A new poverty map BY 2025, most of the world’s poorest people
will live in fragile and conflict-affected states in Africa,
posing challenges to aid donors who have usually focused on
helping well-governed countries, according to a new report.
Horizon 2025, published by the Overseas Development Institute,
says global poverty has declined sharply and will continue to do
so in middle-income countries (MICs) such as India and Vietnam.
As a result, even though currently MICs may have more poor
people than the world’s poorest countries, this will be a
temporary phenomenon. By 2025, the number of poor people in MICs
could be as low as 100 million out of a global total of 560
million. A consequence of the dramatic fall in the number of
poor people is that the notional cost of eradicating poverty has
fallen in absolute terms, and even more so as a share of
industrialised country income. The report says the poverty gap
looks “affordable” at only one-third of one per cent of global
GDP. The report estimates the poverty