The document discusses poverty around the world, defining it as lacking basic needs like food, water, and shelter. It identifies two types of poverty: absolute, where survival needs are not met, and relative, where a family's living standard falls below their country's. Some ways to prevent poverty mentioned are job creation, raising minimum wage, and increasing access to resources in developing nations. The document then examines poverty in Mali and Myanmar, attributing it to factors like drought, overpopulation, disease, lack of education, and corruption. It introduces the social entrepreneur Paul Collier, who researches mass poverty and concludes that military intervention may be needed to help failing states like Somalia.