Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, provided a progress update on the commitment made at last year's Global Citizen Festival on sanitation and behavioral change around toilet use and water supply, before bantering with Big Bird from Sesame Street.

The next time Mr Kim came on stage, he announced plans to work toward lifting an additional 20 million people out of extreme poverty by October 2016.

Big Bird wasn't here for this announcement but it was big enough to get huge cheers from the audience.  

Since the 2014 Global Citizen Festival, 90 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, which is measured as living on less than $1.25 USD a day.

In 1990, 1.93 billion people lived in extreme poverty. In 2015, that number fell to 836 million.

If everything continues as it is, another 80 million people would be lifted out of extreme poverty by this time next year.

But that’s not enough, says Kim.

100 million should be the goal. To accomplish this, better economic growth and employment will need to be achieved around the world, stronger safety nets need to be implemented and more effective disaster response strategies need to be devised.

Ultimately, this will require the efforts of everyone, but the World Bank aims to play a leading role.

What is the World Bank and what has it done in the past?

The World Bank is an international bank that provides financial support to developing countries. It provides low-interest loans, grants and various debt relief programs.

The bank’s aim is modernize developing countries, to help them build infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, schools, telecommunications and housing needed to support a 21st century economy.

Over the past several decades, the bank has played a role in raising life expectancies, improving literacy rates, hastening economic growth and cutting extreme poverty.

Where is extreme poverty most concentrated?

60% of the world’s extremely poor live in 5 countries: India, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

What can you do?

Go to TAKE ACTION NOW to call on world leaders to improve foreign aid commitments.