The United Nations has 17 sustainable development goals. Number one on the list is eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. The world will fall well short of that target according to the latest report from Save the Children and the Overseas Development Institute. It delivers a devastating verdict on global efforts to eradicate extreme poverty among children in Africa.
"On our projection, children in Africa will account for around 55 percent of all extreme poverty in the world by 2030.”The report authors say Africa's children are being left further and further behind and predict that 87 million African children will be born into poverty each year in the 2020s."On average, women are still having four to five children and it's the part of the world where poverty is coming down most slowly partly because of slow growth but also because of very high levels of inequality.”
An estimated 40 percent of Africans still live on less than one dollar 90 cents a day."A child born into poverty faces greater risks of illiteracy, greater risks of mortality before the age of five, then they're between two and three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday. They're far less likely to escape poverty themselves, which means that they will become the transmission mechanism for poverty to another generation.”The report criticizes African governments for failing to develop coherent policies and also warns that the IMF, the World Bank and other donors are failing in their response. More than 150 world leaders are due to attend the United Nations sustainable development summit later this month in New York and will aim to agree on an agenda for the next 15 years.
Dramatic changes in approach are urgently needed, says Watkins. "Transferring more monetary resources to children who are living in poverty has to be part of the solution, but we know also that money is not enough. It's critically important that these children get access to basic nutritional services, the basic health interventions and the school systems that they need to escape poverty.”
The report warns that if poverty reduction targets are not met, the world will also fall well short on other sustainable development goals in education, health and gender equalityHenry Ridgwell for VOA news London.