Background: This economic and human catastrophe comes after decades that saw life get better and better for most of the people in most of the world.

A 2013 survey found 67% of Americans thought global poverty was on the rise, even though the share of the world’s population living on less than $1.90 a day fell from 44% in 1980 to 9.6% in 2015.

The percentage of the world’s population defined as undernourished fell from 19% in 1990 to 11% in 2014.

Between 2008 and 2013, inequality on a global level dropped for the first time since the industrial revolution, driven largely by the rise out of poverty of hundreds of millions of people in South Asia and China.