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Weekly Roundup – 7/19/14: Can’t we all just get along?
In a week marked by conflict and tragedy on the global stage, the financial world experienced its share of both. And though this was balanced with a fair amount of good news, even the positive developments sparked discord. We explore these issues in this weekly roundup.
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What the IMF Mandate Means for the Poor: The organization says it’s focused on narrowing the income gap – but will this affect policy?
The International Monetary Fund is known for its multi-billion dollar bailouts of struggling countries, but the organization now says narrowing the income gap between the very poor and the very rich is a key tenet of its mission. How income inequality fits into aid packages is yet to be seen, says Isaac Otto, but it is beginning to enter into the equation.
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- Impact Assessment
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Nearing A Deadline, Is The World Going To Meet The Millennium Development Goals?
The latest UN appraisal shows progress, but in some areas, such as child mortality and biodiversity loss, we're falling short.
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- Impact Assessment
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Rebuilding Haiti with Mobile Phones: How mobile data collection and management is facilitating relief efforts
Grameen Foundation originally designed TaroWorks to facilitate analysis of data gathered on mobile phones to help track poverty levels. But as Alex Counts describes it, it has evolved into a mobile-based field-force management tool used by a growing number of humanitarian groups and social enterprises - including an organization that’s using it to facilitate relief efforts in Haiti.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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What if everything we know about poor countries’ economies is totally wrong?
As China and India continue their fairly rapid paces of economic growth, a greater and greater share of extreme poverty is going to be concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. But if we're going to make progress there, we need to have good numbers about how various economies are faring, how income is distributed within them, and so forth.
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Setting a High Bar for Poverty in India
NEW DELHI — It is not uncommon for Indians to stand in a line to receive alms from a politician as he gives away clothes, pots and laptops that would make Apple laugh. This is a custom that has survived from a time when the theater of charity was enough to make the poor feel grateful. But they have since come to regard such alms as political buffoonery and now expect substantial assistance from the government.
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- Impact Assessment
- Region
- South Asia
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Tanzania: Missing Link Between Economic Growth, Poverty Reduction
THE much celebrated economic growth in Tanzania and other African countries that are said to make good progress can only have a meaning if there will be myriad poverty alleviation indicators.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NexThought Monday – The Cash Paradox: Is cash the poor’s best friend – or secret enemy?
Advocates for the poor often argue that cash is the most trustworthy payment instrument - especially for the unbanked. And a cash economy would appear to offer them advantages in inclusiveness and convenience. But as Bhaskar Chakravorti describes it, the poor also pay a heavy price for the usage of cash, both in the U.S. and in emerging economies.
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