Poverty Watch Greece | Poverty Watches Overview 2021 & 2022

2022 is the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic with serious global health, social and economic consequences. These consequences combined with the energy crisis, the climate of insecurity, the current conflicts, and the evolving climate change form an explosive mix, triggering poverty and a new food crisis. So while global grain production has been steadily increasing over the last 20 years and today global grain stocks are 35% more than needed to feed the total world population, there are unjustified price increases: FAO estimated that food prices in May 2022 were up by 30% in a year and wheat prices up by 50%, intensifying fears of famine in the poorest countries. 

The World Bank estimates that every 1% of an increase in food prices pushes more than 10 million people into extreme poverty. By the end of 2021 more than 200 million people faced acute food insecurity and in East Africa more than half a million people were on the verge of total starvation and death. Instead, we have seen that the richest people in the world are getting richer and the poorest are being pushed into greater poverty. In such a global context where the pandemic and the energy crisis are seen as an opportunity for some to become rich, social inequalities are growing and the poorest are marginally surviving.