Poverty

As the SDGs Falter, the UN Turns to the Rich and Famous

July 23, 2019

The Sustainable Development Goals are in trouble. United Nations officials are concerned and say so publicly. Secretary-General António Guterres joined in raising an alarm in mid-July when he introduced the most recent official UN report. “It is abundantly clear that a much deeper, faster and more ambitious response is needed to unleash the social …

Climate and Environment, Development, Poverty, Sustainable Development Goals

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WORLDVIEWS

Widows Lose Much More Than a Spouse: They Lose Their Dignity

June 17, 2019

by Eleanor Nwadinobi and Meera Khanna

For many women around the world, the death of a spouse is magnified by many losses — of their social status, marital home, land, property, social security, dignity and, sometimes, their children. But men, on the other hand, lose none of their human rights while usually gaining support in starting a new chapter in …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Poverty, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Is It Only Mothers, Not All Women, Who Need Social Safety Nets?

April 3, 2019

by Prakirti Nangia

Social policy in developing countries provides crucial assistance to women, but evidence shows that it is increasingly being limited to women who are mothers. India is a vivid case in point. Associating women with children and families is hardly new in society. What is surprising, however, is how much recent social policy has embraced and …

Gender-Based Violence, Poverty, WORLDVIEWS

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Where Is the Worst Place for a Child to Be Born?

December 24, 2018

by Kacie Candela

By one measure — the chances of surviving to young adulthood — sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have the highest rates of child deaths at every stage of childhood. By contrast, the best place to be born this year was Australia or New Zealand, where only two of every 1,000 babies die in their …

Africa, Asia, Health and Population, Poverty

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

The UN’s Report on Poverty in the US Is Rebuked by Nikki Haley

June 28, 2018

by Maria Luisa Gambale

When Philip Alston decided to focus a report on the United States, in his role as the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the goal was to spur a larger discussion. However, in the past week there has been a slow-motion volley of criticisms instead, as Nikki Haley, the US …

Human Rights, Nikki Haley Watch, Poverty, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Prisoners’ Human Rights: A Seriously Forgotten Problem in Britain?

May 1, 2018

by Rhona Scullion

NOTTINGHAM, England — Prisoner rights are not a popular topic either in the hallowed halls of the British Parliament or in the public domain in Britain. Aside from the standard “tough on crime” approach that most governments adopt as a go-to populist policy, there is little if any attention paid to people in our …

Human Rights, Poverty, WORLDVIEWS

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TAKE A LOOK

Data Miners See Poverty Gradations; and More Cases of Harassment at the UN

April 11, 2018

by Barbara Crossette

International organizations, governments and a vast army of nongovernmental organizations justifiably welcome the sharp reductions that have been achieved in global poverty in recent decades. Data researchers show, however, that when it comes to defining who are the poorest, poverty is not a monolithic state. Two analysts from the online site Our World in …

Gender-Based Violence, Poverty, Take a Look

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UN Agencies Moving Into Blockchain to Help People in Crisis Settings

February 27, 2018

by Kacie Candela

Blockchain technology emerged alongside Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency powering digital payments through a peer-to-peer system, currency trading and even, in some cases, black-market transactions. Now, some United Nations agencies are using blockchain to provide basic identification to refugees and others in developing countries as well as for specific actions like helping refugees obtain food …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees, UN Agencies

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TOPIC: INDIA

Changing the Minds of Youths to Stop India’s Extreme Bias Against Girls

February 26, 2018

by Ariel Sophia Bardi

HARYANA, India — In 2014, Breakthrough India, an independent human-rights organization, launched a program to tackle gender discrimination throughout 150 schools in Haryana, one of India’s most gender-biased states. A 2011 census showed that Haryana, a primarily agricultural state bordering Delhi in northern India, had the worst child-sex ratio in the country, with only …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, India, Poverty

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TAKE A LOOK

Trump Team Wants to Slash Funds for Global Women’s Health by Half

February 18, 2018

by Barbara Crossette

There has yet to be a decision in United States Congress on what funds for global women’s health, if any, will survive in the current 2018 national budget, a decision that is nearly six months overdue. But Donald Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence, a hard-line social conservative who is playing a larger …

Health and Population, Humanitarian Aid, Poverty, Take a Look, US Foreign Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Why Turkey’s Model Work Permits for Refugees Don’t Actually Work

February 5, 2018

by Tino Calabia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A major problem with Turkey for the millions of refugees there, it has a model work permit system for the newcomers, but it still bars them from the country’s labor market. Such problems can be overcome, experts contend, so that the refugees can work for decent wages in Turkey. Izza Leghtas, …

Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees, Syria, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Least-Developed Countries, a Status That Many Nations Can’t Leave Behind

January 1, 2018

by Bill Buchanan

Since 1971, the United Nations has recognized least-developed countries as those deemed highly disadvantaged in their development strides because of structural, historical and geographical reasons. The aim has been, and still is, to support these countries to graduate to higher levels of self-sufficiency and economic independence, not in the sense for a privileged minority …

Africa, Asia, Development, Poverty, WORLDVIEWS

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GEOPOLITICS

David Miliband on Our Duty to the Strangers in Our Midst: Refugees

December 19, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

David Miliband, a former British foreign secretary, has been president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee since 2013, overseeing both the agency’s humanitarian relief operations and its refugee resettlement and assistance programs in several American cities. The son of European refugees from Nazi Germany, he just published his first book, “Rescue: Refugees and …

Geopolitics, Poverty, Refugees

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TOPIC: INDIA

Girl, Disrupted: How a Boarding School Shifted the Life of One Young Woman

December 13, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

Shilpa Raj is not a Bollywood name, though she has starred in a documentary. She is not a best-selling author — yet. But she has written a frank, soulful book that can contribute to important discussions about the human costs of a disrupted childhood, however well-intentioned, based on her own extraordinary story. At the …

Asia, India, Poverty

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TOPIC: WOMEN

‘Period Poverty’: Why No One Is Talking About Eco-Friendly Solutions

November 30, 2017

by Rhona Scullion

The United Nations has recognized menstrual hygiene as a global public health and human-rights issue, yet across the world, “period poverty,” as some call it, is the reality for millions of women and girls. In India, for example, it is estimated that only 12 percent of the country’s 355 million menstruating women can afford …