I am not entirely sure if you are trolling. People being brought out of destitution is progress, absolutely.
It's the very first and most important step of progress. If people don't have enough to eat, even their brain won't develop properly. The lower layers of Maslow hierarchy are absolutely essential.
After that, more progress is needed, but having food, essential health and physical security is definitely the fundamental thing for any other types of progress, such as education.
