Poverty and social exclusion
Young people and inequalities in Italy, the social elevator is broken
9 October 2019
Personal mobility of the disabled, denied rights and blackouts in Rome
20 October 2019
'The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty'. The United Nations General Assembly, back in 1992, dedicated October 17 of each year to the eradication of poverty. (1) The first goal declared by the 193 countries joining the UN, on top of the 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) set in the 2030 Agenda. But the goal is far away and time is running out, in an epochal crisis of civilization and fundamental human rights.
Poverty indices and low estimates
In 2015 - the year of celebration of Expo Milano, dedicated to food, as well as the definition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the UN Agenda 2030 - over 736 million people lived on less than US $ 1,90 a day. A much larger share of the global population is however barred from accessing safe and nutritious food, water and sanitation, education.
The poverty index multidimensional (Multidimensional Poverty Index, MPI) was developed by the UN agency UNDP (United Nation Development Program) to measure poverty using some basic indicators. Which malnutrition and infant mortality. Access to drinking water and sanitation facilities, fuel for cooking food, electricity, tools based on modern life (eg bikes, radio or TV). Primary education by at least one family member. (2)
At least 1,3 billion of people, equal to 19% of the world population, are 'multi-dimensionally poor'. But the estimate is very approximate in default, as acknowledged by the UNDP agency itself, due to both the lack of reliable and up-to-date statistical data, and the spread of poverty outside poor countries, poor regions and poor families who try to photograph through the MPI index. (3)
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goal 1, No Poverty
Eradicate extreme poverty and world hunger was the first of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established on 8.9.00 by the General Assembly of the United Nations, in view of 2015. (4) Ma China was the only country on the planet to achieve this goal. Which has therefore been proposed again among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with hypothetical goal postponed to 2030. Not Poverty. Eradicating poverty in its all forms, everywhere.
'We Social Democrats are not against wealth but against poverty. Wealth, for us, is not a sin to be expiated, but a legitimate goal to be pursued. But wealth must also be a responsibility to be exercised. ' (Olof Palme 'Why am I a Social Democrat', 1982. The video on https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7i2Ws1X5DSA)
Inequalities instead they continue to grow - in spite of the only formal commitments of political leaders - towards abyssal distances. Between the countries with the most developed economies and those with low-middle income (LMIC, Low-Middle Income Countries) and within the same countries on both fronts.
Poverty and inequality, the condemned
Women are the first victims of planetary social injustice, under the banner of the cd gender gap. Everywhere - with very rare exceptions, in some Scandinavian countries and in socialist regimes - the female population is more exposed to the risk of poverty due to discrimination in education, salary levels, property.
'Acting together to empower children, their families and communities to end poverty'
Children in turn they seem condemned to remain trapped in the 'castes' to which their families belong. Even in theoretically democratic societies such as the Italian one (see previous article). On 20.11.19, among other things, we celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention for the rights of the child. (5) And the theme of the World Poverty Day 2019.
I Disabled then perhaps they deserve to be entered in the category of the 'last of the last'. All the more so when the physical, sensory or cognitive disadvantage affects women and children. It rains in the wet, it really should be said. To the point that the United Nations General Assembly has virtually dedicated all 17 to the disabled Sustainable Development Goals. (6) In an overall vision - the # envision2030 - which, however, still lacks any concrete implementation.
'If there is one who suffers I have a specific duty: to intervene in all ways with all the precautions that love suggests and that the law provides, so that suffering is either reduced or alleviated'(Giorgio La Pira)
Dario Dongo
Note
(1) See UN General Assembly resolution 22.12.92 n. 47/196. The English text on https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N93/191/46/IMG/N9319146.pdf?OpenElement
(2) Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), work in progress on https://indicators.report/indicators/i-3/
(3) See press release Achim Steiner, UNDP administrator, 17.10.19, https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/news-centre/speeches/2019/international-day-for-the-eradication-of-poverty-.html
(4) United Nations Millennium Declaration, resolution 8.9.00 A / 55 / L.2
(5) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN resolution 20.11.89 n. 44/25. The text in English at https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/convention-text. The stages that led to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and subsequent stages, are summarized by UNICEF at https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/history-child-rights
(5) UN, Envision Disabilities 2030. v. https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030.html
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
