Bad news for the poorest of the poor
The authors of a new report at the International Food Policy Research Institute estimate that the world will reach the first MDG (halving the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day and suffering from hunger) by 2015. The bad news is that the ultrapoor – those surviving on less than $0.54 a day - are the most likely to remain among at least 800 million people still in poverty by 2015.
The report points to the three main poverty traps: inability to invest in education; limited access to credit for those with few assets; and reduced productivity due to malnutrition.
Three-quarters out of 162 million untrapoor today live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Do the poorest also get the poorest economics?
I am glad this report called attention to the plight of the poorest of the poor. But the way you have stated their conclusion, it is virtually tautological. Of course, those furthest beneath the $1 a day poverty are the least likely to cross the $1 a day line by 2015. Couldn't we have a little bit deeper analysis of the ultra poor?
Posted by: Bill Easterly | Nov 7, 2007 1:16:33 PM
The increase of population by induced immigration benefitted the economy of USA, Australia and others but yet on the otherhand the number of poor and ultra poor living below $1 per day is additionally aggrevated by the lack of world's effort to decrease future world poor population compounded by deforestration while convertion of agricultural land leads to slumps urbanization. In the developed countries even the middle class is facing difficulty financing their children's education. By reducing the future poor population, the limited available funds can be better spread and effectively applied.
Posted by: Roger Kok | Nov 18, 2007 9:19:52 AM