Statement to UNGA 77 – Second Committee

Agenda item 21: Eradication of poverty and other development issues

Agenda item 23: Agriculture development, food security and nutrition

New York, 12 October 2022

Mr. Chair,

“Eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty,”[1] the overarching goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, remains the greatest challenge we face.

The true extent of this challenge becomes evident only when poverty is measured with comprehensive criteria that go beyond income and include non-monetary indicators of the many deprivations that millions of people face in their daily lives, such as lack of access to education, safe, nutritious and sufficient food, safe drinking water and sanitation, energy and electricity. Furthermore, concrete experience and data tell us that high levels of economic growth and widespread poverty can coexist, and that average per capita income growth remains insufficient to achieve sustainable poverty eradication.

Unfortunately, in Pope Francis words, “we must once more acknowledge new forms of poverty,” which we find “especially [in] children deprived of the serene present and a dignified future.”[2] In all its manifestations, poverty is an affront to the God-given dignity of millions of people, preventing them from flourishing.

Efforts to eradicate poverty should first recognize it as a complex reality, a combination of interconnected factors that manifests itself in all dimensions of human life. This calls for an integrated approach that combines monetary measures with comprehensive policies to address the non-monetary deprivations faced by millions of people at the educational, social, political, cultural and spiritual levels.

In this regard, education is an effective antidote to poverty. Ensuring access to quality education is essential to provide girls and boys, not only with the skills that will enable them to contribute to society and access the labour market, but also with the spiritual goods that help them grow and flourish as persons. This, in turn, enables them to become “dignified agents of their own destiny,”[3] who can develop their full potential.

Adequate social protection, in particular maternity and family benefits, has also proven to be highly effective in reducing poverty worldwide and in preventing people who are already in situations of economic vulnerability from falling into the poverty trap. Social policies aimed at a better income distribution depend on “an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality.”[4] This is possible only when we ensure that people have access to sustainable livelihoods to support themselves and their families. This is essential to achieve progress in the fight against poverty.

Hunger and malnutrition generate even greater poverty. The health consequences of inadequate food quantity and quality affect peoples’ ability to learn and work. The paradox is that while enough food is produced to feed everyone, hunger and starvation remain the daily reality for far too many. Beyond putting an end to food being discarded, wasted, or over-consumed, we need to ensure its sustainable production and fair distribution.

In short, a new mindset is required. We need to design and implement policies that place the human person at the centre and ensure equitable access to the basic goods, resources and opportunities that are essential to sustain life and promote the integral development and well-being of every person.

Mr. Chair,

Only through concrete measures that ensure “the inclusion of the excluded, the promotion of the least, and the common good,”[5] the hundreds of millions of people who are still deprived of the basic necessities of life, including food, medical care and education, can be lifted out of poverty and achieve integral human development.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[1] A/RES/70/1

[2] Message of Pope Francis for the 2023 World Day of the Poor, 19 November 2023, No. 7.

[3] Pope Francis, Address to the United Nations General Assembly, 25 September 2015.

[4] Pope Francis, Apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 204.

[5] Pope Francis, Remarks at the General Audience, 19 August 2020