WHAT'S THE ISSUE?
Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than USD $1.90 per day. This figure was recently revised by the World Bank from USD $1.25 per day (check out “It’s now more expensive than ever to be poor” to understand why and how).
60% of those struggling to survive on this meagre amount live in just 5 countries: India, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But there’s been a dramatic decline in extreme poverty over the past fifteen years, from 1.93 billion to 836 million, and in the past 12 months alone approximately 90 million people have been lifted out of poverty.
HOW DID GLOBAL CITIZENS RESPOND?
Global citizens rallied behind Action Journeys on GlobalCitizen.org, calling on various world leaders to advance the Global Goals. Approximately 1.5 million actions were taken within the Actions Journeys on issues ranging from girls’ education to polio eradication. Finally, almost 60,000 individuals demonstrated their support for ending extreme poverty from Central Park’s Great Lawn at the 2015 Global Citizen Festival.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT?
Taking into account the economic slowdown in China and a number of complex conflicts currently occurring, 80 million individuals are projected to leave the extreme poverty category during the next year.
However, World Bank president Jim Yong Kim believes we can do better. With strategic investment in areas such as education, health and disaster risk reduction, an additional 20 million people can be liberated from extreme poverty.
The World Bank, in partnership with the International Monetary Fund, has accepted the challenge to lift an additional 20 million people out of extreme poverty by October 2016, taking the total number of those lifted from extreme poverty to 100 million over the next 12 months.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
While this ambitious commitment will require the collaborative efforts of many, the World Bank and IMF will play leading roles. The World Bank will outline a plan to achieve the commitment and has pledged to report on progress.
Global Poverty Project will continue to work with the World Bank and IMF to achieve this commitment, and will call for the World Bank to continue setting similar goals each year through 2030.
This piece was contributed by Sophie Goulter, Impact Support Officer at Global Poverty Project.