At Least 1.1 Billion People Live in Poverty Worldwide
A Palestinian woman in Gaza, Oct. 2024. X/ @SdfPal
October 17, 2024 Hour: 9:53 am
Among them are 455 million people residing in countries at war or in fragile peace.
On Thursday, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the University of Oxford published the 2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index Report, which shows that at least 1.1 billion people are living in poverty. Among them are 455 million people residing in countries at war or in fragile peace.
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More than half of the poor, 584 million, are children, and the situation is generally worse in rural areas, where 28 percent of the global population is poor, compared to urban areas, where this condition affects 6.6 percent of the population.
A large portion of the population living in poverty (83.2 percent of the 1.1 billion) is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa (553 million) and South Asia (402 million).
Within sub-Saharan Africa, subregions like the Sahel or the eastern part of the continent are particularly affected, according to the UNDP-Oxford report, which identified Niger, Chad, the Central African Republic, Burundi, Madagascar, and Mali as the poorest countries in the region.
Two-thirds of poverty is concentrated in middle-income countries, where 749 million people live in such conditions, according to the UNDP, which also notes that 579 million people lack electricity, and 482 million live in families where one or more children have had to drop out of school.
War and Poverty
The UNDP-Oxford report shows that 34.8 percent of people living in war-torn countries are poor. In countries without war, the poverty rate is 10.9 percent. Of the 455 million poor people living in conflict-affected countries, 218 million are in nations at war.
“Conflicts have intensified and multiplied in recent years, reaching new numbers of victims, displacing millions of people, and causing widespread disruptions in lives and livelihoods,” emphasized Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.
“Our new research shows that of the 1.1 billion people living in multidimensional poverty, nearly 500 million live in countries exposed to violent conflict. We must accelerate efforts to support them. We need resources and access to specialized development and early recovery interventions to help break the cycle of poverty and crisis,” he added.
Multidimensional Poverty
Countries at war face greater deprivations across the ten indicators of multidimensional poverty, highlighting the devastating impact of conflict on the world’s most vulnerable populations. In conflict-affected countries, more than one in four poor people lack access to electricity, compared to just over one in twenty in more stable regions.
“This study provides the first global analysis on this scale that examines how the multidimensional poor are affected in conflict environments. Unfortunately, poverty reduction is slower in conflict situations, meaning the poor in these areas are being left behind. These numbers demand a response: we cannot end poverty without investing in peace” said Sabina Alkire, Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.
The UNDP-Oxford report delves into the case of Afghanistan, where an additional 5.3 million people fell into multidimensional poverty during the turbulent period spanning from 2015-2016 to 2022-2023. In the 2022-2023 biennium, nearly two-thirds of Afghans were poor (64.9 percent).
The Multidimensional Poverty Index considers ten indicators: nutrition and child mortality in health; years of schooling and school attendance in education; type of cooking fuel, hygiene, drinking water, electricity, building materials for housing, and assets, in the standard of living.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE – UNDP
