Today's Edition
BATOOL GHAITH (ABU DHABI)
Poverty cannot be tackled through income support alone, with secure housing, essential services, and resilience increasingly central to helping families avoid falling deeper into hardship, according to Bérangère Boëll, UN Resident Coordinator for the UAE.
Speaking to Aletihad on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, observed annually on October 17 and marked this year under the theme Safe Homes for All, Boëll said housing sits at the intersection of many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and should be viewed as much more than shelter.
“Adequate housing is fundamental to a life of dignity and to breaking the cycle of poverty. A safe home gives a family security, children a place to learn, and people access to clean water, sanitation and essential services,” Boëll told Aletihad.
“It gives us the stability to work, participate in our communities and build our future,” she added.
Boëll noted that around two in five people worldwide, up to 3.4 billion, lack access to secure, safe and adequate housing, while more than 300 million people are homeless.
She stressed that housing is connected not only to poverty, health, and education, but also to water access, decent work, climate resilience and peace.
Boëll said that the UAE has long been engaged in the global urban development agenda, noting that Abu Dhabi hosted the first World Urban Forum in the Arab region in 2020, while the UAE will assume the Presidency of the UN-Habitat Assembly from 2027 to 2029.
“This creates an opportunity to ensure that people experiencing poverty, homelessness and displacement are represented in global discussions. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, and people must be part of shaping the solutions that affect their lives,” she said.
Resilience Must Begin Before Crisis
Boëll said poverty reduction cannot be separated from resilience, particularly as disasters and conflict can quickly undo years of development.
“Building resilience has to start before a crisis, not after it,” she emphasised.
Citing the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) estimates, she said every dollar invested in making infrastructure more resilient in developing countries generates four dollars in benefits by avoiding future losses and disruption. Such investments protect schools, hospitals, water systems, homes and livelihoods that may have taken years to build.
For children, the risk is particularly acute. Nearly 900 million children experience multidimensional poverty, she said, adding that one crisis can rapidly reverse progress in health and education.
“This is why humanitarian assistance and development cannot be two separate conversations,” she noted.
“Before a crisis, we need prevention, preparedness and resilience. During a crisis, the priority is to save lives while protecting as much as possible of what people and communities have built. Recovery must be considered from the beginning, helping families restore their homes and livelihoods, and communities rebuild stronger,” Boëll added.
UAE-UN Partnership
Boëll described the UAE’s partnership with the UN as broad and increasingly global, pointing to Dubai Humanitarian, which she described as the world’s largest humanitarian hub, as well as the UAE Aid Agency, the country’s diplomatic role and its hosting of major international conferences.
“Together, these help stop crises from pushing families deeper into poverty and support lasting development,” she said.
Boëll added that the UN’s Resident Coordinator system, operating across 162 countries and territories, can help connect the UAE’s international engagement with locally identified needs.
“This creates opportunities to move beyond individual projects towards longer-term, more integrated solutions,” she said.
With four years remaining until the 2030 deadline for achieving SDGs, Boëll stressed that global progress remains significantly off track, with only 15% of the targets currently on track, while another 15% have regressed below their 2015 baseline.
Boëll also highlighted the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment, established by Dubai Municipality with UN-Habitat, which for more than 30 years has helped identify and share solutions to improve living conditions globally.
The challenge now is connecting proven solutions with sufficient financing and partnerships to scale them, she said.
“Public resources alone are not enough. We need international financial institutions and the private sector around the table. Many solutions already exist. The task is to finance them, adapt them to different realities and take them to scale,” she noted.
“Partnerships between the UN and countries such as the UAE have an important role in making that happen, and in accelerating progress towards 2030,” Boëll added.
