Around 1.4 billion people presently live in extreme poverty, and yet despite this vast scale, the issue of global poverty had a relatively low international profile until the end of the 20th century. In this important new work, Hulme charts the rise of global poverty as a priority global issue, and its subsequent marginalisation as old themes edged it aside (trade policy and peace-making in regions of geo- political importance) and new issues were added (terrorism, global climate change and access to natural resources). Providing a concise and detailed overview of both the history and the current debates that surround this key issue, the book: outlines how the notion of global poverty eradication has evolved; evaluates the institutional landscape and its ability to attack global poverty; analyses the conceptual and technical frameworks that lie behind the contemporary understanding of global poverty (including human development, dollar a day poverty and results-based management); explores the roles that major institutions have played in promoting and/or obstructing the advancement of actions to reduce poverty; and discusses the emerging issues that are re-shaping thinking, and the future prospects for global poverty eradication. The first book to tackle the issue of global poverty through the lens of global institutions; this volume provides an important resource for all students and scholars of international relations, development studies and international political economy.