A letter to the editor at the Financial Times from Mark Suzman.

Sir, The expected decision by the World Bank to update the yardstick by which extreme poverty is measured (“World Bank revises poverty line”, September 24) comes as welcome news. This is the kind of improved data we need to better measure and track progress in the war on poverty.

Over the past 15 years — since the UN unanimously adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — the development community has realised the value of a measurement framework that helps the world unify around a set of ambitious but achievable objectives. The MDGs galvanised financial support and political alignment among developing and donor countries, the private sector, civil society and international development agencies. This, in turn, helped accelerate progress and improve the lives of the world’s poorest faster than at any time in history.

Compared with 1990, under-five child mortality has been halved. Maternal mortality has dropped by nearly as much. Undernutrition is down by almost 50 per cent. And hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of extreme poverty.