To be rich, it’s not about having money more than your average Tom, Dick and Harry. I guess that’s why the poorest countries have millionaires/billionaires. I think this should help us realize that poverty cannot be eradicated personally but collectively as a whole.
If an individual has to spend so much to be comfortable, then I don’t think the environment/community where the individual resides is quite there yet. You might be doing fine but you’d be doing way better if your environment was good.
Inasmuch as they say Nigeria is the giant of Africa, I think it’s a poor country. Yes, there are poorer countries and yes we have very rich people in the country.
But is Nigeria really not poor? What’s the cost of having constant electricity for 24 hours in a day? What’s the cost of having a decent accommodation? What’s the cost of transportation? What’s the cost of maintaining your automobile? And what’s the minimum wage? In a developed country, one should be able to live comfortably with a minimum wage. It might not be luxurious but it would do. Your minimum wage should cover shelter, water, electricity and food.
Ok, you’re probably thinking, “what haven’t we heard before? All talk and no action”. Well, it’s time to act! (We’ve said this a thousand times too..lol). There’s so much to be done to move the nation forward and talking in honest truth can never be too much. Too much talk eventually gets people to react. We just have to make sure people are listening and acting.
This is why I am particularly excited about the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). UNDP works in nearly 170 countries and territories, helping to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality and exclusion.
UNDP works in partnership with the Federal Government of Nigeria, development partners, UN agencies, civil society and local communities to help identify local solutions to meet national development challenges through a range of interventions that combine UNDP’s expertise and comparative advantage in the areas of Governance & Peace Building, Inclusive growth and Sustainable Development.
In 2014, UNDP launched the Innovation Facility as a dedicated funding mechanism that nurtures promising development interventions on the ground. A diverse global team based in Addis Ababa, Amman, Bangkok, Istanbul, New York and Panama City scans the horizon to identify promising approaches and technologies used by the private and public sector. The Innovation Facility takes a portfolio approach to compare the effectiveness of promising concepts, promotes calculated risk-taking and ‘working out loud’ to learn and identify effective ways of designing solutions around the needs of the people and communities affected by development challenges.
This infographic is a quick snapshot of the UNDP Innovation Facility’s work. To learn more about this, read the second annual report: Innovation for 2030."
The report shares lessons from the Innovation Facility and its partners through exciting initiatives that are testing and scaling solutions to address challenges across five areas:
- Eradicating Poverty, Leaving No One Behind
- Protecting the Planet
- Preventing Violent Conflict, Building Peaceful Societies
- Managing Risk, Improving Disaster Response
- Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
An overview of UNDP Innovation Facility work in Africa can be found here:
Contact UNDP at innovator.support@undp.org
Get involved today! Take action for the people and the planet! How? Here is a handy guide to taking small actions that will have a big impact
No comments:
Post a Comment