Poverty Persists Across PNG And Pacific Despite Economic Growth – World Bank

Caleb
Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific
Journalist

About half of Papua New Guinea’s population
lives on less than US$3.65 a day, and there has been little
change in monetary well being since a 2010 survey, according
to the World Bank.

The report said the country has
some of the poorest nutrition outcomes in the world, with
almost half of children under the age of five being
stunted.

In 2022, only 19 percent of the population
had access to safe drinking water, and 15 percent to
electricity. A quarter of the youth were not in training,
education, and employment.

Save the Children’s Pacific
regional director Kim Koch said economic growth does not
necessarily equate to people being lifted out of
poverty.

“Unfortunately, a lot of times, the
investments in that economic growth is not always directed
toward breaking poverty or addressing the safety nets that
the most vulnerable families and children really need,” Koch
said.

The report said since gaining independent in
1975, the economy has more than tripled. However, real GDP
per capita has only seen an annual increase of 0.9
percent.

“The most recent Household Income and
Expenditure Survey, from 2010, revealed that 40 percent of
the population lived below the national poverty line of
US$2.15 per day.

“Despite the lack of an official
poverty rate since 2010, household surveys suggest little
change in monetary wellbeing,” it said.

Koch said
poverty is driving food insecurity and
violence.

“Those consequences are intergenerational,”
she said.

“It is hard to break the cycle of poverty
unless you have specific, dedicated investments in that
purpose.”

She said it is often children’s education,
safety, and health that suffer.

“That is usually
because families are investing in just their basic needs,
and things like sending their kids to school, having a
nutritious diet, seeking medical care are often lower on the
priority list.”

Fiji also struggling

The
report also said Fiji is struggling to raise its living
standards to match its income level. The nation achieved
upper-middle-income status in 2014 but 50.1 percent of the
population lived under US$6.85 a day in 2024.

However,
extreme poverty – those living on less than US$2.15 a day –
had almost been eliminated.

Poverty in Fiji – those
living under US$6.85 a day – is on a downward trend. It was
at 52.6 percent in 2019 and projected to be at 48.7 percent
in 2025 and 45.5 percent in 2027, driven by economic growth
which is expected to sit at 3.2 percent in 2027.

Fiji
Council of Social Services executive director Vani
Catanasiga said it is encouraging growth is increasing and
poverty decreasing, but more could be done.

“We feel
that there needs to be better effort at empowering women and
youth, particularly when we look at the issues surrounding
the labour force,” she said.

In Solomon Islands, a
phone survey by the World Bank in 2024 found about half of
all households are worried about their finances.

The
report said food insecurity remains high, with about half
the population eating less than they thought they should in
the past 30 days.

“According to the 2012/13 Household
Income and Expenditure Survey, 61 percent of the population
was considered poor based on the lower-middle-income poverty
line (US$3.65 per day),” it said.

However, the economy
is expected to grow by an average of 2.7 percent from 2025
to 2027 and poverty rates are projected to decline as a
result.

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