Hi, I'm Nailabudu, and welcome to Axios Recap, where we dig into one big story.

It's Wednesday, October 13th, and today we're focused on poverty.

In 2020, the U.S. poverty rate declined as a result of stimulus checks and unemployment aid, according to the Census Bureau.

What also helped in the decline? There was also an increase in cash programs from charities, and that money went to good use, from feeding families to building up assets for future generations.

But that wasn't the case in developing countries. Poverty rates spike during the pandemic.

Could cash in hand be a long-term solution to help end poverty? In a moment, Axios' future correspondent

Brian Walsh on how philanthropic organizations are using cash assistance and what cash can't fix.

And we're joined now by Axios' future correspondent Brian Walsh, who's been reporting on one possible new antidote to poverty.

Hey, Brian.

Hey, how's it going?

Brian, let's start with just what poverty looks like, not just in the U.S., but across the world,

considering the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic.

I mean, poverty in the U.S., as you noted, actually did fall during COVID-19.

But around the world, people living in extreme poverty, and that's defined as people living on less than $1.90 a day per person really actually

surge and it reached 58 million people.

And that was an uptick of tens of millions of people from the year before the pandemic.

And that should be notable because we'd seen extreme poverty really decline for decades.

Given that, how are philanthropic organizations?

We've been talking about government support.

How is the world of philanthropy moving to providing cash assistance?

So the world of philanthropy is beginning to understand that one of the fastest, most efficient

ways to help people who are very, very poor is to give

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