A world free from poverty: how long are we prepared to wait?

CESR Newsletter, October 2012

As the world marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, two questions arise: how long are we willing to go on tolerating the violence and injustice of extreme poverty? And what can be done to bring about this elusive goal more swiftly?

Global pledges to eradicate poverty go back decades. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed the advent of a world in which all human beings would enjoy 'freedom from want'. Since then, numerous world conferences on human rights and development have set and re-set aspirational goals for the achievement of this vision. The Millennium Development Goals adopted at the turn of the century represent the most recent and arguably the most serious statement of commitment by the international community. The MDGs aim to halve the number of those living in extreme poverty by 2015, and set targets for combatting other poverty-related deprivations such as maternal mortality and child malnutrition.

Even if, as is likely, the poverty target is technically met, there is little grounds for complacency. More than a billion people will still be living on less than $1.25 a day, the vast majority in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. Much of the progress over the last 25 years is due to patterns of economic growth in two countries, China and India, that predate the MDG commitments. The global food, fuel and financial crises have fuelled poverty over the last decade, laying bare the structural inequities underlying our global economic system. Social and income inequalities, both within and between countries, have in many cases widened. A day of action to eradicate poverty is a meager response to the enormity of the challenge. On current rates of progress, even the 800 days between now and 2015 will not suffice to meet the eight less-than-ambitious Millennium Goals.

CESR, like many others engaged in the process to develop a successor framework to the MDGs beyond 2015, is pushing for a paradigm shift by the time this deadline is reached. Poverty must be understood as a deprivation of human rights, power and voice. Its eradication, as a matter of obligation falling on all states - whether developing, industrialized or emerging - and powerful actors beyond and below the state. The new framework must enable those living in poverty to hold decision-makers accountable to their obligations, including the duty to realize economic and social rights as swiftly as possible using the maximum resources that are available.  

The recently adopted Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, are a timely boost to these frame-shifting efforts. Adopted last month by the UN Human Rights Council, they provide detailed guidance on how to apply human rights standards in efforts to combat poverty. If revitalized in light of these principles, the Millennium vision of a world without poverty may stand a chance of being fulfilled within our lifetime. Wouldn???t this be something to celebrate at the UDHR???s 100th anniversary in 2048?

Ignacio Saiz

Executive Director