Poverty and the World Order

Walker Robert

Description

Robert Walker provides a critical examination of the promise and reality of SDG1, the United Nations’ Social Development Goal designed, among other things, to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. The author’s message is stark: there is little chance of success. Although the need for a collective and coordinated response is clear, global and national systems of governance are currently incapable of an adequate response.

While the critique is formidable, the book seeks to identify reforms necessary to meaningfully increase the likelihood of meeting SDG1’s goals. These include reshaping international institutions so that they give greater voice to governments in the developing world, facilitating enhanced modes of participatory governance, and increasing democratic accountability at a global level. Evidence is drawn throughout from a systematic review of international best practice supplemented by more detailed strategic case-studies, including from China.

1. SDG1 and the nature of poverty

2. Progress to 2015

3. The origins of SDG1

4. Progress since 2015

5. The impact of Covid-19

6. Tackling the root causes of poverty

7. Global governance and its limitations

8. Relying on we the people

9. Towards a moral world order

10. A postscript

Sujets

• Human Geography
• Sustainable Development
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Homelessness
• Geography
• Sustainability
• Development studies
• General officer
• Poverty
• Development
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Agenda Publishing
• Date de parution: 11 mai 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781788215572
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

POVERTY AND THE WORLD ORDER
Sustainability Matters
This series provides accessible introductions to the many facets of sustainability and sustainable development. Each book explores a specific topic – for example, poverty, gender equality, water security, peace and justice – to consider the possibilities and challenges to achieving a sustainable future for all. The authors bring incisive analysis and theoretically robust thinking to the complex and interrelated issues.
Published

Poverty and the World Order: The Mirage of SDG1
Robert Walker
POVERTY AND THE WORLD ORDER
The Mirage of SDG1
ROBERT WALKER
For my colleagues, kin, friends and everyone else.
© Robert Walker 2023
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2023 by Agenda Publishing
Agenda Publishing Limited
The Core
Bath Lane
Newcastle Helix
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE4 5TF
www.agendapub.com
ISBN 978-1-78821-554-1 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-78821-555-8 (paperback)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Typeset by Newgen Publishing UK
Printed and bound in the UK by TJ Books
Contents
List of figures, tables and case studies
1. SDG1 and the nature of poverty
2. Progress to 2015
3. The origins of SDG1
4. Progress since 2015
5. The impact of Covid-19
6. Tackling the root causes of poverty
7. Global governance and its limitations
8. Relying on “we the people”
9. Towards a moral world order
10. A postscript
Glossary
References
Index
List of figures, tables and case studies
Figures
1.1 The Sustainable Development Goals
CS1 Dimensions of poverty
2.1 Progress towards MDG targets, 1990–2015
2.2 Progress towards MDG poverty and hunger targets, 1990–2015
2.3 MDG Target 1.A disadvantages poorer countries
2.4 Regional progress towards MDG poverty targets, 1990–2015
2.5 Modelling the impact of the MDGs: MDG1, Indicator 1.1
2.6 Factors associated with MDG1 poverty reduction, 2001–15
2.7 Taking account of population size in MDG1 poverty reduction, 2001–15
CS2 China’s poverty eradication strategy
4.1 Poverty in the European Union, 2010–20
4.2 The cost of halving relative poverty (defined as 60% median disposable income) in European OECD countries
4.3 The cost of halving relative poverty (defined as 60% median disposable income) in European Union countries
4.4 The cost of halving relative poverty and the poverty gap (defined as 60% median disposable income) in selected OECD countries
4.5 The cost of ending extreme poverty (defined as income less than US$1.90/day)
4.6 Coverage of social protection, 2020
4.7 Cost of providing minimum social protection (children, maternity, disability, old age), 2019
4.8 Change in the coverage of social protection, 2016–20
CS4 Canada’s 2018 strategy
5.1 Change in between country income inequality, global, 1988–2021
5.2 Change in UK earnings by income decile
5.3 Percentage of income loss by global income quintile due to Covid-19
5.4 Median employment income vs median disposable income in the EU, 2020 (% change compared with 2019, income by quintile)
5.5 Changes in the “at risk of poverty rate”, 2019–20
5.6 Statistically significant changes in the at risk of poverty rate 2019–20 according to age (mid-point estimates)
5.7 Impact of compensation on employment income, 2019–20
5.8 Updated history of the Covid-19 pandemic
CS5 Long-term impact of Covid-19 on global poverty
6.1a Average per capita incomes, 1950–2020
6.1b Average per capita incomes, developing world, 1950–2020
6.2 Income shared of the richest 10 per cent, 1950–2020
6.3 Income transfers, 1950–2020
6.4 A welfare state model of global partnership
6.5 Cost of a Global Citizen’s Income
CS6 Britain’s 2022 ODA strategy
7.1 National cost of implementing a social protection floor (as a percentage of GDP)
CS7 Relative economic power of the G7, G20 and G77
8.1 Google hits for the topic of “Sustainable Development Goals”, November 2013 to November 2021
8.2 Charitable giving, 2009–20
8.3 Charitable giving, 2020
8.4 Poverty rates and reduction; OECD countries in 2018
8.5 Relative poverty and government intervention, 2018
8.6 Public support for spending on minimum income benefits in 2020
8.7 Democracy and economic indicators, developing countries
8.8 Government spending on overseas development assistance, 2020
CS8.1 Covid-19 vaccine doses donated to COVAX (29 November 2021)
CS8.2 Vaccination rates against Covid-19, 2022
9.1 SDG1 targets: allocating responsibility
9.2 Cost of the Global Social Protection Fund, 2020–30
9.3 Cost of providing a social protection floor
9.4 National cost of implementing a social protection floor
CS9 Olivier De Schutter advocating a Global Fund for Social Protection
10.1 Predicted per capita income, 2022–23
CS10 Incidence of different forms of poverty 2021 (or nearest year)
Tables
1.1 Targets associated with Sustainable Development Goal 1
2.1 The Millennium Development Goals
3.1 Evolution of the Sustainable Development Goals
3.2 SDG1: Substantive indicators
4.1 The cost of ending US$1.90/day poverty in low-income countries (Target 1.1)
4.2 The cost of ending US$5.50/day poverty in middle-income countries (Target 1.2)
5.1 Regional and income group estimates of poverty increases due to Covid-19 (nowcasts for 2021)
6.1 Global corporate control in 2016: rank order on indices of power
6.2 Estimates of revenue from global taxes
7.1 Goal 17 – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development
Case studies
CS 1 On the nature of poverty
CS 2 On China’s achievements
CS 3 Africa fighting back against the MDGs
CS 4 Canada’s response to SDG1
CS 5 Covid-19: 1 in 386 million
CS 6 ODA as national self interest
CS 7 All the Gs
CS 8 Vaccinating against Covid-19
CS 9 Low income and a Global Fund for Social Protection
CS 10 Income poverty and the MPI, 2021
1
SDG1 and the nature of poverty
Only a special kind of person would pick up and start reading a book on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Few people have ever heard of the goals and even fewer know much about them (Hudson et al. 2020 ; Tedeneke 2019 ).
This immediately points to a major challenge. The SDGs were launched as part of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, accompanied by an official video entitled “ We the People ”. There are 17 goals of which the first, No Poverty, is the focus of this volume ( Figure 1.1 ).
The agenda and video offered “a globally shared development program, involving the whole population in a common mission aimed to put an end to any form of poverty, to fight against inequalities and to face climate change” (Smaniotto et al. 2020 : 2). The 2030 Agenda is approaching its halfway stage but, seemingly, without many of us – “we the people” – being aware of the need for our involvement.

Figure 1.1 The Sustainable Development Goals
The goals and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030 truly do present a “supremely ambitious and transformational vision”, one that is relevant and should be important to everyone. They aim:

to end poverty and hunger everywhere; to combat inequalities within and among countries; to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies; to protect human rights and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources; … to create conditions for sustainable, inclusive and sustained economic growth, shared prosperity and decent work for all, taking into account different levels of national development and capacities.
(UN 2015a : para. 3)
Unlike the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that the SDGs replaced, they are “universal goals and targets which involve the entire world, developed and developing countries alike. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development [economic, social, and environmental]” (UN 2015a : para. 4). Even so, each country is required to assume “primary responsibility for its own economic and social development” and each government must set “its own national targets guided by the global level of ambition but taking into account national circumstances” (UN 2015a : para. 55).
However, the scale of ambition requires:

a revitalized Global Partnership to ensure its implementation … This Partnership will work in a spirit of global solidarity, in particular solidarity with the poorest and with people in vulnerable situations. It will facilitate an intensive global engagement in support of implementation of all the Goals and targets, bringing together Governments, the private sector, civil society, the United Nations system and other actors and mobilizing all available resources. […] Public finance, both domestic and international, will play a vital role in providing essential services and public goods and in catalysing other sources of finance.
(UN 2015a : paras 39, 41)
There is also a role foreseen for “the diverse private sector, ranging from micro-enterprises to cooperatives to multinationals, and that of civil society organizations and philanthropic organizations in the implementation of the new Agenda” (UN 2015a : para. 41).
The 2030 Agenda, therefore, envisages a global partnership involving governments, business and the world’s people both as individuals and as civil society. Members of the public surveyed in 2021 in 28 countries placed either zero hunger or no poverty as their top priority goal (Broom 2021 ). This is quite congruent with rank ordering of the SDGs with poverty first and hunger second. However, even before the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the world was “off-track” to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030 and food insecurity was increasing (UN 2020a ). Mo