Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Haiti. They are countries where people live with a per capita income of less than 1,315 dollars a year and are part of the thirty nations, more or less half of the 75 poorest countries in the world, which – for the first time in this century – they are experiencing a growing income gap with wealthier economies. A World Bank study highlights this in a report published this month.
According to the Washington institute, the 75 poorest countries, those that can obtain interest-free loans fromInternational development association of the World Bank, risk a lost decade in terms of development if decisive political changes and significant international aid do not intervene as soon as possible. We are talking about a quarter of humanity: 1.9 billion people in total.
Half of these states are located in sub-Saharan Africa, 14 in East Asia and eight in Latin America. “We see a very serious structural regression,” Ayhan Kose, deputy chief economist of the World Bank and one of the authors of the report, told Reuters. According to the study, growth was already decreasing before the covid-19 pandemic, but then the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the devastating effects of climate change and the increase in violence and conflicts had an impact. The Democratic Republic of Congo is bloodied by the violence of armed groups, active in particular in the eastern part of the country, and in recent days it has also been hit by violent floods in the Uvira area, on the border with Burundi. Afghanistan is experiencing one of the worst economic crises in its history: according to the UN, since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 the Afghan economy has suffered a contraction of 27%, with 98% of the over 40 million inhabitants who do not have an income that allows them to feed themselves and only 40% have access to electricity. The frequent earthquakes and restrictions imposed on women, the true engine of the country’s development, also had an impact. Haiti is gripped by armed gang violence, with more than 2,500 people killed or injured between January and March 2024, 50% more than in the same period the previous year, according to the latest report published by the United Nations Integrated Office United in Port-au-Prince. This is why, in the words of Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank, “the world cannot afford to turn its back” on these countries. (aquiline jade)
