From The World Bank's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network (PREM)
October 2013 | Number 125
Abstract
Although the world witnessed an unprecedented pace of poverty reduction over the last decades, reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty by more than 700 million, approximately 1.2 billion people remained entrenched in destitution in 2010. In order to leverage developing country efforts and galvanize the international development community to exert concerted effort to end extreme poverty, the World Bank has established the twin goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and promoting shared prosperity by fostering income growth of the bottom 40 percent of the population in very country . Ending extreme poverty in just one generation is a formidable challenge by all accounts that requires a thorough understanding of the state of the poor.
Why is this relevant for Equity for Children?
Children are more likely to be in extreme poverty than others. While the number of people struggling to survive in extreme poverty around the world has declined over the past three decades, in 2010 it still included roughly 400 million children. According to this new World Bank analysis, a third of all poor in the developing world are children of up to 12 years of age. This pattern is most dramatic in low-income countries, where half of all children live in poverty. It is important to note these figures were captured using the $1.25 a day poverty line, which severely underestimates the number of people struggling to stay alive under such abysmal conditions.
To download the full report from The World Bank, please click here.
