Full Coverage: Poverty

29.03.2008 Biofuels are increasingly coming under the scanner for the dangers that they pose for food supplies. No doubt that the biofuel sector has enormous potential to lower oil prices but there is also a need to set the priorities right in order to maintain a balance between food and energy securities.

28.03.2008 Zambia has been forced to reallocate resources intended for poverty alleviation to pay a "vulture fund," a company that scammed the impoverished nation to make millions off its cancellation of a 1999 debt, writes an organization promoting African development.

28.03.2008 Despite being the locomotive of the global economy, the Asia-Pacific region still faces enormous challenges like food, energy and water security. UNESCAPÂ’s Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2008 reveals that by making agriculture both economically and socially viable, the region can achieve sustainable and inclusive growth.

28.03.2008 Bunkar Vikas Sanstha in Chanderi town in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has changed the lives of weavers by helping them earn better incomes. Once bound by poverty and exploited by traders, the community now aspires to use media tools to create more livelihood opportunities.

25.03.2008 Thousands of bonded labourers released from granite and marble quarries of north India have settled in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. They are now trying to rebuild their lives, free from the exploitative shackles of contractors.

25.03.2008 The governmentÂ’s loan waivers for farmers are more of a populist stunt in the election year and less of seeking solutions to the current agrarian crisis, says journalist P.Sainath. The waivers fail to address moneylender debts and limit beneficiaries by a pre-determined two-hectare mark.

25.03.2008 This yearÂ’s bumper potato crop in Bangladesh may save millions of hungry people from starvation, who are reeling under the skyrocketing prices of food items. The government plans to distribute free potatoes and rice among the poor under its Vulnerable Group Feeding programme.

24.03.2008 UNDP has said that rich nations must enhance their aid to Bangladesh to cushion the rising prices of food items. With inflation reaching 16% and the cost of rice doubling in last one year, poor households are spending more than two-thirds of their earnings on food.

21.03.2008 Two villages in Maharashtra in western India tell of two different tales of survival. While one village is lush green with abundant water and yielding fields, the other in VidarbhaÂ’s cotton belt has rising debts, shrinking incomes and desperate homes.

21.03.2008 A Kenyan company has launched a project called Digital Village Constituency Cluster geared to expand the countryÂ’s ICT reach to connect the rural population. Each cluster will have minimum of eight digital units serving commercial, developmental and educational activities within a 15 km radius.

19.03.2008 PakistanÂ’s economic condition today can only be described as a mess after years of economic mismanagement. It will be a huge challenge for any new government to get rid of those advisors who have brought the situation to such a pass, says veteran Pakistani journalist and columnist M.B. Naqvi.

19.03.2008 Known as chars in local dialect, these river islands in Bangladesh are home to over 600,000 poor inhabitants, and are prone to acute erosion, flooding and period submersions. Sanitation and access to clean drinking water is particularly calamitous here, say health experts.

18.03.2008 With hardly any gainful employment and practically no government welfare schemes, the people of a village in eastern India are forced to cut a mountain to evade hunger. They come every morning equipped with hammers and take away a part of the hard rock to chisel into neat cubes and sell.

17.03.2008 Despite India's rapid strides on the economic front, the Arjun Sengupta Committee report reveals 85% of the country's unorganised workforce lives on Rs. 20 a day. Adverse working conditions and lack of basic services further add to their woes.

14.03.2008 HARARE, Mar 14 (OneWorld) - Members of once esteemed professions in Zimbabwe -- teachers, nurses, and doctors -- have gone on strike over the paltry purchasing power of their wages.

14.03.2008 Dalit women in Andhra Pradesh in southern India are gearing up to fight for their land rights. To turn a recent government order into reality, the campaign backed by ActionAid India and Dalit Samakhya has filed over 25,000 applications to put unused land into productive use.

13.03.2008 WASHINGTON, Mar 13 (OneWorld) - Activists working to improve lives and livelihoods around the world gathered in the United States capital Wednesday to launch a new initiative to bring water and sanitation facilities to schools that currently lack them.

13.03.2008 SAARC countries have recently launched the South Asia Food Security Programme with an estimated cost of US$ 25 million. Together Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will strive to improve crop production and nutrition in the region by pooling together scientific and natural resources.

12.03.2008 A budgetary allocation for the welfare of minorities in the union budget for the financial year 2008-09 is far short of expectations, say Muslim organisations, who recently held a demonstration in the Indian capital to demand a better deal from the government.

11.03.2008 Bearing the brunt of decade-long violence, millions of poor in rural Nepal believe the elections in April will bring them lasting peace and prosperity. The recent peace accord between the government and the Madhesi community has come in wake of protests and strikes that almost crippled the economy.