The World Bank has a 30 page document that is the beginning of their plan to help eliminate extreme (less than $1.25 per day) poverty The document is called Prosperity for all.
To end extreme poverty, the vast numbers of the poorest – those earning less than $1.25 a day – will have to decrease by 50 million people each year until 2030. This means that 1 million people each week will have to lift themselves out of poverty for the next 16 years. This will be extraordinarily difficult. This can be the generation that ends extreme poverty.
Growth alone is unlikely to end extreme poverty by 2030, says the paper, because as extreme poverty declines, growth on its own tends to lift fewer people out of poverty. This is because, by this stage, many of the people still in extreme poverty live in situations where improving their lives is extremely difficult.
The three keys are more jobs for people in extreme poverty, more social safety nets and sustainable green development.
In the last several months, the Bank Group has begun to implement a strategy to improve its effectiveness as a development institution and align its work to the goals. Changes under way include cutting costs, realigning personnel, streamlining some processes, and encouraging closer collaboration among teams and among the various arms of the Bank Group.
Starting in July, the Bank Group will have communities of experts focusing on bringing “global solutions to local problems,” said Kim at his Spring Meetings opening press conference. The Bank Group will retain a strong presence in the countries where it works.
The Development Committee said it expects the Bank Group’s new structure “should lead to better global knowledge sharing to benefit all client countries, and to strengthening its role in support of South-South and regional cooperation.”
It also welcomed the Bank Group’s plans to increase financing capacity from $45 billion to $50 billion a year today to more than $70 billion within a decade.
“We look forward to continued progress in achieving a leaner cost base via improved organizational and operational efficiencies, as well as ongoing efforts to develop innovative approaches and mechanisms to mobilize additional financing. We encourage increasing the level and quality of investment in infrastructure,” the communiqué said.
The Development Committee praised the Bank Group’s “stepped-up engagement in addressing the regional drivers of fragility and conflict” through initiatives in Africa’s Sahel and Great Lakes regions, as well as its role in helping to close infrastructure gaps in Africa.
The committee called for “enhanced focus” on the Middle East and North Africa and support for Arab countries in transition.
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