Welcome to the President's Inbox, a CFR podcast about the foreign policy challenges facing the United States.

I'm Jim Lindsay, Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

This week's topic is combating global poverty.

With me to discuss progress and setbacks in trends in promoting global economic development,

especially in the world's poorest countries, is Kate Schechter.

Kate is the president and chief executive officer of worldors, an international development non-government

organization that operates in 14 countries. Before joining World Neighbors, Kate advised the World

Bank as a consultant specializing in health care reform in child welfare issues in Eurasia, in Eastern Europe.

Kate, thank you for joining me on the president's inbox.

Thanks for having me. Now, I want to discuss trends in global economic development, Kate,

especially in the world's poorest countries. But I'd like to begin, if you're willing,

by hearing about the work that world neighbors does. Well, I'm always thrilled to talk about the work

that we do. And thank you again for having me on the show. We work in 14 countries in Africa, Asia,

Latin America, and in Haiti. And the organization is 73 years old. So we're edging up on our 75th anniversary.

And we have a very specific methodology, which can be challenging at times because we

really strive not to give away anything, no in-kind donations, no cash transfers, to really focus on developing, as they say,

in the development sphere capacity. So training people to create their own businesses,

their own jobs, and to improve their lives with their own capacity. So really creating self-sufficiency and the ability to then

improve their lives for the long term. Of course, you know, we all talk about sustainability,

but we really focus on that from the get-go. Coming into poor communities and looking at how we can help them, but also how we can leave. Developing an exit strategy from the get-go, coming into poor communities and looking at how we can help them, but also

how we can leave, developing an exit strategy from the get-go. So the organization has been very

successful, but in terms of the topic of the day, I think that there are many, many challenges

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