Development Goals in an Era of Demographic Change
Global Monitoring Report | 2015/2016 :: 307 pages
World Bank Group/IMF
Pdf: http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/pubdocs/publicdoc/2015/10/503001444058224597/Global-Monitoring-Report-2015.pdf
Overview
This year’s Global Monitoring Report, produced jointly by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, details the progress the world has made towards global development goals and examines the impact of demographic change on achieving these goals.

The report details the decline of those living in global poverty, which is reclassified as living on $1.90 or less a day, to a forecast 9.6 percent of the world’s population in 2015 — a projected 200 million fewer people living in extreme poverty than in 2012. It also revises world economic growth projections for 2015 down to 3.3 percent on the basis of lower growth prospects in emerging markets.

The Global Monitoring Report also analyzes how profound demographic shifts could alter the course of global development. The world is undergoing a major population shift that will reshape economic development for decades. The direction and pace of this transition varies dramatically from country to country, with differing implications depending on where a country stands on the spectrum of aging and economic development, the report said.

“With the right set of policies, this era of demographic change can be turned into one of sustained development progress,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. To accelerate gains, the report says, development policies must take into account this altering landscape. Depending on the circumstances, this means that countries need to spark their demographic transition, accelerate job creation, sustain productivity growth, and adapt to aging.

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Press Release
World Undergoing Major Population Shift with Far-reaching Implications for Migration, Poverty, Development: WB/IMF Report
LIMA, October 7, 2015 — As migrants and refugees from Africa and the Middle East continue to arrive in Europe in unprecedented numbers, a new World Bank/IMF report says that large-scale migration from poor countries to richer regions of the world will be a permanent feature of the global economy for decades to come as a result of major population shifts in countries.

According to the Global Monitoring Report 2015/2016: Development Goals in an Era of Demographic Change, released in Peru at the start of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, the world is undergoing a major population shift that will reshape economic development for decades and, while posing challenges, offers a path to ending extreme poverty and shared prosperity if the right evidence-based policies are put in place nationally and internationally.

The share of global population that is working age has peaked at 66 percent and is now on the decline. World population growth is expected to slow to 1 percent from more than 2 percent in the 1960s. The share of the elderly is anticipated to almost double to 16 percent by 2050, while the global count of children is stabilizing at 2 billion.

The direction and pace of this global demographic transition varies dramatically from country to country, with differing implications depending on where a nation stands on the spectrum of aging and economic development. Regardless of this diversity, countries at all stages of development can harness demographic transition as a tremendous development opportunity, the report says.

“With the right set of policies, this era of demographic change can be an engine of economic growth,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “If countries with aging populations can create a path for refugees and migrants to participate in the economy, everyone benefits, Most of the evidence suggests that migrants will work hard and contribute more in taxes than they consume in social services.”

More than 90 percent of global poverty is concentrated in lower-income countries with young, fast-growing populations that can expect to see their working-age populations grow significantly. At the same time, more than three-quarters of global growth is generated in higher-income countries with much-lower fertility rates, fewer people of working age, and rising numbers of the elderly.

“The demographic developments analyzed in the report will pose fundamental challenges for policy-makers across the world in the years ahead,” said IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde. “Whether it be the implications of steadily aging populations, the actions needed to benefit from a demographic dividend, the handling of migration flows—these issues will be at the center of national policy debates and of the international dialogue on how best to cooperate in handling these pressures.”

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World Bank Forecasts Global Poverty to Fall Below 10% for First Time; Major Hurdles Remain in Goal to End Poverty by 2030
WASHINGTON, October 4, 2015 – The number of people living in extreme poverty around the world is likely to fall to under 10 percent of the global population in 2015, according to World Bank projections…
Date: October 4, 2015 Type: Press Release