With prices soaring in crisis-hit Lebanon, many women can no longer afford sanitary pads. Packs of sanitary towels now cost between 13,000 and 35,000 Lebanese pounds -- between $8.60 and $23 at the official exchange rate -- up from just 3,000 pounds ($2) before the economic crisis. With more than half the population living in poverty, tens of thousands of women are now on a desperate hunt for affordable alternatives. Some women are making their own, using baby nappies or even rags.

The Federal Executive Council has approved the National Poverty Reduction With Growth Strategy submitted by the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.

Rights activists and medical experts have urged the government to take concrete actions to prevent underage marriages. Activists say poverty is one of the biggest push factors behind child marriage in Pakistan.

Food parcels are distributed by charity groups in Tokyo to help the the growing number of Japanese pushed into poverty by the coronavirus pandemic.

Spain's struggling economy had been showing improvement when the coronavirus pandemic hit the country hard, throwing it into a tailspin. Food banks have become essential in helping people with no foreseeable job prospects feed their families.

When the coronavirus pandemic shuttered restaurants in California, Aleida Ramirez lost her job as a waitress, plunging her - along with many other single mothers - into a vicious cycle of poverty, unpaid bills and reliance on food banks. Marisol Gonzales and Maria Lara have faced similar struggles on the other side of the country, in New York and Washington. The pandemic has been particularly hard on women who work in the service sector, which has been crippled by the economic crisis.

The year 2020 should have been marked by a further reduction in poverty around the world, but instead the Covid-19 pandemic has reversed decades of progress. According to estimates by the World Bank, up to 115 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty in 2020 as a result of Covid-19.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Tuesday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Tuesday.⁣

On Sunday, some Northern elders commended the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar 111 for summoning the courage to speak on the deplorable security situation in the North.⁣ ⁣ Today, on ‘Inside Stuff,’ multi-award-winning columnist and Executive Head of The Guardian's Editorial Board, Martins Oloja, talks about how the Sultan of Sokoto comment on insecurity, poverty, and the effect of insecurity in the North cannot be ignored, as he’s speaking to his people who are in charge of the security of the nation, also using the Sultan’s comment to advice the commander in chief to review the operations architecture of security in the country.⁣

The world's poorest children are getting even poorer, according to UNICEF and Save the Children. And they warn that the situation could get a lot worse in the coming months.

Indonesia, which has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world according to UNICEF, last year raised the legal age for wedlock in a bid to tackle the problem. Despite the reform, many are still being forced into marriage by desperate families in poverty. Indonesia's family planning agency has warned the nation, already home to 270 million people, could see a huge baby boom early next year due to school closures and dwindling access to contraception.

One month on from the deadly Beirut explosion, we take a look at the economic situation in Lebanon. The blast ruptured supply chains, destroyed grain reserves and worsened an already catastrophic economic situation in the country. By the end of the year, experts predict that over half of the population will be living in poverty.