Ending Extreme Poverty: A Challenging Journey From MDGs to SDGs on December 15-18, 2022 in New York, United States

“The world has seen many crises over the past 30 years, including the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-09. Each has hit human development hard but, overall, development gains accrued globally year-on-year. COVID-19, with its triple hit to health, education, and income, may change this trend.”

- UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner

The pandemic presents both an enormous challenge and tremendous opportunities for reaching the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs are a roadmap for humanity. They encompass almost every aspect of human and planetary wellbeing and, if met, will provide a stable and prosperous life for every person and ensure the health of the planet.

This year they have received a grievous blow—one that will be far reaching for years to come.

But the pandemic also shows us the wisdom of what is already inherent in the SDGs; the challenges we face cannot be dealt with in isolation.

Our socio-economic assessments, based on findings from more than 70 countries and five regional reports, show that while most developing countries are in the early stages of the pandemic, they are already dealing with its negative effects.

The continual Socio-Global problem of Climate Change and extreme poverty not only in the developing world but in the developed country like USA, has led many to question the efficacy and efficiency of International Agencies, Governments, national and local nonprofits on socioeconomic growth and development as a means of extreme poverty alleviation. Indeed, the lack of convergence in standards of living across the globe is one of the great unresolved issues in development and growth of economics. On the other hand, global economy face significant environmental challenges, from averting dangerous climate change to halting bio-diversity loss and protecting global ecosystems.

In the post pandemic era our conference would like to address the following issues:

No hunger

The number of undernourished people has dropped by almost half in the past two decades. Central and East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have all made huge progress. Still, as of 2017 there were 821 million people chronically undernourished.

COVID-19 has exposed weaknesses in global food supply chains. And it has pushed fragile countries, such as Yemen, where, despite humanitarian assistance, 15.9 million wakes up hungry every day, push millions more into further distress.

No poverty

Rapid economic progress in India and China has lifted millions out of poverty, but as of 2015, about 736 million people still lived on less than US$1.90 a day. Now, Oxfam estimates that the crisis could push half a billion people back into poverty.

SDG 1 is the bedrock of the goals. The crisis has made this goal more challenging, but also presents an opportunity to completely revolutionize development.

Decent work

About 1.6 billion people work in the informal economy—that’s about half the global workforce. The International Labour Organization reports that they are in immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed. The ILO reports that more than one in six young people have lost their jobs since the pandemic began and those that are still at work have seen their hours reduced. As the leader on COVID-19’s socio-economic response, UNDP will be working with private and public partners to encourage integrated growth that truly leaves nobody behind.

Quality education

UNESCO estimates about 1.25 billion students are affected by lockdowns. UNDP estimates 86 percent of primary school children in developing countries are not being educated. The pandemic has re-emphasized the ‘digital divide’ and the right to internet access, particularly for those in rural areas. ICEEP estimates that closing the digital divide would reduce by more than two-thirds the number of children not learning because of school closures.

There has been debate over whether it is possible to achieve continuous economic growth whilst also tackling these challenges. In the UN climate Summit 2012 and 2015 Sustainable Development Goals Summit, the largest ever climate meeting, global leaders clearly demonstrate that economic growth and environmental performance must go hand in hand to protect mankind. It is very clear that climate is back on the global agenda more effectively again after many decades. Apart from that the world passes clear that climate is back on the global agenda again after many decades. Apart from that the world passes so many important momentums. World's super power is shifting to China from the USA and this may be a beginning of new economizer.

The year 2015 was becoming an important year as the entire world had shifted from MDGs to SDGs. Hence it will be important to look at the entire scenario and evaluate how far all of these changes is going to impact extreme poverty after 2015, if all the countries are interested to create a world with "no poverty" and minimum environmental damage, after 2015 the entire world may become livable to everyone.