UN Announces New Strategy to Combat Poverty

Poverty is a problem that poses a threat to the existence of all human beings. It threatens the political, social, educational, religious, and economical stability of any country, especially the developing countries.

Indeed, poverty goes beyond lack of income. In addition to this, it encompasses economic, social, and governance dimensions. Economically, poverty is not only deprived of income and resources but of opportunities. Markets and jobs occupations and careers are often difficult to access, because of low capabilities and geographical and social exclusion.

Limited access to education impacts the ability of the poverty to get jobs and to obtain information that could improve the quality of their lives.

It also limits the youth's prospects for work and from realizing their mental and physical potential. This fragile position is exacerbated by insecurity.

Furthermore, living in marginal conditions with no resources to fall back on, shocks become hard or impossible to offset.

These miserable situations are made worse by the structure of societies and institutions that tends to exclude the poor from participating in decision-making over the direction of social and economic development.

In response to these issues, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced this week a strategy of work for 2021-2022 and a policy brief for World Poverty and Equity.

The new study highlight poverty, shared prosperity and inequality trends for several developing countries.

In this regard, UN Secretary-General indicated that investing in job-rich growth, social protection, and a just transition to a net-zero emissions future, particularly in low -and middle-income countries, could prevent a further deepening of the inequalities between developed and developing economies that have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"No advanced economy has achieved economic and social progress without investing in social protection systems and quality public services that provide people with the necessary support to navigate the vicissitudes of their lives," he noted.

In the same connection, Guterres also revealed: "While the wealth of billionaires increased by over US$ 3.9 trillion between March and December 2020, the impact of the pandemic on the world of work, among other factors, increased the number of extremely poor by between 119 and 224 million people—the first increase in poverty in over 21 years."

On this basis, there are an estimated 75 million fewer jobs in 2021 than there were before the crisis, and 23 million fewer projected in 2022.

Also in this regard, the Secretary-General’s brief calls for urgent investments in a job-rich, sustainable, and socially inclusive recovery in accordance with the SDGs goals.

"The public and private sectors should leverage finance to significantly ramp up such investments to get the world back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and to address ever-increasing risks from climate change and environmental degradation that could jeopardize  1.2 billion jobs—equivalent to 40 percent of the global labor force."

"A human-centered recovery from the pandemic needs employment and social protection policies to work in tandem, not only to improve people’s living standards, but also to help them navigate the challenges of a rapidly changing world of work and the transition towards the goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050."

Guterres' remarks came during an assembly that was held this week to identify areas of complementarity and cooperation in the implementation of these resolutions in order to develop international best practices, codes, and standards to assist the Member States in their efforts to eliminate the poverty and combat employment. 

In a bid to achieve a job-rich recovery and a just transition to a sustainable and inclusive economy, the Secretary-General is calling for a Global Accelerator for Jobs and Social Protection that would create at least 400 million jobs and extend social protection to 4 billion women, men and children currently without coverage. 

The UN comprehensive study recommends several actions:

The first approach is to develop integrated national and inclusive recovery strategies for decent job creation, especially in the care and green sectors, universal social protection, and a just transition, and ensure they are aligned with macro-economic and fiscal policies and underpinned by sound data.

In addition, governments should expand investment in Social Protection Floors as a percentage of GDP in national budgets.

Further, they should increase design policy measures to extend social protection to workers in the informal economy and to foster the progressive formalization of enterprises and employment, including in the care economy.

Additionally, policymakers should create active labor market policies to help workers upskill and re-skill to keep or change their job, adapt to the green and digital transitions.

Moreover, all stakeholders need to develop a sound financial architecture to mobilize investments for decent jobs, social protection, and a just transition, including by channeling SDRs to support national recovery strategies to countries in need.

Also, public authorities should strengthen collaboration with the private sector to scale up investments in strategic sectors to promote entrepreneurship, effectively reaching women and women-owned enterprises, in particular, to close the skills gap

Ultimately, states and NGOs should align strategies with the Paris Climate Accords, so that they support enterprises and workers, while also ensuring that vulnerable populations are not left behind in the transition to net-zero carbon emissions economies.