REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - World Bank President Jim Yong Kim outlined an ambitious agenda for the global community that called for a two-pronged approach for a world free of poverty. The first is virtually ending extreme poverty by 2030.
The second, Kim explained, was promoting shared prosperity by fostering income growth of the bottom 40 percent of the population in every country. ''For the second goal, we also mean sharing prosperity across generations, and that calls for bold action on climate change,'' he said in the press conference at IMF Headquarter in Washington DC, Thursday, as reported by Elba Damhuri from Republika.
Kim considered no doubt that the world could end extreme poverty within a generation, but this will be much harder than most people realize. It will take ingenuity, focus, commitment, and visionary leaders. ''But if we succeed, we will accomplish one of humankind’s most historic accomplishments,'' Kim added.
The situation in the world today, World Bank assumed that more than four years after the start of thefinancial crisis, high-income countries continue to struggle with high unemployment, weak growth and economic fragility. Kim continued taht the good news was that most of developing countries are doing relatively well, with growth expected to reach about 5.5 percent this year. That should strengthen to just under 6 percent by 2015. Indeed, developing countries are accounting for more than half of global growth.
New target
In the earlier data cited by Reuters, the world needs to reduce the number of people living below the poverty line of 1.25 USD per day to 3 percent globally by 2030, and raise the per capita incomes of the bottom 40 percent of every developing country.
The 3 percent level is a new target for the World Bank, which estimated in 2010 that 21 percent of the global population, or 1.2 billion people, lived extreme poverty. Some World Bank estimates have put the 3 percent target at about 600 million people living below the poverty line by 2030.
Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika
