SDG of the Month: Zero Poverty

In 2022, global extreme poverty rose for the first time in two decades due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is estimated that 711 million people live in extreme poverty worldwide due to poor quality of work, inadequate living standards and health conditions, access to education, disempowerment and threat of violence and environmental hazards.

There is not just one cause of poverty and therefore a multi-dimensional approach is required to solve it. From raising awareness of social inclusion to providing universal access to education and reducing inequalities, organizations are thinking differently about how to end poverty.

One essential way to ‘think differently’ about these issues is to look to impoverished and immigrant communities who are already thinking creatively to address the inequalities imposed on them.

Grassroots Finance Action (GFA) is a Nonprofit dedicated to facilitating the global exchange of locally developed financial solutions. Each week, people from every continent who are forming culturally compatible savings groups among the poorest of the economically active poor meet via Zoom to develop savings groups methodologies.

“I hope we can continue to exchange ideas on how to integrate the local ‘informal’ economy into the ‘formal’ economy, said Rob Scarlett, Impact Hub member and Senior Advisor to GFA. 

Want to learn more? Watch the recording of our Hub Club conversation on SDG 1.