The ABCs of Sustainable Development Goals and Sudan’s situation II

By Dr. Hassan Humeida
Kiel, Germany

Sustainable Development Goal 1: No Poverty

According to the World Bank’s definition of poverty, people who earn less than $1.90 per day are considered extremely poor. This is based on the principles of the person’s purchasing power equation in the country in which he lives, compared to the average per capita income. In 2022, the World Bank raised the poverty line to $2.15 after adjusting wages in developed countries and some developing countries.

Unfortunately, many countries rich in raw materials remain in poverty even though they possess various resources and wealth that are not used for the economic advancement of these poor countries.

According to World Bank estimates, there are around 700 million people in the world suffering from extreme poverty.

Poverty in developed countries has causes that are different from those in developing countries. The causes of poverty in developed countries include unemployment for a long period of time, low level of education, and supervision of the upbringing of family members by only one parent.

In poor countries, the causes of poverty include bad governments, poor distribution of wealth, the unfairness of the global trade balance towards developing countries (production, needs, demand, covering needs and demand, production costs, price, profit for the first producer, state revenues …)

Other causes are poor administrative organization, dependence on others and inaction, lack of birth and family planning, underage and early marriage, lack of social solidarity among members of society, wars, colonial attachments, climate change, migration and displacement, deteriorating health and living conditions, and epidemic diseases and their effects.

Economists and social experts in the fields of poverty, its causes, effects and methods of treating it, note an increase in the rate of people suffering from poverty in the past three decades. This is not only true in poor countries, but also in major industrialized countries.

The number of poor people in these countries is estimated at about 300 million people, including 17% in Europe. The largest number of these people affected by poverty are in Eastern and Southern Europe.

A different kind of poverty is currently being observed, even in Western and Northern Europe. The largest number of poor people here are the elderly who have not had sufficient opportunity to work, and therefore do not enjoy a post-retirement pension that meets the requirements of life in countries where the cost of food, housing, travel and treatment is high. Poverty is also rampant in some immigrant communities who are known for their reluctance to learn the language of the host countries, and which is considered a key to job opportunities and practical professions.

This represents a disturbing concern for Western countries now and in the future, to secure the living and social requirements of members of these immigrant communities.

This requires that generations of these communities join to learn the local language and master practical professions, in order to keep pace with life in the host countries where per capita production represents the most important pillars of the liberal economy and the well-being of the citizen.

As per the United Nations statistics within the scope of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one billion people in the world have been freed from poverty since 1990.

It is expected that the total poverty rate in the world by the end 2030 will reach about 7% of the world’s population. Around 4.1 billion people in the world do not have social insurance, and a third of the world’s female population live in poverty.

In such a context, if we take the example of Sudan as a developing country, it undoubtedly enjoys many wealth and resources in the human, water, agricultural, animal and mineral areas. Unfortunately, this wealth is not used to advance the people of Sudan to whom it belongs in the first place.

These wealth and resources have become a primary obstacle that prevents the achievement of comfort and well-being of Sudanese citizens wherever they are. Instead of Sudan’s wealth and resources being a blessing to be praised, they have become a curse. An example of this is how shining gold, one of our country’s wealth, was used to finance the war and lose innocent lives. If our love for wars is endless, then we must ultimately ask ourselves the ominous questions: “Why? What for?”

Unfortunately, another war has come. Another civil war, with different warriors, that is leading to unimaginable consequences for Sudan and its economy and to more suffering for the people and the nation.

Such negative and dramatic developments have kept Sudan from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and its people from fulfilling their great dream of progress and prosperity in many fields.

Today, life in Sudan is completely disrupted by war. There are no production, export, import, or wages in ways that support the country and advance its citizens socially and economically. There is a complete paralysis in Sudan, a productive country that has become dependent on meeting the urgent basics of life on a terrible void.

Agriculture, grazing, manufacturing, and public work are disrupted due to the lack of security. People do not feel safe at home, at the workplace, and on the streets.

All this means billions of dollars are being wasted every day, which has also generated dependency on others (a primary cause of poverty for both sides) and hasty steps towards the social and economic backwardness of the citizens who have themselves become ignored as a workforce and wasted as human energy in the cruelest ways. This inevitably results in their psychological death at first, and then in physical death later.

This war is a major dilemma in dealing with the requirements of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and how to achieve them in Sudan and the rest of the African continent. The war stands as an obstacle to Sudan’s progress as a developing country, hinders the fight against poverty and delays development.

Such deplorable negative facts apply not only to Sudan, but also to poorer countries in the region that have long depended on Sudan’s wealth.

Driven by hopeless despair, lack of opportunities and grave concerns, many people are risking their lives to cross the seas illegally and in dangerous conditions to reach countries in the West and seek a chance to restart their lives away from abject poverty and security risks.

This migration always starts from villages to cities, and from cities to other countries. Migrants are often a productive group of people. Farmer migration is one of the most dangerous types of migration for developing countries. Farmers are, in the truest sense, the feeders of the nation and its economy.

The brain drain is another costly loss for developing nations that need its bright people to contribute and lead in development areas. Their loss leaves in their home countries immense gaps in multiple and rare specializations that cannot be filled easily, resulting in ominous moves towards the abyss of nationwide poverty.

A forced mass migration has already begun, the likes of which Sudan has never known in its long history as it is considered the largest within and away from the country.

After the internal migration reached its peak in Sudan, external migration to other neighboring, distant and poorer countries is today at an advanced stage.

This is what deepens global poverty and impedes the means of achieving Sustainable Development Goals in the African region where Sudan is located.

Sudan is a strategic country in many aspects, so we must pay attention to what can be done to achieve political stability through lasting peace in it as quickly as possible. Political stability in Sudan means its unity as a nation about the living conditions of its people.

It also means the role that Sudan as a balanced nation, rich with its wealth and resources, can play to halt and reduce the increase in poverty in neighboring countries and the sub-Saharan African region as a whole.

email: hassan_humeida@yahoo.de