A recent report by the World Bank predicts that the number of people living in extreme poverty is likely to fall below 10 percent of the world population in 2015. Today, an estimated 702 million people live in a situation of extreme poverty worldwide. In 2012, this number amounted to 902 million.
This major and continuous reduction of poverty is due among others to investments in people's education, health care and social services. The World Bank has moreover set a new threshold for extreme poverty, from 1.25 USD to 1.90 USD of daily income.
However, despite the overall progress, the increasing concentration of global poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa is a cause of concern. The Belgian Development Cooperation calls for international development aid to be more specifically focused on the least developed countries.
SOURCE Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Belgium