The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the first of which is “no poverty”, namely: end poverty in all its forms everywhere. (Click here for details)

Under this major goal, there are seven targets, the forth of which is “By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance.”

●  Current Situation

About the World

Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Prosperity Benefits the Most Vulnerable Groups

Empowering vulnerable groups is critical to ending poverty and promoting prosperity for everyone everywhere. Due to age, socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity and geography, vulnerable groups tend to be excluded from access to good education, health care, electricity, safe water and other critical services. In 2016, for instance, 15 percent of young workers and their families lived in extreme poverty, compared to 9 percent of adult workers. Moreover, youth were nearly three times more likely than adults to be unemployed. In 2015, 85 percent of the urban population used safely managed drinking water services, compared to only 55 percent of the rural population. Exclusion extends to persons with disabilities as well. In 2016, only 28 percent of people with severe disabilities collected a disability pension.

The lack of sound disaggregated data for many of these vulnerable groups — including children, youth, persons with disabilities, people living with HIV, older persons, indigenous peoples, migrants, refugees and those internally displaced — exacerbates vulnerabilities by masking the extent of deprivation and disparities. What’s more, a lack of rigorous evidence and comprehensive data has long compromised the ability of governments and the international community to accurately document the discrimination faced by various groups. As a result, planning and budgeting for necessary services along with effective policymaking have suffered. Children living outside of family care, persons with disabilities and older persons, for example, have largely fallen off the statistical “map”. While innovative approaches for bringing these hidden populations into focus have begun to emerge, more resources and capacity-building efforts are needed to ensure that vulnerable groups receive their long-overdue place in the development agenda.

(www.alumniportal-deutschland.org)

About China

22 Central Financial Institutions Drive Nearly 100,000 People Out of Poverty

Since the beginning of 2019, 22 central financial institutions have directly invested 624.297 million yuan in targeted poverty alleviation work, introduced 392.7746 million yuan of aid funds, trained 37,325 grassroots cadres, trained 65,649 technicians, purchased 276.8491 million yuan of agricultural products in poverty-stricken areas, and helped sell 14.577261 billion yuan of agricultural products in poverty-stricken areas. They have introduced 176.331 million yuan of enterprise investment to areas in poverty, supported 579 leading enterprises and rural cooperatives in designated poverty-stricken counties, and lifted 95,413 poor people on record out of poverty. Up to now, the 22 financial institutions have over fulfilled the targeted tasks of their “annual responsibility statement”.

(www.sohu.com)

These 22 financial institutions will focus on the poverty alleviation in deeply poverty-stricken areas and trough developing industries in poverty-stricken areas to provide high-quality financial support for poverty alleviation; they will build targeted poverty alleviation by financial units into a development project to cultivate the core competitiveness of financial institutions, and realize the sustainable development of targeted poverty alleviation by financial institutions. They should adhere to the integration of points and spheres, the internal and external, as well as distance and proximity, so as to realize the sustainable development of the supporting mode, driving force and achievements. They will also build targeted poverty alleviation by financial institutions into a political project to optimize social governance at the grassroots level, focus on the construction of rural grassroots Party organizations and financial ecological environment, improve market awareness and risk awareness, and continue to promote the overall improvement of social governance in rural poverty-stricken area.

Test source: www.un.org, www.cnstock.com

●  Cases

About the World

Promoting Employment to Reduce Poverty

Work is the best way to reduce poverty – yet more than one billion people have no job or are underemployed. In the fight against rising unemployment, new approaches and policy ideas are needed, explains David Robalino, a labor market expert at the World Bank.

(www.alumniportal-deutschland.org)

We often think of a job as a source of income for workers. But jobs represent much more for society and individuals. Countries grow, for instance, when more people work, when each job in the economy becomes more productive, and when people move from low to higher productivity jobs. A good portion of the reduction in poverty that we have seen worldwide can be explained by an increase in the labor income of the poor, their main source of income. Jobs also contribute to the accumulation of human capital and promote social stability. A young person who is employed learns on the job, gains experience, makes other workers in the economy more productive and is less likely to engage in risky or criminal behavior. Women who work also tend to invest more in the human capital of their children. Ultimately, our jobs give us a sense of identity, affect our level of wellbeing and determine whether we feel self-fulfilled or alienated, whether we are likely to start or join a revolution.

Text source:www.alumniportal-deutschland.org

About China

Shenzhen’s First Consumption Poverty Alleviation Center Set to Open

Poverty alleviation through consumption is connected with areas of poverty, population of poverty and a vast consumer market. To carry out poverty alleviation by consumption, we can, through market, effectively break the barriers of “production, supply and marketing” of agricultural products in poverty-stricken areas, promote the transformation of products in poverty-stricken areas into commodities, help poor households increase production and income, build a long-term mechanism for stable poverty alleviation, and further create a good environment of a “big pattern” of poverty alleviation by everyone and a “large joint force” of poverty alleviation by society. Shenzhen needs to consume an average of 9,400 tons of fruits and vegetables, 6,190 tons of meat, eggs and aquatic products, and 5,480 tons of grains every day. Shenzhen’s large amount of food consumption, broad consumption market and great demand lay the foundation for the mode of consumption poverty alleviation to blossom and succeed in the city.

In fact, HiGreen Logistics Park of Shenzhen Agricultural Products Group Co., Ltd (SZAP). is an important platform for promotion of agricultural products from many old districts, special zones and counterpart cities, including Yan’an. At the launching ceremony of the national consumption poverty alleviation activities (Shenzhen stop) held in Shenzhen on September 20, 2019, SZAP was awarded the plaque of “Shenzhen Consumption Poverty Alleviation Center”. As the first national poverty alleviation project in Shenzhen, the center is located in HiGreen Logistics Park. SZAP strives to build the first “everlasting” city-level consumer poverty alleviation center that faces the national market and integrates the functions of agricultural products display and sales, consumption experience, etc. As the first consumption poverty alleviation center in Shenzhen, it is expected to open by the end of November, which will be another major measure of consumption poverty alleviation in Shenzhen.

Effect drawing of Shenzhen Consumption Poverty Alleviation Center (Source: www.sznews.com, provided by SZAP)

The construction area of Shenzhen Consumption Poverty Alleviation Center is 15,000 square meters, including 10,000 square meters in phase I and 5,000 square meters in phase II. The center has set up several functional areas, including exhibition and sales of agricultural products, releasing of support activities, interactive experience of agricultural products, and integration and releasing of big data.

Effect drawing of the exhibition area at Shenzhen Consumption Poverty Alleviation Center (Source: www.sznews.com, provided by SZAP)

In the future, the center will become the docking station for production and marketing of characteristic agricultural products between Shenzhen and the areas it aids through partner assistance. Citizens can purchase and consume poverty alleviation products at home, which will further enrich the “vegetable basket” of Shenzhen citizens and even the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Text source: www.sz.gov.cn

●  Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

On January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.