Posts Tagged "poverty"
Elephant in the Room
Disability and the Millennium Development Goals
At the end of September world leaders from around the globe met in New York to discuss the progress that had (and hadn’t) been made towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the set of eight international development targets agreed by all 192 United Nations member states in 2000 and that outline the ambitious overall target of the eradication of extreme poverty by the year...
Read MoreTown Mouse, Country Mouse
The differing challenges of urban and rural poverty
It is estimated that 44% of the population of the Philippines live on less than $2 a day, and that 80% of the poor live in rural areas of the country. Every year, thousands of these rural poor move to the cities in search of employment, improved living conditions and a better life for themselves and their families. Bing Bing, a subsistence farmer I met in Zambales province recited to me...
Read MoreMicro-mythbusting
Deconstructing some common assumptions about microfinance
Travelling to Iloilo at the beginning of the month in order to conduct an assessment of a microfinance programme that targets people with disabilities as clients, I was required to undertake a bit of a crash course in microfinance theory. Microfinance – the provision of small loans (and other financial services) to the poor to enable them to avoid using traditional moneylenders who...
Read MoreHalo Halo
An Initial Impression of the Philippines
“Halo halo” was the first Tagalog term I learned, some thirty minutes or so after I stepped off the plane into the heat of Manila two weeks ago. It means, literally, “mix mix”, and is commonly used here to describe a frozen milk dessert with banana, coconut and some garish, unidentified green and purple stuff mixed in. However, I think its an apt term for my first impressions of Manila,...
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