An estimated 1.5 billion people survive on incomes of US$2 or less a day. Rising food prices threaten to cause more hunger and malnutrition, while climate change is already having an impact on agriculture, the source of livelihood of the majority of people in poor countries. Infectious diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS and malaria, are widespread. Many of the poorest countries in Africa are landlocked and lack reliable electricity - preventing the development of business and trade.

Many of the UN Millennium Development Goals for 2015 seem out of reach for these countries. The World Bank Group, however, has assembled record funding for the next three years (2008-2011) to help the poorest countries through its International Development Association (IDA). There's a new emphasis on fighting hunger and malnutrition, particularly through improved agricultural productivity, encouraging regional integration, and developing infrastructure (power, water, transport) and Information and Communications Technology. Climate change is being incorporated into assistance programs. To produce faster results in achieving the Millennium Goals, IDA is undertaking more joint and system-wide programs with the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation, which aids private sector development, and with other nonprofit organizations.