POVERTY FAQ'S
1. Doesn’t corruption in developing nations prevent aid from reaching the most impoverished people? While
corruption exists nearly everywhere, including the United States, it is by no means a justification for ignoring the
plight of the world's poor. In recent years, experts have developed numerous strategies for bypassing corruption and
ensuring that the world's most vulnerable people receive assistance. The United States even set up a funding
program that requires countries to address corruption before they can receive assistance. This ensures that aid
coming from the United States goes directly to the people.
2. Isn't the problem too big? While the problem is huge, the solutions are easy, affordable, and proven to work.
The World Bank estimates that $19 billion a year is needed to implement the methods for cutting hunger in half by
2015. To put the figure in perspective, the United States gives more to its largest military contractor and spends over
$420 billion a year on defense (more than the rest of the world combined). Click here to read facts about poverty-
reduction successes occurring across the globe.
3. Why should the United States address poverty abroad when we have it here? These are not competing
interests. Our foreign policy should be focused on international poverty because it's the right thing to do and because
it's in our strategic interest. And for the same reasons our domestic policy should focus on poverty at home.
4. What is the biggest hurdle to achieving the Millennium Goals and ending world hunger? Leadership from
Congress and the White House. As the world's agenda-setter, the United States is in the unique position of having the
power to push through poverty reduction on a global scale and to ensure that the Millennium Goals are achieved.
We're quite literally the first country in history that has the ability and political power to end world hunger.
5. How is poverty fought on the ground? The strategies range from teaching farmers how to increase crop
productivity to giving small loans to women so they can buy ovens and earn money selling bread. Click here to learn
about more strategies.
6. Why do CEO's and the business community want the U.S. to end global poverty? The world's poor are now
viewed as the largest untapped market on earth. As people transition from barely surviving into being consumers of
goods and products, U.S. companies gain new populations to which they can market their products. Many
corporations have already benefited substantially from the poverty reduction that has occurred in India, China, and
other parts of the world, and they realize that their future earnings are tied to whether or not U.S. leadership is
working to reduce global poverty.
7. Why do defense experts view global poverty as a threat to the United States? Poverty creates desperate
people and unstable conditions. As the National Security Strategy of the United States says, “A world where some
live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day, is neither just nor stable.”
1. Doesn’t corruption in developing nations prevent aid from reaching the most impoverished people? While
corruption exists nearly everywhere, including the United States, it is by no means a justification for ignoring the
plight of the world's poor. In recent years, experts have developed numerous strategies for bypassing corruption and
ensuring that the world's most vulnerable people receive assistance. The United States even set up a funding
program that requires countries to address corruption before they can receive assistance. This ensures that aid
coming from the United States goes directly to the people.
2. Isn't the problem too big? While the problem is huge, the solutions are easy, affordable, and proven to work.
The World Bank estimates that $19 billion a year is needed to implement the methods for cutting hunger in half by
2015. To put the figure in perspective, the United States gives more to its largest military contractor and spends over
$420 billion a year on defense (more than the rest of the world combined). Click here to read facts about poverty-
reduction successes occurring across the globe.
3. Why should the United States address poverty abroad when we have it here? These are not competing
interests. Our foreign policy should be focused on international poverty because it's the right thing to do and because
it's in our strategic interest. And for the same reasons our domestic policy should focus on poverty at home.
4. What is the biggest hurdle to achieving the Millennium Goals and ending world hunger? Leadership from
Congress and the White House. As the world's agenda-setter, the United States is in the unique position of having the
power to push through poverty reduction on a global scale and to ensure that the Millennium Goals are achieved.
We're quite literally the first country in history that has the ability and political power to end world hunger.
5. How is poverty fought on the ground? The strategies range from teaching farmers how to increase crop
productivity to giving small loans to women so they can buy ovens and earn money selling bread. Click here to learn
about more strategies.
6. Why do CEO's and the business community want the U.S. to end global poverty? The world's poor are now
viewed as the largest untapped market on earth. As people transition from barely surviving into being consumers of
goods and products, U.S. companies gain new populations to which they can market their products. Many
corporations have already benefited substantially from the poverty reduction that has occurred in India, China, and
other parts of the world, and they realize that their future earnings are tied to whether or not U.S. leadership is
working to reduce global poverty.
7. Why do defense experts view global poverty as a threat to the United States? Poverty creates desperate
people and unstable conditions. As the National Security Strategy of the United States says, “A world where some
live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day, is neither just nor stable.”
"The world is very different
now. For man holds in his
mortal hands the power to
abolish all forms of human
poverty, and all forms of
human life."
now. For man holds in his
mortal hands the power to
abolish all forms of human
poverty, and all forms of
human life."
President
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
