The impact of COVID-19 is usually measured in rates of infection, deaths, jobs lost and the hit on national economies. But there's another metric - the surge in extreme poverty - that describes the most severe effect of the pandemic on people in Africa. While recession, infections and hospitals dominate the current daily headlines, the personal economic consequences of the virus are what will linger.
To measure progress towards the goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030, the World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on income of less than US$1.90 per day. This year the virus will probably push an additional 12 million Africans below this threshold. The forecast will increase to an additional 26 million people if the crisis extends into 2021, according to a new report by the ISS, Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and Frederick S Pardee Center for International Futures at the University of Denver.
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