Poverty Eradication: The Role of Nigerian Libraries towards the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Abstract

Poverty has been identified as the major source of widening global inequalities and underdevelopment at individual, organizational and national levels. The UN Sustainable Development Goals placed a great deal of priority in the eradication of all forms of poverty by the year 2030. The paper examined the roles of Nigerian libraries towards the achievement of this laudable goal. It canvasses the idea that poverty eradication is possible through the availability, accessibility and utilization of appropriate information resulting in requisite capacity building and empowerment of the Nigerian citizens. The paper identified specific interventions to be used by libraries in poverty alleviation to include: entrepreneurship empowerment, information literacy skills, information repackaging for the illiterate, lifelong learning initiatives, agricultural extension services, consultancy services, information dissemination services, provision of ICT skills education, improving reading culture and mobile library services. It concluded that libraries have the unlimited propensity to catalyse human capital development, productivity and reduction of poverty.