Poverty seems to be witnessed everywhere in the world according to current social and economic disasters. Combatting the global poverty crisis is an important goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than $2.15 per day per person at 2017 purchasing power parity, which has seen a drop in current years. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the rise of people living in poverty in the span of a generation by approximately 90 million as compared to previous predictions.
If the recent patterns continue, an approximately 7 percent of the world population, which is around 575 million people, could find themselves living in extreme poverty in 2030, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Significant Rise in Poverty
The COVID-19 pandemic sent the world reeling back into the depths of poverty. However, before the pandemic, the speed of poverty reduction was slowing with extreme indigence falling from 10.8 pc in 2015 to 8.4 pc in 2019.
In the year 2020, the percentage of people swamped in extreme poverty rose to 724 million, beating the pre-pandemic levels by 90 million and leading to a three-year’ reversal of advancement on poverty reduction.
Improvement from the pandemic has been slow and unequal, with the estimation of poverty dropping from 9.3 pc in 2020 to 8.8 pc in 2021. Around 41 percent of low-income countries experienced an accelerated rate of poverty in 2021 compared with the year before that, whereas only 13 percent of middle-income countries experienced poverty.
The main reasons behind these estimates lie in the wake of the war in Ukraine which has played havoc with global trade, leading to an uptick in living costs, further impacting the poor. Moreover, climate change also poses a significant threat to poverty reduction.
According to new estimates, climate change can lead to 68 million to 135 million living in poverty by 2030. The threat of climate change is more rampant in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Its impact can also include an increase in food prices, worsening health conditions, and being subject to disasters.
Protection against poverty remains low
In a post-pandemic word, there has been a significant amount of realization of social protection systems. However, in 2020 only 26.4 pc of children under the age of 15 were the recipients of social protection cash benefits, in contrast to 77.5 pc of older people.
In addition to this, in 2020, national expenditures on social protection for children and the elderly are low, with middle-income countries spending 0.5 pc and 1.4 pc of GDP whereas lower middle-income countries spent 0.1 pc and 0.8 pc of GDP.
In reciprocation to the cost of living crisis, 105 countries and territories set forth 350 social protection measures between February 2022 and February 2023. Despite this, over 80 percent of these measures were brief and 47 percent were general income support for the poor and vulnerable.
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, countries must apply nationally suitable universal and sustainable social protection systems for everybody.
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Eliminating poverty
Under the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the world has seen a downward trend in disaster-related deaths. The global average annual number of deaths or missing persons per 100,000 population has gone down globally, from 1.64 pc between 2005 and 2015 to 0.86 between 2012 and 2021.
Moreover, the Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020 report consists of recommendations for a two-track approach which includes, responding to urgent crises all the while focusing on foundational development problems, which include conflict and climate change, to attain the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
Furthermore, another initiative could include reducing the gap between policy aspiration and attainment, polishing learning and upgrading data, investing in preparedness and prevention expanding cooperation and coordination, and finally realizing what makes these challenges so impactful toward the poor.
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