Washington, United States – The Covid-19 pandemic caused a sharp slowdown in the fight to end child poverty, with 333 million children still living in extreme poverty, according to a report published Wednesday.
As a result, around one in six children still live on less than $2.15 per day, according to the report.
“Compounding crises, from the impacts of COVID-19, conflict, climate change and economic shocks, have stalled progress, and left millions of children in extreme poverty,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.
The report’s findings throw a spanner in the works of the UN’s ambitious goal to eradicate extreme child poverty by 2030.
“A world where 333 million children live in extreme poverty — deprived not only of basic needs but also dignity, opportunity or hope — is simply intolerable,” World Bank Global Director for Poverty and Equity, Luis-Felipe Lopez-Calva, said in a statement.
The report found that 40 percent of children in sub-Saharan Africa still live in extreme poverty — the highest percentage of anywhere in the world.
A series of factors including rapid population growth, Covid-19 and climate-related disasters have exacerbated extreme child poverty in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, even as all other regions in the world have seen a steady decline.
The World Bank and UNICEF called on countries to prioritize tackling child poverty and to enact a range of measures including the expansion of universal child benefits programs.
“We cannot fail these children now,” said Russell from UNICEF. “Ending child poverty is a policy choice.”