OPEC Fund Quarterly - 2026 Q1

THE BIG PICTURE

increases from shareholders amid competing domestic priorities. The emergence of new development models and actors with countries such as China, India and Brazil asserting themselves on the global scene has provided a shake-up given subdued multi- and bilateral funding rounds from developed economies. Private capital, philanthropic finance, blended finance and South–South cooperation are growing in importance. Alongside these are new instruments such as debt swaps for nature and climate, highlighting that the link with the environment and climate change is now far stronger. More recently, geopolitics, trade tensions, supply-chain disruptions, debt distress and the fragmentation of the global order have all undermined many of the certainties that helped propel the global economy forward after the end of the Second World War. Overlaying all of this has been the rapid spread of digital innovations and artificial intelligence, which offers the prospect of renewed poverty reduction and economic structural transformation.

Distribution of income in US$ per day

US$ per day

Each dot represents 20 million people

East Asia and Pacific

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

200 150 100 50

10

Extreme poverty

1

0.25

1990

2019

1990

2019

1990

2019

Source: World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform, World Development Indicators (SI.POV.DDAY; SP.POP.TOTL), and 2022 Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report

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