Founded in 1937, the Plan organization was initially intended to provide food and education to the unfortunate children whose lives were disrupted by the trauma and horror of the Spanish Civil War. Almost 70 years later, Plan continues to provide much needed assistance to 45 countries around the world, primarily in the areas of education, housing, and cross-cultural learning. First-time visitors...

From Indonesia to Sierra Leone, civil war has massively disrupted existing economic and social structures. These countries are but two of the many across the world that are besieged with such problems, and this latest working paper from the Global and Economy Development Group within the Brookings Institution provides some detailed information on the relationship between poverty and civil war...

Last Tuesday, the US Census Bureau released their annual report on poverty. The report gives data on poverty rates by selected characteristics -- age, race, nativity, family composition, work experience, and geography. Findings reveal that the nation's poverty rate dropped from 12.7 percent in 1998 to 11.8 percent in 1999, the lowest rate since 1979. In addition, "real median household income...

The newest installment from World Bank's Building Poverty Reduction Strategies site (reviewed in the January 13, 2000 Scout Report for Business & Economics is the Poverty Reduction Source Book. The Source Book offers suggestions and guidance to "assist countries in the development and strengthening of poverty reduction strategies." The three main parts of the book -- "Core Techniques," "Macro and...

Taken as a whole, Social Watch as an international network of citizens' groups concerned with the "fulfillment of internationally agreed commitments on poverty eradication and equality." These citizens' groups are also responsible for submitting national reports, promoting dialogue about these development priorities, and developing an inclusive strategy in order to bring other groups into the...

Since John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson declared war on rural poverty during their time in the White House, there has been an overriding concern with alleviating the persistently high levels of poverty in the American South. A number of organizations have developed to provide assistance to the region, and the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC), located at Mississippi State University is one...

Sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund, the State of World Population 2004 site contains a number of important resources for persons interested in long-range and current trends regarding the world's population. The report itself is 124 pages, and is divided into chapters that include "Population and the Environment" and "Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment". The report also contains...

How Important Is Economic Diversity in Schools? http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130647610 Poorest school districts get least-qualified teachers; affluent districts get the best, survey finds http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/10/18/2556603/poorest-school-districts-get-least.html A Culture of...

In the year 2000, all of the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions signed on to a compact sponsored by the United Nations in order to assist the needs of the world's poorest people. This compact included eight primary development goals that would be met by 2015. Some of these goals included a significant reduction of child mortality and the promotion of gender...

Recently released, this annual report on the state of world development (written by staff members at the World Bank) is an important document that adopts as its main thesis that broad improvements in human welfare around the globe will not occur unless "poor people receive wider access to affordable, better quality services in health, education, water, sanitation, and electricity." From this main...