Poverty and hunger

Poverty and social conditions are widely acknowledged to be the major causes of ill health in developing countries. This report explains how greater international economic sharing is the first step towards achieving the longstanding goal of health care for all.

The issue of globally-managed food reserves is receiving increased attention from policymakers in light of the food price crisis. But will the current proposals help achieve food security, or do we need a new framework to discuss their implementation?

The following talk was given at a seminar hosted by World Goodwill on the theme "Human Rights, Spiritual Responsibilities - A Crisis for Democracy?", held in London on the 1st November 2008.

Unlike the crisis of 1970s stagflation that signalled the end for the Keynesian social-democratic model, the food crisis of 2008 could be marked down in history for setting in motion an opposite trend, writes Adam Parsons.

The inability of world leaders to face up to the root causes or policy contradictions of a food crisis is nothing new, but the resultant crisis of faith in neoliberal economic orthodoxy is a sign that the world direction is changing course, writes Adam Parsons.

The World Bank's latest poverty figures underline the fact that globalisation has been largely ineffective at either reducing the burgeoning ranks of the world's poor, or including this vast swathe of the global population into the mainstream economy.

The World Bank's revised international poverty line of $1.25, which on many counts reveals a negligible difference in reducing poverty since 1981, raises legitimate questions about the assumed success of globalisation.