Key Messages

CHAPTER 7

West Bank and Gaza: Emergence of the New Poor

Romeo Jacky Gansey, Alia Jane Aghajanian, and Jawad Al-Saleh

Key Messages

• For the West Bank and Gaza, our microsimulations paint a picture of worsening poverty—up to 35.6 percent in 2020—driven by income shocks that have been further exacerbated by

COVID-19.

• Although inequality does not seem to be as affected by COVID19, there is an emergence of the “new poor”—those who were not poor in 2016 but have become poor since.

• Their characteristics differ from those of the traditionally poor in that they are more concentrated in the West Bank, are in rural areas, are more likely to have tertiary education, and are more likely to belong to female-headed households.

• Interestingly, the new poor are more likely to live in households above the first two income deciles—a finding that is analogous to the World Bank’s global report Poverty and Shared Prosperity, which indicated 82 percent of the new poor will live in middle-income countries (World Bank 2020).

• Further, unless households are able to continue smoothing consumption, poverty could dramatically increase for households in Gaza, reaching levels close to what was observed in Gaza in 2016.