Pandemic threatens Asia-Pacific progress in global development goals, says ADB

MANILA, Aug 24 (Reuters) – The coronavirus pandemic may have pushed up to 80 million people developing in Asia into extreme poverty last year, threatening to derail the progress of global goals to combat poverty and poverty. famine by 2030, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Tuesday.

The rate of extreme poverty in developing Asia (or the proportion of its population living on less than $ 1.90 a day) would have fallen to 2.6% in 2020 from 5.2% in 2017 without VOCID- 19, but the crisis probably increased the rate projected for last year by about 2 percentage points, ADB simulations showed.

The figure could even be higher given the inequalities in areas such as health, education and job breaks that have deepened as the COVID-19 crisis disrupted mobility and halted activity. economic, the AfDB said in a flagship report on the region.

“As the socioeconomic impacts of virus responses continue to develop, people who already have difficulty reaching two places are at risk of falling into a life of poverty,” the Manila-based lender said.

Among the reporting economies in Asia and the Pacific, which refers to the 46 developing economies and the three developed economies that are members of the AfDB, only one in four recorded economic growth last year, he said.

As unemployment rates rose, the region also lost about 8% of working hours, affecting the poorest households and workers in the informal sector.

The economic damage caused by the pandemic had further intensified the challenge of achieving the global development goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015.

UN members unanimously approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals, known as the SDGs, in 2015, creating an ambitious work plan, from ending hunger and gender inequality to expanding access to education and health.

The targets had a deadline of 2030.

“Asia and the Pacific have made impressive progress, but COVID-19 has revealed lines of economic and social failure that could weaken the region’s sustainable and inclusive development,” Yasuyuki Sawada, chief economist at the ADB, said in a statement. communicated separately.

Karen Lema Reports; edited by Richard Pullin

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