For the poorest people, moving out of poverty can be an enormous challenge. But continuing to stay out of poverty for the rest of their lives is a much greater and for some, impossible, task. Many people rise above the poverty line only to tumble back beneath it.
Millions of vulnerable people return to extreme poverty, or become poor for the first time, when they are hit by a combination or sequence of shocks, such as a serious drought, a costly illness, and insecurity or conflict in their community. While this 'revolving door' of poverty persists, we won't be able to eradicate extreme poverty for good.
To make sure people move out and stay out of poverty, we need to:
1) Tackle Chronic Poverty
2) Prevent Impoverishment
3) Sustain Poverty Escapes
Policies need to be designed with these three objectives in mind if zero extreme poverty is to become a reality.
This report demonstrates that escaping from poverty is not a one-way street – many families slide back below the poverty line because of factors such as ill-health, job loss and natural disasters. This is the case even in countries where the economies are growing. The authors of the report set out three policies for progress:
- Social assistance – to provide a safety net for the poor
- Huge investment in education – to improve the standard of living of the poorest
- Economic Growth which benefits the poorest – national prosperity for all
Authors: Andrew Shepherd, Lucy Scott, Chiara Mariotti, Flora Kessy, Raghav Gaiha, Lucia da Corta, Katharina Hanifnia, Nidhi Kaicker, Amanda Lenhardt, Charles Lwanga-Ntale, Binayak Sen,
Bandita Sijapati, Tim Strawson, Ganesh Thapa, Helen Underhill, Leni Wild.
Click here to download the Full report
