The world experienced the first increase in extreme poverty in 20 years, and inequality has risen sharply and remains high as successive shocks, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to reversals in key measures of social development progress, according to a UN report launched on Thursday.

While macroeconomic recoveries are under way, extreme poverty remains high in countries in special situations, indicating deep-seated structural vulnerabilities. By 2022, extreme poverty had returned to pre-pandemic levels in most countries, except low-income ones, said the World Social Report 2024, titled "Social Development in Times of Converging Crises: A Call for Global Action" and launched by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Unemployment rates in low-income countries have remained persistently high, with the employment gap rate increasing from 20 percent in 2018 to 21 percent in 2023. These trends have exacerbated existing income and wealth inequalities globally, the report said.

In 2022, the poorest half of the global population owned only 2 percent of the world's wealth, while the richest 10 percent held 76 percent.

According to the report, the crisis could result in cumulative economic output losses of more than $50 trillion between 2020 and 2030, reflecting lost opportunities for investing in social development.

With countries emerging gradually from multiple and converging crises, there is an opportunity to minimize the long-run impacts of these crises on social development and build more resilient societies, the report said.

According to the report, in the current global policy environment, shocks more readily turn into crises that cross boundaries, demanding international action. The report called for urgent global action to support national efforts to address the setbacks caused by the recent global crises and to avoid the conversion of future shocks to crises.

The report emphasized the critical need for reform and refocusing of international development finance to support country-level responses to global crises and create the fiscal space needed to drive social progress.

It also examined measures to ease the debt burdens of developing nations and explored how official development assistance, in the form of grants and concessional loans, meaningful debt relief in the short term, and a strengthening of the sovereign debt architecture in the long term, could advance social development.

"This report brings to light the important role of multilateral action in supporting national-level efforts to find fiscal space to fight poverty, create jobs, and ensure everyone has a fair chance in life," said Li Junhua, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.

The World Social Report is the flagship publication of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs on major social development issues, identifying current and emerging social trends, and providing analysis on major development issues at both the national and international levels.