Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Russian Ministry of Defense: 37 Ukrainian drones destroyed in 4 hours over regions of Russia and the Black Sea.
Sheikh Qassem: Our supporters make up more than half of Lebanon's population, and all of these people are united under the banner of protecting Lebanon, its Resistance, its people, and its integrity.
Sheikh Qassem: There will be no phased handing in of our arms. [The Israelis] must first enact the agreement before we start talking about a defensive strategy.
Sheikh Qassem: Be brave in the face of foreign pressures, and we will be by your side in this stance.
Sheikh Qassem: Stripping us of our arms is like stripping us of our very soul, and this will prompt us to show them our might.
Sheikh Qassem: We will not abandon our arms, for they gave us dignity; we will not abandon our arms, for they protect us against our enemy.
Sheikh Qassem: The US efforts we are seeing are aimed at sabotaging Lebanon and constitute a call for sedition.
Sheikh Qassem: If you truly want to establish sovereignty and work for Lebanon’s interests, then stop the aggression.
Sheikh Qassem: The United States, which is meddling in Lebanon, is not trustworthy but rather poses a danger to it.
Sheikh Qassem: The United States is preventing the weapons that protect the homeland.

World Bank: about 8 million Zimbabweans live in extreme poverty

  • By Al Mayadeen
  • Source: The Guardian
  • 21 Jun 2021 15:17
  • 1 Shares
4 Min Read

The World Bank says low-income families in Zimbabwe cannot afford education and health care, but good crops may offer some hope.

  • x
  • Children play in a water well near the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
    Children play in a water well near the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.

The number of Zimbabweans living in extreme poverty has reached 7.9 million after the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, and the closures caused by it caused another economic shock to the country.

The British newspaper The Guardian quoted a World Bank report saying that about half of Zimbabwe's population fell into extreme poverty between 2011 and 2020, with children bearing the brunt of the misery.

According to the report, the number of people living in extreme poverty is expected to remain at 7.9 million in 2021 amid persistently high prices and a slow recovery of jobs and wages in the formal and informal sectors.

Given the limitations of social safety nets to protect large numbers of the poor, families are more likely to turn to negative coping strategies. For example, low-income families are more likely to forgo formal health care because they cannot pay for services and keep children out of school to avoid education costs, such as school fees, uniforms, and textbooks.

The epidemic added 1.3 million Zimbabweans to the extreme poor as people lost jobs and incomes were in urban areas.

According to the World Bank, the "extremely poor" is defined as people living below the food poverty line of $29.80 per month.

Those living below that limit doubled from three million in 2011 to 6.6 million in 2019, with numbers higher than ever before in rural areas.

Related News

World Bank projects modest economic growth for Syria in 2025

World Bank passes $250M project for Lebanon's post-war reconstruction

Child poverty has risen dramatically across the country, and humanitarian agencies have reported high levels of malnutrition and stunted growth.

“Due to economic and climate shocks, poverty rose sharply, and extreme poverty reached 42 percent in 2019, up from 30 percent in 2017. Nearly 90 percent of the extremely poor live in rural areas, of whom 1.6 million are children,” the report said.

Higher fuel and food prices have affected the poor, with increases in maize and maize flour prices alone estimated to have increased extreme poverty by two percentage points between May and December 2019.

According to the survey, in July 2020, about 500,000 families had one person who had lost his job since the beginning of the pandemic, exacerbating the plight of the poor and pushing more families into intermittent or long-term suffering. The report said the most common cause of job losses in urban areas was business closures due to the pandemic.

While wages have fallen, 23 percent of the poorest people, employed before the coronavirus pandemic, lost their jobs by June 2020, adding thousands to the unemployment figures.

Among the non-poor, this figure was also as high as 20%. However, the report said that since only a few low-income people were employed before the pandemic, the proportion of families affected by job losses is about the same for both the poor and the non-poor.

The international report indicated that as Zimbabweans suffered from successive lockdowns, 1.4 million people lost basic foods.

The Guardian said that the negative reading of Zimbabwe's economic prospects comes when the government boasts a budget surplus of 9.8 billion of its local currency (equivalent to 19.5 million US dollars), stressing that the economy has grown under the leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Still, the reality On the streets of the capital, Harare, he tells something different, telling the story of the struggle for families to make a living.

Despite the uncertainty concerning the third wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, the World Bank saw that Zimbabwe could see an economic recovery in 2022 with a bumper harvest expected to ensure that most rural families have enough to eat lead the economy to a 3.9 percent growth percent.

  • World Bank
  • Zimbabwe
  • Poverty

Most Read

Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, executive director of the defense division of the Israeli National Cyber Directorate, undated (Social media)

Israeli-born US prosecutor drops Israeli officer child sex crime

  • Politics
  • 19 Aug 2025
Almost instantly after the Helsinki Accords were signed, organisations sprouted to document purported violations, whose findings were fed to overseas embassies for international amplification. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

How ‘Human Rights’ became a Western weapon

  • Opinion
  • 23 Aug 2025
Israeli soldiers stand on the top of armoured vehicles parked on an area near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025 (AP)

Palestinian fighters target Israeli soldiers, vehicles in Gaza

  • Politics
  • 21 Aug 2025
Launch of a ballistic missile from Yemen toward the occupied Palestinian territories. (YAF military media)

Yemeni Forces announce firing hypersonic missile at Al-Lydd Airport

  • Politics
  • 22 Aug 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Prime minister's office in al-Quds, Occupied Palestine, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Netanyahu deliberately derailing truce with Gaza occupation: Hamas

Irish President Michael Higgins arrives to deliver his speech during a 42nd World Food Day celebration at FAO headquarters in Rome, on Oct. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Politics

Irish president renews call for UN military intervention in Gaza

US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the US Embassy in Aukar, northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, July 21, 2025 (AP)
Politics

US envoy, Netanyahu discuss restraining attacks on Lebanon, withdrawal

Smoke billows following Israeli airstrikes in multiple areas in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Ansar Allah vow sustained Gaza support despite Israeli strikes

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS