Problems In The World That Can Be Solve By The United Nations

Poverty

The best pathway out of poverty is a well-paying job. To get back to prerecession employment levels, we must create 5.6 million new jobs. To kick start job growth, the federal government should invest in job-creation strategies such as rebuilding our infrastructure; developing renewal energy sources; renovating abandoned housing; and making other common-sense investments that create jobs, revitalize neighborhoods, and boost our national economy. We should also build on proven models of subsidized employment to help the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged workers re-enter the labor force.

The United States is the only developed country in the world without paid family and medical leave and paid sick days, making it very difficult for millions of American families to balance work and family without having to sacrifice needed income. Paid leave is an important anti-poverty policy, as having a child is one of the leading causes of economic hardship. The government should provide paid leave and paid sick days. The Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, or Family Act would provide paid leave protection to workers who need to take time off due to their own illness, the illness of a family member, or the birth of a child. The Healthy Families Act would enable workers to earn up to seven job-protected sick days per year.

Poverty Eradication Organized By United Nation

The 2030 Agenda acknowledges that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.

The first Sustainable Development Goal aims to “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”. Its seven associated targets aim, among others, to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty, and implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable

As recalled by the foreword of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals Report, at the Millennium Summit in September 2000, 189 countries unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration, pledging to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty”. This commitment was translated into an inspiring framework of eight goals and, then, into wide-ranging practical steps that have enabled people across the world to improve their lives and their future prospects. The MDGs helped to lift more than one billion people out of extreme poverty, to make inroads against hunger, to enable more girls to attend school than ever before and to protect our planet.

Nevertheless, in spite of all the remarkable gains, inequalities have persisted and progress has been uneven. Therefore, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its set of Sustainable Development Goals have been committed, as stated in the Declaration of the Agenda, “to build upon the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and seek to address their unfinished business”.

The theme of the 2017 High-Level Political Forum was ‘Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world”, and it included SDG 1 as one of the focus SDGs

From Agenda 21 to Future We Want

In ‘The Future We Want’, the outcome document of Rio+20, Member States emphasized the need to accord the highest priority to poverty eradication within the United Nations development agenda, addressing the root causes and challenges of poverty through integrated, coordinated and coherent strategies at all level.

In the context of the multi-year programme of work adopted by the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) after the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), poverty eradication appears as an ‘overriding issue’ on the agenda of the CSD each year.

Poverty eradication is addressed in Chapter II of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (2002), which stressed that eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, particularly for developing countries.

Priority actions on poverty eradication include:

• improving access to sustainable livelihoods, entrepreneurial opportunities and productive resources;
• providing universal access to basic social services;
• progressively developing social protection systems to support those who cannot support themselves;
• empowering people living in poverty and their organizations;
• addressing the disproportionate impact of poverty on women;
• working with interested donors and recipients to allocate increased shares of ODA to poverty eradication; and
• intensifying international cooperation for poverty eradication.

The General Assembly, in its 1997 Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 (paragraph 27) decided that poverty eradication should be an overriding theme of sustainable development for the coming years. It is one of the fundamental goals of the international community and of the entire United Nations system.

‘Combating poverty’ is the topic of Chapter 3 of Agenda 21. It is also in commitment 2 of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development.

Agenda 21 emphasized that poverty is a complex multidimensional problem with origins in both the national and international domains. No uniform solution can be found for global application. Rather, country-specific programmes to tackle poverty and international efforts supporting national efforts, as well as the parallel process of creating a supportive international environment, are crucial for a solution to this problem.

The years following the 1992 Rio Conference have witnessed an increase in the number of people living in absolute poverty, particularly in developing countries. The enormity and complexity of the poverty issue could endanger the social fabric, undermine economic development and the environment, and threaten political stability in many countries.

Inequality

· Enforce a Living Wage

Government should establish and enforce a national living wage, and corporations should also prioritize a living wage for their workers and with the suppliers, buyers, and others with whom they do business. Low and unlivable wages are a result of worker disempowerment and concentration of wealth at the top-hallmarks of unequal societies. As human being with basic needs, all workers should earn enough to support themselves and their families. Government and corporations should be responsible for protecting the right to a living wage, corporations should commit to responsible behavior that respects the dignity of all workers.

· Workers’ Right to Organize

The right of workers to organize has always been a cornerstone of more equal societies, and should be prioritized and protected wherever this basic right is violated. Extreme inequality requires the disempowerment of workers. Therefore, the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively for better pay and conditions is a global human rights priority. Despite Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which declares the right to organize as Fundamental Human Right Workers worldwide, including in the United States, still face intimidation, fear, and retribution for attempting to organize collectively. Where unions are strong, wages are higher and inequality is lower.

· New Economics

Economists are often imagined as stuffy academics who value arcane economic theory above humanitarian values. The field’s clinging to parsimonious theories gave us such winners as the Washington Consensus and a global financial system that imploded in 2008. Thankfully, there’s a movement among economics grad students and scholars to reimagine the discipline. As they acknowledge, we clearly need a new economics that works to improve the lives of everyone, not just those already well off. For instance, what could be more radical than a Buddhist economics? This is the path promoted by economist and Rhodes Scholar E.F. Schumacher, who says humanity needs an economics that creates wealth for all people, just not money for privileged people and corporations. Economics should take into account ethics and the environment, and threats its claims less like invariable truths.

As Inequality Grow, The Un Fights For A Fairer World

The beginning of 2019 saw a focus on the role of technology on the world of work, and the impact it is having on inequality. The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched a landmark report in January: The Global Commission on the Future of Work. This study concluded that technological innovations provide “countless opportunities” for workers, but warned that, if these technologies are not deployed as part of a human-centered agenda based on investing in people, work institutions and decent, sustainable employment, we run the risk of “sleepwalking into a world that widens existing inequalities and uncertainties.”

One of the key technological innovations mentioned in the report, one that garners significant media attention, is artificial intelligence (AI). A report from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), published at the tail-end of January, noted a “quantum leap” in AI-related patents, suggesting that AI could soon “revolutionize all areas of daily life beyond the tech world.”

AI inspires as much fear as excitement, evoking a dystopian world in which more and more work is carried out by machines, with society split between a tiny super-rich elite and the rest, an unemployable mass of people with no prospect of finding work.

Kriti Sharma doesn’t see things that way. She has been recognized by the UN as a Young Leader For Sustainable Development Goals, in recognition of her work to ensure that AI helps to create a better, fairer world, through her AI For Good organization, and her role in the Sage Future Makers Lab, which was set up to equip young people around the world with hands-on learning for entering a career in Artificial Intelligence.

Speaking to UN News, Ms. Sharma acknowledged that people who live in countries which are on the wrong side of the digital divide (with less access to data) will be at a disadvantage, and pointed to studies that show a gender divide is looming, with women twice as likely to lose their jobs to automation, because of the kind of work they are involved in: “We need to make sure that we give people enough opportunities to reskill themselves, otherwise we end up creating more inequality that we had before.”

However, she believes that one of the biggest risks is failing to embrace this technology, and not equipping people with the skills to use it to solve global problems. Ms. Sharma laid out three ways to help ensure that AI brings about a fairer world.

First of all, it is important that a diverse group of people from many backgrounds are creating this technology, people who “understand society, policy-makers.” The second point is to ensure that AI is being used to solve the “right problems,” such as accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals, by diverting energy, research and funding into this area. And, lastly, international standards must be agreed upon, to make sure that the technology we create is used in a way that is safe and ethical for the world.

So, what is the way out of the “entrenched imbalance” of inequality? For the UN, a greater emphasis on international cooperation is an important part of the solution. The 2019 World Economic Situation and Prospects report concludes that, at a global level, a “cooperative and long-term strategy for global policy” is the way towards progress in reducing income inequality, and warns that a “withdrawal from multilateralism will pose further setbacks for those already being left behind.”

As the Secretary-General told the audience in Davos, a coordinated and global response is the only way to fight inequality, because “we need to work together. There is no way we can do isolated responses to the problems we face, they are all interlinked.”

Water and Sanitation

UN-Water’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Synthesis Report 2018 on Water and Sanitation shows that countries are facing a range of water issues, such as increasing water scarcity, water related disasters, inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, and cross border water management. Water pollution is worsening, and water resource governance structures are weak and fragmented. Freshwater supplies are also under stress from agriculture, industry and population growth. Climate change is leading to more frequent and extreme weather events and causing greater levels of water pollution, water scarcity and flooding.

In short, the world is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 on clean water and sanitation.

The good news is that there is a growing consensus that the challenges can be met. Here is what we need to do:

· Understand The Interdependency of The Sustainable Development Goals

Achieving SDG 6 is essential for making progress on all other SDGs and vice versa. Sustainable management of water and sanitation underpins wider efforts to end poverty and advance sustainable development.

· Better Data and Monitoring

Less than half of UN Member States have comparable data available on progress towards SDG 6 targets. Additional and better data that use Earth observations, citizen science and private sector sources are required for national, regional and global monitoring of SDG 6.

· Adapt to Country Contexts

Governments must decide how to incorporate SDG 6 targets into national-planning processes, policies and strategies and set their own targets, taking into account local circumstances.

· Implement Integrated Water Resources Management

Integration across water and water-using sectors with intersectoral policymaking structures (across several ministries) and effective transboundary governance frameworks is essential to ensure that limited water resources are shared effectively among many competing demands.

· Finance water and sanitation through a new paradigm

The efficiency of existing financial resources and mobilizing additional and innovative forms of domestic and international finance must be increased.

· Use Smart Technologies

Smart technologies could improve all aspects of water resources and water, sanitation and hygiene management.

United Nation Targets On Solving Water And Sanitation Issue

· By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all

· By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations

· By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally

· By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity

· By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate

· By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes

· By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies

· Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management

Reference

1. Connie Loo, 21 May 2018, access on 12 August 2019 https://borgenproject.org/top-problems-in-the-world-that-can-be-solved/
2. David Kirvalidze, Business Insider US, 20 June 2019, access on 12 August 2019 https://www.businessinsider.my/united-nations-failing-needs-overhaul-opinion-2019-6/?r=US&IR=T
3. New York, 15 August 2018, access on 14 August 2019 https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/sustainable/achieving-sdg-6.html