It has stopped getting better. In the past five years, economic and financial instability, low commodity prices, falling levels of aid, widespread civil wars and steady population growth have meant that more and more people are poor. This week, the World Bank published its annual report on the state of the world's poor. Last year, many "developing countries" did not develop. Their growth in output fell from 4.8% in 1997 to 1.9%, which meant per person, no one was better off. And progress has stalled in education, health and other measures of the quality of life. The plight of Africans living south of the Sahara remains the most misreable. For them, life expectancy is mere 51 years, some ten years less than people living anywhere else.