Poverty eradication: Positive step towards sustainable development
Eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.
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As recalled by the foreword of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 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 dehumanising 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.
Inequalities
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 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development resolves to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and to heal and secure our planet.
The first Sustainable Development Goal aims to “End poverty in all its forms everywhere.” Its seven associated targets aim, among other things, 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, and by 2030, achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
Yearly agenda of CSD
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.
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 organisations; 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 (the main outcome of the Rio Summit), called on countries to adopt National Strategies for Sustainable Development (NSSDs) that harmonise and integrate economic, social and environmental policies and plans at the national level.
A five-year review of the Rio Conference in 1997 revealed that little progress had been made in implementing Agenda 21. In view of this, the World Summit 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.
Agenda 21
Agenda 21 emphasised 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.
National Assessment Report
The National Assessment Report on the Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and Targets for Rio+20 Conference, compiled by the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, in 2012, upheld that Ghana had made progress in the formulation and implementation of sustainable development strategies since the Rio conference.
The report indicated that there was now a considerable knowledge and understanding of sustainable development, institutions for sustainable development had been established, while sustainable development as a tool for development had been recognised and being implemented.
The report said analysis of findings on the three pillars of sustainability indicates that the country had made some gains in the social and economic fronts; “however, the gains made were marginal and can dissipate with little shock.”
It stated specifically that stable governance had led to a stable average growth rate of about five per cent since 1990; However, a lot remained to be done on the environmental pillar where depletion, degradation and pollution was still a major challenge.
It further indicated that the country was receiving a small share of revenue from natural resource exploitation due to weak value addition to primary products.
According to the report, structural transformation of the economy also remained a major challenge since growth in the manufacturing sector was very weak, adding that there are still some challenges in job creation, education, water and sanitation, urbanisation and health.
Addressing challenges
To address the challenges, it requires the development and implementation of long-term development strategies with harmoniously integrated pillars of sustainable development and that calls for building human and institutional capacities for policy formulation, implementation, monitoring and for the enforcement of legislation.
It also suggested effective grassroot participation, including the private sector and civil society organisations at the design and implementation stages, as well as the need to strengthen decentralised government administration and political processes; sensitise and create awareness at the local level, promote sustainability practices and foster partnerships among policy makers and the people.
Ghana, the report said, must also improve significantly its internal resource mobilisation through market-based policies such as taxes, subsidies, incentives; encourage the polluter pay principle in natural resources management and above all ensure efficient and effective management of resources to avoid waste. This will serve as a signal for donor commitment to pledges.
“Above all, there is the need for the country to begin a serious transformation of the economy through the modernisation of agriculture and the addition of value to our natural resources with the view to expanding the manufacturing sector. This is the surest way of creating significant employment, generating income and eradicating poverty.