Full coverage: Poverty

30.05.2008 Short interviews with Addis Bekalu, 18, from Ethiopia, Sanchita Rani Das, 17, from Bangladesh, and several other young women illustrate how empowering an adolescent girl can make the world a better place.
From: The Girl Effect

29.05.2008 Only 27% of India's rural schools have electricity and half of them have toilets for girls. A survey carried out in 11 countries in Latin America, Asia and North Africa by UNESCO reveals that lack of resources and poor socio-economic status of parents result in low turnout of students.

28.05.2008 Only 25 percent of cyclone survivors in Myanmar are receiving the aid they need in terms of food, shelter, and other services.

28.05.2008 CHICAGO, May 27 (OneWorld) - Before the advent of the Fair Trade system some 60 years ago, an average farmer in Ecuador could expect to receive only a few cents per pound for his crops -- barely enough to sustain himself, his family, and his farm.

27.05.2008 A center for street children in Pattaya, Thailand serves as the first caring community setting that many of these exploited youth have ever experienced.

26.05.2008 Oxfam’s latest publication Health insurance in low-income countries: Where is the evidence that it works? argues that without adequate funding and government support health insurance cannot provide equity and universal access to health care.

23.05.2008 After more than two decades, the residents of a small village in Tripura in north-eastern India have a well metalled road connecting neighbouring areas. Built under a government sponsored scheme, the road has brought in multi-benefits in terms of accessing markets, hospitals and reduced transportation costs.

23.05.2008 The Indian capital is home to hundreds of thousands of shelterless people who die without an identity, and are cremated as unclaimed. A local NGO and the Union Bank of India are now providing ATM cards to help them gain a sense of pride and acceptance in society.

23.05.2008 WASHINGTON, May 22 (OneWorld) - The $300 billion U.S. Farm Bill, which is expected to be passed into law despite this week's veto by President George W. Bush, is getting high marks from advocates of U.S. food and nutrition programs but was blasted by those concerned about the global poor and giveaways to the already rich.

22.05.2008 Child soldiering is driven by power imbalance between adults and children, says Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, head of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, one of Sri Lanka’s biggest charitable organisations. He feels that spirituality and religion can play a vital role in child development and well-being.

22.05.2008 A memorandum was presented to the rural development minister by members of Indian anti-poverty network WNTA, urging the government to address poverty through effective implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The memorandum contains recommendations emerging out of a recently held national consultation in New Delhi.

21.05.2008 NEW YORK, May 21 (OneWorld) - Former presidential hopeful John Edwards has helped launch a campaign aiming to cut poverty in half in the United States by 2018.

21.05.2008 Jointly organised by ILO and Ministry of Labour in India, a two-day high-level consultation began today in New Delhi to discuss a national employment strategy. The country needs to achieve 3.9% employment growth per annum to meet the target of employment for all by 2012.

19.05.2008 It has now been more than two years since India launched its most ambitious programme to provide 100 days of guaranteed employment to its rural population. If there have been allegations of corruption and lack of political will in implementation, there are some visible positive outcomes too, say experts.

16.05.2008 Lacking support from the government, a group of tribal women from a remote district in Orissa in eastern India, devised a unique way to get rid of water scarcity. By using bamboo pipes to carry stream water to the villages, these women have benefited hundreds of people.

15.05.2008 Walter Fust, former Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) envisions a knowledge safety net where human values go beyond the statistics of the Gross National Product (GNP). He acknowledges telecentre.org’s work in enabling people to benefit from the transformative power of technology.

14.05.2008 Lack of jobs and unpaid debts have led to a spate of suicides among traditional goldsmiths in southern India. The mechanised jewellery making industry has ruined practitioners of this traditional craft, leading to hundreds of thousands living in penury.

13.05.2008 Commonwealth of Learning is organising the fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF5) from July 13-17, 2008 in London. The Forum will explore how open and distance learning can help achieve education for all through widening educational access and bridging the digital divide.

13.05.2008 FALLUJAH, May 12 (IPS) - Sharp increases in food prices have generated a new wave of anti-occupation and anti-U.S. sentiment in Fallujah.

12.05.2008 Displaced by devastating floods more than two decades ago, residents of Bihar in eastern India have been forced to live on a century-old British constructed levee. Living in abject poverty and in fear of criminals, these landless farm workers have not seen any government official in the last 25 years.