A tax on currency exchanges and derivatives of 0.005 percent
could be implemented straight away and would raise £100 billion a year globally
towards reducing government deficits and tackling poverty, says a report by Tax
Research LLP.
Over two years since the onset of the global financial crisis, many governments’ economic policies continue to prioritise a return to the status quo. Decision-makers should instead base their response on a human rights-based approach, says a joint report by Center of Concern et al.
A new paper claiming that poverty is falling in Africa - and fast - has been received with scepticism by development experts. Critics question both the methodology used in the study, as well as the underlying assumption that impoverishment is only a matter of income.
The emergence of a significant middle class – who demand increasing space for their accommodation – means that the urban poor are everywhere being constricted to a decreasing proportion of land. In these city spaces they exist as a ‘fugitive humanity’, writes Jeremy Seabrook.
Over half of those hungry in the world today are smallholder farmers or waged agricultural workers. Governments and the agribusiness sector must work together to transform the currently unjust food system, says a report by Olivier De Schutter.
The UN-supported plan to expand Haiti’s garment industry is unpopular among many grassroots organisations in the country. Rather than creating low wage jobs and export-driven development, sustainable reconstruction must be rooted in Haitian reality, writes David L. Wilson.
Foreign investors have recently taken over millions of hectares of farmland in Latin America for the production of export crops. The most profound long-term consequence of this new wave of land grabbing is the expansion of corporate control over food production, say GRAIN.
In Northern policy circles, current debate is centred on which is the best way to revive the global economy. But given the finite nature of the planet’s ecosystems and the clear link between economic growth and resource use, are we hoping for the right kind of recovery? By Tom Birch.
While the globalisation of agriculture results in cheaper food, it also contributes to environmental degradation, increased poverty amongst producers, and global hunger. Establishing the value of such an essential good should not be left to the market, argues Timothy A. Wise.
Government support for small-scale agriculture in the wake
of the earthquake could transform Haiti’s economy. Such rural development could
offer employment for those displaced as well as address the long-term
problems of hunger and poverty, says Beverley Bell.
