Thematic area 02
Livelihood Empowerment
The need
The World Bank estimated in September 2025 that 839 million people lived in extreme poverty in 2024 — surviving on less than $3.00 a day, about one in ten people worldwide. Poverty is increasingly concentrated where escape is hardest: Sub-Saharan Africa and countries affected by conflict and fragility. An estimated 412 million children lived in extreme poverty in 2024.
Poverty and hunger reinforce each other. Over 80 percent of people facing severe food insecurity live in protracted crises where conflict, economic decay, and repeated shocks have stripped families of the assets and income they need to recover on their own. Aid that only feeds people today, without rebuilding their means of living, leaves them exposed to the next shock.
412 million
children lived in extreme poverty in 2024, concentrated in fragile and conflict-affected regions.
World Bank, Sept 2025
80%+
of people facing severe food insecurity live in protracted crises that strip away assets and income.
Food security reporting
What we do
Our livelihood work aims at one outcome: families earning enough, in ways they choose, to meet their basic needs without depending on aid. Through local partners we:
Provide productive asset support — tools, livestock, seeds, and small equipment to families rebuilding after crisis.
Deliver cash and voucher assistance where markets function, so families decide their own priorities and local economies benefit.
Support vocational and business training linked to real local market demand, not to what is easy to teach.
Support savings groups and small enterprise, with particular attention to women-headed households.
Link relief to recovery, so that emergency assistance in one season becomes self-reliance in the next.
How we measure it
We measure household income and food security before and after support, the survival of supported enterprises and assets over time, and whether families reduce harmful coping such as selling productive assets or pulling children from school.