This decade, which is coming to an end, will have seen advances in the world on many fronts, notes a report of the World Bank. Among these breakthroughs is the fact that the poorest countries have managed to develop access to electricity, water and sanitation. Poverty and infant mortality rates have declined sharply. Technology has grown so much that the number of mobile phones now exceeds that of the people on earth.
The report notes, however, that this decade is also marked by dramatic records. In 2019, the number of people displaced against their will reached an unprecedented level in history. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has never been higher, while biodiversity is shrinking faster.
800 million people got out of extreme poverty in 15 countries.
According to a new World Bank analysis, between 2000 and 2015, 15 countries managed to get 802.1 million people out of extreme poverty. Seven of them are in sub-Saharan Africa, two of which are considered fragile states, proof that it is possible to reduce poverty even in the most difficult circumstances. More than a third of the world's population lived in extreme poverty 30 years ago. Today, less than 10% of the world's people live on less than $ 1.90 a day.
85% of the world's poor live in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
According to the most recent data, half of the 736 million people living in extreme poverty in 2015 were concentrated in only five countries of the world: India, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Ethiopia and Bangladesh. In order to reduce extreme poverty worldwide, it is crucial to accelerate progress in these five countries and more generally in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where 85% (629 million inhabitants) living in extreme poverty around the world.
Corneille Kinsala N’soki
(CKS/Yes)