Ending extreme poverty by 2030 is possible, World Bank President says

Apr 4 2013

"World Bank President Jim Kim has unveiled a series of new institutional goals aimed at ending extreme poverty by 2030 and focusing on the promotion of 'shared prosperity' -- increasing the incomes of the poorest 40 percent in each country while placing increased focus on dealing with climate change," Inter Press Service reports. "We are at an auspicious moment in history, when the successes of past decades and an increasingly favorable economic outlook combine to give developing countries a chance -- for the first time ever -- to end extreme poverty within a generation," Kim said on Tuesday in a speech at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the news service notes.

"While those living on less than 1.25 dollars a day stood at 43 percent of the developing world in 1990, by 2010 that figure had fallen to 21 percent," IPS writes, adding, "The new plan would now bring this number down to three percent by 2030" (Biron, 4/2). "World Bank officials will meet the U.N. secretary general this weekend in Madrid to begin the process of agreeing to replacements for the Millennium Development Goals, taking advice from a working group chaired by U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron," according to The Guardian (Roberts, 4/2).