poverty

The Republic of South Sudan became the world’s newest nation on July 9, 2011. Although the Second Sudanese Civil War officially ended in 2005, nearly 40 years of conflict have left South Sudan with substantial economic and infrastructure challenges, ranging from protracted border disputes to a high rate of illiteracy and limited access to clean water.

The economies of Brazil, China and India are growing faster than many of their counterparts in the developing world. Despite this rapid growth, large portions of the populations in all three nations continue to live in conditions of poverty. Each country has had some success in reducing the numbers of impoverished citizens. But these achievements have come through very different approaches, with each employing a distinctive mix along two basic dimensions: pro-poor growth and pro-poor social policies.

The United States has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, and the primary causes — unhealthy diets and a lack of exercise — are well known. However, the social, economic, psychological and policy factors underlying the problem are less clear.

A 2011 study in Demography, “The Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: Historical Trends and Racial Comparisons” (PDF), uses Census data from 1940 to 2000, with additional data from the Census Bureau’s companion American Community Survey, to compare higher education completion rates for black men and women between 1940 and 2000.

A growing body of academic literature has been assessing how effective foreign aid is in an average country, as well as the conditions that allow such aid to have its intended impact and spur development. Called “conditional aid effectiveness,” this research has in the past focused on factors such as geographic location and the size of a country’s local elite, and examined how such variables are associated with foreign aid’s impact on economic growth.

Broadband access is widely regarded as a critical driver of economic growth and a potentially transformative force in education, government services, public safety and health care. Nevertheless, the United States lags other developed nations in broadband Internet access, particularly in rural areas.

With obesity on the rise across America, particularly among lower-income individuals, it has been suggested that part of the problem may be lack of access to healthy foods. Many low-income housing areas are inundated with fast food restaurants and often lack a regular supermarket that offers fresh fruits and vegetables. The term “food deserts” is increasingly used to characterize such areas, but it is not clear if this oversimplifies the problem of obesity for certain communities.

Social science research has focused extensively on rising income inequality and the consolidation of household wealth in the hands of the top 1% of U.S. households over the last 30 years. Recently, some policy makers have also been examining the causes and implications of this dynamic.

The U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, one of the “Palermo protocols” adopted in 2000, was an attempt by the international community to address the growing problem of human trafficking. Since then, significant national and international resources have been devoted to its enforcement.