The objective of this chapter is to provide an overall macro-appraisal of the United Nations’ (UN) efforts toward eradicating poverty rather than a detailed evaluation of the implementation or results of various UN agencies’ individual programs addressing the issue. The impact of specific UN programs has generally been positive. Three principal variables are identified that affect the UN’s work on poverty and development: (1) the UN’s models and theories of poverty, development, and change; (2) the debt crisis and development finance; (3) the domestic and international political economy context. The conclusion is that the main impediments to poverty reduction are found in the faulty mechanisms of international development finance and within the malfunctioning domestic and global political economy. They are not the result of the sound UN theoretical models underpinning its work.