In recent years there has been growing global awareness of the interplay between rights and the development process and a generalised recognition of social determinants of health connecting poverty, equality…
Dee and Deirdre featured on Channel 4’s Benefits Street.
Joe Giddens/PA Wire
George Osborne’s recent announcement that households would receive personalised “annual tax statements” allowing them to track how their taxes are spent has been heavily criticised as manipulative and…
Do recessions turn us into hungry bears?
ArtofLightPro
Poverty is associated with a great number of health problems. One relatively recent health crisis largely attributed to poverty is obesity. According to the World Health Organisation, obesity rates have…
Uncritically invoking neuroscience is a risky proposition.
Image of head via www.shutterstock.com
Recently I’ve seen news reports with headlines like this one: “Can Brain Science Help Lift People Out Of Poverty?” This particular article described the near miraculous recovery of a woman who grew up…
In the UK, according to the Living Wage Foundation, some 1,000 firms have pledged to offer a living wage, including household names like RBS, ITV and SSE. Earlier this week the annual rate increase was…
Poverty is about more than just the living wage.
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The living wage won’t eradicate poverty in the UK. It may seem churlish to make the point as Living Wage Week draws to a close, but it’s a point well worth making. Don’t get me wrong, the living wage campaign…
Now the nights are drawing in and the air is chill, many of us stop going out in the evening and retreat to our front rooms to spend cosy evenings curled up with a book or stretched out in front of the…
Despite a fall in our rate of child poverty, there is reason to be concerned about recent changes and future trends in Australia.
AAP/Joe Castro
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has just released its latest report card on child well-being in 41 rich countries. In particular, the report looks at the effects of the economic crisis on children…
In office and in opposition, Gough Whitlam’s advocated for the Commonwealth Commission of Inquiry into Poverty.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Former prime minister Gough Whitlam, whose death at age 98 was announced on Tuesday, left significant legacies from his short time in office. Whatever their condition today, many of his government’s initiatives…
The European Union has never been so unpopular among its member populations; for many political parties across the continent, the whole EU project of integration and co-operation is dying, or was a mistake…
The word Ebola is conjuring up fear around the world; breakdowns in Western infection control procedures have led to cases in Spain and the US, and have given the non-African world a taste – or a foretaste…
Pope Francis has urged the world to avoid the greed of unchecked capitalism.
Yonhap/AAP
Pope Francis has emerged as one of the most important voices on the global stage about the need for a stronger moral dimension in economic policies. This has caused some upset in business and financial…
Mattresses thrown over a playground at the Gran Familia children’s home, Zamora.
EPA
The recent rescue of 458 children and 138 adults from the Gran Familia refuge in the city of Zamora in the state of Michoacán is another grim illustration of the plight of many unprotected and vulnerable…
Reason to smile: far fewer children are growing up in poverty in tropical regions of the world than 30 years ago.
Mark Ziembicki
Our Tropical Future: A new report on the State of the Tropics has revealed rapid changes in human and environmental health in the Earth’s tropical regions. This is the second in a four-part series about…
This Vietnamese school girl is growing up in a new era: by the time she is middle-aged, 60% of the world’s children will be living in a tropical region.
UN Photo/Mark Garten
Our Tropical Future: A new report on the State of the Tropics has revealed rapid changes in human and environmental health in the Earth’s tropical regions. This is the first in a four-part series about…
Any analysis worth its salt of what it means to be poor will include indicators explicitly linked to health – nutrition, for example, or mortality rates. But in reality, the many different aspects of poverty…
There is scant evidence that ‘aid for trade’ programs have any impact on lifting the poorest people globally out of poverty.
EPA/Yahya Arhab
Even before assuming office, foreign minister Julie Bishop was clear on the Coalition’s approach to foreign aid: “aid for trade” was touted as the primary strategy of the Coalition’s aid program. Last…
The largest study of poverty ever conducted in the UK has laid out the dire state of British deprivation – and seriously undercut the government’s claim to be lifting people out of poverty through work…
If you would like to see a large number of desperately poor people enjoy the joy of a World Cup victory, you should cheer for Nigeria.
EPA/Rungroj Yongrit
Let’s be realistic. Australia is the lowest ranked of the 32 teams in the World Cup, and despite a very creditable performance in its first match against Chile, its chances of making it out of the group…
Even in an affluent country such as Australia, many people struggle to eat well.
Alex Proimos/Flickr
Global poverty statistics are staggering – 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty and about 870 million are undernourished – but even in an affluent country such as Australia, many people struggle…