The Consequences Of Poverty And The Sustainable Development Goals

1. Introduction

Over the past decades, the reduction of poverty, particularly in its extreme form has been at the center of national policies in most developing countries and high on international development agendas (United Nations, 2014). This is clearly evidenced in the importance given to poverty reduction in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and in the discussions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MDGs have served as a unified framework for concerted efforts by governments, development partners and international organizations to reduce poverty. Within this framework an increasing number of policies and programs were designed with the aims of reducing significantly poverty in the least developed countries. However, the evidence of success is mixed, particularly in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries

Despite moderate economic growth in the recent years, poverty levels in SSA have barely dropped and are still very high (Barret et al., 2005). In most countries on the continent, little progress has been made toward the complete reduction of poverty. Between 1970 and 2000, the poverty rate in SSA has soared from 48% to 59% (Artadi and Sala-i-Martin, 2003;

In the 1970s and 1980s, Benin pursued a socialist ideology as development pathway and progressively slipped into a deep political, social and economic crisis with dramatic consequence on poverty . In the late 1980s, poverty in the country was widespread, unemployment was skyrocketing and social unrests plagued the country. The crisis culminated in a National Conference in February 1990s with a fundamental ideological shift toward democratization and market liberalization. At that time, the expectations for economic recovery, economic take-off, and human development peaked. While, there have been moderate economic growth , like other sub-Saharan African countries, poverty in this small country of West Africa, has remained stubbornly high over the last two