No poverty

Marcos, Marcela, Lucy, Juan, Adelaida, and Luz are not six names just pulled from a hat. They are six Latin American entrepreneurs who are getting ahead using small loans, savings, and microinsurance that protects what they are building. They are six of the 2 million people served by the BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF).

No one is poor, even though 836 million people are extremely poor, and are sick from poverty, hungry from poverty, unequal from poverty and silenced by poverty, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

A simple cell phone can make a huge difference in the lives of the billions of people who live in the world’s least developed countries. There, apps aren’t only resources for work and entertainment, but tools to improve the health, security and income of the poorest.

If a person’s tweets reflect their interests, there can be little doubt as to what makes Martin Ravallion tick. His account directs followers to articles on the exodus of Syria’s refugees; the importance of the world’s poorest having access to information; campaigns to tackle child malnutrition. Ravallion, an economist, is aware that his vision of economic science “is not shared by the majority.” And he quotes historian Max Hartwell: “Economics is, in essence, the study of poverty.”

1 dollar a day is the threshold of extreme poverty, below which it is impossible for a person to survive. This was one of the main conclusions of the Australian economist, Martin Ravallion, who has won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Development Cooperation category.

Australian economist Martin Ravallion has been distinguished with the BBVA Foundation’s Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Development Cooperation for revolutionizing the fight against poverty by creating reliable indicators to measure it. In 1991 he established at one dollar a day the minimum amount that a person needs to survive, which helped establish for the first time specific goals to eliminate extreme poverty globally. After the latest update, the international poverty line is set at US$1.90 a day.