Ending World Poverty

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Ending extreme poverty around the world has a deadline: 2030.  At least that is the date set by the World Bank, the main global organization that fights it. The World Bank recognizes that achieving this objective within 15 years will be difficult -- but not impossible -- despite the global economic slowdown, the end of the commodities boom and capital flight from emerging markets.
Reasons for optimism include the fact that this year, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty around the world will fall below 10%. In other words, people whose income falls below US$1.90 per day, according to the global poverty line recently adjusted by the World Bank.
According to the experts, the implementation of poverty reduction policies for more than a quarter century is responsible for this decline.

•  According to the most recent estimates, in 2013, 10.7 percent of the world’s population lived on less than US$1.90 a day, compared to 12.4 percent in 2012. That’s down from 35 percent in 1990. 
• Nearly 1.1 billion people have moved out of extreme poverty since 1990. In 2013, 767 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day, down from 1.85 billion in 1990. 

While poverty rates have declined in all regions, progress has been uneven:

• The reduction in extreme poverty between 2012 and 2013 was mainly driven by East Asia and Pacific (71 million fewer poor)—notably China and Indonesia—and South Asia (37 million fewer poor)—notably India. 
• Half of the extreme poor live in Sub-Saharan Africa. The number of poor in the region fell only by 4 million with 389 million people living on less than US$1.90 a day in 2013, more than all the other regions combined. 
• A vast majority of the global poor live in rural areas and are poorly educated, mostly employed in the agricultural sector, and over half are under 18 years of age.
• These statistics all concern extreme poverty.  You have probably noticed that the U.S. and Western Europe do not have extreme poverty.  The percentage of countries with extreme poverty has dropped from over 50% in 1981, to less than 10% in 2017.  The World Bank Group is leading the way on ending extreme poverty by 2030.  I hope  they can reach that goal.