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Today, about 783 million people live in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is primarily a rural phenomenon, with 80 percent of the extreme poor living in rural areas, across greatly diverse rural landscapes. Despite great progress in poverty reduction, the standard of living of the poorest of the poor has remained almost unchanged in the past 35 years, signaling that a huge gap in policy making and programmatic approaches are leaving them behind. 

FAO has established a Corporate Framework on Rural Extreme Poverty to orient and bring to bear the relevant work of the Organization towards reaching Target 1.1 of the SDGs. Eliminating extreme poverty is directly linked to eliminating hunger (SDG 2), as well as other SDGs. When the extreme poor have means to a better life, they no longer suffer from hunger and can invest in a better future for their families and communities. The Framework reinforces the application of other Corporate Frameworks, particularly those related to gender equality, social protection, sustaining peace, and migration. This makes the Framework applicable to many areas of FAO’s work, accelerating efforts to eliminate extreme poverty in rural areas.

The Framework identifies four key areas to reach the rural extreme poor: ensuring food security and nutrition, promoting economic inclusion, fostering environmentally sustainable and resilient livelihoods and preventing and protecting the extreme poor against risks and shocks.

To ensure its ability to eradicate rural extreme poverty, the Framework establishes the following five deliverables: 

1. Better align the areas of FAO’s mandate into global and national actions to eradicate extreme poverty. 

2. Increased capacity to reach the extreme poor by undertaking poverty analysis 

3. Develop dedicated and integrated approaches for the rural extreme poor. 

4. Ensure that FAO’s actions do not create poverty.