Lifting 100m Nigerians out of poverty by 2025 still achievable, says UN

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has said the economic programme of the federal government to lift 100 million Nigerians out of multifaceted poverty by 2025 is still possible.

This was stated in the UN Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released on Monday to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty celebrated annually on October 17.

According to the UN, the MPI was jointly examined by the UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford.

The study revealed that notwithstanding the recession in Nigeria, poverty can be reduced, while innovative approaches to measuring the problems will enable the government to identify the appropriate support.

The report measured poverty through its indicators; starting from access to education and health, to living standards such as housing, drinking water, sanitation and electricity.

It also established that more than half of people living in poverty lack both electricity and clean cooking fuel, while a third don’t have access to nutrition, cooking fuel, sanitation and housing at the same time.

A slum in Nigeria is one of the poverty-stricken areas

It continued to affirm that 1.2 billion people in 111 developing countries were living in acute multidimensional poverty even before the COVID-19 pandemic and the current high cost of living.

While speaking on the findings, the head of UNDP, Achim Steiner, pointed out that analytics and cutting-edge statistics can help to detect areas where spending will be most impactful.

Steiner said the report revealed that “decarbonisation and expanding access to clean energies will advance climate action, and is also critical for nearly 600 million multidimensionally poor people who still lack access to electricity and clean cooking fuel.”

He further said the report will be “vital to inform UNDP’s efforts across the globe as we work with our partners from the United Nations and beyond to reach our bold objective of helping lift 100 million people out of multidimensional poverty by the year 2025.”

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres

The UNDP head said about 72 countries across the world had significantly reduced poverty rates before the pandemic but the recent concurring crisis had thwarted the efforts.

In his message to commemorate the Day, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, warned that the objective of eradicating poverty is being undermined, and “the world is moving backwards.”

Guterres declared that the COVID-19 pandemic set back more than four years of progress, and also cited widening inequality, the “gathering shadow” of a global recession, and the climate crisis as reasons for the faltering efforts.