ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the global progress or regress made with extreme poverty eradication through Sustainable Development Goal. It provides a background to the study with emphasis on the features and trends of global extreme poverty. The chapter covers the issues of global populations living below the international poverty line; social protection for the most vulnerable; and the unique susceptibility of poor people to extreme events and disasters. Poverty as a concept is a highly contested socio-economic discourse, often defined by the philosophy and principles of the engagement of the term and as constructed by the subjectivities of the society’s norms and values. The Millennium Development Goals of halving extreme poverty was met five years ahead of schedule; with much of the credit being attributed to China’s sustained economic growth, and the pace of growth in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam.
