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As India is getting rapidly urbanised, a disturbing phenomenon – ‘urbanisation of poverty’ – is taking deep roots.

Being the fastest urbanising State in the country, this is of serious concern to Tamil Nadu in general and Chennai in particular. For, urban poverty is much crueler than rural poverty since it exists in the midst of opulent wealth and its vulgar display.

The ‘India: Urban Poverty Report, 2009’, prepared with the support of the United Nations Development Programme has certain revealing facts. According to the study, an estimated 23.7 per cent of the urban population was living in slums amid squalor, crime, disease and tension.

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"Our public pension system, Old Age Security, and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, plus the Canada Pension Plan, provides a secure income in retirement, but the maximum value of public pensions falls well short of replacing the 50 per cent to 70 per cent of pre-retirement income needed to maintain decent living standards," the Congress wrote in a policy paper released Thursday.

In Canada, the overall poverty rate has fallen steeply in recent years, from 15.7 per cent in 1996 to 10.8 per cent in 2005, the most recent year for which numbers are available. That is a reduction of about one-third. According to Statistics Canada, about 3.5 million people were living below what it calls the low-income cut-off line in 2004. That is a 1.1 million drop from 1996.

But the Congress says that only about one in five workers in the private sector now belong to an employer pension plan and that very few non-union workers, with the exception of managers and professionals, are covered by an employer plan.

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Federal Minister for Population Welfare, Firdous Ashiq Awan has said that poverty, unemployment and hunger are breeding terrorism in Pakistan and to get rid of this menace, the government would have to focus on these issues that have a direct relation with the fast increasing population.

The Federal Minister was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday. LCCI President Mian Muzaffar Ali, Senior Vice President Tahir Javaid Malik, Vice President SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Iftikhar Ali Malik, former LCCI President Mian Misbahur Rehman and Chairman SME Committee, Rehmatullah Javaid also spoke on the occasion.

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Throngs of Kamuli residents gathered by road sides and different rally points on Tuesday to have a glimpse of the opposition FDC president, Dr Kizza Besigye, who is on a mobilisation tour ahead of the 2011 elections. The thousands of enthusiasts turned up at the FDC rallies and as others lined up on roadsides carrying FDC posters and tree branches while flashing the V sign.

Judging from the excitement, it was quite hard to believe they are the same voters who recently rejected Ms Salaamu Musumba, the FDC vice president (Eastern Uganda) for the district chairperson position in favour of the ruling the NRM party's Stephen Mubiru. Dr Besigye, who was making his ninth day in the region, deplored the high poverty levels in Busoga sub-region.

Dr Besigye said: "Busoga is the headquarters of poverty in Uganda. You people have supported this government the most but you have the poverty trophy, and I am shocked when I hear people from this area singing No Change." Early this year, a Uganda Bureau of Statistics report named several districts of Busoga and others in northeastern Uganda as the poorest in the country.

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Poverty Law Center is a national nonprofit that tracks hate groups, provides legal representation in discrimination cases and conducts a tolerance program. It publishes its highly circulated, quarterly Intelligence Report that monitors hate crimes and groups in the United States.

Founded in 1971, it began as a civil rights law firm run by Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. Its first president was Julian Bond, a civil rights leader who currently serves as chairman of the NAACP and remains on the center's board of directors.

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The number of people living below the poverty line in Russia rose by a third from 18.5 million in the last quarter of 2008 to 24.5 million in the first three months of 2009, official data showed on Friday. The 32.4% increase means that 17.4% of the population was living below the poverty line in the first quarter, up from 13.1% in the last quarter of 2008, the government's Rosstat statistics agency said.

The poverty line is set at 5,083 rubles (161 dollars, 112 euros) a month. Russia saw rapid economic growth of 5.6% in 2008, 8.1% in 2007 and 7.7% in 2006. But it has been hard hit by the economic crisis and the government is expecting the economy to shrink 8.5% this year.

Although new signs of recovery are encouraging international investment to resume, there is no doubt that the global economic crisis has left a trail of negative side effects in Latin America. One of the most serious is increased poverty in the region.

As the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) -- one of five regional organizations run by the United Nations to promote economic development -- sees it, during the economic boom times between 2003 and 2008, poverty rates in the region fell 10 percentage points, from 44 to 34 percent of the population.

That's changing, however. The Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos (OEI) expects the region's GDP to contract 1.7 percent this year, after growing 3 percent last year, while unemployment will also rise.

According to ECLAC, all of this will have a negative impact on poverty levels across the region, where there are already more than 180 million poor people, and more than 70 million who qualify as “extremely poor” -- that is, people who cannot meet basic needs for survival, such as food, water, clothing, shelter and sanitation.

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LOCAL researchers should embrace modern technology to remain vibrant and steer Uganda out of poverty, Ephraim Kamuntu, the industry state minister, has said.  He noted that more research in agriculture was needed to transform the economy from subsistence to market-oriented production.

The minister, however, observed that the rapid advancements in science and technology made research a complex venture. “The challenge now is to cope with the pace of the ever-changing sophistication in science and technology and to develop capability to comprehend and resolve the associated ethical dilemmas that may arise,” Kamuntu said in a speech read by Ruth Nankabirwa, the micro-finance state minister.

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Between 2003 and 2007, prior to the financial crisis, economic growth in Brazil averaged 5% a year -- its best performance in more than 25 years.  There was also progress in education and poverty alleviation, eradication of HIV/Aids and inequality, the Achilles heel of modern Latin America.

Although the Brazilian economy is expected to decline in 2009, this will be far less than the Latin American average.  Growth projections for 2010 are about 2% to 3% and general sentiment is positive for Brazil’s upward socioeconomic trajectory.

Most supporters of the so-called “leftist model” in Latin America attribute these results to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s inclusive social programmes.  But the reality is a complex, delicate blend of social policies and progressive economics that has, in time, matured into a model of developmental success.

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FUNDS and programmes initiated by the Housing and Local Government Ministry have managed to improve the standard of living of the urban poor and hardcore poor in the country.  These programmes, according to ministry secretary-general Dato' Ahmad Kabit, have provided participants with the opportunities to improve their livelihood.

To date, the ministry has allocated RM97.7 million to eradicate poverty in urban areas. "Until June this year, some RM72.3 million had been spent for the benefit of 31,033 poor and hardcore urban poor people," reveals Ahmad.

He says the urban poverty eradication programme, which started in 2006 involving funds amounting to RM20 million, had been successful in uplifting the standard of living of the poor in cities and towns served by the local authorities.

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