The UN Rapporteur on Poverty, Philip Alston, has highlighted in his latest report the "regrettable situation", as El Salto has reported. In his view, the world is at an “existential crossroads”: “Pandemic, deep economic crisis, destructive climate change, extreme inequality and movement that in many countries faces the prevalence of racism”.

Alston will present in the coming days in Geneva its conclusions, which are taken up by the European Commission. The guest will talk about the outdated information that governments, economists and human rights advocates handle in tackling poverty. It has also underlined the "lack of initiatives" to eradicate poverty in the CAV.

For Alston, the “complacency” of international institutions has been “intensified” with the formulas used by the World Bank to measure poverty reduction. In his opinion, the latter has been a “lost decade”. According to Alston, this measurement reveals that the decline in poverty in the world is due to the reduction of material deficiencies in a single country, specifically in China.

The pandemic plans to put more than 70 million people in extreme poverty. Today, more than 250 million people are "at risk of severe hunger," according to the NGO report. For Alston, the response has only worsened the conditions of governments, who have warned that they continue to invest money in "repressive practices" and "penitentiary systems". At the same time, "it takes away from poor communities the most basic rights, such as health care, housing and education."

"If the foundations of social protection had been laid, hundreds of millions of people who have been left without health care, adequate food and adequate housing would have been saved from the worst consequences," Alston explains in the report. On the contrary, the "endless pressure" to control the deficit and tax cuts for the wealthiest, the social protection system, have indicated. Detainees are being moved "closer to the models of the 20th century," the former rapporteur explained.

When this situation is combined with post-COVID-19 austerity policies, "the transfer of economic and political power to the rich elites is accelerated." At that time, the extent and depth of global poverty "will be more politically unbearable and explosive," Alston concluded.