Know about October 17th, UN’s ‘International Day for the Eradication of Poverty’

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is celebrated as The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Poverty is a grave issue that the governments of the world have been battling against. While some countries have been able to create a sustainable plan, there are many others, where the poverty line is below the acceptable level. Where, each day, thousands of people starve for food, healthy living and basic infrastructure.

The United Nations has taken this up as one of their foremost agendas for the coming years. They have been striving hard to bring some improvement in the lives of people across the most poverty-stricken countries.
On the 17th of each year, the world comes forward to understand the experiences of people living in poverty, bringing forth a cohesive action plan that helps achieve greater social inclusion. A time to come together to respect the human rights and dignity of people living in poverty. A day when it is integral to build an alliance around their priorities with citizens from all backgrounds. It recognizes the important mutual roles and relationships we have with each other based on our common and equal dignity.

Extreme poverty is a large concern and the United Nations, at its 72nd session, the General Assembly launched the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2018–2027), under the theme “Accelerating global actions for a world without poverty”.

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty can strongly complement such initiatives because it aims to bring some balance between the people living in extreme poverty and those furthest from it. It aims at designing and implementing programmes and policies which affect them. All countries need to come forward to help build an environment of mutual help and comradery to ensure this reaches a successful conclusion.

The Theme –
The persistence of poverty, including extreme poverty, is a major concern for the United Nations and, at its 72nd session, the General Assembly launched the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2018–2027), under the theme “Accelerating global actions for a world without poverty”.

Some actions that need to be taken for the eradication of poverty 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 organizations;
• 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.

One of the indicators for measuring poverty status of a country is its per capita GDP, as it reflects the average wealth of each person residing there. It is therefore the standard method used to compare how poor or wealthy countries are in relation to each other. The projections used in this study are by Focus Economics and are consensus forecasts based on the individual forecasts of over 900 world renowned investment banks, economic think tanks and professional economic forecasting firms.
Here are some startling statistics.