poverty - Afrikan Heroes

150 Million People may face extreme poverty in 2021

October 12, 2020

World Bank Group President David Malpass

A report released by the World Bank on Wednesday reveals that the coronavirus pandemic could put almost 150 million people into extreme poverty by the end of 2021, wiping out over three years of progress in poverty reduction. The flagship biennial report on poverty and shared prosperity reveals that an addition of 88 million to 115 million people will fall into extreme poverty. This means that in 2020 115 million lived on less than $1.90 a day, and could grow to 111 million to 150 million by the end of 2021.

This also indicates that an estimate of 9.1-9.4 percent of the world’s population would be living under extreme poverty this year, representing the first rise in the extreme poverty percentage in about 20 years.

In a statement released by the World Bank President, David Malpass, “the pandemic and global recession may cause over 1.4 percent of the world’s population to fall into extreme poverty, leading to serious setbacks in development progress and poverty reduction.”

Before the pandemic, the extreme poverty rate was estimated at about 8.4 percent in 2019, and was expected to drop to 7.5 percent by 2021. According to the report, countries that fall in the category of extreme poor countries are those who already have a high poverty rate before the pandemic.

Almost 82 percent of these countries were originally categorized as middle-income countries, where the poverty line is defined as income of $3.20 a day, and $5.50 a day for upper-middle-income countries. This reveals that not just the rural areas but also a lot of urban dwellers are at risk of facing extreme poverty, as businesses suffer and unemployment increases due to the pandemic.

Sub- Saharan Africa, which has the highest number of those living on less than $1.90 a day, could see an increase of over 50 million people by 2021. Pre-coronavirus estimates show that about 42 percent of the region’s population could be living under extreme poverty by 2021 versus a pre-COVID estimate of 37.8 percent.

However, the report reveals that without swift, substantial policy actions by these countries, a longstanding goal of cutting the rate to 3 percent by 2030 seemed impossible. For countries to get back on track of poverty reduction, the World Bank says countries need to take a collective action to control the virus, provide support for households and build more resilient economies once the pandemic subsides.

“Countries will need to prepare for a different economy post-COVID, by allowing capital, labor, skills and innovation to move into new businesses and sectors,” Malpass said.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

World Bank Sets New target for cutting “Learning Poverty”

October 22, 2019

THE World Bank said at the just concluded IMF/World Bank annual meetings introduced an ambitious new Learning Target, which aims to cut by at least half the global rate of Learning Poverty by 2030. Learning Poverty is defined as the percentage of 10-year-olds who cannot read and understand a simple story.

Using a database developed jointly with the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, the Bank estimates that 53 percent of children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a simple story by the end of primary school. In poor countries, the level is as high as 80 percent. Such high levels of learning poverty are an early warning sign that all global educational goals and other related sustainable development goals are in jeopardy.

“Success in reaching this learning target is critical to our mission,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said. According to him, tackling learning poverty will require comprehensive reforms to ensure domestic resources are used effectively.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

Efforts Launched to Bridge Growing Poverty Gap in Africa

October 17, 2019

THE conversation on ways to reduce poverty and spur growth at the ongoing IMF/World Bank meetings was, indeed a harvest of ideas. Jordan’s Minister of Planning, Mr Mohammed Al-Assiss, who was in the discussion panel, identified energy as a huge handicap in the country’s effort to stem the tide of poverty.

Jordan’s Minister of Planning, Mr Mohammed Al-Assiss

For Republic of Niger Minister of Planning Madame Aichatou Kane, her country is doing its best to transform the economic landscape and empower the people to excel and overcome poverty while Kenya proudly announced that it was, indeed, taking giant strides to effectively handle the issue of job creation for its youths.

The Governor, Central Bank of Kenya, Mr Patrick Njuroge, observed that though the issue of poverty might be huge in Africa, there was need to demonstrate sensitivity to the needs of the people. He was however optimistic that the African Continental Free Trade Area holds plenty of promise to the people and will help spur growth in needed ways.

President of the World Bank, Mr David Malpass, who played the neutral role of encouraging discussion in the crucial areas of economic development, commended the efforts of many countries in Africa but called for transparency and connectivity with the people in dealing with the issues inimical to growth and wealth creation.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

You Can’t Fight Poverty Without Population Control

July 13, 2019

Africa has the largest expanse of arable land in the world. It has the highest number of young population. In fact, it is designated as the youngest continent in the world. Yet Africa cannot feed itself. The continent is filled with growing poverty, while the leadership waste time from one talk shop to another.

Why is Africa poor, and growing poorer and poorer? Because the poor produce their like; more poor people. Given that Africa is brimming with poor people mass producing poor offsprings with clueless governments with no concrete plans to address the issue. Africa will impede global efforts to eradicate poverty by 2050.

It is projected that the world’s population will continue to grow and will reach nearly 10 billion by 2050.

While population growth is slowing significantly in many parts of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa is witnessing the opposite as its population is projected to double by 2050, an expansion of nearly 10 times relative to 1960, from 227 million to 2.2 billion.

As a result, the share of Sub-Saharan Africa in the world’s population is projected to grow as well. In 1960, it was just 7%, but this has increased to 14 % in 2018 and is projected to reach 23 percent by 2050.

Globally, almost 1 in 4 people will be Sub-Saharan African in 2050, the ratio was 1 in 13 in 1960. This is a huge leap.

The global population was around 3 billion in 1960. By 1987, in less than three decades, it had surpassed 5 billion and there were around 7.6 billion people in the world in 2018.

This growth varies greatly across regions. Since 1960, the largest relative growth has taken place in Sub-Saharan Africa where the population expanded from 227 million in 1960 to more than 1 billion in 2018—a nearly fivefold increase.

This is largely due to continuously higher fertility rates in Sub-Saharan Africa compared to the rest of the world. Today, on average, women in Sub-Saharan Africa have 4.8 children per woman, compared with less than 3 children per woman worldwide.

The fertility rate in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to remain substantially higher than in any other region for the next few decades. This can only be brought to check if governments embark on a massive campaign to achieve higher education rates for today’s girl child because the fertility rates of women drop with higher academic pursuits.

The interconnectedness between education and population growth cannot be overemphasized. The size of the world’s population is the result of fertility and mortality in the past years – births and deaths.

In fact, there is a strong correlation between fertility and mortality. Women tend to have more children where children are more likely to die and bear fewer children where their child’s risk of dying is lower. And maternal literacy remains a weapon against high infant mortality.

There is a clear correlation between rising population and a rising poverty rate. The poorer a society, the higher the population growth rate, bringing this down, you will also discover that even within a poor society, the poorest in that setting tend to have more children.

Another instructive but very curious correlation is between high population growth in Africa and security challenges. While a country like Niger has the highest fertility rate per woman in the region, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo are driving the population growth in the region.

And the two are also experiencing some of the most destabilizing security challenges in the country, leading many to believe that there is a correlation between unbridled population growth and growing insecurity.

A new study by Population Action International (PAI), suggests a strong correlation between countries prone to civil conflicts and those with burgeoning youth populations.

Social scientists label this demographic profile “youth bulge,” and its potential to destabilize countries in the developing world is gaining wider acceptance among the foreign policy community.

The theory contends that societies with rapidly growing young populations often end up with rampant unemployment and large pools of disaffected youths who are more susceptible to recruitment into a rebel or terrorist groups. Countries with weak political institutions are most vulnerable to youth-bulge-related violence and social unrest.

Also when you take into consideration, the fact that more kids are born in internally displaced camps than in a normal environment. The dangers we face becomes clearer.

Going through all acclaimed pro-poor policies of this government, one wonders how they plan to tackle poverty while romancing population growth.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

Afrikan Heroes

Tag: poverty

150 Million People may face extreme poverty in 2021

Kelechi Deca

World Bank Sets New target for cutting “Learning Poverty”

Efforts Launched to Bridge Growing Poverty Gap in Africa

You Can’t Fight Poverty Without Population Control

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