Extreme Poverty

The share of the world’s population living below the international poverty line of $2.15/day dropped considerably – from 38% to 8.3% – between 1990 and 2019. However, that progress, which was already slowing came to an arresting halt with the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic. For the first time in decades, the number of people affected by malnutrition and hunger has begun to rise – from 618 million to 735 million over the past three years. An emerging debt crisis threatens to make matters even worse as global interests rates rise, international supply chains are strained, and we confront converging and compounding international crises from climate change to intensifying conflict and instability.

The internationally agreed goals to eliminate hunger and extreme poverty by 2030, part of the larger UN-backed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are slipping out of reach. This represents not only a moral concern for Americans, but a pragmatic one. When developing countries experience increased opportunity and access to nutrition, it expands markets for U.S. businesses, reduces drivers of global conflict and displacement, and lowers health risks around the world. Recognizing poverty as the humanitarian and security crisis that it is, the U.S. has long prioritized human development and access to nutrition as central tenets of its foreign policy and national security frameworks.