The World Bank estimates that today around 700m people live in extreme poverty, subsisting on less than US$2.15 per day. Eradicating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity on a liveable planet will require large and continued investments in areas such as education, health systems, and transportation networks, and a strengthened commitment to combating climate change. Achieving this mission is certainly not an easy task, but technological advances made over the last two to three decades provide us a fighting chance. Internet enabled advancements, such as mobile banking, online education, remote physician consultations, and low-cost communication, for example, have already proven to be powerful complements to physical infrastructure, enabling poor countries to hasten their transition to middle-income status.
