WB: 2030 new deadline to end extreme poverty

WB: 2030 new deadline to end extreme poverty

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To boost the incomes of the poorest 40 percent of population in each country, the World Bank has outlined a bold agenda to end extreme poverty by 2030 in a bid to promote shared prosperity.

“We are at an auspicious moment in history when the successes of past decades and an increasingly favourable economic outlook combine to give developing countries a chance - for the first time ever - to end extreme poverty within a generation …,” said the World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim in a speech given at Georgetown University.

“Our duty now must be to ensure that these favourable circumstances are matched with deliberate decisions to realise this historic opportunity ….”

Speaking in advance of the upcoming World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings, Kim observed that developing economies rebounded quickly from the crisis and are now in a fundamentally sound position.

He attributed it to greater macroeconomic stability, a stronger rule of law, and increased investments in human capital and infrastructure.

It is worth noting as Kim pointed out, it is also due to productivity growth in the private sector which is the source of 90 percent of all jobs.

Kim noted that the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG), to halve extreme poverty, was achieved in 2010 and that is five years ahead of set time.

He explained it as being the result of developing countries spending years investing in social safety nets and working hard to build the fiscal space as well as creating the macroeconomic buffers needed to respond effectively should a crisis hit.

To achieve the more difficult goal of virtually eliminating extreme poverty, Kim described three necessary factors.

First, to reach the goal by 2030 will require an acceleration of the growth rate observed over the past 15 years and in particular sustained high growth in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Second, it will require efforts to enhance inclusiveness and curb inequality, and ensure that growth translates into poverty reduction and this must most importantly be through job creation.

Third, it will require that potential shocks such as food shortages, fuel inadequacy, financial crisis and climatic disasters are to be averted or mitigated.

“To reach the 2030 goal, we must halve poverty once, then halve it again, and then nearly halve it a third time, all in less than one generation.” Kim explained.

He asserted that to meet global challenges, fighting extreme poverty alone is not enough but rather he advises that “We must collectively work to help all vulnerable people everywhere to lift themselves well above the poverty line …,” and that he explained is, by the World Bank Group, referred to as, boosting shared prosperity.

“Our work is in any country where there are poor people, or where people face economic exclusion. This goal will ensure we address the priorities of equity and inclusion more systematically in all of our strategic decision making …,” Kim said.

Kim made clear that ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity are not goals which the World Bank Group itself will achieve and given that fact he called on the 188 member countries to participate fully.



SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

 
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