GOAL 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

SDG Progress and Industry Notes

Progress

The 2018 Report of the Secretary-General on Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, notes that “[d]espite the fact that the global poverty rate has been halved since 2000, intensified efforts are required to boost the incomes, alleviate the suffering and build the resilience of those individuals still living in extreme poverty, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa. Social protection systems need to be expanded and risks need to be mitigated for disaster-prone countries, which also tend to be the most impoverished.”

The report also noted the incidence of disasters in 2017 on poverty: “[d]isasters have often hindered economic and social development and aggravated the depth and breadth of poverty. Despite efforts in improving measures for disaster risk reduction, in 2017, economic losses attributed to disasters were estimated at over $300 billion, among the highest losses in past years owning to three major hurricanes affecting the US and the Caribbean.”

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In 2017, the HLPF Thematic Review of SDG 1 noted that progress has been uneven from region to region:

“Poverty reduction has been deeply uneven between regions and countries. There has been an important shift in the global distribution of poverty from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and low-income countries (LICs) to middle-income countries (MICs)…By all measures, poverty today is predominantly rural. 80 percent of the extreme poor live in rural areas; 65 percent work in agriculture. Children are more likely to be poor than adults: around half of those living in extremely poor households are under the age of 18…Decent work remains one of the best routes to get out and stay out of poverty. Yet, the global economy has not managed to create a sufficient number of decent jobs to meet labour market demands.”

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Industry Notes

The Apparel and Textile Industry plays an important role in reducing poverty through economic development and job creation under SDG 8 (economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all), including health benefits (SDG 8), day care (SDG 5) and training (SDG 4 and SDG 12).  Poverty reduction links to many other goals, including hunger and sustainable agriculture (SDG 2) especially since a large percentage of people in extreme poverty work in agriculture.  With the rise of international conflicts – many related to climate change – and their impact on the poor, the Apparel and Textile industry can also play an important role in supporting more sustainable cotton cultivation practices and fluctuations in cotton commodity pricing (SDG 8). See also SDG 13 and 16 for additional references and voluntary national review of individual sourcing countries. 

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