As other posts in this series have shown, 2011 was another tough year for low- and moderate -income families. One indicator is that over 2 million new people joined the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — SNAP, formerly known as food stamps — between January and September (the latest month available).
Author: WHES
Fair Trade having enforcement difficulties in growing $6 billion market
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North Korea resume talks on food aid
U.S. officials have resumed talking to North Korea about providing food aid to the impoverished country, proposing that it accept nutrition-rich items — such as Plumpy Nut peanut paste — that are considered less likely to be diverted to the North Korean elite.
Three million Afghans face hunger as winter looms–aid groups
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As Pakistan’s population soars, contraceptives remain a hard sell
Shazia Shahid, a community health educator, went to the tiny house to speak with the slight young woman about birth control. It was morning, a good time because the woman’s husband was out working. But the woman shrank behind a green veil — and behind her wizened mother-in-law, who smiled but made clear that she saw no need to discuss the topic.
UN climate talks’ real-world outcome will be determined in Asia
Even as representatives from nearly 200 countries celebrated the last-minute compromise they fashioned at U.N. climate talks Sunday in Durban, South Africa, it became clear that its real-world outcome will be largely determined in Asia, rather than in Africa or the West.
In Durban, Kyoto treaty seems set to meet its end
With just days remaining to salvage the Kyoto climate treaty, a mood of gloom is descending over the negotiations. Even the most optimistic diplomats are finding it hard to imagine how a deal can be reached.
Tiny tax on financial trades gains advocates
They call it the Robin Hood tax — a tiny levy on trades in the financial markets that would take money from the banks and give it to the world’s poor.
And like the mythical hero of Sherwood Forest, it is beginning to capture the public’s imagination.
Climate deal pushed by poorer nations
The world’s poorest countries have asked that talks on a new climate deal covering all nations begin immediately.
At the UN climate summit, the Least Developed Countries bloc and small island states tabled papers saying the deal should be finalised within a year.Many of them are vulnerable to climate impacts such as drought or inundation.
The move puts the blocs on a collision course not only with many rich nations, but also with developing world partners such as China, India and Brazil.
Somali Islamists ban aid groups, renewing famine concerns
Nairobi, Kenya — A little over a week ago, aid workers in Somalia were cautiously celebrating news that half of the areas previously classified as most at risk had improved and were no longer “in famine.”
