Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger: Towards a coherent policy agenda
Both in rich countries and poor, a staggering 30-50% of all food produced rots away uneaten.
total bilateral aid from OECD-DAC donors represents about 0.32% of their combined gross national income (GNI). Only Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden exceeded the United Nations recommended development aid target of 0.7% of GNI.
An OECD survey shows that most donors plan to increase aid over the next three years, though at a slower pace than before: 2% per year between now and 2013, compared to the average 8% per year over the past three years. Aid to Africa is likely to rise by just 1% per year in real terms, compared to an average of 13% over the past three years. At this rate, any additional aid to the African countries will be outpaced by population growth, which is not good news for the fight against poverty or reaching the Millennium Development Goals.
The price of a slave has collapsed to a historic low over the past two hundred years. Back in the 1800s slaves cost $40,000, adjusted to today’s prices. The average price for a slave today, however, is just $90.
In nine countries life expectancy fell below 1970 levels: six in Africa (the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and three in the former Soviet Union (Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine).
Almost all countries have benefited from this progress. Of 135 countries in our sample for 1970–2010, with 92 percent of the world’s people, only 3—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe—have a lower HDI today than in 1970.
“Despite six months of appeals, the funds obtained to respond to the crisis have been slow to arrive and insufficient. For Niger, a further US$107 million is needed in order to reach the amount of US$130 million announced by the United Nations” … And note that the response of UN agencies such the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) and the WFP (World Food Programme) still cover only 50 per cent of needs.
In Chad, where animals have fallen to half-price, inflation has reached a 35 per cent increase on 2009. In the six regions of this country of 10 million inhabitants, 1.5 million people find themselves food-insecure.
Nearly 12 million people in Niger – about 80% of the population – are now affected by food insecurity, a status that indicates they have as few as 10 days’ food supplies remaining with all other income-generating activities exhausted.
…
17% of [children in Niger] are already malnourished, well above the 15% threshold for an emergency. Save the Children now estimates that as many as 400,000 children in Niger are facing starvation.
…
“These are very high levels of child malnutrition, the situation is bad,” said Gianluca Ferrera, deputy director for the UN world food programme (WFP) in Niger. “The loss in harvest last year was worse than expected, and the lean season started earlier than anticipated for a larger share of the population.
“In some areas, there is a 50% malnutrition rate for children under 2. Many of these children will not survive.”
Based on the national definition of poverty – $4 a day – more than half of South Africans (54%) are poor. And, as the chart below shows, poverty and inequality still reflect race. While the African community’s access to services such as housing, water and electricity has improved substantially, its income continues to lag far behind other social groups. By international standards, this link between race and poverty is remarkably strong. Nor have there been too many signs of this link weakening.
https://community.oecd.org/community/factblog/blog/2010/06/18/south-africa-winners-and-losers
“Congolese officials estimate that 80,000 pounds of gold are smuggled out of the country each year, which at today’s high gold prices is worth more than $1 billion, much of it going straight into rebel hands.”
“We estimated that the cost of a single failing state over its entire history of failure, to itself and its neighbors, is around $100 billion.”
Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion (2008)
“Overall, we find that the probability of a sustained turnaround starting in any year is very low: a mere 1.6 percent. Countries are therefore likely to stay as failing states for a long time. Indeed, from this annual probability we can calculate something called the mathematical expectation, which is the average length of time it takes to get out of being a failing state. It comes out as fifty-nine years.”
Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion (2008)
← Older entries
Page 1 of 2
