SDG 1

With humanity becoming increasingly urban, trends indicate poverty is also becoming increasingly urban. Sustainable urbanization works towards SDG 1 by improving the lives of people in human settlements around the world while increasing prosperity.

Since 2015, global poverty reduction was already slowing down and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic reversed three decades of steady progress with the number of people living in extreme poverty increasing for the first time in a generation. Recovery from the pandemic has been slow and uneven as the world is presently facing multiple geopolitical, socioeconomic, and climatic risks. Given current trends, 575 million people (nearly 7% of the world’s population) will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030 compared to 800 million in 2015 (or 10.8%). Eradicating extreme poverty will be particularly difficult in sub-Saharan Africa and conflict-affected areas. Despite the expansion of social protection during COVID-19, over 4 billion people globally remain entirely unprotected. A surge in action and investment to enhance job opportunities and extend social services to the most excluded is crucial to delivering on the central commitment to ending poverty.

Shifting public resources towards essential services is one of the key policy interventions for reducing poverty and building a better social safety net. The 2021 data for 100 countries shows that the global average proportion of total government spending on essential services is approximately 53%, with an overall average of 62% for advanced economies and 44% for emerging market and developing economies.

Discover how UN-Habitat Lao PDR aligns with SDG 1 through various interventions on our website.