Newshub18: Eradicating poverty: Asia two years behind the pandemic: The coronavirus pandemic has set Asia and the Pacific countries back at least two years in the fight against poverty. In addition, the pandemic has made it very difficult for many other countries to break out of the cycle of poverty. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) informed this on Wednesday.
Those whose daily income is less than 1.90 dollars are considered extremely poor. If not for the pandemic, the number of such people in the region would have decreased by 2.9 percent in 2020. But in the pandemic, the extreme poor rose by 5 percent. Last year it increased by 3.8 percent. It is forecast to rise 3 percent this year. The Manila-based lender said the number of people in the world’s extreme poverty is expected to fall below 1 percent by 2030.
At least 20 percent of people in developing countries in Asia were either extremely or moderately poor in 2021, ADB said. But it could be halved by 2030 if governments focus on tolerance, innovation and inclusion for more equitable economic opportunities and greater social mobility.
Albert Park, chief economist of ADB, said that the poor and helpless people were the most affected by the impact of Corona. After overcoming the impact of the pandemic, the economy is now turning around. But many are finding that breaking out of the cycle of poverty has become more difficult for them than before the pandemic.
ADB says the pandemic has had a major impact on education. It has created a lot of uncertainty. In these uncertainties, the opportunity that the poor people were supposed to get to change their economic position has decreased. Only half of the region’s countries have returned to pre-pandemic levels in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). But the recovery process is still fragile due to various uncertainties in the global economy due to the new type of Corona and the Ukraine-Russia war.
According to the ADB report, some risks have become more pronounced since the outbreak of the pandemic. These include employment or job insecurity, deterioration of mental health, extreme weather, failure to provide cyber security and new outbreaks of infectious diseases.