International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

17 October 2012

image The situation in southern Somalia has become worse following the drought caused by two seasons of low rainfall. (Photo: OCHA/Abdi Noor Yussuf)

Extreme poverty destroys the lives and spirit of people; it kills more children, young persons, and adults than any war. Every day, people living in extreme poverty are challenged and threatened by lack of food, shelter and access to essential services.

Recognizing that poverty is violence, the 2012 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty focuses on "Ending the violence of Extreme Poverty: Promoting empowerment and building peace".

Learn more about UNDP's work to reduce poverty >

Our Stories

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Woman lifts her family out of poverty in the West Bank

Starting a business with limited resources in East Jerusalem, West Bank, is a challenge — especially for women. For Inayat Nageeb, a housewife and a mother of three sons and two daughters, life has not been easy. Her husband works as a guard at a mosque, with a monthly income of approximately US $80 more

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Employment programme gives hope to new graduates in Jordan

Like many other young students of his age in Jordan, Yousef El Mughrabi, 23, was full of dreams and plans for his future. Living in Ma’an, a southern Jordanian governorate where one in four people live in poverty and one in five is unemployed, Yousef’s dream was a simple one: securing a respectable more

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Bedouin handicrafts goes global through small businesses

Since 2006, Yosra El Sayed, a 25-year-old mother of a two, had been struggling for the survival of her small Bedouin handicraft shop, which competes against the big bazaars of Beer El Abed in Northwest Sinai. Yosra has an innate talent that yields high quality products, but without the adequate mana more

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A glimpse of hope for better times ahead

Raqqa, once a prosperous province that hosted one of the capitals of Harun Al-Rashid, the famous Abbasid Caliph, has seen a dramatic downturn in recent years. Even before the crisis in March 2011, the Raqqa population grappled with some of the worst development indicators in the country. The governo more

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Nurturing entrepreneurship amidst destruction

J.H. never imagined that her home made business will flourish and the “baytoti” brand will become a household name in Raqqa and neighbouring villages. J., the eldest of her siblings, is the principal breadwinner in a family of six. At 43 and single, she has been earning little income from selling ho more

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