The World Bank has estimated that global extreme poverty is expected to rise in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Specifically, the Washington-based institution estimated that the pandemic would push an additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty this year, with the total rising to as many as 150 million by 2021, depending on the severity of the economic contraction.
It stated this in its biennial ‘Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report,’ released ahead of the 2020 virtual Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It defined extreme poverty as living on less than $1.90 a day, adding that it was likely to affect between 9.1 per cent and 9.4 per cent of the world’s population in 2020.
This would represent a regression to the rate of 9.2 per cent in 2017. Had the pandemic not convulsed the globe, the poverty rate was expected to drop to 7.9 per cent in 2020.
The Bank had in June, predicted that there would be 95.7 million Nigerians living below the poverty line by 2022, due to the impact of the virus.
But in the latest report, the President, World Bank Group, David Malpass said: “The pandemic and global recession may cause over 1.4 per cent of the world’s population to fall into extreme poverty.
“In order to reverse this serious setback to development progress and poverty reduction, countries will need to prepare for a different economy post-COVID, by allowing capital, labour, skills, and innovation to move into new businesses and sectors. World Bank Group support—across IBRD, IDA, IFC and MIGA—will help developing countries resume growth and respond to the health, social, and economic impacts of COVID-19 as they work toward a sustainable and inclusive recovery.”
The report also estimated that many of the new poor would be in countries that already have high poverty rates.
A number of middle-income countries would see significant numbers of people slip below the extreme poverty line.
About 82 per cent of the total will be in middle-income countries, the report predicted.
The convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic with the pressures of conflict and climate change will put the goal of ending poverty by 2030 beyond reach without swift, significant and substantial policy action, the World Bank said.
By 2030, the global poverty rate could be about seven per cent.
“Increasing numbers of urban dwellers are expected to fall into extreme poverty, which has traditionally affected people in rural areas.
“Progress was slowing even before the COVID-19 crisis. New global poverty data for 2017 shows that 52 million people rose out of poverty between 2015 and 2017. Yet despite this progress, the rate of reduction slowed to less than half a percentage point per year between 2015 and 2017. Global poverty had dropped at the rate of around one percentage point per year between 1990 and 2015,” it added.
In addition to the $1.90-per-day international poverty line, the World Bank measures poverty lines of $3.20 and $5.50, reflecting national poverty lines in lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income countries.
The report further measured poverty across a multidimensional spectrum that included access to education and basic infrastructure.
“While less than a tenth of the world’s population lives on less than $1.90 a day, close to a quarter of the world’s population lives below the $3.20 line and more than 40 per cent of the world’s population – almost 3.3 billion people – live below the $5.50 line.
“The COVID-19 crisis has also diminished shared prosperity – defined as the growth in the income of the poorest 40 per cent of a country’s population. Average global shared prosperity is estimated to stagnate or even contract over 2019-2021 due to the reduced growth in average incomes.
“The deceleration in economic activity intensified by the pandemic is likely to hit the poorest people especially hard, and this could lead to even lower shared prosperity indicators in the coming years.
“The prospect of less inclusive growth is a clear reversal from previous trends.
Shared prosperity increased in 74 of 91 economies for which data was available in the period 2012-2017, meaning that growth was inclusive and the incomes of the poorest 40 per cent of the population grew. In 53 of those countries, growth benefited the poorest more than the entire population. Average global shared prosperity (growth in the incomes of the bottom 40 per cent) was 2.3 per cent for 2012-2017. This suggests that without policy actions, the COVID-19 crisis may trigger cycles of higher income inequality, lower social mobility among the vulnerable, and lower resilience to future shocks,” it added.
