Poverty News and Research

RSS

New study shows direct correlation between motor vehicle deaths and access to surgeons

Having more surgeons working in a geographic area has a direct impact on the likelihood that victims will survive motor vehicle crashes, according to a new research study presented at the 2010 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.

5 Oct 2010

Depressed pregnant women at increased risk of delivering preterm birth and low-birth weight infants

Clinical depression puts pregnant women at increased risk of delivering prematurely and of giving birth to below-normal weight infants, according to a report published Oct. 4 in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

5 Oct 2010

Increase in unemployment rate linked to child maltreatment

The stresses of poverty have long been associated with child abuse and neglect. In a study presented Sunday, Oct. 3, at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in San Francisco, researchers directly linked an increased unemployment rate to child maltreatment one year later.

4 Oct 2010

Record number of Americans signed up for Medicaid last year, straining state budgets

Associated Press: "A record number of Americans signed up for Medicaid last year, as the recession wiped out jobs and workplace health coverage. A report released Thursday by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found that enrollment in the safety-net medical insurance program jumped to more than 48 million — a record 15.7 percent share of the U.S. population.

1 Oct 2010

World Bank President calls for new, more open approach to economic development

"World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Wednesday called on economists to rethink the way they look at issues affecting developing nations and said he was overhauling the way his institution approached research," Reuters reports (Wroughton, 9/29).

1 Oct 2010

Role of marriage in reducing poverty and improving child outcomes

A forthcoming issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family states that children today are less likely to be born into a "traditional" family structure, defined as two biological married parents. Growing numbers of children in the United States experience multiple family living arrangements during childhood. How these transitions affect the individual child's well-being needs to be fully addressed by researchers and policymakers alike.

30 Sep 2010

UN Secretary announces global strategy for women and children's health at MDG summit

At the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) summit in New York this week, world leaders gathered to review progress on the eight goals agreed in 2000 on alleviating world poverty and ill-health by 2015. As the summit came to a close, governments, businesses and aid organisations made commitments totaling $40bn to reach the goals, with particular emphasis on improving maternal and child health.

30 Sep 2010

Opinions: U.S. aid to Pakistan; MDGS; GHI and Global Fund

The U.S. military has been working hard to provide flood assistance, but most of that is invisible to Pakistanis, David Ignatius writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. The article examines the views of Pakistani flood victims, including criticism of their own government's response.

30 Sep 2010

Increased drug use linked to father's incarceration

In a recently published study in the journal Addiction, researchers from Bowling Green State University report evidence of an association between father's incarceration and substantially elevated risks for illegal drug use in adolescence and early adulthood.

29 Sep 2010

Asian countries should increase rice reserves to prevent food insecurity, report says

A report released on Monday by the Asia Society and the International Rice Research Institute recommends that Asian countries should increase rice reserves to help stabilize prices and improve food security in the region which is home to about 65 percent of the world's hungry, Bloomberg reports.

29 Sep 2010

Opinions: U.S. food aid; MDGs; Contraceptive access, technology; U.S. AIDS funding; Foreign assistance reform

"The best way to help the millions of hungry people in countries that receive food aid get rid of their corrupt and incompetent rulers - and to ensure that their children will never go hungry in future — is to starve them now. That will turn them into raging, unstoppable anti-government regime changers," writes Nation Media Group Executive Editor Charles Onyango-Obbo in an East African opinion piece.

28 Sep 2010

MDG summit: Funding the Global Fund; Arab world's 'own challenges'

BusinessDay reports that following last week's Millennium Development Goal summit at the U.N. in New York, advocates "have called on rich nations to double their pledges to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, saying it desperately needs more money if the world is to meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals by 2015."

28 Sep 2010

Community health centers help those without insurance

In 2001, a Charleston, W.Va., a hospital and three community health centers set up a Community Access Program to help give low-income residents a primary health care system in the hopes of lowering emergency room care. The program has enrolled 5,000 people and "cut their hospital use in half," the Charleston Gazette reports.

28 Sep 2010

Media outlets examine reaction to Obama's plan for Global Development Policy

The Associated Press examines international aid and advocacy groups' reaction to the new U.S. Global Development Policy President Barack Obama unveiled Wednesday at the U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

27 Sep 2010

Media outlets examine reaction to MDGS summit

Reuters AlertNet examines reactions by development experts and advocates to the U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which wrapped up Wednesday, after world leaders adopted a declaration that promised intensified efforts by the 192 U.N. member states to achieve the eight goals by 2015.

27 Sep 2010

U.N. MDGs summit concludes with 'outcome document'

The three-day U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ended Wednesday with world leaders "adopting a declaration agreed [to] earlier this month, which promised intensified efforts by the 192 U.N. member states to achieve the world body's so-called Millennium Development Goals by 2015," Reuters reports (Worsnip/Wroughton, 9/22).

24 Sep 2010

Pres. Obama unveils new U.S. Global Development Policy at U.N. MDGs summit

During a U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals address in New York on Wednesday, President Barack Obama outlined "changes in how the United States will pursue international development" and "urged wealthy countries ... to maintain development assistance to poor nations," the Washington Post reports.

24 Sep 2010

CGI summit looks at businesses' involvement in philanthropy

A growing number of companies are putting more emphasis on philanthropic investments, former President Bill Clinton and business leaders said on Wednesday during the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in New York, Reuters reports.

24 Sep 2010

ASTMH recommends FDA to include neglected infections of poverty in orphan classification

Today, U.S. scientists committed to finding answers to reducing and eliminating what are known as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) that plague the world's poorest people in developing countries, urged the FDA to include in its orphan classification the neglected infections of poverty that also affect Americans, and expressed support for stronger relationships with the FDA to ultimately halt these ancient scourges.

24 Sep 2010

Opinions: Financial transaction tax; reframing antipoverty efforts; MDGs

The world's largest financial institutions regularly buy and sell massive amounts of world currencies seeking to make quick profits. A tiny tax on these transactions, many of which are purely speculative, would raise billions of dollars to invest in key domestic and global priorities, such as fighting disease, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and protecting our children from poverty.

24 Sep 2010