Tag - poverty

 
 

POVERTY

A community health worker speaks during a meeting with pregnant teenagers, teen mothers and their partners, in Navotas, Metro Manila, in 2016.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 28, 2023
Can new law help tackle Philippines' teen pregnancy emergency?
The costs of teen pregnancies in the country are high, with around 30% of the population now under 15 years old.
Vagaries in Japanese law mean single mothers are sometimes left without financial support from their former partners.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Oct 23, 2023
Documentary shines a spotlight on Japan’s single mothers
"The Ones Left Behind" explores the successes and struggles of single mothers in modern Japan.
Suchart Kaewkhio, 75, is bedridden in his home in the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok. Thailand is one of the world's fastest graying societies, but the kingdom's economy, households, government coffers and rapidly shrinking workforce are ill-prepared.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 17, 2023
Old and poor: Thailand sleepwalking toward an aging crisis
Thailand is one of the world's fastest aging societies — but its economy is ill-prepared.
Most projections show the world will hit peak humanity in the 21st century as people choose to have smaller families and women gain power over their own reproduction.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2023
Don’t worry about global population collapse
While environmentalists have long warned of a planet with too many people, now some economists are warning of a future with too few.
Volunteers work at a Salvation Army mobile health clinic in Montreal on Sept. 22. Canada, despite being a wealthy nation, is gripped by a surge in homelessness that has seen thousands of people living in the streets after being priced out of real estate and rental markets.
WORLD / Society
Oct 5, 2023
Homelessness explodes in Canada as rents and housing prices soar
Researchers warn government data is vastly underestimating the number of homeless across the country.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 5, 2023
The Big Issue Japan marks 20 years of tackling homelessness
The publication has survived many challenges during its 20-year journey, including the global financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
A woman walks past a market in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. Lebanon is one of nine Arab nations using an algorithm-powered poverty assessment formula funded by the World Bank that ranks welfare applicants according to dozens of different data points.
WORLD / Society
Oct 5, 2023
In Middle East, poor excluded from welfare by 'faulty' algorithms
Around the world, 40 countries use an algorithm-powered poverty assessment formula funded by the World Bank to rank welfare applicants.
Victor Salinas, who was recruited to travel to Russia in a military support role but eventually changed his mind, at his home near Havana on Sept. 12.
WORLD
Sep 30, 2023
How Cubans were recruited to fight for Russia
Cubans can earn a windfall for enlisting with the Russian army amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Children try to salvage their belongings from the rubble of their house after a demolition drive by the authorities at a slum area near the upcoming G20 Summit main venue in New Delhi, in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 8, 2023
Many slums disappear from Indian capital ahead of G20 summit
In 2021, housing minister Hardeep Singh Puri, told parliament that 13.5 million people lived in the city's unauthorized colonies.
Survivors of the fire that ripped through the five-story building in the early hours on Thursday, killing 74 people, wait in line to receive donated food at a provisional shelter in Johannesburg on Friday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 3, 2023
Inside the Johannesburg building where scores burned alive
Dozens of abandoned buildings have been "hijacked" or taken over by criminal syndicates who charge fees for staying there.
While privilege may always exist to some extent, efforts can be made to create a more equitable and humane society.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2023
We can move toward a post-privilege era. Who’s in first?
Privilege should be earned and shared, and it's not something that can be confined to a quiet street or an isolated island.
Over the last decade, the attention given to falling income and wealth inequality has been tiny, creating a view of the issue that may be seriously out of date.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2023
We should concentrate on fighting poverty, not income inequality
Wealth inequality has recently gone down in the U.S. and the West, and the decline has been going on for the better part of the last decade.
A protest against the redevelopment of Dharavi, one of Asia's largest slums, in Mumbai. Banners read: "Remove Adani, Save Dharavi" and "First we fought the whites now we fight the thieves".
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 28, 2023
Billionaire's bid to remake Mumbai slum spurs residents' doubts
Amid massive financial setbacks and allegations that political allies gave him favorable treatment, some question Adani's intentions.
A construction site in Dubai, where workers often face temperatures up to 45 degrees Celsius
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 23, 2023
As temperatures climb, millions more people face food insecurity
A recent study shows that extreme heat leads to an impossible conundrum for many workers: Risk your health to earn a living, or go hungry.
A handful of trees stand at the Tabqa Reserve near the village of Jaabar, in the Kurdish-held part of Syria's Raqqa province.
WORLD / Society
Aug 21, 2023
Illegal logging turns Syria's forests into 'barren land'
Fuel shortages and rampant poverty have pushed many Syrians to chop the trees to sell or use for heating, dealing a blow to the nature surrounding Jaabar.
A Chadian army officer reacts as cart owners transport the belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 16, 2023
Sudan 'spiraling out of control' as 1 million flee country: U.N.
Efforts to mediate a cease-fire have stalled, and those remaining in the country have faced rampant looting and long power cuts.
Activists dressed as debt collectors call for finance action during a demonstration outside the IMF-World Bank headquarters in Washington in October 2021.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2023
The World Bank reflects our ambition
In an environment of intertwined challenges, such as an existential climate crisis, pandemic recovery and a crippling European war, the World Bank has never been more relevant.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 13, 2023
The world is losing the battle to wipe out hunger by end of decade
The lingering fallout from the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine means about 735 million people — or 9.2% of the population — were undernourished in 2022.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2023
Japan to digitalize applications for welfare with My Number system
The number of in-person welfare applications exceeded 3.82 million between March 2020 and September 2022, during the height of the pandemic.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 7, 2023
A year after unrest, Sri Lankans languish in poverty and hunger
A year after the toppling of former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa almost a third of the country lives below the poverty line.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?