The World Bank has listed Nigeria among 39 economies where poverty and hunger are worsening due to conflict and instability.
According to a World Bank report, 39 economies comprise a
mix of low-and middle-income economies, spread across all regions.
The report, which comprehensively assesses the plight of the
countries in the aftermath of COVID-19, released on Friday.
Some of the countries are Afghanistan, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe.
The bank said out of the 39 economies currently classified
as facing conflict or instability, 21 are in active conflict.
According to the report, extreme poverty is growing faster
and taking a devastating toll on the economies, intensifying acute hunger, and
pushing several key development goals farther out of reach.
World Bank said as conflicts have become more frequent and
deadly in the 2020s, the listed countries are falling behind all other
economies in key indicators of development.
The report added that since 2020, their per capita gross
domestic product (GDP) has shrunk by an average of 1.8 percent per year, while
it has expanded by 2.9 percent in other developing economies.
“This year, 421 million people are struggling on less than
$3 a day in economies afflicted by conflict or instability—more than in the
rest of the world combined,” the report said.
“That number is projected to rise to 435 million, or nearly
60% of the world’s extreme poor, by 2030.”
Indermit Gill, World Bank Group’s chief economist, said for
the last three years, the world’s attention has been on the conflicts in
Ukraine and the middle east, adding that the focus has intensified.
“Yet, more than 70 percent of people suffering from conflict
and instability are Africans. Untreated, these conditions become chronic,” Gill
said.
“Half of the countries facing conflict or instability today
have been in such conditions for 15 years or more. Misery on this scale is
inevitably contagious.
The bank said unlike other developing economies, countries
struggling with conflict or instability have been unable to create enough jobs
on average to keep pace with population growth.
‘STRONGER
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT CAN PREVENT CONFLICT’
Ayhan Kose, World Bank Group’s deputy chief economist and
director of the prospects group, said economic stagnation, rather than growth,
has been the norm in economies hit by conflict and instability over the past decade
and a half.
“The global community must pay greater attention to the
plight of these economies. Jumpstarting growth and development here will not be
easy, but it can be done—and it has been done before,” he said.
Kose noted that with targeted policies and stronger
international support, policymakers can prevent conflict, strengthen
governance, accelerate growth, and create jobs.
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