No Poverty

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

• [New] After making significant gains in poverty reduction in the past few years, South Asia is projected to experience a resurgence in extreme poverty.
• The impact on global poverty is expected to be severe, with the World Bank projecting 71 million additional people falling into extreme poverty.
• On current trends, Africa remains off track to meet the target of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.
• The UN remains committed to the existing timeline of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end global poverty in all its forms and to reduce inequality within every country by 2030.
• Global economic growth could rebound next year but the number of people living in extreme poverty is expected to remain unchanged..
• The world could see its first increase in extreme poverty in 22 years, further sharpening social inequities.
• Some 50 million people risk falling into extreme poverty in 2020 owing to the pandemic.
• In Pakistan, poverty is expected to rise from 50 million to 125 million people, while in Lebanon poverty levels may reach 50% and extreme poverty double from 10 to 20% in 2020.
• In a scenario where consumption falls by a fifth, the number of people living in extreme poverty could increase in 2020 by between 420 million and 580 million.
• 6% of the global population would still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, missing the target of ending poverty.
• An estimated 71 million people are expected to be pushed back into extreme poverty in 2020, the first rise in global poverty since 1998, and by the year 2030, more than 100 million people would have relapsed into poverty.
• The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession are set to trigger the first increase in global poverty in three decades, pushing 265 million people to the point of starvation by the end of the year.
• As many as 100 million people are expected to be pushed back into extreme poverty in 2020 - the first rise in global poverty since 1998.
• As many as half a billion people could be pushed into poverty and three dozen countries could experience famines in 2020, pushing an additional 130 million people to the brink of starvation.
• The World Bank has projected a significant rise to the number of people living below the poverty level - up to 52% by end of 2020.
• The World Bank predicts the first rise in extreme poverty in two decades, with an additional 71-100 million people living on less than $1.90 per day.
• 29 million people in Latin America could fall into poverty, reversing a decade of efforts to narrow income inequality.
• Reducing income inequality in society must become a key strategy to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.
• The 'poverty miracle' scenario, which relies on the highly ambitious assumptions of 9.7% annual average growth in GDP per capita and 50% reduction in cumulative income inequality, would lower the number of people in extreme poverty from 653 million to 230 million people by 2030, a decline of 65%.
• If the 2.5% GDP per capita growth rate in the least-developed countries in the past ten years is maintained during the decade of action, income inequality would need to be reduced by 75% to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.
• A reduction in income inequality can provide critical momentum toward the global goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.
• Poverty rates have edged higher in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Western Asia: The latest projections suggest that in 2020 alone, COVID-19 pandemic could lead to up to 49 million people falling into poverty.

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Last updated: 20 September 2020