More than 1.4 billion people live in poverty so extreme that they can barely survive, and around 25,000 people die from hunger each day whilst a new billionaire is created every second day. The call for a global safety net has never been so urgent - and compels the international community to transform economic priorities and guarantee the universal securing of basic human needs.
Upward trends in inequality and hunger call into question conventional
approaches to poverty reduction. Rather than depending on deregulated markets
to encourage growth, governments should take a central role in promoting sustainable
economic development, argues a report by UNDESA.
Expert panellists and film director Philippe Diaz discuss
the structural causes of poverty and suggest possible solutions at the UK premiere of ‘The End of
Poverty?’ on 12th December 2009. The event was coordinated by STWR and the British Film Institute (BFI).
Poor countries across the
globe are struggling to respond to the global recession that continues
to slash incomes, destroy jobs and has helped push the total number of
hungry people in the world above 1 billion, writes Oxfam.
Executive
excess lies at the heart of the recklessness that brought the United States - and
the world - to the brink of economic collapse. Yet compensation packages for
top executives remain at levels completely disconnected from any underlying value that they offer to society, says the Institute for Policy Studies.
The current global development agenda prioritises poverty reduction whilst largely ignoring the problem of inequality. Policy makers should place greater value on redistributional justice, which could be achieved through global taxes and social
protection, argues Francine Mestrum.
Poverty is above all a political problem; it results from the human and institutional indifference of policy makers towards the less powerful. Only a global social movement can influence politics radically enough to end world poverty, says a report by Christian Aid.
Economic recession has reversed a 20-year decline
in world poverty and is likely to add up to 90 million people to the ranks of
the hungry in 2009 - an increase of six per cent over current totals, says a UN report.