The United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) new study has noted that an additional 207 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by the year 2030 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the total number of extremely poor to more than a billion globally.

The study examines the consequences of different COVID-19 recovery scenarios on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), assessing the multidimensional effects of the ongoing crisis over the next decade.

The concerted SDG interventions suggested include behavioural changes through nudges, such as improved efficiency in governance and changes in consumption patterns of food, energy as well as water.

“As this new poverty research highlights, the COVID-19 pandemic is a tipping point, and the choices leaders take now could take the world in very different directions,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.