Between 6th and 8th of September, 2000, 189 World Leaders (the largest gathering of Heads of Government ever) gathered in New York City to attend the Millennium Summit at the end of which they affirmed and adopted the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. The  number one Goal of that Declaration was the halving of poverty by member countries by the year 2015. As at today, more than half of the world’s 6.68 billion people are still tormented by extreme poverty and 44% of households in Africa subsist on less than 1 USD (PPP) per day.
The Human Development Report (2008) ranks Nigeria as the 158th of the 177 countries covered by its survey. The Nigerian Human Development Index (HDI) reveals that, of the country’s  140 million people, 92.4% are described as poor while 71% are classified as “extreme poor”.
If one takes a closer look at Nigeria’s Poverty Index of 15% in 1960, 46% in 1985, 66% in 1996 and above 70% in 2009, one would tremble at the debilitating consequences ten years from now.
The battle of climate change has moved to the front burner of global discourse. It is a battle that does not have class boundaries. But the poor cannot join this war because the poor cannot respect environmental laws. We at Pillars of Community Development (PCD) believe that the solution should come from within.
But we will go beyond helping to reduce poverty by building an institution which can help in providing our people with sustainable livelihood options.