Full Coverage: Poverty

16.05.2008 "The conference agreement on the 2008 [U.S.] Farm Bill makes numerous improvements in domestic food assistance programs to help low-income Americans put food on the table in the face of rising food and fuel prices," says policy analyst Dottie Rosenbaum.
From: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

16.05.2008 Lacking support from the government, a group of tribal women from a remote district in Orissa in eastern India, devised a unique way to get rid of water scarcity. By using bamboo pipes to carry stream water to the villages, these women have benefited hundreds of people.

15.05.2008 Four prominent American social justice groups are launching a campaign to halve poverty in the United States in 10 years.

15.05.2008 Walter Fust, former Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) envisions a knowledge safety net where human values go beyond the statistics of the Gross National Product (GNP). He acknowledges telecentre.org’s work in enabling people to benefit from the transformative power of technology.

14.05.2008 Lack of jobs and unpaid debts have led to a spate of suicides among traditional goldsmiths in southern India. The mechanised jewellery making industry has ruined practitioners of this traditional craft, leading to hundreds of thousands living in penury.

13.05.2008 Across Bangladesh, poor rural women are building up their country's fragile democracy by methodically and discreetly eliminating the small inequities of their daily lives.
From: Ms. Magazine

13.05.2008 More than 350,000 children living in poor countries could be saved each year using the money lost as corporations engage in illegal trade-related tax evasion, says a new report from an anti-poverty coalition.

13.05.2008 Commonwealth of Learning is organising the fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF5) from July 13-17, 2008 in London. The Forum will explore how open and distance learning can help achieve education for all through widening educational access and bridging the digital divide.

13.05.2008 FALLUJAH, May 12 (IPS) - Sharp increases in food prices have generated a new wave of anti-occupation and anti-U.S. sentiment in Fallujah.

12.05.2008 Displaced by devastating floods more than two decades ago, residents of Bihar in eastern India have been forced to live on a century-old British constructed levee. Living in abject poverty and in fear of criminals, these landless farm workers have not seen any government official in the last 25 years.

09.05.2008 Diverting agricultural land to produce biofuels, increased dependence on imports, hoarding by traders, ban on export of food grains by neighbours are reasons cited for rising food prices in Nepal. Experts feel the government needs to take long-term measures if it wants to save people dying of hunger.

08.05.2008 WASHINGTON, May 8 (OneWorld) - More than 800 development and human rights activists are gathering here this week, developing and calling on Congress to implement new strategies to tackle world poverty and hunger.

08.05.2008 Afghanistan government with UN help will soon carry out a study to assess the nutritional needs of people affected by rising food prices for future interventions. The country has large numbers of stunted, underweight and wasted children, and women in reproductive age suffering from malnourishment.

07.05.2008 UN Security Council needs to discuss the current global food crisis and take corrective measures before the situation goes out of hand. Experts feel that the UN body must recognise that war and civil strife cannot be prevented without addressing social and economic conditions.

06.05.2008 India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has increased the bargaining power of the poor, felt participants at a recent consultation by Indian anti-poverty network WNTA in the capital. They also called for increased investment by the government for effective monitoring of the scheme.

06.05.2008 Soaring prices of food items are making it difficult for poor countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Any long-term planning has to focus on MDGs and cross-sectoral linkages with adequate budgets if governments wish to tide over the present crisis, says Salil Shetty, Director of the UN Millennium Campaign.

05.05.2008 Hot weather and lack of safe drinking water have led to a severe spate in diarrohea cases in Bangladesh. According to health experts, poverty, rising food prices and low levels of awareness on sanitation are driving people to eat cheap contaminated food.