A report from the Brookings Institute is the latest to dampen the extreme poverty eradication mood. The researchers show that even with inclusive growth, it is going to be really hard to completely eliminate extreme poverty by 2030.
Roughly 300 million people will remain in extreme poverty in 2030. Getting to that point will be a remarkable accomplishment and not due to a lack of achievement. The problem is that moving people out of poverty is a slow process, says the report’s authors.
You are probably wondering what this means, in the end. As Laurence Chandy explains:
If the global community wishes to focus on the world’s gravest needs, then a greater focus on Africa is surely justified. The rise in Africa’s share of global poverty expected over the next two decades is startling, as is the distance from the international poverty line that most of the region’s extreme poor currently stand. The term “extreme poor” doesn’t seem to do these people justice. Furthermore, the large number of individuals whose escape from extreme poverty is constrained by both being both too slow and too far behind gives some indication as to the complexity of solving Africa’s poverty challenge. Without a concerted effort, the goal of eliminating poverty in a generation will remain just a vision.
