Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
No Poverty focuses on ensuring that no one in the world goes without the basic things they need to survive and thrive. Poverty isn’t just about not having money; it’s about lacking access to food, shelter, clean water, and safety. This goal aims to help people get on their feet, protect them from disasters, and ensure everyone has a fair chance at a healthy life.
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
No Poverty focuses on ensuring that no one in the world goes without the basic things they need to survive and thrive. Poverty isn’t just about not having money; it’s about lacking access to food, shelter, clean water, and safety. This goal aims to help people get on their feet, protect them from disasters, and ensure everyone has a fair chance at a healthy life.
Global Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Poverty is multidimensional and requires coordinated, creative action. Goal 1 invites students to investigate how economic, social, and environmental systems intersect and how the arts can mobilize empathy and change.
Featured Lesson: Drama
Living Pictures: Tableau Vivant for Global Goal 1
Dive into Goal 1 through the lens of drama. This lesson provides hands-on activities and creative exploration designed to bring the concepts to life for students.
Lessons
Musical Exploration
Explore Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere through musical exploration.
Helping Hands: Our Collaborative Quilt for a World Without Poverty
Explore Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere through art.
Words of Hope: Creating Stories for No Poverty
Explore Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere through creative writing.
A Dance Exploration for Global Goal 1
Explore Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere through dance/movement.
Freeze Frame for Fairness: Creating Living Pictures for Global Goal 1
Explore Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere through drama.
Rhythms of Hope: Making Music for Global Goal 1
Explore Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere through music.
These learning objectives are organized into five categories that together form a comprehensive approach to understanding and engaging with this goal.
Knowledge
- •
Identify and define basic human needs (e.g., food, water, shelter, clothing, education, safety) essential for a good quality of life.
(Cr1.1.MS, Cr2.1.MS) - •
Recognize that poverty means not having enough of these basic needs and understand that it affects people in many different places, including their own communities and around the world.
(Cn10.1.MS, Cn11.1.MS) - •
Understand that different people and communities have diverse daily lives and experiences, and that poverty can look different for different people.
(Cn10.1.MS, Cn11.1.MS)
Discourse
- •
Explore and describe how emotions and messages about poverty are expressed through various art forms (music, visual art, creative writing, dance, drama) by reflecting on lyrics, visuals, movement, and words.
(Re7.1.MS, Re8.1.MS) - •
Participate in respectful discussions about what people need, the challenges people face when they don't have enough, and simple ways people can help each other.
(Re9.1.MS, Cn11.1.MS) - •
Communicate their own thoughts, feelings, and ideas about Global Goal 1: No Poverty through creative expression in various artistic mediums.
(Cr3.1.MS)
Attitudes
- •
Develop empathy and compassion for individuals and families experiencing poverty, understanding that everyone deserves basic needs and kindness.
(Re8.1.MS, Cn10.1.MS) - •
Begin to challenge simple assumptions about what poverty looks like, recognizing the diverse experiences of people and the importance of not stereotyping.
(Re9.1.MS, Cn10.1.MS) - •
Cultivate a sense of fairness and social responsibility, fostering a personal desire to contribute positively to their community and the world.
(Cn11.1.MS)
Capacity
- •
Develop critical thinking skills by observing and discussing how different artistic elements (like colors, rhythms, movements, or words) can represent feelings, challenges, and solutions related to poverty.
(Re9.1.MS, Cn10.1.MS) - •
Enhance collaboration and creative problem solving skills through group art projects, shared writing activities, and coordinated movement or musical performances.
(Cr2.1.MS, Pr5.1.MS) - •
Understand that arts and creative expression can be powerful tools for sharing stories, raising awareness, and inspiring people to take action on important issues like poverty.
(Cn11.1.MS)
Action
- •
Identify simple acts of kindness and ways to help others in their daily lives, connecting these actions to the larger goal of ending poverty.
(Pr6.1.MS, Cn11.1.MS) - •
Participate in collaborative projects that creatively express messages of hope, kindness, and support for a world without poverty.
(Cr3.1.MS, Pr6.1.MS) - •
Reflect on their personal role in contributing to a kinder, fairer world and express a commitment to helping others and understanding the importance of Global Goal 1.
(Re9.1.MS, Cn11.1.MS)
Empowering youth to become active agents of change in the pursuit of a world where everyone has their basic needs met. Recognizing that even small, consistent actions can contribute to a larger global impact.
Taking Action Beyond the Classroom
Here are ways your students can extend their learning and apply their understanding of Global Goal 1 in their wider community and beyond.
Write a Challenge and Hope Letter: Select one challenge and a corresponding solution from one of the lessons. Write a short, persuasive letter to a local city council member, community board leader, etc. using the vivid language from the writing exercises to describe the problem and advocate for the solution. -
Concrete Action: Research contact information and mail/email a letter advocating for a pro-poor policy or community initiative to one local leader.
Organize a Basic Needs Swap: Organize a gently used clothing/book swap in the classroom or neighborhood. This helps provide essential items without cost, ensuring access for the poor and vulnerable. -
Concrete Action: Plan and execute a single-day swap event to redistribute usable clothing and/or books within the community.
Become a Voice for Basic Needs: Choose a powerful piece created in the lessons. Share it with family, friends, or on social media to highlight a basic need (like food, shelter, or safety) and why everyone deserves it. This allows a powerful story to be told with art about the dignity of having enough. -
Concrete Action: Aim to share your creative work and a fact about a basic human need (Target 1.4) with at least three people outside of school.
Design a Resilience Resource Map: Create a map (physical or digital) of all the organizations in your community that offer social protection or help build resilience (Target 1.3 & 1.5). This could include food banks, shelters, community health clinics, or after-school programs. This helps identify local safety nets. -
Concrete Action: Create a clear map of local resources and share it with your school counselor or display it in a community space to help direct people to support.
Launch a Micro-Kindness Initiative: Organize a short-term, high-impact drive for a local agency (e.g., a "Warm Sock Drive" for a local shelter or a "Canned Food Donation Day" for a food bank). Focus on the dignity and immediate comfort these small items provide. -
Concrete Action: Organize a week-long donation drive for one specific item (e.g., new toothpaste, warm socks) to benefit a local organization focused on poverty reduction.
Benchmarking Progress
A quick view of the official UN targets for this goal paired with the indicators that track global progress. Use these to connect classroom inquiry with real-world data.
Target 1.1
By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.
Indicators
- 1.1.1
Proportion of the population living below the international poverty line by sex, age, employment status and geographical location (urban/rural).
Target 1.2
By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
Indicators
- 1.2.1
Proportion of population living below the national line, by sex and age.
- 1.2.2
Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
Target 1.3
Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
Indicators
- 1.3.1
Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex, distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, newborns, work-injury victims and the poor and the vulnerable.
Target 1.4
By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance.
Indicators
- 1.4.1
Proportion of population living in households with access to basic services.
- 1.4.2
Proportion of total adult population with secure tenant rights to land, (a) with legally recognized documentation, and (b) who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and by type of tenure.
Target 1.5
By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.
Indicators
- 1.5.1
Number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population.
- 1.5.2
Direct economic loss attributed to disasters in relation to global gross domestic product (GDP).
- 1.5.3
Number of countries that adopt and implement national disaster risk reduction strategies in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
- 1.5.4
Proportion of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies with national disaster risk reduction strategies.
Target 1.a
Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions.
Indicators
- 1.a.1
Total official development assistance grants from all donors that focus on poverty reduction as a share of the recipient country's gross national income.
- 1.a.2
Proportion of total government spending on essential services (education, health and social protection).
Target 1.b
Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions
Indicators
- 1.b.1
Pro-poor public social spending.