About 1.2 billion people are still living in extreme poverty. Despite recent impressive progress, Sub-Saharan Africa still accounts for more than one-third of the world’s extreme poor, the World Bank has said.
Consequently, the Development Committee has endorsed the World Bank Group’s goal to end extreme poverty within a generation as “ambitious”, saying that this endeavor by the Bank was a “historic opportunity” to make a difference.
The Committee equally confirmed the Group’s vision to promote shared prosperity and added these goals must be achieved without jeopardizing the environment, magnifying economic debt or excluding vulnerable people.
World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, who pushed this twin-pronged approach in his speech two weeks ago, welcomed the Committee’s support.
“I have no doubt that the world can end extreme poverty within a generation. But it’s not a given and we cannot do it alone. It requires focus, innovation and commitments from everyone. This endorsement is an important step. If we succeed, together, we would have accomplished an historic milestone,” Kim said.
The 25-member Development Committee, which meets twice a year during the World Bank/IMF spring and annual meetings, said in its Communiqué that reducing the percentage of people living on less than $1.25 a day to 3 percent by 2030 will require strong growth across the developing world, and translation of growth into poverty reduction to an extent not seen before in many low income countries. It will also require overcoming institutional and governance challenges, and investing in infrastructure and in agricultural productivity.
“Ministers unequivocally supported Dr. Kim’s vision and stated that we can count on the World Bank Group as a partner in the endeavor of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity,” said Marek Belka, the Chairman of the Development Committee. “Dr. Kim renewed our zeal for the Bank Group’s core mission of a world free of poverty. There is a historic opportunity at our reach to make critical progress.”
The Communiqué also called on the Bank Group to pay special attention to countries and regions with the highest incidence of poverty and to Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations (FCS), as well as to the particular challenges facing small states.
