Extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals – Report Summary

Summary

The number of people living in extreme poverty decreased substantially in recent decades, but progress was uneven and had slowed. Now, the effects of COVID-19, climate change and conflict are undermining progress towards eliminating extreme poverty. Without corrective action, decades of progress could be undermined. Eliminating extreme poverty is vital for the security and prosperity of all. The ‘Leave no one behind’ pledge is vital to the UK’s standing as a leader in development, but it has apparently been shelved since the merger of DFID and the FCO. The UK must explicitly reaffirm its commitment to the Leave no one behind agenda and the SDGs.

Some sectors are vital to poverty reduction, but they are not being prioritised accordingly. The Government must build on its recent position papers on health security and ending preventable deaths, as well as the disability inclusion and rights strategy, and develop a coherent cross-departmental Global Health Strategy. Funding for health programmes, particularly the Global Fund and Gavi, should continue to be protected despite the Government’s planned strategic shift to bilateral funding. Programmes targeting girls’ education are important, but building schools and training teachers must be accompanied by targeted actions to break the barriers that stop girls attending school. Those actions include general and reproductive health, WASH access, and preventing exploitative child labour and early marriage. Education spending must focus on the most impactful programmes for poverty reduction, particularly early years and primary education, and those that are disability inclusive, recognising the additional barriers children with disabilities face. The FCDO should continue to champion social protection systems, which can support girls’ access to education and support long-term poverty reduction. It must focus spending on the regions that need it most, including sub-Saharan Africa and fragile states, and it must use the Multidimensional Poverty Index to target spending.

Climate change is a threat multiplier, because it exacerbates existing inequalities and amplifies risk and deprivation for the most vulnerable. The UK must maintain its leadership on grant-based climate finance to help countries adapt to climate change without provoking and exacerbating debt crises. The Government must reconsider how it classifies such spending, which should not be classified as ODA if it mitigates emissions for which low-income countries were not responsible.

Cutting the ODA budget has damaged the UK’s reputation as a development leader. The cuts were made with little reference to need or poverty impact, and they disproportionately impacted the most vulnerable groups. Further cuts are reported to be imminent as the UK spends more ODA in the UK. The Government said that it knows what works. If that is true, the most effective programmes in reducing poverty must be protected and those that do not have a measurable effect on poverty should not be classified as ODA.

Trade and investment are important for large-scale poverty reduction, but trickle-down development is, at best, unreliable. Trade and investment must be designed to reach the poorest, and development finance institutions must show that they are directing investment to the extremely poor. Trade policy must be predicated on creating inclusive, sustainable growth and supporting economic diversification to build resilience.

The opportunity and necessity exist to positively redefine the meaning of Global Britain by focusing on interventions that deliver proven, scalable progress and value for money for UK taxpayers. Reprioritising ending extreme poverty, in terms of recognition and resourcing, is not only the right thing to do; it is the smart thing to do. The UK Government itself acknowledged ending extreme poverty, through the graduation approach, as a ‘best buy’ approach to development. Returning to the position of leadership on the extreme poverty agenda would not only be vitally important in terms of signalling but also an easy, effective, and universally well-received way for the UK Government to reclaim, and build from, decades of hard-won reputation, expertise and impact internationally.