WORLD BANK / JIM YONG KIM

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World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and the Bank's chief economist outline goals to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity during the Bank's annual Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C. WORLD BANK
Description

STORY: WORLD BANK / JIM YONG KIM
TRT: 1.59
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 17 APRIL 2013, WASHINGTON, DC

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Shotlist

1. Wide shot, auditorium
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist, World Bank:
“2030, the end of absolute poverty is what we are looking at. Now, end does not mean you manage to bring it down to zero. There will be pockets of difficulty. There will be frictional poverty and frictional poverty is as painful as poverty in any other form but the strategy of how you battle with that begins to change.”
3. Wide shot, audience
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group:
“It felt like a clear goal, a simple goal, one that would force us to change the way we do our work, one that could galvanize a community, and part of it is just that I have a lot of experience with setting targets and if you ask any person who is trying to run a complex organization or even build social movement, unless you have a clear target with a clear end date, people often don’t change the way they do their work. Everyone can agree ‘poverty is bad’ and you can agree that poverty is bad but if there’s no urgency in actually getting somewhere you don’t change the way people work.”
5. Med shot, audience
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group:
“In order to lift people out of poverty and build shared prosperity there are so many potential things we need to do. We know that investing in human capital is critical; health, education, social protection, you need to do those things not only for the growth today but for growth in the medium term and the long term.”
7. Med shot, audience
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group:
“We’re very, very serious about ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity. And we’re going to make mistakes and I’ve told my team inside the World Bank Group, if you’re trying to be bold and ambitious and tackle difficult problems go ahead and just know if we make mistakes the most important thing is that we learn from the mistakes.”
9. Med shot, stage

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Storyline

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and the Bank's Chief Economist Kaushik Basu, today (17 April) outlined goals to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity in the lead in to the Bank's annual Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Basu explained that the goal is to end absolute poverty by 2030.

SOUNDBITE (English) Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist, World Bank:
“2030, the end of absolute poverty is what we are looking at. Now, end does not mean you manage to bring it down to zero. There will be pockets of difficulty. There will be frictional poverty and frictional poverty is as painful as poverty in any other form but the strategy of how you battle with that begins to change.”

The number of people living on less than $1.25 per day has decreased dramatically in the past three decades, from half the citizens in the developing world in 1981 to 21 percent in 2010, despite a 59 percent increase in the developing world population. However, a new analysis of extreme poverty released by the World Bank shows that there are still 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty, and despite recent impressive progress, Sub-Saharan Africa still accounts for more than one-third of the world’s extreme poor.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim underlined the importance of establishing clear goals.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group:
“It felt like a clear goal, a simple goal, one that would force us to change the way we do our work, one that could galvanize a community, and part of it is just that I have a lot of experience with setting targets and if you ask any person who is trying to run a complex organization or even build social movement, unless you have a clear target with a clear end date, people often don’t change the way they do their work. Everyone can agree ‘poverty is bad’ and you can agree that poverty is bad but if there’s no urgency in actually getting somewhere you don’t change the way people work.”

The latest World Development Indicators show that extreme poverty headcount rates have fallen in every developing region between 1981 and 2010. And both Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) seem to have turned a corner entering the new millennium. After steadily increasing from 51 percent in 1981 to 58 percent in 1999, the extreme poverty rate fell 10 percentage points in SSA between 1999 and 2010 and is now at 48 percent—an impressive 17 percent decline in one decade. In LAC, after remaining stable at approximately 12 percent for the last two decades of the 20th century, extreme poverty was cut in half between 1999 and 2010 and is now at 6 percent.

Kim stressed the value of investing in human capital for growth in the medium term and the long term.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group:
“In order to lift people out of poverty and build shared prosperity there are so many potential things we need to do. We know that investing in human capital is critical; health, education, social protection, you need to do those things not only for the growth today but for growth in the medium term and the long term.”

Despite its falling poverty rates, Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world for which the number of poor individuals has risen steadily and dramatically between 1981 and 2010. There are more than twice as many extremely poor people living in SSA today (414 million) than there were three decades ago (205 million). As a result, while the extreme poor in SSA represented only 11 percent of the world’s total in 1981, they now account for more than a third of the world’s extreme poor. India contributes another third (up from 22 percent in 1981) and China comes next, contributing 13 percent (down from 43 percent in 1981).

The President of the World Bank Group acknowledged that the road ahead will present difficulties.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group:
“We’re very, very serious about ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity. And we’re going to make mistakes and I’ve told my team inside the World Bank Group, if you’re trying to be bold and ambitious and tackle difficult problems go ahead and just know if we make mistakes the most important thing is that we learn from the mistakes.”

Average income of the extremely poor in the developing world has been rising and steadily converging to the $1.25 per day poverty line. In 2010, the average income of the extremely poor in the developing world was 87 cents per capita per day, up from 74 cents in 1981 (in 2005 Purchasing Power Parity dollars).

This increase in incomes of the extreme poor is unfortunately not seen in Sub-Saharan Africa. Between 1981 and 2010, the average income of the extremely poor has remained essentially flat at approximately half of the $1.25 line in that region.

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