A/HRC/31/75 V. Discussion concerning racism and poverty 45. Mr. Woodward made a presentation on poverty eradication and the “Africanization” of poverty. He recalled the Millennium Development Goals and target 1, “Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day”. The new goal, Sustainable Development Goal 1, aims at ending poverty in all its forms everywhere. Target 1.1 adds, “By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day”. He said that this new formulation included a rights perspective and constituted a move from national responsibility within available means to collective responsibility. It was, however, not clear how that goal could be achieved. Eradication meant eradicating poverty everywhere, including where it was the hardest (the global consumption floor). Mr. Woodward also discussed the current “dollar-aday” approach that constituted an arbitrary level of measurement, often unrelated to living standards. He presented two alternatives: an ethical poverty line or a rights-based poverty line to measure poverty. He also addressed regional trends in, and prospects for, poverty reduction, highlighting the ongoing “Africanization” of global poverty, and presented a broad historical perspective on its causes. By 2030 more than 70 per cent of global poverty would be found in sub-Saharan Africa. Path dependency was one of the reasons for that development. Multiple interconnected vicious circles meant that disadvantage bread further disadvantage. Mr. Woodward concluded by re-emphasizing that the Sustainable Development Goals presented a shift towards a more rights-oriented approach to poverty, but issues regarding the definition of poverty remained. In addition, he noted that the practical consequences of the new approach had yet to be considered. In effect, development needed to be understood in a different way, in Africa and globally. 46. Mr. Paixão made a presentation on poverty and racism: multidimensionality and implications for social policy. He noted that for decades poverty was perceived as a simple problem of lack of monetary resources. That approach led to public policy choices based on cash transfers for those who were considered eligible to earn such funds. Now poverty was perceived as a multidimensional phenomenon. Discrimination and poverty were linked. In Latin America people were poor, he argued, because they were part of ethnic minorities. He pointed out that Brazil had the second biggest Afro-descendant population in the world. There had been progress in the eradication of poverty by using cash transfer programmes. Most beneficiaries, around 67 per cent, of such programmes were Afro-descendants. While poverty indicators were declining for that population, violence indicators were at the same time increasing. Homicide statistics showed that the violence was largely focused on Afrodescendants. A number of population graphics showed that in Brazil inequality among “race groups” was striking. Education and access to labour markets were important topics for Afro-descendants. Between 2004 and 2014, the income earnings of Afro-descendants increased by 55 per cent and inequality did decrease. That was a good first step. It was now key to increase access for Afro-descendants to the labour market, in particular when it came to jobs that required education. Education was therefore essential. Brazil still had to manage high drop-out rates among Afro-descendants, even though in that area progress had also been made. The drop-out rate for children aged 7 to 14 fell from 15 per cent to 2per cent. For teenagers the dropout rate was still 15per cent. Mr. Paixao also stressed the importance of political representation for minorities and Afro-Brazilian people in the country’s context. 47. Ms. Eaddy briefed the Working Group on the correlation between racism and poverty: income inequality, education and access to technology. She focused on the United States of America and examined the disparity in household wealth, home ownership and access to education between ethnic groups. She highlighted the fact that in particular when it came to technology-related jobs, ethnic minorities were underrepresented. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, showed that by 2020 there would be 1.4 million new computer science jobs in the United States. At the same time, the average technology 11