Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 1 Recap:

If you have been following #TheSDGVizProject, you have probably seen that the percentage of people living in extreme poverty has fallen dramatically, but the rate at which it is decreasing has slowed in recent years.  Roughly 10% of the World’s population still lives on less than $1.90 per day, or around $700 per year.  The U.N.’s goal is to reduce this percentage to under 3% by 2030 but current forecasts indicate it will be closer to 6% without a significant increase in commitment and action from people at all levels.

Submissions:

We were so excited to see so much participation from the community in the first month of this project.  Altogether, we had 17 incredible submissions!!!  We were also really happy to see so much engagement with each of these entries.  There was a lot of discussion, a lot of sharing, and a lot of great ideas from the community on ways to expand the project, get more people involved, and spread more awareness.  Please check out each of the entries in our new Viz Gallery or click on any of the thumbnails below to navigate to those vizzes on Tableau Public

Community Submissions:

Organizer Submissions:

What We Learned:

We learned so much about extreme poverty throughout the world through all of these amazing submissions, but here are a few of the biggest takeaways;

• Although the percentage of people living below the international poverty line has been steadily decreasing worldwide, there are several regions of the world, including highly developed areas like North America and Southern Europe, where the percentage is actually increasing.
• Over 700 million people live below the international poverty line, but an even greater number of people live without access to basic drinking water services
• One of the major challenges facing the U.N. in terms of fighting poverty is the lack of data available for individual countries.
• There are many factors that can contribute to extreme poverty and they can differ significantly from region to region.  Some of the biggest drivers include vulnerability to disease and natural disasters, social exclusion, ongoing violent conflicts, rapid population growth, mismanagement of land and resources, and lack of social protection and assistance services.
• Extreme poverty is cyclical.  Children living in extreme poverty are significantly more likely to experience extreme poverty as adults and have children living under the same conditions.

How We Are Contributing to End Poverty:

Vinodh is very active in his local community and contributes heavily towards fighting poverty in his hometown.  The youth association that he volunteers with helps fund education and small businesses for struggling families, provides food and blankets to the homeless, and volunteers with local orphanages.  He also also makes regular contributions to support @udhavisei.

In February, Jacqui and Brian began sponsoring two children through savethechildren.org to provide funding for education, nutrition, and health services, as well as moral support and encouragement.  They are sponsoring an 11 year girl from Ethiopia named Tirhas and a 9 year boy from Mozambique named Samuel.  They have also signed up as volunteers for the “ONE” Campaign.

Ways That You Can Contribute to Ending Poverty:

There are many ways that our community can contribute to the fight against Poverty, many of which can be done from home.  Please join us by volunteering to do one or more of the following activities;

• Sponsor a child.  savethechildren.org is a great organization to do this through, with over 87% of donated funds going to providing services.
• You can also support impoverished children in other ways. ChildRightsAndYou is a great organization to support children in India
• Clean out your pantry and donate your non-perishable goods to a local food bank
• Volunteer in a local homeless shelter, food pantry, soup kitchen, or other organization that helps those in your local community struggling with poverty
• Join a campaign dedicated to fighting poverty.  Check out the ONE Campaign
• Donate to a charity.  There are hundreds of charities working to end poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, the area struggling the most with extreme poverty.  Find a charity here
• Buy products from stores that donate a portion of their profits to charity
• Volunteer to teach a skill or short course at a local community center
• Generate conversations about poverty to get more people involved.  Write and share on social media and in local publications
• Donate what you don’t need to local organizations to use directly, or to national organizations that will sell your donations and use the profits to fight poverty
• Give what you can, like food, water, and spare change to those asking for help

Please let us know how you’re contributing to the fight against poverty!