Abstract
There is less than a decade left to accomplish the goal of ending global poverty by 2030. This paper investigates global poverty dynamics and finds a shift in the world’s poverty gravity center from South Asia to Africa in the period 1990–2015. Sub-Saharan Africa has become the main battlefield for poverty reduction in the world. Global poverty reduction has been accompanied by political instability and local conflicts, economic marginalization, rural decline, and natural hazards as well as climate change which are jointly impacting the least developed areas and making the world’s poverty reduction vulnerable to external shocks. The “STAR” scheme, including maintaining political stability, promoting targeted poverty alleviation, implementing regular assessments of poverty reduction initiatives, and revitalizing rural and poverty-stricken areas, is proposed with specific measures to enhance the resilience capacity of poverty alleviation in the world.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Agola N O, Awange, J L, 2014. Globalized Poverty and Environment 21st Century Challenges and Innovative Solutions. Berlin: Springer.
Alkire S, Santos M E, 2014. Measuring acute poverty in the develo** world: Robustness and scope of the multidimensional poverty index. World Development, 59(1): 251–274.
Blumenstock J, Cadamuro G, On R, 2015. Predicting poverty and wealth from mobile phone metadata. Science, 350(6264): 1073–1076.
Bruno M, Ravallion M, Squire L, 1996. Equity and growth in develo** countries: Old and new perspectives on the policy issues. Washington: World Bank.
Challinor A J, Watson J, Lobell D B et al., 2014. A meta-analysis of crop yield under climate change and adaptation. Nature Climate Change, 4(4): 287–291.
Davids Y D, Gouws A, 2013. Monitoring perceptions of the causes of poverty in South Africa. Social Indicators Research, 110(3): 1201–1220.
Dollar D, Kraay A, 2002. Growth is good for the poor. Journal of Economic Growth, 7(3): 195–225.
FAO, WFP, 2018. Monitoring food security in countries with conflict situations: A joint FAO/WFP update for the United Nations Security Council. New York: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Food Programme.
Folke C, 2006. Resilience: The emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses. Global Environmental Change, 16(3): 253–267.
Grether G M, Mathys A, 2010. Is the world’s economic center of gravity already in Asia? Area, 42(1): 47–50.
Guo Y Z, Zhou Y, Cao Z, 2018. Geographical patterns and anti-poverty targeting post-2020 in China. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 28(12): 1810–1824.
Hallegatte S, Rozenberg J, 2017. Climate change through a poverty lens. Nature Climate Change, 7(4): 250–256.
Halman L, Van Oorschot W, 1999. Popular perceptions of poverty in Dutch society. Work and Organization Research Centre, Tilburg University, Work Paper 16. http://ideas.repec.org/s/dgr/kubwor.html. Accessed 10 July 2005.
He Y B, Chen Y Q, Tang H J et al., 2011. Exploring spatial change and gravity center movement for ecosystem services value using a spatially explicit ecosystem services value index and gravity model. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 175(1): 563–571.
Jean N, Burke M, **e M et al., 2016. Combining satellite imagery and machine learning to predict poverty. Science, 353(6301): 790–794.
Jesús C C, Martin H, 2019. Deforestation and economic development: Evidence from national borders. Land Use Policy, 84: e347–e353.
Krishna A, 2006. Pathways out of and into poverty in 36 villages of Andhra Pradesh, India. World Development, 34(2): 271–288.
Li Y H, Su B Z, Liu Y S, 2016a. Realizing targeted poverty alleviation in China: People’s voices, implementation challenges and policy implications. China Agricultural Economic Review, 8(3): 443–454.
Li Y H, Westlund H, Liu Y S, 2019. Why some rural areas decline while some others not: An overview of rural evolution in the world. Journal of Rural Studies, 68: 135–143.
Li Y H, Westlund H, Zheng X Y et al., 2016b. Bottom-up initiatives and revival in the face of rural decline: Case studies from China and Sweden. Journal of Rural Studies, 47: 506–513.
Liu Y S, Li Y H, 2017. Revitalize the world’s countryside. Nature, 548(7667): 275–277.
Liu Y S, Wang Y S, 2019. Rural land engineering and poverty alleviation: Lessons from typical regions in China. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 29(5): 643–657.
Modica M, Reggiani A, 2014. Spatial economic resilience: Overview and perspectives. Networks and Spatial Economics, 15(2): 211–233.
Myrdal G, 1970. The challenge of world poverty: A world anti-poverty program in outline. New York: Vintage Books.
Ravallion M, Chen S, 2007. China’s (uneven) progress against poverty. Journal of Development Economics, 82(1): 1–42.
Sen B, 2003. Drivers of escape and descent: Changing household fortunes in rural Bangladesh. World Development, 31(3): 513–534.
Shek D T, 2004. Beliefs about the causes of poverty in parents and adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage in Hong Kong. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 165(3): 272–292.
Thorpe A, 2004. The Nature and Causes of Poverty: An Overview. Poverty and Small-scale Fisheries in West Africa. Dordrecht: Springer, 9–36.
Tollefson J, 2015. UN approves global to-do list for next 15 years. Nature, 525(7570): 434–435.
UNHCR, 2016. The UN Refugee Agency, Global Trend: Forced Displacement in 2016. Geneva: UNHCR.
Wallerstein I, 1979. The Capitalist World Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wang Y, Chen Y N, Li Z, 2013. Evolvement characteristics of population and economic gravity centers in Tarim River Basin, Uygur Autonomous Region of **njiang, China. Chinese Geographical Science, 23(6): 765–772.
Westlund H, 2006. Social Capital in the Knowledge Economy: Theory and Empirics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Westlund H, Kobayashi K, 2013. Social Capital and Rural Development in the Knowledge Society. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
World Bank Group, 2018. Poverty and shared prosperity 2018 piecing together poverty puzzle. Washington DC: World Bank Group.
World Bank Group, 2020. Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020. Washington DC: World Bank Group.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Foundation
National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41771191
Author
Li Yuheng (1983–), PhD and Associate Professor, E-mail: liyuheng@igsnrr.ac.cn
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, Y., Wu, W. & Wang, Y. Global poverty dynamics and resilience building for sustainable poverty reduction. J. Geogr. Sci. 31, 1159–1170 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-021-1890-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-021-1890-4