On Friday November 17, 2023, Fordham IPED co-hosted the Pope Francis’ World Day of the Poor with Caritas Internationalis and Catholic Relief Services at the United Nations (UN) Church Center.

During the event, Dr. Henry Schwalbenberg, Director of Fordham IPED, and IPED ‘24 students Babalwa Nogwanya and Harrison Yu-Zepeda, presented Trends In Global Poverty: Release Of The 2023 Issue Of Fordham University’s Pope Francis Global Poverty Index.

The World Day of the Poor was first established by Pope Francis in his Apostolic Letter, Misericordia et Misera, issued on 20 November 2016, and has been observed annually since 2017. Alongside this, Fordham IPED students responded to Pope Francis’ call for a simple yet broad measure of poverty and wellbeing by developing and launching the Fordham’s Pope Francis Global Poverty Index, also known as the Fordham Francis Index (FFI).

The event featured Monsignor Robert Murphy, Deputy Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN and Ms. Brianna Fitzpatrick, Liaison to the United Nations of Caritas Internationalis. Ms. Julie Ideh, Global Technical Director of Agriculture and Livelihoods of Catholic Relief Services also gave the keynote address on the Global Food Crisis.