There is no silver bullet to ending poverty, and strategies to reach the least well-off must be tailored to each country’s context, taking into account the latest data and analysis and the needs of the people. Changes in global weather patterns induced by human activity are unprecedented. The current moment of crisis is extraordinary. No prior disease has become a global threat so quickly as COVID-19. Never have the world’s poorest people resided so disproportionately in conflict-affected territories and countries. History shows that urgent and collective action can help us tackle this crisis. Under these conditions, the goal of bringing the global absolute poverty rate to less than 3 percent by 2030, which was already at risk before the crisis, is now beyond reach without swift, significant, and substantial policy action. The latest research suggests that the effects of the current crisis will almost certainly be felt in most countries through 2030. Without an adequate global response, the cumulative effects of the pandemic and its economic fallout, armed conflict, and climate change will exact high human and economic costs well into the future. The newest and most immediate threat to poverty reduction, COVID-19, has unleashed a worldwide economic disaster whose shock waves continue to spread.
Climate change is a particularly acute threat for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia - the regions where most of the global poor are concentrated. In a number of countries, a large share of the poor live in areas that are both affected by conflict and facing high exposure to floods - for example, Nepal, Cameroon, Liberia, and the Central African Republic. New research estimates that climate change will drive 68 million to 132 million into poverty by 2030. Middle-income countries such as India and Nigeria will be significantly affected middle-income countries may be home to about 80 percent of the new poor.
The World Bank Group’s goals are to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.