World Bank: Reduction of Extreme Poverty

According to the World Bank, developing nations have already met the Millennium Development goal to halve extreme poverty by 2015. Martin Ravallion, director of the World Bank research group has said that , "We are now confident that the developing world as a whole has reached the first of the Millennium Goals and reached that goal in 2010 despite the crisis". Eastern Europe, the Middle East, East Asia (including India and China) are all regions that have achieved this Millennium Development goal.

Among the regions that have reduced their poverty rates China, the Middle East, and North Africa specifically have made great progress. In 2008, there were 660 million fewer people living under $1.25 a day in China. While in the Middle East and North Africa, the 16.5 million who lived on less than $1.25 a day in 1981 was reduced to 8.6 million people in 2008.

While progress is still necessary, the research done by the World Bank reveals that our international community has already made great strides in global poverty reduction.

-Akshika Patel


SOURCE: Huffington Post