The proportion of the global population living in extreme poverty declined after the Sustainable Development Goals were launched, from 10.8% or 787 million people in 2015, to 8.4% or 689 million people in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic was a setback for further progress, and based on the current trajectory, 7.0% of the world population, nearly 575 million people, will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030. In parallel, the impacts of climate change will disproportionately fall on the most vulnerable, and threaten to push an additional 132 million people into extreme poverty.

For more than 60 years, the Development Co-operation Report has brought new evidence, analysis and ideas to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and the international community more broadly, shaping policy reform and behaviour change, and promoting best practices in development co-operation. Each year, the report analyses a fresh policy issue that is timely, relevant or challenging for development co-operation policy and finance.

We feared the worst and yet the recent data on poverty has hit hard. Thirty years of progress in eradicating extreme poverty have been derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic, ensuing economic shocks and debt distress, by war and conflict, and, as predicted, by the serious effects of climate change.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, global rates of poverty and inequalities have increased. Recent shocks and crises have derailed 30 years of progress in eradicating poverty, and the world’s poorest people and regions are disproportionately bearing the brunt and cost of climate catastrophes, losing livelihoods and savings. Climate change impacts will further entrench poverty and inequalities and drive an estimated additional 132 million people into poverty by 2030. Ending global poverty and reducing inequalities are interlinked. Now is the time to address these issues, before these goals become harder and more costly to reach in the face of impacts of climate-induced extreme weather, shifting agriculture patterns, rising sea levels, and potential mass migration between and within countries.

The 2024 Development Co-operation Report addresses three different but connected issues: the shifting patterns of poverty and inequalities, how climate change is exacerbating both, and the potential of green transitions to serve the core mission of reducing poverty and inequalities. This overview highlights new OECD analysis and diverse political, expert, practitioner, and civil society research, data and insights. It provides policy makers with concrete ways of delivering on their commitments to improve the lives of billions while fostering green, just transitions around the world. Ways forward for development co-operation include raising its ambition and focus on tackling rising poverty and inequalities through evidence-based policy solutions, ensuring that development and climate finance are inclusive, equitable, environmentally sound, and are more effectively aligned with the overarching objectives for official development assistance to end extreme poverty and reduce inequalities.