Poverty is a risk to the common person’s health and safety and must be treated as such. One of the first statistics taken of the risk of poverty was in 1820 determined the vast majority of the public lived in extreme poverty. In 1970 a high of 2.2 billion people were living in poverty and in 1981 The World Bank began collecting data on poverty. During this time, 44 percent of the world was living in extreme poverty. By 1990 The World Bank defined extreme poverty as people living on one dollar or less a day, around 36 percent of the world population was living in poverty, and nearly half the population in developing countries lived on less than one dollar and twenty five cents a day. Poverty and disasters like it have been destroying lives for billions of people for centuries and the longer it continues, the harder it will be to fix the issues it caused. Action has been taken, but the continuation of that action cannot go over looked.
Sweden is a supporter and leader in the 2030 Agenda and 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The 2030 Agenda, along with the support of human rights overall, seeks the end of poverty. Government organizations like Sida work to improve the standard of living of poorer people and eradicate poverty. The early 19th century was a turning point for Swedish economy and poverty was a widespread issue. To combat the mass amount of people leaving Sweden, policies were put in place to improve the quality of life for citizens. However, in the 1990s Sweden faced its worst economic crisis since the 1930s and unemployment levels increased drastically. This encouraged Sweden to lead the 2030 Agenda, which helps develop a sustainable welfare state and leaves no one behind in the effort to eradicate poverty.
Sweden plans to continue its internal efforts with its program Sida and the 2030 Agenda. By allowing poorer people equal opportunities, resources, basic services, property, natural resources, technology, and financial resources. Reducing the vulnerability of people exposed to climate-related, economic, and social disasters is also a goal of Sida and the Swedish Government. Sweden is also one of the countries leading the push for the 2030 Agenda and its global improvement. The UN is one of the organizations that Sweden does think has the right to intervene on behalf of the public when countries don’t do enough or anything at all to help citizens out of poverty. Sweden hopes the countries of Denmark and Finland will continue the views they have shared in the past and stand with Sweden in an effort to eradicate poverty.
- Madaline Gerring
