The World Bank said this week that the world is capable of ending global poverty in the next 15 years, but described this action as “extraordinarily difficult.” If the nations of the world can band together in making difficult decisions to enact growth-stimulating reforms they could eradicate poverty.
People who become homeless as a child are more likely to have lower employment rates in adulthood than those who become homeless later, according to new research showing the economic and social costs of homelessness.
Nearly one fifth of homeless people in Australia are children under the age of 12 attached to a homeless family, according to ABS data. This fraction includes forms of homelessness such as living on a friend or family member’s couch or in temporary accommodation, all considered insecure or inadequate living conditions.
The cyber theft of millions of personal dossiers from the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM), revealed by US authorities in June 2015, has put the US government in an awkward position. In April 2015, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced an updated cyber strategy, according to which the United States would retaliate against ‘cyberattacks of significant consequence’.
There has been a lot of news about the possibility of raising minimum wages to higher and higher rates. However, stories about the definition of extreme poverty make news less frequently. In fact, most would probably be surprised to find just what the extreme poverty line is on a global level.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has shown great compassion in allowing hundreds of thousands of refugees to enter Germany. Nevertheless, she has to avoid playing into the hands of the far right, as well as placating angry Eastern European neighbours.
The US defence establishment’s provocative plan to assert freedom of navigation by patrolling near China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea appears to have stalled. But if the United States abandons the policy it will forego an important opportunity to help stabilise Asia’s contested waters.
Human rights campaigners have levied some serious accusations against the World Bank Group. The accusations assert that the World Bank has repeatedly either targeted or failed to protect individuals that have protested World Bank funded development projects, such as the construction of dams, roads, and other projects.
The prosperity that we are enjoying today could largely be attributable to the industrial revolution of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Yet this enhancement of our standard of living has come at a steep price: the creation of the so-called linear economy.
In other words, we have a “take, make, and dispose” economy. We take natural resources, make things and dispose of them in landfills and elsewhere.
Eurozone economies saw a modest resurgence of growth in the second quarter, but mounting tensions over migrant inflows are steering political focus away from growth.
Exports and consumer spending helped drive European growth higher, according to new statistics from Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistics office. Household consumption rose 0.4% in the second quarter of 2015, while growth in the same period rose 0.3% throughout Europe.
On 25–27 September, less than 3 weeks from now, heads of state of 192 nations will sign up for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as the new global development agenda. Notwithstanding such an important change, poverty eradication will remain the most important goal and Asia expects to continue its dominant role in attaining this goal for the world.
