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2013 Ending Hunger Top 10
As the MDG deadline approaches and the world debates “bold but practical” post-2015 development goals, what difference did 2013 make? Here are what I’ve seen as the top 10 milestones of 2013 and the important trends they reflect. Update – January 31, 2014: In our year-end poll, members of our Global Advocacy Team from six countries…
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Child malaria cut in half
The good news: In its 2013 Malaria Report, WHO reports that “Worldwide, between 2000 and 2012, estimated malaria mortality rates fell by 45% in all age groups and by 51% in children under 5 years of age. If the annual rate of decrease that has occurred over the past 12 years is maintained, then malaria mortality…
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2013 Report on Children and AIDS
Unicef reports that “More progress has been made between 2009 and 2012 than during the previous decade, according to 2012 data, which show a 35 per cent decline in new HIV infections among children under the age of 15 years, compared with 2009.2 In 2012, coverage of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for pregnant women living with HIV…
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State of World Population 2013
The 2013 report from UNFPA focuses on preventing adolescent pregnancy. Not unlike our own experience, it underscores the closely interlinked underlying conditions that must be addressed to achieve this: Child marriage, Gender inequality, Obstacles to human rights, Poverty, Sexual violence and coercion 19%, National policies restricting access to contraception, age-appropriate sexuality education, Lack of access to education and reproductive health services, and underinvestment in…
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Obama commits to end extreme poverty in 20 years
Not since FDR’s Four Freedom’s speech in 1941 has a US president spoken out strongly for ending world hunger and poverty in a State of the Union Address, as did President Obama in his February 12, 2013 address. In one paragraph he expressed a broad, multi-pronged commitment: “We also know that progress in the most…
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2012 Top Ten Trends in Ending Hunger and Poverty
This year saw a continuation and expansion of many of the positive trends in the 2011 list: civil society consultation, gender mainstreaming, transparency, small farmer empowerment. And it saw new initiatives to fill gaps in achieving the MDGs. Yet we also witnessed pushback: organized threats to women’s human rights and civil society that remind us…
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What constitutes an enabling environment for the poor to succeed in their own development?
Working paper for a National Strategy Forum, April 1994, Dhaka, Bangladesh Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework that will facilitate the participants in the upcoming strategic forum to identify new openings for action to provide an enabling environment for the poor. As will be shown below, the lack of a…
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Planning-in-Action: an innovative approach to human development
The Hunger Project, March 1991 In November and December of 1990, The Hunger Project was privileged to work in collaboration with the Planning Commission of India to pioneer an innovative approach to the process of planning. Specifically, this approach is designed to accelerate progress in the field of human development and bring about the end…