Why we can still end world poverty during coronavirus
Source: World Economic Forum
The latest update to the global Multidimensional Poverty Index shows that many countries have made significant progress in improving the lives of the poor over the past decade.
Rather than allow these gains to be reversed by the COVID-19 pandemic, governments must seize this moment to redouble their efforts, write former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and Sabina Alkire.
Today’s pandemic-induced humanitarian and economic crisis represents an unprecedented opportunity to go beyond emergency responses and address our economies’ structural flaws. Many governments’ stimulus and recovery packages are already shaping the future. But leaders across all sectors of society should recognize this moment as a rare chance to build a more inclusive and sustainable world, which will be possible only if we end poverty in all its forms.
Ending poverty might seem like an impossible dream, but so did abolishing slavery and ending apartheid. The launch of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2020 can serve as a catalyst. Recently released by the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, the MPI shows that 65 of the 75 countries studied reduced their poverty levels significantly within the last decade. Moreover, the country that reduced poverty the fastest, Sierra Leone, did so despite the Ebola epidemic that began in 2014.
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