Global Anti-Poverty Targets Tepid

In his latest installment of global development wonkery for Business Week, our New America Fellow Charles Kenny (whom we share with the Center for Global Development) eloquently argues that the World Bank and IMF’s latest calls to all but rid the world of “extreme poverty” by 2030 are – to put it nicely – not nearly ambitious enough. This line is particularly clutch: “It seems wrong that most of the planet would subsist for a day on what many happily throw away on a [Starbucks Venti Caramel Frappuccino] and . . . that level of expenditure still doesn’t guarantee people a quality of life we should all deserve.” While I’d even argue that income itself as a measure of poverty and inequality falls flat in various and collective efforts to enable prosperity for all around the world – access to savings and asset building opportunities, in addition to income, is likely a much more powerful means of eradicating poverty over the long haul – I salute the audacity and optimism he conveys in this compelling piece and encourage others to check it out.