Today is the 2022 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The day is commemorated across the globe annually on 17 October to highlight the issues of poverty, hunger, and violence.
It intends to find ways to mitigate and eradicate poverty and also seeks to give people living in poverty a chance to be heard. People belonging to all backgrounds, social origins, and beliefs gather every year on this day to show their solidarity with the poor.
The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is a wake-up call to the world. This year’s theme — ‘Dignity for all in practice’ — must be a rallying cry for urgent global action.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes that the sustainable fight against poverty needs to strengthen individuals’ capacities via education, science and support for a creative economy.
The dignity of the human being is not only a fundamental right in itself but constitutes the basis of all other fundamental rights.
With the commitment to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure all people everywhere enjoy peace and prosperity, the 2030 Agenda again gestured toward the same promise established under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Yet, the current reality shows that 1.3 billion people still live in multidimensional poverty with almost half of them children and youth.
UNESCO is putting its expertise at the service of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly Goal 1, which is “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”.
Inequalities of opportunities and income are sharply on the rise and, each year, the gap between the rich and poor gets even wider. In the past year, as millions struggle through the erosion of workers’ rights and job quality to make it to another day, corporate power and the wealth of the billionaire class have recorded an unprecedented rise.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this dynamic, exposing social protection system gaps and failures as well as structural inequalities and diverse forms of discrimination that deepen and perpetuate poverty.
In addition to this, the climate emergency constitutes new violence against people living in poverty, as these communities are unduly burdened by more frequent occurrences of natural disasters and environmental degradation, leading to the destruction of their homes, crops and livelihoods.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty and the 30th anniversary of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This Day honors the millions of people suffering from poverty and their daily courage and recognizes the essential global solidarity and shared responsibility we hold to eradicate poverty and combat all forms of discrimination.
