Featured image for “Is Poverty Porn a thing of the past? Yes and No”

Is Poverty Porn a thing of the past? Yes and No

February 15, 2024
Guest post from Jess Crombie. Jess is a researcher and scholar at UAL, and a consultant for some of the leading organisations in the humanitarian sector. The term Poverty Porn (coined in 1985); the widely criticised (though still widely played) song ‘Do they Know It’s Christmas’; the Lammy/Dooley scandal around Comic Relief; the brutal murder of George Floyd, sparking worldwide
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Featured image for “Corporate power is driving up inequality. This is how to make corporates work for the common good instead – this year’s Oxfam Davos report”

Corporate power is driving up inequality. This is how to make corporates work for the common good instead – this year’s Oxfam Davos report

January 15, 2024
Oxfam’s annual ‘Davos Report’ has become a bit of an institution. On the eve of this year’s megarich schmoozathon, Anthony Kamande introduces the main findings of the 2024 version. Full paper here. Last Christmas eve, my cousin Lucy came to my rural village. She needed some help. Lucy’s son had excelled in the national exams and was selected to join
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Featured image for “Mia Mottley on Slavery, Poverty, George Floyd, Climate and the Future of the World”

Mia Mottley on Slavery, Poverty, George Floyd, Climate and the Future of the World

December 14, 2023
I was lucky enough to attend the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley’s extraordinary speech at LSE last week (Video here or audio file here). Props to outgoing Oxfam CEO Danny Sriskandarajah and whoever else from Oxfam was involved in pulling it together, along with the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute, who hosted. It was jaw-dropping for both the performance, interweaving
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Featured image for “Top Student blogs: There’s a chicken in the desert!”

Top Student blogs: There’s a chicken in the desert!

August 15, 2023
I’m posting some of the best work from this year’s LSE activism students this week. Here’s Jessica Louise (jessalou1998@gmail.com if you want to see her full campaign strategy and/or offer her a job) introducing her campaign. As an active campaigner for Trussell Trust, one of the UK’s leading charities supporting food banks throughout the nation, I am constantly amazed by
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Featured image for “How the United Nations and the World Bank can turbo charge the effort to reduce Inequality”

How the United Nations and the World Bank can turbo charge the effort to reduce Inequality

July 26, 2023
Guest post from Oxfam’s Anthony Kamande Over the past decade, many leading economists and global institutions such as the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have taken a keen interest in economic inequality. Tons of inequality data have been unearthed, and inequality is now on ordinary people’s lips. Indeed, in 2015 the UN adopted
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Featured image for “School children are bearing the brunt of the global hunger crisis – just feed them.”

School children are bearing the brunt of the global hunger crisis – just feed them.

July 24, 2023
Kevin Watkins introduces a new paper on a crucial topic Governments will this week gather in Rome for a UN event with one of those titles designed to induce profound boredom. The FAO is marking the second anniversary of the 2021 World Food System Summit with a ‘Stocktaking Moment’. Yes, I know, those two words feel like a good enough
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Featured image for “Want to hear some Good News? Global Poverty is falling (kind of).”

Want to hear some Good News? Global Poverty is falling (kind of).

July 13, 2023
The annual Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report, jointly published since 2010 by the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), came out this week. The 2010 bit is important – the MPI has now been going long enough to start to identify trends in the nature of more nuanced, holistic (poverty plus) deprivation
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Featured image for “Linking Dignity & Development: Where have we got to?”

Linking Dignity & Development: Where have we got to?

May 4, 2023
Guest post by Tom Wein, Director of the IDinsight Dignity Initiative Five years ago, I published a post here on FP2P considering the role of dignity in development. Back then I wrote: “Development aims to give people better lives. In doing so, we mainly aim to increase wealth and health – in part because we can measure those outcomes with
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Featured image for “Older and at the Sharp End: Why more Social Protection is needed to protect Older People in the global food, finance & fuel crisis ”

Older and at the Sharp End: Why more Social Protection is needed to protect Older People in the global food, finance & fuel crisis 

May 3, 2023
Guest post by Babken Babajanian The current global crisis, with soaring prices for food and fuel, has been devastating for many people around the world. But for older people in poor countries with no access to pensions or social protection, it is particularly bleak. And worse still for older women.  Sadly, although they are bearing the brunt of the crisis,
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Featured image for “UK Budget 2023: What the Big Red Box leaves out ”

UK Budget 2023: What the Big Red Box leaves out 

March 16, 2023
British (or British adjacent) readers will by now probably have digested the main headlines of yesterday’s budget, but Katy Chakrabortty digs deeper in this guest post. Since election manifestos tend to appear only twice a decade, party leadership pledges can be made in TV debates and quietly forgotten and the King’s Speech is delivered with an air of regal deference,
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Featured image for “Does digitalised social protection worsen exclusion for women?”

Does digitalised social protection worsen exclusion for women?

March 15, 2023
Particularly liked the series of rather splendid blogs for International Women’s Day, written by our amazing LSE students. Here’s my favourite, not least because of the lovely blogging style: Does digitalised social protection worsen exclusion for women? by Divija Samria Here’s the deal: digitisation of delivery mechanisms in public programs is increasingly being used to improve targeted approaches, reduce out-of-system
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Featured image for “Whether in Asia, Africa or North America, it’s been a profitable polycrisis for billionaires”

Whether in Asia, Africa or North America, it’s been a profitable polycrisis for billionaires

January 18, 2023
Guest post from Anthony Kamande on Oxfam’s Davos Inequality Report 2023 I’m having supper with my friend Reuben, a teacher who still hasn’t received last month’s salary (equivalent to around $167) and is struggling with the cost of living. I tell him that if the 1,890 richest Kenyans, those with wealth over Ksh600 million ($5 million), paid as little as
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