Poverty will not be solved sustainably by programmes acting on the local level or even programmes helping the poor to help themselves as long as terms of trade and global political power is held in a few hands. It is like trying to give blood to a patient while the patient has major open wounds from which blood flows out. Ideally, democracy institutionalizes a way for the powerless to express themselves politically. Democracy was invented to provide a greater political bandwidth , to provide a voice to those previously voiceless. The present global political system which is based on diplomatic negotiation is the equivalent of narrowband.
Democracy is broadband.
Broadband is even more important at the global level because global institutions are further away from the people. A minimum condition of democracy is free elections as H.E. the President of Mauritius reminded us. So we need free elections at the global level. At minimum, we need a World Parliament. A global democracy would also make it easier to implement a Global Marshall Plan, which would be the first realisation of a new global social contract.