Ideas worth spreading

4 steps to ending extreme poverty

1,947,959 views |

Shameran Abed |

TED2020

• June 2020

Approximately 700 million people worldwide currently live in extreme poverty, a state of severe financial and social vulnerability that robs many of hope and dignity. BRAC, the world's largest NGO, began a sustainable, multifaceted intervention called the Graduation approach in 2002. Since then, it has helped over nine million people escape extreme poverty. Now, Shameran Abed and BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) have an audacious plan to partner with governments to bring this life-changing program to an additional 21 million people by 2026. (This ambitious plan is a part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

Approximately 700 million people worldwide currently live in extreme poverty, a state of severe financial and social vulnerability that robs many of hope and dignity. BRAC, the world's largest NGO, began a sustainable, multifaceted intervention called the Graduation approach in 2002. Since then, it has helped over nine million people escape extreme poverty. Now, Shameran Abed and BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) have an audacious plan to partner with governments to bring this life-changing program to an additional 21 million people by 2026. (This ambitious plan is a part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Join the movement to lift millions more from extreme poverty.

About the speaker

Shameran Abed

Global poverty activist

See speaker profile

Shameran Abed helps households around the world create a path out of extreme poverty.

Amartya Sen | Anchor, 2000 | Book

Development as Freedom

Sen powerfully argues that poverty is characterized by a lack of freedom and that to address poverty effectively one must look at the social basis of individual well-being and freedom — a philosophy embodied in the Graduation approach.

Ian Smillie | Kumarian Press, 2009 | Book

Freedom from Want: The Remarkable Success Story of BRAC, the Global Grassroots Organization That's Winning the Fight Against Poverty

This book provides a history of how BRAC evolved from a small relief operation in Northern Bangladesh into a network that includes the international NGO with programs covering health, education, microfinance, human rights, water and sanitation, social enterprises and ultra-poor graduation programming, a bank and a university.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Join the movement to lift millions more from extreme poverty.