Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa

Chocolate - the very word conjures up a hint of the forbidden and a taste of the decadent. Yet the story behind the chocolate bar is rarely one of luxury...

Zed Books | 25 April 2012

Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa by Orla Ryan

20 January 2011- Paperback - ISBN: 9781848130050 - 192 pages

 

 

 

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Access to energy - necessary but not sufficient to cut poverty

The UN estimates that 1.4 billion people have no access to electricity, hurting their ability to earn a living or educate their children. But connecting to an electric grid may not be the only solution

By Rachel Cernansky | Dowser.org in Christian Science Monitor | March 20, 2012

A worker speaks on a cell phone as he sits under the solar panels of a new solar farm in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The solar farm is Asia's largest, according to its developer Moser Baer Clean Energy: 305 acres and expected to generate 52 million kilowatt hours of energy annually. A new report suggests that access to energy is a key to economic development in impoverished areas. Amit Dave/Reuters/File

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Capitalism: A Ghost Story

Rockefeller to Mandela, Vedanta to Anna Hazare.... How long can the cardinals of corporate gospel buy up our protests?

Arundhati Roy | Outlook India.com | 26 March 2012

Antilla the Hun Mukesh Ambani’s 27-storey home on Altamont Road. Its bright lights, say the neighbours, have stolen the night. CORBIS (FROM OUTLOOK, MARCH 26, 2012)

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Dire Poverty Falls Despite Global Slump, Report Finds

A World Bank report shows a broad reduction in extreme poverty — and indicates that the global recession, contrary to economists’ expectations, did not increase poverty in the developing world

By ANNIE LOWREY | The New York Times | March 6, 2012

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Five poverty-fighting women to watch

These women don't hand out aid. They're creating innovative new ways for women – and men – to lift themselves out of poverty

By Kyla Springer | Global Envision in Christian Science Monitor | March 13, 2012

CEO and founder of Samasource Leila Janah takes part in a session during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York in 2010. Samasource provides women in developing countries with 'microwork' via the Internet, reducing poverty.  Lucas Jackson/Reuters/File

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Energy in East Africa

Poverty refers not only to one’s economic situation, but also to other factors that influence life. Especially in the past years the term “energy poverty” has become more common

by Kristin Kretszchmar | Mar 10 2012 by Glopolis in Energy Bulletin | Mar 20 2012

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Climate adaptation through migration: A role for charter cities

n early 2010, two similar earthquakes struck Haiti and, later, Chile. The difference in loss of life was stark. This column points to the importance of well-governed and economically developed cities for coping with natural disasters and climate change. The authors propose a novel idea – charter cities built from scratch in the world’s poorest countries with their own rules and, hopefully, their own fast track to development

Brandon Fuller Matthew E. Kahn | VOX - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists | 6 March 2012

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Global poverty: A fall to cheer

For the first time ever, the number of poor people is declining everywhere

The Economist | Mar 3rd 2012

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Imperial leftovers

You probably don’t know it, but Réunion Island has been racked by riots about the price of gas last week. For those of you who happen not to be specialists of African geography, Réunion Island is a French département, roughly half the size of Rhode Island, located in the Ocean Indian, not far from Madagascar. It is officially a part of France, even if, of course, Frenchmen care about it only when it affects the mainland, such as when a chikungunya epidemic threatened to spill over Southern France

by Damien Perrotin | Feb 29 2012 by The View from Brittany in Energy Bulletin | Feb 29 2012

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Commission for Social Development Adopts Resolution on NEPAD

The 50th session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD), which focused on the theme “Poverty Eradication,” concluded with the adoption of six resolutions, including on the need to mainstream disability in the development agenda and the social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)

Climate Change Policy & Practice | 10 February 2012

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IDB Funds Biomass Project for Low Income Families in Brazil

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a US$2 million project to help low-income families in Brazil to supply fruit kernels to biomass plants

Climate Change Policy & Practice | 8 February 2012

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Resilient people, resilient planet: a future worth choosing

Today our planet and our world are experiencing the best of times, and the worst of times. The world is experiencing unprecedented prosperity, while the planet is under unprecedented stress. Inequality between the world’s rich and poor is growing, and more than a billion people still live in poverty

by the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability | United Nations in Energy Bulletin | Jan 31 2012

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WEF Addresses Energy Poverty, Rio+20

The World Economic Forum (WEF) held its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, from 25-29 January 2012, gathering industry, business, government and other world leaders to discuss current issues, where UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns “we cannot build a green economy on the backs of the poorest and most vulnerable people.”

Climate Change Policy & Practice | 30 January 2012

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Newly Elected ECOSOC President Outlines Priorities

Slovak Ambassador Miloš Koterec has been elected to serve as President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Addressing the Council in New York, US, after his election, Koterec called for a new approach to development, including changing old perceptions about development and finding new ways to optimize cooperation among donor and aid recipient countries

Climate Change Policy & Practice | 10 January 2012

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Niger Delta: a quiet resistance

Sokari Ekine meets women’s movements in the Niger Delta and discovers that in this militarised country even small acts take courage

Sokari Ekine | Red Pepper | December 2011

Women stand next to an oil wellhead that since 2004 has been regularly spilling crude oil near the community of Ikot Ada Udo in the Niger Delta. Photo: Kadir van Lohuizen/Science for Human Rights

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Somalia Remains the Worst Humanitarian Crisis in the World

The drought and famine in the Horn of Africa continues, with the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) recently confirming that the famine in the Middle Shabelle, as well as among internally displaced populations in Afgoye and the Somali capital of Mogadishu, will continue through the end of the year. The result is a humanitarian crisis that has left an estimated 250,000 people at risk of imminent starvation

By William J. Garvelink, Farha Tahir | Center for Strategic and International Studies | Dec 16, 2011

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Most Religious Believers Favor International Efforts To Curb Climate Change, Nuclear Risks, Poverty

A majority of Americans professing a belief in God, favor cooperative international efforts to combat climate change, environmental degradation, and the spread of nuclear weapons says a new public opinion poll conducted jointly by the University of Maryland's Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and its Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA)

World Public Opinion | December 6, 2011

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A Pledge That Didn't Meet Its Potential

A pledge that could be worth $100 billion each year to developing countries was one of the few concrete outcomes of aUnited Nations climate summit meeting two years ago in Copenhagen that was otherwise seen as a fiasco

By JAMES KANTER | The New York Times | November 27, 2011

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Durban and the climate change deniers

A repeat of the failed Copenhagen summit is likely unless the global north is prepared to take its fair share of CO2 cuts

Praful Bidwai | guardian.co.uk | 28 November 2011

Villagers shelter as floodwaters submerge houses and fields in Assam, where nearly a million people were displaced by extraordinary floods in 2010. Photograph: Str/EPA

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The Reign of the One Percenters

Income inequality and the death of culture in New York City

By Christopher Ketcham | November/December 2011 issue | Orion

Photograph: William Steacy

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