Lessons From the Telephone Lifeline Program Add to Concerns About Using Utilities to Deliver Low-Income Climate Rebates
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Protecting the budgets of low-income consumers is a critical issue in the design of climate change legislation. The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act recently debated in the Senate contained a measure that relied primarily on electric and gas utilities to deliver such relief. However, evidence from the only existing federal program that delivers low-income assistance through utility companies — the Lifeline program for telephone service — strongly suggests that an untried utility-based mechanism would miss large numbers of consumers who could be captured using proven alternatives.

+ Full Report (PDF; 115 KB)

Food and Fuel Prices - Recent Developments, Macroeconomic Impact, and Policy Responses (PDF; 1.7 MB)
Source: International Monetary Fund

1. The recent sharp increases in food and fuel prices have had adverse effects on the poor and could pose risks to macroeconomic stability in a number of low and middle-income countries. In collaboration with its international partners, the Fund has been actively involved in the provision of advice and support to address the urgent concerns, at both multilateral and bilateral levels.

2. This paper provides an analysis of the macroeconomic policy challenges resulting from the price surges. It presents an overview of their impact on the balance of payments, budgets, inflation, and poverty, and discusses recent policy responses, as well as the Fund’s policy advice. At this stage, the analysis does not cover the impact of the price increases on economic growth in the countries concerned. The growth effects will depend not only on maintaining appropriate macroeconomic policies, but also on sectoral policy responses, in particular for agriculture. Following the improvements in fiscal and monetary policies and institutions in many low-income countries during the past decade or so, the current price increases present a challenge to their effectiveness and robustness. Fund advice has focused on the promotion of targeted social measures in the affected countries, while avoiding policy responses with high costs in terms of macroeconomic instability or losses in future production and that provide insufficient protection to the poor.

3. The paper is structured as follows: To set the stage, Section II provides an overview of the causes of the recent surges in food and fuel prices and the prospects going forward. Section III discusses the impact of the price increases on the balance of payments, inflation, and poverty in low and middle-income countries. Section IV presents an overview of the policy responses adopted so far, with emphasis on fiscal policies. Finally, Section V, on the role of the Fund, sets out the Fund’s policy advice and its role in providing balance of payments financing.

Hat tip: UN Pulse

2.5 billion live with poor sanitation facilities
Source: World Health Organization

Every day, over 2.5 billion people suffer from a lack of access to improved sanitation and nearly 1.2 billion practise open defecation, the riskiest sanitary practice of all, according to a report issued today by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation. The programme is the official UN mechanism tasked with monitoring progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Target 7c on drinking water supply and sanitation.

The report titled “Progress on drinking water and sanitation - special focus on sanitation,” comes halfway through the International Year of Sanitation. The report assesses — for the first time — global, regional and country progress using an innovative “ladder” concept. This shows sanitation practices in greater detail, enabling experts to highlight trends in using improved, shared and unimproved sanitation facilities and the trend in open defecation. “Improved sanitation” refers to any facility that hygienically separates human waste from the environment.

Similarly, the ‘drinking water ladder’ shows the percentage of the world population that uses water piped into a dwelling, plot or yard, and other improved water sources such as hand pumps, and unimproved sources.

Worldwide, the number of people who lack access to an improved drinking water source (protected from faecal and chemical contamination) has fallen below one billion for the first time since data were first compiled in 1990. At present 87% of the world population has access to improved drinking water sources, with current trends suggesting that more than 90% will do so by 2015.

+ Full Report (PDF; 16.9 MB)

Hat tip: UN Pulse

Implementing New Changes to the Food Stamp Program: A Provision Analysis of the 2008 Farm Bill
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The 2008 Farm Bill makes numerous improvements to the Food Stamp Program that will help low-income Americans put food on the table in the face of rising food and fuel prices.[1] Over the 2009-2017 period, the Farm Bill will add $7.8 billion in new resources for the program, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The major food stamp provisions will:

• End years of erosion in the purchasing power of food stamps by raising and indexing for inflation the program’s standard deduction and minimum benefit. These changes will help about 11 million low-income people, including families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities. With these changes, food stamp rules will fully account for annual inflation for the first time since the program’s creation over 40 years ago, and food stamp households will stop losing food purchasing power each year.
• Support working-poor families by eliminating the cap on the dependent care deduction, reducing the chances that families will have to forgo food to pay for decent and safe child care.
• Promote saving by improving the program’s resource limits and excluding tax-preferred retirement accounts and education accounts from those limits.
• Simplify food stamp administration for participants and states by building on successful initiatives from the last (2002) Farm Bill.
• Rename and update the program, which will be called the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” (SNAP); food stamp coupons will be eliminated.
• Strengthen program operations, integrity, and oversight and modernize benefit delivery, for example by creating a state option for telephonic applications and by improving oversight of state modernization efforts.

Economic data can be used to target state fiscal relief effectively
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

States are experiencing major budget problems; more than half faced or are projecting deficits for the 2009 fiscal year. To meet their balanced budget requirements, many states have had to raise taxes and/or cut expenditures for services such as health care and education — actions that deepen the nation’s economic problems and offset some of the effect of the federal stimulus package enacted earlier this year by removing demand from the economy. As the state fiscal crisis deepens, more states may be forced to take such actions. To date, however, federal policymakers have shown some reluctance to enact federal fiscal relief that would lessen the fiscal pressure on states.

Some of this reluctance stems from a concern that part of the federal aid would go to states that are not experiencing fiscal stress. This concern is reasonable. But it can be addressed by targeting fiscal relief to those states that are facing problems now. Should the economic downturn become deeper and more widespread, relief could be expanded to encompass more or all states.

This report uses three indicators — employment declines, increases in housing foreclosures, and increases in poverty (measured through increases in food stamp participation) — to identify states facing the greatest economic distress. For each of these indicators, the report compares the fourth quarter of 2006 — the beginning of the downturn — to recent data. It ranks each state separately on the change it has seen in each indicator, then averages the three rankings for each state to produce a single overall ranking of economic distress.

+ Full Report (PDF; 135 KB)

Food Security Assessment, 2007
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

The number of food insecure people in the 70 lower income countries covered in this report rose between 2006 and 2007, from 849 million to 982 million. Food insecure people are those consuming less than the nutritional target of 2,100 calories per day. The food security situation of these countries is projected to deteriorate over the next decade. The distribution gap—an indicator of food access—is projected to rise from 44 million tons in 2007 to more than 57 million tons in 2017. This is more than seven times the amount of food aid received by these countries in 2006. Sub-Saharan Africa, already the most vulnerable region with the lowest calorie intake levels, will suffer the greatest deterioration in food security.

+ Report Summary (PDF; 108 KB)
+ Full Report (PDF; 1.5 MB)

Creating Value for All: Strategies for Doing Business with the Poor
Source: UN Development Programme (UNDP)

Creating Value for All: Strategies for Doing Business with the Poor is the new and groundbreaking report launched on 1 July by the UN Development Programme.

The first report of UNDP’s Growing Inclusive Markets Initiative and the first such one with such depth and local knowledge, Creating Value for All showcases 50 studies by researchers predominantly from developing countries. These case studies demonstrate the successful pursuit of both revenues and social impact by local and international small- and medium-sized companies, as well as multinational corporations.

Creating Value for All highlights five strategies used successfully to overcome the most common obstacles to doing business with the poor, as well as two new tools: a strategy matrix to help find potential solutions to common constraints and heat maps that identify opportunities by depicting access to water, credit, electricity or telephone service in a specific geographical area using color codes.

More inclusive business models recognize the poor not only as consumers, but also as drivers of growth. And when markets include more poor people, we all win.

Download in sections (PDFs) or as full report (PDF; 6.8 MB).

Hat tip: UN Pulse

2008 State Fact Sheets
Source: Child Welfare League of America

The State Fact Sheets provide descriptive information on the condition of vulnerable children in all fifty states and the District of Columbia, using indicators of child protection, health, child care, education, and income support.

In PDF or HTML.

+ National Fact Sheet

Costs of Inaction on Climate Change Growing Rapidly, Especially for the Poor
Source Oxfam America

International agency Oxfam America called on the US Congress today to deliver steep reductions in US greenhouse gas emissions and invest in innovative strategies to deal with the consequences of global warming that are already evident and are certain to grow.

In his testimony before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Jim Lyons, Oxfam America’s vice president for policy and communications, called climate change one of the greatest challenges to efforts to promote development and reduce global poverty, and stressed “the costs of failing to act to address both the already realized effects of global warming and the need to dramatically reduce carbon emissions to limit the future effects of climate change are substantial and rapidly growing.”

+ Full Testimony (PDF; 485 KB)

States Take Action to Alleviate Child and Family Poverty
Source: National Governors Association

As families across the nation face financial hardships and economic insecurity, states continue to lead the way in developing solutions to help families ensure their economic well-being. These efforts are highlighted in a new Issue Brief from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) titled State Strategies to Reduce Child and Family Poverty.

The brief examines the long-term social and economic costs of poverty for children and families, communities and states. In addition, State Strategies to Reduce Child and Family Poverty explores several policy and program options helping to reduce the negative consequences of poverty for children and increase opportunities for families to achieve economic success.

+ Full Document (PDF; 224 KB)

Are low food prices pro-poor ? net food buyers and sellers in low-income countries
Source: World Bank Policy Research Working Papers

There is a general consensus that most of the poor in developing countries are net food buyers and food price increases are bad for the poor. This could be expected of urban poor, but it is also often attributed to the rural poor. Recent food price increases have increased the importance of this issue, and the possible policy responses to these price increases. This paper examines the characteristics of net food sellers and buyers in nine low-income countries. Although the largest share of poor households are found to be net food buyers, almost 50 percent of net food buyers are marginal net food buyers who would not be significantly affected by food price increases. Only three of the nine countries examined exhibited a substantial proportion of vulnerable households. The average incomes (as measured by expenditure) of net food buyers were found to be higher than net food sellers in eight of the nine countries examined. Thus, food price increases, ceteris paribus, would transfer income from generally higher income net food buyers to poorer net food sellers. The analysis also finds that the occupations and income sources of net sellers and buyers in rural areas are significantly different. In rural areas where food production is the main activity and where there are limited non-food activities, the incomes of net buyers might depend on the incomes and farming activities of net food sellers. These results suggest the need for reevaluation of the consensus on the impact of food prices on food needs. Further work on the regional differences, and more important, on the second order effects, are necessary to answer these questions more precisely. Only on the basis of further analysis can we start generating better policy responses.

+ Full Paper (PDF; 304 KB)

Food Stamp Program Certification Costs and Errors, 1989-2005: Final Report
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Preventing and detecting certification errors in the Food Stamp Program (FSP) is a major policy concern. In 2005, the cost of overpayments was $1.29 billion, about 4.5 percent of the $28.6 billion in benefits issued. This report examines the State-level relationships between FSP certification error rates and certification expenditures, program policies, caseload characteristics, and economic conditions. The results show that, during the study period of 1989-2005, a 10-percent increase in certification “effort”—about $35 per participating household—would reduce an index of certification errors by 2 percent (0.3 percentage points out of a mean of 15.1 percent). The effect of certification effort was significantly smaller between 1997 and 2002, when States were implementing welfare reform. Key simplification policies authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill were estimated to jointly reduce the error index by 4.4 percentage points.

+ Full Report (PDF; 540 KB)

Under-privileged children also disadvantaged in the classroom
Source: UN Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO)

Entitled A View Inside Primary Schools, the report presents the results of a unique survey undertaken in 11 countries* in Latin America, Asia and North Africa. As part of the World Education Indicators (WEI) programme, the countries were involved in developing and conducting the survey to examine the factors shaping the quality and equality of primary education.

Fourth grade teachers and principals from more than 7,600 schools responded to detailed questionnaires on how schools function, how teachers teach, learning conditions and the support available to teachers and principals.
…
The report reveals major gaps in resources between urban and rural schools. In India**, 27% of village schools have electricity compared to 76% of schools in towns or cities. Only about half of these rural schools have enough toilets for girls and less than 4% have a telephone.

In Peru, less than half of village schools are equipped with electricity, a library or toilets for boys or girls. Yet, in urban areas, nearly all schools have electricity, 65% have enough lavatories and 74% have libraries.

+ Executive Summary (PDF; 676 KB)
+ Full Report (PDF; 2.9 MB)

Hat tip: UN Pulse

Bridging the Global Digital Divide, One Laptop at a Time
Source: Knowledge@Wharton

On May 20, the non-profit One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program unveiled the second version of its XO laptop, which is designed to bring affordable, modern technology to children in developing countries. In April, Intel announced its next-generation Classmate PC, which targets the same market. Meanwhile, Microsoft has been tweaking its Windows XP operating system for these educational devices, which also run on the open source Linux operating system. Experts at Wharton say that the focus on third world countries is promising, but they question whether these efforts will be effective.

One thing is certain, however: The third world is the next frontier for technology companies and non-profit organizations alike. The goal: Bridge the global digital divide that separates wealthy and poor countries. Non-profits such as One Laptop per Child see technology as a way to improve education. Meanwhile, technology companies see a good cause and billions of potential customers. But questions abound. Are laptops more important than other needs, such as clean water? At what price are these laptops “affordable” in the developing world? What are the total costs associated with supporting these devices and connecting them to the Internet? And do these devices improve learning?

Promoting Food Security WorldWide: A U.S. Commitment (PDF; 214 KB)
Source: U.S. Department of State

The United States is the world’s largest food aid donor and has acted quickly to address the rise in global food prices. The U.S. is on track to provide nearly $5 billion – far more than any other country – to fight global hunger in 2008 and 2009. From 2001-2006 approximately 50 percent of total world food aid came from the United States. Food security is an international issue requiring an international response. The United States is coordinating closely with the United Nations, the G8, the World Bank, and other international partners.