the proportion of the world s population living in extreme poverty has declined sharply over the past 30 years. here s the bad news. still close to one in 20 of all the world s people relies on humanitarian assistance for survival. with many nations cutting their aid budgets, international ngos remain a linchpin of the global aid system. but are they fit for purpose? well, my guest is danny sriskandarajah, chief executive of oxfam great britain. he promised to reimagine what aid would look like. has he succeeded?
we began by trying to make sense and interpret sometimes complicated statistics when it comes to hunger and extreme poverty. you ll know that there are data analysts, economists, social scientists, who look at the data, despite what you ve said about the last year, and they are real optimists about the future of humanity. i m thinking about people like hans rosling and steven pinker. you re at the front line of all of this. are you an optimist or a pessimist about the future of us as a species? so i am an optimist, and i think we can take the actions necessary to address climate change, to deliver a far more equitable planet. i mean, you talked about the sort of history of radical ideas if we were sitting here 50, 60 years ago and we said what we really need is an international system for aid, where rich countries put aside a portion of their budgets to finance development around the world, people would have said, that s unrealistic, that s naive, it s never going to happen. and yet
is a fig leaf that fails to cover up a naked truth that of a severely limited effort to address global problems and repair historical and present day injustice ie, the aid system as we know it, both governmental and nongovernmental, simply doesn t work. it s not fit for purpose. i think professor reddy is spot on on the fact that we need a reset. we need to re imagine how to fund global public goods. the idea that organisations like ours go cap in hand to beg for resources after disaster strikes was always problematic. it s increasingly nonsensical. we need a new way of pre positioning resources, particularly in the face of climate breakdown, for governments and societies and ngos to be able to respond or, betterstill, build resilience in societies to minimise the damage being done by humanitarian disasters. we need to reimagine the entire system. well, i ll bring you back to the entire system and the big picture in a moment, but i do want to get deep into your responsibilities
danny sriskandarajah, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen. let s start with those two different ways of looking at what s happening to the world s poorest people. one in 20, almost, still suffering extreme poverty, even as global poverty rates decline do you think that the aid system is failing those people? well, let s just start with what s happening around the world at the moment. we think, for the first time since records began 30 years ago, there s actually been a rise in extreme poverty in the last 12 months. so the combination of covid disruptions, the war in ukraine, rising prices around the world, has actually led to a great reversal in that general decline in extreme poverty. hang on a minute. that s an important phrase a reversal . it could be a blip because it is important to emphasise that the overall trajectory of that graph on extreme poverty is very much downward. so if it s a 12 month
thing, maybe it s a blip. well, i hope it will be a blip, but i don t think so. the signs are rather ominous. as you say, many of us who ve worked in the aid system have been part of incredible progress around the world over the last 30 years. but i think we re seeing today a combination of climate breakdown, making countries that are already vulnerable, more vulnerable. rising inequality around the world basic food, fuel, fertiliser prices rising starkly around the world. and so we re leading to, you know, it s leading to a rise in extreme poverty, but also hunger. one in 23 people on the planet are expected to be in need of humanitarian assistance this year. that s more than at any time since the second world war. where worries you the most right now? it would probably be east africa. i was in somalia a few months ago and saw a heartbreaking situation.