Brasília – 3 May 2013

In recent years, nearly 40 million Brazilians have been incorporated into the middle class – those with a per capita income between R $ 291 and R $ 1,019 – a segment that now accounts for more than half of the country’s workers. This new configuration of the population brings a new dynamic to the economy and has direct effects on the socio-political relations of Brazil.

To better understand this phenomenon, the United Nations Development Programme in partnership with the Caixa Economica Federal and Strategic Affairs Secretariat (SAE) developed the publication “Voices of the New Middle Class.” This publication consists of bimonthly studies with information on the development, values, behavior and aspirations of the Brazilian middle class to subsidize the formulation of public policies directed to the sector.

The third edition of the publication, launched last Monday the 29^th, seeks to understand the entrepreneurial side of this portion of the population, with the theme “Entrepreneurship and the Middle Class.” The study focuses on the contribution of small entrepreneurs to the expansion and rise of the Brazilian middle class.

The following findings are highlighted in the publication and lead to the conclusion that progress is being made towards a more equitable society:

• Increase in available jobs
• Growth of the Brazilian working class
• Decrease in the income gap between employees in small enterprises and their employers

During the launch of the publication, the UNDP presented the results of the analysis about the profits of individual entrepreneurs and microentrepreneurs; wages of people employed in small businesses; rents divided by their families; risks and opportunities for social mobility, experienced according to their characteristics and profile of their enterprises. Small entrepreneurs, for example, account for 39% of total remuneration in the country, which exceeds R $ 500 billion. The study also points out the importance of small enterprises in the formal labor market and for sustainability. According to Marcelo Neri,  Interim Chief Minister of the Strategic Affairs Secretariat (SAE) of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil and the President of the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), the fuel behind the expansion of the middle class is not domestic consumption but rather the creation of job opportunities: “the great symbol of the new middle class is the ‘Portfolio of Work’ and labor rights.” The business of subsistence, in the words of Marcelo Neri, are being exchanged for formal jobs and businesses with greater potential for accumulation and growth. Of the six million jobs created by small business ventures between 2001 and 2011, 95% were formal.

Jorge Chediek, UNDP Resident Representative and Coordinator of the UN System in Brazil, argued that this middle class, fortunately, is rising, but it may become stagnant and even return to poverty. Therefore, according Chediek, the project’s goal is to “know the expectations, the vision of the middle class, not only through the studies generated from outside, but also through their views.” Chediek emphasizes that academic studies conducted with the middle class in Brazil should serve as an example for other developing countries, so that we can achieve “a global middle class.”

The third edition of “Voices of the Middle Class” is available here.

The video of the conference proceedings is available here.

Source: UNDP

‘Ghana Child Ambassadors on youth radio show in Washington DC.’ Photo: Ubantu Village Inc./IPC-IG

Brasília, April 04, 2013 –  Friday April 5th marks 1000 days until the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are anticipated to be achieved. Momentum 1000 is a worldwide rally organized by the UNDP that aims to enhance cooperation and advocacy throughout the final leg towards achieving the MDGs.

The International Policy Center for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published a number of publications related to better understanding how to achieve each of the eight MDGs. In line with this, the following IPC-IG publications apply a critical lens to the development framework presented by the MDGs:

Global Development Goal Setting as a Policy Tool for Global Governance: Intended and Unintended Consequences

MDGs: Misunderstood Targets?

Measuring MDG Achievements: Rate of Progress Matters Most

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: A Measure of Progress

Towards an MDG-Consistent Debt Sustainability Concept

How Should MDG Implementation Be Measured: Faster Progress or Meeting Targets?

The MDGs and Beyond: Pro-Poor Policy in a Changing World

The aforecited IPC-IG publications serve to inform policymakers in advancing human development and to leverage policy research on inclusive growth in the pursuit of achieving the MDGs. The featured research attempts to address the key challenges presented by each MDG, ranging from development innovations to gender equality. The IPC-IG invites you to visit the following links provided below each MDG that may help critically inform efforts to improve lives around the world. In addition to relevant news and publications, each MDG is accompanied by illustrative photographs from the IPC-IG’s Humanizing Development Global Photography Campaign.

MDG 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger 

Photo: ‘Humanizing Development Global Photography Campaign’/IPC-IG

Bolsa Família after Brasil Carinhoso: an Analysis of the Potential for Reducing Extreme Poverty

Analysing and Achieving Pro-Poor Growth

MDG 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Photo: ‘Humanizing Development Global Photography Campaign’/IPC-IG

Covariates of efficiency in education production among developing pacific-basin and Latin American countries

Social Innovation: Tackling Poverty through Home Grown School Meal Programmes

MDG 3: Promoting gender equality and empowering women

Photo: ‘Girls in the hairdressing class at Pro-Link Danfa School in Ghana’/Alice Wong of Canadian Crossroads International

Greening the Economy and Increasing Economic Equity for Women Farmers in Madagascar

The Implications of Water and Electricity Supply for the Time Allocation of Women in Rural Ghana

The Role of Gender Inequalities in Explaining Income Growth, Poverty and Inequality: Evidence from Latin American Countries

MDG 4: Reducing child mortality rates

Photo: Inter-American Social Protection Network (IASPN)

Monetary Transfers for Children and Adolescents in Argentina: Characteristics and Coverage of a “System” with Three Components

No Child Left Without: A Universal Benefit for Children in Brazil

MDG 5: Improving maternal health

Photo: ‘Humanizing Development Global Photography Campaign’/IPC-IG

Regression Discontinuity Impacts with an Implicit Index: Evaluating El Salvador’s Comunidades Solidarias Rurales Transfer Programme

IPC-IG Joins UNFPA on the 7 billion Actions Global Campaign

MDG 6: Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other disease

Photo: ‘Humanizing Development Global Photography Campaign’/IPC-IG

Scaling-up HIV/AIDS Financing and the Role of Macroeconomic Policies in Kenya

Gearing macroeconomic polices to manage large inflows of ODA: The implications for HIV/AIDS programmes

The Macro-Micro Nexus in Scaling-Up Aid: The Case of HIV and AIDS Control in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia

MDG 7: Ensuring environmental sustainability

Photo: ‘Humanizing Development Global Photography Campaign’/IPC-IG

Raindrops for Education: How To Improve Water Access in Schools? 

Managing Resource-Dependence Amidst Opportunities and Challenges: Defining a New Sustainability Narrative for Caribbean Coastal Economies 

Low-Cost Technologies Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: The Case of Rainwater Harvesting

MDG 8: Developing a global partnership for development 

Photo: ‘Humanizing Development Global Photography Campaign’/IPC-IG

South-South Cooperation for Inclusive Green Growth

South-South Cooperation in Times of Global Economic Crisis

China and The World: South-South Cooperation for Inclusive Green Growth

Domestic Housework Work

UN Women, the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) launch a study on the impacts of the adoption of the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) for Domestic Houseworkers.

Brasília, April 02, 2013 – The Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) for Domestic Houseworkers intends to equalize the rights of employees to those of other domestic workers in Brazil. Although the PEC passed into the second round by the Brazilian senate in the past week and has been enacted today, the PEC still produces abundant controversy. In particular, one of the recurring issues of concern related to the formalization of domestic work is the increase in the cost of hiring domestic services. This cost increase may be problematic as it could lead to a reduction in demand, possibly resulting in massive layoffs and more informal work. On the other hand, the study supports the assertion that the PEC and the formalization of domestic work may correct a historical debt to millions of Brazilian women and generate economic growth for the country.

Entitled Impact of Welfare Changes in the Brazilian Market Home Services, the study anticipates this very debate and in so doing seeks to evaluate the direct effects of formalization of domestic work as well as the impacts triggered elsewhere in the economy. The research stimulates results from the consumption of households that rely on domestic work: an increase of approximately R 19 billion (USD 9.5 billion) in 2011 prices in the Brazilian GDP. Moreover, the generation of approximately 630,000 indirect jobs may be attributed to the increased income of domestic workers, mainly in the production of household appliances and related to health services.

The study was developed by Professor Edson Paulo Domingues and researcher Kenya Barreiro de Souza of the Center for Regional Planning and Development of Minas Gerais (Cedeplar) Federal University of Minas Gerais. The study is funded by UN Women under the Interagency Program for the Promotion of Gender Equality, Race, and Ethnicity with additional funding from the Fund for the Achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDG-F) of the Spanish government and developed in partnership with the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Completed in 2012, the study is being published on April 1, 2013 by UN Women and the IPC-IG/UNDP.

Between 2005-2011 the demand for domestic labor remained stable in Brazil, according to the official employment statistics monthly, while the average salary for the category during this period increased by approximately 10% per year. The study shows that the gains in income at the bottom of the social pyramid generate benefits for the welfare of society as a whole and that the demand for domestic services remains stable even when there are increased costs of this type of work.

Click here to read the summary of the survey.

Click here to download the complete survey.

History and Methodology

Since late 2010, UN Women has harbored interest in conducting a study on the costs and benefits of formalization of domestic work in Brazil, mainly because one of the most cited arguments against the formalization of domestic work is that this could lead to more unemployment and increase economic stress.

The partnership with the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) was instrumental in the research of concern. The IPC-IG in Brazil is a global forum for the UNDP South-South cooperation, whose objective is to produce and disseminate studies and policy recommendations for inclusive growth from innovative experiences in developing countries.

During the preparatory discussions for the research, the idea of using a dynamic general equilibrium model was suggested as a useful economic tool. This suggestion may be due to the fact that this model may allow for the construction of simulations and may also help conduct an analysis of the macroeconomic multiplier effects changes in the costs of domestic labor.

Thus, in an innovative manner, the research uses a general equilibrium model that is adapted to social and economic computational simulations. Several countries currently use this model; however its use is concentrated mainly in studies of international trade and transportation. The model was only recently introduced into studies related to social analysis.

“The survey also provides an economic justification for the ratification of the Convention on Decent Work for domestic workers and workers of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 189. This adds to the efforts of UN Women to promote the importance of decent work agenda based on values of social justice. UN Women has been working closely with the ILO, especially by supporting organizations of domestic workers in their demands for labor rights,” says Rebecca Tavares, representative of UN Women in Brazil.

UN Women walks with civil society and governments to build societies that seek to establish gender equality and women’s empowerment in all of its spheres. We hope that this research is relevant to the discussion on the formalization of domestic work in the country and that it will also help to foster ideas and solutions that promote the social inclusion of all members of Brazilian society.

This year on World Water Day, which falls within Latin America Water Week, the IPC-IG highlights research and events related to water resources and social policy

“The children who have no clean water to drink, the women who fear for their safety, the young people who have no chance to receive a decent education have a right to better, and we have a responsibility to do better. All people have the right to safe drinking water, sanitation, shelter and basic services.”

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General

‘Water’ Source: Stockholm International Water Institute

The long-term security and stability of humankind is tightly bound to one indispensable natural resource: water. Water is the bedrock and circulatory backbone of all human civilizations, a sine qua non for basic life, agricultural production, and transportation (see UNESCO). In our everyday lives we consume water not only directly as a source of hydration, but also through the products we use and food we eat. From the vantage point of international social policy, water resource issues are a particularly pertinent dimension of social protection, agricultural production, and poverty alleviation.

World Water Day was incepted in 1993 during the United Nations Rio Summit. A day to commemorate the importance of water resources is important as water security is linked to improvements in sustainable development and inclusive growth. Without enhanced water access and availability worldwide, the Millennium Development Goal 7c may not be achieved: “Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.”

Water, Communication, and Society Conference

In this 2013 International Year of Water Cooperation, the National Water Agency of Brazil is hosting a Water, Communication, and Society conference that allows water and communication experts to collectively work towards improved water resource management. According to the conference website, the conference aims to facilitate a dialogue about “dealing with water demand cooperation” due to the fact that “it is only by means of cooperation that we may succeed in the future at managing our finite and feeble water sources, which are under growing pressure from the activities of a growing work population that surpasses seven billion people.”

In line with this, the infographic found below demonstrates the salience of water resources in many facets of development and social protection.

‘World Water Day 2013′ Source: BathShop321

The following section presents research published by the IPC-IG that traverses the umbilical connections between social protection, poverty alleviation, and water resource policy.

Small-Scale Water Providers in Kenya: Pioneers or Predators?

This publication series is focused on water resource issues through the lens of social policy and protection. The first study examines what role small-scale private water providers play in ensuring affordable, safe and reliable water supply. It finds that small-scale providers increase water supply coverage and reduce time poverty. In so doing, the publication illustrates that access to safe water is critically important for poverty reduction (access the full report here).

Raindrops for Education: How To Improve Water Access in Schools?

This paper attempts to ascertain the connection between universal primary education and water access. In so doing, the research sheds light on how the adequate provision of potable water may serve as an indicator of educational enhancement. This finding is correlated with the fact that pupils require adequate intake of water and calories to properly focus in the classroom and process the lessons being taught. It is also found that improving water security may not only help meet the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) but may also incentivise school attendance given the associative benefits.

To watch the message from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about World Water Day 2013 click here.

In celebration of Latin America Water Week and World Water Day, the IPC-IG presents research on the interconnections of water resources and international social policy:

Access of the Poor to Water Supply and Sanitation in India: Salient Concepts, Issues and Cases

Low-Cost Technologies Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: The Case of Rainwater Harvesting

Water Supply in Rural Ghana: Do Women Benefit?

The Implications of Water and Electricity Supply for the Time Allocation of Women in Rural Ghana

Water Privatisation and Renationalisation in Bolivia: Are the Poor Better Off?

Raindrops for Education: How To Improve Water Access in Schools?

Access to Water in the Slums of the Developing World

Tariff Hikes with Low Investment: The Story of the Urban Water Sector in Zambia

“On this first International Day of Happiness, let us reinforce our commitment to inclusive and sustainable human development and renew our pledge to help others. When we contribute to the common good, we ourselves are enriched. Compassion promotes happiness and will help build the future we want.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Message for the International Day of Happiness, 20 March 2013

‘Boys enjoy water in Vietnam’ Source: Emmanuelle Graciet

The role of ‘happiness’ is increasingly important in national agendas around the world.  In Bhutan, for example, “Gross National Happiness” (GNH) serves as a key indicator of national prosperity. Although many interpretations of ‘happiness’ exist, this article will present photographs from the IPC-IG’s ‘Humanizing Development’ global photography campaign that may exemplify visual representations of the happiness concept. In addition to the photography below, the IPC-IG has made available a range of publications on social protection, pro-poor growth, and a variety of topics which may relate to enhancing happiness.

It is hoped that the following images shed light on a world in which happiness and well-being serve as central fulcrums of national agendas. Behind each photograph is a unique narrative of how ‘happiness’ may manifest in manifold ways.

Happiness: A Global Photo Essay

‘As Children Should Be’ Source: Philip West/Australia

This photograph shows primary school children celebrating happiness, peace, and learning in a poor area of Banjarmasin City, Kalimantan Island, Indonesia.

‘Doctores Bola Roja’ Source: Marco Simola/Lima, Peru

The photograph provides a glimpse into the lives of the doctors of Bolaroja who have graduated from the Bolaroja Clown School in Lima, Peru. A typical day for a Bolaroja clown-doctor includes entertaining young patients with music, toys, and bonding activities. Unique games are also created that cater to the unique interests and needs of individual patients.

‘Rural India talks’ Source: Divyangana Rakesh/Khunti District, Jharkhand, India

A woman smiles as she displays her handiwork at a public meeting about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) held in Khunti District, Jharkhand, India.

‘A Smile’ Source: WONG Chi Keung/Hksar, China

The farmer shown here, Uncle Ming, resides in the mountain region of Yunan in China. Due to the climatic context, the options for farming in Yunan are limited in scope.  Thus Uncle Ming cultivates corn and consequently carries the produce to the local market to gain profit.

‘Business as Usual’ Source: Rolando Villanueva/Rural Bailundo, Angola

The smiling faces displayed in this photograph are microfinance clients in rural Bailundo, Angola, that are carefully tending to their livelihoods despite the rainy conditions.

Read more about the International Day of Happiness

Please find here the message from the UN Secretary-General in a meeting on ‘Happiness and Well-being’

See how the IPC-IG may help to promote happiness through research on issues such as enhancing access to basic services and inclusive growth:

The Life Development of Young People Engaged in the Oportunidades Programme

Green Equity: Environmental Justice for more Inclusive Growth

Securing Greater Social Accountability in Natural Resource Management

Dimensions of Inclusive Development

Source: ‘Bihar’ JAY MANDAL/UNDP INDIA

Brasilia – March 15, 2013 – It came as a surprise when the normally poverty-stricken region of India was met with world-record rice yields. In fact, the entire north-east Indian state of Bihar is currently experiencing a surge in the production of rice, leading many farmers out of poverty and into food security. Compellingly, the successes of the rice cultivation are partially attributed to the chemical-free approach adopted by the farmers through a particular method called the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). The phenomenon of intensified yields was first recognized when the paddy yield for a farmer named Nitish Kumar weighed in at 22.4 tons per hectare, surpassing the former world record of 19 tons per hectare by an agricultural scientist in China. To compound the success, the state of Bihar now also boasts the world record for potato cultivation.

The record-reaching production levels bring hope for other world regions and present an opportunity to meet the challenges facing agriculture today. According to Nitish Kumar, one Bihari farmer that has experienced the increased yields, “In previous years, farming has not been very profitable…Now I realise that it can be. My whole life has changed. I can send my children to school and spend more on health. My income has increased a lot.”

Scientists and agricultural experts have attempted to unravel the causes behind the dramatic yield increases witnessed in northeast India. Experts have identified the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) as the main reason why Bihari villagers are experiencing such unprecedented production levels. The SRI method of cultivation is based on an organic system of farming that follows a particular pattern of cultivation. First, the farmers plant half as many seeds under carefully monitored conditions. The rice shoots are then individually moved to the paddy fields at a younger age than traditionally practiced. Finally, the shoots are placed in drier-than-usual soil in a grid pattern with a 25 cm space between each plant. This approach to farming does not require any costly external chemical inputs, making the method an economically viable option for sustainable and inclusive agriculture. According to Dr. Surendra Chaurassa of the Ministry of Agriculture in Bihar, “Farmers use less seeds, less water and less chemicals but they get more without having to invest more. This is revolutionary.”

SRI was first documented in the 1980s by a Frenchman named de Laulanie who gained a particular interest in the unique way villagers in Madagascar cultivated their crops. Norman Uphoff, Professor and the Director of International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development at Cornell University became similarly intrigued by the observations of de Laulanie and shared the knowledge with the academic and professional community. Following a generous donation to conduct further research, Uphoff returned to Madagascar for further investigation, concluding that “Agriculture in the 21st century must be practiced differently… SRI offers millions of disadvantaged households far better opportunities. Nobody is benefiting from this except the farmers; there are no patents, royalties or licensing fees.”

The experiences of the Bihari farmers may serve as a demonstration of the possibility of a future without GM crops and agrochemicals. Upon visiting the Bihari villages, a Nobel prize-winning economist named Joseph Stiglitz claimed that “Agriculture scientists from across the world should visit and learn and be inspired by them.” In addition to being more cost-effective than chemical-intensive farming, it has been documented to require less labor. Coined by some as the “new green grassroots revolution”, it is envisioned that the SRI method of farming may be adopted by more governments and research institutions worldwide. The IPC-IG is currently preparing a report documenting the proceedings of an e-conference for climate smart agriculture that will serve to further inform the dialogue on improving sustainable agriculture and inclusive development.

Learn more by listening to an audio slide show about the rice boom in Bihar

Watch more about the experiences of farmers in Bihar by watching the following video

Related Research by the IPC-IG:

A Socially Inclusive Pathway to Food Security: The Agroecological Alternative

Linking Social Protection and Agricultural Production: The Case of Mexico

Market Alternatives for Smallholder Farmers in Food Security Initiatives: Lessons from the Brazilian Food Acquisition Programme [IPC-IG Working Paper]

Public Support to Food Security in India, Brazil and South Africa: Elements for a Policy Dialogue [IPC-IG Working Paper]

The Food Security Policy Context in Brazil [IPC-IG Country Study]

The Food Security Policy Context in South Africa [IPC-IG Country Study]

South Africa’s ‘Food for All’ Campaign: A Promising New Plan to Tackle Hunger and Malnutrition? [IPC-IG Article]

East Africa Food Crisis: Understanding the Importance of Smallholder Agriculture [IPC-IG Article]

IPC-IG/UNDP Humanizing Development Global Photography Campaign

Brasilia,24 February 2012 -IN ELDORADO, one of São Paulo’s poorest and most misleadingly named favelas, some eight-year-old boys are playing football on a patch of ground once better known for drug gangs and hunger. Although they look the picture of health, they are not. After the match they gather around a sack of bananas beside the pitch.

“At school, the kids get a full meal every day,” explains Jonathan Hannay, the secretary-general of Children at Risk Foundation, a local charity. “But in the holidays they come to us without breakfast or lunch so we give them bananas. They are filling, cheap, and they stimulate the brain.” Malnutrition used to be pervasive and invisible in Eldorado. Now there is less of it and, equally important, it is no longer hidden. “It has become more visible—so people are doing something about it.”

If Eldorado’s slum children today eat better, it is partly thanks to José Graziano da Silva. He ran Brazil’s Fome Zero(zero hunger) campaign, a policy that has helped to cut hunger by more than a third in Latin America’s largest country. Now Mr Graziano wants to apply the lessons he has learned more widely: he recently took over as head of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). And he stands a better chance of success than his predecessors. His appointment coincides with a shift in the world’s approach to fighting hunger.

Governments around the world are paying increasing attention to nutrition. In 2010 donors, charities and companies drew up a how-to policy guide called SUN (which stands for scale up nutrition). Britain’s Department for International Development and other aid agencies are devoting more of their money to nutritional projects. The World Bank has nailed its colours to the mast with a book called “Repositioning Nutrition as Central to Development”. Save the Children, an international charity, talks about “galvanising political leadership” behind the effort. Underlying all this is a change in thinking about how best to improve nutrition, with less stress on providing extra calories and food and more on improving nutrition by supplying micro-nutrients such as iron and vitamins.

A damning record

In the 1960s and 1970s, ending hunger and malnutrition seemed relatively simple: you grew more crops. If the harvest failed, rich countries sent food aid. But the Ethiopian famine of 1984 undermined this approach. Here was a disaster of biblical proportions in a country where food was available. It was a reminder of what an Indian economist, Amartya Sen, had long taught: what really matters with food is not the overall supply, but individual access.

So in the 1990s and early 2000s the emphasis switched to helping people obtain food. This meant reducing poverty and making agricultural markets more efficient. Between 1990 and 2005 the number of people living on less than $1 a day in poor countries (at 2005 purchasing-power parity) fell by a third to 879m, or from 24.9% of the total population to 18.6%.

Yet the food-price spike of 2007-08 showed that this approach also had limitations. Prices of many staple crops doubled in a year; millions went hungry. The world remains bad at fighting hunger. Experts argue about exactly how many people are affected, but the number has probably held flat at just below 1 billion since 1990.

Even where there is enough food, people do not seem healthier. On top of 1 billion without enough calories, another 1 billion are malnourished in the sense that they lack micro-nutrients (this is often called “hidden hunger”). And a further 1 billion are malnourished in the sense that they eat too much and are obese. It is a damning record: out of the world population of 7 billion, 3 billion eat too little, too unhealthily, or too much.

Malnutrition is attracting attention now because the damage it does has only recently begun to sink in. The misery of lacking calories—bloated bellies, wasted limbs, the lethargy of famine—is easy to spot. So are the disastrous effects of obesity. By contrast, the ravages of inadequate nutrition are veiled, but no less dreadful.

More than 160m children in developing countries suffer from a lack of vitamin A; 1m die because they have weak immune systems and 500,000 go blind each year. Iron deficiency causes anaemia, which affects almost half of poor-country children and over 500m women, killing more than 60,000 of them each year in pregnancy. Iodine deficiency—easily cured by adding the stuff to salt—causes 18m babies each year to be born with mental impairments.

Malnutrition is associated with over a third of children’s deaths and is the single most important risk factor in many diseases (see chart). A third of all children in the world are underweight or stunted (too short for their age), the classic symptoms of malnourishment.

The damage malnutrition does in the first 1,000 days of life is also irreversible. According to research published in The Lancet, a medical journal, malnourished children are less likely (all things being equal) to go to school, less likely to stay there, and more likely to struggle academically. They earn less than their better-fed peers over their lifetimes, marry poorer spouses and die earlier.

Paradoxically, malnutrition can also cause obesity later in life. In the womb and during the first couple of years, the body adjusts to a poor diet by squirrelling away whatever it can as fat (an energy reserve). It never loses its acquired metabolism. This explains the astronomical obesity rates in countries that have switched from poor to middle-income status. In Mexico, for instance, obesity was almost unknown in 1980. Now 30% of Mexican adults are clinically obese and 70% are overweight. These are among the highest rates in the world, almost as bad as in America. India has an obesity epidemic in cities, as people eat more processed food and adopt more sedentary lifestyles. And with obesity will come new diseases such as diabetes and heart disease—as if India did not have enough diseases to worry about.

Nutrition is also attracting attention because of some puzzling failures. In a few big countries, notably India and Egypt, malnutrition is much higher than either economic growth or improvements in farming would suggest it should be. India’s income per head grew more than fourfold between 1990 and 2010; yet the proportion of underweight children fell by only around a quarter. By contrast, Bangladesh is half as rich as India and its income per head rose only threefold during the same period; yet its share of underweight children dropped by a third and is now below India’s. Egypt’s agricultural value-added per person rose more than 20% in 1990-2007. Yet both malnutrition and obesity rose—an extremely unusual combination.

The good news is that better nutrition can be a stunningly good investment. Fixing micro-nutrient deficiencies is cheap. Vitamin supplements cost next to nothing and bring lifelong benefits. Every dollar spent promoting breastfeeding in hospitals yields returns of between $5-67. And every dollar spent giving pregnant women extra iron generates between $6-14. Nothing else in development policy has such high returns on investment. In 2008, as part of a project called the Copenhagen consensus, eight prize-winning economists listed the projects they thought would do most good (they had an imaginary $75 billion to spend). Half their proposed projects involved nutrition.

If malnutrition does so much damage and the actions against it are cheap and effective, why is the affliction only now being taken seriously? Some countries have successfully tackled it. Brazil cut the number of underweight people by 0.7% a year between 1986 and 1996 and reduced stunting by 1.9% a year. Bangladesh reduced both rates by 2% a year in 1994-2005.

But in many countries the problem of “hidden hunger” is hidden from victims themselves, so there is no pressure for change. If everyone in a village is undernourished, poor nutrition becomes the norm and everyone accepts it. This may also explain the reluctance of poor, ill-fed people to spend extra money on food, preferring instead to buy such things as televisions or a fancy wedding. When asked about his spending choices, an ill-fed Moroccan farmer told Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of the Poverty Action Laboratory, a think-tank: “Oh, but television is more important than food.”

Education can help change attitudes by persuading people they would benefit from a better (if more expensive) diet. But people in rich countries consume vast quantities of junk food knowing full well that it is bad for them. It is unrealistic to expect consumers in poor countries to behave differently. Hence the idea of doing good by stealth.

Just push all the buttons at once

HarvestPlus, a research group, breeds staple crops with extra nutrients and distributes the “bio-fortified” seeds. It released a vitamin A-rich cassava in Nigeria in 2011. This year it will bring vitamin A-rich maize (corn) to Zambia and iron-rich beans and pearl millet to Rwanda and India. Companies do something similar with processed foods: Kraft’s Biskuat biscuits (sold in Indonesia) have nine vitamins and six minerals added.

But education or fortified foods alone will not overcome the most intractable barrier to better nutrition, which is the

Hence the importance of Mr Graziano, the FAO’s new boss. Interest in improving nutrition is growing; so is alarm at the failures of fighting malnutrition so far. He will not find it easy to cajole more countries into a large, broad-based effort. Governments are reluctant to change and want clear evidence. And just as the damage from malnutrition builds up over a lifetime, so better nutrition reveals its benefits only over many years, as well-fed mothers pass on good health to well-fed children.

At a recent FAO conference someone was heard to remark that “at the moment nutritionists are in a position similar to environmentalists in the 1990s.” That is depressing, because it means progress will be slow; but it is encouraging, because progress will come eventually.

sheer complexity of the task. Some problems of development are relatively straightforward. You can improve education by building schools and paying teachers. Nutrition is not like that.

In many countries nutritional standards vary according to the season. Often both the amount and quality of food drop alarmingly in the months before the main harvest. Nutrition varies also within households. Mothers eat less in bad times to leave more for their older children, which harms the suckling child. Culture adds to the problem. In rural Bangladesh an attempt to improve nutrition by educating young mothers backfired, because the family diet turns out to be determined not by mothers, but by mothers-in-law.

And nutrition can also be improved in all sorts of ways, including by better sanitation, which reduces intestinal diseases and enables people to absorb more nutrients; by investing in smallholder farming, to increase dietary variety; by vaccinating children against diseases; by educating women to breastfeed babies for longer, to improve immunity. Marie Ruel, of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, DC, ticks off some of the tasks: focus on the first 1,000 days of life (including pregnancy); scale up maternal-health programmes and the teaching of good feeding practices; concentrate on the poor; measure and monitor the problem.

All this implies that a successful effort to improve nutrition has to push all the buttons at once. Brazil’s Fome Zero has 90 separate programmes run by 19 ministries. It embraces everything from a conditional cash-transfer scheme, called Bolsa Família, to irrigation projects and help for smallholders. Such an effort is hard to organise and cannot work unless politicians support it. “Malnutrition reduction needs powerful champions who know how to get things done across government, avoid gobbledygook and finish the story,” says Lawrence Haddad, director of Britain’s Institute of Development Studies.

Hence the importance of Mr Graziano, the FAO’s new boss. Interest in improving nutrition is growing; so is alarm at the failures of fighting malnutrition so far. He will not find it easy to cajole more countries into a large, broad-based effort. Governments are reluctant to change and want clear evidence. And just as the damage from malnutrition builds up over a lifetime, so better nutrition reveals its benefits only over many years, as well-fed mothers pass on good health to well-fed children.

At a recent FAO conference someone was heard to remark that “at the moment nutritionists are in a position similar to environmentalists in the 1990s.” That is depressing, because it means progress will be slow; but it is encouraging, because progress will come eventually.

Source* The Economist

Would you like to know more about poverty and hunger discourse,refer to the following IPC-IG resources:

Ravaged by Drought – the Number of Malnourished Children Rises

Brazil inspires South Africa through its “Zero Hunger strategy”

Famine isn’t an extreme event, it’s the predictable result of a broken system

Bolsa Familia transforms more than 50 million lives

Understanding food security: Video interview presents key issues for South-South dialogue

Brazil Commits to Quality Food for All

Seminar:Tackling Hunger in India

Humanizing Development Global Photography Campaign (IPC-IG/UNDP)

Brasilia,13 February 2011-Women farmers are often the chief executives of their rural areas and supporting their economic development is crucial for economic growth and poverty reduction, a senior United Nations official said today ahead of an international conference on women’s empowerment.
“Women farmers grow, buy, sell, cook food and feed their children. They perform the majority of the agricultural work and, on a global scale, women cultivate more than half of all the food that is grown,” said Yukiko Omura, Vice-President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

“Despite their contribution to global food security, women farmers are frequently underestimated and overlooked in development strategies,” Ms. Omura added.

The statement comes two days ahead of the “Women’s Empowerment and Employment” Conference in Copenhagen, which will be attended by UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.

The conference has been organized by the Danish Government to find ways to accelerate and enhance employment for women to achieve the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which is related to women’s empowerment and international development.

The eight MDGs were adopted by world leaders in 2000 as a blueprint for development by 2015.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will host a conference on the MDGs this September in New York where he wants world leaders to commit to accelerated programmes to reach the Goals.

In a message to an IFAD conference last month, the Secretary-General noted that with more than 1 billion people hungry, smallholders and rural producers have a vital role to play in overcoming global hunger and poverty, and new and varied partnerships are needed, with particular emphasis on the interests of women.

IFAD has said it prioritizes women’s economic empowerment by providing support in enterprise development, income-generation activities and access to microfinance, education and training.
“Women have strong motivation for learning and are open to engage in new activities, such as marketing and exporting products, which can create a better livelihood for themselves and for their families,” Ms. Omura said.
“These traits need to be developed and supported in order to help them feed their families and communities,” she added.

Source* http://www.presstrust.com

Would you like to learn more about related issues, please view our webpages and publications:

[Press Room] Put planet and its people at the core of sustainable development, urges report

[Press Room] Davos: if women are the future, where are they?

[Multimedia] New Animated Video Tells the Story of Agriculture, Climate Change and the Green Economy

[Press Room] Green Economies with Social Futures

[Press Room] World hunger report 2011: High, volatile prices set to continue

[Press Room] Girls are key to food security in poor countries, report says

[Poverty in Focus # 23] Dimensions of Inclusive Development

[One Pager] Providing Incentives to Women Farmers for Sustainable Food Production

[One Pager]Food Security as a Pathway to Productive Inclusion: Lessons from Brazil and India

Brasilia,10 February 2012 -The Caribbean Human Development Report 2012 Human Development and the Shift to Better Citizen Security was launched in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, on 8 February 2012. The report says that with the exception of Barbados and Suriname, homicide rates including gang-related killings have increased substantially in the last 12 years across the Caribbean, while they have been falling or stabilizing in other parts of the world.

Although murder rates are exceedingly high by world standards, the report says that Caribbean governments can reverse the trend, calling for regional governments to beef up public institutions to tackle crime and violence —including the criminal justice system—while boosting preventive measures.“Violence limits people’s choices, threatens their physical integrity, and disrupts their daily lives,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark at the report’s launch ceremony with Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Heraldo Muñoz.“This report stresses the need to rethink our approaches to tackling crime and violence and providing security on the ground. We need to follow approaches that are centred on citizen security and address the causes of this recent increase in violent crime, including social, economic, and political exclusion,” Helen Clark said.

The new study recommends that Caribbean governments implement youth crime prevention through education, as well as provide employment opportunities that target the marginalized urban poor. A shift in focus is needed it says, from a state protection approach to one that focuses on citizen security and participation, promoting law enforcement that is fair, accountable, and more respectful of human rights.

The Caribbean Human Development Report reviews the current state of crime as well as national and regional policies and programmes to address the problem in seven English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Tackling the problem

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) estimates reveal the cost of gang-related crime is between 2.8 percent and four percent of gross domestic product in the region through both the cost of policing and as a result of lost income from youth incarceration and reduced tourism.  According to the study, crime costs Jamaica alone over US$529 million a year in lost income. In Trinidad and Tobago, a one percent reduction in youth crime would boost tourism revenue by US$35 million per year.  For every additional “gang” in a community, homicide rates increased by about 10 percent, according to a recent research featured in the Caribbean Human Development Report.

Crime erodes confidence in future development, reduces the competitiveness of existing industries and services, for example, by imposing burdensome security—and may deter investment, the report says. Education and health care also suffer when resources are diverted to law enforcement. The following are key recommendations from the Report, which result from extensive consultations with 450 experts, practitioners, and leaders and reflect a large-scale survey with 11,555 citizens in the seven assessed countries:

• High rates of violent crime can be turned around by achieving a better balance between legitimate law enforcement and preventive measures, with a stronger focus on prevention;
• Governments should create or invest more in units to address gender-based violence and adopt more preventive measures to ensure that violence against girls and women is no longer tolerated;
• Because crime harms social cohesion, Caribbean nations must better address youth violence and street gangs, whose crimes are rarely prosecuted;
• Public security requires community collaboration. Youth organizations and groups advocating for women’s rights, victims’ rights, and human rights should become more active, and Governments should commit to more actively engaging citizens.

The new study also highlights other effects of crime that generally go unreported, such as low educational achievement and poor health among youth, physical and psychological pain, suffering and trauma caused by youth violence, reduced quality of life, the marginalization of youth and negative stereotypes that fuel further aggressive behaviour among young people.

The Caribbean Human Development Report 2012 is available on http://www.regionalcentrelac-undp.org/en/hdr-caribbean.

Press coverage of the report is also available in the Human Development Space in Teamworks.

For more information please contact:

Panama: Pablo Basz, pablo.basz@undp.org, +507 6674 2224

New York: Carolina Azevedo, carolina.azevedo@undp.org; +1 212 906 6127

Port of Spain: François Coutou, +1 868 623 7056

Source* UNDP Regional Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean  

Read the Press Release  in Portuguese, prepared by UNDP Brazil Here.

 

Would you like to learn more about Small Island Developing States and related topics? Refer to the following websites and publications:

Dimensions of Inclusive Development

Social Policy in the Post-crisis Context of Small Island Developing States: a Synthesis

Dimensions of Inclusive Development

Mitigation of What and by What? Adaptation by Whom and for Whom? Dilemmas in Delivering for the Poor and the Vulnerable in International Climate Policy

Inclusive and Sustainable Development: For Whom?

Benefits Sharing: Blending Climate Change and Development in National Policy Efforts

Maximizing Co-Benefits: Exploring Opportunities to Strengthen Equality and Poverty Reduction through Adaptation to Climate Change

Sustaining Development and Resilience in SIDS: Beyond Crisis Management

Event:  Planet under Pressure Meeting,London UK

 

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Pictures from the Pretoria conference can be found here. About the Workshop: What: As governments prepare for the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Durban (28 November to 09 December 2011), the United Nations and the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) invite media representatives to a one-day interactive pre-COP workshop. The workshop, which took place the week after the final international ministerial meeting to prepare for the Durban conference, updated media representatives on the status of the complex negotiations of the 17^th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) as they continue the search for common ground on the crucial next steps to design an effective international response to climate change.

Pre-COP Media Training Workshop, UNIC Pretoria

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Ambassador NJ Mxakato-Diseko, Ambassador-at-Large for the South African COP Presidency, shed light on the negotiations, including an update on the preparatory meeting in Panama this October and the ministerial meeting in South Africa. The workshop also examined some of the most critical climate change challenges facing Africa and discuss innovative solutions already underway. The workshop provided substantive resources and logistical and technical advice for media representatives relating to their coverage of COP 17.  In addition, United Nations speakers shared information and insights regarding climate change itself, especially as it affects Africa. Who:

• Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary,  UNFCCC  Secretariat
• Ambassador NJ Mxakato-Diseko, Ambassador-at-Large, COP 17/CMP 7 for the COP Presidency  (to be confirmed)
• John Hay, Media Liaison Officer, UNFCCC Secretariat on “How to cover COP 17”
• Presentations by United Nations experts on the work of UN agencies on the green economy, including renewable energy; strategies to achieve a low-carbon intensity development; carbon markets; deforestation; and the adverse impacts of climate change on gender.

The workshop was organized by the Secretariat of the UNFCCC, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa and the United Nations Information Centre Pretoria, with the support of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.

Please also visit: COP 17/ CMP7 United Nations Climate Change Conference 2011 Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development