STWR - Share The World's Resources

Public opinion is divided on whether slums are poor communities grappling heroically with disadvantage, or hotbeds of antisocial behaviour. If slum dwellers were supported to get on with their lives in safety, the malign mythology about slums would fade away, says Jeremy Seabrook.

Too often the state of ill-health in poor countries is framed as a problem of geography, bad luck or poor government, rather than an outcome of political and economic choices, says a report by the People's Health Movement, Medact and the Global Equity Gauge Alliance.

Thousands of women and children are dying as a direct consequence of the current economic crisis which is already derailing efforts to improve maternal care and cut child death rates, the head of the World Health Organisation has warned.

The failure of governments across the world to tackle deep and persistent inequalities in education is consigning millions of children to lives of poverty and diminished opportunity, according to a report published by UNESCO.

A report highlighting the great divide between the status of mothers' well-being in rich and poor countries urges governments to do a better job of providing mothers with access to education, income-earning opportunities and basic health care, by Save the Children.

In 2006, over forty million Americans existed without health coverage. The majority of Americans would like a government-run healthcare system - including medical professionals, business people and Republicans, argues Daina Saib.

The number of urban slum-dwellers worldwide has broken the 1 billion mark, making it clear that the urbanization of poverty is one of the biggest challenges facing developing countries today, writes Nasidi Adamu Yahaya.