Topic: Poverty and hunger
Development: World Bank fudges on inequality
Blog / 19th May 2017The World Bank has released its first annual report tracking progress towards the two key SDGs on poverty and inequality. But the analysis does not explain its claim of a modest, partial reversal of previously growing inequality, while its policy prescriptions remain surprisingly limited, write Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury.
How to stop the global inequality machine
Article / 19th May 2017The global wage gap is a major driver of inequality between poor countries and rich countries, and there is one obvious solution: a global minimum wage coupled with a universal basic income, argues Jason Hickel.
Debt campaigners highlight countries in crisis
Article / 17th May 2017Public services in some of the world’s poorest countries are being starved of resources as a result of their governments’ heavy debt loads, the Jubilee Debt Campaign has warned.
It’s time to reawaken the spirit of Occupy for the starving millions
Article / 4th May 2017How is it possible that so many people still die from severe malnutrition and lack of access to basic resources in the 21st century? The time has come for a huge resurgence of the spirit that animated Occupy protests from 2011, but now focused on the worsening reality of mass starvation in the midst of plenty.
How to kick the growth addiction
Article / 3rd May 2017The hegemony of the growth-based model often prevents people from questioning its core assumptions. But the building blocks of a new economy are within reach, central to which is the need to decouple growth from prosperity, explains Tim Jackson in an interview with Allen White. Reposted from the Great Transition Initiative.
Gates Foundation’s rose-coloured world view not supported by evidence
Article / 21st April 2017For all its candor and color, here is what the annual Gates letter doesn’t tell you: that our global economic system is designed in such a way as to channel our planet’s wealth into the hands of a tiny elite. And changing that system at its root would require those with power to dismantle the very machine that created their privilege, writes Martin Kirk and Jason Hickel.
UN, partners warn 108 million people face severe food insecurity worldwide
Article / 8th April 2017Despite international efforts to address food insecurity, around 108 million people worldwide were severely food insecure in 2016, a dramatic increase compared with 80 million in 2015, according to a United Nations-backed report on food crises that offers benchmark for action needed to avoid catastrophe.
Social justice for the sustainability of life: on the need for a global social pact
Article / 24th March 2017We now need transformative policies able to open a new horizon, without poverty, with less inequality, without destroying our natural environment. Our new situation requires an urgent reflection on power relations and concrete alternatives, central to which is the reconceptualisation of social protection in terms of commons.
Corporate influence on the G20
Report / 24th March 2017Take a closer look behind the flowery language, and it reveals that corporate influence on the G20 discourse entails considerable risks and side-effects. It's time to the imbalances in G20 policies, and the double standards in its openness towards business and civil society - for which substantial reforms are necessary. A new report by Jens Marten for Heinrich Böll Stiftung and Global Policy Forum.
The five poverties of inequality
Article / 22nd March 2017Despite billions spent in official aid to fight poverty, the number of poor people in the world is not diminishing. And Latin America remains the most unequal region in the world, writes Carlos March for openDemocracy.