A/HRC/31/75 53. The representative of South Africa noted that poverty eradication was the world’s greatest challenge. The triple challenges of poverty, inequality, and unemployment continued to inhibit global development. If the United Nations did not deal with the scourges of poverty, underdevelopment and disease, the poor of the world would consider that the United Nations had failed them. Thus, South Africa had been working closely with all States Members of the United Nations towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (General Assembly resolution 70/1). Earlier in 2015, Statistics South Africa had published a report that updated the national and provincial poverty lines, setting the minimum socially acceptable standard to separate the poor from the non-poor. The World Bank released a report that commended South Africa’s “slightly progressive” tax system and “highly progressive” government spending — around 3.6 million people had been lifted out of poverty, halving the number of South Africans living on less than $1.25 a day. Owing to grants, free basic services and taxes favouring the poor, the poverty rate dropped from 46.2 per cent to 39 per cent. The representative also reaffirmed that education, development and the faithful implementation of all international human rights norms and obligations, including the enactment of laws and political, social and economic policies, were crucial to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The representative recommended that Mr. Woodward’s rights-based poverty line should be further considered and that Mr. Paixão’s recommendation on the imperative need to have monitoring tools should be included in the conclusions of the session. 54. The representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela noted that that country had also sought to eradicate poverty, and that it also supported the approach and policies of the Government of Brazil. Many challenges remained, but existing programmes aimed at addressing them. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela had a number of national programmes that addressed poverty, and over the past decade extreme poverty had been halved. The Gini coefficient of the country was one of the lowest in the region. That was mainly due to social policies, including “inclusion programmes” and heavy investments in social programmes. The representative asked Mr. Woodward about the issue of public debt. Mr. Woodward replied that debt continued to pose a problem for some countries. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals would require massive investments from developing countries. However, it was not clear where the money would originate. South-South cooperation would become more important in that regard. 55. Mr. Woodward added that there was an implicit link between the Sustainable Development Goals and discrimination, as the underlying goal was to leave no one behind. The universality of the goal was a helpful step towards non-discrimination. Equally important was the move from anti-poverty policies as charity to anti-poverty policies as a human right. That constituted an important shift of perception. Such a human-rights based approach meant in practice that one had to rethink the current development model. Economics was about maximizing production, but that approach had, for example, not considered environmental effects. The Goals would present an alternative approach. VI. Final statements 56. The representative of Mexico, on behalf of his delegation and the delegations of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Paraguay and Uruguay, reiterated the commitment of their respective countries to the effective implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. He noted that the effective fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance required the implementation of laws and concrete, specific and measurable national policies. He further reiterated the support of the respective countries for the International Decade for People of African Descent and their commitment to the full implementation of the programme of activities for 14