Poverty and shared prosperity 2020: Reversals of fortune

Abstract

Reducing extreme poverty is getting more difficult because most of the remaining poor are found in countries that lack economic resources, political stability, social inclusion, or administrative capability to achieve poverty eradication. Furthermore, shocks such as the coronavirus pandemic and threats posed by climate change add to the challenge of ending extreme poverty. Previous Poverty and Shared Prosperity Reports have conveyed the difficult message that the world is not on track to meet this goal by 2030, because in some of the most difficult countries it would take widespread and historically unprecedented rates of growth in the coming decade. In addition to updating levels of global poverty and shared prosperity, this edition will explore which countries are (and are not) on track to reduce extreme poverty to three percent by 2030 and beyond. It will explain why this challenge is so complex, why “doubling down” on standard policy approaches will only get us so far, and what complementary strategies might be needed to make greater progress by 2030. The innovation of Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020 will be to stress that, for the poorest countries especially, the abiding challenge is building supportive and accountable political structures and administrative systems that are able to implement sound policies.