The world’s next great leap forward: Towards the end of poverty

Date: 30-05-2013
Source: The Economist

Nearly 1 billion people have been taken out of extreme poverty in 20 years. The world should aim to do the same again

IN HIS inaugural address in 1949 Harry Truman said that “more than half the people in the world are living in conditions approaching misery. For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and skill to relieve the suffering of those people.” It has taken much longer than Truman hoped, but the world has lately been making extraordinary progress in lifting people out of extreme poverty. Between 1990 and 2010, their number fell by half as a share of the total population in developing countries, from 43% to 21%—a reduction of almost 1 billion people.

Now the world has a serious chance to redeem Truman’s pledge to lift the least fortunate. Of the 7 billion people alive on the planet, 1.1 billion subsist below the internationally accepted extreme-poverty line of $1.25 a day. Starting this week and continuing over the next year or so, the UN’s usual Who’s Who of politicians and officials from governments and international agencies will meet to draw up a new list of targets to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were set in September 2000 and expire in 2015. Governments should adopt as their main new goal the aim of reducing by another billion the number of people in extreme poverty by 2030.

Nobody in the developed world comes remotely close to the poverty level that $1.25 a day represents. America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four.

India is part of an upside-down world

Date: 25-09-2012
Source: The Financial Times By Gideon Rachman
The highway leading out of Delhi is lined with adverts for new housing developments with names such as “Exotica Dreamville”. A typical hoarding shows a smiling young couple, standing on a manicured lawn, under the slogan: “Lifestyle is here.”

Keep driving, however, deep into the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, and you will find lifestyles that are neither exotic nor the stuff of dreams. On the outskirts of the city of Budaun, many of the children show signs of malnourishment. Goats, buffalo, cows and camels roam the filthy streets. Unicef, the UN agency for children, is running a campaign to equip all the houses in the district with a modern toilet. It is also trying to find new work for the “manual scavengers”, who make their living by cleaning dry latrines by hand.

Konsumgüter-Riese reagiert auf neue Armut in Europa

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27. August 2012, 08:46 Uhr

Unilever

Konsumgüter-Riese reagiert auf neue Armut in Europa

“Die Armut kehrt nach Europa zurück” - der drittgrößte Konsumgüterhersteller der Welt reagiert auf die Euro-Krise. Künftig will Unilever auch in der EU Lektionen anwenden, die man in Ländern wie Indonesien gelernt hat: günstigere Markenartikel und vor allem kleinere Packungen.

Berlin – Der Konsumgüterkonzern Unilever stemmt sich gegen die Krise im europäischen Markt. Das Unternehmen wirbt aggressiv um Konsumenten mit geringem Einkommen. “Die Armut kehrt nach Europa zurück”, sagte Europa-Chef Jan Zijderveld der “Financial Times Deutschland”. “Wenn ein Spanier nur noch durchschnittlich 17 Euro pro Einkauf ausgibt, dann kann ich ihm kein Waschmittel für die Hälfte seines Budgets verkaufen.”

Now for the good news

Date: 01-03-2012
Source: The Economist

Poverty has fallen in all regions of the world

THE past four years have seen an economic crisis coincide with a food-price spike. That must surely have boosted the number of the world’s poor (especially since food inflation hits the poor hardest)—right? Wrong.

New estimates of the numbers of the world’s poor by the World Bank’s Development Research Group show that for the first time ever, poverty—defined as the number and share of people living below $1.25 a day (at 2005 prices)—fell in every region of the world in 2005-08.

Half the long-term decline is attributable to China, which has taken 660m people out of poverty since the early 1980s.

But the main contribution to the recent turnaround is Africa. Its poverty headcount rose at every three-year interval between 1981 and 2005, the only continent where this happened. But in 2008, it fell by 12m, or five percentage points to 47%—the first time less than half of Africans have been below the poverty line.

Number of Americans in poverty hits record high

Date: 13-09-2011
Source: BBC

President Obama last week launched a new jobs plan to try to increase employment opportunities

The number of Americans living in poverty rose to a record 46.2 million last year, official data has shown.

This is the highest figure since the US Census Bureau started collecting the data in 1959.

In percentage terms, the poverty rate rose to 15.1%, up from 14.3% in 2009.

The US definition of poverty is an annual income of $22,314 (£14,129) or less for a family of four and $11,139 for a single person.

With Little Notice, Globalization Reduced Poverty

Date: 05-07-2011
Source: YaleGlobal

A major success in a poverty-reduction goal for the new millennium – halving the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 per day – largely went unnoticed. The World Bank estimates poverty levels, but the most recent data is from 2005. By combining the recent country survey data of household consumption with latest figures on private consumption growth, Brookings Institution researchers Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz generated poverty estimates to the present day. They conclude that the world – even stubborn Sub-Saharan Africa – is in the midst of rapid poverty reduction; they credit economic growth and widespread development brought by globalization. Poverty reduction was one part of a key UN Millennium Goal, and global observers may sit up and take notice after two other key parts are achieved: full and productive employment for all and halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. In the meantime, the authors promise far-reaching consequences from rapid poverty reduction via growth. – YaleGlobal

UN millennium goal to halve poverty may have been achieved

Across U.S., Food Stamp Use Soars and Stigma Fades

November 29, 2009, NYT

The Safety Net

By JASON DePARLE and ROBERT GEBELOFF

MARTINSVILLE, Ohio — With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.

It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.