While the global economic crisis still threatens to trap tens of millions of people in extreme poverty, alleviation initiatives in China are gaining new momentum and increasing recognition from the international community. From lifting innumerable people out of poverty by satisfying basic needs of food, clothes and shelter during the past three decades, the Chinese Government's anti-poverty drive is now to focus more on helping rural poor to start small businesses and guaranteeing access to public services and social welfare.

China, with its huge resources and success in reducing poverty, should lead developing Asian countries in attaining Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a senior official of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said on February 17.

Read the complete story

People fall into fuel poverty when more then ten per cent of the household income is spent keeping the house at a comfortable temperature. While we struggle with the worst fuel poverty in the UK, others have come up with some innovative schemes.

Our Environment Correspondent, Mike McKimm, has been visiting an area that used to have the some of the worst fuel poverty. But not any more. We have also given you a chance to have your say on the issue and below you can see your comments on, and experiences of fuel poverty.

"I think it would be a good idea to have the government provide people with a low income with a certificate for proof that they are on low income, and for the fuel providers to offer these people a discount, such as half price in November, December, January and February."

Read the complete story

Can I see African National Congress (ANC) Youth League president Julius Malema’s greedy accumulation of wealth purely as a corruption of the human heart, without worrying whether that corruption speaks to my own fate?

Is it possible that the only thing absolute about each of us is our desire to escape — to escape the grinding realities of our birth, to escape the working class, yes, to escape the middle class, to finally align our reality with the world of our dreams, living life unbound by the shackles of limitations?

I can no more chastise Malema for his inconsistencies  criticising Naledi Pandor for her polished accent, criticising the wine-sipping, steak-munching black men who seem to have forgotten their ANC roots, heaping scorn on the youth development officers for locating themselves in suburbia  than see his behaviour as a reflection of my own dilemmas, even when he lives in suburbia, drives million-rand cars, wears a R25000 watch (gift or not) while the poor could add years to their lives on that kind of money.

Read the complete story

THE Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) has offered internship opportunities to the students of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). The announcement to this effect was made by Kamal Hyat, Chief Executive/Managing Director, PPAF, during his visit to the LUMS and an interactive session with students on Thursday.

He further said the PPAF would provide an opportunity to the LUMS graduates to link up with communities, enable them to immerse with them and work with the poor people at the grassroots level. He said the development sector had become viable and offered dynamic employment opportunities to the young professionals.

Read the complete story

With the advent of economic liberalisation, the government has increasingly relinquished its role as an active player in the economy, becoming more of a referee as the private sector takes centre stage. This is what the divestiture of parastatals and other State-owned business organisations was meant to achieve.

However, the creation of the market economy, which seeks to provide a conducive environment for free enterprise by individuals and private organisations, has not been easy. The challenges include weak institutions, a poor investment climate and dilapidated or nonexistent physical and soft infrastructure. These bottlenecks have prevented the private sector from thriving and providing products and services to all sections of the society as expected.

A section that has largely been left out of the fledgling market economy is the rural areas. Despite the mushrooming commercial banks and other financial institutions since the 1990s, rural populations still hardly access their services.

Read the complete story

The assumption that climate change will hit the poorest people hardest has been shaken by new research from Stanford University suggesting that the worst-case global warming scenario predicted by the United Nations over the next 20 years could actually lift millions of people out of poverty.

The Copenhagen climate conference agreed that the developed countries would establish a fund to help poorer countries to adapt to the worst effects of climate change, such as flooding and drought. The new research by David Lobell of Stanford University’s Program on Food Security and the Environment gives an idea of where some of that money ought to go.

Read the complete story

Although most people understand university education is a privilege, many students lose sight of the fact that being privileged also means responsibility. At the Lebanese International University (LIU), a group of students have made it their objective to raise awareness on their campus about society’s problems. On Saturday, the members of LIU’s “Talaba” club completed the last stage of a seven-day journey that took them to some of the poorest regions all across Lebanon.

“Talaba is a student club, devoted to secularism and individual freedom, regardless of political or religious biases,” Ali Jaafar, its president, explains. In the past, it has organized events highlighting the dangers of global warming, but this time, their project is more social in nature.

“The idea was born when I watched a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report on TV,” Jaafar adds. “It said there are around a billion people in the world that suffer from hunger, that is, one person in every six. I felt we needed to draw attention to this issue.”

Read the complete story

Living in poverty can shape the neurobiology of a developing child "in powerful ways", affecting children's behavior, health and how well they do later in life, a study presented here Sunday shows.

US researchers found what they called "a biology of misfortune" among adults who were poor as children, in particular if they lived in poverty before the age of five, the study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) shows.

Early childhood is a"crucial time for establishing the brain architecture that shape's children's future cognitive, social and emotional well-being," the study says. "Children growing up in a disadvantaged setting show disproportionate levels of reactivity to stress, and it shows at the level of hormonal studies, neurological brain imaging studies and at the level of epigenetic profiling," said Thomas Boyce, of the University of British Columbia.

Read the complete story

AS the Senate of Pakistan started a debate on an adjournment motion about the increasing prices in Pakistan, the government-owned gas distribution companies showed why poverty is increasing, by applying for an increase in their tariffs in July.

The Senate heard Professor Khurshid Ahmad of the Jamaat-e-Islami, and an economic expert, open the debate by saying that poverty has grown in Pakistan from 23 percent to 40 percent. This, as the Senator pointed out, meant that people were being badly hit by inflation. Instead of acting to do something about this, the government is trying to increase the price of gas, and thus increasing the inflationary pressure on the economy.

The distribution companies have filed applications before the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority for an eight percent increase from July, because of the rising price of oil in the international markets, and because of the falling value of the rupee.

Read the complete story

Seventeen million Asians have fallen into extreme poverty due to the global financial crisis, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations said on Wednesday.

And another four million could this year slip into the same situation due to the effects of the slump, officials from the two organisations said at the launch of a joint report on poverty alleviation in Manila.

This is on top of the 900 million people in Asia who are already living in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than 1.25 dollars a day. Asia had shown great progress in bringing people out of poverty in recent years, ADB vice-president Ursula Schaefer-Preuss told reporters.

Read the complete story