The global burden of poverty is highly concentrated in Africa, with more than 150 million people living in extreme poverty in just two countries – Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – according to World Data Lab.
Projections from its system estimate that nearly 80% of the countries unable to eliminate poverty by 2030 will be in Africa. When weighted for absolute number of people living in poverty, that figure increases to more than 90%.
In September 2020, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will conclude their fifth year. While countries still have ample time to implement more aggressive policies before the SDGs expire in 2030, five years is enough time to begin talking about what progress has been made. Or in many cases, how much work remains to be done.
The SDGs are a broad suite of 17 development goals with an even more extensive list of 169 targets established by the United Nations (UN) in 2015. They aim to advance solutions for everything from climate change to urban planning to gender equality – and nearly everything in between.
At base however, the SDGs are about poverty reduction. ‘The SDGs are a bold commitment to finish what we started (i.e. Millennium Development Goals), and end poverty in all forms and dimensions by 2030,’ according to the UN.
The reality is that Africa is showing both gains and losses. Roughly 40% of people in Africa live below US$1.90 a day. People in sub-Saharan Africa are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as those in South Asia, the next poorest region globally.
According to projections from the International Futures (IFs) modelling platform, hosted by the Frederick S Pardee Center for International Futures at the University of Denver, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for roughly 60% of the global population living in poverty in 2020.
