#1 – No Poverty

SDG 1 aims to eradicate every form of extreme poverty including the lack of food, clean drinking water, and sanitation. Achieving this goal includes finding solutions to new threats caused by climate change and conflict. The goal focuses not just on people living in poverty, but also on the services people rely on and social policy that either promotes or prevents poverty. Eradicating poverty is also key for the reduction of inequalities that currently exist among people and for the socio-economic and political stability of countries left behind.

According to the UN, more than 700 million people, or 10% of the world population, still live in extreme poverty today, struggling to fulfill the most basic needs like health, education, and access to water and sanitation, to name a few. Most people living on less than $1.90 a day live in sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, the poverty rate in rural areas is 17.2%—more than three times higher than in urban areas. For those who work, having a job does not guarantee a decent living. Almost 8% of employed workers and their families worldwide lived in extreme poverty in 2018.

Poverty is one of the most lingering issues our societies are facing today besides climate change.