Other Poverty Study

358 items available

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2119

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Iran Poverty Diagnostic: Poverty and Shared Prosperity

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-12-07) World Bank

This poverty diagnostic reviews welfare outcomes in the Islamic Republic of Iran between 2011 and 2020, with a focus on poverty and shared prosperity. Iran is the only country in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) that collects high quality household budget survey data on an annual basis and makes them publicly available. Drawing from this data, this diagnostic will look at the trends, determinants, and drivers of poverty in Iran at the national, subnational, and household levels. Two further deep dives will be published in early 2024, one on the differential impact of the reimposition of sanctions and of COVID-19 on household welfare: and the second on the welfare implications of drought and water scarcity. The analysis in this report outlines a dramatic increase in poverty in Iran, against the backdrop of a lost decade of economic growth. Subject to on-again, off-again sanctions, swings in international oil prices, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the country saw its per-capita GDP contract by 0.6 percentage points each year, on average, over the past decade. Better management of volatile oil revenues and continued efforts to diversify may help mitigate the economic impact of these fluctuations in the future. Addressing the underlying drivers of inflation will also ensure that earnings are not eroded by increasing prices. The country has seen almost 10 million people slide into poverty, exacerbating social inequities. Forty percent of Iranians are vulnerable to falling into poverty. The lack of growth offers a partial explanation for this dismal welfare trend, but it is not the whole story. Indeed, during Iran’s short period of economic expansion, poverty rates barely budged. The benefits of growth accrued to households in the top consumption quintiles while households in the bottom quintiles were left behind. There is also evidence of persistent structural inequities between rural and urban residents, men, and women, and those with and without a secondary education. Looking forward, there is scope to address structural inequities in the country.
Poverty and Food Security in Brazil during the Pandemic

(Washington, DC, 2022-04) World Bank

In contrast with the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean, Brazil’s poverty rate is estimated to have decreased between 2019 and 2020 to 13.1 percent. Auxílio Emergencial (AE), a large emergency cash transfer program launched in April 2020, is believed to be the main driver of that decrease, because it more than offset economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, food insecurity (FI) estimates showed an opposite trend: Severe and moderate FI went up in 2020. This apparent paradox can be mostly explained by the way in which poverty and FI are measured: Measurements of poverty are based on annualized income estimates, while those of FI are based on the occurrence of an event, whereby the sudden, uncompensated loss of a job or reduction of benefits (such as AE) can turn into the loss of a household’s ability to feed itself in the short term. In 2021, both poverty and FI may have increased. Simulations suggest that poverty increased in 2021 to 18.7 percent. Meanwhile, about 18 percent of households reported running out of food in the past 30 days owing to a lack of resources, twice the pre-pandemic rate. Overall and food inflation, a sluggish labor market recovery with falling real wages, and the significant scaling down of the AE program are all factors in this trend. The war in Ukraine has pushed inflationary expectations upward. Given the projected 0.7 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2022, labor incomes are not expected to boost households’ consumption levels significantly. Coupled with the complete elimination of AE, poverty and FI may further deteriorate in 2022.
Inequality in Southern Africa: An Assessment of the Southern African Customs Union

(Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is the most unequal region in the world. While there has been some progress in recent years, inequality has remained almost stagnant in the most unequal countries. Using an innovative framework, this report provides a systematic and comprehensive analysis of inequality in the region. The main conclusions are as follows: first, inherited circumstances over which an individual has little or no control (i.e., inequality of opportunity) drive overall inequality, and their contribution has increased in recent years. This is an important concern particularly because this type of inequality is not the result of people’s efforts. Second, lack of access to jobs and means of production (education, skills, land, among others) by disadvantaged populations slows progress towards a more equitable income distribution. In a context where jobs are scarce, having post-secondary or tertiary education is key to both accessing jobs, and obtaining better wages once employed. Third, fiscal policy helps reduce inequality through the use of targeted transfers, social spending, and progressive taxation, but results are below expectation given the level of spending. Fourth, vulnerability to climate risks and economic shocks makes any gains towards a more equal society fragile. Looking ahead, accelerating inequality reduction will require concerted action in three policy areas: (a) expanding coverage and quality of education, health, and basic services across subregions and disadvantaged populations to reduce inequality of opportunity; (b) strengthening access to and availability of private sector jobs. It is important to accompany structural reforms with measures that facilitate entrepreneurship and skills acquisition of disadvantaged populations, and to improve land distribution and productivity in rural areas; and (c) investing in adaptive social protection systems to increase resilience to climate risks and economic vulnerability, while enhancing targeting of safety net programs for more efficient use of fiscal resources.
Building an Equitable Society in Colombia

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-26) World Bank

Colombia’s high level of inequality is a core constraint to economic growth and social progress. The country has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the world, the second highest among 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and the highest among all OECD countries. The disparities in income across adults grow from gaps that open early in life in opportunities for high-quality childhood development, education, and health care services. Inequality in access to good jobs further amplifies these gaps, making Colombia among the countries where inequalities are the most persistent across generations. Longstanding inequality across regions overlaps with the large gaps in welfare between Afro-descendants and indigenous Colombians and the rest of the population. The COVID-19 pandemic has further amplified disparities and threatens to have prolonged negative effects, but this is just one of many potential extreme shocks, including climate change, related disruptions, that could substantially widen the inequality gaps. Current tax and transfer policies at best have only a modest positive impact on these imbalances, so there is clearly ample potential to improve the redistributive role of fiscal policy in Colombia. Policy reforms across many areas could help to chart a more equitable future for the country.
The Gradual Rise and Rapid Decline of the Middle Class in Latin America and the Caribbean

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05-20) World Bank

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) reported over 30 million Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and around 960,000 deaths as of May 2021. Official tracking data shows that Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina have the highest number of reported cases throughout LAC, which in turn is the region with among the highest numbers across all developing regions. Moreover, Brazil is the third-worst affected country worldwide, after the United States and India, with approximately 15.4 million infections. Dramatic declines in economic activity are expected throughout the LAC region due to the global pandemic. Unfortunately, many LAC countries entered the crisis with low potential economic growth and high levels of inequality, following the region’s recent period of stagnant growth. The 2020 COVID-19 crisis will likely reverse in a short time frame many of the social gains that took decades to materialize in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the past two decades, the region has seen a reduction in the number of people living in poverty by nearly half and an increase in the size of its middle class. Income inequality also decreased, as income growth has been primarily pro-poor in recent years. Despite variations across countries, most have experienced positive welfare gains since the early 2000s. However, the growth deceleration of 2014–2019 coupled with the dramatic fall in activity caused by the COVID-19 crisis will negatively impact living standards and well-being across the region. Poverty projections for 2020 suggest that the number of the poor increased in most LAC countries. Brazil, however, implemented a generous emergency transfer program that benefited almost 67 million people and lifted millions out of poverty. As a result, poverty in the LAC region is expected to decline marginally from 22 percent in 2019 to 21.8 percent in 2020. Had no mitigation measures been implemented, the region may instead have seen 28 million new poor in 2020.
Papua New Guinea High Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19, December 2020 to January 2021

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021) World Bank ; UNICEF

This joint report by the World Bank and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Papua New Guinea (PNG) presents the findings from two mobile phone surveys conducted in December 2020 and January 2021 in PNG. The World Bank survey, conducted in December 2020, was the second in a series. The UNICEF survey, conducted in January 2021, targeted re-contacting all 2,534 households from the World Bank round 2 survey with children under the age of 15, and achieved a final sample of 2,449. These results were also weighted using information from the demographic and health survey (DHS) to develop representative estimates for households with children under 15, 79.8 percent according to the DHS. The UNICEF survey included sections on household impacts as well as on the children living within the household. Compared to the rest of the country, markedly higher shares of respondents in the NCD noted deteriorations since June in situations related to theft, alcohol, and drug abuse, intimidation by police, violence by police, and domestic abuse, as well as higher declines in overall community trust, which can be an indicator of rising tensions. In addition, there were potential warning signs of the impacts of the prolonged crisis on children, with more than one-third of children exhibiting negative behavioral changes in the previous 15 days - though again a lack of baseline data limits the ability to establish a causal link specifically with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
COVID-19 Impact Monitoring: Malawi, Round 5

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-01) World Bank

In May 2020, the National Statistical Office (NSO), with support from the World Bank, launched the High-Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19, (coronavirus) which tracks the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic on a monthly basis for a period of 12 months. The survey aimed to recontact the entire sample of households that had been interviewed during the Integrated Household Panel Survey (IHPS) 2019 round and that had a phone number for at least one household member or a reference individual. This report presents the findings from the fifth round of the survey that was conducted during the period of October 29 - November 16, 2020.
COVID-19 Impact Monitoring: Nigeria, Round 7-8

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12-21) National Bureau of Statistics ; World Bank

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and its economic and social effects on households have created an urgent need for timely data to help monitor and mitigate the social and economic impacts of the crisis and protect the welfare of Nigerian society. To monitor how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the economy and people of Nigeria and to inform policy interventions and responses, the National Bureau of Statistics with technical support from the World Bank implemented the Nigeria COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey (COVID-19 NLPS). This brief presents findings from the seventh and eighth rounds of this survey which was conducted between November 7-23, 2020 and December 5-21, 2020 respectively.
Croatia: Where are We Since the COVID-19 Outbreak?

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12) World Bank

This report focuses on the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Croatia as of December 2020. The data was collected through the rapid response household surveys Survey representing Croatian households.
Women Endure COVID-19 Unequally to Men

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11-20) World Bank

The adverse impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is being disproportionately borne by women, further exacerbating the wide gender inequities in Myanmar. From food security, shortages in finances and the burden of caretaking responsibilities, women have been disproportionately affected by the secondary impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Women have had to adopt more drastic measures to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic, both reactively and proactively, ranging from reducing food- and non-food consumption and borrowing money from Micro-Finance Institutions and informal money lenders. Not unexpectedly, women’s greater disadvantage, limited access to support, subjection to domestic violence and structural inequalities lend themselves to their being less optimistic about the near future. The evidence surveyed is clear that women are enduring Coronavirus (COVID-19) disproportionately worse than men, both in household and firm settings and they take on the bulk of the emotional burden with regard to responsive and proactive coping mechanisms.