Global poverty rises for first time since 2010 – UN

Around 617 million children are living in acute poverty, accounting for more than half of those affected worldwide Global poverty has risen for the first time since 2010, with 1.2 billion people facing acute deprivation, according to a new UN report.The study, released on Monday by the UN Development Program (UNDP) and the University of Oxford, found that the number of people living in acute poverty has increased by 51.5 million compared with the previous assessment. The increase is the first recorded since the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was introduced in 2010.The report, which includes 108 countries, measures poverty beyond income, examining deprivation in health, education, and living standards. It uses ten indicators, including nutrition, child mortality, schooling, access to clean water and electricity, sanitation, and housing conditions. People are classified as living in acute poverty if their households are deprived in at least one-third of the weighted indicators.Nearly half of those living in poverty – 534 million people – face ‘severe’ deprivation, meaning they lack at least half of the basic necessities measured by the index. Another 952 million people a...