Goal 1: The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the International Poverty Line
By Maya Garner
Eradicate poverty – this is Goal number 1 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). The SDG’s were set out by the United Nations Development Progamme (UNDP) and adopted by the General Assembly in 2015 as a renewal of the Millenium Development Goals set out in 2000. The SDG’s include 17 goals to reach by 2030 with 169 targets measured in 232 indicators. Goal number 1 is to eradicate poverty in all its forms for all people, everywhere. Ending poverty is measured primarily by the indicator of the number of people living below the International Poverty Line. However, this goal faces challenges in its inadequate measurement of poverty by following the international poverty line, as well as facing challenges with its focus on economic growth, leaving behind the issue of inequality.
The primary measurement of growth is through the number of people living below the International Poverty Line. Originally, the international threshold was set to roughly $1 per day, yet has increased due to factors such as inflation and depreciation of the purchasing power of the dollar. In 2008, this line was set at $1.25 dollars per day, and in 2015 updated by the World Bank to measure $1.90 per day. The International Poverty Line is calculated from national poverty thresholds of the value of goods required to sustain a person, and converted to U.S. dollars. Communicating the number of people who lived “below a dollar per day” works well as a catchphrase, but it distorts the image of the actual widespreadness of poverty.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published a report in November 2013, ahead of the SDG’s, entitled “Growth and Poverty Eradication: Why Addressing Inequality Matters.” The report stated that “The $1.25-a-day poverty line only provides an indication of the most extreme poverty: achieving this level of income falls far short of fulfilling the right to ‘a standard of living adequate for… health and well-being’” as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 25.1. This report’s reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is important to take into account when considering the SDG’s and the purpose of measuring poverty. Rather than using the International Poverty Line as it stands, the more sensible standard would be to set the line according to the financial needs required for a person to obtain their human rights and standard of living as prescribed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That is to say, to measure the realities of people’s lives against the standards of the Declaration.
The report suggests raising the International Poverty Line to $5 per day instead, as this could “reasonably be regarded as fulfilling this right” – the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, as outlined in the Universal Declaration. The UNCTAD report was issued ahead of the SDG’s adoption in 2015, yet the SDG’s chose to adopt the $1.25 International Poverty Line as opposed to the $5. The extreme poverty line was then raised to $1.90 per day to account for depreciation of the purchasing power of the dollar rather reasserting the measuring standards for poverty — a figure that is still a long way off from the $5 recommendation. As the report states, following this measure of $5 per day would mean that the goal set out by the SDG’s would not be reached by 2030. The report estimates that there would then still be a 15 percent poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean, 30 percent in East Asia and the Pacific, and 50 percent in North Africa and the Middle East. Meanwhile, 90 percent of the population of both sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia would live for less than $5. Globally, 3 billion people would fall below the $5-a-day poverty line. At this point, if the goals are successful in reducing the number of people living beneath the International Poverty Line of $1.25 or $1.90 per day, the international community will be able to claim to have eradicated extreme poverty, as measured from this line, while 3 billion people are still living for less than the standard of $5 required to meet their rights to adequate health and wellbeing. This drastically changes the picture of the SDG’s and their successes.
The number of people living beneath the International Poverty Line of $1.25 (at the time) has fallen since the adoption of the Millenium Development Goals of 2000. However, when measuring the number of people living below the standard of $5 per day, the numbers have increased. Naturally, the use of absolute numbers need to be considered in the context of a growing world population. And indeed, the rate of poverty has fallen globally, whether considering the $1.25/$1.90 or $5 measure. According to the World Bank, the rate of global poverty, measured from a $5.50 per day threshold, has fallen from 67 percent in 1990 to 46 percent in 2015. This means that nearly half of the world’s population currently live in poverty — 3.4 billion people. If the SDG goals are reached by 2030, the UNCTAD report’s estimated 3 billion people remaining in poverty, measured as $5 per day, will account for 35 percent of the world’s population, projected as 8.5 billion for that year. This projected level of poverty, as well as the current situation of nearly half of the world’s population living below the $5 poverty line, results in a skewed view of the reality of the world, and the widespannedness of poverty, which the SDG’s have not adequately communicated or addressed. This raises questions about the SDG’s approach to poverty. Importantly, it also raises concern about the possible discrepancy between the UN upholding its public image as opposed to ensuring transparency about the actual layout of the world, especially when it comes to such a vital issue as poverty.
In addition to the International Poverty Line, there is the issue of the UN SDG’s focus on growth rather than addressing inequality. While inequality is a topic deserving of deeper discussion, there is clear neglect in the SDG’s of the issue of inequality as a factor of poverty. By focusing on growth without addressing inequality, the SDG ignores the uneven distribution of the benefits of growth: “The recent period of global growth has been anything but distributionally neutral: despite accelerating growth across the developing world in recent years, the share of the poorest in the additional income this growth has generated has been even smaller than their average share in income,” as the UNCTAD report states. This translates to growth being inadequate as long as it does not address inequality. Additionally, the SDG’s are specifically set out to be about the connection between sustainability and development, and growth is notorious for being a driver of climate change. When growth is prioritized over redistributing existing resources and reducing inequality, the level of growth needed to eradicate poverty would be detrimental to the environment.
In striving toward a better, less poverty-stricken world, the UN would be wiser to use the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the primary, bottom-line indicator for the living standards of the world’s population, including in the measurement of poverty. The UN has a responsibility to ensure transparency about the widespread realities of poverty so that the work, progress and successes of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals can be evaluated accordingly. Additionally, the UN ought to reexamine the implications of its approaches to combating poverty with special regard to its take on growth and inequality; to hold sustainability and human rights above all.
