Conflict and instability are taking a devastating toll on the 39 economies afflicted by them, driving up extreme poverty faster than anywhere else, intensifying acute hunger, and pushing several key development goals farther out of reach, according to the World Bank’s first comprehensive assessment of their plight in the aftermath of COVID-19, issued on June 27, 2025.

As conflicts have become more frequent and deadly in the 2020s, these economies are falling behind all other economies in key indicators of development, the analysis finds. Since 2020, their per capita GDP has shrunk by an average of 1.8% per year, while it has expanded by 2.9% in other developing economies. This year, 421 million people are struggling on less than $3 a day in economies afflicted by conflict or instability—more than in the rest of the world combined. That number is projected to rise to 435 million, or nearly 60% of the world’s extreme poor, by 2030.

At this online seminar, the lead authors of the report presented the main points.
 

Speakers