The recent documentary and debate series called 'Why Poverty?' highlighted the extreme differences in living standards and life chances around the world, and once again emphasised that there can never be an end to poverty
until the world's resources are more equally shared.
The international goal to cut hunger levels in half by 2015 will not be reached, as indicated by the latest global hunger index report. Yet hunger is
not connected to the availability of food but to poor people’s
possibilities of accessing food, writes Social Watch.
The idea of a ‘citizen’s income’ may sound unfeasible, but this is exactly how it
already is in Alaska and in Iran, in parts of Namibia and Brazil, and
will soon be in Mongolia. People like Tom Paine and Bertrand Russell have been advocating
it since the 1790s, and perhaps its time has come, argues Bill Jordan.
An Economist special report on the world economy says that growing inequality is one of the biggest social,
economic and political challenges of our time, and recognises that inequality is not inevitable - even if it's prescriptions are controversial. Cover piece by Zanny Minton Beddoes.
Most people are not protected against unemployment, illness, disability, crop failure or soaring food costs. But investing in social protection would save on emergency relief, argues the UN. By Mark Tran.
If the developing world fails to meet the targets set in the eight
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the primary blame for the failure would be on Western donors who have
reneged on their aid commitments, according to a United Nations report on the MDG financing gap. By Thalif Deen.
If a proposal from Magdalena Sepúlveda - special rapporteur on human rights and extreme poverty - is approved by the United Nations Human Rights Council this month, eradicating poverty shall not only be a moral duty, but a legal
obligation, acccording to Roberto Bissio.
