Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works

Over 800 million people suffer from chronic hunger, and over ten million children die each year from preventable causes. These may seem like overwhelming statistics, but as Stephen Smith shows in this call to arms, global poverty is something that we can and should solve within our lifetimes. Ending Global Poverty explores the various traps that keep people mired in poverty, traps like poor nutrition, illiteracy, lack of access to health care, and others and presents eight keys to escaping these traps. Smith gives readers the tools they need to help people overcome poverty and to determine what approaches are most effective in fighting it. For example, celebrities in commercials who encourage viewers to "adopt" a poor child really seem to care, but will sending money to these organizations do the most good? Smith explains how to make an informed decision. Grass-roots programs and organizations are helping people gain the capabilities they need to escape from poverty and this book highlights many of the most promising of these strategies in some of the poorest countries in the world, explaining what they do and what makes them effective.

Two out of every three people in the world live on less than two dollars a day. This is a grim statistic but hundreds of millions of people are breaking free from poverty with the help of grass-roots programs and organizations funded by regular people here and abroad. In Ending Global Poverty, Stephen Smith gives readers the tools they need to help people overcome poverty and to determine what organizations are most effective in fighting it. Smith takes readers to rural areas and urban slums for a close-up view of innovative and effective programs that are making a real difference. The book also describes how companies and foreign investors could play a constructive role in addressing the problem, offering guidelines and suggestions.