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491. Microinsurance for Brazil: The GILR-Bond

Author:
Bernardo Weaver
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:
Microfinance, in general, worries about alleviating poverty in the developing world. But, how do the poorest people avoid falling into poverty traps on their way to the middle class? What recourse do people have from becoming poor due to illness, natural disaster, or the loss of assets like livestock? Microinsurance is insurance that caters to the lowest income groups in a country and serves those who are not usually served by private insurance. The microinsurance enterprise is comprised of several components and issues. First, microinsurance relies on massive market penetration. For microinsurance to work effectively, insurance contracts must be sold to vast numbers of people at very low rates and provide coverage against losses that are usually not large. Thus, microinsurers sell millions of contracts to turn a very small profit, with even total revenue volumes being small.
Topic:
Poverty
Political Geography:
Brazil

492. Double-Edged Prices: Lessons from the food price crisis

Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The recent sharp increase in food prices should have benefited millions of poor people who make their living from agriculture. However, decades of misguided policies by developing country governments on agriculture, trade, and domestic markets - often promoted by international financial institutions and supported by donor countries - have prevented poor farmers and rural workers from reaping the benefits of higher commodity prices. As a result, the crisis is hurting poor producers and consumers alike, threatening to reverse recent progress on poverty reduction in many countries. To help farmers get out of poverty while protecting poor consumers, developing country governments, with the support of donors, should invest now into smallholder agriculture and social protection.
Topic:
International Relations, Humanitarian Aid, Non-Governmental Organization, and Poverty

493. Responsible investment: a force for poverty alleviation

Author:
Rory Sullivan and Helena Viñes Fiestas
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The unprecedented turmoil in the world's financial markets has resulted in a significant loss of trust in the global financial system. Financial institutions and the market as a whole have been criticised for short-termism, for lacking transparency, and for not being properly accountable to regulators or to wider society. The credit crisis has also raised wider questions about the proper role of investors in society, both in terms of the specific investments that they make and the manner in which they use their influence to ensure that the positive social and environmental impacts of their investment activities are maximised, and the negative impacts minimised.
Topic:
Corruption, Economics, Globalization, and Poverty

494. If Not Now, When?

Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The world's poor must not pay the price for the collapse of financial markets. Without immediate action, millions will suffer. Poor women and children will pay for the financial folly, failed ideology and crude self-interest that led to this crisis. Much of the burden will be borne by those least able to cope, whether it is poor families evicted from their homes in Detroit, or poor children dying in Mali for want of basic medical care. As the leaders of 20 industrialised and emerging economies convene in Washington for their G20 Emergency Summit on 15 November, small-scale tinkering and limited financial regulation is not good enough. The world leaders gathered for the G20 meeting must heed the call of many around the world, including Ban Ki-moon, Kofi Annan1 and others, to have the ambition and will to act now to help the poorest. The decisions cannot all be taken now, but an ambitious vision can be articulated and followed by work with the UN in the coming months to rapidly build from the ashes of this crisis a new 21st century political and economic system that is just and equitable.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, Political Economy, Poverty, and United Nations

495. Climate, Poverty, and Justice: What the Poznan UN climate conference needs to deliver for a fair and effective global deal

Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
For the poorest and most vulnerable people in today's world, climate change is a 'triple whammy': they didn't cause it, they are most affected by it, and they are least able to afford even simple measures that could help protect them from those damaging impacts that are already unavoidable.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Globalization, and Poverty

496. Turning Carbon into Gold: How the international community can finance climate change adaptation without breaking the bank

Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Poor communities in the developing world are hit hardest by the impacts of climate change, while they are least responsible for the problem and most vulnerable to climate impacts, such as severe floods, drought, and storms. At the climate change negotiations in Bali in December 2007, governments recognized that adaptation should be central to the negotiations. In the Bali Action Plan, adaptation is one of the four building blocks besides mitigation, finance, and technology transfer, and the Plan provides a mandate to negotiate on 'new and additional resources' and the use of 'innovative finance mechanisms' to address urgent and compelling climate adaptation needs.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Globalization, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Bali

497. Thought for Food: The Challenges of Coping with Soaring Food Prices

Author:
Nora Lustig
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
World food commodities prices increased 130 percent from January 2002 to July 2008. Individual agricultural commodities show even more pronounced increases: corn, wheat, rice and soybeans rose by 190, 162, 318 and 246 percent, respectively. Since July, food commodities prices began to fall. While this decline comes as a relief, prices are likely to stay high in the foreseeable future. Available evidence suggests that the decline in living standards of net consumers caused by higher food prices outweighs the benefits accruing to poor net sellers in the majority of countries that have been analyzed so far. The time to implement measures to help the poor net consumers cope with higher food prices is now. However, too many developing countries lack the instruments, administrative capacity and fiscal space to implement safety nets fast enough and in the required scale. This is one of the most pressing policy challenges that we face. For the poor who are net sellers, governments should seize the opportunity to convert the short-run windfall into longer-term gains. Multilateral financial institutions can play a key role in providing financial resources to countries facing negative terms of trade shocks, technical assistance in the design of safety nets and resources to add fiscal space to countries to fund safety net programs. International organizations can also help countries design the appropriate macroeconomic policy response. This will call for greater flexibility in the menu of policy options traditionally deployed by the Bretton Woods institutions.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Poverty

498. The Diversification Challenge in Africa's Resource-Rich Economies

Author:
John Page
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
For a growing number of countries in Africa the current commodity boom is a huge opportunity. But if the economic history of resource-rich, poor countries-especially in Africa-is any guide, rather than bringing prosperity, the resource boom may drive them into what Paul Collier (2007) in his influential book The Bottom Billion terms the "Natural Resources Trap." In Africa, countries dependent on oil, gas, and mining have tended to have weaker long-run growth, higher rates of poverty, and higher inequality than Non mineral-dependent economies at similar levels of income.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Political Economy, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Africa

499. Sierra Leone a Year After Elections: Still in the Balance

Author:
Tom Cargill
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The UN mission that led Sierra Leone out of bloody civil war in 2002 ends on 30 September 2008. Despite significant advances, and landmark elections last year that saw the opposition win power, the country remains amongst the poorest in the world. It is vulnerable to crime, corruption, and the growing power of South American drugs cartels. The UK has been Sierra Leone's major donor since its military intervention in 2000 - the last successful military intervention before the Iraq war. However, slow progress and uncertain prospects for the country mean that the UK is keen to broaden the responsibility for supporting Sierra Leone. There are good signs that the government of Sierra Leone is serious about reform. But if it is to cement stability and growth, it will need to find new international partners, continue its reform efforts, and deter drug-traffickers from establishing themselves in the country. Most importantly, it will need to show greater leadership, confidence and direction to both voters and donors to ensure that widespread goodwill is not eroded by uncertainty and drift.
Topic:
Political Violence, Democratization, Post Colonialism, Poverty, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa

500. "French Suburbs" : A New Problem or a New Approach to Social Exclusion?

Author:
Sylvie Tissot
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
At the end of 1980s, the question of « quartiers sensibles » (at-risk neighborhoods) started to be very publicized in France. It was not only the subject of many front-page articles, but also the target of a new public policy aimed at promoting urban and social development in about 500 neighborhoods (Politique de la ville). I argue that such a focus on « quartiers sensibles » does not only result from increasing problems such as unemployment, poverty or juvenile delinquency ; it also represents a major change in public policy. Focusing on « quartiers sensibles » directly contributed to the restructuring of the French welfare state by centering its action on specific urban spaces rather than national territory, and on social links rather than economic reality, contrary to what the welfate state claimed to do during the Fordist period. The outbreak of riots in November 2005 is inextricably bound up with the way some problems (like lack of communication and weakening social links) have been associated with the question of « quartiers sensibles » whereas the French model of integration, based on equality among abstract citizens, left some others (like ethnic discrimination) unquestioned.
Topic:
Political Violence, Political Economy, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Europe and Durban