Huge strides have been made in the last 20 years in reducing the number of the world's population living in extreme poverty. More people have access to clean water and sanitation and more children are at school. Diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS are under control. However, progress has been patchy with most improvement seen in countries with good economic growth such as China and India which have lifted millions of their citizens out of extreme poverty. Economic development rather than international aid has been the main reason behind this reduction global poverty.

We have seen the growth of a new breed of social investors using a social impact investment approach to design businesses that tackle poverty and its related social issues. Tan & Griffiths describe the growth of the social impact investment sector using case studies and the emergence of social impact funds. they argue that social impact investing has the potential to become a new asset class to bring in much needed private capital to create jobs and reduce poverty in the developing countries.