The Unsteady Rise & Decline of Poverty and How to Tackle It
One of the largest issues that concern the world is poverty. Someone is described as living in poverty if they survive on less than $1.90 per day. From 2015 to 2018, global poverty continued to decline as it has done for the past 25 years. From 2015 to 2018, the number of those living in poverty dropped from 740 million to 656 million. However, with the strike of the COVID-19 pandemic, the progress was severely dented.
Erasing years of hard work
Between 2019 and 2012, poverty incidence rose from 8.3% to 9.2% – the most significant increase since 1990 and the first since 1998. Erasing more than four years of steady decline, it is estimated that a further 93 million people across the globe were pushed into extreme poverty over the course of the global pandemic.
Of course, there are several ways that poverty can be tackled. In 2021, I wrote about defeating poverty by curing blindness. This still stands. Since then, curing blindness in the developing world has been a key focus of mine. Intervening at grassroots level in low to middle-income countries has shown positive results. One of the key elements to defeating poverty is getting people back to work. Earning a living and making sustainable and economic contributions to society and communities is vital when approaching the escape from poverty.
Workers facing extreme poverty
In 2020, the share of workers that lived in extreme poverty increased for the first time in two decades. The number of those who were employed yet still living in extreme poverty rose from 6.7% in 2019 to 7.2% in 2020. This equated to around 8 million workers being pushed towards extreme poverty. It is easy to see that this was likely due to global closures and a large reduction of income for many. Although the world seems to be mostly in the clear following the pandemic, many nations have not been able to recover to the same level as before 2020.
With the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation, I have seen first-hand the effects of the socio-economic issues that consume communities. Though many of these issues are not the fault of the pandemic, it is clear that the period exacerbated those issues. In countries such as Nepal, many were already living in extreme poverty in remote areas. This may have somewhat protected them from the dire effects of COVID-19, however, they still suffered some logistical consequences.
Unemployment & COVID-19
Many small, isolated communities in Nepal are home to workers who travel to areas to trade and earn a wage, however, once the pandemic hit and nationwide lockdowns struck, many trade routes were closed causing many to lose their jobs, homes and livelihoods. On top of this, Nepal took a brutal hit when tourism came to an absolute halt. The country welcomes thousands of people annually, many of whom visit Mount Everest. Nepal’s tourism industry is one of the country’s most influential industries. Tourism is one of the most rapid and vital sectors in Nepal. It contributes to around 6.7% of the GDP. In terms of employment, the tourism industry in Nepal provides total employment to 700,000 people. The pandemic was proven to be fatal to the tourism sector in every nation, including Nepal. International arrivals in Nepal saw a decrease of 73% in March 2020, ultimately causing many to become unemployed and descend into poverty.
State support
With the influx of those living in extreme poverty, it is essential that government bodies begin to implement some form of state support to prevent poverty from increasing exponentially. Throughout the pandemic, only 46.9% of the global population was covered by a form of social benefit.
With all this in mind, it is vital that we remain level-headed whilst also ambitious in our goals to tackle extreme poverty, especially following on from the last couple of turbulent years.
With a number of organisations, including mine and Dr Ruit’s, Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation, it is clear that with this same goal – a clear and positive difference is on the horizon.