World Bank report highlights plight of millions

At a time of unprecedented wealth for many countries, 2.8 billion people - almost half of the world’s population - live on less than US $2 a day, according to a new report by the World Bank. The World Development Report 2000/2001 - the World Bank’s most detailed-ever assessment of global poverty - said that 1.2 billion people live on the margins of society, subsisting on less than $1 a day. In high-income countries, fewer than one child in 100 dies before reaching the age of five, while in the poorest countries, that number is five times higher.

In well-off countries, fewer than five per cent of children under five are malnourished, while in poorer countries as many as half of all children suffer from lack of food. “This destitution persists even though human conditions have improved more in the past century than in the rest of history,” the report noted. The distribution of wealth is “extraordinarily unequal” with the average income in the richest 20 countries 37 times higher than the average in the poorest 20 - a gap that has doubled in the past 40 years.

The report calls for international action to improve the prospects for poor countries and their people. Initiatives such as debt relief, expanding developing countries’ access to markets and closing the digital and knowledge divides are recommended. For full report access: http://www.worldbank.org/html/extpb/wdr2000_2001.htm