By Shameran Abed | Executive Director, BRAC International
This article originally appeared in Devex on October 27, 2020.
Today, the world faces a greater challenge than any before as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to undo years of progress in poverty eradication while exacerbating preexisting inequalities and exposing the fragility of our systems.
At the beginning of 2020, an estimated 700 million people lived in extreme poverty. The World Bank now projects 88 million to 115 million more people will be forced into extreme poverty by the year’s end, with that figure potentially reaching up to 150 million by 2021. “The pandemic and global recession may cause over 1.4% of the world’s population to fall into extreme poverty,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said.
