End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Different faces of poverty
Poverty has various manifestations, including lack of income and insufficient resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods; hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; increased morbidity and mortality; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments; and social discrimination and exclusion. Poverty is also characterised by a lack of participation in decision making and in civil, social and cultural life.
Restrictions in opportunities – If an individual does not have access to basic services such as health care, education, the right of ownership over land and other forms of property, inheritance, and natural and financial resources, they will have a limited ability to escape from poverty.
Social exclusion – This refers to lack of participation by individuals or groups in society. Women or specific socio-ethnic communities, for example, may be excluded from the labour market and education, while others may be excluded from the political process. Analyses of different social groups based on gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geographical location, occupation and health status are therefore particularly important.
Other aspects of this target are the interrelations between economic growth and poverty, as well as wealth concentration
Economic growth and poverty – It is particularly worrying that during periods of high economic growth and global plenty, so many people remain consigned to a life of material deprivation, which may end in early death. Of particular concern is the fact that poverty is often associated with unalterable characteristics (such as race and ethnicity) and shocks (such as health pandemics and environmental catastrophes) that are beyond the control of those affected. Poverty reduction depends on the fast pace of economic growth. The East Asian experience, perhaps the most successful example of rapid poverty reduction in the modern era, confirms that countries with a more equal distribution of assets and income can grow faster than countries with a higher degree of inequality. Higher productivity among smallholders, significant human capital investments, economies of scale linked to larger domestic markets, and greater political stability are among the factors that may account for greater equality coinciding with faster growth. By contrast, Latin America has been described as caught in a vicious circle of persistent poverty, insecurity and unstable growth, due to the widespread tendency to underinvest in productive assets and social capital.
Wealth concentration – Poverty can also be reduced through economic policies developed by the governing authorities to facilitate a more equitable distribution of a nation's wealth. Oxfam has called for an international movement to end extreme wealth concentration as a significant step towards ameliorating global poverty. The group stated that the USD 240 billion added to the fortunes of the world's richest billionaires in 2012 was sufficient to end extreme poverty four times over.
