Women-led and women’s rights organizations are on the frontlines of today’s humanitarian crises—but many are at risk of disappearing. As global needs rise due to conflict, climate change, and displacement, deep cuts to foreign aid are threatening organizations that provide life-saving services for women and girls. In March 2025, UN …
Medicinal and aromatic plants are critical to Himachal Pradesh's rural economy. Twenty four of the 100 most important medicinal plant species traded in the country are found in the state. The state exports some 2,500 tonnes of medicinal plants and their parts. The legal annual trade in medicinal plants in …
Ending a six-month long suspension, the World Bank has agreed to continue financial assistance to Chad, after the country fell in with the bank's conditions on spending petrodollars. Under the agreement, Chad has said it will devote 70 per cent of its oil revenues to poverty reduction programmes in the …
function table() { var popurl="image/20060715/19-table.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=650,height=250,scrollbars=yes") } In a recent decision taken in June this year, the Union ministry of rural development has chosen not to extend the rural employment guarantee scheme, launched by the United Progressive Alliance (upa) government in February 2006, to other areas till December. This has …
This report highlights the importance of social protection in the struggle against global poverty. Social protection aims to enhance the capacity of poor and vulnerable persons to manage economic and social risks, such as unemployment, sickness, disability and old age.
The idea seemed right for district Dungarpur. nfwp began with the preparation of a five-year district perspective plan (dpp) detailing work that could be taken up at every block level and gram panchayat. The aim was to create a need-based development programme for community assets and provide food security by …
Despite the recent emphasis on industrial growth, building up the country's natural resource base remains the most potent counter to rural poverty. In fact, a number of social scientists and activists
Acursory perusal of the draft National Environment Policy (nep), 2004 indicates that we are inching towards a scientific approach in managing environmental matters in the country. Keeping aside sectoral considerations, the document stresses that poverty alleviation is essential for environment protection. But despite attempts to study the environment holistically, the …
Self-Help Group and linkage banking programme has come a long way from a small pilot project of NABARD to become a major poverty financing programme in India. Several organisations have participated in the country-wide programme with several models, but the essence remained the banking linkage through groups of poor women. …
the Centre for Global Development, an international mission to fight poverty, and the Foreign Policy magazine have released the second annual Commitment to Development Index (cdi) titled "Ranking the Rich 2004', which rates 21 industrialised countries for their impact on developing nations. The Netherlands is at the top of the …
The government of India has for long considered watersheds as catalysts for development activities in rain-fed areas. In 1994, it developed guidelines for implementation of watershed programmes. These were subsequently revised, in 2001, by the department of land resources of the ministry of rural development and circulated as guidelines for …
a closer-knit South Asian community is not beyond the realms of possibility now. At the 12th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (saarc) summit in Islamabad from January 4-6, leaders of the region took some of the boldest steps ever since the grouping was first created in 1985. They agreed …
The World Social Forum (WSF) concluded in Mumbai. Then began the World Economic Forum in Davos. A little before these, a glitzy automobile fair in Delhi. One after the other, loud and strident images. But even as an intensely stimulating energy of dissent swelled at WSF, I kept feeling the …
In November 1999 during the World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Seattle I led the delegation from the United Kingdom. I was convinced the expansion of world trade could bring major benefits to developing countries and would be a key to tackle world poverty. For this, developing countries needed to …
Norway and Sweden have jointly set up a us $3.6-million fund to focus on environment-related efforts, which would help alleviate poverty. Over the next three years, this amount will be utilised to execute technical assistance projects and carry out other activities in protection, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources …
The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (mssrf) is promoting rural entrepreneurship as a solution to alleviating poverty. The organisation's J R D Tata Ecotechnology Centre located in the village of Kannivadi, in Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu, conceives and implements many innovative projects in the region. The centre's coordinator, S Bose, …
Concepts of environmental conservation and management are directly linked to the practice of development. Development has been seen as not only an instrument to increase production, but also to remove poverty. But anti-poverty schemes in India have not been sustainable and are conditioned by the kind of finance available for …
a survey currently underway in states to calculate the number of below poverty line (bpl) households is being opposed tooth and nail by civil society groups under the 'right to food' campaign. They are objecting to the exercise on two counts: firstly, the criteria used for poverty estimation are incorrect; …
