#poverty matters

[goodnewsday]

Where are the women leaders?

Empowering women and ending poverty and inequality are hand in hand 

[goodnewsday]

The documents attached to the article above is quite shocking. Well, may be not surprising but reading "Every minute, someone dies from armed violence somewhere in the world" doesn't make me feel better when compared to 5 mins ago.

Closely related to this topic, which is peace, these web-sites are worth following:

Vision of Humanity

Institute for Economics and Peace

[theglobalconversation-blog]

Do global summits help to tackle poverty? Not without you.

COP18, Rio+20, the G20: These and other big global summits have come under increasing scrutiny from the media. Do they actually do any good?

In his recent post for The Guardian’s Poverty Matters blog, Oxfam’s Stephen Hale (@SHaleGeneva) says they can—but only when the global community takes their seat at the table:

The voice of civil society is vital at global events because it enables us to confront the stories our leaders want to tell their public, and to tell home truths about the progress made and the action needed. Civil society mobilisation and media work can do much to shift the terms of debates on, for example, the true causes of global hunger and the inadequacy of debt relief.

Should we invest more or less in global processes? What if civil society ignored these completely? Of course, we could then divert substantial resources to strengthen national campaigning. But it would leave our leaders free to make global commitments and proclaim their benefits without a strong voice outlining the scale and urgency of action needed, and the scrutiny of civil society on the (in)action of our leaders. It also risks limiting advances at a national level, which on issues from women's rights to arms negotiations is often highly influenced by progress (and setbacks) at global level.

It's not time to walk away. But we've got to get much smarter. We need to be far more ruthless about our priorities, and clearer about what we're trying to achieve.

Later this month, world leaders will meet up again in Davos for a sort of global summit season opener: The World Economic Forum. It’s a great opportunity to pull up a chair and add your voice. What items would YOU put on the agenda? Tweet your ideas to @Global_Convo.