Poverty alleviation milestones | Good News for Humankind

Indonesia cut extreme poverty from 86% to under 4% of its people in four decades

By Peter Schulte / October 22, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

How much extreme poverty Indonesia has left depends on where the line is drawn. At the World Bank’s $3-a-day line, about 10 million people are affected, but at its $8.30 line for upper-middle-income countries, 64.1% are. Indonesia’s own statistics agency puts the national rate at 8.07%, or 22.93 million people. World Bank analysis credits sustained growth and jobs outside farming, but found progress slowed after 2010 and many households remain close to the line.

Hunger in Latin America has halved since 2000 and fallen four years in a row

By Peter Schulte / October 16, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Hunger in Latin America fell fastest in South America, where Brazil, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Guyana now sit below 2.5%, the threshold for FAO’s Hunger Map. Yet the Caribbean, led by Haiti, lags far behind, and a healthy diet costs more here than anywhere else. About 182 million people cannot afford one. Here is what drove the decline, why it reversed after 2014, and what the newest UN data say about the gaps that remain.

New Jersey has erased $1.6 billion in medical debt since 2023

By Peter Schulte / October 6, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Nearly 20,000 more New Jersey residents learned by mail that medical debt relief had erased $90 million of their bills, with no application needed. The nonprofit Undue Medical Debt buys unpaid bills from hospitals and collectors at steep discounts and cancels them. In 2024 C.E., about $550,000 in federal funds cleared $100 million this way. Those one-time funds are now spent, so the state says it will focus on the cost of care itself.

U.S. Veterans Affairs awards record $1.17 billion to fight veteran homelessness

By Peter Schulte / September 29, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Veteran homelessness in the United States has fallen sharply over the past 15 years, and the Department of Veterans Affairs is now backing that trend with its largest single funding push yet. The money splits between two programs: one for rapid rehousing and eviction prevention, the other for transitional housing aimed at women veterans, elderly veterans, and those with chronic illness. None of it reaches veterans directly; it funds the 680 local organizations that do.

Kentucky erases $250 million in medical debt for 130,000 residents

By Peter Schulte / September 23, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

For tens of thousands of Kentuckians, medical debt just disappeared — no forms, no applications, just a letter in the mail. Governor Andy Beshear directed $2.5 million to a nonprofit that buys medical debt for pennies on the dollar and cancels it. The first wave already erased $103 million for 46,000 people. The money came from a fund originally set aside for housing assistance — a reminder that even well-designed relief still competes for limited dollars.

Roll of American $100 bill, for article on student loan forgiveness

170,000 Americans get student loan debt erased in historic settlement

By Peter Schulte / August 11, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

A federal court has refused the Department of Education’s bid to delay relief by 18 months, unlocking $11 billion in cancellations for borrowers who filed borrower-defense claims during a 2022 filing window. The Sweet v. McMahon class action, filed in 2019, targeted the government’s failure to process claims from students defrauded by collapsed for-profit schools like Corinthian Colleges. Advocates call it the largest settlement against the U.S. government in history — a model for winning relief through litigation, not executive action. Still, millions of borrowers fall outside it, and the $11 billion is a sliver of the $1.66 trillion Americans owe.

Portable electric stove, for article on clean cooking investment

Africa’s clean cooking investment tops $3 billion since 2024 summit

By Peter Schulte / July 23, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Clean cooking investment in Africa has crossed $3.1 billion in commitments since 2024, representing a genuine shift in how seriously the world is treating a crisis that kills an estimated 850,000 people a year — more than malaria. Funding has reached communities across dozens of countries, and new policies now cover governments responsible for the majority of Africans without clean cooking access. Yet pledges and deployment remain different things, and the funding still falls well short of what universal access requires. This momentum shows that a health crisis long treated as invisible is finally being treated as solvable.

Water falling on hand, for article on clean water access

Nearly a billion people gained clean water and 1.2 billion gained sanitation since 2015

By Peter Schulte / July 12, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Clean water access for nearly a billion people and sanitation for 1.2 billion are among the headline achievements of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals decade — part of a broader surge that also includes a 30 percent drop in new HIV infections and internet access nearly doubling. These gains reflect what sustained international cooperation and targeted investment can actually deliver. Yet only 36 percent of trackable SDG targets are on or near schedule, and gender equality goals remain entirely off track. The window to finish what this decade started is still open — but narrowing fast.

Satellite image of Africa at night with sparse lights, for article on Mission 300 electricity access

50 million Africans have gained electricity since a continental push began in 2025

By Peter Schulte / June 20, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Mission 300 is proving that coordinated global action can electrify a continent faster than anyone thought possible. Fifty million people across 40 African countries now have power they lacked just 18 months ago — and the initiative is delivering connections at nearly double its original pace. In Tanzania alone, electrification is happening five times faster than before Mission 300 launched. The $15 billion committed by the World Bank and African Development Bank, amplified by private capital, shows what alignment between governments, funders, and communities can unlock. This is a working model for what determined, coordinated investment can do.

African school children, for article on free education law

Zambia signs free education into law, protecting access for 2.6 million children

By Peter Schulte / June 10, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Free education in Zambia just became more than a policy — it’s now a legal right that future governments cannot quietly undo. President Hichilema’s signature transforms a popular but vulnerable administrative promise into an enforceable entitlement, backed by parliamentary accountability. Since fees were first abolished in 2022, over 41,000 teachers have been recruited and enrollment has grown significantly — gains that now have genuine legal protection. For advocates across sub-Saharan Africa working to keep children, especially girls, in school, Zambia’s move shows that locking progress into law may be the most durable thing a government can do.