World Bank chief calls for an end to poverty
Friday, October 11, 2013
World Bank president Jim Yong Kim set an interim target on Wednesday to reduce global poverty to 9 percent by 2020. If achieved, it would mark the first time the rate has gone down to single digits.
The target was based on a World Bank analysis of global poverty trends toward reaching a goal set in April of ending extreme poverty by 2030, extreme poverty being people who live on $1.25 a day or less.
According to the World Bank, an end to extreme poverty would mean the poverty level falls below 3 percent globally.
Global poverty has been dropping sharply – from 1.9 billion people in 1990 to 1.2 billion in 2010. The 9 percent target for 2020 would mean that an estimated 690 million people would still be living in extreme poverty.
“Setting this target reminds us we are on the cusp of something historic – ridding the world of the scourge of people living in such abysmal conditions,” Kim said on Wednesday on the eve of the opening of the 2013 annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
“It also means that all of us developing country leaders and their partners, including the World Bank Group, need to up their game now in order to end extreme poverty,” he said.
