The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can unite the world towards ending extreme poverty and discrimination, said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Ban on the International Day for Eradication of Poverty (October 16) and urged for global action to fully implement the newly-adopted goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.
“Ours can be the first generation to witness a world without extreme poverty, where all people – not only the powerful and the privileged – can participate and contribute equally, free of discrimination and want,” he said, the UN Information Center in Tehran reported.
The theme of this year’s day, ‘Building a sustainable future: Coming together to end poverty and discrimination,’ highlights the need to focus greater attention on the excluded and marginalized members of the human family, he said.
The target of halving extreme poverty in the world, set 15 years ago by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), has already been reached in 2015.
As such, Ban said that “spurred by the global mobilization behind the MDG, the world has made extraordinary progress in reducing extreme poverty. Over the past 25 years, more than one billion people have been lifted above the poverty threshold.”
However, more than 900 million people continue to live in extreme poverty, and many more are at risk. “It means combating overt discrimination against minorities, migrants and others – as well as the more insidious neglect of the disadvantaged, especially children. And it means ensuring access to the rule of law and protecting the human rights of all,” he added.
