Reducing world povery is arguably the main global challenge of the next twenty years. Why? First for more reasons, and for the sake of justice and balance. A world where less than 20 percent of the people consume 85 percent of the goods and services just isn't tenable-and will become even less so as we grow from 6 billion to about 8 billion people in the first quarter of this century. 

The issue-fighting poverty in a major, definitve way-is truly global: it requires joint efforts by developed and developing countries. Not only is solving it the acid test for our ability to shareour humanity, but it is also the test for how serious we are about solving global issues at large. Poverty is the top issue because it underlies many of the others.

Fail on this one, fail on everything.