With 15 years ahead, i.e. until 2030, and with the UN-SDG as guide for an effective and successful global transformation to a more sustainable future, two existing and threatening realities need eradication. These are poverty and illiteracy both of which require major policies, condensed and collaborative efforts.

Several indicators show that our failure to protect our environments is undermining much of the progress to help the world’s poorest communities. With global warming the developing world will be forced to cope more and more with erratic weather conditions; indigenous peoples in Latin America and South-East Asia are searching for alternative livelihoods where high levels of deforestation have robbed them of their principal economic assets. Sanitation, water and energy are major obstacles for Africa’s struggle to cope with its poverty where illiteracy adds more complications for empowering and fostering its population.

It is now clear that the post-2015 agenda must tackle the relationship between poverty and sustainability if it is to bring about long-lasting change. Efforts to bring the three strands of sustainable development (social, environmental and economic) into a single policy lens have a long history, dating back to the 1980s. Despite progress in many areas still there are lots more to be done as world population is also growing very fast.

For more readings please see:http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourperspective/ourperspectivearticles/2013/06/12/sustainability-must-combine-environment-concerns-with-poverty-reduction-george-bouma.html

http://www.globalissues.org/article/425/poverty-and-the-environment

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/africa

http://www.unpei.org/latest-news/linking-poverty-reduction-and-environmental-sustainability-in-armenia