Are the successes in the global effort to alleviate poverty being systematically overestimated?

Development in Brief

To mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October 2020, many observers have once again highlighted the enormous successes that the last three decades have brought in alleviating extreme poverty on a global level. However, current analysis casts something of a shadow over this view: on the one hand, the positive trends have slowed considerably in recent years, and the coronavirus pandemic has even raised fears that the trajectory will reverse – at least temporarily. On the other hand, an increasing number of people – including, recently, prominent figures like UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston – are questioning the metric commonly used for measuring poverty to date, namely the World Bank’s USD 1.90 poverty line.

The current issue of “Development in Brief” reports on the debate that has been reignited and the picture that emerges if other poverty metrics are incorporated.

Are the successes in the global effort to alleviate poverty being systematically overestimated?(PDF, 124 KB, non-accessible)