Extreme poverty set for first rise since 1998

[Eldorado]

Extreme poverty is set to rise this year for the first time in more than two decades, with coronavirus expected to push up to 115 million people into that category, the World Bank has said.

The pandemic is compounding the forces of conflict and climate change, which were already slowing poverty reduction, the bank said.

By 2021, this could rise to as many as 150 million, it added.

Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than $1.90 (£1.50) a day.

Full report at the BBC: Link

[khol]

Jeffrey Sachs, as one of the world’s leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty, stated that the cost to end poverty is $175 billion per year for 20 years. This yearly amount is less than 1 percent of the combined income of the richest countries in the world, and only four times the United States’ military budget for one year.

Ending poverty is possible and at a low cost. Now we just need ordinary citizens as well as multinational corporations to start meeting their responsibilities to help the poor and the left behind.

– Léa Gorius

https://borgenproject.org/how-much-does-it-cost-to-end-poverty/

Yet global military budgets rose in 2019 to above one trillion

https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2020/global-military-expenditure-sees-largest-annual-increase-decade-says-sipri-reaching-1917-billion#:~:text=(Stockholm%2C 27 April 2020),Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

What does this say about humanity? The resources are there from a monetary standpoint. Perhaps the question is why we lack the compassion and motivation to do so..

Edited October 8, 2020 by khol