Ending Extreme Poverty: Can It Be Done? If So, How?

Between 1990 and 2010, the rate of extreme poverty in the developing world halved from 43 to 21 percent, leaving approximately a billion people living below the $1.25 a day poverty line. Today, there is growing momentum to eradicate extreme poverty over the next generation, in line with the commitment made by President Barack Obama in this year’s State of the Union address.

On Thursday, November 21, the Development Assistance and Governance Initiative at Brookings hosted an event on the prospects for ending extreme poverty.  Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Rajiv Shah, provided remarks on the role of the U.S. government in the fight against global poverty. The panel discussion included: Brookings Fellow Laurence Chandy; Cathy Pattillo, chief of the Low-Income Countries Strategy Unit at the International Monetary Fund; Martin Ravallion, professor of economics at Georgetown University; and Alex Thier, assistant to the administrator for Policy, Planning, and Learning at USAID. Annie Lowrey from The New York Times moderated the discussion.

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Read USAID’s discussion paper on ending extreme poverty »

Read USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah’s remarks »