By David Binder. Poverty is no longer a scourge for the unemployed alone. This statement summarises Alan Milburn’s first State of the Nation annual report on social mobility, launched last week. According to the report of the ex-British Labour Party politician, two thirds of poor children in the UK come from households where at least one person is in paid work (6.1 million poor people in working households: 4.1 million being adults and 2 million being children, 1 million more people than those in workless households). In addition, research tells us that a couple working full time on the UK minimum wage, with two children, falls well short of a ‘socially acceptable standard of living’. To meet this standard, they would in fact need to both earn £9.91 per hour, more than £3 more than the current minimum wage. Combine this with faltering living standards for those on low to middle incomes and Milburn’s analysis becomes much more understandable. Read more...
David Binder is a Family Fiscal policy Consultant for the Christian social policy charity, CARE, where he conducts in-depth research on Family Tax, Welfare and Benefits. He blogs at: thoughtsofbinder.wordpress.com/
3 novembre 2013
Paving the way toward the MDGs and beyond
This blog is by Susan Nicolai from the UK-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and is part of the Wikiprogress post-2015 series. Global development targets were high on the agenda at the 68th United Nations General Assembly held a month ago in New York. While this involved what one colleague described as the ultimate post-2015 talk-fest, as much or more time was spent on the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and last-ditch efforts to speed progress before their end date. A range of heads of state, world leaders and celebrities weighed in with their own calls to action and reported pledges of over USD 3 billion. Covering the final two years of MDG implementation, it is vital to make the most of these commitments.
Here at ODI’s Development Progress, we asked a range of development experts how they would focus these efforts to accelerate MDG progress. Our eight contributors spanned the continents and hailed from a range of backgrounds, having worked with civil-society groups, policy think-tanks, the United Nations, and the World Bank.
We asked a simple question: ‘What do you see as the single most important thing needed to accelerate progress toward the MDGs?’ Perhaps unsurprisingly, the answers were as complex as the messy world of development. Still, some headlines came through. More...
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