poverty

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram Sydney and Kualalumpur, Jan 7 2020 (IPS) – The latest November 2019 UBS/PwC Billionaires Report counted 2,101 billionaires globally, or 589 more than five years before. Earlier, Farhad Manjoo had seriously recommended, ‘Abolish Billionaires’, presenting a moral case against the super-rich as they have and get far, far more than what they might ... Read More »

Focus on jobs, gender, fragility, climate, and good governance Stockholm, December 13, 2019 — A global coalition of development partners announced today their commitment to maintain momentum in the fight against extreme poverty, with $82 billion for the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest. The financing, which includes more than $53 billion for Africa, will ... Read More »

By Thalif Deen UN, Nov 22 2019 (IPS) – When a coalition of international donors pledged more than $650 million to provide assistance to over 300 million smallholder farmers in developing countries, the primary aim was to help increase agricultural and livestock production besieged by droughts, floods and other natural disasters triggered by climate change– mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and ... Read More »

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said hunger has already been eradicated from the country and vowed afresh to make a poverty-free Bangladesh. Read More »

Dhaka, Oct 27 (UNB) – The preliminary report of the sixth agricultural census 2019 on Sunday revealed that 11.33 percent of the households do not possess any land. Read More »

ঢাকা থেকে ভাঙ্গা পর্যন্ত পদ্মা সেতু রেল সংযোগ নির্মানে ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত ছয় জেলার ৭৭০০ জনের মধ্যে ৩০৪১ জনকে পুনর্বাসন কার্যক্রমের আওতায় ইতোমধ্যে অতিরিক্ত অনুদান হিসাবে ৭৭ কোটি ৬৯ লক্ষ ৫০ হাজার টাকা প্রদান করা হয়েছে। বাকী ক্ষতিগ্রস্তদের সহায়তাও প্রক্রিয়াধীন রয়েছে। Read More »

By Ben Phillips Mexico City, Oct 9 2019 (IPS) – Last month 195 world leaders once again met in New York for big speeches and grand events. But on inequality, when all is said and done, more has been said than done. Read More »

By Srinivas Tata and Jaco Cilliers Bangkok, Thailand, (IPS) – It’s 1962, and in a modest Hong Kong neighbourhood, a poetic love story unfolds. Filmed almost twenty years ago, Wong Kar-wai’s seminal movie In the Mood for Love captured the world’s imagination about lifestyle in the region. Read More »

By Shuvojit Banerjee and Poh Lynn Ng Bangkok, Aug 2019 (IPS) – Asia and the Pacific is lauded globally for its rapid economic growth over recent decades and has lifted 1.1 billion people out of extreme poverty since 1990. Nevertheless, the region continues to have the largest number of poor people in the world. Read More »

By Daniel Gutman Buenos Aires, Jul 29 2019 (IPS) – On the outer edges of Buenos Aires proper, where the paved streets end and the narrow alleyways of one of Argentina’s largest shantytowns begins, visitors can find the En Haccore soup kitchen. Read More »

By Issa Sikiti da Silva Cotonou, Benin, Jul 8 2019 (IPS) – Richard Dossevi parks his motorcycle taxi on one of the busiest street corners in Cotonou, Benin’s commercial capital, to wait for commuters amid the summer heat. It has been four years since he left his native Togo to seek work opportunities in neighbouring Benin. He found none. So ... Read More »

Dhaka, July 3 (UNB) – The United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) in collaboration with the government of Bangladesh has launched a six-year project for improving the living standard of the capital’s 4 million poverty-stricken people. The project titled ‘Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities Project (LIUPCP)’ was launched at Dhaka South City Corporation’s Mayor Mohammad Hanif Auditorium on Wednesday. Speaking ... Read More »

By Pedro Conceição UN, Jul 1 2019 (IPS) – “People are the real wealth of nations,” began the first Human Development Report (HDR). That 1990 report marked a turning point in the global development debate. During the second half of the 20th century there were growing concerns about the tyranny of gross domestic product (GDP). Many decision-makers seemed to believe ... Read More »

Tokyo, Japan, June 2019 — People in developing countries spend half a trillion dollars annually — over $80 per person — out of their own pockets to access health services, and such expenses hit the poor the hardest, according to a new report by the World Bank Group launched ahead of the G20 Summit. It says that lack of universal ... Read More »

Dhaka, June 23 – Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) on Sunday said the proposed measures in the budget for 2019-20 fiscal year(FY) are likely to disproportionately increase the cost of living for low- and medium- income groups compared to the affluent section. The private think-tank held its annual customary “CPD Budget Dialogue” at a city hotel yesterday. The CPD in ... Read More »

The World Food Programme (WFP), the UN’s emergency food relief agency, confirmed on Friday in a statement that it has started a “partial suspension” of aid to areas of Yemen controlled by Houthi opposition forces, including the capital, Sana’a. Spokesperson Hervé Verhoosel briefed journalists in Geneva that the agency took the decision after efforts failed to prevent aid being diverted ... Read More »

Akihiko Nishio Over the past quarter-century, the world has made enormous advances in the fight against extreme poverty. In that time, more than one billion people have risen out of its deadly grip. While this is a remarkable achievement, more than 700 million people still live on less than $1.90-per-day. That’s roughly one in every 10 people on the planet ... Read More »

Dhaka, June 14 – The main opposition BNP has termed the proposed national budget for fiscal 2019-20 highly ambitious and claimed the people would reject it. “The people would not accept the budget as it would create pressure on them and increase inequality. The rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer if it’s implemented,’ said BNP secretary ... Read More »

Dhaka, June 13 – The government is going to bring nearly a quarter of the families in the country under the social safety net programmes in the next financial year. The government has planned to allocate Tk. 74,367 crore in the sector, which is 14.21 percent of total budget and 2.58 percent of GDP in the 2019-20 Fiscal Year. In ... Read More »

Gaibandha, June 9 (UNB) – Day-labourer Habil Mia from Rajbari village in Sundarganj upazila has been suffering from various ailments for a long time but all the while he had to work hard to support a seven-member family. Down by poverty, Habil and his wife finally decided to sell two of their daughters to arrange money to buy a small ... Read More »

Dhaka, June 8 (UNB) – Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Atiqul Islam on Saturday said they will take steps to develop slums as well as ensure physical and mental development of slum children. He came up with the remarks while speaking at an Eid Festival for underprivileged children at Ershad School of Kuril Adarsha Nagar in the city. The ... Read More »

By Chris Wellisz Washington DC, May 24 2019 (IPS) – As a child growing up in Communist Yugoslavia, Branko Milanovic witnessed the protests of 1968, when students occupied the campus of the University of Belgrade and hoisted banners reading “Down with the Red bourgeoisie!” Milanovic, who now teaches economics at the City University of New York, recalls wondering whether his ... Read More »

Narsingdi, May 25 (UNB) – A man reportedly has strangulated his two daughters to death at a launch terminal in the district town, apparently having failed to bear their living cost and meet various demands due to abject poverty. The victims were identified as Tarin, 12, and Tayiba, 4, daughters of day-labourer Shafiqul Islam of Chalakchar village under Barchapa union ... Read More »

Welfare changes made by the UK government over the past decade have led to thousands of poor families in England not having enough food. Parents report skipping meals and living off tea so their children can eat, and teachers talk of pupils arriving at school too hungry to learn. Why are people in a country with the world’s fifth largest ... Read More »

By Siddharth Chatterjee Nairobi, Kenya, May 2019 (IPS) – There is barely a corner of human life that will not be affected by climate change, and some of its impacts are already being felt. Consider this, 821 million people are now hungry and over 150 million children stunted, putting the hunger eradication goal, SDG 2, at risk. Today 15 May, ... Read More »

Geneva, May (Kanaga Raja) – The global food import bill is set to decline by 2.5 percent in 2019 to USD 1.472 trillion, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has projected. In its latest Food Outlook released on 9 May, FAO, however, said that poor cereal production prospects for the least-developed countries (LDCs), low-income food-deficit countries ... Read More »

Dhaka, May 13 – Bangladesh’s poverty rate came down to 21.8 percent and the extreme poverty rate to 11.3 percent in 2018, according to the latest data of the official Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The rates were calculated based on the findings of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES)-2016. BBS Director General Dr Krishna Gayen said this while ... Read More »

A Vietnamese boy has been awarded £85,000 in compensation from the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice after he was illegally detained at Morton Hall immigration center and sexually assaulted. Known as H, the boy had been trafficked by a criminal gang that forced him into growing cannabis in the UK in 2013. Yet when the property was raided ... Read More »

NEW DELHI, May 6 2019 (IPS) – Communities are treated as passive recipients, giving them no say in the functioning of their schools. Here’s why this needs to change. During our work with people living around the Ranthambhor National Park on issues of conservation, livelihoods, and eco-development, a constant question we were asked was how long we thought we could ... Read More »

The Mozambique authorities should urgently investigate and appropriately prosecute alleged sexual exploitation of Cyclone Idai victims by local officials, Human Rights Watch said today. Hunger and destruction caused by the cyclone have left hundreds of thousands of women vulnerable to abuse. Victims, residents, and aid workers told Human Rights Watch that local community leaders, some linked to the ruling Frelimo party, demanded money from ... Read More »