Unit 4 Macro: Development Goals - Reducing Extreme Poverty and Hunger

The Millennium Development Goals represent an ambitious set of development targets established in 2000 and designed to be met as fully as possible by the end of 2015. Goal 1 is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day

There has been clear progress in reducing the scale of extreme poverty. The number of extreme poor in developing regions fell from 2 billion in 1990 to less than 1.4 billion in 2008. That said the rate of extreme poverty reduction has slowed down because of the impact of the global recession post 2008 and the effects of high world food and energy prices. By 2015, well over one billion people will live in extreme poverty; 4/5ths of these people will live in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.

Those countries that have made most rapid progress towards the first of the MDGs—to halve those living in extreme poverty by 2015—have been the fast growing countries of East Asia, most notably India, China and Vietnam.

The proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day fell from 43.1 percent in 1990 to 22.2% in 2008

To fight extreme poverty the World Bank in 2012 reported that five key areas need to be given extra focus.

1. Poor Health and Nutrition
2. Lack of Education
3. Depleted Environment
4. Corruption and Conflict
5. Poor Government

The rising prices of many foodstuffs in the world economy creates grave risks for millions of the poorest people in the world is perhaps the biggest threat to the chances of making significant progress in reducing the scale of exteme poverty.

Next step: Watch these videos on the world food crisis