October 12, 2015
We must break with stereotypes and involve everyone in the fight against poverty

SDG-Fund Director Paloma Duran talked about the opportunities of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development during the 'Poverty Awareness Week' in New York.

The director of the Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG-Fund), Paloma Duran, believes that poverty is a multidimensional problem whose solution therefore requires the involvement of all actors, from national governments and international organizations, to NGOs, universities, media, the private sector and civil society.

“The actors involved are not mutually exclusive. There are projects that an NGO cannot undertake, but the United Nations can; at the same time, there are places that the UN or national governments cannot reach, but NGOs can. We need to break with stereotypes and involve all actors in the fight against poverty,” Duran said during her speech at the ‘Poverty and Inequality in the Cities: Innovation and Action’ conference, held this past October 7 at Pace University, in New York. This event was part of the 'Poverty Awareness Campaign'.

Director Paloma Duran also spoke about the opportunities offered by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, recently adopted at the UN General Assembly in September. "We will not fix the world by tomorrow, but with the new Agenda we can aspire to a better world." In this regard, Duran stressed the positive trend in poverty reduction achieved in recent decades since the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in the year 2000. Today, roughly 12.7% of the world population (896 million) live on less than $1.90 a day, compared to 37% in 1990 (1.9 billion). Nevertheless, she considers these figures are still unacceptable.

The SDG Fund director stressed the importance of approaching small communities and working with local governments and entrepreneurs as the only way to succeed in the fight against poverty. Duran provided the positive example of a current project implemented by the Fund in Sierra Leone that promotes jobs and sustainable livelihoods in communities affected by Ebola.

The conference was moderated by Univision news anchor Maria Elena Salinas, and the panel included Juan Cristobal Beytia, President of the NGO TECHO; Christopher Vincent, Vice President of Habitat for Humanity International; and Joaquín Ramos, editor of multimedia platform Mundo Villa.

Poverty Awareness Campaign is a joint initiative of Univision, TECHO and Pace University, intended to raise awareness of poverty in Latin America involving the citizens of New York.

Poverty Awareness Campaign  es una iniciativa conjunta de Univisón, Techo y Pace University, cuya intención es sensibilizar sobre la pobreza en América Latina e involucrar a los ciudadanos de Nueva York.