at big data, collect feedback, engage community participation. Building resilience requires integrating adaptation into sustainable local and national planning. And it requires proactively asking, and listening to, the women who have lived experience on the frontlines of crisis and response.

Editors' recommendations

• Lasting toll of multiple climate disasters on Pakistan’s women
• How green jobs for women help promote gender equality and climate resilience
• Outsmarting climate change
• Climate-smart: How smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe are reaping bumper crops by adapting to a changing climate

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