Abstract: Governments are obliged under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to eradicate extreme poverty and to halve other forms of poverty by 2030.  However, there is little prospect that these objectives will be achieved.  The reasons for this failure are explored in this paper through the lens of human rights.

There is much confusion as to the meaning of poverty.  Four competing concepts of poverty are found in the SDGs: absolute and relative (income) poverty; capability poverty; and multidimensional poverty.  The result is divisive.  Lower income countries are prescribed more challenging goals, while higher income countries are free to choose less exacting targets.  The competing concepts can be reconciled, and a single measure of poverty should in future be used worldwide to capture the multiple dimensions that constrain basic freedoms.

Irrespective of the conceptualisation, poverty results from the unfair primary and secondary distribution of resources.  Shaped by the legacy of history, poverty is reproduced daily by market forces and the failure governments and international organisations adequately to alter the primary distribution of incomes.  The failure to rebalance trade in favour of developing countries and the weakness of SDG17 in ensuring international cooperation point to infringement of the global right to development adopted in 1986.

Poverty can only be adequately addressed through an effective international partnership that supports global governance to resolve the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development.  This requires reform of global institutions, including the eventual democratisation of the United Nations, which ensures that international organisations responsible for development and global trade no longer primarily serve the interests of developed countries.

Ahead of such reforms, which will be resisted by forces intent on the perpetuation of economic and political hegemony, and beyond the Global Development Initiative, it is imperative to implement basic social protection in the world’s poor countries.  Unfortunately, few leaders care about the rights and poverty of people living in other jurisdictions.

Keywords: poverty, Sustainable Development Goals, international governance, right to development, global partnership