Now is the time to act on ending extreme poverty — Global Citizen

“Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.”

These were the words Nelson Mandela shared in 2005 to kick off the Make Poverty History campaign. More than a decade and a half later, however, it is time to be honest with ourselves. The world is failing to live up to the aspirations Mandela had for us, and to truly be the generation to end extreme poverty.

If the last two years of the pandemic have shown us anything it is that not only is the world not willing to deliver on this objective, it’s also not willing to do what’s needed to protect the progress that had already been made. According to the World Bank, nearly 100-million more people live in extreme poverty today than before the pandemic. Within SA alone, one million more people were estimated to have been pushed into extreme poverty in 2020 with these figures set to continue to rise, on current trends, through to 2025 with no abatement in sight.

The world’s uneven and inequitable response to the Covid-19 pandemic was just an extension of the same neglect, broken promises and complacency that for years have characterised development efforts. While our leaders were gavelling into existence the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 much of the world allowed itself to be buoyed by a flawed story of progress: that we were on a seemingly inevitable march to a world without poverty.

But the harsh reality is that poverty was not declining for millions. In fact, again according to the World Bank, between 1990 and 2015, the number of people living under the poverty line in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East actually rose by some 140-million, while progress in SA stalled altogether before rising again.

Today, it’s not just the pandemic that has the world on the march towards even greater poverty. Ongoing conflict and war anywhere will push millions more into poverty and starvation with as many as 500-million people facing acute hunger as a result of the war in Ukraine alone. And climate change, unless reigned in, will push 132-million people into poverty over the coming decade. 

So how should the world respond? First and foremost, we need to put an end to the constant and long-standing downplaying of the problem by the ultra-wealthy, governments, economists and, yes, even advocates. The problem with long-term goals and targets like “2030” is they give our leaders enough wriggle room to postpone actions that are urgently needed now. That is why Global Citizen has launched a new, year-long campaign to call on world leaders to make the urgently needed commitments to End Extreme Poverty NOW, focusing on what we need to do here and now.

In a recently published paper supported by multiple governments across the African continent, the campaign calls for action to support smallholder farmers on the front lines of climate change; empower adolescent girls (a demographic with the largest untapped potential to improve their communities); and break systemic barriers hindering progress on ending poverty, particularly healthcare injustice and financial inequity.

The last point is particularly important given the huge discrepancy between the vast amounts wealthier nations spent stimulating their economies in response to the pandemic and how little developing countries could access to fund essential social protection, unemployment benefits and basic healthcare needs.

While corporations and financial institutions in North America and Europe benefited from access to record-low interest loans, much of Africa had to accept borrowing at unsustainably high rates with only a half-baked attempt by the world’s financial institutions to offer meaningful debt relief. That’s left, according to the International Monetary Fund, about “60% of low-income countries at high risk of, or already in, debt distress,” paying more to service their debt than at any other time in the past two decades.

The result is the outrageous fact that in the 21st century we have a situation where in many communities around the world people are forced to choose, literally, between poverty and death.

There are many tools that can begin to address this financial inequity, starting with governments committing to reallocate $100bn  of the IMF’s so-called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). Capable of being traded between countries, these SDRs are essentially emergency global stimulus financing that give countries more financial power to address immediate as well as long-term needs arising from the Covid-19 crisis. In a historic move in August 2021, the IMF issued $650bn  worth of reserve funds, but more than two-thirds ($442.8bn) went to the wealthiest nations. Countries in debt distress need urgent support that does not weigh them down further. SDRs should be that support.

That’s only the beginning. We need the world’s wealthiest governments to finally fulfil their decades-old international aid commitments. More broadly, we need fairer and more effective taxation globally that guarantees social protection for all as well as financing for addressing transnational challenges like pandemics and climate change that can dramatically increase poverty rates.

Such measures and more are entirely possible. But nothing will happen in the absence of each of us standing up, taking action and holding our leaders accountable. Providing avenues for citizens to exercise their voice will be a key feature of the End Extreme Poverty Now campaign. After all, progress, like justice, is never given; it is only ever won.

There is still time for us to become that great generation Mandela challenged us to be. The choice is ours to make, now.

About Global Citizen:

Global Citizen is the world’s largest movement of action takers and impact makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty NOW. It posts, tweets, messages, votes, signs, and calls to inspire those who can make things happen to act — government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists and citizens — together improving lives. By downloading its app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues, and earn rewards, which can be redeemed for tickets to concerts, events and experiences all over the world. For more information, visit www.globalcitizen.org and follow @GlblCtzn.

Mick Sheldrick is co-founder and chief policy, impact and government affairs officer at Global Citizen