80TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
High-Level Side Event
The Future is Now: Addressing Multidimensional Poverty for Sustainable Development
Welcome Remarks
By
Mr. Claver Gatete
United Nations Under-Secretary-General and
Executive Secretary of ECA
New York, USA
24 September, 2025
H.E. Yusuf Murangwa, Minister of Finance, Rwanda,
H.E. Yorleni León Marchena, Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion, Costa Rica,
H.E. Ali Haidar Ahmed, Minister of Higher Education, Labour and Skills Development, Maldives,
H.E. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, AUDA-NEPAD,
Ms. Lin Yang, Deputy Executive Secretary, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honour to welcome you to this high-level side event on “The Future is Now: Addressing Multidimensional Poverty for Sustainable Development,” co-organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network.
I wish to begin by expressing deep appreciation to our co-organizers and esteemed partners whose dedication and collaboration have made this timely gathering possible.
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
We convene at a critical moment for our global community.
While the world has made undeniable progress in reducing extreme income poverty over the past decades, the challenge of multidimensional poverty remains immense.
According to the 2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, 1.1 billion people across 112 countries still endure acute deprivations – from inadequate housing and poor nutrition to lack of access to education, health, energy and livelihoods.
Indeed, the Secretary-General has often emphasized that poverty and inequality remain among the greatest global challenges of our time.
Accordingly, as the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary, eradicating poverty is a central test of its mission.
For Africa, the urgency is even greater. More than 20 countries have now adopted national Multidimensional Poverty Indices which enables better planning, targeted social protection and data-driven resource allocation.
The example of Sierra Leone, which introduced its MPI in 2019, and Togo, which continues to actively apply its MPI, demonstrates that gains are possible even in the harshest of contexts.
But progress is woefully uneven.
In the Sahel and Central Africa, for example, millions remain bound by poverty traps born of conflict, climate vulnerability and deprivation.
If the world is to eradicate poverty, Africa cannot remain on the margins; it must be placed at the centre of the solution.
It is a welcome development, that the Sevilla Commitment, the Pact for the Future, the draft declaration of the Second World Summit on Social Development and the preparations for COP30 all underscore that the eradication of poverty is the very foundation of peace, stability and human dignity.
So, Excellencies, what then must we do?
I propose three recommendations.
First, we must deepen the use of Multidimensional Poverty Indices as living instruments of governance.
MPIs make the invisible visible. They reveal overlapping deprivations that income measures alone cannot capture.
If we fail to measure poverty in its full complexity, we cannot hope to design policies that truly transform lives.
Second, we must prioritize investment in fragile and vulnerable contexts.
Poverty and peace are two sides of the same coin: without peace, development collapses; without development, peace cannot endure.
Financing must therefore target Least Developed Countries and conflict-affected regions where the returns on social investment are greatest, and where a single investment in education, health or livelihoods can change the trajectory of an entire nation.
Third, we must strengthen global solidarity and regional cooperation.
The fight against poverty cannot be won by individual countries acting alone.
It requires multilateral action, innovative financing and partnerships that leverage Africa’s own resources.
Institutions like ECA are championing the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area for job creation, supporting domestic resource mobilization, deepening African capital markets and advancing the creation of an African Credit Rating Agency.
It makes no sense, for example, that African countries continue to borrow at more than three times the cost of others.
Why should distorted perceptions of risk slow down the development of an entire continent?
Correcting these injustices is essential if Africa is to realize its full potential.
Excellencies,
This gathering extends far beyond stock-taking.
It is about courage; it is about solidarity; and it is about acting with urgency so that poverty, rightly described as the greatest global challenge, becomes a chapter of the past and not the story of our future.
I thank you, and I wish you fruitful deliberations.