Can multilateral trade work for the poor?

> Agenda, February 2007

Protectionism, self-reliance and village republics are not enough to lift 1.3 billion of the world’s poor out of absolute poverty. There is sufficient empirical evidence to demonstrate that trade can be a powerful catalyst for poverty reduction, that free trade with fairer policies will benefit the world’s poor more than aid or charity. The problem is that World Trade Organisation negotiations and global trade are far from free and fair, with the balance skewed in favour of powerful trading (...) read

date of on-line publication : 25 October 2007

InfoChange News & Features

Women at Work

A recent report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector reveals that 395 million Indians work in the unorganised sector. 79% of these workers live on an income of less than Rs 20 a day. Many of the workers in this vulnerable and impoverished sector are women, who face the additional inequalities of gender. This issue of Agenda uncovers, explores and recognises the work and contribution of millions of these Indian women. Read more (...) read

date of on-line publication : 16 October 2007

Survival International

Progress can kill

> How imposed development destroys the health of tribal peoples

Across the world, from the poorest to the richest countries, indigenous peoples today experience chronic ill health. They endure the worst of the diseases that accompany poverty and, simultaneously, many suffer from ‘diseases of affluence’ - such as cancers and obesity - despite often receiving few of the benefits of ‘development’. Diabetes alone threatens the very survival of many indigenous communities in rich countries. Indigenous peoples also experience serious mental health problems and (...) read

date of on-line publication : 16 October 2007

The Economic Impact of Telecommunications on Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction a study of rural communities in: India (Gujarat), Mozambique and Tanzania

> Project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) - Report, PDF, 447 pages

http://www.telafrica.org/R8347/files (...)

The last five years have seen tremendous growth in telephone ownership and use in developing countries. Until the mid-1990s, telephones were only available in the urban centres of poor countries. Some African countries had telephone densities as low as one per thousand people. Since then, mobile telephone networks have spread rapidly in most low income countries. Many people, even in low income communities, now own telephones; and most adults make some use of them, wherever they are available, usually relying on public kiosks, phone shops or airtime bought from individual phone owners. The mobile phone has become a symbol of the use of new information and communication technologies (or ICTs) in the developing world.
But what impact has the telephone had on livelihoods - on how people live their lives, protect themselves against vulnerability and take opportunities for a more prosperous future? Do people use the telephone for social or business purposes? How important is it to them in emergencies? Does it make a difference to how they obtain the information they need to run their lives? And how does it fit into the pattern of other communication channels they have available?
Very little substantial or detailed research has been done so far on these questions. The research reported in this document assesses the impact of the telephone on the lives of the rural poor in three developing countries - in the state of Gujarat in India; in Mozambique; and in Tanzania.

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date of on-line publication : 25 October 2006