Like the apocalyptic plagues of the Old Testament, the poorest countries are repeatedly hit hard. Successive shocks feeding on each other – the Covid-19 pandemic, climate madness, inflation, the Russian war in Ukraine, sluggish growth in China, the decline in world trade and the forgotten promises of the rich North – have all combined to overwhelm sub-Saharan Africa and Central America.
The annual General Assembly of the United Nations, which opened in New York on Tuesday, September 19, has nothing to celebrate. It has hit none of the development goals that it ritually proclaims in its rather unbearable manner. In 2015, it launched its "sustainable development goals" to great fanfare. These included eradicating extreme poverty from the face of the planet by 2030 – "zero hunger". Words blown away with the first gust of wind on the East River, alongside the UN headquarters.
Our colleague Nicholas Kristof is a cruel man. In the September 16 edition of the New York Times, he contrasts the reality of today's figures with the promises made in 2015. The goal was called "Sustainable Development 2030". Barring an improbable exceptional mobilization, it will not be reached. "The year 2030 is now forecast to have 575 million people living in extreme poverty," writes Kristof.
In its spring 2023 report, the World Bank, not given to doom and gloom, painted a similar picture of a bleak future for the poorest of the poor. In 2024, in a third of the poorest countries per capita income will be lower than it was in 2019. The UN has little to do with this matter. It is what its members are. It does what they decide to do. In itself, the Assembly has no power other than that of incantation.
Since the 2000s – and even a little before – the proportion of the world's population living in extreme poverty has been steadily decreasing. The gap between North and South has narrowed, even though inequalities have increased within the countries concerned, whether rich or poor. Unfortunately, this situation is about to change: "The reduction in global inequality seems to have stalled," according to figures quoted in the Financial Times on June 19. The gap between the North (including China, of course) and the South could widen again.
People will say that this terrible downturn is cyclical, produced by three years of Covid-19 followed by the Russian war in Ukraine. The latter fueled inflation. Rising energy and food commodity prices are weighing primarily on sub-Saharan Africa. Vladimir Putin is among those directly responsible for the malnutrition affecting millions of Africans today. Nonetheless, many countries in the South are blaming Western sanctions and the "misappropriation" of assistance that the support provided to Kyiv is said to represent. Finally, the rise in interest rates – to combat inflation – is hitting a poor South already heavily in debt.
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