Is It Possible to End Poverty?

Many organizations, governments and philanthropists believe that it is possible to significantly reduce the number of people living in poverty worldwide. The United Nations estimates that 10 percent of the world population lives at or below the poverty level, earning $1.90 per day or less, prompting the UN to name poverty as its primary Sustainable Development Goal.1 The World Bank has said that to end poverty in parts of the developing world by 2030 is “ambitious, yet achievable.”2

The World Bank data shows that from 1960 to 2018 the percentage of the world’s population living at the poverty level went from 40 percent to 9.3 percent.3 This is an incredible reduction that is promising for future progress. Though there is optimism, however, much work is yet to be done.

South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa remain the two leading regions with the highest percentages of those living in poverty. According to a 2016 World Bank report,

“The implication of the current geography of global and regional poverty is that if the goal of ending poverty is to be achieved, most of any future decline will have to come from sub-Saharan Africa, and to a lesser extent, South Asia.”4

While it will take many organizations and governments to address the multifaceted issues surrounding poverty on a global scale, it will also take the open-eyed commitment of people on the ground in the most vulnerable areas to recognize the problems that need immediate attention and respond to them. This is where GFA World does some of its best work.

GFA national missionaries are uniquely positioned to serve and minister to those in need. For example:
  • They move freely in areas that are restricted to outsiders, and they are usually accepted in the communities they serve.
  • They instinctively know the cultural taboos in the area.
  • They have already mastered the local language or can easily learn a related dialect.
  • They live in the community, eating the same food, wearing the same clothes and sharing the same interests as the local people.
  • They have a passion and burden to serve and share Christ’s love with their own people.

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