Poverty And Improving Socioeconomic Wellbeing

Identifies skills, theories of change, program designs, partnerships, and ways of building schools where students achieve.

Poverty is “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor” (Dictionary.com, 2017). Based off this definition poverty is a condition that can cause a cascade of cause and effect actions that is detrimental to families and individuals both physically and mentally. Haan, Kaplan, & Camacho (2017) completed a study on the correlation between social and economic status and health in adults in Oakland, CA. They found that the lower the socioeconomic class the higher incidents of diseases and deaths related to chronic diseases (p.1161-1162). Just being without money or little money was not the only indication of health indication, a person living in an area with higher poverty issues

Anderson, D. United Nations Development Programme, United Nations. & World Energy Council. (2000). World Energy Assessment: Energy and the challenge of sustainability. New York, NY: United Nations Development Programme

There is a great understandable hunger for energy in the world. Increases uses of energy are strongly correlated with the gross domestic product

There are three main arguments believed to be the explanations for the existence and persistence of poverty. The first account is the Dependency-Based Explanation that puts the blame of poverty to the individual or to their cultural background. The Exclusion-Based Explanation and Structural-Based Explanation are the next two which establishes the society that condemns people to poverty.

Poverty is a remarkably persistent problematic social challenge within the United States that has far-reaching implications. The magnitude and perplexity of poverty and its instigates are a massive predicament of both ethical and economic concern that has many proportions, which demands the country’s immediate attention.

The people all have a responsibility to change the social prospects of poverty and create a better living for others. However, to obtain a job in society, the corporation wants to know what the person can do for the company. The issue is not poverty; capitalism is the real issue as it has ceased the people from gaining opportunities of growth. Where a person lives is also a representation of poverty as companies have a misconceived stereotype of people based upon where they live. Therefore, Angela Davis’ strategy was to display the people who are voiceless or are feared by society, while also teaching them the importance of a leap of faith.

Target 7.1 is largely measurable. Universal access to sustainable and modern energy can be measured by monitoring areas in the world where such energy is unavailable. However, what is “affordable” is entirely subjective. What constitutes “affordable energy” is therefore impossible to measure in general.

Sustainable energy development must be developed on a local level using technologies that have little impact on its receiving environment in the immediate future and for future generations (Botkin & Keller, 2012). The ultimate aim would be a change in lifestyle to ensure that energy sources on a local level are independent from the current infrastructure setup (Evenson, Zarske & Carlson, 2005). The energy use on a local level can be used as a gauge for national policy to steer countries in the direction of sustainable energy development (Ziramba, 2008).

Access to modern energy is a combination of three characteristics: availability, affordability and reliability (Reddy, 2015). We can also measure a percentage of the world population with access to affordable and reliable electricity sources (i) and the percentage of people who primarily rely on modern, non-solid fuels (ii) (Wykes et al., 2015). Combined, these two percentages are relevant indicators.

By 2030, the 7th UN Sustainable Development Goal aims to improve the accessibility, quality, and efficiency of energy. While some of the targets are clearly defined, others use ambiguous terms, making them not truly measureable. Firstly, terms used in targets 7.1, 7.2, and 7.b are not clearly defined, making them not truly measurable. Being able to provide a service universally, implies that every person worldwide should have access to the service. This is neither reasonable nor measureable. The term ‘affordable’ is not clearly defined, therefore not measurable. Affordability differs depending on economic status. With over 13% of the world’s population below the poverty line, the definition of affordable varies and therefore needs to be

This essay is going to discuss the UN recent drafting of a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and more specifically the idea behind goal number 7 : “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”1.

The UN has spent recent years drafting a set of new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will introduce new targets to be achieved by 2030. Amongst these targets are SDGs that are specific to ensuring access to affordable, sustainable and modern energy for all (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs). Figuring out if these targets are measurable will be an essential step to figuring out whether or not these targets can be met in time.

Among the five targets, according to my opinion, 7.1, 7.3, 7.a and 7.b are unmeasurable. For target 7.1, what percentage of energy consumption among the whole is called “affordable”? Because of the uneven distribution of natural energy resources and the different stage of a country’s economic development, the reasonable energy consumption percentage is totally different. Besides, currently there are large areas still have not established an accomplished database. Thus, we could not get a complete and credible data from those areas. This uncertainty will also influence the measurement of target 7.b, which mainly focuses on supplying sustainable energy services for all, particularly in LDCs and SIDs. Target 7.3, focusing on improving energy efficiency, is also hard to measure. With new technology and information available, fields like housing, building, communities, industry, and transportation all have the potential to use energy more effectively, making the rate of improvement of efficiency difficult to count. Also, due to limited regional specific data, our measurement for the global range is just a rough calculation. As for target 7.a, we could not get a particular number of how much

This report discusses the role of energy in sustainable development goals. The report highlights on the target set by the United Nations and the time-frame given to achieve these targets. Some of the challenges hindering sustainable development especially in the poor sections of the population and measures needed to be taken have also been identified. It concludes with the primary principles and basic practices needed to be taken in order to achieve the sustainable development goals.