Global efforts to eradicate extreme poverty falter as US child poverty surged in 2022
ALBAWABA – Data published by the United States (US) Census Bureau Tuesday showed a surge in US child poverty in 2022, while more than 330 million children live in extreme poverty around the world, according to a joint UNICEF-World Bank report, released Wednesday.
The Covid19 pandemic caused a sharp slowdown in the progress of efforts to combat extreme child poverty worldwide, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report underlined.
One in six children still living on less than $2.15 a day, while some 333 million children still live in extreme conditions worldwide, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A child uses a wrench as he scavenges for scrap metal in Kabul on July 26, 2022. (Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP)
Efforts to eradicate extreme child poverty have fallen below expectations by nearly 30 million children last year, the report highlighted, with other factors further exacerbating the situation.
"Compounding crises, from the impacts of COVID-19, conflict, climate change and economic shocks, have stalled progress, and left millions of children in extreme poverty," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement, as reported by AFP.
The findings of the report indicates a setback to the UN's ambitious goal to eradicate extreme child poverty by 2030.
Nutritionist Nielcen Benitez (L) measures Wilmer Epieyu, a seven-year-old indigenous Wayuu child who suffered from child malnutrition, during a visit of the Food Bank program brigade at the Witka community near Manaure, in the department of La Guajira, on February 24, 2023. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP)
"A world where 333 million children live in extreme poverty – deprived not only of basic needs but also dignity, opportunity or hope – is simply intolerable," World Bank Global Director for Poverty and Equity, Luis-Felipe Lopez-Calva reaffirmed.
The report found that 40 percent of children in sub-Saharan Africa still live in extreme poverty – the highest percentage anywhere in the world, while in the US, child poverty has surged to 12.4 percent in 2022.
Apart from the surge in US child poverty, all other regions in the world have seen consistent declines in extreme child poverty, except in sub-Saharan Africa, according to AFP.
Children play football on March 10, 2022 on a concrete slab in Mukuru Kwa Njenga informal settlements, where structures have been demolished in November 2021 to pave the way for the construction of the Nairobi Expressway. (Photo by Simon MAINA / AFP)
"We cannot fail these children now," said Russell from UNICEF. "Ending child poverty is a policy choice."
Termination of benefits exacerbated US child poverty after the pandemic
A supplemental measure of child poverty jumped to 12.4 percent in 2022, according to Census Bureau data out Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.
The metric, which is based on after-tax income and includes government transfer payments like stimulus checks, more than doubled from a record low in 2021, the New York-based news agency highlighted. Though it remained below pre-pandemic levels.
According to Bloomberg, the data illustrates a worrisome trend as prices continue to rise, stimulus payments fade and enhanced food and child-care programs expire in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The termination of the various benefits and programs undermine the advances seen during the pandemic, and is already contributing to an increase in family homelessness.
Residents from the Washington Metropolitan area stand in line for free Thanksgiving meals distributed by the Washington Redskins NFL team and FedEx November 25, 2008 at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by TIM SLOAN / AFP)
Echoing the words of UNICEF’s Russel, vice president for income security at the National Women’s Law Center Melissa Boteach said poverty in the US is a “policy choice”.
In a statement, carried by Bloomberg, Boteach said the report “highlights that poverty in our country isn’t a personal failing, but rather a policy choice,” as inflation-adjusted household incomes in the US fell by the most in over a decade.
The World Bank and UNICEF called on governments to prioritize tackling child poverty and to enact a range of measures including the expansion of universal child benefits programs.
