The immediate objective to reduce child poverty by a quarter is spelt out in one of the government's many targets.

ECONOMIST: Cutting child poverty will be expensive

Even where poverty reduction was a stated objective, little had been done to find out whether poverty had, in fact, been reduced.

ECONOMIST: The World Bank and global health

The most ambitious objective, "to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger" by 2015, certainly cannot be accomplished without innovative technology--which, in turn, cannot be developed when bans and excessive regulatory barriers impede innovation.

FORBES: Commentary

Over time, the proportion of the population living in poverty, as measured by some objective and absolute standard, should be declining.

FORBES: School Choice And The Advancement Of Society

In particular, the bank's remit is to end poverty, but that was the specific objective of only 6% of the projects and a subsidiary objective of only another 7%.

ECONOMIST: The World Bank and global health