Poverty And Development News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Islamabad, Pakistan – Economic privileges accorded to Pakistan’s elite groups, including the corporate sector, feudal landlords, the political class and the country’s powerful military, add up to an estimated $17.4bn, or roughly 6 percent of the country’s economy, a new United Nations report has found. Released last week, the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) National Human Development Report (NHDR) for Pakistan focuses on issues of inequality in the South Asian country of 220 million people. The report uses the prism of “Power, People and Policy” to examine the stark income and...

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Ana Maria Nogueira adds one bacon-flavoured seasoning cube to the pot of rice simmering on the stove. In the wooden shack that she and her husband, Eraldo, who is disabled, call home in Jardim Keralux, a poor neighbourhood in Sao Paulo’s sprawling eastern zone, the coronavirus that has killed more than 351,000 Brazilians seems like a faraway problem. The couple has more pressing priorities. “This year, we’re going hungry,” Ana, 56, told Al Jazeera. Ana and Eraldo are two of 19 million Brazilians to have gone hungry during the pandemic, according to a new study, w...

The world economy is on course for its fastest growth in more than a half century this year, yet differences and deficiencies could hold it back from attaining its pre-pandemic heights any time soon. The U.S. is leading the charge into this week’s semi-annual virtual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, pumping out trillions of dollars of budgetary stimulus and resuming its role as guardian of the global economy following President Joe Biden’s defeat of “America First” President Donald Trump. Friday brought news of the biggest month for hiring since August. China is doing its p...

Impoverished groups in Lebanon could soon receive more aid after a letter from international donors showed on Wednesday that there had been an agreement to hand out assistance in hard currency as the Lebanese pound crashed to a new low. Aid to the country in the midst of a financial meltdown exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic had previously been handed out in Lebanese pounds at rates set by the Banque du Liban, the central bank. But in a letter to the country’s finance ministry seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, representatives of the European Union, United Nations and World Bank sai...

Millions of Syrians who sought refuge in neighbouring countries in the 10 years since the war began in their homeland are confronting overlapping crises – from the COVID-19 pandemic and mass unemployment to hyperinflation and high debt in their host countries. Almost 5.6 million Syrian refugees are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and more than 5.3 million of them have been integrated into urban and rural communities in Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. As Syrians have integrated themselves into their host communities, cash assistance program...