Pandemic fills ranks of extreme poverty worldwide

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But the U.N. warned that it has raised less than half of the $35 billion needed to stave off widespread famine, fight poverty and keep children in school and called on the world’s wealthy countries for financial contributions.”The rich world can now see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said U.N. Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock in a statement. “The same is not true in the poorest countries”, he added.

According to U.N countries around the world had made steady advances since the 1990s in reducing extreme poverty – defined by the World Bank, a multilateral development lender, as living on $1.90 a day or less. “The U.N. calculations showing 1 in 33 people needing assistance compared with 1 in 45 people this year, is already the highest figure in decades”, it said.

“School closures have affected nine out of 10 students worldwide, with almost 24 million children at risk of not returning to school in 2020”, the U.N. said. And as the pandemic impedes on food systems, hunger is on the rise, and the U.N. projected that by the end of 2020, as many as 270 million people will lack reliable access to food. “The cost of meeting food aid needs this year was $9 billion, up from $5 billion in 2015”, the report said. The coronavirus has infected 62.6 million people and killed 1.46 million people worldwide, according to a Reuters tally.