Chengalpattu, India | AFP | A small scythe, a crowbar and a bundle of canvas bags are all that Kali and Vedan carry when they venture into the fields of southern India to catch some of the world’s deadliest snakes. Their skills, passed from generation to generation of the Irula …
Read More »FEATURE: DR Congo’s business dreams flatlined by violence
Butembo, DR Congo | AFP | The question is so absurd that Butembo’s deputy mayor misses a beat before answering. What is the town’s unemployment rate? “Unemployment is the norm around these parts,” says Godefroid Kambere Matimbya. “There aren’t any businesses.” Butembo is no ghost town, but a city of …
Read More »Protectionism a scourge? Maybe not in Africa
Washington, United States | AFP | World economic leaders gathered in Washington this week to defend globalization, delivering a single message in unison: Protectionism will not save you. But this glosses over the plight of Africa, which is sinking further into poverty despite years of free trade. According to the …
Read More »Uganda’s rich and the rest
Special Report on the future of poverty in Uganda Ugandans often jokingly say people from western Uganda “are eating” to mean that they are economically prospering. It is also often a jibe at westerners because they are the “ruling clan” since President Yoweri Museveni hails from western Uganda. So when …
Read More »VIDEO: Mityana, where teachers have turned to boda boda riding
VIDEO: Ever wondered why the education standards in Mityana district have gone to the dogs? Our team embarked on a journey to Mityana to find what the problem could be and in what might be a surprise to many… the teachers in district have resorted to riding boda bodas instead of attending …
Read More »Can Africa’s mobile money revolution reduce poverty?
Dakar, Senegal | AFP | When farmer Isaac Tondo fell on lean times in Liberia’s long rainy season, his brother in the capital sent 8,000 Liberian dollars (US$87) to his Lonestar mobile money account, ensuring his children’s school fees would still be paid. Across Africa more and more people — …
Read More »Extreme poverty in Uganda fell from 53.2% to 34.6% in 7 yrs
Extreme poverty in Uganda fell from 53.2% in 2006 to 34.6% in 2013 Poverty reduction among households in agriculture accounts for 79 percent of of national poverty decline from 2006 to 2013. According to the World Bank Group’s latest Poverty Assessment, the proportion of the Ugandan population living beneath the national poverty …
Read More »Paralympians, poor Rio kids teach each other about overcoming limits
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | French Paralympians got a taste of Rio’s tough realities in a visit to a favela Friday but the impoverished children greeting the disabled athletes got an eye opener of their own. Foreign celebrities and sports stars often follow a well-beaten track from Rio’s …
Read More »Swiss vote on basic income for all to fight poverty, inequality
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Carole, a scientist from Zurich, recently received a dream message on her phone: she will receive 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,500, 2,300 euros) a month for the next year, no strings attached. The 30-year-old ethnologist, whose last name has not been revealed, could be the first …
Read More »World poverty falls below 10%
By Independent Team & Agencies Uganda rates improve but hurdles remain in goal to end poverty in Sub-Sahara by 2030 – World Bank As the world celebrates the decline in the number of people living in extreme poverty, there is growing concern about the growing concentration of global poverty in …
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