In 2004 the World Bank provided $20.1 billion for 245 projects in developing countries worldwide, with its finance and/or technical expertise aimed at helping those countries reduce poverty. We live in a world so rich that global income is more than $31 trillion a year. In this world, the average person in some countries earns more than $40,000 a year. But in this same world, 2.8 billion people—more than half the people in developing countries—live on less than $700 a year. Of these, 1.2 billion earn less than $1 a day.