The latest interviews, opinion pieces and blogs on initiatives taken to eradicate poverty beyond growth.
Last week, powerful politicians and business leaders gathered in Davos, promising to “unlock new sources of growth” to solve the world’s many crises. Poverty, climate breakdown, and political instability – all, we were told, can be fixed if only we grow our economies a little faster.
27 January 2026
Economic growth was long seen as the surest route to poverty eradication. That wisdom has since been dispelled. In its place, an emphasis on securing society-wide equality and wellbeing has emerged, but policymakers have yet to catch up.
15 December 2025
On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October 2025), the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, challenges the status quo — exposing why traditional anti-poverty strategies reliant on economic growth fall short, and what bold new solutions are needed to truly end poverty for good.
17 October 2025
The widely held belief that increasing economic growth will solve global poverty is wrong and leading the world down a dangerous path of spiralling inequalities and environmental breakdown.
15 October 2025
Olivier de Schutter, 57, thinks it possible for the over 800 million people who, according to the United Nations, live on less than $2.15 a day to improve their living conditions.
27 September 2025
For close to six years, I have been tasked by the United Nations to report back on the world’s most promising solutions to ending poverty. Today I can confidently say that – despite what we’ve been led to believe by politicians, economists, development experts, and even UN institutions – the answer is not to simply stimulate economic growth.
19 September 2025
The situation is as clear as it is grim. Climate crises are multiplying, calls for international assistance are surging, and international solidarity is dwindling. In light of this, can we say today that humanitarian aid as we have known it is no longer sufficient?
30 June 2025
In the five years since taking up my role as the United Nation’s poverty expert, the world’s five richest men have seen their net worth rocket from an already absurd US $ 340 billion to a frankly sickening $ 1.1 trillion. This, while the wealth of almost five billion people has fallen over the same period.
2 April 2025
In this interview, Olivier De Schutter argues that GDP growth does not, contrary to what liberal orthodoxy claims, lift populations out of poverty. According to De Schutter, the time has come to radically rethink the fight against poverty.
20 November 2024
