COVID-19 Pandemic Threatens Decades Of Progress On Global Poverty, Report Says

Devex: COVID-19 threatens decades of progress on global poverty, report says
“The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to create a ‘new era’ of poverty, putting decades of progress at risk, research from the United Nations University suggests. In a worst-case scenario, more than half a billion people — almost 8% of the global population — could be pushed into poverty as a result of the pandemic, according to modeling by researchers at UNU’s World Institute for Development Economics Research…” (Worley, 4/9).

Slate: Global Poverty Could Increase for the First Time in 30 Years Thanks to the Coronavirus
“…The report from the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University, a U.N.-founded think tank, finds that if global incomes drop 5 percent due to the pandemic — a conservative estimate of the likely consequences from multiple months of lockdown — the number of people living in extreme poverty (measured as wages of $1.90 per day) would increase by 1 percent. A more drastic 10 percent contraction would increase the extreme poverty rate by up to 6 percent. The U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, which call for entirely eliminating extreme poverty by 2030, are looking very shaky right now…” (Keating, 4/8).

Additional coverage of the UNU’s report and the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on global economies is available from Devex (2), The Guardian, New York Times, Quartz Africa, and U.N. News (2).

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