We know how to end global poverty. Now what?

A groundbreaking study of global poverty programs published this month in the journal Science proves the effectiveness of a multi-pronged, comprehensive approach that can help end global poverty by 2030.

So what are we waiting for? Let’s get to work.

That’s the message of Fenton client FXB, a global development organization that pioneered the kind of comprehensive methodology evaluated in the study.  Now FXB, founded by “activist Countess” Albina du Boisrouvray, is calling on social entrepreneurs, venture philanthropists and other NGOs to get on board with what works.

In a global ad blitz running in print and digital editions this week and next week in The New York Times and Financial Times, FXB heralds the results of the study and urges the development community to advance the goal of ending global poverty by 2030 by adopting the methodology offered in FXB’s interactive open-source toolkit, available at www.fxb.org/toolkit.

At an average yearly cost of just $125 to $230 per person, FXB’s 3-year program, established in 1991, has lifted 81,000 people out of extreme poverty in eight countries in Africa, Asia and South America. The FXBVillage program simultaneously addresses the five drivers of poverty: a lack of food, education, income, health and housing. Notably, the methodology rejects microcredit for the ultra-poor in favor of training participants to start their own self-sustaining income-generating activities.

The FXB approach has been called holistic because it takes into account the entire set of circumstances that result in a person ending up in extreme poverty (generally defined as living on less than $1.25 a day). To break the cycle of poverty we need to address a person’s access to food, healthcare, education, housing and income. Children’s rights, and a keen awareness of political limitations, and the ever-present threat of epidemic disease, are all essential to incorporate in the planning stages of any poverty reduction effort.

As global leaders meet in this summer to discuss the Sustainable Development Goals – chief of which is ending global poverty — a closer look at solutions that work – and the growing movement to accelerate their adoption through information sharing — is both timely and urgent.  Fenton is proud to partner with FXB in this effort.