"Global poverty and disease in the developing world are, particularly in the way they stifle the potential of a huge fraction of the world's people, root causes

"Global poverty and disease in the developing world are, particularly in the way they stifle the potential of a huge fraction of the world's people, root causes of most of our other big problems." No, they're definitely not the root causes. There's plenty of interest from the richer countries to keep poor countries in such condition, that is the root cause.