How do we end extreme poverty? The answer’s almost laughably obvious…

Guess how you can help people living on less than £1.73 a day? The answer, says Rory Stewart, lies in an “unthinkable” new strategy — handing out cash

Eradicating extreme poverty is not a high bar – it’s the lowest (Getty)

As leaders gather this week for the UN General Assembly, they face the most profound failure. The world promised to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030: the UN’s number one goal for a decade and the focus of billions in spending.

But we will miss the target by a huge margin. This shouldn’t have happened, and we can do something about it.

Poverty can mean many things, but extreme poverty has a specific definition: living on less than $2.15 (£1.73) per day. This line, set by the World Bank, is an estimate of what a person needs to afford a basic basket of goods including food, water and shelter. Above it you’ll survive, but below it you may not. Eradicating extreme poverty is not a high bar; it’s the lowest.