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PurposeThe purpose of this research is to provide an overview of the learning that has emerged from two initiatives in which a multinational company, Unilever, and an international non‐governmental organization, Oxfam have worked together: the Sustainable Food Laboratory Initiative, a project focusing on the global food production system, and "Exploring the Links", a joint research project exploring the links between wealth creation and poverty reduction in one country, Indonesia.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents an overview of learning as expressed by participants in the Sustainable Food Laboratory and a summary of the final report published by the joint research project, giving an overview of the process and highlighting the key lessons learned by both organizations.FindingsThe paper finds that the common success of both projects is a contribution to a better understanding of current global systems and local impacts, as well as an indication of the opportunities for systemic change that emerge when different organizations are willing to learn with and from each other. Oxfam and Unilever participants came to realize that, despite their very different missions and goals, they share a commitment to poverty reduction, healthy resource systems, and truly sustainable development. Although common ground may be found, such projects do not attempt to cover over differences. On the contrary, understanding differences can lead to more balanced and integrative pictures of complex problems, reveal limitations of what individual organizations can do, and identify areas where partnerships can have the greatest benefits for real and lasting change.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper draws on personal learning from a limited number of participants in the three year pilot of the Sustainable Food Laboratory and solely on the research and findings published in the Indonesia project's final report.Practical implicationsThis paper highlights the valuable learning that can emerge when different kinds of organization work together to explore and address common challenges. Understanding their differences in outlook and experience can lead to more balanced and integrative pictures of complex problems, reveal limitations of what individual organizations can do, and identify areas where partnerships can have the greatest benefits for real and lasting change.Originality/valueThis paper gives real examples of the kind of learning that can emerge from cross‐sector initiatives, and highlights lessons about how such learning can be achieved and why it is valuable.

Three factors, advent of new technology (HYV), development of infrastructure and market liberalization working in tandem have delivered favorable food security outcomes for Bangladesh. Bangladesh's food-policy has benefited from a liberalized trade regime and a consistent downsizing of the government, all with favorable effects on poverty and nutrition. Post liberalization, the findings suggest a perceptible increase in the cost-effectiveness of the public food grain distribution system (PFDS). The favorable effects of liberalization are also evident in growths in outputs, market size, the size of private stocks, the emergence of a two peak harvest seasonality, and finally in declining real rice prices. The government has moreover downsized the PFDS, making poverty-reduction a priority basis for grain allocation. While imports relative to total availability have remained virtually unchanged during the last 25 years, public issue relative to the availability has fallen by about a half. Average food grain consumption has fallen slightly during the 1990s but in face of rising incomes, this could partly be driven by diversifying tastes. Comparing the efficiency of the private and the public sector, the private marketing margin is slightly higher. In spite of the significant advantage(s) enjoyed by the public sector, the margin being thin is significant. In order to account for the expected global changes under the Doha round, simulations using competitive spatial-equilibrium models for the world's rice and wheat markets forecast increase in prices for rice and wheat by 21.7% and 10.1% respectively by 2013. USDA global CGE models (2001) show figures of increase in wheat prices by 18.1%, and rice prices by 10.1%. These estimates are used in a multi-market model for Bangladesh as estimates for global price shocks. Sensitivity analysis shows that over a range of values involving both an upper and a lower limit, small declines will occur in real incomes and caloric levels of both urban poor and rural landless households, while large farms will experience a small gain in their real incomes. Based on values corresponding to the lower limit, overall effects on food security are however quite small. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; Theme 15; Subtheme 15.3; Theme 2; Subtheme 2.1; Theme 14; Subtheme 14.1; GRP1; Globalization, retail food industries, and trade; Capacity strengthening; Policy communications; Public Policy and Investment ; MTID

Deuxième congrès du Réseau Asie (CNRS, FMSH) Dans le cadre de l'Atelier XII : Évolution des politiques et projets urbains dans les villes d'Asie : Tendances et principes, Coordonné par Valérie Clerc. http://www.reseau-asie.com/cgi-bin/prog/pform.cgi?langue=fr&Mcenter=colloque&TypeListe=showdoc&email=v.clerc@ifporient.org&password=n9F1eIjUCFmp7mh0mq8Aqx7bRdF4hOPtp1jaTzxWzGoWSpSKg_13LYE6JNLpOZKBnCKRGZPhXFru8aoLLKIHsfSAQ0CcltAM7DfE&ID_document=234 ; Urban policies facing informal settlements in Phnom Penh: poverty reduction and bipolarisation of land situation In Cambodia, government, international organisations and NGOs agreed to implement a policy against poverty. In Phnom Penh, whereas land speculation is increasing and legal context developed quickly, Municipality public interventions related to informal settlements evolved into a better taking housing for the poor in consideration. Since informal settlements reappeared, as lands were privatised in 1989, several policies to reduce informal settlements have been implemented: eviction without compensations, improving living conditions, subsided projects (grant of land), relocation in suburbs, and then upgrading on site and renovation with land sharing. The results of this policy, widely influenced by land recent history principles and by foreigner and non-governmental actors, are however contradictory and present projects and interventions lead to a progressive bipolarisation of land situations, that mechanisms created to avoid it cannot correct. ; Au Cambodge, le gouvernement et les organisations internationales et non gouvernementales se sont accordés sur la mise en place d'une politique de lutte contre la pauvreté. À Phnom Penh, dans un contexte de spéculation foncière croissante et de transformation rapide du contexte législatif, les interventions de la puissance publique municipale sur les quartiers informels de Phnom Penh ont évolué vers une plus grande prise en compte de l'habitat des pauvres. Depuis la réapparition de ces quartiers avec la réinstauration de la propriété privée en 1989, plusieurs politiques de résorption de l'habitat informel ont été mises en œuvre, passant de l'éviction sans indemnités à l'amélioration des conditions de vie, à la subvention des projets (don de terres), à la relocalisation en banlieue, puis à la réhabilitation ou la rénovation sur place en centre ville (land sharing). Les résultats de cette politique, largement influencée par les principes véhiculés dans l'histoire foncière récente et par les acteurs étrangers et non gouvernementaux, sont toutefois contradictoires, et les projets et interventions actuels conduisent à une bipolarisation progressive des situations foncières, que n'arrivent pas à corriger les mécanismes créés pour l'éviter.

This study demonstrates the relevance of tobacco control in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It outlines the occurrence of high and increasing prevalence of tobacco use in the developing world, and documents the negative health and economic effects associated with tobacco cultivation and use. It introduces affordable and effective strategies that developing countries can employ to reduce tobacco use and promote sustainable development. Drawing on data from the poorest nations, and from the poor within nations, it illustrates how tobacco control measures will significantly enhance the effectiveness of investments in health, poverty reduction and development. The MDGs derive from the United Nations Millennium Declaration 2000. They call on Member States to work together to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger, to improve health, and to promote human development and sustainable economic progress in the world's poorest nations. The World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (CMH) in 2001 highlighted the link between poor health and lack of economic progress. It identified tobacco as a major avoidable cause of illness and premature death in low income countries, and urged that tobacco control be enacted to improve the prospects of the world's poorest billion people. Specifically, it supported the adoption of WHO's first international treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which includes comprehensive measures to reduce demand, minimize harm, and control cross-border tobacco promotion and illicit trade. Tobacco control as envisioned in the WHO FCTC has often been omitted from economic development agendas. Tobacco use has been simplistically portrayed as a personal choice rather than an addiction. Inaction has been excused because data on tobacco use are lacking in many very poor countries, lower tobacco use rates and fewer long-term health effects are evident in some of the poorest nations, and tobacco cultivation is assumed to be economically positive. Tobacco control, in contrast, is presented as a luxury that is too costly, given other urgent needs. Each of these arguments is seriously flawed. However, while the MDGs explicitly link health and economic progress, they do not currently address all relevant health issues, including tobacco use. In this summary, "tobacco use" is used where possible, although sometimes "smoking" and "tobacco use" are used interchangeably. Forms of tobacco use other than smoking (such as chewing) are very common in a number of countries.

This article argues for a historical materialist approach, which exposes the condition of widespread routine poverty, unemployment and malnutrition in the world to be a modern worldhistorical product, the outcome of five centuries of global capitalist expansion under relations of imperialism. The bourgeoisie has, through its exploitation of its world-market, given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. All established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilised nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw materials, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. It creates wealth but also inequality. As a result of this globalisation, over 75 percent of the world population lives in underdevelopment, and extreme poverty has already reached 1.2 billion people in the third world. The revenue of the richest nations that in 1960 was 37 times larger then that of the poorest is now 82 times larger in 2002. The situation has such extremes that the assets of the three-wealthiest persons in the world amount to the GDP of the 48 poorest countries combined. The most affluent 5 per cent. Even more mind-boggling, the 500 richest people currently own $1.54 trillion, which is more than the entire GDP of Africa. The central premise of this study is to analysis of the pattern of trade, development and inequality between the advanced industrial countries and the rest of the world. The growth of capitalism in nineteenth century Europe would have been possible to exploit of African and Asian markets and source of raw materials. In the new imperialism era, by the fact that Britain's predominant position in world markets was then beginning to be challenge by industrial rivals like the Americans. Both America and the European Union they have been possible to exploit of the Third World markets. This study is to evaluate to promote the local technological capacity co-operation among the south region for the development in the new era of globalisation. This co-operation is dealt with as agents for promoting industrial development in developing world, employment generation to locals, plus further export expansion from these regions. (JAAS/DÜI)

Social injustice is a feature of all human relationships and is present in all societies. How one talks to it and about it, however, is notoriously difficult, because implicit in the language one uses and the assumptions that underlie one?s language are frameworks of reference which, inevitably, find their origins in one or other understanding of the world and the people within. As a result of this realisation, discussion of the concept of social exclusion is underway in numerous contexts to assess its value in expanding understandings of injustice and inequality. 1 While the concept is ?celebrated? in the North and has led to the introduction of Social Exclusion units in all UK government departments, its usage is less common in the South where very much more specific phenomena are made the subject of policy attention. Betts (2001: 2) argues, to illustrate the point, that the discourse of poverty ?provides a much more powerful frame? (Betts 2001: 2) for many countries. In South Africa, the new government has deliberately established gender and affirmative action units. The primary question being posed in the South is whether indeed the concept of social exclusion adds value to understandings of complex phenomena such as poverty (de Haan 2000). The primary purpose of this article is to look at how discourses of inclusion and exclusion have been conceptualised and appropriated. It argues that the main conceptual weakness of current understandings is their failure to adequately engage with social justice concerns. The article begins with some caveats in contextualising the discussion. In the second part, it moves to a review of some of the important debates around educational inclusion and exclusion, and traces the roots of the concept in education to debates in special education needs (SEN). The third part of the article foregrounds concerns of equity in current discourse and specifically critiques two approaches to inclusion: the citizenship approach and the multicultural approach. This leads to the development of the ?interlocking framework?, which has the potential to provide a more encompassing approach. The fourth and concluding section focuses on issues of policy and examines the discourse of policy that underpins the ways in which the concepts are framed.

During the apartheid era, many South Africans were forcibly relocated to 'bantustans' and other decentralized regions with little economic basis. The only manufacturing employment was provided by industries attracted to the areas by selective incentives and low wages. After the transition to democracy, the remaining incentives were removed and minimum wages were extended to these (previously exempt) areas. This study of workers and managers in the clothing industry in Phuthaditjhaba, the old capital of the QwaQwa homeland, indicates that such developments may exacerbate unemployment and poverty in the region. Taiwanese export‐oriented firms (the largest employers) are most threatened by the changes as they prefer to pay new employees low wages, and then increase them in line with experience and productivity. Falling employment will translate directly into rising poverty as very little welfare support is available for the unemployed in South Africa. Given that people (whether employed or unemployed) consistently rank increases in employment over wage increases, this suggests that minimum wage determination should be particularly sensitive to local conditions and potential employment losses.Pendant le règne de l'apartheid, de nombreux Sud‐Africains ont été réimplantés de force dans les 'bantoustans' ou autres régions décentralisées à faible base économique. Le seul emploi industriel provenait des secteurs attirés dans ces zones par des mesures d'incitation et des salaires avantageux. Après la transition vers la démocratie, les dernières primes ont été supprimées et les salaires minimum étendus à ces régions (jusque lá dispensées). Cette étude des ouvriers et cadres du secteur de l'habillement à Phuthaditjhaba, ancienne capitale du QwaQwa, indique que ces changements sont susceptibles d'aggraver chômage et pauvreté au plan local. Les exportateurs taïwanais (les plus gros employeurs) sont les plus menacés puisqu'ils préfèrent payer peu les nouveaux embauchés, puis les augmenter en fonction de l'expérience et de la productivité. Une chute de l'emploi se traduirait directement par une accentuation de la pauvreté, les chômeurs bénéficiant d'une aide tès limitée en Afrique du Sud. Étant donné que les gens (qu'ils aient un travail ou non) classent systématiquement la progression de l'emploi avant celle des salaires, on peut en déduire que le minimum salarial devrait varier très sensiblement selon le contexte local et les pertes d'emploi potentielles.

Resenas críticas: Ulrich, Dave (director). Delivering results: A new mandate for human resource professionals.Resenas críticas: Wagner, Helmut (director). Globalization and unemployment.Libros recientes: Antunes, Ricardo. ¿Adiós al trabajo? Ensayo sobre las metamorfosis y el rol central del mundo del trabajo.Libros recientes: Blanpain, Roger (director); Colucci, Michele; De Smijter, Eddy; Engels, Chris; Hendrickx, Frank, y Salas, Lisa. Institutional changes and European social policies after the Treaty of Amsterdam.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Convenios y recomendaciones sobre el trabajo marítime, con inclusión de las normas sobre la pesca, el trabajo portuario y la navegación interior. Tercera edición.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: El diálogo social en los países andinos: ¿Nuevo camino para los sindicatos? Por Juan Manuel Sepúlveda Malbrán y María Luz Vega Ruiz.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Inseguridad laboral y competitividad: modalidades de contratación. Obra dirigida por Víctor E.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Labour relations in SME in selected Central and Eastern European countries. Dirigido por Giuseppe Casale.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Managing the cooperative difference: A survey of the application of modern management practices in the cooperative context. Por Peter Davis.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Manual para la defensa de la libertad sindical. Por José Marcos‐Sánchez.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Modular package on gender, poverty and employment. Reader's kit.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Modular package on gender, poverty and employment. Facilitator's kit.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Negociar la flexibilidad. La función de los interlocutores sociales y del Estado. Dirigido por Muneto Ozaki.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Población, pobreza y mercado de trabajo en América Latina. Dirigido por Ricardo A.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Recomendaciones internacionales de actualidad en estadísticas de trabajo. Edición 2000.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Seguridad social para la mayoría excluida. Estudios de casos de países en desarrollo. Dirigido por Wouter van Ginneken.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Social dialogue in Central and Eastern Europe. Dirigido por Giuseppe Casale.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Termination of employment digest.Nuevas publicaciones de la OIT: Un desarrollo agrícola sostenible en una economía mundializada. Informe para el debate de la Reunión tripartita sobre el logro de un desarrollo agricola sostenible mediante la modernización de la agricultura y el empleo en una economía mundializada.

Related to IDRC supported Research ICT Africa (RIA) projects 101584, 103114 and 105266. ; This paper examines the issue of whether or not the needs and interests of the majority of women who live in poverty are likely to be addressed by current legislative and regulatory measures designed to achieve universal access to telephone service in South Africa. The paper highlights the enabling aspects of the policy and legislative framework to equalise gender relations in the telecommunication sector in South Africa. Particularly, it identifies the empowerment and advancement of women in telecommunications and the ownership and control of telecommunications services by persons from historically disadvantaged groups, as enabling aspects of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The author concludes that while current measures may positively affect the lives of a relatively small percentage of women through their inclusion in the ownership and control of new companies or from increased employment opportunities or promotion previously denied them in this male dominated sector the current measures are deficient. This is firstly because current policy and implementation strategies do not effectively address issues of affordability. Secondly, the technical features of the network are presumed to be neutral with respect to cost (and price) considerations, masking their class and gender bias. Finally, insufficient attention has been given to seeking innovative ways of addressing women's information needs which are assumed, from technology design through to service offerings, to be the same as those of men and particularly businessmen. The paper continues to explore possible policy and regulatory strategies that can be pursued under existing conditions within the telecommunications sector in South Africa and in other developing countries to enable the sustainable development of women in society. It is argued in the policy and statutory requirements to promote universal and affordable service to women and that the developmental potential of telecommunications should positively affect the lives of women. From a developmental point of view, the objective of universal service has the potential to be a powerful enabler for a wide range of women. Given that rural women in South Africa, as in other parts of the developing world, are the worst affected by poverty, any strategy to provide universal access and ultimately service, on the grounds of the right to information and potential for social and economic development, must target this most marginalised group.

Includes bibliographical notes and index ; This book puts together historical documents that illustrate the lives and concerns of Hong Kong people through a century and a half of colonial rule. It describes not only the ideals of the elite, but also the harsh realities of life faced by the majority, who until recent years lived under considerable poverty. It documents changes in standards of living, housing conditions, family life, communal organization and political aspirations. This vivid account of Hong Kong's social history as Hong Kong people lived it summarizes the predicaments of people who chose to live in Hong Kong ; published_or_final_version ; Series general editors' foreword / Tsang, Steve pvii ; Acknowledgements pix ; Introduction - Hong Kong , colonial society p1 ; Index p383 ; Ch.one Early settlement p15 ; Ch.two The Chinese community in early Hong Kong p57 ; Ch.four The people's livelihood in the 1920s and 1930s p149 ; Ch.five The second world war and the Japanese occupation p209 ; Ch.six The return to immigrant society, 1945-1966 p233 ; Ch.seven Crisis and consolidation, 1966-1981 p285 ; Ch.eight Affluence and beyond p351 ; a Villagers and immigrants p16 ; b Respectability p16 ; c Residential segregation p22 ; d In retrospect p47 ; a The temple and its community p58 ; b Chinese guilds and other voluntary associations p61 ; c The Chinese community's politics p85 ; a Food, wages and other statistics p150 ; b The strikes of the 1920s p160 ; c The sale of women p174 ; d Depression, livelihood and reform p180 ; a War experience p210 ; b Life in occupied Hong Kong p225 ; a Restoration of traditional communal institutions p234 ; b Poverty and the need for welfare p248 ; c Changes in personal characteristics p268 ; d Industrialization in the 1950s p274 ; e Social mobility p278 ; f Professionalization p280 ; a Riots p286 ; b Language p293 ; c The population transition p299 ; d New hopes and bold beginning p300 ; e Hong Kong workers p317 ; f Transforming the rural family p335 ; g The new poor p347 ; h As they kept coming p348 ; a Out of apathy p351 ; b Rich and poor p352 ; c The local people emigrate p367 ; d The survival of customs p370 ; e How satisfied have Hong Kong people been? p372 ; Ch.three A city of entrepreneurs p117

Few Parts of the world have been so effective in carving the trends of human thought and action as the peripheral regions of the Eurasian land mass. These can be divided into two broad regions: the smaller crescent of European marine powers west of the Dardanelles, and the larger crescent of Asian peninsulas to the southeast. In spite of the earlier cultural and political development of a few areas in the latter, the former have outstripped them in the race and during the last four hundred years have controlled their resources and destiny. Recent events, however, indicate the beginnings of a reversal of this process. While European states seem to some extent to be descending the peak of political and economic power, the South Asian lands are desperately trying to ascend it. The centre of the stage is quickly changing from Europe to Asia.The South Asian lands extend from the western Mediterranean to the eastern Pacific and cover 80 degrees of longitude and an average of 25 degrees of latitude. Comprising approximately one-tenth of the world's land area, they contain one-third of the world's population. Yet their combined national income is considerably less than that of the United States alone. The average individual monthly income in any of these lands is much less than the average individual daily income in the United States. This great discrepancy, rather than poverty, is the clue to South Asian behaviour and discontent. Poverty and degradation, which have become characteristic of the life of the Asian people, are usually blamed either entirely on the Western powers, or entirely on the Eastern people, depending upon whether one comes from the "subjugated" East or from the "exploiting" West. The very intensity of these two extreme accusations belies them; and truth, as always, is to be found somewhere between. It must be conceded that perhaps there would be fewer hospitals and schools, factories and railways, real and other assets, if the Western powers had not filled the political vacuum in the East; yet at the same time it is unjust to deny that many more of each of these improvements could have been made if political "morality" had been allowed to supersede the merely economic interests of the governing countries.

Tax credits are a popular way to alleviate in-work poverty. A common empirical assumptionis that the benefit of the tax credit is borne solely by the claimant workers. However,economic theory suggests no particular reason why this should be the case. This paperinvestigates the impact of the Working Families' Tax Credit, introduced in the UK in 1999,on wages. Unlike similar tax credit policies, this tax credit was paid through employers ratherthan directly to workers, making it more salient to the employer. Using a novel identificationstrategy, we can separately identify the effect on wages associated with an increase in theamount of tax credit and that associated with the change in salience. We find evidence that:(1) through the salience mechanism the firm cuts the wage of claimant workers relative tosimilarly skilled non-claimants by 30 percent of the tax credit, which is approximately 7percent of the wage, and (2) there is a negative spillover effect onto the wages of claimantand non-claimant workers of 1.7 percent, which is approximately 8 percent of the tax creditfor claimant workers.

Tax credits are a popular way to alleviate in-work poverty. A common empirical assumptionis that the benefit of the tax credit is borne solely by the claimant workers. However,economic theory suggests no particular reason why this should be the case. This paperinvestigates the impact of the Working Families' Tax Credit, introduced in the UK in 1999,on wages. Unlike similar tax credit policies, this tax credit was paid through employers ratherthan directly to workers, making it more salient to the employer. Using a novel identificationstrategy, we can separately identify the effect on wages associated with an increase in theamount of tax credit and that associated with the change in salience. We find evidence that:(1) through the salience mechanism the firm cuts the wage of claimant workers relative tosimilarly skilled non-claimants by 30 percent of the tax credit, which is approximately 7percent of the wage, and (2) there is a negative spillover effect onto the wages of claimantand non-claimant workers of 1.7 percent, which is approximately 8 percent of the tax creditfor claimant workers.