It is just under four years since the world became aware of Covid-19. This triggered a huge decline in economic activity, followed by a swift overall recovery, the Russia-Ukraine and now Gaza wars, soaring prices (especially of food and energy) and rapidly rising interest rates. In the background, climate change is becoming increasingly evident. What does all this mean for the world’s poorest? The answer is that past progress in eliminating extreme poverty has slowed sharply. In the countries that contain most of the world’s poorest people, it has simply stalled. If this is to improve, these countries will need more generous assistance from official donors.
距離世界最初了解到新冠快四年了。新冠疫情引發了經濟活動的大幅下滑，然后是迅速的全面復蘇，俄烏戰爭和現在的加沙戰爭，物價飆升（尤其是食品和能源）以及利率迅速上升。在此背景下，氣候變化正變得越來越明顯。這一切對世界上最貧窮的人意味著什么？答案是，過去在消除極端貧困方面取得的進展已大幅放緩。在擁有世界上大多數最貧困人口的那些國家，進展已完全停滯。如果要改善這種情況，這些國家將需要官方捐助者提供更慷慨的援助。