Eliminating relative poverty is not possible because by definition relative poverty persists even in very high income societies. In this way, programmes that target relative poverty are closely associated with the long-term goal of building a sustainable social safety net and providing adequate risk management instruments to reduce vulnerability and exclusion. Kharas (2010) estimates that the size of the “global middle class” will increase from 1.8 billion people in 2009 to 3.2 billion by 2020 and 4.9 billion by 2030.