SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth

Earth year 4,492,056,017
Mother Earth/ Gaia‘s Blog

Mankind, My children

In my first blog post I asked that you commit to following my blog  for a few weeks to give me a chance to explain the most important issues affecting our joint survival. Subsequent Blog posts have started to give you some facts about the big and important Global issues that need to be addressed and what sorts of actions you personally could take. In today’s Blog post, I want to talk about Decent Work and Economic Growth.

The Problem

There were 172 million unemployed in 2018 and of even those, who were working, more than one quarter of workers in low-and middle-income countries were living in extreme or moderate poverty. Since 736 million people live on incomes of less than US$ 1.90 a day, poverty eradication can only be achieved if we can find stable and well paid jobs for all. Agriculture remains the single biggest employer and source of income for 40% of the world so helping poor farmers and poor workers to have a living wage can help. Education can lift people out of poverty and research shows that 40% literacy is needed for a country to achieve rapid economic development. However, 124 million children and adolescents are not in school so will never be able to aspire to better paid jobs. We need to do more to change this.

Do you feel guilty when watching TV reports about the suffering of the poor in developing countries? Are you frustrated that not enough is done to reduce the inequality and unfairness that denies opportunities to hundreds of millions in much of the world? Now is your chance to do something to change the world!

The facts

1. 470 million jobs are need for new entrants to the job market in the next 15 years
2. 736 million people live on less than $1.90 per day so cannot afford access to technology
3. 40% of the poor work in agriculture and earn very low wages
4. There are 145 million orphans in the world who have no one to help them

WCYDo (wich-ee-do What Can You Do?)

1. Donate to or fund raise for charities, such as www.clintonfoundation.org
2. Donate your old computers to charities sending computers to developing world
3. Buy fair trade fruit and products to help the poor get a living wage
4. Write to your politicians to increase aid and trade with developing world
5. Share the facts about the need to have good jobs with adequate pay in developing world with family and friends.

Tell others and encourage them and to join our group. See you next week on my new blog post.
Want to know more? Visit www.whatcanyoudo.earth or www.wcydo.com.