PlusNews – Violet Tinah, 40, a resident of Korogocho slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is living with HIV and was recently diagnosed with tuberculosis, but her biggest problem today is not disease – but hunger.

“When I went for the results that informed me that I had TB, I was very hungry; I’d had no breakfast and lunch and could barely walk,” she told IRIN/PlusNews. “I had to be supported and put in a wheelchair to collect the drugs.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88373

(IRIN) – A new report by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Egyptian government says the number of children living in income-poor households is increasing, causing poorer living conditions and a greater deprivation of their rights as children.

Entitled Child Poverty and Disparities in Egypt, and released on 16 February in Cairo, the report said Egypt’s economic growth in the years leading up to the 2009 financial crisis had not adequately benefited the nation’s estimated 28 million children.

“This growth has not led to a proportionate reduction in income poverty or deprivation,” said the study, which is part of a global series of UNICEF studies on child poverty and disparities.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88203

IRIN – Fridah Awour Agolla has sold vegetables in Nairobi’s Mathare slum for 20 years. In better times, her stock sold out every day. But lately market forces have begun to bite even harder for the millions in Kenya who live in such squalid, neglected settlements.

“My customers are buying less and less; now I find that goods like vegetables do not sell out, they go into the next day. People’s ability to buy these goods has really dropped,” Agolla, a mother of five, told IRIN.

Agolla managed to put her children through primary school but never earned enough to pay for secondary education.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87780

IPS – The Beijing Platform for Action in 1995 set out an agenda to address gender equality in priority areas, including poverty, education, and health care. It also committed governments to address violence against women, equitable access to economic resources and decision-making power.

“Overall, there has been progress made, but we are not yet there,” said U.N. Under-Secretary General Dr Abdoulie Janneh at the opening of a regional review of progress implementing the Beijing plan.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49364

IPS – Poor women will bear the greatest ‘climate burden’, says the United Nations Population Fund in its 2009 State of the World Population report, released today.

The report emphasises that climate change is more than an issue of energy efficiency or industrial carbon emissions; it is also an issue of population dynamics, poverty and gender equity.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49323

IPS – Of the many proposals on how to combat poverty in Africa, the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is championing what must be one of the simplest – make it cheaper and easier for migrants to send money home.

Remittances already play a huge role in supporting the continent’s most vulnerable, especially in today’s tough economic climate, with rural poverty agency IFAD estimating in a report released last month that they bring 40 billion dollars into the region each year.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49164

AfDB - Executive directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group approved near to USD 441 million in three loans for the implementation of projects in Botswana, Nigeria and Cape Verde, at their regular weekly session on Wednesday, 28 October 2009, in Tunis.

Botswana

Under the approvals, Botswana will receive €153 million (USD 225 million) to finance the Morupule B Power Project, which involves the construction of a 600 MW (4 x 150 MW) coal-fired power plant and associated transmission infrastructure. The project, to be co-financed by the World Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Standard Bank Consortium (ICBC-SB), is designed to achieve energy generation self-sufficiency in the wake of rapidly declining electricity imports to support economic growth and reduce poverty.

Read more – http://www.afdb.org/en/news-events/article/botswana-nigeria-and-cape-verde-secure-usd-441-million-for-energy-and-poverty-reduction-projects-5263/

They are calling it ‘The Great Persuasion’ in Britain as millions prepare around the world to stand up for action against poverty.

The persuasion will be targeted at 200 members of parliament. As part of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) from Friday to Sunday this week, constituents will call on local MPs to talk to them about their commitment to reducing poverty.

The constituents will of course stand with the MPs and have their pictures taken. That is not going to swell magnificently the number of people who will be counted as having quite literally stood up to demand action against poverty. The UK campaign will have fewer numbers, but they believe their stand will go far.

The targeting of MPs is being coordinated by BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development), an umbrella group for about 330 NGOs campaigning for rights and development. The particular call on GCAP has been endorsed by more than 70 development charities, including several large organisations such as Oxfam, Christian Aid and Care International.

“The MPs will be handed two copies of our international development manifesto, one for them, and one to hand to their parties,” Tim Gee from GCAP UK told IPS. “That would provide the framework for them to take action against poverty in the next parliament.”

General elections are expected in Britain in May next year – though they could come earlier. All recent general elections in Britain, BOND says, have seen a degree of collective campaigning on development issues with action at a local and national level targeted at political parties and prospective MPs.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48874