23:58 10 January 2021
Covid-19 increases global poverty
The World Bank has issued another report on poverty. Previous reports of this type of poverty have been rather difficult – saying that the world is not on track to meet the global goal of reducing extreme poverty to 3 percent by 2030.
This release brings even worse news: Covid-19, along with conflicts and climate change, not only slowed global poverty reduction but reversed the trend for the first time in more than twenty years.
Covid-19 is projected to push up to 100 million additional people into extreme poverty in 2020, and over the next decade, trends in global poverty rates will reverse for at least three years. Currently 40 percent of the world's poor live in unstable or conflict-affected regions, and by 2030 this figure could reach two-thirds. The effects of climate change can lead to poverty between about 65-129 million people over the same period.
Reversing the trend will require an effective response to Covid-19, global conflicts, and climate change without losing sight of the challenges most poor people grapple with most of the time.
So, solving new problems requires quick learning, open cooperation, and strategic coordination by everyone: from political leaders and scientists to practitioners and citizens, believes the World Bank.
