Poverty

WHAT'S NEXT?: Due to a deteriorating global economic outlook, more than 130 out of 189 countries will experience reduced income growth, with the average global GDP growth rate falling from 4.1 percent to 3.1 percent between 2011 and 2030. Almost all of the countries with large numbers remaining in extreme poverty in 2030 will be in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia.

[New] If implemented fully, the trade pact could boost regional income by 7% or US$ 450 billion, speed up wage growth for women, and lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035.
[New] A record 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021, a 40% increase that the UN attributes almost entirely to Covid-19.
[New] Africa and South Asia see particularly rapid improvements within the next 20-30 years and, by 2050, only a few countries in Africa still have notably high levels of gender inequality.
[New] As the UN's Global Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2021 laid out in stark terms, 235 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
[New] Despite being a water-rich zone, climate projection models suggest that by 2050, between 52-146 million people living in South Asia could face increased water scarcity due to climate change, accounting for 18% of the global population exposed to water scarcity.
[New] Concern Worldwide, is already calling for an urgent international response to meet the needs of millions of people and avert multiple humanitarian crises including famine in 2021.
[New] India, meanwhile, the world's third largest annual emitter, is the only Group of 20 country on track to limit temperature rise to 2 C by 2100, despite needing to lift many of its people out of poverty.
The need for international humanitarian assistance will reach a record high in 2021: more than 230 million people will be dependent on assistance.
Worldwide, COVID-19 could push up to 115 million people into extreme poverty in 2020, the first increase in global extreme poverty in over two decades - and advocates warn the world's poorest may be among the last to receive a vaccine.
By the end of 2021, the UN expects the number of people facing starvation to have doubled to 270 million in 8 countries.
Humanitarian crises are worsening around the world, with 235 million people expected to be in need of urgent assistance compared to 175 million people at the start of 2020.
In Zimbabwe, an estimated 7.9 million people, including 4.1 million children, will be in urgent need of life-saving health services and humanitarian assistance in 2021 due to multiple hazards, including the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the economic crisis.
If the $3.39 billion in tax that South Africa loses every year to tax abuse was instead given as direct cash transfers of $85 per month to people living in poverty, over 3 million people could be lifted out of poverty.
Fragile and conflict-affected states, like Yemen and Sudan, and other remittance-dependent countries, such as Egypt, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan, could collectively see up to 1.3 million more people living in extreme poverty in 2020.
The number of people in extreme poverty will rise by about 100 million in 2020, the first global increase in 20 years.
For the first time in 20 years, global poverty rates are increasing - with the World Bank estimating that 150 million people will be pushed into poverty in 2020.
Extreme poverty is set to rise in 2020, for the first time in more than two decades, while the impact of the spreading virus is expected to push up to 115 million more people into poverty.
The 'Baseline Covid' scenario, based on current mortality rates and the most recent growth projections by the International Monetary Fund, would result in 44 million more people living in extreme poverty by 2030 compared to the development trajectory the world was on before the coronavirus pandemic.
A record 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021, an increase of 40% from 2020 due to the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Without ambitious climate action and disaster risk reduction, climate-related disasters could double the number of people requiring humanitarian assistance to over 200 million each year by 2050.
UNICEF underscored the economic impact of the virus lockdown on children and warned the number of Middle Eastern and North African children languishing in poverty could top 60 million by the end of 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic is only the latest example of the multi-faceted crises our societies are confronted with and which could push 150 million more people into extreme poverty by 2021.
The world pledged to end extreme poverty, ensure universal health care, and provide education for all children by 2030; countries would decarbonize the world's energy system to head off the dire risks of human-induced climate change.

Last updated: 15 January 2021

Poverty

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