冈本视频 is a global academic hub for the Sustainable Development Goals, which form a key cross-cutting theme of its The Empowerment University strategic plan.
Our 2024 report on all 17 SDGs will show what work the university has been doing through research and engagement in helping to meet those targets and raising awareness of the progress towards the 2030 aims.
Our reports start with the United Nations’ verdict on progress from their 2024 report on SDG 1 No Poverty.
UN PROGRESS REPORT ON SDG 1 in 2024
Around 35% of the targets have shown moderate progress since 2015, and a further 65% have shown only marginal progress. None of the targets are presently on track to be achieved by 2030.
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shocks from 2020 to 2022 have hampered global efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. The global extreme poverty rate increased in 2020 for the first time in decades, setting back progress by three years. Since then, recovery has been uneven, with low-income countries lagging behind. By 2030, 590 million people may still live in extreme poverty if current trends persist.
冈本视频 NEWS ON SDG 1 in 2024
The issue of the cost-of-living crisis and how many communities face economic and psychological hardship is examined in a new report by experts, including two from 冈本视频.
The UK government offered a cost-of-living fund worth £26 billion to low-income, working-age, and disabled people. However, many communities still struggle to afford basic human necessities such as energy, food and travel.
Social enterprises have been addressing social and economic inequalities for decades. These organisations have been the solution to state provision failure, and the cost-of-living crisis is no exception.
A new Social Enterprise and Cost-of-Living Crisis project led by 冈本视频 experts explores how social enterprise founders and directors respond and adapt to the cost-of-living crisis.
The report Beyond Survival: How Black and Asian-Led Social Enterprises are Responding and Adapting to the UK Cost-of-Living Crisis focuses on the experiences of black and Asian social entrepreneurs who address inequalities that often affect their communities the most. It delves into their strategies for crisis survival.
The co-authored report by a series of experts, including 冈本视频’s Sally Kah and Olapeju Comfort Ogunmokun presents recommendations for social enterprise decision-makers, funding institutions, and government bodies to empower social enterprises to develop resources and capabilities fit for crisis response. The full report is available here:
冈本视频 RESEARCH ON SDG 1 in 2024
The impact of rural banks’ microfinance interventions on poverty reductions among the fishing communities in Ghana (Thywill Mawuli Gbekle)
Three decades after the global community welcomed the advent of microfinance as a tool for poverty eradication, people in both the urban and rural areas in developing economies still live in extreme poverty. A chunk of the population in rural Ghana still lives below the poverty line.
However, the findings of this study reveals that microfinance intervention has negative impacts on poverty reduction, empowerment and that the credit delivery model schemes have positive impacts on poverty reduction.
Therefore, it cannot be conclusive that microfinance services are pivotal for poverty reduction in the fishing communities in Ghana, unless microfinance providers such as the rural banks inculcate a proper empowerment and training activities coupled with group cohesiveness.
Local authority commissioning of employability support in Scotland and its impact on third-sector provision (Jonathan Payne, Peter Butler, Jonathan Rose)
This research examines the impact that the loss of European funding and the transition to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund is having on third-sector providers of employment support in Scotland in the context of the Scottish Government’s policy of No One Left Behind.
The key findings are as follows:
- Over 4 in 10 (44%) of survey respondents said that they had experienced a reduction in funding as a result of the ending of ESF and the transition to UKSPF which had not been made up by other sources of funding.
- Among those which have lost funding, 37% said the loss was ‘very significant’
- And 53% said it was ‘quite significant’.
SDG 1 No Poverty