Over 330 million children in extreme poverty worldwide

The novel coronavirus pandemic has slowed down the fight against child poverty, with 333 million of them living in extreme poverty globally, a report by the UNICEF and the World Bank and is being released today.

In other words, one child in six around the world lives on less than $2.15 a day, according to the report, which highlights that if the effects of the pandemic had not set in, an additional 30 could have been lifted out of poverty. millions of children.

“Exacerbating crises, due to the consequences of the pandemic, armed conflicts, climate change and economic shocks, have hindered progress, leaving millions of children in extreme poverty”UNICEF Director-General Kathryn Russell said in a press release released alongside the report.

“A world in which 333 million children live in extreme poverty – deprived not only of meeting their most basic needs, but also of dignity, opportunity, hope – is simply intolerable,” she added.

Extreme poverty affects 40% of children in sub-Saharan Africa, the highest rate in the world.

Unlike other regions of the world, which have recorded a decrease in child poverty in recent years, sub-Saharan Africa has seen it increase, due to rapid demographic growth, the novel coronavirus pandemic and so-called natural disasters.

The World Bank and UNICEF are calling on governments to prioritize the fight against child poverty and adopt a series of measures, in particular the expansion of universal family benefit programs.

“We cannot abandon these children now,” said Luis Felipe López-Calva, the World Bank’s poverty and equity director.

“Ending child poverty is a political choice,” he added.

The report’s conclusions indicate that the ambitious goal set by UNto end extreme child poverty by 2030.