140 million Arabs are poor, says UN

About 40 percent of the population in Arab countries-around 140 million people-live below the poverty line, according to a report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Arab League. There has been “no reduction in poverty rates over the last 20 years,” it said.

Although the region is rich in labor and fertile land, it suffers from malnutrition, unemployment and a huge gap between the rich and the poor, said the report.

The report urges a “social contract” or an “alliance for development” between the richer Arab countries and the poorer ones like Yemen, Sudan and Somalia.