Millions of people around the world are starving to death. All of them are victims of the worst economic crisis since World War II.
More than 729 million people will be living in extreme poverty – living on less than two dollars a day – by the end of the year, according to the World Bank. They are 9.4% of the world population, and will be 114 million more than predicted before the appearance of the coronavirus.
Many of them will actually die of hunger. And, according to the UN World Food Program, more than 265 million people, mainly in developing countries, are on the verge of starvation.
In eight months, a virus ended 20 years of fighting extreme poverty, according to economists at the World Bank. And it is a serious setback for so many others who live on a budget of less than $ 5.50 (that’s … 3.2 billion, or half the population of the planet), who also suffer to be able to meet their basic needs.
But about 500 million may join this unfortunate number.
“We are only seeing the beginning of the tsunami,” warns Olivier de Schutter, United Nations Special reporter on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. Returning to levels prior to the global public health crisis will not be easy. It will take a large amount of resources and, above all, the global economy to advance at a speed never seen before.
Nobody is prepared to face this tsunami. And if we are told that we have to learn to live in this “new normal”, it is urgent that we also start to learn to think differently.
*Editor of the Portuguese edition of Plataforma
