The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, also known as World Poverty Day for short, holds annually on October 17, where awareness is raised on the need to end global poverty in all its forms.
The day was first observed on the stated date in 2017 to overcome extreme poverty globally. Five years later, the United Nations General Assembly declared poverty violation of human rights and affirmed the need to deliberately work towards respecting the rights of the poor and reduce poverty rates worldwide.
The Day aims to promote dialogue and understanding among people below the poverty line, the communities they live in and in the world community at large. It provides an opportunity to acknowledge the struggles of the poor people and give them a platform, plus the audience, to have their issues, needs and concerns heard.
Effects of the Coronavirus, severe weather and the Russia-Ukraine war threatened a global crisis, and we are now facing the most severe food shortage since the end World War. This has led to acute food scarcity and, where available, increasing costs.
Therefore, the progress in fighting destitution in low and middle – income countries around the world is reversed. It is lamentable that malnutrition, starvation and chronic health issues are a serious and potentially life-threatening reality for children living in poverty, with 9.9% people affected by hunger, food crises and 149 million children (1 in 5) chronically malnourished and some 8 3.1 million undernourished.
Poverty on the Continent
The London Economist magazine says in a recent article (culled by the Business Day newspaper on 8th October, 2023): “From 1990 to 2018 the number of people living in extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa rose from 284 million to 433 million, as population growth often outstripped to economic sort.
The MO Ibrahim, a British NGO, reckons that 18 million formal jobs must be created annually to absorb the numbers entering the labour force, [as] the current figure is 3 million. Almost half of 18 to 24 year-olds in 15 countries surveyed last year by the Africa Youth Survey, a South African charity, said they were thinking of emigrating.
Dimensions of Poverty
In his seminal book, The END OF POVERTY, Professor Jeffrey Sachs outlines poverty reduction strategies. He enumerates among other determinants of the scourge:
1. Proportion of household living in poverty, lack of access to basic needs in school, health care, water and sanitation, electricity; demographic trends like births, deaths and internal/external migration; environmental factors sea level changes, coastal erosion, deforestation, degradation and drought.
2 Economic policy- what is the cost doing business, cost of Infrastructure, power, water, road transport services, trade policy framework, incentives for domestic and foreign investors and investment in education, health, nutrition and disease control.
3. Budget on infrastructure/social services :current levels of public spending and public revenues egg on health, education, infrastructure gives insight into the level of effort to poverty reduction. Another thing is extent of public debt overhang on the shoulder of the government.
4. Physical geography and human ecology:societal interface with physical environment. Eg. how much population is near the sea/port? The length of growing season and its effects on crop choice and ecosystem change effects on land, flood etc.
5. System of governance: how dictatorship destroys an economy, property and contract laws
6. Cultural Barriers like caste, class, gender discrimination in a society.
7. International relations that affect the economic fortunes of a country. For instance, sanctions, refugee situations and cross-border conflicts undermine the growth of a country.
Target on Global Poverty
Professor Sachs talks of a global compact to end poverty by 2025, saying “Ending global poverty will require concerted actions by the rich countries as well as the poor, beginning with a global compact between the rich and the poor countries.
The poor countries must take ending poverty seriously and will have to devote a greater share of their natural resources to cutting poverty rather than to war, corruption and political infighting.
The rich countries will need to move beyond the platitudes of helping the poor, and follow through on the repeated promises to deliver more help. All of this is possible. Indeed, it is much more likely than it seems. But it needs a framework.
The author argues that the extreme poor lack six major kinds of capital
1. Human capital – health, nutrition and skills for economic production.
2. Business capital – machinery, facilities, motorized transport used in agriculture, industry services
3. Infrastructure – roads, power, waters, sanitation, airport /seaport, telecommunications…. etc.
4.Natural capital – arable land, healthy soil, well-function ecosystems that provide environmental services needed.
5.Public Institutional capital – commercial law, judicial system, policing for prosperous division of Labour.
6.Knowledge capital – scientific and technological know-how to raise productivity in output and promoter of and natural capital.
The Sokoto State government has made anti- poverty campaign a top priority with an assortment of policies aimed at reducing the plague to the barest minimum.
The state primarily seeks to promote the society by improving access to quality education through adequate investment in infrastructure, scholarship provision and other means of enhancing teacher training and development.
Similarly, it aims to boost agricultural production with robust support to small-scale farmers, modern farming techniques, irrigation and better seeds to improve productivity.
For the business community, the government is set to develop microfinance institutions and access to credit for the poor and marginalized communities, offer low-interest loans, savings and, among others, foster entrepreneurship skills and small business development.
In the area of infrastructure, as earlier mentioned, the state sees road, electricity, clean water and other provisions as instrumental to job creation, better access to market and enhanced living conditions.
In addition, skill training will be embarked upon to equip individuals and massive women empowerment will receive priority to promote gender equality, even as community development projects will be used to foster social cohesion and facilitate sustainable development.
Other sectors to top the government agenda are health care and social safety net for the vulnerable, tourism potential of the state, sustenance of cultural heritage and ensuring good governance and accountability where corruption will give way to rule of law and an enabling environment will be created for business growth and enviable economic development.
The theme of this year’s celebration is Dignity for all in practice, and eradicating poverty is a globally-undertaken dream which, with concerted efforts and commitment, is, in the words of Jeffrey Sachs, “all possible and more likely than it seems”.
- Barrister Sa’adat Yunusa Mohammed is the Special Adviser to the Governor of Sokoto State on Poverty Reduction Agency.
