Every year the world notes the 17th of October — the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This is an important date for us, as World Vision has put into its strategy the following goal: End extreme poverty for children in our lifetime, for God’s glory.
Goals like this are fantastic; they are motivating, clear, and measurable. Since it is measurable, how is the world doing on ending extreme poverty? What is our target now?
In June, the World Bank first revealed that the extreme poverty line has changed. As of now, extreme poverty is defined as having an income of $3.00 per person per day or below. The World Bank has also stated that while there are more people living in extreme poverty today than we had understood, more people have already moved out of extreme poverty than we had known. The goalposts are now clearer, and we can see the world has done better than we thought on ending extreme poverty.
We also have a big announcement … in one year the THRIVE community is gathering! We will meet IN PERSON inChicago for the THRIVE Forum on October 16 — 17, 2026. This will be a great opportunity to meet fellow donors and supporters, meet staff, and experience different components of THRIVE yourself (have you ever been a member of a Savings Group?), all while enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of the “Windy City”.
Enjoy autumn!
Extreme poverty — new data and new extreme poverty line by the World Bank
The World Bank has revised its estimates of global extreme poverty. New data on prices and national poverty lines from more than 160 countries means that new conclusions need to be drawn.
The international extreme poverty line has been updated to $3.00 per person per day. (For more information from the World Bank on their approach on the numbers, click here, and on their methodology, please click here.)
While the slope and direction of the graphs both look like really good news, as well as very similar to the previous ones, there are some important take-aways from the new data.
First, more people have moved out of extreme poverty than had been previously understood. This is because we now understand that there were more people living in extreme poverty in previous years. Previous estimates were that 1.3 billion people escaped poverty between 1990 and 2022. Now we see that about 1.5 billion people made that journey up the economic ladder. 200 million more people than we had thought have moved out of extreme poverty— this is good!
Second, more people are still living in extreme poverty now than we had known. Today we understand that there are about 830 million people living in extreme poverty, which is about 150 million more than we thought. This is not so good, as it means there is further to go to end extreme poverty. However, even with around 10% of the world’s population now living in extreme poverty, we have reduced by half the 20% that lived in extreme poverty just 15 years ago. That remains remarkable progress!
Third, extreme poverty is most highly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, with 73% of the extreme poor living in that region. The World Bank has confirmed that roughly 80% of the people living in extreme poverty live in the countryside, and about 65% of the people are smallholder farmers.
What conclusions should we draw from all this? The pathway to ending extreme poverty is now even more clear. When we end extreme poverty for smallholder farmers, we will largely end extreme poverty. Fortunately, that is exactly what THRIVE aims to do, and is actually achieving.
Onward!
Save the date!
Mark October 16-17, 2026 on your calendar for the next THRIVE Forum in Chicago.
We will be almost exactly halfway through the THRIVE 2030 Business Plan. It will be the best time to do a deep-dive review of our work. It will be a time to connect with our passionate THRIVE community. It will be informative and exciting for those who know and love THRIVE. But it will also be the perfect time for inviting people new to THRIVE, as we are crafting the time for an immersive experience of the program we are taking to 10 million people in 11 countries.
And please … spread the word! We do not want anyone to miss the Forum!
More details will be coming about the expected program and the venue.
Partner with us
Interested in seeing your gift DOUBLE in size? Thanks to a very generous donor partner, we have $1.3 million in “match” funds available for donations to World Vision’s THRIVE program. This opportunity expires on November 30th, so if you are interested in seeing your donation doubled, please take advantage of this opportunity.
Some of our most popular ways of giving is by supporting the FAST or Lending to Savings Groups component of the program.
Give to the Economic Empowerment Global Fund: THRIVE 2030 to help us reach 10 million people in 11 countries with the tools they need to lift themselves out of extreme poverty. Tools include Biblical Empowered Worldview, Savings Groups, Market Knowledge and Access, and FAST (Lending to Savings Groups).
Special event invitation — Update on FAST and Uganda conference
World Vision’s FAST loans — lending to savings groups — continue to expand extremely quickly and is breaking down global barriers to lending to the poorest people on the planet.
Join us on the 13th of November at 4:00 pm Pacific Time / 7:00 pm Eastern Time, for an exciting report on FAST in the last year and plans for the year ahead, for updates on the recent global “reveal” of FAST to the international community at the conference in Uganda, and a new video about FAST from our microfinance partner, VisionFund International.
Praise God for an extraordinary turnout in Uganda for the public “reveal” of our FAST loans to savings groups model. We saw maximum attendance capacity reached, with 150 people from over 20 countries representing governments, financial institutions, technology companies, donor/investors (like the World Bank and Gates Foundation), and many international NGOs. There is clearly strong demand for knowledge sharing about World Vision’s game-changing breakthrough in expanding financial services for people living in extreme poverty. (We will feature FAST and this meeting in the next newsletter.)
Pray for World Vision’s emergency response in Viet Nam, and wisdom for the THRIVE team, following 2 months of devastating storms.
Since the beginning of August 2025, Viet Nam has endured a sequence of powerful tropical storms and typhoons that caused unprecedented flooding and destruction. Typhoon Kajiki and subsequent flash floods in August devastated the northern provinces, followed by Typhoon Bualoi making landfall in Quang Tri–Ha Tinh around midnight on September 28.Between September 25–30, rainfall reached 200–400 mm, with some locations exceeding 855 mm. The latest storm was Typhoon Natmo which weakened into a tropical depression on October 6, yet brought widespread flooding across 18 provinces, destroying homes and disrupting access to food, clean water, and shelter.
These disasters have resulted in significant economic and property damage. Viet Nam has seen 238 deaths and nearly 400 injuries, hundreds of thousands of damaged or flooded houses, hundreds of schools and health stations affected, and thousands of hectares of crops and aquaculture were destroyed alongside lost livestock. The estimated economic loss exceeds US $1.4 billion.
Thank you for uniting with us in prayer and for your faithful partnership!
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