Abstract
To achieve the first of the Sustainable Development Goals – to end poverty in all of its forms everywhere by 2030 – will require more than business as usual. Despite uncertain global economic growth we have the financial resources to end extreme poverty. We know more, can predict more, and ultimately can better target the extreme poor. Social entrepreneurship models, machine learning, and robotics are pushing the envelope of what we can do. Using three scenarios, the chapter illustrates what poverty could look like in 2030. Our success will ultimately depend on the levels of global cooperation around conflicts and climate change, economic growth that benefits all segments of society, and the inclusion of minorities and previously excluded groups.
Keywords: extreme poverty, SDGs, poverty scenarios, social exclusion, fragile states, innovative finance, machine learning
From the MDGs to the SDGs: Great progress with greater challenges
The international community reached a major milestone in 2015 in the fight against global poverty. That year marked the end of a fifteen-year movement to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – eight international development goals established by the United Nations – that guided many efforts to alleviate poverty, with a prime objective of cutting in half the proportion of people living in poverty. To many, this effort was seen as the most successful anti-poverty movement in history. Governments, international organisations, and civil society groups all contributed to achieving the target of halving extreme poverty, which was achieved not only in time, but five years ahead of the 2015 deadline. More than a billion people were lifted out of poverty, and the rate of people living under extreme poverty dropped from close to half in 1990 to just 14 per cent in 2015. The success of the MDGs prompted world leaders to launch another set of global goals in 2015 – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – that build on the momentum of the MDGs but with an even more ambitious goal of eradicating ‘poverty in all its forms’ by 2030.
Despite progress made, it would be naive for world leaders to assume that eliminating global poverty entirely can be accomplished by just staying the course. When one considers how the incredible feat of cutting poverty in half was actually achieved, there are very good reasons to be dubious. For one, although globally poverty was halved, in 30 countries – eighteen in Sub-Saharan Africa alone – poverty actually increased.