Today, much of the world continues to recover from the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused extreme poverty to rise in 2020 for the first time in decades. Indeed, many families are still bearing the consequences of a continued cost of-living crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. In this context, it is expected that in 2024, there will be some 692 million people living in extreme poverty.  Moreover, onerous debt burdens continue to impede progress on tackling poverty in many developing countries. On average, low-income countries allocate more than twice as much funding to servicing net interest payments as they do to pay for health or education services.  Without a significant acceleration in poverty reduction efforts, fewer than three in 10 countries are expected to halve national poverty rates by the decade’s end.

This year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty asks to consider a neglected dimension of poverty: the social and institutional maltreatment faced by people living in poverty augmented by conflict and lack of peace. Whether experienced through negative attitudes, stigma, discrimination, or through the structural violence embedded in institutions, it represents a denial of fundamental human rights. From unequal access to education, healthcare, social protection, jobs, or legal identity, prejudicial policies that exclude those living in poverty further perpetuate cycles of inequality and exclusion. 

These challenges are often more pronounced in regions affected by conflict and instability, where the breakdown of institutions and the presence of conflict further entrench poverty and exclusion. The new, 2024 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) shows that some 455 million multidimensionally poor people live in countries experiencing conflict, fragility, or ‘low peacefulness’. On average, poverty rates are over three times higher in countries experiencing wars relative to countries not experiencing conflict. Such data is helping to drive support to where it is needed most. For instance, UNDP’s support in Afghanistan has allowed nearly 23 million people to access essential services like water, energy, and livelihoods since 2021 -- demonstrates how targeted interventions like investments in women-owned businesses can provide tangible pathways out of poverty.  

The Pact for the Future, the main outcome document of the Summit of the Future, articulates that “eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.” 

The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, proposed by Brazil’s G20 Presidency, is indicative of a growing collective will to accelerate efforts in this critical area and provide needed political momentum to set the world back on the path to zero hunger and the eradication of poverty. Today, as part of the UN family, UNDP joins the Global Alliance and stands ready to support the initiative’s operationalization. 

This year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty urges us to act collectively in promoting just, peaceful and inclusive societies, and core elements of Sustainable Development Goal 16. Social prejudices often give rise to institutional maltreatment, which, in turn, deepens discrimination, further marginalizing vulnerable groups, ethnic minorities, women, and those living in poverty. Breaking this vicious loop requires going beyond mere policy changes or challenging ingrained societal norms. It must involve a fundamental shift in how institutions connect with those they serve. That includes using the opportunity of the global digital transformation surge to embed respect, fairness, access to services and justice, opportunities and inclusion into the very fabric of every institution.

Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)