Full Coverage: Poverty

28.06.2006 The current generation of young people is not afraid of technology and this should be harnessed for the development of information society in Africa.

27.06.2006 Four months after the launch of the landmark job guarantee scheme, a nationwide study reveals that only 30% of those registering for the scheme have received job cards. Women, minorities, the elderly and the physically-challenged are not even being allowed to register

27.06.2006 Deepening income inequalities in South Asian countries may impede the recent strong economic growth witnessed in the region, a new World Bank report cautioned.

27.06.2006 South Asia could cut poverty much further in the coming decade if it grows at a faster pace than in the past 10 years and ensures prosperity is more evenly distributed, a World Bank report said.

27.06.2006 Vancouver, Canada: Mayors from around the world gathering at the World Urban Forum pledged to use their power, influence and voice to mobilize the political will needed to meet the globally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight concrete goals aimed at reversing the worst aspects of global poverty by 2015.

26.06.2006 Mandi village, six kilometres from the district town, is now buzzing with working women. About one hundred and twenty non-literate, poor women coming from faraway areas produce garments in a tin-shed room. Today they are self-reliant, earning Tk 150 to Tk 200 a day by working for six to eight hours.

26.06.2006 With the worldÂ’s urban population set to exceed rural dwellers for the
first time next year, slum dwellers are as badly if not worse off than
their rural cousins in terms of health, literacy and prosperity,
contradicting general assumptions, according to a landmark study issued by the United Nations.

26.06.2006 Building on recent strong growth, countries in South Asia can dramatically reduce poverty by embracing policies aimed at increasing investment and productivity, and improving the quality of labor, while addressing pervasive income inequalities and poor service delivery, according to Economic Growth in South Asia, a World Bank report.

23.06.2006 A Press Release issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Miloon Kothari, from the World Urban Forum (19-23 June 2006) in Vancouver says that forced evictions by governments in the name of development are causing homelessness, displacement and human tragedy worldwide.

23.06.2006 une 23, 2006 Thousands of villagers, panchayat representatives and women from marginalised communities. flagged off rozgar adhikar yatra from Palia in Lakhimpur Kheri district in terai region of Uttar Pradesh. presence of Hamida Bano president of Rashtriya Mahilla Evam Yuva Uthan Samiti flagged off the yatra.

23.06.2006 The governmentÂ’s recent efforts at financial inclusion have so far not met with significant success in rural areas. A recent NSSO study shows that only 27% of cultivator households get any institutional credit. Another 22% borrow from money-lenders while the remaining 51% have no access to credit at all.

23.06.2006 The figures cited by the government for people living below the poverty line have come to be widely questioned. With poverty alleviation being the buzzword these days in our economic and social development and a key criterion for aid givers, it is understandable that the policymakers are desperately trying to prove the success of their strategy in terms of falling poverty levels.

23.06.2006 Alcan Inc. announced today that it will support the Government of Ghana's efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through a 3-year US$300,000 collaboration, which is aligned with the Company's commitment to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).

23.06.2006 Across much of India, the rains that should have come with the annual four-month monsoon have been lighter than usual - so suicide rates among India's 700 million farmers, many burdened with drought-related debt, are high.

23.06.2006 South African women living in squatter settlements build new homes, about 18,000 of them. Tens of thousands of new homes and many new police stations are coming up in Bombay slums. Neither is the result of a government programme, or of some kindly NGO. At both places local people have combined with government agencies in bold new ways to improve their homes and their lives.

23.06.2006 Manual scavenging may have been banned in India for over a decade but barely 40 km from the capital city New Delhi, people belonging to the lower caste in Uttar Pradesh continue to be employed to dispose of other peopleÂ’s excreta. Although the authorities seem to be aware that this inhuman practice is still going on, they are unwilling to take any action.

22.06.2006 The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) announced on Wednesday the creation of an ambitious new initiative, Business Action to Support the Information Society (BASIS).

22.06.2006 After two days of meetings in Malaysia involving over 700 experts from around the world, the United Nations initiative to foster information and communication technologies (ICT) in developing countries has established a framework for their activities.

21.06.2006 WhatÂ’s the best way to move entire towns from poverty to the middle class? Buy each and every child in the community a $100 laptop computer, said MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte at a recent conference launching the IDBÂ’s new Building Opportunity for the Majority initiative.

21.06.2006 Speakers at a workshop on "SMB revolution and the new roadmap for technology" stressed the need for the small and medium businesses to invest in Information Technology.