UN stresses need to eradicate poverty

NaijaAgroNet:

In marking the 24th anniversary of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP), the United Nations has underscored the need to recognize and address the humiliation and exclusion endured by many people living in poverty, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, noted that as the world work together to honour the pledge to build a life of peace, prosperity and dignity for all, the world must recognize that prejudice and discrimination seriously impede efforts.

“To end poverty, we must commit to respect and defend the human rights of all people and end the humiliation and social exclusion that the poor face every day,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that this year marks the first commemoration of IDEP since the launch of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals in January 2016. Recent estimates show that despite significant gains since 2002 – the number of people living below the poverty line dropped by half – 1 in 8 people still live in extreme poverty, including 800 million people who do not have enough to eat.

Equally, NaijaAgroNet gathered that an estimated 2.4 billion people have no access to improved sanitation, 1.1 billion people have no access to electricity and 880 million people live in urban slums. Opportunities continue to remain scarce for the world’s most vulnerable people – 59 million children of primary school age are out of school and the youth unemployment rate is 15 per cent, more than three times the rate of adults.

“With its central pledge to leave no one behind, the historic and ambitious new 2030 Agenda recognises that development will only be sustainable if it is inclusive,” said the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Wu Hongbo.

“We need to change the course of human development from one characterized by exclusion, inequalities, conflict, and unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, to one that is more inclusive, equitable and sustainable,” Hongbo said.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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