Fwd: [World We Want 2015] Digest for Charles H. Tankersley Please note, the inequality between the rich and the poor is pronounce world wide including in the USA. tank -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [World We Want 2015] Digest for Charles H. Tankersley Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 10:36:45 -0500 From: [email protected] Reply-To: [email protected] To: [email protected] World We Want 2015 New Articles At Davos, Income Inequality Should Be Front and Center 29 Jan 2014 | Addressing Inequalities: *Article* by [email protected] by: Jim Kim , President of The World Bank Income inequality has risen to the top of the global agenda in recent weeks. At Davos, where some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people are attending the World Economic Forum, the organizers have made inequality a theme of the event. It was a smart choice. As Oxfam’s recent report made abundantly clear – it calculated that the world’s 85 wealthiest people control as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people – massive income inequality is a stain on our collective conscience. Over the next few days in Switzerland, participants should do more than just engage in group hand-wringing sessions on inequality while nibbling on hors doeuvres. Instead, we should use this moment to talk about taking substantive steps that can help lessen the gap between the rich and the poor. Three steps should guide us. First, we should closely track the inequality gap. The World Bank Group will start doing that this fall, measuring every year how the poorest 40 percent are doing compared to the rest of the population. Second, we should invest in the kinds of projects that can lead to inclusive economic growth in countries and regions; for many sub-Saharan African countries this could mean investing in transformative energy projects, which will attract industry and create many more jobs. And third, countries need to invest in their people over the long term, improving education, health care access, and social safety nets.... To access the full article on the original site, please click here . 29 Jan 2014 [ read more ] At Davos Forum, Ban seeks business help to fight gender inequality, climate change, hunger 29 Jan 2014 | Addressing Inequalities: *Article* by [email protected] 23 January 2014 – In a whirlwind of events at the World Economic Forum in Davos today Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon highlighted the vital need for Governments, business and civil society to cooperate whether in erasing gender inequality and harnessing “girl power” to reach development goals, combatting climate change, or eliminating hunger. He appealed to the investment instincts of his listeners at the annual Forum in the Swiss Alps and their desire for good returns to get behind efforts to release the potential of over half a billion adolescent girls in developing countries currently held back by poverty, discrimination and violence, calling them key to achieving a crucial raft of development goals. “Investors tend to rate opportunities based on their potential for returns,” he told a group of eminent persons from the private sector, academia, Governments and civil society dedicated to achieving the eight United Nations anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs ). “The United Nations gives girls a ‘gold rating.’ When you invest in their future, you are guaranteed results that multiply across society – on health, education, peace and the welfare of future generations,” he said, highlighting the returns on “girl power.” Addressing a lunch of his MDG Advocacy Group on the sidelines of the Forum, he stressed that investing in girls was vital in the “final push for success.” The MDGs, adopted by the UN Millennium Summit of 2000 aim to slash extreme hunger and poverty, boost access to health care and education, achieve gender equality and environmental stability, reduce maternal and child mortality and the incidence of HIV/AIDS, all by the end of 2015. “We are in a race against time. The MDG deadline is just over 700 days away,” Mr. Ban warned. “You understand that when we give a girl better health, education and well-being, we see results far beyond that individual. A girl is as valuable to our world as a tree is to a forest. When a tree grows up straight and strong, the whole environment benefits. When a girl grows up straight and strong, her family, her community and even her country can feel the positive effects.”...(more) To read the entire article on the original UN News Centre site, click here . 29 Jan 2014 [ read more ] Combating Inequality Key to Combating Poverty 29 Jan 2014 | Addressing Inequalities: *Article* by [email protected] date: 28 January 2014 Combating Inequality Key to Combating Poverty Despite evidence that inequality prevents countries from developing in a wide number of areas, little progress has been made combating it, said United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark at the London School of Economics where she was giving a lecture at the International Growth Centre. “Economic exclusion compounded by political exclusion can be a toxic mix – as a number of uprisings in recent years suggest. Yet little progress has been made in combating inequality in its various forms,” Clark said. “Evidence suggests that income inequality impedes long-term growth; is associated with poorer health outcomes; generates political instability; contributes to higher rates of violence; erodes social cohesion; and undermines the capacity for the collective decision-making necessary for effective reform.” Global income inequality remains high, with 8% of the world’s population earning half the world’s income, leaving 92% earning the other half. According to a report released yesterday by Oxfam International, the 85 richest people on Earth now have the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of the global population. “Such a distribution is rightly viewed by global civil society networks as unacceptably high, as it is both unjust and undermines development progress,” she said. Using the inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, which takes into account not only the average achievements of a country on health, education, and income, but also their distribution, the 2013 Human Development Report concludes that the average loss to human development worldwide due to inequality was 23%. Clark concluded that inequality could not be addressed solely by social policies, but also needed inclusive, job-rich growth and fairer rules internationally in a range of areas from trade to finance to tackling climate change. She suggested that the new post-2015 development goals being developed by the international community and taking into account the voices of people around the world could be instrumental in tackling inequality and development at large. “They will set the global sustainable development agenda for the next fifteen years – years when we need decisive breakthroughs on poverty eradication in all its dimensions, on achieving greater equality, and on ensuring we live within nature’s boundaries while advancing human development.” A new UNDP report to be launched soon examines trends and drivers of inequality why it matters. According to the report, income inequality increased by 11% in developing countries between 1990 and 2010. A significant majority of households in developing countries—more than 75% of the population—are living today in societies where income is more unequally distributed than it was in the 1990s. To read this article on the original Embassy of Belgium in the UK site, please click here 29 Jan 2014 [ read more ] SID Kenya National Report on Inequalities Now Available 29 Jan 2014 | Addressing Inequalities: *Article* by [email protected] The Society for International Development (SID) in collaboration with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics have released a comprehensive report on Inequality in Kenya entitled Exploring Kenyas Inequality: Pulling Apart or PoolingTogether? Some key messages that emerged include (not the complete list): Inequalities in Kenya are extreme. For example, in Wajir County out of a population of 522,830 people, only 2,242 people (0.4 percent of the population) can afford to spend Ksh7,200 or above. Kenyans living in different regions have completely different lifestyles and access to services. For example: Individuals in Nairobi County have 2.2 times more access to secondary education than an average Kenyan Kenyans living within the same region have completely different lifestyles and access to services. For example: In urban areas, the share of those who spend Ksh7,200 or above in the fifth quintile is 121 times more than the share of those who spend Ksh1,440 or less. Geographical location is a major determinant of vulnerability and deprivation of essential services. For example: Individuals in urban areas have one and half times more access to improved water sources and two times more access to improved sanitation than their rural counterparts. Urban areas have 10 times more electricity coverage (51 percent) than rural areas (5 ! percent) . Inequalities become more severe as the information is further disaggregated. For example: At county level, the difference between the highest and the lowest access to improved modes of waste disposal is 15 times. At constituency level, it is 52 times while at ward level it is 554 times. To access the full report and all other information on this study, please visit this page on the SID website. 29 Jan 2014 [ read more ] To manage your subscriptions, browse to worldwewant2015.org/user/86169/notifications This is an automatic message from World We Want 2015 digest
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 16:13:10 +0000
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