The geography of poverty is changing. Extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated in places characterized by fragility and violent conflict: by 2030, 85 percent of the extreme poor—some 342 million people—will live in fragile and conflict-affected states.1 Yet just one in five fragile states are on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).2 Meaningful progress on the goal of reducing global extreme poverty requires meeting the development needs of vulnerable populations in fragile contexts; but assistance in these contexts has traditionally been limited to short-term humanitarian aid, ill-equipped to address underlying development challenges. World Bank leadership, staff, and shareholders recognize that protracted crises and associated mass displacement and chronic extreme hunger, as well as threats from sudden-onset emergencies such as climate disasters and pandemics, threaten development progress. Driving progress in these complex environments is the only way that the World Bank will meet its twin goals of reducing global poverty and improving shared prosperity, and address the underlying drivers of some of the world’s most protracted crises.

Learn about the world’s worst crises and what can be done to help.

Sudan is now the country with the largest number of displaced people and the largest child displacement crisis in the world.

Find out how climate finance helps the world’s most vulnerable communities address the impacts of climate change.

The IRC’s 2024 Emergency Watchlist ranks Afghanistan as one of the countries most likely to experience a worsening humanitarian crisis in 2024.

It’s up to all of us to ensure the United States never again turns its back on the world’s most vulnerable people.

People living in lower-income countries are bearing the brunt of climate change—despite that they are least responsible for rising CO2 emissions. Afghanistan is a case in point.

Despite ceasefire talks and “de-escalation” areas, peace has not broken out in Syria. Civilians across the country remain in grave danger, and millions have been forced to flee their homes. IRC aid workers report from four Syrian conflict zones.