UN launches initiative to tackle $1.5 trillion poverty funding gap

On Tuesday the United Nations launched a fresh drive to speed up work on Sustainable Development Goal 1, calling for an accelerated end to extreme poverty by 2030, but residents of Nigeria, Gaza and Bangladesh say war, funding shortfalls and weak assistance keep millions trapped in hardship. The UN’s appeal was made at a high‑level meeting in New York, where Secretary‑General António Guterres warned that the world is off track and urged donors to close the financing gap.

The push comes after the pandemic reversed years of progress and left the global poverty rate hovering around 9 percent, roughly 700 million people, according to the World Bank. The 2023 UN Poverty Report warned that conflict and climate shocks are now the biggest drivers of new poverty, pushing the deadline for the 2030 target further out. In Nigeria, Boko Haram insurgency and inflation have pushed food prices up by more than 30 percent in the past year, while Gaza’s ongoing war has shattered livelihoods for over a million families. In Bangladesh, rising river flooding and a weak safety net have forced an estimated 4 million people back into extreme poverty, officials say.

UN officials estimate a $1.5 trillion funding gap to meet the 2030 goal, but only about $1 trillion has been pledged for the next three years. Aid groups on the ground say the shortfall translates into fewer school meals, limited cash transfers and stalled infrastructure projects. “We hear promises, but the money never arrives,” said Aisha Bello, a community organizer in Nigeria’s Borno state. In Gaza, UNRWA director Philippe Lazzarini said that without additional cash, humanitarian assistance will shrink by 20 percent, deepening the crisis. Bangladesh’s Ministry of Social Welfare warned that without emergency funding, the country could see a 15 percent rise in child malnutrition by 2025.

The UN plans to bring the issue to the upcoming High‑Level Political Forum in July, where member states will be asked to lock in new contributions and to adopt a streamlined monitoring system. Observers say that real progress will depend on translating pledges into disbursements and on coordinated action to protect vulnerable populations from conflict and climate shocks. If donors step up, the UN believes the world can still halve extreme poverty by 2030; if not, the deadline may slip into the next decade.