Eradicating rural poverty to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development A/RES/74/237 Expressing its concern that the extreme poor have limited access to productive resources, basic health, education and social protection services, basic infrastructure such as roads, water and electricity, and off-farm employment opportunities, and are susceptible to the impacts of natural disasters, especially weather-related hazards, including the El Niño phenomenon, and the adverse effects of climate change, and that rural women and girls fare far worse on most development indicators, Emphasizing the importance of enhancing global support for national work on rural development policies and strategies, including on commodity production as well as increased public and private investments to upgrade productive capacity, and that tackling rural poverty requires integrated, cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholder and context-specific interventions, with a strong emphasis on sustainable food and agricultural systems for food security, nutrition, economic growth, revitalization and development in rural areas, 1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General 5 and the recommendations contained therein; 2. Reaffirms that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, for all people everywhere, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, as well as an overarching objective of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 6 of which the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development 7 is an integral part, supporting and complementing it; 3. Expresses its deep concern that the progress in reducing poverty remains uneven, with 1.46 billion people still living in multidimensional poverty, and that this number continues to be significant and unacceptably high, whereas the levels of inequality in income, wealth and opportunities remain high or are increasing in a number of countries, and the non-income dimensions of poverty and deprivation, such as access to quality education or basic health services, and relative poverty remain major concerns, and stresses the importance of national and global efforts to create conditions for sustainable development, inclusive and sustained economic growth, shared prosperity and decent work for all in society, taking into account different levels of national development capacities; 4. Recognizes the importance of promoting socioeconomic development in rural areas as an effective strategy and important means at the global level for the eradication of poverty, including extreme poverty, and therefore underlines the importance of shaping a rural poverty eradication pattern with the concerted efforts of the whole of society to promote socioeconomic development in rural areas; 5. Emphasizes that economic growth continues to leave rural dwellers behind, that in 2015, 79 per cent of the people living in extreme poverty lived in rural areas and 41 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa lived on less than $1.90 per day, and recommends that countries promote dedicated and coordinated social, economic, agricultural and rural development in their national policies, including by adopting rural-focused poverty eradication strategies in alignment with the 2030 Agenda, social policies aimed at improving human capital in rural areas and ensuring access to adequate social protection coverage, agri cultural policies aimed at boosting agricultural productivity, and rural development policies aimed at improving access to rural infrastructure and basic services of high quality and at boosting non-farm employment opportunities; __________________ 5 6 7 4/6 A/74/257. Resolution 70/1. Resolution 69/313, annex. 19-22511