ABSTRACT
The Sustainable Development Goals concerning poverty, hunger, and access to water are essential for saving lives and ensure that basic necessities are provided to all humans. This chapter charts out how growth economics has lifted most of the global population out of poverty, but highlights the dilemma of such social progress happening on the back of growth. Within an era of limits, a possible new balance between State–Market and Livelihood would look very different in the Global South as compared to the Global North. Those who have yet to cross the threshold of significant poverty elimination have an entirely different set of priorities than countries that should be prioritizing constraint and degrowth. These changes within developed economies will have cascading impacts through to the Global South. Thus, this chapter suggests that a more regional focus for the expansion of price-setting markets, coupled with the retention of skill labour and revitalization of a complex and diverse local workforce, will enhance the capacity of regional hubs in the Global South. This chapter uses the example of how the UN has approached the topic of hunger to demonstrate that the current SDGs do not empower local livelihood – but instead contribute to the desolation of localized cultures.
