The international day for the eradication of poverty, commemorated last week, was a grim reminder that the UN will not achieve its highly ambitious target of helping eradicate extreme poverty — 'in all its forms' — by 2030, Inter Press Service (IPS) reported on Friday.

Source: Inter Press Service via Global Issues

UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters last week that the message to donors is the crucial importance of focusing aid on eliminating poverty as much as possible, IPS reported. 'It's a disgrace that so many people — really, hundreds of millions of people around the world — still face acute poverty. Because of that, and because there's still such a large gap in the needs that are to be addressed, it's unlikely that we're going to meet the targets by 2030,' Haq said, adding that Secretary-General António Guterres continues to push for determination — 'neither hopeful nor pessimistic, but determined'.

In 2026, an estimated 826 million people — yaani 82.6 crore people, or one in ten people worldwide — were living in extreme poverty, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals page states, defining extreme poverty as surviving on less than $3.00 per person per day. If current trends continue, 9% of the world's population will still live in extreme poverty by 2030, the UN says.

Source: United Nations — SDG Goal 1: No Poverty

Goal 1 is off track

Ending poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030 is Goal #1 of the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015. In 2025, 7.9% of the global workforce — 284 million workers — lived in extreme poverty, down from 11% in 2015, and about 3.8 billion people remain without any social protection, according to the SDG 2026 report cited by IPS.

Richard Ponzio of the Washington-based Stimson Center told IPS that progress in 2015-2030 has been slower than in the earlier Millennium Development Goal period for multiple reasons, 'including growing debt burdens, the COVID-19 pandemic, continued environmental degradation, and the drag on global economic growth stemming from tariffs and new major wars'. He said efforts should be redoubled ahead of next September's SDG Summit in New York, with eradication remaining central to an emerging post-2030 agenda.

Max Lawson, Oxfam International's head of inequality policy, told IPS extreme poverty can be ended by 2030 — 'but only if we radically reduce inequality', saying that for every new dollar of wealth created, the richest one percent pocket 41 cents and the entire bottom half of humanity gets just a single cent. That is Oxfam's position, presented by IPS as an interviewee's argument, not a UN finding.

826 millionpeople in extreme poverty in 2026 — yaani 82.6 crore, one in ten worldwide, living on less than $3.00 a day — UN
9%of the world's population will still live in extreme poverty in 2030 if current trends continue — UN
3.8 billionpeople remain completely uncovered by social protection, despite over half the world now receiving at least one benefit for the first time on record — SDG 2026 report via IPS

The SDG 2026 report cited by IPS says guaranteeing basic social security floors in low- and middle-income countries requires an additional $1.4 trillion annually — yaani $140,000 crore, or 1,40,000 crore dollars — equal to 3.3% of their combined GDP in 2024, and that development aid focused on poverty reduction has fallen sharply, erasing a decade of progress and returning to 2015 levels.

Guterres has described poverty as an 'insult' to human dignity, a denial of fundamental human rights, and an issue of social justice, IPS reported, and according to the Secretary-General eradicating poverty by 2030 requires urgent political will, massive investments, and a commitment to justice rather than charity.

What is solid

  • An estimated 826 million people live in extreme poverty in 2026, defined as less than $3.00 a day, and 9% of the world will still do so in 2030 on current trends — UN SDG Goal 1 page and SDG 2026 report
  • UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said it is unlikely the targets will be met by 2030, while Guterres pushes for determination — IPS reporting of Haq's remarks to reporters
  • Ending poverty everywhere by 2030 is SDG Goal #1, adopted in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda with 17 goals and 169 targets — UN / IPS

What is only claimed

  • Whether extreme poverty could still be ended by 2030 — Oxfam's Max Lawson told IPS it can, but only if inequality is radically reduced, an interviewee's argument; Anuradha Mittal of the Oakland Institute argued to IPS that solutions must focus on the causes of poverty and on wars, also an interviewee's position, not a UN finding