I.

Introduction

A. Definition

The problem of poverty is one of the latent problems in the life of human society.Poverty

is a fact of social life that describes the human condition that is not in accordance with the

dignity of humanity.Therefore, both individually and in groups, humans are always in the

form of tackling, eradicating and reducing the amount of poverty in their communities.1

The goal of SDGs number 1 is to eradicate poverty

in all it’s forms remains one of the greatest challenges

facing humanity. The number of people living in

extreme poverty dropped by more than half between

1990 and 2015, so there are many people who still

struggling to meet the mostbasic human needs.2 SDGs

categorized people who live in poverty is when people

are still living in less than 1.25 USD or around 18.000 IDR a day, and more than 800 million

people are still living in poverty.

The problem that facing by peoples are lack or limited of employment, and inequality

between population in a country with the number of jobs. It can make many people be un-

employed, the opportunities to get job is difficult because inadequate of employment. In other

hand, people also should have knowledge or expertise in doing work, therefore besides

increasing employment the government should improve human resources first in order to be

able to get workers who can work well. If the poverty still left because people are

1
FalakhiBoanerges, “MerajalelanyaKemiskinan di Indonesia”, retrieved from
https://www.payungmerah.com/merajalelanya-kemiskinan-di-indonesia/, on April 13th 2019.
2
United Nations Development Programme, “No Poverty”, retrieved from
https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-1-no-poverty.html on
April 13th 2019.

1
unemployed, there will be arise many lack of access to food, lack of clean water and

sanitation that will be make new problem for healthy.

Countless efforts have been carried out to reduce the level of poverty, but in fact the

phenomenon of poverty still exists in human life and as if it will never disappear from human

life. The problem of poverty is not merely a matter of statistics or numbers, but a real

problem regarding the difficulty of living conditions of the people, the problem of life and

death for some disadvantaged people.

B. Targets

The targets of the Sustainable Development Goals number 1 mostly talks about the

expectation and hope of United Nations in order to makes the world gained prosperity. Not

only planning, but UN also realize it by making some programs to achieve the targets. Below

are the targets that UN wants to achieve:3

 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as

people living on less than $1.25 a day.

 By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all

ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.

 Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all,

including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the

vulnerable.

 By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable,

have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services,

3
United Nations, “SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 1”, retrieved from
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg1 on April 13th 2019.

2
 ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural

resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance.

 By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce

their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other

economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.

 Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including

through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and

predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to

implement programs and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions.

 Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels,

based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated

investment in poverty eradication actions.

C. Indicators

The indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals are made by following the targets

of SDGs. From 232 indicators that made by UN and has been reached the general agreement,

there are 11 indicators for succeed the targets of the goals number 1. the indicators are:4

 Proportion of population below the international poverty line, by sex, age,

employment status and geographical location (urban/rural).

 Proportion of population living below the national poverty line, by sex and age.

 Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its

dimensions according to national definitions.

4
United Nations, “SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS”, retrieved from
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg1 on April 13th 2019.

3
  Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex,

distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities,

pregnant women, newborns, work-injury victims and the poor and the vulnerable.

 Proportion of population living in households with access to basic services.

 Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, with legally

recognized documentation and who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and

by type of tenure.

 Number of deaths, missing persons and persons affected by disaster per 100,000

people.

 Direct disaster economic loss in relation to global gross domestic product (GDP).

 Number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies.

 Proportion of resources allocated by the government directly to poverty reduction

programs.

 Proportion of total government spending on essential services (education, health and

social protection).

D. Case Study

Bangladesh is a country located in the South

Asian region, based on data from the World Bank,

Bangladesh is one of the regions in the world that

has quite serious structural poverty problems in

addition to the South America and Africa. Structural

poverty is poverty which occurs due to several factors, such as government policies,

geographical conditions and so on. The political situation and performance of the

Bangladeshi government that is not optimal is also the next factor of poverty in Bangladesh.

4
Its characteristics include almost 50% of the population is below the poverty line and there

are differences in infrastructure development in various regions.5 Since independence in

1971, Bangladesh has always been in the problem of poverty.To overcome poverty cases, the

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) was formed to eradicate poverty through a

focus on human development and specifically for developing countries that are below the

poverty line, one of which is Bangladesh. Data from UNDP also revealed that in 2013, as

many as 49.46% of the total 156 million population of Bangladesh is below the poverty line.

Extreme poverty has been a serious problem in Bangladesh. This is especially so for

households headed by widowed, divorced, or abandoned women. Women are often employed

in low productivity jobs. The labor force participation of rural women in only 36.4%

compared to 83.3% of men.6

As an independent actor, UNDP is required not to be influenced by parties outside the

organization in making and making decisions, especially those related to poverty alleviation

in Bangladesh, such as aid decisions, decisions to send volunteers, and others. The role

carried out by UNDP starts from how to reduce poverty, create jobs, improve the quality of

human resources and others.

United Nation’s role on this case is make a program by Sustainable Development Goals

and its targets to succeed. The program that made by UN to reduce the poverty in Bangladesh

is Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities or know as SWAPNO.

The other way to solve the problem in Bangladesh, the government bolstering economic

grows to reduce poverty in Bangladesh. After this policy applied, Bangladesh has experience

5
Charles Zastrow, and Karen Kay. Kirst-Ashman, “Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment”,
Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1990. page.433-441.
6
Sustainable Development Goals Fund, “Goal 1: No Poverty”, retrieved from www.sdgfund.org/goal-1-no-
povertyon April 12nd2019.

5
significant poverty reduction and profound social transformation with the widespread entry of

girls into the education system and women into the labor force.

II. Result and Discussion

A. Why “No Poverty” becomes IR issue?

Poverty is still a burden on the world that must be resolved until the end of the 20th

century, the world responded and agreed on a meeting attended by 189 member states of the

United Nations by issuing a declaration known as The Millennium Development Goals or

abbreviated as MDGs to overcome the problem of poverty that will never be lost in this

world.7 One of the targets is to reduce up to 50% of the number of poor people in 2015. This

declaration indicates that the problem of poverty is still a major problem in the world that

must be addressed together. The target of the MDGs is the achievement of people's welfare

and community development and one of the targets is to overcome poverty. With this target,

the MDGs have succeeded in reducing nearly half of the world's poor. Thus, the Sustainable

Development Goals or those that can be abbreviated as the SDGs are also initiated to

continue and strengthen the achievements of the previous MDGs to be sustainable and

continue onward.

Poverty is a matter of humanity. The existence of poverty has the consequence of moral

responsibility for everyone to pay attention to the lives of people living in poverty. Poverty is

also a violation of Human Rights because every human being has the right to have a

prosperous life. To be said to be an issue of International Relations, a matter must raise

questions, problems, dilemmas, and also challenges in handling them.8 To overcome poverty,

clearly causes these things. The problem of poverty is a fairly complex social problem and

7
Redaksi, “MDGs to SDGSs”, retrieved from http://hmpd.fk.ub.ac.id/mdgs-to-sgds/ on April 13th 2019.
8
Budi Winarno, Isu-Isu Global Kontemporer, CAPS, Yogyakarta, 2011, page. 16.

6
occurs in almost all countries in the world so this also makes the SDGs number one can be

regarded as issues of International Relations.

Handling the problem of poverty must be understood and understood as a world problem,

so it must be addressed in a global context as well. In SDGs stated “No Poverty” as the first

priority point. This means that the world agrees to eliminate poverty in any form in all

corners of the world.9

B. The Relations with other SDGs

Poverty alleviation will be strongly linked to other global goals such as the world without

hunger so that it can achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture,

good health in order to ensuring a healthy life and promoting well-being for all at all ages,

quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, clean and affordable energy,

climate action, and so on until the importance of good partnerships between goals and others

to achieve these goals, so that every program for handling poverty must be comprehensively

understood and interdependent with several other activity programs.Every problem that arises

in a particular fieldwill cause problems in other fields as well.

For example, as explained in the section on cases that occurred in Bangladesh where the

poverty rate is still very high, causing a low level of fulfillment of food. Logically, if

someone cannot meet food needs, how will he fulfill other needs such as clothing and

housing. The difficulty of finding food causes the society unable to meet the nutritional needs

of their body, resulting in cases such as malnutrition, hunger and other diseases.

9
Ishartono dan Santoso Tri Raharjo, Sustainable Development Goals dan Pengentasan Kemiskinan, Jurnal
Unpad. Vol. 6 No. 2, 2016, 159.

7
 C. Indonesia's response to the presence of SDGs

Poverty in Indonesia is still a serious problem since the post-independence era to the

present. The measurement of poverty in Indonesia is carried out by the Central Statistics

Agency (BPS) by using the concept of the ability to fulfill basic needs (basic needs

approach). According to BPS poverty is seen as an economic inability to meet basic food and

non-food needs with an expenditure approach. The population is said to be poor if it has an

average per capita expenditure per month below the poverty line.

In 2016 the percentage of poverty in Indonesia declined again. In the first semester of

2016, the percentage of poverty in Indonesia was 10.86 percent and the second semester was

10.70 percent. Until the first semester of 2018 the poverty rate in Indonesia was recorded at

9.82 percent. Based on figures released by BPS, it should be emphasized that rural areas still

dominate the high percentage of poverty. In the last period (semester 1 of 18), the percentage

of poverty in rural areas was 13.20 percent, while in urban areas it was 7.02 percent. From

these data, there are still inequality in terms of social, economic, and infrastructure and

technology that have an impact on the high rate of poverty in rural areas.10

The success of managing village funds indirectly has an impact on the economy of the

community in the region. Job opportunities are open with opportunities for business capital

and the need for labor in carrying out village development. After that is fulfilled, it is not

impossible that poverty and inequality in rural areas will recede. The community indirectly

also helps the government in the success of the SDG's goals in Indonesia, and together with

the people of the world towards a better and more prosperous world life.

10
UlulAzmiAfrizalRizqi, “SDGs danUpayaPenurunanKemiskinan di Indonesia”, retrieved from
http://news.detik.com/kolom/d-4313874/sdgs-dan-upaya-penurunan-kemiskinan-di-indonesia, on April 13,
2019

8
 So, in our opinion, that our country needs SDGs. But if the government wants this, then

we must really address every incident and problems that occur in Indonesia so that in the

future we can reduce the problem that will occur repeatedly.

D. The Role of SDGs to the Case

The other part of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) is SDGF (Sustainable

Development Goals Fund), led by UNDP (United Nations Development Programs). On the

Bangladesh poverty problem, SDGF pull together with ILO (International Labor

Organization), local government and private partners to solve this problem. They make a

program “Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities” or known as

SWAPNO. The goal is to assist women from ultra-poor and most vulnerable households to

move out the poverty. The women will be employed for 18 months in maintaining or

rehabilitating important community assets, public works, and community service. The

programs are:11

 Builds human capital, knowledge, skills, and confidence

 Provides vocational skills training, job placement, diversified climate change resilient

livelihoods options, and social and economic inclusion

 Encourage saving a portion of wages, issued as a graduation bonus

 Facilities linkages with small and medium enterprises and public-private partnerships

to hire participant women after the program ends

 Integrates social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaption

 Enhances good local governance and develops capacity of local government

institutions.

11
”Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities”, retrieved from
http://www.sdgfund.org/strengthening-womens-ability-productive-new-opportunities-swapno, accessed on
April 12, 2019.

9
 This program would be implemented in the Kurigam district in the north west and the

coastal Satkhira district where it is the place that the most affected by natural disasters and

climate change. The programs aim to scale up to 20 districts following implementation in the

two districts that has been implemented.12

E. The Development of the case

This program has begun in November 2007

and the name of this program is not SWAPNO

(Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive

New Opportunities) but Urban Partnership of

Poverty Reduction (UPPR). More than 800.000

people participate to succeed this program.

They are divided into several districts which are special areas in the implementation of

programs in Bangladesh. UNDP also selected woman as the leader of the community of the

poor allocated in the place. This is to supports the importance of the gender equality.

From November 2007 UPPR provide for poor people equipped with various supporting

facilities to support poor people who live in shelters, such as access to clean water, adequate

electricity, and roads to facilitate their activities. This program encourages poor people in

Bangladesh to better understand social problems or problems that cause poverty such as

gender equality, early marriage and so on. Providing decent work for women by collaborating

with many employment companies in Bangladesh to be able to aid assistance in counseling

the ability to work and provide jobs in these companies.

12
”Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities”, retrieved from
http://www.sdgfund.org/strengthening-womens-ability-productive-new-opportunities-swapno, accessed on
April 12, 2019.

10
 So far, the implementation of this programs has running well, proven by its success in

repairing around 1 million Bangladesh’s people that trapped in poverty. They fostering social

life by building 843km of roads and being able to play an active role in increasing the flow of

clean water in the Khulna district, which previously was at 11.474 liters of water to 256.891

liters of water. This programs also reducing poverty in Bangladesh, it fell by 12% from 59%

Bangladesh’s population in 2007 to 48% of Bangladesh’s population in 2013.13

In our opinion, the way UNDP solve the poverty in Bangladesh is a good way. Their

efforts to reduce the poverty in Bangladesh is success and it proven by the poverty reduction

from 59% Bangladesh’s population in 2007 become 48% Bangladesh’s population in 2013.

Also, around 1 million Bangladesh’s people move out from poverty.

F. Facts and Figures

 783 million people live below the international poverty line of US$1.90 a day.

 In 2016, almost 10 per cent of the world’s workers live with their families on less than

US$1.90 per person per day.

 Globally, there are 122 women aged 25 to 34 living in extreme poverty for every 100

men of the same age group.

 Most people living below the poverty line belong to two regions: Southern Asia and

sub-Saharan Africa.

 High poverty rates are often found in small, fragile and conflict-affected countries.

 One in four children under age five in the world has inadequate height for his or her

age.

13
Saut Parlindungan Sitanggang, “Peran United Nation Development Program (UNDP) dalam penanggulangan
Kemiskinan di Bangladesh tahun 2007-2017” (Paper presented at Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Politik, Ilmu
Hubungan Internasional, Universitas Mulawarman, 2017), page 10-11.

11
  As of 2016, only 45% of the world’s population were effectively covered by at least

one social protection cash benefit.

 In 2017, economic losses due to disasters, including three major hurricanes in the

USA and the Caribbean, were estimated at over $300 billion.

G. Why it Matters?

a) Why is there so much poverty in the world?

Poverty has many dimensions, but its causes include unemployment, social exclusion,

and high vulnerability of certain population to disasters, diseases and other phenomena which

prevent them from being productive.

b) I’m not poor. Why should I care about other people’s economic situation?

There are many reasons, but in short, because as human beings, our wellbeing is

linked each other. Growing inequality is detrimental to economic growth and undermines

social cohesion, increasing political and social tensions and, in some circumstances, driving

instability and conflicts.

c) Can we actually achieve this goal?

Yes. To end extreme poverty worldwide in 20 years, economist Jeffrey Sachs

calculated that the total cost per year would be about $175 billion. This represents less than

one percent of the combined income of the richest countries in the world.

d) So, what can we do about it?

If you are a young person: Your active engagement in policymaking can make a

difference in addressing poverty. It ensures that your rights are promoted and that your voice

is heard, that inter-generational knowledge is shared, and that innovation and critical thinking

12
are encouraged at all ages to support transformational change in people’s lives and

communities.

If you are a policymaker: Governments can help create an enabling environment to

generate productive employment and job opportunities for the poor and the marginalized.

They can formulate strategies and fiscal policies that stimulate pro-poor growth, and reduce

poverty.

If you work in the private sector: The private sector, as an engine of economic

growth, has a major role to play in determining whether the growth it creates is inclusive and

hence contributes to poverty reduction. It can promote economic opportunities for the poor,

focusing on segments of the economy where most of the poor are active, namely on micro

and small enterprises and those operating in the informal sector.

If you are part of the science and academic community: The academic and education

community have a major role in increasing the awareness about the impact of poverty.

Science provides the foundation for new and sustainable approaches, solutions and

technologies to tackle the challenges of reducing poverty and achieving sustainable

development. The contribution of science to end poverty has been significant. For example, it

has enabled access to safe drinking water, reduced deaths caused by water-borne diseases,

and improved hygiene to reduce health risks related to unsafe drinking water and lack of

sanitation.

H. Conclusion

Poverty is a matter of humanity. The existence of poverty has the consequence of moral

responsibility for everyone to pay attention to the lives of people living in poverty. Poverty is

also a violation of Human Rights because every human being has the right to have a

13
prosperous life. To be said to be an issue of International Relations, a matter must raise

questions, problems, dilemmas, and also challenges in handling them.

The problem that facing by peoples are lack or limited of employment, and inequality

between population in a country with the number of jobs. It can make many people be un-

employed, the opportunities to get job is difficult because inadequate of employment. In other

hand, people also should have knowledge or expertise in doing work, therefore besides

increasing employment the government should improve human resources first in order to be

able to get workers who can work well. If the poverty still left because people are

unemployed, there will be arise many lack of access to food, lack of clean water and

sanitation that will be make new problem for healthy.

SDG’s categorized the people that lives in poverty is when their income is less than 1.25

USD or 18.000 IDR and more than 800.000 million people are still living in poverty, poverty

is the main problem in all countries that should be solve. Categorized developed country is

when there is not social gap in a country. To solve this problem should be well cooperation

between SDG’s and government. SDG’s ensure that this problem will be finished 2030. Stull

many people who living in poverty, it is should quickly solved. In one hand, this is violence

human right, this problem also make countries cannot become developed country.

14
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