Social Research in
Other Countries - NGOs

La recherche sociale
ailleurs dans le monde - les ONG

Updated July 20, 2010
Page révisée le 20 juillet 2010

[ Go to Canadian Social Research Links Home Page ]

World Development Report (World Bank)
- this link takes you further down on this page

Global Call to Action Against Poverty
The Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) is a growing alliance that brings together trade unions, NGOs, the women’s and youth movements, community and faith groups and others to call for action from world leaders in the global North and South to meet their promises to end poverty and inequality.
GCAP continues the work of the Make Poverty History (International) campaign in the UK, which officially came to an end in 2006. GCAP is the world’s largest civil society anti-poverty alliance, with organisations across the world continuing to work together to make poverty history.

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Make Poverty History (Canada)
* Platform - "...united by the common belief that poverty can be ended."
* More Make Poverty History Links (further down on the page you're now reading)

Welfare reform - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Movements in many countries around the world push for welfare reform. Sizeable and powerful reform movements exist in the United States of America, Canada, Great Britain, and France among many others.
- incl. the following : * United States * The Welfare System and reform in Great Britain * The Welfare System and reform in France * References * External links

Australian Policy Online (APO)
APO is a news service and library specialising in Australian public policy reports and articles from academic research centres, think tanks, government and non-government organisations. The site features opinion and commentary pieces, video, audio and web resources focussed on the policy issues facing Australia. [ About APO ]
NOTE : includes links to the latest APO research; the five most popular downloads of the week
appear in a dark box in the top right-hand corner of each page, and they're different depending on the topic you select.

New Research : Social Policy | Poverty
- topics include:
* Community * Cultural diversity * Families & households * Gender & sexuality * Immigration & refugees * Population * Poverty * Religion & faith * Social problems * Welfare * Youth

NOTE: With the re-launch of the APO website in the spring of 2009, every link to "old" APO site content was changed, resulting in over 100 broken links on the page you're now reading.
I've removed the dead hyperlinks but left the titles and blurbs in. If you find a title that interests you, just paste that title into the search engine on the home page of the APO website.

Directory of Development Organizations, 2010
January 10, 2010
The Directory of Development Organizations 2010 is a comprehensive listing of 60,000+ development organizations dedicated to good governance, sustainable development and poverty reduction. The directory is divided into 6 geographical sections: Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, and Oceania.

For each of the regions contacts have been annotated by the following 9 categories:
(1) international organizations;
(2) government institutions;
(3) private sector support organizations (including fairtrade);
(4) finance institutions;
(5) training and research centres;
(6) civil society organizations;
(7) development consulting firms (including references to job opportunities and vacancy announcements);
(8) information providers (development newsletters/journals); and
(9) grantmakers.

The directory can be used in a variety of ways:
- by researchers, consultants and other development practitioners searching for up-to-date institutional information for a particular country;
- by trainers using the directories as a reference tool for their training programmes;
- by organizations trying to identify possible project partners;
- by individuals looking to identify possible employers;
- by funders seeking grantees;
- by grantees in search of funders; and
- by organizations aiming at identifying those institutions, agencies and programmes which are dedicated to providing resources, products and services to their members.

Development organizations in Canada (PDF - 1.4MB, 57 pages)

Newer links appear at the top of this page...
This page includes links to non-governmental organizations of every stripe,
including the World Bank and other organizations that are not affiliated with the government (not in a formal sense, anyway...)

Allocating social housing:
opportunities and challenges (PDF - 396K, 43 pages)
By John Thornhill
July 2010
Contents:
1. Summary of the challenges and options
2. What is social housing and what is it for?
3. What are the challenges to the way in which social housing is allocated?
4. How does social housing work in other countries? (Scandinavia, the U.S. and Germany only)
5. Options: rethinking allocations in a wider context
6. Aspirations for approaches to allocations
-------------------------------
(Excerpt from the Conclusion):
The election of a new coalition government in the UK ushers in an era of change and reform which will be significant for the housing sector. Many changes which will impact on the policies, priorities and structural landscape of allocations and access to housing can be expected.
Source:
Chartered Institute of Housing
The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) is the professional body for people involved in housing and
communities. We are a registered charity and not-for-profit organisation. We have a diverse and growing
membership of over 22,000 people – both in the public and private sectors – living and working in over 20
countries on five continents across the world. We exist to maximise the contribution that housing professionals
make to the wellbeing of communities.

Age matters, June 2010
09 July 2010
Age Matters highlights developments in statistics on the ageing population, and other information of likely interest to ageing researchers and policy makers.
Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

Safety Net Frays in Spain, as Elsewhere in Europe
By Suzanne Daley
June 27, 2010
(...) For millions of Europeans, modest salaries and high taxes have been offset by the benefits of their cherished social model — a cradle-to-grave safety net which, in the recent boom years, seemed to grow more generous all the time. Now, governments across Europe say they have little choice but to pull back on social benefits, at least for now. Tax revenues are falling; populations are aging and rising deficits are everywhere, threatening the euro. Cutbacks and higher taxes have been announced in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal. Even France, until recently a holdout, has now proposed to raise the legal retirement age to 62 from 60.
Source:
New York Times

German Millionaires Volunteer to Pay 'Rich Tax'
June 10, 2010
By Silvia Wadhwa
A group of 51 German millionaires and billionaires founded a Club of the Wealthy and wrote to Chancellor Angela Merkel proposing to give up 10 percent of their income in the form of a "Rich Tax" for 10 years to consolidate the budget. With an estimated 800,000 millionaires (in dollars) — about 1 percent of the total population — Germany is eye-to-eye with the USA and has long overtaken the UK as Europe's number one "millionaire-land", both in terms of absolute numbers and as a percentage of the population.
Source:
Europe News
[ CNBC ]
Stock Market News, Business News, Financial, Earnings, World Market News and Information

New from the
Centre for Economics Policy Research (Australia):

Do rising top incomes lift all boats?
By Andrew Leigh, Christopher Jencks, Dan Andrews
April 2010
Pooling data for 1905 to 2000, this paper finds no systematic relationship between top income shares and economic growth in a panel of 12 developed nations [including Canada] observed for between 22 and 85 years.

The distribution of top incomes in five anglo-saxon countries over the twentieth century
A.B. Atkinson, Andrew Leigh | Centre for Economic Policy Research
April 2010
This paper compares the tax systems of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, and summarizes the evidence about top income shares.

Source:
Centre for Economics Policy Research
The CEPR began in the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU in 1980, and was the initiative of the late Professor Fred Gruen. It was motivated by his view that there was a major gap in Australian universities with respect to research and education in the area of economic policy
[ The Australian National University ]

Study on Child Poverty and Child Well-Being in the EU
23 March 2010
Children are an especially vulnerable group because of their dependent status and because they can only partly influence their own well-being. (...) Combating child poverty and improving child well-being have therefore become key issues on the policy agenda of the EU and Members States. Following the work carried out in 2007 and 2008 by the European Commission and the Member States in the context of the European Strategy for Social Inclusion, notably the report prepared by the EU Task-Force on Child Poverty and Child Well-Being, a new study has been launched this year to contribute to the development of more coherent and integrated policies in this area.
- incl. links to : Aims | Policy context | Downloadables | Methodology | Conference | Follow up | Project details
- covers the following countries:
* Germany * Estonia * Ireland * Greece * France * Italy * Hungary * Poland * Slovenia * Finland * United Kingdom

Downloadables
Main page for downloading the complete report,
an overview, a summary and country case studies.
[ Summary (PDF - 116K, 10 pages) ]
[ Main report (PDF - 1.6MB, 207 pages) - NOT incl. annexes and country case studies ]

Source:
TÁRKI
TÁRKI has 25 years of experience of empirical social science research in Hungary. Its background includes research on a wide range of issues related to social stratification, labour markets, income distribution, consumption and lifestyle patterns and attitudes, and it has increasingly focused on market research applications.

[Social assistance] Minimum-Income Benefits in OECD Countries: Policy Design, Effectiveness and Challenges (PDF - 685K, 52 pages)
December 2009
By Herwig Immervoll
Almost all OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries operate comprehensive minimum-income programmes for working-age individuals, either as last-resort safety nets alongside primary income replacement benefits, or as the principal instrument for delivering social protection. Such safety-net benefits aim primarily at providing an acceptable standard of living for families unable to earn sufficient incomes from other sources. This paper provides an overview of social assistance and other minimum-income programmes in OECD countries, summarises their main features, and highlights a number of current policy challenges.
Source:
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
IZA is a private, independent research institute, which conducts nationally and internationally oriented labor market research. Operating as a non-profit limited liability company, it draws financial support from the research-sponsoring activities of the Deutsche Post Foundation.(...) IZA sees itself as an international research institute and a place for communication between academic science, politics, and economic practice.

Australian Policy Online (APO)
APO is a news service and library specialising in Australian public policy reports and articles from academic research centres, think tanks, government and non-government organisations. The site features opinion and commentary pieces, video, audio and web resources focussed on the policy issues facing Australia. [ About APO ]
NOTE : includes links to the latest APO research; the five most popular downloads of the week
appear in a dark box in the top right-hand corner of each page, and the downloads vary depending on the topic you select.

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New Research : Social Policy | Poverty
- topics include:
* Community * Cultural diversity * Families & households * Gender & sexuality * Immigration & refugees * Population * Poverty * Religion & faith * Social problems * Welfare * Youth

Selected recent releases:

Estimates of poverty and social exclusion in Australia: a multidimensional approach
Weiping Kostenko, Roger Wilkins, Rosanna Scutella | Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
19 January, 2010
This paper compares poverty against measures of social exclusion using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey.

Australia's welfare 2009
Published 17 November 2009
Australia's welfare 2009 is the ninth biennial welfare report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. It is the most comprehensive and authoritative source of national information on welfare services in Australia. Topics include children, youth and families; ageing and aged care; disability and disability services; carers and informal care; housing and housing assistance; and homelessness.
Source:
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
NOTE: I skimmed this report to cite a few factoids or statistics about welfare in Australia, but I couldn't find any information on an Australian financial assistance program of last resort.
That's because they don't have one.

"The crucial fact about the Australian system is that there are no social insurance programmes at all [bolding added]. This means that it is very hard to define what constitutes social assistance in the Australian (and New Zealand) context. At one extreme, it could be argued that virtually all payments are a form of social assistance, and at the other, that only the Special Benefit going to around one per cent of all recipients is social assistance. Either extreme would be misleading, however, since benefits to the unemployed and short-term sick are virtually identical in structure to Income Support in the United Kingdom."
[ Source: Social Assistance in OECD Countries (1996) (PDF - 4.8MB, 499 pages ]

See this article on Social Security in Australia from Wikipedia for more information on the range of programs under the Australian Social Security Act and the Student Assistance Act, including maternity and parenting payments, allowances to those caring at home for a relative with a disability, disability- and age-related pensions, youth allowance, Special Benefit and more.

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How expensive is the welfare state?
By Willem Adema and Maxime Ladaique
01 December 2009
This paper presents information on trends and composition of social expenditure across the OECD, and accounts for the effects of the tax system and private social expenditure. Gross public social expenditure on average across OECD increased from 16% of GDP in 1980 to 21% in 2005, of which public pensions (7% of GDP) and public health expenditure (6% of GDP) are the largest items. After accounting for the impact of taxation and private benefits, social expenditure (1) amounts to over 30% of GDP at factor cost in Belgium, Germany, and France and (2) ranges within a few percentage points of each other in Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United States. Australia is included in the analysis

Complete report:

How Expensive is the Welfare State?
Gross and Net Indicators in the OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX) (PDF - 1.6MB, 98 pages)
Coverage Australia, Europe, North America, New Zealand, UK

Source:
Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
[ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ]

The welfare effects of social mobility
28 October 2009
By Justina A.V. Fischer
The question whether a socially mobile society is conducive to subjective well-being has rarely been investigated. This paper fills this gap by analyzing the wellbeing effects of intergenerational earnings mobility and equality in education at the societal level. Using socio-demographic information on 44,000 individuals in 30 OECD countries obtained from the World Values Survey, this study shows that living in a socially mobile society is conducive to individual life satisfaction.

Abstract (HTML)
- from Australian Policy Online

Complete report (PDF - 490K, 56 pages)
OECD Paper date: 16 September 2009

Source:
Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
[ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ]

Dynamic Benefits: Towards Welfare That Works
A Policy Report by the Centre for Social Justice Economic Dependency Working Group
16 September 2009
Published in association with management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman, this 370-page report presents a review of the UK benefits system and proposals for a radical recasting of state support for the jobless and low-paid. The policy proposals in Dynamic Benefits would result in 600,000 households coming off welfare dependency and into work, boost the incomes of the lowest paid by nearly £5 billion and help move more than 200,000 children out of poverty. The overhaul will make welfare spending predictable and promote a culture of working rather than not working. Dynamic Benefits is the most far-reaching review of the UK welfare system in 60 years.

“Our existing complex and inefficient benefits system should finally be laid to rest.
Otherwise all the talk about improving the number of people going back to work will be just another form of empty rhetoric.”
(Iain Duncan Smith MP, Dynamic Benefits)

* Complete Full Report (Zip Folder) [3.2MB]
* Complete Full Report in three smaller files:
--- Full Report, Introductions and Part I [ 1.9MB]
--- Full Report, Parts II and III [3.53MB]
--- Full Report, Appendices [3.15MB]

Executive Summary

Preface by Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP (PDF - 161K, 8 pages)

Related link:

Rethinking Finance - "Alternative voices for a new financial architecture"
Special coverage of the financial crisis, G20 summits, and moves towards a Bretton Woods II conference.

"(...) Before the financial crisis, people across the world were already suffering from the effects of rising food prices, inadequate essential services and the threat of climate chaos. There can be no return to business as usual. Fundamental change is needed. The question is whether the policy makers in charge are able and willing to reform the current global financial architecture in the right direction and to a sufficiently fundamental degree. So far, official reform proposals are moderate at best and the decision process lacks transparency and excludes many countries and large parts of society.

Rethinking finance addresses these shortcomings. It puts forward alternative ideas and analyses, provides information about and comments on latest events, and gives an overview of civil society and other peoples' activities. Rethinking finance is a website of several international civil society organisations and individuals that contribute to its content, keeping it a place of lively debate and up to date information.

Tags (themes):
* activism * aid * effectiveness * Alternatives Blog * capital account * liberalisation * capital flight * citibank * Conditionality * debt * Debt sustainability * developing countries * development * economic crisis * Finance and debt Financial/Economic Crisis * Financial Architecture * financial crisis * G8 * G20 summit * Gender * global crisis * global financial regulation * Human Rights * Labour * London * NGO Organisational structures * poverty * Put People First * reform * Reports * stiglitz * tax havens * United Nations * unregulated finance * WB/IMF governance * WB/IMF roles * World Bank * World Social Forum * more...

More Bretton Woods links - this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading
More Australian Policy Online site content --- scroll down the page you're now reading

Going Dutch
How I learned to Love the European Welfare State
[taxation and social benefits in Holland]
By Russell Shorto
April 29, 2009
[An American expatriate's thoughts on Holland's 52% income tax rate and its health and social benefits]
"(...) Maybe we Americans have set up a false dichotomy. Over the course of the 20th century, American politics became entrenched in two positions, which remain fixed in many minds: the old left-wing idea of vast and direct government control of social welfare, and the right-wing determination to dismantle any advances toward it, privatize the system and leave people to their own devices. In Europe, meanwhile, the postwar cradle-to-grave idea of a welfare state gave way in the past few decades to some quite sophisticated mixing of public and private. And whether in health care, housing or the pension system (there actually is still a thriving pension system in the Netherlands, which covers about 80 percent of workers), the Dutch have proved to be particularly skilled at finding mixes that work."

Source:
New York Times

Australian Policy Online (APO)
Selected content from the recent APO Weekly Briefings:

NOTE: There are no hyperlinks to the titles below because they all broke when the APO site was re-launched in the Spring of 2009.
Copy a title that interests you and paste it into teh search engine on the APO home page (the link above)

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Measuring disparities in health status and in access and use of health care in OECD countries
Posted 08-04-2009
By Michael De Looper and Gaetan Lafortune
OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
This paper assesses the availability and comparability of selected indicators of inequality in health status and in health care access and use across OECD countries, focussing on disparities among socioeconomic groups.

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She works hard for the money: Australian women and the gender divide
Posted 06-04-2009
By AMP and the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling
The report focuses on women today and how their social and economic status has changed and evolved over time, and what differences can be seen between them and their male counterparts.

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International human rights law, women's rights and the Intervention
Posted 06-04-2009
By Megan Davis
Indigenous Law Centre (University of New South Wales)
This report discusses the importance of an intersectional race and gender approach when it comes to understanding special measures in international law.

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Homeless people in SAAP: SAAP National Data Collection annual report 2007-08, Australia
Posted 03-04-2009
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
This is the Series 13 annual report of the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program National Data Collection, and provides an overview of assistance given to clients and their children by the Program in 2007-08.

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A good time for making work pay?
Taking stock of in-work benefits and related measures across the OECD
Posted 27-03-2009
By Herwig Immervoll and Mark Pearson
OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
[ Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ]
The twin problem of in-work poverty and labour market difficulties among low-skilled individuals has been one of the most important drivers of tax-benefit policy reform. This paper discusses the rationale for in-work benefits, summarises the main design features of programs, and provides an update of what is known about their effectiveness.

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Child well-being and sole parent family structure in the OECD: an analysis
Posted 26-03-2009
By Simon Chapple
OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
[ Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ]
This paper addresses the causal impact of being raised in a sole-parent family on child well-being across the OECD using a cross-country meta-analysis and a literature review.

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Home truths: mental health, housing and homelessness in Australia
Posted 25-03-2009
Mental Health Council of Australia
A secure home is widely recognised as providing a fundamental basis for building mental health, yet this is not always reflected in policies and funding. This report explores how this lack of recognition affects mental health and homelessness in Australia, and identifies what needs to be done to improve housing outcomes.

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Reforming Australia's hidden welfare state: tax expenditures as welfare for the rich
Posted 25-03-2009
By Ben Spies-Butcher and Adam Stebbing
Centre for Policy Development
Because tax expenditures do not go through the same review process as normal government spending, they tend to be less accountable and transparent. It is essential that their growing slice of Commonwealth spending be scrutinised and in some cases reconsidered, according to this paper.

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More APO Weekly Briefing links - this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading

A Movement of Ideas:
The World Social Forum, is it a Model for Political Change? (PDF - 562K, 19 pages)
By Jessica Corbeil
January 2009
[Posted on the CCPA website February 18]
"(...) Despite the criticisms of the World Social Forum, it is difficult to deny its strengths. Unlike the World Economic Forum, WSF promotes ideas of open and frank discussions which include people from a variety of different cultural and economic backgrounds. Rather than acting on behalf of a single agenda (as is often the case in organizations such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund) the WSF, instead, chooses to give the masses a voice. A comparable organization of such a grand scope is simply not present in the Northern hemisphere."
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Related link:

Reality check: Will cellphones really solve Africa’s problems?
January 2009
Some observers have seized on the rapid increase in mobile phone use and predicted that they will play a key role in solving the continent’s economic and social problems. These experts applaud the technological leapfrogging — Africa still has relatively few land lines — and the potential for mobile telephony to bring Africa’s widely dispersed people in closer contact with one another. But is this optimism justified?
Source:
International Development Research Centre
IDRC is a Crown corporation created by the Parliament of Canada in 1970 to help developing countries use science and technology to find practical, long-term solutions to the social, economic, and environmental problems they face. Our support is directed toward creating a local research community whose work will build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies.

Gapminder
http://www.gapminder.org/
In London, riders on the Tube are reminded to "Mind the Gap". On the Gapminder website, visitors are reminded to mind a variety of gaps, whether they be in income inequality or quality of health care. This rather absorbing website was created as a non-profit venture to promote "sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information." The site makes use of Trendanalyzer software to offer visualizations related to questions that include "Which country has the best teeth in the world?" and "Who gets what: Farm subsidies". Visitors can find such information under the "Latest News" area, and they can also take advantage of the videos, "Gapcasts", and world charts offered here. The "Gapcasts" are quite good, and they cover carbon emissions, public services, and globalization. Also, if visitors have their own set of statistical indicators they can create their own unique Gapminder-like bubble graph on their website. It's a powerful tool, and one that might be important for other non-profits, think tanks, educators, and students.

Review by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2008
http://scout.wisc.edu/

Centre for Research for Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity
http://www.crise.ox.ac.uk/

Located within Oxford University, the Centre for Research for Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE) was created "to investigate relationships between ethnicity, inequality and conflict, with the aim of identifying economic, political, social and cultural policies which promote stable and inclusive multiethnic societies." Visitors will get a sense of their research by looking over the "News" updates on the homepage, and they can also use the embedded search engine to look for specific items of interest. Academicians and policy analysts should make a beeline for the "Publications" area of the site. Here they will find a set of policy briefings, policy work papers, and policy context papers. Recent titles include "The History of Violence and the State in Indonesia" and "Education, Labour Markets and Inequality in Peru". Moving on, the "CRISE Policy Work" area features the specific policy briefings mentioned above, many of which are completed in conjunction with other like-minded organizations, such as the United Nations Development Programme.

Reviewed by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2008.

Features and Challenges of Population Ageing:
The European Perspective - PDF file - 199K, 16 pages)
Author: Asghar Zaidi
Policy Brief
March 6, 2008
In this Policy Brief the issue of population ageing and its possible implications are sketched out.
It also discusses what public policy responses are required to deal with the challenges posed.
Source:
European Centre for Welfare Policy and Research

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008
The Power of Collaborative Innovation
23-27 January, Davos, Switzerland
The World Economic Forum is an independent, international organization incorporated as a Swiss not-for-profit foundation. We are striving towards a world-class corporate governance system where values are as important a basis as rules.

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
closes with call for a new kind of collaborative leadership
Press Release
Davos, Switzerland
27 January 2008
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008 closed today with a call by business, government and civil society leaders for a new brand of collaborative and innovative leadership to address the challenges of globalization, particularly the pressing problems of conflict – especially in the Middle East, terrorism, climate change and water conservation

From Google.ca:
"World Economic Forum" Web Search
"World Economic Forum" News Search

World Social Forum 2008
The World Social Forum is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, for formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action.

World Social Forums have taken place at the end of January at different sites throughout the world each year for the past seven years, and their spirit will continue to be reflected in the activities planned at those same sites and worldwide in 2008.

NOTE: The World Social Forum (WSF) is an annual meeting held by members of the anti-globalization (using the term globalization in a doctrinal sense not a literal one) or alter-globalization movement to coordinate world campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and their issues. It tends to meet in January when its "great capitalist rival", the World Economic Forum is meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This is not a coincidence.
Source:
World Social Forum - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From Google.ca:
"World Social Forum" Web Search
"World Social Forum" News Search

Links to World Social Forum related sites:

www.forumsocialmundial.org.br
Historical information site run by the Sao Paulo WSF office.
There you can find news, subscribe to the WSF newsletter, and read many articles about WSF events and process.

www.wsfprocess.net
First WSF process dedicated site. You can network here with over 1500 organisations and 4500 people, and form “groups” of people from various organisations, collaborating on “activities” and “proposals” for social change.
These can be linked to social forum events and can be publicized.

Links to Continental Social Forum Sites:

www.openesf.net
A new networking site for the European Social Forum process

The Canada connection:

Services for Business:
Canada at World Economic Forum 2008
January 25-26, 2008
City of Davos
Minister Emerson and Minister Bernier took part in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Source:
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

International trends in housing and policy responses (PDF file - 1.2MB, 188 pages)
By Julie Lawson and Vivienne Milligan
December 2007
"This study provides a review of housing policies across an array of countries that have a similar level of economic development to that of Australia but have addressed housing questions in different ways. It aims to increase local understanding of international policy in housing, with a focus on social policies that intend to assist lower-income households to obtain appropriate and affordable housing, and to promote good ideas for policy action for consideration by Australian policy makers."
- incl. info on Canada’s intergovernmental agreements for social housing

More info about the International housing trends and policy responses project

More research themes
- incl. * Housing Policies and Programs * Housing Affordability * Indigenous Housing * Homelessness * Care and Support Services * Urban and Regional * Housing Markets * Research Theory and Practice

Source:
Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute

- Go to the Homelessness and Housing Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/homeless.htm

Global Social Change Reports
Excellent resources - well worth a visit for anyone interested in major world demographic, social, political and communication trends over the last several decades.

- includes the following resources (among many others):
--- Basic Guide to the World: Quality of Life Throughout the World (PDF file - 228K, 34 pages) - December 2005
This describes world and regional trends in infant mortality rate, gdp per capita, literacy, freedom, and world and regional life satisfaction. An html version http://gsociology.icaap.org/report/cqual.html is a brief review of global quality of life, major trends and regional comparisons.
--- Basic Guide to the World: Population changes and trends, 1960 to 2003 (PDF file - 183K, 11 pages) - October 2005
Presents graphs and tables showing trends in world, regional population.
--- Basic Guide to the World: Economic Growth, 1970 to 2007 (PDF file - 140K, 16 pages) May 2007
Brief descriptions of trends in economic growth, world regional and for selected countries.
--- Major demographic trends - summary of main demographic trends of the past several decades; changes in population size, population growth, infant mortality rates, age distributions.
--- Major social trends - summary of main socio-demographic trends of the past several decades; changes in urbanization, education and ethnolinguistic fractionalization.
--- much more (major political trends, major economic trends, major technological trends: communication, energy production and consumption, context of change in the 21st century
- also includes free datasets, free online statistical tools, useful public domain and other free to use data, etc.

Source:
The Global Social Change Research Project
- links to online books, manuals and guides about evaluation and social research methods, such as surveys, observations, and others
- links to sites about data quality, statistical analysis, and free software such as statistical, office suites, spreadsheets and more.
- links to many sites with research or data about globalization, democracy and freedom and other related topics.

Australian Policy Online (APO)
Selected content from the latest APO Weekly Briefing:
NOTE: all APO links below are broken since the site was re-launched in the spring of 2009; if you wish to view a report, select its title to cut and paste into the APO site search engine.
(The APO search engine appears in the top right-hand corner of each page of the APO site)

Who is missing out? Hardship among low income Australians
Posted 18-12-2008
Peter Davidson / Australian Council of Social Service
New research from ACOSS shows many low income Australians go without the basic necessities like a decent and secure home, access to dental treatment and new schoolbooks and clothes for their children.

Families in Australia: 2008
Posted 17-12-2008
Office of Work and Family, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
This report provides a summary of the key issues and trends facing Australian families. It examines a selection of key topics, including fertility, caring responsibilities, economic wellbeing of families, health of family relationships and how Australians are balancing work and family responsibilities.

National disability discussion paper
Posted 15-12-2008
Consumers' Telecommunications Network (Australia)
The issue of accessibility, affordability and equality of access to telecommunications technology and services impacts daily on the lives of people with disabilities.

APO Archive
The APO archive is grouped into 23 subject areas, with entries appearing in reverse chronological order.
* Ageing *Asia and the pacific * Citizenship and the law * Disability * Economics and trade * Education * Employment and workplace relations * The environment * Foreign policy and defence * Gender and sexuality * Health * Housing * Families and households * Immigration and refugees * Income, poverty and wealth * Indigenous * Media, communications and cultural policy * Politics and government * Population, multiculturalism and ethnicity * Religion and faith * Rural and regional * Science and technology * Social policy * Urban and regional planning * Youth

Disability support services 2006-07: National data on services provided under the Commonwealth State-Territory Disability Agreement
Posted 30-10-2008
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
This report is on data collected as part of the Commonwealth State/Territory Disability Agreement National Minimum Data Set (CSTDA NMDS) between 1 July 2006 and 30 June 2007.
[ Table of contents of this report ]

Reconceptualising housing need in the context of 21st century Australian housing policy
Posted 28-10-2008
Tim Seelig and others / Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
This positioning paper is the first output of a study that aims to critically review a range of approaches to conceptualising need in housing and social policy fields in Australia and internationally.

Building trust: supporting families through disability trusts
Posted 27-10-2008
Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs
Special Disability Trusts were introduced in September 2006 to assist family members to make financial provision for the current or future accommodation and care of a family member with a severe disability. This report makes recommendations to improve their operation.

The world health report: Primary health care – now more than ever
Posted 24-10-2008
World Health Organisation
This report argues that an increase in Primary health care would respond better – and faster – to the challenges of a changing world.

Preventing youth disengagement and promoting engagement
Posted 08-09-2008
Jane Burns and others / Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY)
This discussion paper includes a comprehensive literature review, an analysis of individual and social pathways to youth disengagement, and an analysis of 'what works best' across five case studies.

Counting the homeless, 2006
Posted 08-09-2008
Chris Chamberlain and David MacKenzie / Australian Bureau of Statistics
On Census night in 2006, the homeless population in Australia was 105,000. Most homeless people were sheltered somewhere on Census night but absolute homelessness, such as sleeping out or in an improvised shelter, accounted for 16% of homelessness in Australia.

Young people imagining a new democracy: Literature review
Posted 08-09-2008
Philippa Collin / Whitlam Institute
This literature review finds that there is clear evidence that young people in Australia are engaged with political and social issues, but that they feel alienated by formal, institutionalised politics and are less inclined to engage in traditional forms of participation.

Database on immigrants in OECD countries
Posted 26-05-2008
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
This new database provides comprehensive and comparative information on a broad range of demographic and labour market characteristics of immigrants living in OECD countries.

Australia's strengths and challenges in responding to homelessness: An international comparison
Posted 23-05-2008
David Wright-Howie
Council to Homeless Persons
This paper argues that whilst homelessness in Australia is substantial and needs attention, we are well placed, compared to other Western countries, to develop a comprehensive national plan to prevent and reduce homelessness.

Which way home? A new approach to homelessness (Australia)
Posted 23-05-2008
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
This green paper is the first step in developing a new national approach to homelessness. It seeks to promote public discussion of homelessness, highlight the challenges faced by people who are homeless, and suggest ways forward.

Big steps in childcare: LHMU long day care parent survey
Posted 07-05-2008
Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union
The first comprehensive national survey of what parents want from long day care (LDC) has found that "Caring staff" is the most important criteria for ensuring parents are happy with the childcare.

National Rental Affordability Scheme: technical discussion paper
Posted 07-05-2008
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
This paper seeks comments on the final administrative and legislative design features of the federal government's National Rental Affordability Scheme.

Principles for justice in child well-being and protection - an effective child well-being and protection system
Posted 05-05-2008
Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care
This statement sets out the guiding principles that the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care expects all state, territory and federal governments to uphold in developing and implementing an effective and integrated child welfare and protection system in Australia.

Childcare : Families that work
Posted:12-03-2008
Deborah Brennan outlines a new agenda for parental leave and child care in Australia. This is the text of a lecture delivered on 6 March as part of So, What?, a series of public lectures in contemporary humanities and social sciences at the University of New South Wales.
- includes a critique of ABC Learning's control over daycare in Australia
Source:
Social Policy Research Centre (University of New South Wales)

2007 Longitudinal study of Australian children research conference
Posted 12-03-2008
Source:
Australian Institute of Family Studies
A number of presentations from this conference are now available on the Growing Up in Australia website. Topics covered included: Family structure, quality of the co-parental relationship, post-separation parenting and children’s socio-emotional wellbeing; Working families' use of child care; and Parent involvement and children’s early learning competence.

State tax reform: prospects and progress
Posted 12-03-2008
Robert Carling
Source:
Centre for Independent Studies
This paper identifies major structural flaws in Australia's current taxation system, and develops a set of proposals to put them right.

Making it work: promoting participation of job seekers with multiple barriers through the Personal Support Programme
Posted 25-02-2008
Daniel Perkins / Brotherhood of St Laurence
Personal Support Programme participants had somewhat higher levels of economic and social participation and less interference from barriers, according to this report. Although many elements of the PSP model are consistent with best practice overseas, two serious weaknesses are the lack of integrated employment support and the severely limited funding restricting access to specialist services for participants.

Housing assistance and employment
Posted 25-02-2008
Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
Because housing is expensive, assisting low-income households with their housing costs is also expensive. This audio briefing discusses how best to make the case for change when resources are constrained.

Public housing rent policy in Australia and overseas
Posted 25-02-2008
Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
This audio briefing presents the first comprehensive and comparative review of public housing rent policies in Australia and seven overseas countries, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Sustaining fair shares: the Australian housing system and intergenerational sustainability
Posted 25-02-2008
Judith Yates, Hal Kendig and Ben Phillips with Vivienne Milligan and Rob Tanton / Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
This report examines the intergenerational sustainability of Australia's system of housing assistance over the next 40 years - the same time period covered by the Howard government's Intergenerational Reports - under assumptions consistent with those made in those reports.

Housing assistance in Australia 2008
Posted 23-02-2008
David Wilson / Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
This report provides an overview of the types, extent and benefits of government assistance available to homeowners and renters as well as to people experiencing homelessness, and to specific population groups.

Adoptions Australia 2006-07
Posted 23-02-2008
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
This is the 17th report in the series, presenting the latest data on adoptions of Australian children and children from overseas, and highlights important trends in adoptions over the last three decades. Data are presented on all finalised adoptions recorded by the state and territory departments responsible for adoption, for 2006-07 year.

Year Book Australia, 2008
Posted 21-02-2008
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Year Book Australia provides a comprehensive statistical picture of the economy and social conditions in Australia. In addition, it contains descriptions of Australia's geography and climate, its population, the environment, government, international relations, defence, education, health, income and and welfare, housing and crime and justice.

Strengthening Aboriginal family functioning: What works and why?
Posted 21-02-2008
Roz Walker and Carrington Shepherd
Australian Family Relationships Clearinghouse
Providing insights into the protective effects and risks that influence forms of functioning among Aboriginal families, this paper discusses the factors that support family harmony or contribute to dysfunction.

Prevention and early intervention in strengthening families and relationships: Challenges and implications
Posted 21-02-2008
Elly Robinson and Robyn Parker
Australian Family Relationships Clearinghouse
This paper examines challenges and strategies associated with encouraging individuals to engage in prevention and early-intervention activities focusing on healthy relationships.

What are low ability workers to do when unskilled jobs disappear? Part 2: Expanding low-skilled employment
Posted 19-02-2008
Peter Saunders
Centre for Independent Studies
What is to be done for low-skilled, poorly-qualified Australians who, even in today’s booming economy, seem unable or unwilling to find jobs?

Welfare expenditure Australia 2005-06
Posted 13-12-2007
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
This report provides estimates of welfare expenditure in Australia for the period 1998-99 to 2005-06. In 2005-06 this expenditure totalled $90 billion, $61 billion being for cash benefits and the remaining $29 billion for welfare services.

Putting children first: improving responses to family homelessness
Posted 13-12-2007
Michael Horn and Lucinda Jordan / Melbourne Citymission
This project has sought to document the extent of family homelessness and the capacity of SAAP services to meet the current needs of families.

What are low ability workers to do when unskilled jobs disappear?
Part 1: Why more education and training isn’t the answer
Posted 13-12-2007
Peter Saunders / Centre for Independent Studies
Employers are reporting shortages of skilled labour, yet unskilled workers are sitting idle on welfare. Many commentators think both problems can be solved by more education and training, but this paper disputes this. The solution to the skills shortage lies in policies like delayed retirement and increased female participation in the workforce. The solution to unskilled joblessness lies in generating more unskilled employment argues Peter Saunders.

Working hours: a global comparison
Posted 09-12-2007
Robert Half International
This survey concludes that Australians continue to work longer hours and the great Aussie weekend may be a thing of the past. The report draws on the findings from an international workplace survey conducted in spring 2007.
[NOTE: this week's APO briefing includes links to two more studies on working hours in Australia.]

Australia's welfare 2007
Posted 06-12-2007
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
'Australia's welfare 2007' is the most comprehensive and authoritative source of national information on welfare services in Australia. Topics include children, youth and families; ageing and aged care; disability and disability services; housing for health and welfare; dynamics of homelessness; welfare services resources; and indicators of Australia's welfare.

Housing occupancy and costs, Australia, 2005-06
Posted 05-12-2007
Australian Bureau of Statistics
The number of homes that are owned outright by their occupants has decreased over the last decade, according to this ABS report. In 2005-06, just over a third (34%) of homes were owned outright by their occupants - down from 42% in 1994-95. Over the same time, the proportion of homes owned with a mortgage increased from 30% to 35%.

Adult literacy and life skills survey, summary results, Australia
Posted 05-12-2007
Australian Bureau of Statistics
There are fewer Australians with literacy assessed as being in the lowest category than there were a decade ago, according to this ABS survey. Approximately 17% (2.5 million) of people were assessed at the lowest prose literacy level (down from 20% in 1996), while 18% (2.7 million) were assessed at the lowest document literacy level (down from 20% in 2006).

The wellbeing of Australians: carer health and wellbeing
Posted 03-12-2007
Robert A. Cummins, Joan Hughes and others
Australian Centre on Quality of Life, Deakin University
This study finds that the carers group from the current AustralianUnity Wellbeing study has a lower personal wellbeing index than any of the other groups. While this finding alone is concerning enough, it is compounded by the sheer number of people who make up the sample.

The financial impact of welfare targeting in public housing
Posted 03-12-2007
Jon Hall and Mike Berry
Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
Greater targeting of housing and greater access to concessional rents cost public housing authorities around $200 million in 2004-05 compared with the mid-1990s, according to this Research and Policy Bulletin.

Dynamics of work-limitation and work in Australia
By Umut Oguzoglu
Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
Posted 15-11-2007
This paper examines the impact of self-reported work-limitation on the employment of the Australian working age population. Five consecutive waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey are used to investigate this relationship.

Election 2007: Family policy
By Janet Stanley and Brian Howe
Australian Review of Public Affairs
Posted 15-11-2007
Australia is still a country where life chances are unequal. This damages not only those children born into disadvantage, but society as a whole. Social policy reform is needed to improve the capabilities of disadvantaged and socially excluded Australian families. Janet Stanley and Brian Howe propose two key measures: structural adjustments around employment opportunities, and a considerable scaling up of secondary prevention programs which facilitate the well-being of children.

Election 2007: Indigenous policy - unfinished business
By Megan Davis
Australian Review of Public Affairs
Posted 15-11-2007
Indigenous peoples' support for and emphasis on the "rights agenda" has been shaped by history. The political and constitutional history of Australia is indelibly connected to the contemporary problems of Indigenous Australia: insecurity of rights and policy experiments. It is only when we negotiate unfinished business together, with nothing ruled out and ready to compromise, that we can move forward together as a nation.

Public housing: shifting client profiles and public housing revenues
By Jon Hall and Mike Berry
Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
Posted 15-11-2007
This report documents and quantifies the recent historical impact of changing client profiles in South Australia and Victoria.

Health at a glance 2007: OECD indicators
Posted 15-11-2007
By Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Progress in the prevention and treatment of diseases has contributed to remarkable improvements in life expectancy and quality of life in OECD countries in recent decades. At the same time, spending on health care continues to climb, consuming an ever-increasing share of national income: health expenditure now accounts for 9% of GDP on average in OECD countries, up from just over 5% in 1970.

Challenges in health and health care for Australia
By Bruce K Armstrong, James A Gillespie, Stephen R Leeder, George L Rubin and Lesley M Russell
The Medical Journal of Australia
Posted 13-11-2007
Our health system is stretched by an ageing population, the growing burden of chronic illness, and the increasingly outmoded organisation of our health services. Inequalities in health between our most and least advantaged citizens persist, and are the sentinels that remind us that there is no room for complacency, or for inertia in reforming our health care system.

The coming crisis of Medicare: What the Intergenerational Reports should say, but don’t, about health and ageing
By Jeremy Sammut
The Centre for Independent Studies
Posted 09-11-2007
This report outlines the combined impact of demographic trends toward ageing and the increasing costs of new high-tech medical technology on healthcare supply and demand in the future. As well as the implications for intergenerational conflict as the baby boomers begin to expect Generations X and Y to bare the tax burden for their care.

Dentistry, deprivation and poverty
Posted 07-11-2007
Peter Saunders / Australian Review of Public Affairs
By not providing an adequate and affordable public dental scheme, Australian governments have made what should be a relatively minor irritant (a toothache) into a major catastrophe for many people, not just those who are already doing it tough writes Peter Saunders.

Inequality in oral health in Australia
Posted 07-11-2007
John Spencer and Jane Harford / Australian Review of Public Affairs
Inequality in oral health in Australia has been extensively documented over the last 25 years. While the existence of inequalities has been accepted, their fundamental character has been less well understood. This has led to a misinterpretation of the information on inequalities and a failure to act on their causes. Some new research on patterns of oral disease and treatment means we now have what we need to inform rational and humane policy development in the field of oral health.

Too big to ignore - A report on future issues for Australian women's housing 2006-2025
Posted 07-11-2007
Selina Tually, Andrew Beer and Debbie Faulkner / AHURI Southern Research Centre
This report considers the future of housing for women in Australia and looks both at current patterns and emerging trends in order to paint a picture of Australian women in 2025 and the housing they will occupy; with respect to the types of dwellings in which they will live in, how much they may pay for their housing, their tenure arrangements and their household structure.

America on the edge: The US housing crisis and interest rates
Posted 07-11-2007
John Spoehr / The Adelaide Review
In this exclusive interview with John Spoehr, former US Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, Professor Robert Reich talks about the US housing crisis, jobs and inequality, and the Presidential race.

The risk society: social democracy in an uncertain world
John Quiggin
Posted 18-07-2007
John Quiggin examines the role of government as the ultimate risk manager. He argues that risk will be the defining concept of the 21st century, the way that globalisation was for the 1990s.
Source:
Centre for Policy Development

Voluntary work, Australia, 2006
Australian Bureau of Statistics
5.2 million people (34%) of the Australian population aged 18 years and over participate in voluntary work, contributing 713 million hours to the community across diverse activities according to this ABS survey. Posted 18-07-2007

Governing work life intersections in Australia over the life course: policy and prospects
Barbara Pocock
Posted 18-07-2007
This paper from the 2007 Australian Social Policy Conference examines the current situation of Australians as they put together their work and larger lives, under a particular policy regime. Pocock argues that an ethic of care needs to accompany Australia's well developed ethic of work, and that new arrangements are necessary to govern their simultaneous realisation.
Source:
Centre for Work+Life, University of South Australia

Mothers and fathers with young children: paid employment, caring and wellbeing
Jennifer Baxter, Matthew Gray, Michael Alexander, Lyndall Strazdins and Michael Bittman
Posted 16-07-2007
This paper examines how the use of child care, the time parents spend with children, and parental wellbeing relate to parental employment.
Source:
Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (Australia)

Work, life and time: the Australian work and life index 2007
Barbara Pocock, Natalie Skinner and Philippa Williams
Posted 12-07-2007
Work affects most working Australians beyond the workplace. Over half employees surveyed find that work sometimes, often or almost always affects their activities beyond the workplace (52.6% of the total) and even more find it regularly keeps them from spending the amount of time they would like with family or friends (60.7%).
Source:
Centre for Work+Life, University of South Australia

Revitalising health reform - time to act: discussion paper
Posted 19-09-2007
The Australian Institute of Health Policy Studies has commissioned this discussion paper to encourage broad community debate and, importantly, action on reform of Australia’s health care system. This report demonstrates that, all too often, existing processes for health system reform are ineffective. It documents the 'unfinished business' on health system reform since 2000.
Australian Institute of Health Policy Studies

The taxation of couples
Patricia Apps and Ray Rees / Centre for Economic Policy Research, Australian National University
Posted 19-09-2007
This paper discusses how a simple model of household production can be used to help the analysis of optimal taxation and tax reform, and to put the conventional wisdom - which says that it is optimal to tax women on a separate, lower tax schedule than men - on a firmer basis.

Take a bow, Brian Howe
Posted:17-09-2007
Child poverty fell significantly between 1985 and 1995, reports NICHOLAS GRUEN, and the gains have persisted under John Howard

Affordability is about renters, too
Posted:14-09-2007
The housing debate often ignores the two million who rent, writes KATH HULSE

Supporting the housing of people with complex needs
Michael Bleasdale / Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
Posted 14-09-2007
This report focuses on the issue of providing housing and support to people with complex needs, specifically people with physical disability, people with intellectual disability, and people with mental illness.

Subscribe!
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Source:
Australian Policy Online (APO)
With nearly 120 member centres and institutes, Australian Policy Online offers easy access to much of the best Australian social, economic, cultural and political research available online.
NOTE: the APO home page includes links to the five most popular reports on the APO website, and this list is updated each week

===>Keep scrolling down the page you're now reading for more APO links.

Working on welfare (United Kingdom)
September 2007
'Working on welfare' examines the role work and tax incentives play in promoting employment and reducing poverty. At present, the Labour government will miss its target of eradicating child poverty by 2020, and more people are economically inactive than a decade ago. Drawing on experience from the UK and the US, the report argues that tackling poverty in Britain depends on placing a greater focus on employment. To this end, it recommends increasing the use of both 'carrots' and 'sticks'.

Complete report:

Working on welfare (PDF file - 2MB, 45 pages)
Jennifer Moses
Mark Bell

Source:
CentreForum is an independent, liberal think-tank seeking to develop evidence based, long term policy solutions to the problems facing Britain

Addressing housing affordability: a 5-point plan for the next 10 years
Posted 30-08-2007
Source: Australians for Affordable Housing
This plan for housing affordability outlines a series of proposals, including a government-operated shared equity scheme for first homebuyers and extend the First Home Owners Grant into a mortgage assistance payment, increased investment in public and community housing by private financiers, investors, developers and government, and planning reforms to ensure affordable housing requirements for new developments.

Australia slipping behind other rich nations
News Release
August 30, 2007
A new Australia Fair report shows that the number of Australians living in poverty has increased over the past 10 years. Using an international poverty line of 50% of median income, the numbers increased from 7.6% to 9.9% of the population between 1994 and 2004, or nearly 2 million Australians.

Complete report:

A fair go for all Australians:
International Comparisons, 2007 (PDF file - 1.7MB, 60 pages)
"... looks at how Australia compares with other OECD nations [including Canada]. The report examines 10 areas such as health, education, housing and work, which were identified by the Australian public as essential to ensure a fair go for all Australians. The report compares Australia’s economic performance with that of other OECD nations, outlines the latest research on the number of Australians living below poverty lines and identifies where Australia is falling behind other nations in realising a fair go for all its people.

Source:
Australia Fair
"Australia Fair is a new national initiative which gives ordinary people the chance to talk about “the fair go for all” in Australia. Australia Fair is supported by many organisations providing services to well over 4 million
Australians. Australia Fair seeks to draw together organisations and individuals concerned about issues of fairness and is currently inviting their involvement in its presentation to the general public." [Excerpt from About Australia Fair]

The Community Tool Box
"Our goal is to support your work in promoting community health and development.
The Tool Box provides over 7,000 pages of practical skill-building information on over 250 different topics. Topic sections include step-by-step instruction, examples, check-lists, and related resources. "
Source:
Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development, University of Kansas
Recommended by:
Tim Aubry, Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services (University of Ottawa)

Selected content from recent issues of the APO Weekly Briefing:

Indigenous health:
Saving children's lives is a matter of long-term will
Posted:07-08-2007
You can't protect children without supporting and involving their community, argues Fiona Stanley, director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.

A rising tide? Income inequality, the social safety net and the labour market in Australia
Ann Harding, Quoc Ngu Vu and Alicia Payne / National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM - Canberra)
Posted 09-08-2007
In 1996 Australia elected a new Liberal government, ending 13 years of rule by the Australian Labor Party. The decade since has been marked by strong economic growth and prosperity, along with substantial changes in social and labour market policy. This paper highlights some of the key shifts in the social policy landscape over the period and assesses the outcomes for income inequality, poverty, income redistribution and earnings.

Life expectancy, ageing, disability and demand for disability services
Xingyan Wen / Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Posted 07-08-2007
This paper from the 2007 Australian Social Policy Conference re-examines the trends in expected years of life lived with disability over a period of 15 years (from 1988 to 2003) using the latest available data. It then gives estimates of current levels of unmet demand for specialist disability services, and presents data and commentary relating to projected future demand.

At home in the world: the moral and political language of homelessness
Andrew Hollows / RMIT University and Hanover Welfare Services
Posted 07-08-2007
Inspired by the political theorist Hannah Arendt, this paper from the 2007 Australian Social Policy Conference poses the question: what does it mean to think morally and politically about homelessness? Recent research by Hanover Welfare Services confirms how moral judgements about homelessness continue to be informed by a stereotypical focus on individual attribution and responsibility.

Australian social policy 2006
Posted 31-07-2007
Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
The latest edition of this annual departmental includes articles on trends in wealth among aged pensioners; potential risk factors, pathways and processes associated with childhood injury; men's and women's fertility; and psychosocial factors and intergenerational transmission of welfare dependency.

Approaches to evaluation of affordable housing initiatives in Australia
Posted 27-07-2007
Vivienne Milligan, Peter Phibbs, Nicole Gurran, Kate Fagan / Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
The release of the Framework for National Action on Affordable Housing (the Framework) in 2005 has provided an opportunity to consider how evaluation could be built from the outset into a major future initiative in the housing field. In response, this report first provides an overview of ideas and developments in evaluation theory and methods, drawing mainly on a recent proposal by two sociologists, Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley (1997).

Understanding the drivers of poverty dynamics in Australian households
Hielke Buddelmeyer and Sher Verick / Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
Posted 25-07-2007
A range of household head, partner and demographic characteristics in addition to life-changing events have an impact on both the likelihood of remaining poor and slipping into poverty according to this analysis of the HILDA survey.

Family carers and mental illness
SANE Australia
Posted 25-07-2007
Research by SANE Australia shows 56% of people caring for someone with mental illness find their physical and mental health suffer as a result of their caring role. Alarmingly, 70% of carers report having received no relevant training or education, and due to lack of availability more than half have not accessed support services of any kind. One in four carers experience mental illness themselves.

Ten policy principles for a national system of early childhood education and care
Work + Family Policy Roundtable
Posted 09-07-2007
Australia needs a new nationally coordinated, planned approach to an integrated system of early childhood education and care is the concensus of a national workshop on childcare held in 2006.

Australia, France and the United Kingdom: helping youth into the labour market: a community responsibility to maintain social cohesion?
Sophie Koppe / University of Bordeaux
Posted 24-07-2007
This paper from the 2007 Australian Social Policy Conference looks at how these three countries view the obligations young people have to fulfil to be considered as good citizens and the suggestion that they are a potential threat to community building.

The contradictions of 'reform'
Posted 03-07-2007
Martin Leet / Brisbane Line
Policy proposals, nowadays, are unlikely to survive for long unless wrapped up in the rubric of 'reform'. Martin Leet explores why reform has become such an obsession in public policy and considers whether its days might be numbered.

No vagrancy: an examination of the impact of the criminal justice system on people living in poverty in Queensland
Posted 03-07-2007
Tamara Walsh / University of Queenland
This report investigates the extent to which people living in poverty interact with, and are affected by, the workings of the criminal justice system in Queensland.

No home and criminal justice: therein lies the rub
Posted 03-07-2007
Greg Mackay / Brisbane Line
In well-developed, democratic countries such as our own, we have long won the battle of establishing formal political and legal equality for all. However, as Greg Mackay points out, the struggle of making this equality an everyday reality for many people in our society is far from over.

Becoming a mother
Posted 03-07-2007
Key Centre for Women's Health in Society
The Becoming a Mother project investigated how becoming a mother impacted on young women’s experience of homelessness.

OECD family database
Posted 02-07-2007
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed this online database on family outcomes and family policies with indicators for all OECD countries. The first batch of indicators was released by the end of 2006, but work is ongoing on the preparation of new indicators for release throughout 2007.

Global Knowledge Partnership: Online Interactions
Formed through a worldwide partnership that includes the United Nations and a host of other international organizations, the Global Knowledge Partnership was created to apply knowledge and technology to address development issues in areas like poverty reduction and access to knowledge. To facilitate the exchange of ideas in these areas, the Partnership has created this Online Interactions site. Here, visitors can look over various blogs, podcasts, and video forums that focus in on these themes. Visitors can start by looking through the “Latest videos” area, which features everything from “What is Web 2.0 Explained in under 5 minutes” to a video on robotics programs in Costa Rica. Visitors can also search the site’s contents and sign up to receive RSS feeds of material as it is posted to the site.
Reviewed by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007

Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Working Papers series
- links to 461 working papers from the Luxembourg Income Study, dating from July 1985 to May 2007
HINT: click the link above and then, on the next page, click the "Send" button in the bottom left corner of the page if you want to see all 461 studies, or narrow your search down to a specific author, year of publication, keyword and/or country and then click "Send".

Here's a subset of the above:

LIS Working Papers including Canada
- links to 237 working papers that include or mention Canada

---

Luxembourg Wealth Study Working Papers
- links to four papers released from August to November 2006

The Luxembourg Income Study
NEWSLETTER
Volume 17 Number 1 Winter 2007 (PDF file - 225K, 12 pages)
February 2007
Table of contents:
Director’s Column * New Staff * 2006/2007 LIS Summer Workshops * Belgian Workshop Summary * 2006 Visiting Scholars * Update on the Luxembourg Wealth Study * 2006 Staff Presentations & Meetings * Upcoming Local Workshops * Local Advisory Board Meeting Update * Grants for Visiting Scholars * Call for Papers * New Working Papers * In the Press/ Where They’ve Turned Up * Staff Directory
[ Earlier issues of the newsletter - links to 13 issues back to December 1998]

Source:
Luxembourg Income Study

OECD and international organisations to develop
new approach to measuring progress of societies
02-Jul-2007
The OECD is to work with other international organisations and partners to develop a new approach to measuring how societies are changing by using high quality, reliable statistics to assess progress in a range of areas affecting citizens’ quality of life.

Related link:

Second OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy
Istanbul, 27-30 June 2007
The second OECD World Forum debated a wide variety of issues, from ageing populations to new technology and from climate change to immigration.
"...a unique opportunity for in-depth discussions about the measurement of progress, as well as some of the most important concerns facing the world, such as climate change, health and economic globalisation."

Draft Agenda (PDF file - 334K, 8 pages)
NOTE: this agenda includes links to almost 100 papers and Powerpoint presentations from this forum
- highly recommended reading --- something for everyone!

Source:
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Related link:

Measuring what counts to society
July 05, 2007
Roy Romanow
Around the world, a consensus is growing about the need for a more holistic way to measure societal progress – one that accounts for more than just economic indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product and takes into account the full range of social, environmental and economic concerns of citizens.
Source:
The Toronto Star

From Australian Policy Online:

Globalisation, jobs and wages
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Posted 21-06-2007
Open trade and investment policies can be a powerful force for raising living standards. But while trade raises overall income and welfare, some workers may lose from globalisation. It is timely to reassess whether there is anything about the current phase of globalisation which could increase the vulnerability of workers and, if so, how governments should react. This Policy Brief summarises the main lessons.
- incl. links to the complete report, the website of the OECD and related links from APO

Guidelines for the design of remote Indigenous community housing
Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
Posted 21-06-2007
A response to the need for a flexible framework of design guidelines for remote Indigenous housing. The project provides concepts and design principles to supplement the focus on safety, health, quality control and sustainability in the National Indigenous Housing Guide and related State and Territory guidelines, with principles for the design of Indigenous housing that reflect the cultural and social requirements of Indigenous communities in remote Australia.

Working Time Arrangements, Australia, Nov 2006
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Posted 21-06-2007
In November 2006, there were 8.6 million employees aged 15 years and over. Of these, 92% (8 million) were employees. Of these 60% did not have any say in their start and finish times, 72% could choose when their holidays were taken, and 38% were able to work extra hours in order to take time off according to this ABS study.

How Australian families spend their time
Australian Institute of Family Studies
Posted 21-06-2007
Social, economic and technological change has altered the way in which families spend time together. This fact sheet discusses these trends.

Government benefits, taxes and household income, Australia, 2003-04
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Australia's low income households received more cash benefits from the government than higher income households, while indirect benefits (provided in kind) were more evenly distributed, according to this ABS study. Posted 14-06-2007

Federal politics: web scrubbing
By Kellie Tranter, New Matilda
Posted: 12-06-2007
Governments around the world are using their websites to rewrite history - or 'webscrubbing' writes Kellie Tranter. Whilst the internet has allowed instant access to a vast amount of information, it also allows governments (and companies) retrospectively to edit embarrassing information from their websites and out of public view.
"Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary." (1984, George Orwell)
Source:
New Matilda
New Matilda is an independent website of news, opinion and analysis. New Matilda offers a vibrant mix of views and voices. We actively seek out new and in-depth perspectives to broaden the political debate.

Google.ca Web search result : Web scrubbing"

NOTE: I've ranted about web scrubbing on many occasions in my site and in my newsletter. I've played out the following scene at least a few hundred times: I find a valuable online resource, perhaps an historical welfare stats collection or some other useful file, so I link to it in my site and include it in my newsletter. A few months later, the government department or NGO is re-launched with a "fresh new look" and fresh new content --- and no more historical info because the new web team didn't see any use for the old info...
Argh.
Luckily, there *is* a recourse: the Internet Archive - where you'll find (in a small box near the top of the page) the Wayback Machine. Enter a URL of the vanished or altered site and, in most instances, you'll have access to snapshots of earlier versions of the entire website (including most, but sadly not all, files). You can spend a lot of time exploring the Internet Archive collections, but the Wayback Machine alone is worth the visit.

For more info on the Wayback Machine, go to
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/reference.htm

What women want
National Foundation for Australian Women
Under the WorkChoices industrial relations system, women's pay compared with men has deteroriated since WorkChoices was introduced, regardless of their occupation or education status, and includes professional and managerial women as well as those in lower paid, less skilled work.
Posted 08-06-2007

Pensions at a glance 2007
OECD
People in OECD countries will have to save more for their retirement as a result of the major pensions reforms carried out in recent years, according to this report. The average pension promise in 16 OECD countries studied was cut by 22 per cent. For women, the reduction was 25 per cent.
Posted 08-06-2007

Amnesty International Report 2007: the state of the world's human rights
Amnesty International
In Amnesty International's 2007 report on the state of the world's human rights the Australian government is one of the countries singled out for criticism for adopting 'the politics of fear' in relation to asylum seekers. Additionally Australia's refugee policies, violence against women and the counter-terrorism measures were areas highlighted as concerns. Posted 07-06-2007

Source:
APO Weekly Briefing
[ Australian Policy Online (APO) ]

Chronic Poverty Updates
- incl. links to the following updates:
* 5 Key Points for the 2005 Summit (September 2005) * Making chronic poverty history (July 2005) * Opportunity is not enough (September 2003) * The lost millions (July 2002)

Source:
Chronic Poverty Research Centre (U.K.)
CPRC is an international partnership of universities, research institutes and NGOs established in 2000 with initial funding from the UK's Department for International Development.Chronic Poverty Research Centre -

CPRC Resources - incl. links to : Working Papers - Special Journal Issues - Books, reports and other publications - Policy Briefs - CPRC Conference Papers - Methods Toolbox - Bibliographic Database - Chronic Poverty Updates

State of the World's Mothers 2007:
Saving the Lives of Children Under 5

A Mothers Day Report Card: The Best And Worst Countries to Be a Mother
Sweden tops list, Niger ranks last, United States ranks 26th, tied with Hungary
May 8, 2007— Save the Children, a U.S.-based independent global humanitarian organization, today released its eighth annual Mothers’ Index that ranks the best — and worst — places to be a mother and a child and compares the well-being of mothers and children in 140 countries, more than in any previous year.

Egypt Makes the Most Progress and Iraq the Least In Reducing Child Deaths, Report Finds
Millions of Children Still Dying Each Year Despite Availability of Proven, Low-Cost Interventions that Could Save Their Lives

Special Features from the Report

Download the complete report (PDF file - 2MB, 70 pages)
[Canada? Number 15.]

State of the World's Mothers Reports
Every year, the State of the World's Mothers report reminds us of the inextricable link between the well-being of mothers and that of their children. Seventy-five years of on-the-ground experience has demonstrated that when mothers have health care, education and economic opportunity, both they and their children have the best chance to survive and thrive. Each year a different issue that impacts mothers and their children is highlighted.
- incl. links to annual reports for 2007 back to 2000

Source:
Save the Children
"Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change in the lives of children in need in the United States and around the world."

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2007
The Shifting Power Equation
24-28 January, Davos, Switzerland
- incl. links to : Programme * Selected Participants * Partners * Issues in Depth * Webcasts & Podcasts * WorkSpace * Open Forum * FAQs

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2007 – Enlarging the Davos Conversation
9 January 2007
News Release
Geneva, Switzerland
The World Economic Forum will be using new Web applications to extend the discussions at the Annual Meeting 2007 to a much wider audience. Held under the theme The Shifting Power Equation, the debates and discussions at the Meeting will be open to the general public via traditional broadcast channels, but also via webcasts, podcasts and for the first time, vodcasts. Internet users can field questions to participants via blogs and videoblogs and selected participants will be interviewed live in the virtual world of Second Life. As in previous years, all participants are encouraged to take part in the Forum’s blog to participate in the Davos Conversation – and this year a range of bloggers will contribute their thoughts to the discussions.

Programme
Session summaries
World Economic WebLog

Google Web Search Results:
"World Economic Forum"
Google News Search Results:
"World Economic Forum"
Source:
Google.ca

-------------------------------------------

World Social Forum Nairobi 2007
20-25 January, 2007
Nairobi, Kenya
The 7th edition of the World Social Forum brings the world to Africa as activists, social movements, networks, coalitions and other progressive forces from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, Europe and all corners of the African continent converge in Nairobi, Kenya for five days of cultural resistance and celebration.Panels, workshops, symposia, processions, film nights and much much more; beginning on the 20th of January and wrapping up on the 25th of January 2007.
- incl. links to : * about * venue * transportation * services * accommodation * visa * faq * invitation

Final program for WSF2007

Google Web Search Results:
"World Social Forum"
Google News Search Results:
"World Social Forum"
Source:
Google.ca

NOTE: use Ctr+F to find earlier occurrences of the World Economic Forum and World Social Forum on this page

Resources for Evaluation and Social Research Methods
http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods/
- links to online books, manuals and guides about evaluation and social research methods, such as surveys, focus groups, and so on, as well as links to sites about presenting data, and free software
such as statistical, office suites, spreadsheets and more.

Global Social Change Research Project
http://gsociology.icaap.org
- includes World Social Change reports, which are reviews of major world economic, demographic, social, and political changes and data used to develop the reviews, and a review of theories of change; also includes links to web sites with theory, research and data on global social, political and economic change.

From the United Kingdom:

Government Social Research Bulletin
- for the month up to 13 November, including the latest GSR news, updates on Continuing professional development, Forthcoming research, Research outputs, plus a Website of the month feature.
Source:
Research News
[ Government Social Research: Analysis for Policy (U.K.) ]

From Australia:

Australian Policy Online
- incl. links to : Reports from APO members * Government reports * Reports from other sources
- also includes calls for papers and a large list of conferences
- APO is maintained by the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology

Aid initiative launched at poverty conference
November 09, 2006
Amid the staggering data on child poverty and disease reeled off at the Montreal Millennium Promise Conference, one Canadian aid initiative stood out for its simplicity: $10 bednets to prevent the spread of potentially deadly malaria in Africa. Belinda Stronach, MP for Newmarket-Aurora, satirist Rick Mercer, and UNICEF Canada launched the Spread the Net campaign on Thursday at the day-long child poverty conference at the Palais des Congrès.
Source:
Montreal Gazette

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spread the Net Campaign - Bednets Against Malaria
The goal: to cover Africa in blue bednets and stop death by malaria.
Who is Spread the Net?
You are.
It’s your friends, your gang, your posse, your colleagues, your brother, your aunt, your rival, your girlfriend, your teacher, your idol.
It’s Belinda Stronach and Rick Mercer; national co-chairs stepping up to the plate and spearheading this amazing cause.
It’s Unicef Canada.
It’s all Canadians.
It’s children in Africa.

Montreal Millennium Promise Conference Website
November 9 (9am-5pm) - Montreal

What's New from Australian Policy Online (APO) :

Interactions between wages and the tax transfer system
November 1, 2006
Ann Harding, Alicia Payne, Quoc Ngu Vu and Richard Percival
National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling
To what extent are wage increases retained by wage earners, rather than being 'clawed back' by government through increases in income tax or reductions in welfare payments? This report looks at the distribution of 'effective tax rates' for all employees in Australia; assesses the rates faced by a set of hypothetical families as one parent or a sole parent increases their working hours from zero to full time; and examines the impact of a range of hypothetical wage increases on the income of low wage workers.

Proceedings of the 7th Australian Conference on Quality of Life
Posted October 24, 2006
Australian Centre on Quality of Life
The refereed papers from this international conference held at Deakin University in November 2005 are now online. Papers include Robert Cummins on 'The wellbeing of caregivers', and Peter Kriel on 'Quality of work life and business ethics'.
Posted 24-10-2006

The wellbeing of Australians: 15th Australian Unity wellbeing index
Posted October 24, 2006
Australian Centre on Quality of Life

Also from APO:

Does a higher minimum wage mean fewer jobs?
August 21, 2006
The evidence doesn't support this simple equation, writes John Quiggin*.
The creation of the Fair Pay Commission as part of the government’s WorkChoices legislation has led to a debate about the role of minimum wages for Australian workers. Whereas the Industrial Relations Commission set award wages for most workers, the Fair Pay Commission focuses exclusively on minimum wages and conditions. (...) In thinking about minimum wages, it is [also] necessary to look at interactions with the social welfare system. For those with dependent children, minimum wages in Australia are only marginally higher, after tax, than the social welfare benefits paid to unemployed or disabled workers. Hence, a reduction in the minimum wage could create or intensify “poverty traps.” Advocates of substantial reductions in minimum wages have generally favored “reform” (usually unspecified) of the social welfare system. (...) It is important to remember that minimum wages represent only a small part of a coherent labour market policy. The primary focus must be on managing the tax–welfare system to achieve a more equitable distribution of income while generating incentives to work. Minimum wages should be set with the same goal in mind."
--------------------------------------
*Author John Quiggin is an ARC Federation Fellow in Economics and Political Science at the University of Queensland.
His web site is at http://www.uq.edu.au/economics/johnquiggin and his weblog is at http://johnquiggin.com
--------------------------------------

Related Links:
Australian Fair Pay Commission
WorkChoices - A new workplace relations system
Australian Industrial Relations Commission

Social Policy Resources
- extensive collection of links to : New releases from APO members * New government reports * New reports from other sources
Source:
APO Topics
The APO archive is grouped into 23 subject area, with entries appearing in reverse chronological order.
Here's the complete list of topics:
Ageing - Asia and the pacific - Citizenship and the law - Disability - Economics and trade - Education - Employment and workplace relations - The environment - Foreign policy and defence - Gender and sexuality - Health - Housing - Families and households - Immigration and refugees - Income, poverty and wealth - Indigenous - Media, communications and cultural policy - Politics and government - Population, multiculturalism and ethnicity - Religion and faith - Rural and regional - Science and technology - Social policy [See the link above to "Social Policy Resources"] - Urban and regional planning - Youth

APO Weekly Briefing - "News & Research from Leading Australian Research Centres and Institutes"
The APO Weekly Briefing offers new commentary, new reports and a fortnight’s events.
To sign up for the weekly briefing, go to the APO Home Page and enter your e-mail address in the box on the left side of the page where it says: "Sign up for our email newsletter".
I recommend the Weekly Policy Briefing!

Source:
Australian Policy Online (APO)
With nearly 120 member centres and institutes, Australian Policy Online offers easy access to much of the best Australian social, economic, cultural and political research available online. APO is maintained by a network of university centres and over 120 centres and institutes around Australia.

Chronic Poverty Research Centre (U.K. / International)
http://www.chronicpoverty.org/
Established in 2000, with a series of innovative grants and funding schemes from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the Chronic Poverty Research Center (CPRC) is primarily concerned with researching chronic poverty around the globe and creating well thought out analyses that will be useful to different government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other researchers. Specifically, their approach is designed to focus on “three pillars”, which include thematic research, policy analysis, and policy engagement. The site is divided into several primary sections, including “Resources”, “Partners”, and “News and Events”. The homepage isn’t a bad way to delve into some of their materials, which as of late have included calls for papers and a presentation on a report on the state of the chronically poor in Bangladesh.
Review by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2006. http://scout.wisc.edu/

Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007
Switzerland, Finland and Sweden are the world’s most competitive economies according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007, released by the World Economic Forum on 26 September 2006. Denmark, Singapore, the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom complete the top ten list, but the United States shows the most pronounced drop, falling from first to sixth.
[See the related link below for Canada's ranking.]
Source:
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

From Google.ca:
"Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007" Web Search
"Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007" News Search

Intute - U.K.
"Intute is a free online service providing access to the very best web resources for education and research. All material is evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists to create the Intute database."
- includes portals to : Science and Technology - Arts and Humanities - Social Sciences (see below) - Health and Life Sciences

Intute: Social Sciences
- includes links organized under the following headings:
Anthropology - Business and Management - Economics - Education - Environmental Sciences - European Studies - Government Policy - Hospitality and Catering - Human Geography - Law - Politics - Psychology - Research Tools and Methods - Social Welfare - Sociology - Sport and Leisure Practice - Statistics and Data -Travel and Tourism -Women's Studies

Where the Poor Are: An Atlas of Poverty
"Since Charles Booth produced his remarkably detailed maps depicting inequality in Victorian London, poverty maps have been used to inform policy. But not until recently have high-resolution maps become available, making it possible to interpret and apply poverty maps in creative new ways to better understand poverty and improve policy making on behalf of the poor. Where the Poor Are: An Atlas of Poverty brings together a diverse collection of maps from different continents and countries, depicting small area estimates of vital development indicators at unprecedented levels of spatial detail. The atlas is a product of the CIESIN Global Poverty Mapping Project, begun in 2004, which was made possible by support from the Japan Policy and Human Resource Development Fund, in collaboration with The World Bank. The atlas of 21 full-page poverty maps reveals possible causal patterns and provides practical examples of how the data and tools have been used, and may be used, in applied decisions and poverty interventions."

Click the link above - on the next page you can choose whether to download the entire Atlas in one whopping 26MB PDF file, or in the following smaller files corresponding to chapters in the report:
Cover & Front Matter * Introduction * Poverty on a Global Scale * Poverty within Continents * Poverty within Countries * Urban Poverty * Back Matter

Source:
Center for International Earth Science Information Network
[ Columbia University - City of New York]

University of California Atlas of Global Inequality
"Researchers attempting to wade through the murky and volatile waters of globalization can sometimes find the going rough. For the general public, even grasping the mere tenets of what globalization entails can be equally confounding. The Center for Global, International and Regional Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz has stepped in to help with their UC Atlas of Global Inequality. Drawing on a wide range of data sets, their online Atlas “explores the interaction between global integration (globalization) and inequality.” Some of the themes visitors can explore include economic globalization, health, and income inequality. Along with these interactive features, visitors also have access to time series maps of the world that show patterns of inequality and a database that allows tables and graphs to be generated and downloaded for selected data and countries."
Reviewed by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2006.

Special features of the Atlas:
- Time series maps of the world show changes in global patterns of inequality
- Country pages provide information, graphs and comparative rankings for each country
- The Global Inequality Blog summarizes key contributions to our understanding of inequality
- A database allows tables and graphs to be generated and downloaded for selected data and countries.
- Texts and the Glossary provide explanation of the issues and terms; the Bibliography provides direct links to the research.
- Teaching modules provide suggestions for using data and maps in classes.

Social Sciences : Issue 63 - July 2006 issue - U.K.
Newsletter
HTML version
PDF version - 1.5MB, 20 pages
- incl. links to : News in brief * STEPS (Social,Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) * Setting research and policy agendas - the Global Environmental Change Programme's first years * The British Household Panel Survey * Research in the pipeline * Society, social behaviour and neuroscience * The Rural Economy and Land Use Programme Briefing Paper No 3 * ESRC Survey Link Scheme workshops * New Dynamics of Ageing Programme * Conferences and seminars * Books * People

New Research
Earlier issues of the newsletter - links to almost two dozen issues of the newsletter going back to 2002

Source:
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) - U.K.
The Economic and Social Research Council is the UK's leading research funding and training agency addressing economic and social concerns. We aim to provide high quality research on issues of importance to business, the public sector and government.

Also from ESRC:

UK Fact Sheets
This section contains fact sheets on a wide range of issues in the UK. listed by theme.

International Fact Sheets
This section provides a series of fact sheets about global issues, including finance, communication, poverty, global security, migration and health (poverty to come...).

Government Programs and Social Outcomes:
The United States in Comparative Perspective (PDF file - 454K, 69 pages)
by Timothy Smeeding
May 2005
"(...) A partial solution to the poverty problem that is consistent with American values lies in creating an income package that mixes work and benefits so that unskilled and semi-skilled workers, including single parents, can support their families above the poverty level. Such a package could include more generous earnings supplements under the EITC, refundable child and daycare tax credits, and the public guarantee of assured child support for single parents with an absent partner who cannot or will not provide income to their children. A reasonable increase in the minimum wage over the next several years would also help low-skilled workers more than it would hurt them. Targeted programs to increase job access and skills for less skilled workers could also help meet future growing labor demand in the United States economy. In the long run, a human capital strategy that focuses on improving the education and marketable job skills of disadvantaged future workers, particularly younger ones, is the approach likely to have the biggest payoff.
[Excerpt, "Toward Solutions", p. 36]

- the country comparison includes Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.

------------------------------

The Temporal Welfare State: A Crossnational Comparison (PDF file - 1.2MB, 48 pages)
by Rice James, Goodin Robert, Parpo Antti
April 2006
Welfare states contribute to people’s well-being in many different ways. Bringing all these contributions under a common metric is tricky. Here we propose doing so through the notion of ‘temporal autonomy’: the freedom to spend one’s time as one pleases, outside the necessities of everyday life. Using surveys from five countries (the USA, Australia, Germany, France, and Sweden) that represent the principal types of welfare and gender regimes, we propose ways of operationalising the time that is strictly necessary for people to spend in paid labour, unpaid household labour, and personal care. The time people have at their disposal after taking into account what is strictly necessary in these three arenas — which we christen ‘discretionary time’ — represents people’s temporal autonomy. We measure the impact on this of government taxes, transfers, and childcare subsidies in these five countries. In so doing, we calibrate the contributions of the different welfare and gender regimes that exist in these countries, in ways that correspond to the lived reality of people’s daily lives.

Working Papers:

Search the 433 working papers by theme or country
HINT: click the "Send" button in the bottom-left corner of the search page to see links to 400+ studies on one page!

Source:
Luxembourg Income Study

What's New from Australian Policy Online :

Selected content from the most recent issue of Weekly Briefing
30 June 2006
http://www.apo.org.au

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE COLLECTION OF ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT
ISLANDER HEALTH AND WELFARE STATISTICS 2005
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Good quality data on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are needed to assess the effectiveness of programs and interventions, and to evaluate policies that are designed to improve the status of, and service delivery to, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

MEDICAL INDEMNITY NATIONAL DATA COLLECTION, PUBLIC SECTOR 2004-05
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
This report presents data on the number, nature, incidence and costs of public sector medical indemnity claims for the period 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2005. It describes incidents that gave rise to claims, the people affected by these incidents, and the size, duration and outcomes of medical indemnity claims. This is the third report originating from the medical Indemnity National Collection (public sector).

COMMUNITY AGED CARE PACKAGES IN AUSTRALIA 2004-05
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
This report presents key statistics on the levels of service provision of the Community Aged Care Packages Program and the Extended Aged Care at Home Program funded by the Australian Government. Detailed statistics on the socio-demographic characteristics of package recipients and the patterns of the recipients' admissions and separations are also provided.

ALCOHOL AND WORK
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Little is known regarding the alcohol consumption patterns of the Australian workforce and the impact these patterns have on workplace safety, workplace productivity and workers' wellbeing. This report addresses this lack of knowledge, and is one of the most comprehensive examinations of the role of alcohol in the Australian workplace.

SKILL: THE NEW GLOBAL CURRENCY
Dusseldorp Skills Forum
Across any aspect of enterprise – whether in services, manufacturing, import/ export, or health and education – the skills of people define the success of the business, writes Jack Dusseldorp. Financial capital of course remains crucial, but human and social capital are now recognised as being just as important.

THE DEMOCRATIC AUDIT OF AUSTRALIA: POPULISM vs CITIZEN RIGHTS
Democratic Audit of Australia
Marian Sawer describes how the Democratic Audit of Australia has separated out the values of political equality, popular control of government, civil liberties/human rights and deliberative democracy in order to highlight the threat posed by populist majoritarianism. Attacks on the 'non-elected' intermediary institutions essential to accountability and rights protection in representative democracy undermine popular control of government despite speaking in its name.
Posted 27-06-2006

MEASURING HOUSING PRICES: AN UPDATE
Reserve Bank
Over the past few years, developments in housing prices have been of significant concern to policy-makers in many countries. But measurement problems make it difficult to assess developments accurately with the available data. This article summarises research on the measurement of aggregate housing prices, and uses data for Sydney and Melbourne to demonstrate alternative methods.

INQUIRY INTO CIVICS AND ELECTORAL EDUCATION
Parliament of Australia Joint Committee
The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters has published the submissions to the 'Inquiry into civics and electoral education'. They can now be viewed on their website and feature numerous interesting submissions from a wide variety of individuals and groups. There is currently a total of 83 submissions.

EVENTS
See http://www.apo.org.au/event_archive.shtml
List of over three dozen seminars, forums, conferences and workshops on (among other topics) health policy, child care in Sweden, feminist economics, welfare-to-work, human rights, Indigenous education and training, models of aged care, older men's health in Australia,

To subscribe to APO's weekly briefing, simply visit their website and enter your email address in the box in the left margin of the web page.

Source:
Australian policy Online

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What's New from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare:

Australia's Health 2006
Published 21 June 2006
"Australia's health 2006 is the tenth biennial health report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. It is the nation's authoritative source of information on patterns of health and illness, determinants of health, the supply and use of health services, and health services expenditure. Australia's Health 2006 is an essential reference and information resource for all Australians with an interest in health."
HTML version - table of contents with links to PDF versions of each chapter
PDF version - (7.1MB, 528 pages)
Earlier editions of Australia's Health

Australia's Welfare 2005
Published 30 November 2005
"Australia's Welfare is the most comprehensive and authoritative source of national information on welfare services in Australia. Topics include indicators of the welfare of Australia's population, ageing and aged care services, disability and disability services, assistance for housing, services for people experiencing homelessness, and welfare services expenditure and labour force. It also features an extended chapter on children, youth and families."
HTML version - table of contents with links to PDF and RTF versions of each chapter
PDF version (1.96MB, 514 pages)
Earlier editions of Australia's Welfare

The View from the Summit – Gleneagles G8 One Year On
News Release
[9 June 2006] – The View from the Summit – Gleneagles G8 One Year On, a new report from international agency Oxfam released on Friday shows that decisions made at last year's G8 in Scotland, following huge pressure from campaigners around the world, have led to real improvement in the lives of some of the world's poorest people. However, Oxfam is concerned that while debt cancellation is starting to be delivered, the growth in aid in key G8 nations is not enough to meet the promises made at the Gleneagles G8.
Source:
Child Rights Information Network

Complete report:

The view from the summit – Gleneagles G8 one year on (PDF file - 193K, 17 pages)
OXFAM Briefing Note
9 June 2006
Source:
OXFAM

Related Link:

International Monetary Fund
2006 Article IV Consultation with Canada
Preliminary Conclusions of the IMF Mission
December 2, 2005
- 14 conclusions on monetary and fiscal policy, economic efficiency, etc.

Source:
Department of Finance Canada

NOTE to Bono:
Prime Minister Paul Martin doesn't appear too enthusiastic about your .7 percent campaign, but the International Monetary Fund apparently likes it --- here's the text of its Preliminary Conclusion #14:"Canada is to be commended for its efforts towards debt relief and development but is urged to raise the level of its Official Development Assistance (ODA) towards the international benchmark of 0.7 percent of gross national income."

Related Links:

Bono Urges Canada to Increase Foreign Aid
November 26, 2005
"OTTAWA - Irish rocker Bono says Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's inability to further increase foreign aid mystifies him, especially when he's facing an election in a country that clearly favors more foreign aid. "I'm mystified, actually, by the man," the U2 lead singer said at a news conference Friday. "I like him very much, personally. I just think that it's a huge opportunity that he's missing out on. This is important to the Canadian people. I think the prime minister will find out if he walks away from the opportunity to (boost foreign aid) he will hear about it in the election. I am absolutely sure of that." Bono said he was heartened by polls suggesting most Canadians support a boost to foreign aid. He wants Canada to increase foreign contributions to 0.7 percent of its gross domestic product.
Source:
Yahoo News

---

Make Poverty History (MPH) - International
"Rich countries have also promised to provide 0.7% of their national income in aid."
(Excerpt from "More and Better Aid" - click the What do we want? tab at the top of the Make Poverty History home page page to read all eight goals/demands/recommendations/wishes ("What we want / what we are calling for")

Make Poverty History (Canada)
[Canadian MPH Platform] - "Canada can take action --- Reach the UN target of 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015 by committing to a timetable to increase aid by 15% annually through to 2015."

From Google.ca:
News search Results : "Make Poverty History"
Web Search Results : "Make Poverty History"

More Make Poverty History Links (further down on the page you're now reading)

From the World Economic Forum:

Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006 - 26th edition
Released September 28, 2005
"The World Economic Forum continues its tradition of excellence with the 26th edition of the annual Global Competitiveness Report featuring the latest national statistics and results of the Executive Opinion Survey, which captures the perception of over 10,000 business leaders. The report provides the most comprehensive assessment of 117 developed and emerging economies. Produced in collaboration with a distinguished group of international scholars and a global network of over 100 leading national research institutes and business organizations, the report presents individual detailed country profiles highlighting the competitive strengths and weaknesses of each economy as well as an extensive section of data tables containing country rankings for over 160 indicators."
Order the full report from Palgrave Macmillan --- £65.00

Argh.
The World Economic Forum website offers links to selected content (see below) from the 2005-2006 report, but it uses the Lotus Notes format, which appears to be quite balky --- I can't link to most site content except the main page of the report (the first link above) and the executive summary. Any other link that I copy and paste into my site is broken when I click on it subsequently, whether I use my preferred Firefox browser or Mister Gates' Internet Explorer. This is *not* the result of inexperience on my part - I've been able to link to content on just about every site I've visited since the fall of 1997 - but it makes me wonder about the logic behind a website that doesn't allow visitors to link to a special report or study...
Click on the first link above to go to the report's main page, then select from the following files, most of which are in PDF format:
- Full rankings (Canada is 14th)
- Contents (1pg; 17k)
- Preface (2pgs; 37k)
- Executive Summary (16pgs; 107k)
- Rankings in PDF format (1pg; 24k)
- Composition of the Growth Competitiveness Index (2pgs; 38k)
- The Business Competitiveness Index (1pg; 22k)
- Online Media Coverage 05-06 (media coverage of the 05-06 report - 18 links)
- Press Release - including detailed report highlights

Nordic countries and East Asian tigers top the rankings in the
World Economic Forum's 2005 competitiveness rankings
[dead link - go to the main page of the report and click on "Press Release"]
28 2005
"Nordic countries and East Asian tigers top the rankings in the World Economic Forum's 2005 competitiveness rankings
Australia, India, Ireland and Poland all gain positions – US remains in second place after Finland.
Finland remains the most competitive economy in the world and tops the rankings for the third consecutive year in The Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006, released today by the World Economic Forum. The United States is in second position, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Taiwan and Singapore, respectively."

Previous Country Profiles
[dead link - go to the main page of the report, scroll to the bottom of the page and then click "Previous country profiles"]
- these profiles are drawn from the 2002-2003 edition of the report, but if you click on "Canada", for example, you'll see how the report is compiled from country info

Wolfowitz: We Must Deliver Results
September 22, 2005
"Results must be delivered for every dollar of assistance to the developing countries, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said today. Wolfowitz’s comments were made at a media conference marking the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund this weekend. In his opening statement, Wolfowitz said the world was now at an important moment in history to eradicate poverty and create opportunity. Developing countries had recently made some impressive commitments to deliver better performance, while developed nations had made similarly impressive commitments to deliver more aid - at the G8 meeting in Gleneagles and also at the World Summit in New York."
Source:
The World Bank Group
International Monetary Fund

Related Links:

2005 Annual Meetings, World Bank & International Monetary Fund
Sept. 24-25, 2005
- incl. links to : About the Annual Meetings - Schedule of Events - Contact Information - News Releases, Speeches, Committee Papers, Documents - Program of Seminars - Information for Civil Society - Organizations (CSOs) - Information for Journalists - Online Request for Press Accreditation - Photographs

For Wolfowitz, Poverty Is the Newest War to Fight
September 24, 2005
"WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 - Three months into his new job as president of the World Bank, Paul D. Wolfowitz caused heartburn this week for some former colleagues in the Bush administration. But that agreement came only after Mr. Wolfowitz publicly sided this week with officials from other countries who warned that the United States might back away from the full cost of debt relief for the poorest countries."
Source:
The New York Times
NOTE: Like many online media websites, the New York Times requires you to register your e-mail address to access (most of) its articles online. The registration is quick and painless, and you won't end up on any spam lists - registration is a way for the media to justify their website budgets. I'm now registered with over a dozen media sites, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to read more than headlines.

-------------------------------------
Also from the World Bank:
-------------------------------------

FromThe World Bank Group:

World Development Reports
The World Bank's annual World Development Report (WDR) provides a wide international readership with an extraordinary window on development economics. Each year, the report focuses on a specific aspect of development.

Latest World Development Reports:

WDR 2010: Development and Climate Change
The report emphasizes that developing countries are the most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change. In fact, they face 75 to 80 percent of the potential damage from climate change and need help to cope, even as they strive to reduce poverty faster and deliver access to energy and water for all. The main message of the report is that a “climate-smart” world is possible if we act now, act together, and act differently.

WDR 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography
Places do well when they promote transformations along the dimensions of economic geography: higher densities as cities grow; shorter distances as workers and businesses migrate closer to density; and fewer divisions as nations lower their economic borders and enter world markets to take advantage of scale and trade in specialized products. WDR 2009 concludes that the transformations along these three dimensions of density, distance, and division are essential for development and should be encouraged.

WDR 2008: Agriculture for Development
In the 21st century, agriculture continues to be a fundamental instrument for sustainable development and poverty reduction. WDR 2008 concludes that agriculture alone will not be enough to massively reduce poverty, but it is an essential component of effective development strategies for most developing countries.

WDR 2007: Development and the Next Generation

Developing countries which invest in better education, healthcare, and job training for their record numbers of young people between the ages of 12 and 24 years of age, could produce surging economic growth and sharply reduced poverty, according to this report.

World Development Report 2006:

Equity Enhances The Power Of Growth To Reduce Poverty: World Development Report 2006
Press Release
September 20, 2005

Press Conference on World Development Report 2006: "Equity And Development"
Washington, D.C., September 20, 2005
with François Bourguignon
World Bank Chief Economist
and Francisco Ferreira and Michael Walton (WDR Lead Authors)

Complete report:
(links to individual sections)

World development report 2006 : equity and development
"World Development Report 2006 analyzes the relationship between equity and development. The report documents the persistence of inequality traps by highlighting the interaction between different forms of inequality. It presents evidence that the inequality of opportunity that arises is wasteful and inimical to sustainable development and poverty reduction. It also derives policy implications that center on the broad concept of leveling the playing field-both politically and economically and in the domestic and the global arenas. The report recognizes the intrinsic value of equity but aims primarily to document how a focus on equity matters for long-run development. It has three parts: Part I considers the evidence on inequality of opportunity, within and across countries. Part II asks why equity matters, discussing the two channels of impact (the effects of unequal opportunities when markets are imperfect, and the consequences of inequity for the quality of institutions a society develops) as well as intrinsic motives. Part III asks how public action can level the political and economic playing fields."

WDR 2006 Overview (PDF file - 180K, 17 pages)
Annual Meetings Briefing Center

Source:
The World Bank

More links to World Bank site content
- this link takes you further down on the page you're reading now

Millennium Goals: Poverty is not a statistic
"MONTEVIDEO, Sep 14 - Fighting poverty requires, among other things, tools for measuring the phenomenon in all its complexity. Poverty cannot be defined by having an income of one or two dollars a day, nor is there any advantage in distinguishing the very poor from the "almost" very poor, says the annual report by Social Watch, a global coalition of around 400 citizens' groups and non-governmental organisations from more than 50 countries. Although poverty basically reflects drastically unequal distribution of income, it also involves unequal access to goods, job opportunities, information and social services and reduced participation in society, says the Social Watch Report 2005, titled "Roars and Whispers. Gender and Poverty: Promises vs. Action", released Wednesday in New York."

Complete report:

Social Watch Report 2005
Roars and Whispers
Gender and poverty: promises vs. action
- includes several dozen links links to thematic reports (e.g., Poverty and globalization), reports measuring progress in specific areas (e.g., gender) and 50 country reports (Albania to Zambia).

Canada Social Watch Country Report for 2005:

Divided and distracted: regionalism as an obstacle
to reducing poverty and inequality (PDF file - 263K, 15 pages)
By Armine Yalnizyan for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
"Canada’s political agenda is increasingly marked by regional differences. The focus on decentralization and tightly controlled growth in government spending has resulted in more privatization of public goods, intensification of inequality, and heightened federal-provincial rancour. Genuine progress on poverty reduction or gender equality requires committed federal-provincial unity of purpose. The new dynamic unleashed by a minority federal government could lead to either greater inter-governmental cooperation or further balkanization."

Source:
Social Watch
"Social Watch is an international network informed by national citizens' groups aiming at following up the fulfillment of the internationally agreed commitments on poverty eradication and equality. These national groups report, through the national Social Watch report, on the progress - or regression- towards these commitments and goals.

Make Poverty History (Canada) [Platform] - "...united by the common belief that poverty can be ended."
Make Poverty History Canada at the G8 Summit - A Make Poverty History (MPH) team is in Scotland at the G8 Summit.

Make Poverty History (International)
Live8 - The Long Walk to Justice

From Google.ca:
News search Results : "Make Poverty History"
Web Search Results : "Make Poverty History"

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G8 Gleneagles - the official G8 Summit website
July 6-8, 2005
"Every year since 1975, the heads of state of the major industrial democracies have met to discuss and debate the major policy issues affecting the international community and their own domestic situations. This year this important meeting (referred to as the G8 Summit) was held at the Gleneagles Resort in Scotland. This site is the homepage for the summit, and as such, contains a host of materials on the meeting, including a FAQ section, information about the countries that participated in the G8, and a glossary of relevant terms. Of course, most visitors will want to learn about the main issues that will be dealt with this year, such as countering terrorism and climate change. The "Summit Documents" area is a section that definitely warrants a closer look, as it contains information on previous summits and policy statements that were adopted during these meetings."
Review by The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2005

Signed Version of Gleneagles Communique on
Africa, Climate Change, Energy and Sustainable Development (PDF file - 328K, 32 pages)
July 8

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Here's Make Poverty History's Response to the G8 Communique - July 8
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Chair's Summary, Gleneagles Summit
July 8
"(...)We have agreed to double aid for Africa by 2010. Aid for all developing countries will increase, according to the OECD, by around $50bn per year by 2010, of which at least $25bn extra per year for Africa."

Day-by-day guide to G8 events
- includes links to news releases, analysis, background, and more...
Source:
BBC

Canada's G8 Website (Govt. of Canada)
- includes Summit documents from the current and past summits, news releases, ministerials, past and future summits, how the G8 works, G* backgrounders, members, and more...

G8 Information Centre - at the University of Toronto
G8 Alternatives Website

From Google.ca:
News search Results : "G8 Summit, Scotland"
Web Search Results : "G8 Summit, Scotland"

GEsource
"GEsource is a free information resource for Geography and the Environment, and is aimed at staff, students and researchers in the HE and FE communities. Alongside a growing range of additional services, GEsource includes a core database of high-quality Internet resources catalogued by subject specialists across a number of disciplines - the environment, general geography, human geography, physical geography and techniques and approaches."

GEsource World Guide: Canada
- incl. Country Profile * Demographics * Geography/Maps * Economic Data * Articles * Satellite Images * Internet Links * Landscape Photos
World Guides ===> same info as above for 270 countries!

Country Comparison Tool - compare up to four countries : Population - Population Growth - Migration - Life expectancy - Gender ratio - Age structure - Birth rate - Death rate - GDP - GDP per Capita - GDP Growth - Unemployment - Labour force - Area- Coastline - Boundaries

GEsource is one of the partners in the Resource Discovery Network - RDN (U.K.)
"The Resource Discovery Network is the UK's free national gateway to Internet resources for the learning, teaching and research community. The service currently links to more than 100,000 resources via a series of subject-based information gateways (or hubs). The RDN is primarily aimed at Internet users in UK further and higher education but is freely available to all."

SOSIG - The Social Science Information Gateway
- another partner of the RDN, well worth an exploratory visit if you've never seen this huge European/international site...

Women’s Empowerment:
Measuring the Global Gender Gap (PDF file - 1.3MB, 23 pages)
May 2005
"This study is a first attempt by the World Economic Forum to assess the current size of the gender gap by measuring the extent to which women in 58 countries have achieved equality with men in five critical areas: economic participation, economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and well-being. Countries that do not capitalize on the full potential of one half of their societies are misallocating their human resources and undermining their competitive potential. Consolidating publicly available data from international organizations, national statistics and unique survey data from the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey, the study assesses the status accorded to women in a broad range of countries."
- includes Canada (7th place), U.S. (17th place)
Source:
World Economic Forum

Social Watch
"Founded in 1995, Social Watch was first established to provide a global platform for non-governmental organizations to monitor and promote the effective implementation of the commitments made by national governments during the United Nations World Summit on Social Development. Since that time, the group's work has continued in the areas of monitoring poverty eradication and gender equality and users with interests in these areas will appreciate both the organization's annual report (available from the homepage) and its country-by-country reports. One very well-developed interactive graphic feature is the development indicator section of the site. Here, visitors can view representations of such indicators as female adult literacy, deforestation, and fertility across the globe, along with discrete data from each country. Additionally, many of the materials offered here are available in Spanish as well."
Review by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2005.
- Current issue of the Scout Report

Sources and resources - excellent collection from Social Watch --- 200 links to resources for NGOs.

Social Capital Gateway - Resources for the Study of Social Capital (International resource)
"Social Capital Gateway (formerly Capitale Sociale.it) is a personal, non profit, initiative. It is not funded neither by academic nor by private for profit institutions. My primary goals are:
• Providing useful resources for researchers, teachers, students, and practitioners interested in the study of social capital and other related topics, like poverty and development.
• Promoting discussion and ideas exchange on these topics."
[By Fabio Sabatini, site creator and editor]

- incl. links to : Social Capital Resources (Reading List, Digital Libraries, Websites, Directory of Social Scientists) - Resources for Social Sciences (Working papers, Databases and E-Journals) - Social Sciences Departments and Universities all over the world - National and international Organizations and Institutions - much more...

-covers the following themes : Basic concepts - Social capital and the economy - Social capital and development in advanced economies - Social capital and institutions - Social capital and well-being - Social capital and development
in low income countries - Social capital and transition

Measuring Social Capital in Italy: An Exploratory Analysis (PDF file - 955K, 45 pages)
April 2005
Fabio Sabatini
Università di Roma "La Sapienza"
Working Paper n.12
"...The aim of this paper is to trace a map of Italian local social capital endowments. It focuses on the 'structural'dimension of the concept, as identified with social networks. The analysis is based on a dataset collected by the author including about two hundred indicators of five main social capital dimensions: strong family ties, weak informal ties, voluntary organizations, civic awareness, and political participation."

Web Sites for the Study of Social Capital
- hundreds of links organized under the following headings : Web sites on social capital • Web sites on poverty and development • Web sites on civil society • Web sites on the welfare state• Web sites on game theory and social interactions

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Bonn (Germany)
"IZA is a private, independent research institute, which conducts nationally and internationally oriented labor market research. Operating as a non-profit limited liability company, it draws financial support from the research-sponsoring activities of the Deutsche Post Foundation. (...) IZA sees itself as an international research institute and a place for communication between academic science, politics, and economic practice. A number of renowned economists involved in specific research projects cooperate with IZA, either internally or on a "virtual" basis. IZA also takes an active part in international research networks.

Sample recent reports:

Principles and Practicalities for Measuring Child Poverty in the Rich Countries (PDF file - 231K, 69 pages)
April 2005
Miles Corak
"This paper has three objectives. The first is to discuss the major issues involved in defining and measuring child poverty. The choices that must be made are clarified, and a set of six principles to serve as a guide for public policy are stated. The second objective is to take stock of child poverty and changes in child poverty in the majority of OECD countries since about 1990 when the Convention on the Rights of the Child came into force. Finally, the third objective is to formulate a number of suggestions for the setting of credible targets for the elimination of child poverty in the rich countries. This involves a method for embodying the ideal of children having priority on social resources into a particular set of child poverty reduction targets, it involves the development of appropriate and timely information sources, and finally it involves the clarification of feasible targets that may vary across the OECD."

Child Poverty and Changes in Child Poverty in Rich Countries Since 1990 (PDF file - 249K, 65 pages)
April 2005
by Wen-Hao Chen, Miles Corak
"This paper documents levels and changes in child poverty rates in 12 OECD countries using data from the Luxembourg Income Study project, and focusing upon an analysis of the reasons for changes over the 1990s. The objective is to uncover the relative role of income transfers from the state in determining the magnitude and direction of change in child poverty rates, holding other demographic and labour market factors constant. As such the paper offers a cross-country overview of child poverty, changes in child poverty, and the impact of public policy in North America and Europe."

2005 IZA Discussion Papers
- links to 150 IZA reports released this year + links to hundreds of reports for previous years back to 1998 (for example, there are 474 papers in the 2004 collection

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, by Jeffrey Sachs
"On March 22, 2005 Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), delivered an address to World Bank staff at World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC. The event, sponsored by the World Bank’s Public Information Center, the InfoShop, served to promote the release of Sachs’s new book, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time."

Watch the Video of Mr. Sachs' presentation (1:21:00 minutes)
- if your computer isn't behind a corporate firewall and if you have speakers and a sound card, you can listen to the address online.
- click the link above, select your connection speed (high-speed vs dial-up), then sit back and listen...
"In his address, Sachs emphasized that if the MDGs are to be met, not only must official development assistance from the world’s wealthiest countries be increased, but more broadly the international donor community must adjust its approach to development aid. A key strategy of this change is for rich countries to partner with poor countries. Sachs commended the World Bank for its work and outgoing President James Wolfensohn for his exceptional leadership over the past decade moving the institution toward the goal of poverty reduction and away from structural adjustment lending.
- includes a question and answer period following the presentation.

Related Links:

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time - incl. Further Reading - Facts on Poverty - How You Can Help - Events - Media
NOTE: you'll find a number of links on the Media page to other work by Jeffery Sachs and about poverty

The End of Poverty (PDF file - 477K, 11 pages)
by Jeffrey D. Sachs, Time Magazine, March 14, 2005

Related Links:

IMF Executive Board Concludes 2005 Article IV Consultation with Canada
Public Information Notice
March 29, 2005
International Monetary Fund
"On February 16, 2005, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with Canada."

Canada: 2005 Article IV Consultation—Staff Report; Staff Statement; and the Public
Information Notice on the Executive Board Discussion for Canada (PDF file - 527K, 51 pages)
March 2005

Canada: Selected Issues (PDF file - 909K, 121 pages)
March 29, 2005

Source:
International Monetary Fund
"The IMF is an organization of 184 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty.."

- Go to the Globalization Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/global.htm

Global Call to Action Against Poverty
The Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) is a growing alliance that brings together trade unions, NGOs, the women’s and youth movements, community and faith groups and others to call for action from world leaders in the global North and South to meet their promises to end poverty and inequality.

World Economic Forum
"The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world. The Forum provides a collaborative framework for the world's leaders to address global issues, engaging particularly its corporate members in global citizenship. (...) Funded by the membership fees of the 1,000 foremost global companies, the Forum works in partnership with academia, government representatives, international organizations, labour leaders, media, non-governmental organizations and religious leaders."
Annual Meeting 2005:
"Taking Responsibility for Tough Choices"
Davos, Switzerland, 26-30 January 2005

From Google.ca:
"World Economic Forum" Web Search
"World Economic Forum" News Search

-------------------------------------

World Social Forum
"The World Social Forum is an open meeting place where groups and movements of civil society opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism, but engaged in building a planetary society centred on the human person, come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, for formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action"

Annual Meeting 2005
Porto Alegre, Brazil, January 26-31, 2005

From Google.ca:
"World Social Forum" Web Search
"World Social Forum" News Search

International Reform Monitor - Issue 9 / 2004 (PDF file - 351K, 94 pages)
Social Policy, Labour Market Policy, Industrial Relations
June 2004
- incl. links to : Project Information - Activation without perspective? - Social Policy - Health Care - Pensions and Social Security - Nursing and Elder Care - State Welfare and Social Assistance - Family Issues - Labor Market Policy - Industrial Relations - Important General Developments - Reform Tracker
- covers 15 OECD countries, includes info about Canadian labour market and social policy trends and developments
Source :
International Reform Monitor - incl. links to all previous issues of the Reform Monitor going back to 1999, most of which include Canadian content.
Take the time to browse these articles for country profiles and comparative information...
[ Bertelsmann Stiftung ]
(formerly The Bertelsmann Foundation - Europe)
"In keeping with the longstanding social commitment of its founder, Reinhard Mohn, the Bertelsmann Stiftung is dedicated to serving the common good. The belief that competition and civic involvement form an essential basis for social progress is central to the Foundation’s work."
The Bertelsmann Foundation website gives a wide range of information on social policy (health care, pensions provision, family policy, state welfare), labour market policy and industrial relations in 15 OECD countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America.
[Canadian contributions are from the Caledon Institute of Social Policy and the Centre for the Study of Living Standards ]

From the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (U.K.):

Centenary report throws new searchlight on Britain’s poor families and neighbourhoods
Press Release
December 13, 2004
"Challenging new indicators that reveal the concentrations of child poverty, poor housing, school underachievement and crime in Britain’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods should be used by government to intensify the struggle against deprivation and social exclusion during the next 20 years, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. A report published to mark the Foundation’s 100th anniversary today argues that the new measurements should inform a comprehensive strategy for helping the poorest places as well as the poorest people – and for making sure that the life chances of children, young people and adults no longer depend so heavily on the places where they are born and live."

One Hundred Years of Poverty and Policy (PDF file - 874K,188 pages) - U.K.
November 2004

Recent releases from Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion (U.K.):

Poverty falls for families and pensioners, but increases among adults without children - Britain
2004 Monitoring Report Press Release
December 1, 2004
"Poverty in Britain is continuing to decline. But while fewer families and pensioners are living on low incomes, the number of childless working-age adults below the poverty line has increased, according to independent monitoring by the New Policy Institute for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2004, the latest annual review of progress, takes stock of 50 different indicators including measures of income, employment, education, health, housing and crime. It shows improvements over the past five to six years on 18 of the indicators, compared with eight that have grown worse. However, it also suggests that a number of positive trends have stalled in recent years, including progress in reducing low achievement in schools. As a result, changes measured over the past year show only 10 improving indicators, against seven that have grown worse."

Complete report:
Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2004 (PDF file - 3.2MB, 72 pages)
Report Highlights (PDF file - 108K, 6 pages)

Poverty falling for Scotland's families and pensioners, but rising among childless adults - Scotland
2004 Scotland Monitoring Report Press Release
November 29, 2004
"Poverty rates among pensioners and families with children in Scotland are falling - but the proportion of childless adults who live on low incomes is on the increase. Working-age adults who have no dependent children now account for one in three Scottish people living in income poverty, according to independent monitoring by the New Policy Institute for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Scotland 2004 analyses trends over the past five years using 40 different indicators. These include income, employment, education, health, housing and crime. The new report builds on its predecessor, published two years ago, and has a particular focus on variations in the indicators between different local authority areas in Scotland."

Complete report:
Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Scotland 2004 (PDF file - 1.2MB, 112 pages)

‘New Deal' Need For Low Paid: Minimum Wage Won't Solve The Problem
News Release
October 22, 2004
"The National Minimum Wage and Government tax credits will not be enough to solve the problem of poverty pay, a new report warns today."

Complete report:
Why Worry Any More about the Low Paid?” (PDF file - 647K, 51 pages)
"(...) The National Minimum Wage (NMW) is too low to ensure that employees are free of poverty without means-tested support – 'at £4.85 the NMW falls short of that level even for a single adult working full time'."

Source:
Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion
"This site monitors what is happening to poverty and social exclusion in the UK and complements our annual monitoring reports. The material is organised around 50 statistical indicators covering all aspects of the subject, from income and work to health and education."

Related Link:

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Luxembourg Income Study Working Papers Number 351-393
Current up to November 9, 2004
This is a selection of titles from the latest group of working papers to be posted to the LIS website.
Some of the stuff is pretty dry, written by economists for economists --- but there are some program information gems in here...
If you click on the link above, you'll find a summary of each of the reports below (and more), and a link to the complete report.

* No. 393. Societal Shifts and Changed Patterns of Poverty, by Johan Fritzell and Veli-Matti Ritakallio, September 2004.
* No. 392. State Redistribution in Comparative Perspective: A Cross-National Analysis of the Developed Countries, by Vincent Mahler and David Jesuit, November 2004.
* No. 391. Electoral Support for Extreme Right-Wing Parties: A Subnational Analysis of Western European Elections in the 1990s, by David Jesuit and Vincent Mahler, August 2004.
* No. 390. The Welfare State and Relative Poverty in Rich Western Democracies, 1967-1997, by David Brady, October 2004.
* No. 389. Gender Differences in Poverty: A Cross-National Research, by Pamala Wiepking and Ineke Maas, October 2004.
* No. 388. Sliding into Poverty? Cross-National Patterns of Income Source Change and Income Decay in Old Age, by James Williamson and Timothy M. Smeeding, October 2004.
* No. 387. Welfare State Expenditures and the Redistribution of Well-Being: Children, Elders, and Others in Comparative Perspective, by Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater, and Timothy M. Smeeding, October 2004.
* No. 386. Income Distribution in 14 OECD Nations, 1967-2000: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study, by Thomas W. Volscho, Jr., August 2004.
* No. 385. Economic Inequality and Democratic Political Engagement, by Frederick Solt, July 2004.
* No. 384. Relative to What? Cross-national Picture of European Poverty Measured by Regional, National and European Standards, by Olli Kangas and Veli-Matti Ritakallio, June 2004.
* No. 383. Fractionalization and the Size of Government, by Jo thori Lind, June 2004.
* No. 382. Family Gaps in Income: A Cross-national Comparison, by Wendy Sigle-Rushton and Jane Waldfogel, June 2004.
* No. 381. The Social Evaluation of Income Distribution: An Assessment Based on Happiness Surveys, by Udo Ebert and Heinz Welsch, June 2004.
* No. 380. Inequality in Household Income: A Cross-Country Inter-Industry Analysis, by C. Jeffrey Waddoups, June 2004.
* No. 379. Welfare State Expenditures and the Distribution of Child Opportunities, by Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater and Timothy Smeeding, June 2004.
* No. 378. Bootstrapping the LIS: Statistical Inference and Patterns of Inequality in the Global North, by Timothy Patrick Moran, May 2004.
* No. 377. Female Income Differentials and Social Benefits: A Four Country Comparison, by Eva Sierminska, May 2004.
* No. 376. Child Poverty in English-Speaking Countries, by John Micklewright, March 2004.
* No. 375. How the Human Capital Model Explains Why the Gender Wage Gap Narrowed, by Solomon W. Polachek, April 2003.
* No. 374. Brave New World? Value of Education in Post-Socialist Poland, by Mikko Aro, April 2004.
* No. 373. The Formation of Minimum Income Protection, by Kenneth Nelson, April 2004.
* No. 372. Mechanisms of Poverty Alleviation, by Kenneth Nelson, April 2004.
* No. 371. Reconsidering the Divergence between Elderly, Child and Overall Poverty, by David Brady, April 2004.
* No. 370. Welfare States, Real Income and Poverty, by Lane Kenworthy, February 2004.
* No. 369. Comparative Analysis of the Effective Income Tax Function: Empirical Evidence using LIS Data, by Byung In Lim and Jin Kwon Hyun, January 2004.
* No. 368. Rethinking the Measures of Poverty, by Seppo Sallila, Heikki Hiilamo, and Reijo Sund, February 2004.
* No. 367. Public Policy and Economic Inequality: The United States in Comparative Perspective, by Timothy M. Smeeding, February 2004.
* No. 366. Do Multiculturalism Policies Erode the Welfare State?, by Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka, December 2003.
* No. 365. Human Capital Content and Selectivity of Romanian Emigration, (revised) by Dragos Radu, December 2003.
* No. 363. Is Mothers' Employment an Effective Means to Fight Family Poverty? Empirical Evidence from Seven European Countries, by Felix Büchel, Antje Mertens, and Kristian Orsini, November 2003.
* No. 362. An Equality-Growth Tradeoff?, by Lane Kenworthy, November 2003.
* No. 361. Exploring the Long Term Effects of Educational Policies on the Income Redistribution Processes, by Jorge Calero, October 2003.
* No. 360. Fertility and Family Income on the Move: An International Comparison Over 20 Years, by Nicola Dickmann, October 2003.
* No. 359. Inequality in the Family: The Institutional Aspects of Wives' Earning Dependency, by Haya Stier and Hadas Mandel, October 2003.
* No. 358. Sampling Design of Health Surveys: Household as a Sampling Unit, by Renáta Németh, September 2003.
* No. 357. Poverty in Mexico in the 1990s, by Jesus Manuel Salas, July 2003.
* No. 356. The Impact of Social Transfers in Central and Eastern Europe, by Alfio Cerami, September 2003.
* No. 355. Social Transfers and Income Inequality in Old-age: A Multi-national Perspective?, by Robert L. Brown and Steven G. Prus, August 2003.
* No. 354. Does the Profile of Income Inequality Matter for Economic Growth?, by Sara Voitchovsky, May 2003.
* No. 353. Two Worlds of Retirement Income: A Comparative Analysis of Retirement-Income Outcomes Using the Luxembourg Income Study, by Kevin Lomax and Brian Gran, June 2003.
* No. 352. The Politics of Poverty: Left Political Institutions, the Welfare State and Poverty, by David Brady, June 2003.
* No. 351. The Feminist Explanations for the Feminization of Poverty, by Steven Pressman, February 2003.

NOTE: if you click on the link above and scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll find links to all 393 working papers, 50 papers at a time.
If you want to be overwhelmed, try clicking on the following link - all 393, or all in one file:
Working Papers No. 1-392

Source:
Luxembourg Income Study

Income Distribution in 14 OECD Nations, 1967-2000:
Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study (PDF file - 458K, 47 pages)
August 2004
"This paper advances the understanding of income inequality by examining quintile shares of income among households headed by someone age 25-59 in 14 OECD nations. In examining quintile shares, the author attempts to resolve the contradictory findings from past research."
- countries covered : Australia - Belgium - Canada - Denmark - Finland - France - Germany - Italy - Netherlands -, Norway - Sweden -, Switzerland - United Kingdom - United States
Source:
Department of Sociology (University of Connecticut)

Relative to What?
Cross-national Picture of European Poverty
Measured by Regional, National and European Standards(PDF file - 587K, 32 pages)
June 2004
"The starting point in the paper is the relative concept of poverty. We will study how our picture of poverty will change if we accept a very relative concept of poverty. The first problem we encountered was the selection of the benchmark. A couple of alternative ways to conduct relativizations were selected. First, we applied the conventional poverty approach. The poor were those whose income remained below 60% of the national equivalent disposable income. Second, we collapsed European nations together into one data pool and calculated a common poverty line for the EU. This EU line was then applied in subsequent analyses. Thirdly, we decomposed nation states into smaller units representing the poorest and richest areas in respective countries. Data were compiled from the Luxembourg Income Study."
Source:
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Syracuse University (Syracuse, New York)

Family Gaps in Income: A Cross-National Comparison (PDF file - 828K, 52 pages)
June 2004
"Using data on nine countries from the Luxembourg Income Study database, we estimate trajectories in gross and disposable family incomes for families following one of several stylized life-courses. (...) Our nine sample countries include Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and United States from the Anglo-American group of Liberal countries; Germany and the Netherlands from conservative Continental Europe; and Denmark, Finland and Sweden from the social democratic, Nordic group."
Source:
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Syracuse University (Syracuse, New York)

Innocenti social monitor 2004:
Economic growth and child poverty in the CEE/CIS and the Baltic States (PDF file - 1.4MB, 144 pages)
"Innocenti Social Monitor 2004 reviews recent socio-economic trends in the 27 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It examines child poverty in an integrating world from four different perspectives: Economic Growth and Child Poverty - Economic Integration, Labour Markets and Children - Migration Trends and Policy Implications - Young People and Drugs: Increasing Health Risks. The Statistical Annex covers a broad range of indicators for the years 1989 to 2002-2003,including population trends, births and fertility, mortality, family formation, health, education, child protection, crime, income, as well as a comprehensive statistical profile of each country in the region."

Summary report of the study on the impact of the
implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (PDF file - 742K, 30 pages)
November 2004
"The reports of the CRC Implementation Report will further develop a UNICEF IRC study on the impact of the Convention on the Rights of Child through a distinctive focus on “general measures of implementation” of the CRC – measures that make possible the sustained monitoring, promotion and protection of child rights. The first report will analyze the national experiences of 30 States from Europe and Latin-Caribbean regions in implementing the general measures of implementation of the CRC. This report will also analyze regional strengths, achievements and challenges faced in this regard."
[NOTE: includes references to Canada]

Source:
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (Florence, Italy)

International Social Security Association (ISSA)
"(...) ...the International Social Security Association (ISSA) was founded in 1927. A privileged forum for social security institutions throughout the world and an acknowledged partner with everyone interested in the appropriate development of social protection adapted to the genuine needs of populations, the ISSA has become a universal institution whose essential role is inherent in the network which it embodies."
- incl. links to : About ISSA - Fields of Activity - Meetings - Documentation Centre - Databases SSW - Publications - Other Sites

Fields of activity include : Social security - Research - Training - Actuarial and statistical issues - Administrative management - Information technology - Prevention

ISSA Initiative
Strengthening the security in social security
"The ISSA Initiative is a public outreach programme aimed at disseminating information and ideas about social security to a worldwide audience of policy makers, heads of social security institutions and the public at large. Through this programme, the ISSA wants to help focus public debate on the security that social security offers to people. The title of the ISSA Initiative, Strengthening the security in social security, highlights the two fundamental questions it addresses:
- To what extent does social security meet public expectations?
- How can the security that social security provides be reinforced?

ISSA Initiative Toolkit (PDF file - 3.2MB, 103 pages)
The Initiative is a response to ISSA member organisations’ desire to be better equipped to take an active part in dialogues and debates about the future of social security in their respective countries.The leaders of social security systems around the world are faced with an increasingly complicated array of questions and issues to which they must respond:
• Is social security protection compatible with economic growth?
• What steps should be taken to extend social security coverage to the majority of workers and their dependents who remain outside the umbrella of social security protection?
• Is it possible to ensure the financial solvency of social security programmes while at the same time guaranteeing an adequate level of benefits to the individual?
The Toolkit is a user-friendly resource to help social security policy makers and managers explain social security to insured persons, trade union leaders, employers, legislators, journalists and the general public. With this information, policy makers can get the message out that further improvements in social security protection can and must be achieved to ensure social and economic stability in society.

ISSA Initiative Publications - links to 18 publications dating from April 2002 to August 2004

Canadians demanding innovation in social policy -
Minister Stewart says Government of Canada and its partners can deliver
News Release
September 10, 2002
"Canadians believe that maintaining a strong, sustainable and vibrant social security system is a key factor in the continual improvement of their quality of life. The Honourable Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources Development Canada, in her keynote speech to the International Social Security Association (ISSA) conference today in Vancouver said that governments will continue to play a leading role in developing social policy but they must work as partners in the process, not as parents."
Minister Stewart's Speech (September 10)

A decade of tackling poverty, but Britain's far from a fair society
Press Release
August 2, 2004
"Ten years after its groundbreaking Commission on Social Justice, set up at the request of the late John Smith, the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) is today (Mon 2) publishing an audit of social injustice. It forms the first part of ippr's work on Rethinking Social Justice, a project which assesses how Britain has changed since the 1994 Commission and sets out new policy directions for the decade ahead."

An Audit of Injustice in the UK (PDF file - 1.16MB, 68 pages)
August 2004
Will Paxton and Mike Dixon
"The interim report for ippr's 2004 social justice project presents facts and figures on the UK and its population. What has improved in the past decade and what has not? The paper is divided into five sections: 'poverty', 'shared prosperity', 'social mobility and life chances', 'equal citizenship' and 'quality of life'. It finds that much has improved in the UK over the past decade, but to ensure a legacy of a more just Britain, we can't hide from areas where we have made less progress."

Project Outline (PDF file - 152K, 11 pages)
January 2004
This paper outlines the scope and aim of ippr's Social Justice project. It is meant merely as the basis for discussion. Some of the issues raised may not be examined in detail in the final publication and other policy challenges may be added as the project develops."

Source:
Institute for Public Policy Research
"ippr is the UK's leading progressive think tank. Through our well-researched and clearly argued policy analysis, reports and publications, our strong networks in government, academia and the corporate and voluntary sectors and our high media profile, we play a vital role in maintaining the momentum of progressive thought."

Luxembourg Income Study (LIS)
The Luxembourg Income Study is an ongoing cooperative research project (started in 1983) with a membership that includes 25 countries (including Canada) on four continents: Europe, America, Asia and Oceania.

Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Working Papers Number 351-384
- updated to August 2004
This is a selection of titles from the latest group of working papers to be posted to the LIS website.
Some of the stuff is pretty dry, written by economists for economists --- but there are some program information gems in here...
If you click on the link above, you'll find a summary of each of the reports below (and more), and a link to the complete report.

Relative to What? Cross-national Picture of European Poverty Measured by Regional, National and European Standards,
by Olli Kangas and Veli-Matti Ritakallio, June 2004.
Family Gaps in Income: A Cross-national Comparison,
by Wendy Sigle-Rushton and Jane Waldfogel, June 2004.
Inequality in Household Income: A Cross-Country Inter-Industry Analysis,
by C. Jeffrey Waddoups, June 2004.
Welfare State Expenditures and the Distribution of Child Opportunities,
by Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater and Timothy Smeeding, June 2004.
Female Income Differentials and Social Benefits: A Four Country Comparison,
by Eva Sierminska, May 2004.
Child Poverty in English-Speaking Countries,
by John Micklewright, March 2004.
How the Human Capital Model Explains Why the Gender Wage Gap Narrowed,
by Solomon W. Polachek, April 2003.
The Formation of Minimum Income Protection,
by Kenneth Nelson, April 2004.
Mechanisms of Poverty Alleviation,
by Kenneth Nelson, April 2004.
Reconsidering the Divergence between Elderly, Child and Overall Poverty,
by David Brady, April 2004.
Welfare States, Real Income and Poverty,
by Lane Kenworthy, February 2004.
Rethinking the Measures of Poverty,
by Seppo Sallila, Heikki Hiilamo, and Reijo Sund, February 2004.
Public Policy and Economic Inequality:
The United States in Comparative Perspective,
by Timothy M. Smeeding, February 2004.
Do Multiculturalism Policies Erode the Welfare State?,
by Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka, December 2003.
Welfare Family Policies and Gender Earnings Inequality: A Cross-National Comparative Analysis,
by Hadas Mandel and Moshe Semyonov, December 2003.
Is Mothers' Employment an Effective Means to Fight Family Poverty? Empirical Evidence from Seven European Countries,
by Felix Büchel, Antje Mertens, and Kristian Orsini, November 2003.
Inequality in the Family: The Institutional Aspects of Wives' Earning Dependency,
by Haya Stier and Hadas Mandel, October 2003.

Working Papers No. 1-384 - view the entire collection of LIS working papers on a single page

Chronic Poverty Report 2004-05
Released May 12, 2004
- incl. links to PDF files for each chapter and the report appendices
[NOTE: this report is about Third World poverty; Canada and the U.S. are not included]
"The report examines what chronic poverty is and why it matters, who the chronically are, where they live, what causes poverty to be persistent and what should be done about it. A section of regional perspectives looks at the experience of chronic poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, transitional countries and China. A statistical appendix brings together data on global trends on chronic poverty."

Source:
Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) - UK-based international partnership of universities, research institutes and NGOs
- incl. links to : CPRC Home - About CPRC - Partners - Working Papers - Bibliographic Database - Methods Toolbox - Children in Poverty - News and Events - Chronic Poverty Update - International Conference (April 2003) - Related Links
- Working Papers - links to 35 papers on poverty (back to March 2001)

Amnesty International Report 2004
May 26, 2004
- incl. links to : AI Report 2004 - Secretary General's message - A human rights agenda - AI's activities - Regional overview (Africa - Americas - Asia and the Pacific - Europe and Central Asia - Middle East and North Africa) - List of countries - Report Guide - Buy the report

Press Release:
Report 2004: War on global values -- attacks by armed groups and governments fuel mistrust, fear and division
May 26, 2004
"(London) Governments and armed groups have launched a war on global values, destroying the human rights of ordinary people, Amnesty International said today as it released its annual assessment of human rights worldwide. Launching the Amnesty International Report 2004, the organization said that violence by armed groups and increasing violations by governments have combined to produce the most sustained attack on human rights and international humanitarian law in 50 years. This was leading to a world of growing mistrust, fear and division."

A few sample country reports:

- Canada Report 2004
- United States Report 2004

Source:
Amnesty International

Social Watch Annual Report 2004
Fear and Want --- Obstacles to Human Security
April 26, 2004
- table of contents + links to each section of the report in both HTML and PDF format
[ Complete report (PDF file - 4.23MB, 229 pages) ]
- 30+ thematic and progress reports on a wide range of issues, including the following (to name but a few) : Judge and jury: the World Bank’s scorecard for borrowing governments - Tax evasion: hidden billions for development - Stopping mass murder: action against AIDS - No human security without gender equality - Women’s agency in the midst of crises - The most unequal of the unequal - European Union security concerns vs. human security aspirations - The linkages between international, national and human security - Country gender ranking - General classification of countries: situation by thematic area and Quality of Life Index - The present situation of poverty in the world - Food security - Health - Women’s reproductive health - Habitat - Education - Gender equity - Public expenditure - Status of ratifications of international human rights treaties, conventions, the Millennium Declaration, status of country reports, etc.
----- to read any of these reports, click on the Social Watch annual report link above (not the PDF file) - on the next page, you'll find links to all of these reports.

Country Reports - 49 countries, from Algeria to Zambia
Sample country reports:

Canada
Trading off human security for fiscal balance (PDF file - 131K, 2 pages)
April 2004
By Armine Yalnizyan for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

United States
The poor are poorer and more insecure (PDF file - 77K, 2 pages)
April 2004
By Steve Suppan with Alexandra Spieldoch for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) --- [ Version française : Réseau européen des associations de lutte contre la pauvreté et l'exclusion sociale ]
"EAPN is an independent coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and groups involved in the fight against poverty and social exclusion in the Member States of the European Union."
EAPN is a network of 15 national networks of voluntary organisations and grassroots groups active in the fight against poverty within each member state of the EU.
26 European organisations whose main activities are related to the fight against poverty and social exclusion.
- incl. links to : EAPN profile - Members - Publications - Events - Useful links - Contacts

EAPN national networks and
European organisations in membership of EAPN
- includes contact information and websites (where available) to EAPN networks in the EU and European-wide EAPN member organisations

Related Links - 60+ links to anti-poverty resources, mostly in Europe

Publications
- links to 100+ online documents, including Network News (newsletter), position papers, EAPN Flash Reports, press releases and working documents

EU strategy to combat social exclusion (EAPN)
"In 2000, the European Union adopted a strategic approach to addressing poverty and social exclusion. Member States are to contribute to the strategy through national action plans on social inclusion, on the basis of common objectives adopted at European level. In addition a 5-year Community action programme supports the coordination of the strategy at European level."

Network News : March-April 2004 Issue (PDF file - 765K, 12 pages)
European Anti Poverty Network (EAPN)
[On May 1/04, ten new Member states join the European Union. EAPN calls it "one of the most challenging processes the Union has had to face since its creation."]
"The March-April issue of the EAPN newsletter is devoted to the enlargement of the EU, and – more specifically – on the Joint Inclusion Memoranda process. Besides a general assessment of the JIM and articles on specific issues (homelessness in Poland, Roma in Slovakia), you will find short summaries of all JIMs, as well as statistics on poverty and unemployment in the new Member States."
Source:
European Anti Poverty Network

World-wide quality of life survey
United Kingdom
London, 1 March 2004
"For overall quality of life, Zurich and Geneva rank top; Baghdad scores lowest. Athens has Western Europe’s poorest health and sanitary conditions. Mercer Human Resource Consulting’s overall quality of life survey has revealed that Zurich and Geneva are the world’s top-scoring cities, with 106.5 points. Geneva moves up from second place last year (score 106) and pushes Vancouver down a place (score 106). This move takes account of Geneva’s schools, where standards of education, both in public and private schools, are now rated among the best in the world."
Source:
Mercer Human Resources Consulting

Related Link:

Canadian cities near the top in health, quality of life
The Ottawa Citizen
March 1, 2004

Towards a credible poverty framework : From income poverty to deprivation (PDF file - 235K, 23 pages) - Australia
January 2004
SPRC discussion paper, n° 131
"There have always been differences of view on what poverty means in conceptual terms, and even greater differences on how to measure it. These differences span a broad spectrum of normative and ideological positions and raise a number of technical issues surrounding the statistical measurement of poverty. This paper explains the role of poverty research and the value of a poverty line, while acknowledging that limitations exist with the current instruments. It argues that any poverty measure must include two key ingredients of poverty – the idea that resources are inadequate to meet basic needs and the notion that needs can only be defined relative to prevailing community attitudes and standards."
Source:
Social Policy Research Centre (Sydney, Australia)
SPRC Discussion Papers - links to 60+ discussion papers online

New from Canadian Policy Research Networks :

Social Protection Reforms in Europe: Strategies for a New Social Model (PDF file - 1.44MB, 65 pages)*
January 2004
by Bruno Palier
"By examining both the national level and that of the European Union, Palier provides a two-level analysis of the patterns of challenge and change in the many systems of social protection in Europe. He also considers in detail the politics of reform, including the strategies used within countries and those deployed within the institutions of the European Union so as to ensure a modernization of the European Social Model."
Summary (small PDF file)*

One Discourse, Three Dialects: Changing the Social Model in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (PDF file - 1.71MB, 126 pages)*
January 2004
by Roxanne M. Pawlick and Sharon M. Stroick
"(...) detailed comparative policy analysis of the three "liberal welfare regimes" usually treated as most similar to Canada, that is, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. In addition to a narrative analysis of the ways these three countries have altered their social models, the research report provides a unique set of comparative inventory tables of the specific programs in place in each country."
Summary (small PDF file)*

.....................................................................................
* NOTE: the CPRN website uses a popup window to link to each PDF file, and I'm unable to provide a direct link to the files themselves. In each case above, you must click on the link and then, on the next page, click on the word "Download" to access the file. ARGH.
......................................................................................

CPRN Themes:
Canada's Changing Social Architecture
The Best Policy Mix for Canadians

Source:
Family Network (CPRN)

World Social Forum 2004
Mumbai, India
January 16-21, 2004
"The World Social Forum is not an organisation, not a united front platform, but '…an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and inter-linking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neo- liberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a society centred on the human person'." (From the WSF Charter of Principles).
.........
"The World Social Forum (WSF) was created to provide an open platform to discuss strategies of resistance to the model for globalisation formulated at the annual World Economic Forum at Davos by large multinational corporations, national governments, IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, which are the foot soldiers of these corporations."
Source:
Who we Are (WSF)

Related Links:

That WSF Bubble
Indian Express
January 20, 2004
"The delegates gathered in Mumbai must engage widely to give globalisation a human face.(...) If the WSF has to improve our world, if globalisation is to be humane, its leading lights must engage with those much despised financiers and corporates. The future does not lie in a bubble."
NOTE: at the bottom of this article, you'll find links to more information on:
NGOs - NGOs and Global Conferences - Advocacy Methods for NGOs - Economic Expansion ---- Recommended reading!

NOTE: for links to info about the World Economic Forum 2004 (a concurrent annual event), see the Canadian Social Research Links Social Research Links in Other Countries (Government) page

General Guides and Mega Indexes
100+ links to social research websites in the following countries and regions : Australia - Latin America (General | Argentina | Brasil | Chile | Costa Rica) - Asia (China | Japan) - Canada - USA - Middle East - Israel - Europe (Czech Republic | France | Germany | Italy | Netherlands | Poland | Spain | Switzerland | UK)
Source:
SocioSite - Social science information system based at the University of Amsterdam
NOTE: the SocioSite is worth a visit when you have a lot of exploring time on your hands - it's an enormous site with resources in a multitude of areas
See, for example:
Sociological Subjects - over 170 topics, from Activism to Youth (for each topic, you'll find a large international collection of links)

Social Forum Seeks Alternative to Globalisation
November 10, 2003
"The European Social Forum opening in Paris Wednesday will look for an economic model that could become an alternative to capital-led globalisation. This search will be a central theme during the three days of meetings that will see 270 seminars, 55 conferences and 287 workshops in and around Paris. Close to 60,000 delegates from 1,500 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are expected to attend. Other themes will include a critical review of European agriculture policy, women's rights and xenophobia. The European Social Forum (ESF) will also seek to promote dialogue between cultures and peoples, organisers say."
Source:
IPS-Inter Press Service – the Global Gateway
"Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS), the world's leading provider of information on global issues, is backed by a network of journalists in more than 100 countries. (...) IPS focuses its news coverage on the events and global processes affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations.

Related Link:

Second European Social Forum (Official site)
November 12-15, 2003
Paris
- incl. links to : About ESF - Registration - Accommodation - Program - Practical Information - Around the ESF - Preparatory Process - Press - Transportation - Volunteers - Stalls - Written proceedings

More globalization links: see the Canadian Social Research Links Globalization Links page

Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies (CeRP)
[ Italian version of this site ]
"CeRP is a research centre set up in 2000 within the consortium CORIPE Piemonte and in connection with the University of Turin; it receives financial support from the Foundation Compagnia di San Paolo. This is the first centre specifically focusing on the study of pensions and welfare policies in Italy [emphasis added]. Research is addressed to the various forms of pension provisions: public and private, compulsory and free, pay-as-you-go and funded."
CORIPE Piemonte - (local government-university consortium offering post-graduate programmes in economics and finance)

CeRP Working Papers - links to ~30 papers in English from September 2000 to July 2003
Publications - incl. working papers (the link above), books, argomenti di discussione CeRP and other publications
[NOTE: most of the online information is in Italian except for the working papers and a handful of reports - check them out underother publications]

'Is Mandatory Retirement an Outdated Feature of Pension Systems?'
Fourth Annual Conference
September 16, 2003
Turin, Italy
- incl. links to 7 papers and presentations, including : Social Security Rules that Vary with Age - Public Pension programmes, Retirement Incentives and Employment in Europe - Retirement Choices of the Elderly in Italy - Patterns of Retirement in Germany and How to Change them - more...

Chronic Poverty Research Centre - UK-based international partnership of universities, research institutes and NGOs
- Working Papers - links to 35 papers on poverty (back to March 2001)

Staying Poor: Chronic Poverty and Development Policy
International Conference hosted by CPRC
University of Manchester
April 7-9, 2003
Press Release (April 2003)

Updated conference papers - links to over 100 papers presented at the Staying Poor Conference, most dealing with chronic poverty issues in the Third World
Sample paper:
What the World Bank Means by Poverty Reduction (PDF file - 213K, 18 pages)
April 2003
"Critics of the World Bank have variously attributed its proclaimed commitment to poverty reduction to empty rhetoric, hypocrisy, incompetence, confusion, or overload in the absence of a coherent agenda. This article argues that the commitment is genuine, but that it is not a first order goal: poverty reduction is an intended consequence of its principal objective, the transformation of social and governmental relations and institutions in the developing world in order to generalize and facilitate capitalist accumulation on a global scale, and build capitalist hegemony through the promotion of tightly controlled forms of 'participation' and 'ownership'."

Global Competitiveness Report 2003-2004

United States in Second Place Behind Finland in Global Competitiveness Report
UK and Canada slip down in ratings over “decline in quality of public institutions”*
Press Release
30 October 2003
Geneva, Switzerland
"Finland is the most competitive economy in the world, according to the rankings of the Global Competitiveness Report 2003-2004 released today by the World Economic Forum. The United States is in second position in the rankings, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Taiwan respectively. The rankings are based on an extensive survey carried out by the World Economic Forum in more than 100 countries."
- incl. links to highlights of the press conference and media coverage on the report
..............................................................................................
*For some reason, I can't link to the press release.
Go to the report home page (the link above) and scroll to the bottom of that page to see the link to the press release
..............................................................................................
Executive Summary (PDF format; 14 pages; 453k)
October 2003
Selected content from the report - Competitiveness Rankings for 2003-2004 - Competitiveness Profiles of the Top Five Countries - How Country Profiles Work - Growth Competitiveness Index (GCI) and Methodology - Business Competitiveness Index

Source:
World Economic Forum
"The World Economic Forum is an independent organization committed to improving the state of the world. We embrace new challenges by developing initiatives which support our core principles and values, which are to:
* provide a collaborative framework for world leaders to address global issues;
* promote entrepreneurship in the global public interest;
* maintain a non-partisan and independent position.
Funded by the membership fees of the 1,000 foremost global companies, the Forum works in partnership with academia, government representatives, international organizations, labour leaders, media, non-governmental organizations and religious leader.

Britain’s Poorest Children: Severe and persistent poverty and social exclusion
September 2, 2003
"Although there is a great deal of information about child poverty in Britain, very little is known about the extent of severe child poverty or about the children who are affected. (...) Britain's Poorest Children is the first study conducted in Britain on severe and persistent child poverty and social exclusion. Britain's Poorest Children was commissioned by Save the Children and carried out by the Centre for Research in Social Policy, Loughborough University.
(Source: Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey of Britain)
Overview (+ links to full report and summary)
Full report (PDF file - 512K, 182 pages)
Summary document (PDF file - 28K, 4 pages)
Related Links:
Save the Children UK
Centre for Research in Social Policy (Loughborough University, Leicestershire)
Poverty and social exclusion in Britain (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, September 2000)

Australian Social Policy Conference
9-11 July 2003
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia
"The Australian Social Policy Conference (formerly the National Social Policy Conference) is a key item on the Australian social policy calendar. It takes place every two years at the University of New South Wales, organised by the Social Policy Research Centre."
[The 2003 conference has now taken place.]
Program page: The program, paper abstracts and FULL PAPERS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD can be found on the program page.
Papers Available for Download ===>72 full-text papers available! (mostly from Australia, but some from England and a few from Europe)
Here are just a few titles to entice you into checking out the complete list:
- Social exclusion in childhood: why and how it should be measured? Some thoughts from Britain
- How does the Australian child benefit package compare internationally?
- How Has The Notion of Social Exclusion Developed In The European Discourse?
- The right to work versus the right to income
- Counting the costs of blindness: lessons for a cost of disability allowance
- The ageing workforce? Separating fact from hype
- Work is not Enough
- Balancing work and family: the experiences of low income parents
- Families on the margins: strategies for building resilience
- Welfare reform in Australia: an evidence-based approach
- Social inclusion and exclusion in Denmark 1976 to 2000
- The new international classification of disability: its relevance to people’s lives
- Encouraging employment: the UK’s ‘new deal for lone parents’
- Social inclusion
- Employment, unemployment and welfare reform
- Social exclusion and remote Indigenous communities: is the 'third way' the right way?
- Why reform welfare?
- Is it worth working now? Income incentives and disincentives for working mothers under Australia’s new tax system
- The costs of children and living standards in Australian households: some new evidence
Source:
Social Policy Research Centre - an independent research centre of the University of New South Wales

European Student Handbook on Equality and Equal Access
September 22, 2003
"The handbook tackles equality issues with higher education such as gender or disability discrimination, it also looks at ensuring that higher education is accessible to all and that students are given the support to complete their studies. The handbook gives the theoretical background, best practice examples and an action plan for students union"
- third in the series of European Student Handbooks from the National Unions of Students in Europe
- addresses the topic of equality and equal access
Source:
National Unions of Students in Europe (ESIB)
"The National Unions of Students in Europe is the umbrella organisation of 50 national unions of students from 37 countries and through these members represent over 11 million students. The aim of ESIB is to represent and promote the educational, social, economic and cultural interests of students at a European level towards all relevant bodies and in particular the European Union, Council of Europe and UNESCO."

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
The Foundation is a tripartite European Union body set up by the European Council in 1975, one of the first to be established to work in specialised areas of EU policy, to contribute to the planning and establishment of better living and working conditions.
"The Foundation carries out research and development projects, to provide data and analysis for informing and supporting the formulation of EU policy on working and living conditions. The Foundation has a network of experts throughout Europe who conduct research on its behalf including assessing the current national situations, the preparation of case studies and national reports and the conducting of surveys. (...) The Foundation is managed by an Administrative Board comprising representatives of governments, employers and workers of each Member State and three representatives from the European Commission."

Site map - the European Foundation site focuses on three themes : Industrial Relations - Living Conditions - Working Conditions
Under "Living Conditions", you'll find links to the following : Knowledge base - Corporate social responsibility - Eurocounsel - Active strategies for an ageing population - Employment in household services - Sustainable development - Active citizenship - Local partnership - Family care of the elderly - Linking welfare and work - Social public services
Work in progress includes : Monitoring quality of life - Time over working life - Social inclusion
[See the site map for content under the other two major themes]

Publications (Living Conditions" section only) - links to a dozen 2003 publications on a range of topics including time arrangements and working life, quality of life, social inclusion, corporate responsibility towards society, etc.
- also includes links to publications from earlier years.
NOTES:
- the 1992 "living conditions" publications page includes a number of (European) country reports on "integrated approaches to active welfare and employment policies"
- check older content by clicking on earlier years at the top of the publications page - I guarantee you'll find some gems there!

A few sample recent reports:

Illness, disability and social inclusion (Europe)
July 2003
"The development of policies and the delivery of services to promote the social inclusion of people with a chronic physical or mental illness or disability are crucial steps in achieving a more inclusive society. This report examines how to drive this process forward. It reviews the nature and scale of the problems facing different groups and identifies policy initiatives in employment, education, housing, transport and other areas which facilitate social and economic integration. Published to coincide with the European Year of People with Disabilities, the report aims to fuel the debate and increase policy focus on people with a chronic illness or disability, particularly those of working age.
Complete report (PDF file - 1.8MB, 168 pages)
Information sheet (PDF file - 109K, 2 pages)

Towards a sustainable corporate social responsibility
May 2003
"...based on a synthesis of two studies that were conducted into corporate social responsibility within the areas of living and working conditions. It summarises the findings of the studies and concludes that CSR is a process rather than a product. It outlines the various approaches to CSR, examples of good practice, and suggests recommended actions to reinforce CSR."
Complete Report (PDF file - 673K, 55 pages)
Information Sheet (PDF file - 88K, 2 pages)

The worst of times
September 2, 2003
"In the first of a three-part series on trade, George Monbiot argues that the rich world's brutal diplomacy is worsening the plight of poor nations.
The world is beginning to look like France, a few years before the Revolution. There are no reliable wealth statistics from that time, but the disparities are unlikely to have been greater than they are today. The wealthiest 5% of the world's people now earn 114 times as much as the poorest 5%. The 500 richest people on earth now own $1.54 trillion - more than the entire gross domestic product of Africa, or the combined annual incomes of the poorest half of humanity."
Source: The Guardian (U.K.)
NOTE: at the end of this Guardian article, you'll find links to special reports (globalisation, May Day, debt relief), guides to the G8 Summit, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, related sites (e.g., G8 summit, World Economic Forum, European social forum) and other resources on globalisation.
- offers a good balanced perspective, serving up differing viewpoints on questions such as what is globalisation and whether it's good or bad.
Highly recommended!
(Just click on The worst of times and scroll to the bottom of the page)

Virtual Library on Microcredit
Source: Global Development Research Center

91st annual Conference of the ILO concludes its work:
Delegates debate action to end poverty through work, adopt Convention on seafarers security measures
Press Release
June 19, 2003
"GENEVA (ILO News) – The 91st annual Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) concluded its work today following an impassioned and constructive debate on work as a way out poverty. The Conference also adopted a new Convention on seafarers' identity and advanced other measures addressing current issues in the world of work."
Website of the 91st annual Conference
of the International Labour Organization
What's the world doing about the 3 billion people who live on or less than $2 per day?
ILO Launches global campaign on social security for all (June 18, 2003)
Report of the Director-General: Working Out Of Poverty (390K, 110 pages)
Source : International Labour Organization

International Federation of Settlements and Neighbourhood Centres (IFS)
"The International Federation of Settlements and Neighbourhood Centres brings together local, regional, and national organisations and individual supporters working to strengthen communities in our society."
- incl. links to : Home | News | Who we are | What we do | Membership | Resources | Member Area | Search.
Resources - links, books, periodicals, and reports
Be sure to follow each of the links in the left margin of the Resources page (New Resources • Resource Search • IFS Resources • Member Resources • Other Resources • Historical • Weblinks); otherwise, you'll miss some excellent resources...
Here (below) is a recent sample of the reports you'll find here; this one is from Eurostat, but the Resources section contains both IFS and non-IFS resources

European Union Statistics on Social Exclusion
May 2003
(Two separate PDF files, each 8 pages, approx 300K in size)
"[T]he Laeken European Council in December 2001 formally adopted a first set of 18 common statistical indicators in the field of social inclusion. These indicators should be considered as a consistent whole, reflecting a balanced consideration of EU social concerns. They cover four important dimensions of social cohesion: financial poverty, employment, health and
education - highlighting the multi-dimensional nature of social inclusion."
Part 1 includes:
- Common indicators for social Inclusion - 15% of EU citizens at risk of poverty - Poverty risk is a relative Concept - Median at-risk-of-poverty gap - Persistent risk of poverty - Changing the risk-of-poverty threshold over time - Some countries have a more equal distribution of income than others - Re-distributive effect of social transfers
Part 2 includes:
- Agreement reached on a set of common indicators - Employment and social inclusion - Long term unemployment in the EU - Long-term often means very long-term - Many people live in jobless households - Regional cohesion - 19% leave school with low qualifications - Improving educational attainment levels - High life expectancy - Wide variation of health status by income
Source:
Eurostat
"Eurostat’s mission is to provide the European Union with a high-quality statistical information service"
Eurostat - Your key to European statistics - good historical and contextual overview of Eurostat

50 years of figures on Europe (PDF file - 1.9MB, 156 pages)
Data 1952-2001
"The pocketbook '50 years of figures on Europe' invites its readers on a statistical journey through the last 50 years of European history. It helps to compare data for a broad range of indicators across individual countries, evaluate the effects of successive enlargements as well as developments in between. The data are illustrated by graphs. The pocketbook has been written for the occasion of Eurostat's 50th anniversary in May 2003.
The figures cover most of the areas Eurostat provides data for: ·Area and population ·Economy ·Employment and labor costs ·Sectors of the economy ·Transport ·Tourism ·External trade

Canadian Policy Library
"...a social, economic and foreign policy resource - updated daily with the latest jobs, research, and events. Policy Library members reach an audience of hundred of thousands of policy makers, politicians, academics and students."
Source:
Policy Library - International
- incl. World ¦ US ¦ Canada ¦ UK ¦ Germany ¦ Australia
Also from the Policy Library:
Welfare and Social Security Policy

Directory of Development Organizations, 2010
January 10, 2010
The Directory of Development Organizations 2010 is a comprehensive listing of 60,000+ development organizations dedicated to good governance, sustainable development and poverty reduction. The directory is divided into 6 geographical sections: Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, and Oceania.

For each of the regions contacts have been annotated by the following 9 categories:
(1) international organizations;
(2) government institutions;
(3) private sector support organizations (including fairtrade);
(4) finance institutions;
(5) training and research centres;
(6) civil society organizations;
(7) development consulting firms (including references to job opportunities and vacancy announcements);
(8) information providers (development newsletters/journals); and
(9) grantmakers.

The directory can be used in a variety of ways:
- by researchers, consultants and other development practitioners searching for up-to-date institutional information for a particular country;
- by trainers using the directories as a reference tool for their training programmes;
- by organizations trying to identify possible project partners;
- by individuals looking to identify possible employers;
- by funders seeking grantees;
- by grantees in search of funders; and
- by organizations aiming at identifying those institutions, agencies and programmes which are dedicated to providing resources, products and services to their members.

Development organizations in Canada (PDF - 1.4MB, 57 pages)

Globalization, Inequality and the Rich Countries of the G-20:
Evidence of the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) (PDF file - 160K, 34 pages)
SPRC Discussion Paper No 122
Timothy M. Smeeding
December 2002
"...globalization in rich nations appears to act more by raising incomes at the top of the income distribution than by lowering them at the bottom. Notwithstanding, this influence, however, domestic policies—labor market institutions, welfare policies, etc.—can act as a powerful countervailing force to market driven inequality.
Source : Social Policy Research Centre (University of New South Wales, Australia)

Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities (United Kingdom)
- largest site on learning disability issues in the United Kingdom, aims to improve the quality of life for people with learning disabilities
"Our website has been designed to provide information about:
* issues which affect the lives of people with learning disabilities;
* the work of the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities.
It has also been designed to act as a gateway to some of the other resources on learning disabilities, both here in the United Kingdom and overseas.

Connects (U.K.)
"Connects is a world-wide, interactive, personalized forum for the sharing of information by people whose lives are affected by mental health problems and/or learning disabilities."
(...) The site contains information about organisations, websites, events and news events concerned with mental health or learning disabilities. We currently have more than 6000 resources listed."

Related Links: go to the Canadian Social Research Links Disability Links page

The Workhouse
"The British workhouse was "a fascinating mix of social history, politics, economics and architecture." This site includes information about life in the workhouse, the architecture, education for the poor, poor laws, poor law unions, parish workhouses, literature, and much more. There are also texts of the 1601 and 1834 Poor Law Amendment Acts, a glossary, a timeline, and a list of related links and other resources."
Source:
Librarians' Index to the Internet

Catalyst (U.K.)
"Catalyst is a new campaigning think tank for the labour movement and the left, committed to developing and promoting practical policies for the redistribution of wealth, power and opportunity. Catalyst is not aligned to any political party but we are an organisation of the left, of democratic socialists, with a clear statement of purpose and an Editorial Board comprising individuals who have all made substantial contributions in the fields of politics, economics and social policy. (...)"

Sample content:

Poverty and the Welfare State: Dispelling the myths
By Paul Spicker
A Catalyst working paper
Published September 2002
"The [British] Prime Minister says that the welfare state has become 'associated with fraud, abuse, laziness, a dependency culture, social irresponsibility encouraged by welfare dependency.' This pamphlet tackles these misconceptions head on. Full of provocative arguments and a mine of information, it provides an invaluable resource for getting the debate over welfare reform back onto a proper footing - fully informed and focused not on policing a dysfunctional "underclass" but providing the basic economic security that all of us need."
Abstract
Full Report (PDF file - 238K, 44 pages)
Required reading for all Canadian social researchers!
Not surprisingly, most of the myths surrounding welfare and poverty and welfare in Britain are quite similar to those here in Canada. This working paper tackles issues like the definition and measurement of poverty, the history of welfare and the welfare state, the dynamics of poverty, intergenerational welfare dependency, welfare fraud, the costs of welfare, work incentives, and much more.

Related Link:

The UNICEF Regional Monitoring Project (MONEE) (PDF file - 19K)
MONEE is "a UNICEF project to monitor the impact on children of the tremendous social and economic transition taking place in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. (...) The MONEE Project provides a unique source of information on the social impact of the transition years. It has made a major contribution to the international debate on the directions of public policy, drawing attention to emerging issues for children, women and families across the region and keeping the interests of children on the agenda."

Social Monitor 2003 (PDF file - 590K, 60 pages)
May 2003
Economic growth and poverty - External public debt - Refugees and displaced persons - Intercountry adoption - HIV/AIDS
Source : UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

State of the World Population 2001
November 7, 2001
Summary
Table of Contents - includes:
Overview
Environmental Trends
Developmental Levels and Environmental Impact
Women and the Environment
Health and the Environment
Action for Sustainable and Equitable Development
Global Agreements on Human Rights, Environment and Development, Reproductive Health and Gender Equality
Source : United Nations Population Fund

A Survey of the UK Benefit System (PDF file - 423K, 53 pages)
October 2000
Carl Emmerson and Andrew Leicester
Source : Institute for Fiscal Studies (U.K.)
- includes : Benefits for families - Benefits for unemployed people - Benefits for people on low incomes - Benefits for elderly people - Benefits for sick and disabled people - Benefits for widows

RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) is a collaborative effort of over 100 volunteers in 30 countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics. The heart of the project is a decentralized database of working papers, journal articles and software components. The RePEc database holds over 155,000 items of interest, over 58,000 of which are available online: working papers - journal articles - software components - author contact listings - institutional contact listings.

Welfare Economics - Economics Departments, Institutes and Research Centers in the World
Source : Economics Departments, Institutes and Research Centers in the World
- Gateway to thousands of online articles and papers from around the world

CorpWatch
San Francisco-based CorpWatch has been educating and mobilizing people through the CorpWatch.org website and various campaigns, including the Climate Justice Initiative and the UN and Corporations Project. Until recently we were known as TRAC-Transnational Resource & Action Center, and our website was called Corporate Watch. In March 2001 we simplified the situation by bringing TRAC together with our Internet presence under one name, one logo and a matching website address: CorpWatch.

Global Poverty Report 2001
A Globalized Market: Opportunities and Risks for the Poor
From PovertyNet
July 2001

Social Sciences Virtual Library (international)
Directories and Data Archives - Social Sciences Electronic Journals - Social Sciences Scholarly Societies - WWW Resources by Subject - Social Sciences on the Net via Scout Report - WWW Alphabetical Resource ListSocial Sciences Discussion - Personal Journals - Newsletter

Oneworld.net
OneWorld is dedicated to harnessing the democratic potential of the internet to promote human rights and sustainable development
- incl. links to thousands of articles and hundreds of partners around the world.
- see Headlines - Special Reports - Campaigns - Editions - Guides - Think Tanks - Partners - and much more...

Below, you'll find links to just a few of the treasures that I found on the website of Jonathan Bradshaw. He's Professor of Social Policy, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York (Heslington, York, England), and he's also authored or co-authored many international studies on social programs in general and welfare programs in particular. There are links to 8 reports in all (as at June 17/02) - you'll find the complete list here, as downloadable Word and WordPerfect files.

Here are some samples :

The relationship between poverty and social exclusion in Britain, paper for the 26th general Conference of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, Cracow, Poland, 27 August 2000.
Lone parenthood in the 1990s: New challenges, new responses? The Year 2000 ISSA Research Conference on Social Security in the Global Village, Helsinki, 25-27 September 2000
The measurement of absolute poverty: Final Report to Eurostat, (2001) Working Paper
Methodologies to measure poverty: more than one is best! International Symposium Poverty: Concepts and Methodologies, Mexico City, March 28/29 2001.
Child Health and Child Poverty, Paper to the 53rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Paediatric Society of New Zealand, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, 29 November 2000.

Links to International Relations Sites -- Canadian Institute of International Affairs
Links to the World -- International Development Research Centre

Country Indicators for Foreign Policy
Paterson School of International Affairs
Carleton University, Ottawa

International Reform Monitor (from the Bertelsmann Foundation - Europe)
This Bertelsmann Foundation website gives a wide range of well-selected information on social policy (health care, pensions provision, family policy, state welfare), labour market policy and industrial relations in 15 OECD countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America.

International Reform Monitor
The three links below are PDF files with some excellent information on recent developments and trends in international social policy - labour market policy - industrial relations
Issue 3 - October 2000 (66 pages - 446K, Canadian content: the CPP Pension Fund, Parental Leave, the Canada Child Tax Benefit increase)
Issue 2 - April 2000 (47 pages - 501K, Canadian content: Pay Equity Settlement in the Public Sector)
Issue 1 - 1999 (43 pages, 492K, Canadian content: New child benefit)

The Bertelsmann Foundation (Europe)
Working on more than 180 projects (as of December 2000) in the fields of Economics, State and Public Administration, Media, Politics, Public Libraries, Medicine and Health Service, Philanthropy and Foundations, Culture and Universities, the Bertelsmann Foundation wants to help solve current social problems.
- See the Bertelsmann Foundation sitemap for an overview of what you'll find on this large site.

The NGO Café
The basic objectives of the Café are to assist NGOs in enhancing and improving their programmes and activities; to effect a better understanding of NGOs in general; and to enable NGOs to network at local, regional and international levels.

NGO Wise Words
Documents and NGO information related to UN conferences, summits and other events
- includes links to : NGOs at the Rio Conference - NGOS at the Social Summit - NGOs at the Conference on Women in Beijing - NGOs at Habitat II - NGOs at other International Meetings
Source: Global Development Research Center (Japan-based international site)

Social Policy Virtual Library
The Social Policy Virtual Library is an information gateway providing access to a variety of web resources of interest to social policy researchers. Updated regularly, it provides links to sites of major organisations, libraries, research institutes, publications and journals as well as access to on-line databases and data sources, other information gateways, social policy mailing lists and discussion groups. It also provides information on research opportunities and funding and access to resources for teaching social policy and related subjects.
Source : The WWW Virtual Library

International Council for Social Welfare
ICSW's basic mission is to promote forms of social and economic development which aim to reduce poverty, hardship and vulnerability throughout the world, especially amongst disadvantaged people. It strives for recognition and protection of fundamental rights to food, shelter, education, health care and security. It believes that these rights are an essential foundation for freedom, justice and peace. It seeks also to advance equality of opportunity, freedom of self-expression and access to human services.

G8 Information Centre
University of Toronto Library
- incl. links to the Genoa G8 Summit - G20 - Summits, Meetings and Documents of the Seven and the Eight - G8 in the News - G8 Research at the University of Toronto - Scholarships - Scholarly Writings - Other G8-Related Sites and Documents (Governmental | International Organizations | Nongovernmental)

Transnational Institute
Founded in 1974, TNI is an international network of activist-scholars concerned to analyse and find viable solutions to such global problems as militarism and conflict, poverty and marginalisation, social injustice and environmental degradation.

Poverty and social exclusion in Britain
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
September 2000
A new national survey reveals the extent of poverty and social exclusion in Britain. This study was undertaken by researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Loughborough, York and Heriot-Watt with fieldwork undertaken by the Office for National Statistics.
The above link will take you to a page of highlights from the report and links to related information
- The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is the largest social policy research and development charity in the UK. It spends about £6 million a year on a research and development programme that seeks to better understand the causes of social difficulties and explore ways of better overcoming them

Trade Union Advisory Committee to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (TUAC)
The Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD is an interface for labour unions with the OECD. It is an international trade union organisation which has consultative status with the OECD and its various committees. TUAC's origins go back to 1948 when it was founded as a trade union advisory committee for the European Recovery Programme - the Marshall Plan. When the OECD was created in its current form in 1962 as an intergovernmental economic think tank, TUAC continued its work of representing organised labour's views to the new organisation.

Global Unions
World Trade Union Movement’s Web Site
Global Unions is jointly owned and run by the international trade union movement. Global Unions is run by 14 trade union organisations – the ICFTU, the eleven International Trade Secretariats, the European Trade Union Confederation and the TUAC.

International Think Tanks
Adam Smith Institute - free market think tank
British American Security Information Council(BASIC) independent think tank on defence and security
Centre for Policy on Ageing
Centre for Policy Studies - independent centre-right think tank
Citizenship Foundation
Family Policy Studies Centre - independent UK think tank to study effects of government policy on families
Institute for Economic Affairs - UK think tank specialising in economic and social problems
Institute for Fiscal Studies - UK independent institute dedicated to economic analysis
Institute for Public Policy Research - social and economic policy think thank
Institute for the Study of Civil Society (CIVITAS)
International Institute for Strategic Studies
Joseph Rowntree Foundation - social research charity
National Centre for Social Research - independent UK social research institute
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - organisation of 29 member countries providing a setting in which to form economic and social policy.
UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund
Source : WestminsterWatch

Social Policy Research Unit - University of York (England)
The Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of York is an autonomous research unit within the Department of Social Policy and Social Work.

American and International Think Tanks
(from theInstitute for International Economics - see below)

American Enterprise Institute
Brookings Institution
CATO Institute
Centre for Economic Policy and Research
Centre for European Policy Studies
Centre for International Economics
Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation
Center for Strategic International Studies
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Council of the Americas
New Democrats Online -- Progressive Policy Institute

Economic Policy Institute
Economic Strategy Institute
Freedom House
Global Policy Forum
Heritage Foundation
Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations
Inter-American Dialogue
International Council on Korean Studies
The International Economics Study Center
International Law Institute
DemocracyNet Home Page

Korea Economic Research Institute
National Center for Policy Analysis
The Nautilus Institute
Public Agenda
RAND Home Page
Urban Institute
USA*ENGAGE
World Economic Forum

Other International Links
(from theInstitute for International Economics - see below)

APEC Secretariat
Centre d'etudes Prospectives et d'informations Internationales
East-West Center
The EU Directorates

OECD Paris
OECD Washington Center Home Page
Organization of American States
Organization of American States Trade Unit
United Nations System

Institute for International Economics
The Institute for International Economics is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution devoted to the study of international economic policy.

International Business and Corporate Links

Business for Social Responsibility
Global Services Network
Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce
International Chamber of Commerce
The Business Roundtable
TransAtlantic Business Dialogue

Council on Competitiveness
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
World Economic Forum
World Trade Organization

International Monetary Fund
The IMF is an international organization of 182 member countries, established to promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements; to foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and to provide temporary financial assistance to countries under adequate safeguards to help ease balance of payments adjustment.
Annual Report (1999-2000)

NOTE: for more on the IMF, go to the Canadian Social Research Links Globalization page

See the IMF Site Map to find your way around this information-rich site.

IMF Staff Country Reports by Title
Over 700 links to IMF Country Reports - from Albania to Zimbabwe - including six about Canada, and they're all available in PDF format (except for the oldest ones). These reports are written by and for economists - they (the Canadian ones, at least...) cover diverse subjects like monetary and fiscal policy, CPI, economic indicators - you'll even find some comparisons of Canada and the U.S. here. Open the page by clicking on the above link. Then, while depressing the Ctrl key, hit your "f" key to pop up a search window. Type in Canada. Boom - there ya go. OR you can scroll down the alphabetical list...
Source : International Monetary Fund

Global Exchange
Global Exchange is a human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental, political, and social justice around the world. Since our founding in 1988, we have been striving to increase global awareness among the US public while building international partnerships around the world.

World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund Will Not Hold Annual Meetings
September 17, 2001
Source : International Monetary Fund

Related Links:
Canada: Selected Issues (PDF file - 2,777KB, 85 pages)
Country Report No. 01/157
September 6, 2001
Canada and the IMF

Here are just a few samples of what you'll find on the IMF website...
-Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs)
- IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)
A Factsheet
September 1, 2000
- Social Dimensions of the IMF's Policy (March 2000)
- Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (September 2000)
- Globalization: Threat or Opportunity? (April 2000)

Canada and the IMF - an excellent collection of resources!

The University of Texas Inequality Project is a small research group concerned with measuring and explaining movements of inequality in wages and earnings and patterns of industrial changes around the world. Our work so far has emphasized two techniques: the use of Theil's T statistic to compute inequality indexes from industrial data, and a combination of cluster analysis on rates of wage change and discriminant analysis to isolate the principal time patterns in changing wage structures.

Alliance for a Responsible and United World
The Alliance for a Responsible and United World is a worldwide collective process inspired by a humanist ideal. It has taken up the challenge of building a future where people live in a world of unity and diversity.

Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP)
CGAP is a Micro-finance Program, a multi-donor effort whose goal is to significantly expand very poor people’s access to quality financial services from sustainable or potentially sustainable microfinance institutions. This website is part of CGAP's effort to disseminate lessons learned on best practice in the field of microfinance.

Canadian Council for International Co-operation(CCIC)
The Canadian Council for International Co-operation is a coalition of over 100 Canadian organizations seeking to change the course of human development in ways that favor social and economic equity, democratic participation, environmental integrity and respect for human rights.
"...working on the frontlines of social justice, humanitarian aid, economic and democratic development in the world"
CCIC Members - contact information and links to over 60 websites of member organizations - a good launchpad...

In Common - "Global action against poverty"
Led by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC), over 100 have joined in common -- a campaign to make action against poverty a public and political priority.
About In Common
What's New - Over two dozen links to information about fair trade, the Summit of the Americas, poverty, etc.
Ten-Point Agenda to End Poverty

Netaid.org (U.S.-based international non-profit organization)
"NetAid's mission is to mobilize support for an end to extreme poverty. To achieve this, NetAid offers individuals, corporations, employees, students and nonprofit organizations direct connections to local projects throughout the developing world that provide new opportunities for people to lift themselves out of extreme poverty. All of NetAid's opportunities, stories and expertise can be accessed through the NetAid Web site."

Economic and Social Research Council - "Providing a focus on society"
The ESRC is the UK's largest independent funding agency for research and postgraduate training into social and economic issues. The ESRC currently has an annual budget of around £65 million from the British Government. Two-thirds of the budget is allocated to research and nearly one-third to postgraduate training, with the remainder being used for evaluation, dissemination, forging business links and other activities.

Research Institutes in the United Kingdom
Visit these sites for links to UK academic research in the social sciences. Each of these university research centres offers a wealth of online information about social programs in the United Kingdom, and most include some international perspectives. Click on any link below, then go to Research or Publications to see links to hundreds of studies, from the historical to the current.
- Edinburgh (University of) Research Centre for Social Sciences
- Kent (University of) Personal Social Services Research Unit
- Strathclyde (University of) European Policies Research Centre
- Wales (University of), Bangor Centre for Social Policy Research and Development
- Warwick (University of) Centre for Comparative Labour Studies
- York (University of), Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) - the SPRU site includes Measurement of Absolute Poverty - In November 1998 the Eurostat Statistical Programme Committee discussed the subject of poverty statistics and delegates requested that the subject of absolute poverty be investigated. The work began in January 2000 and the final report is due in September 2000. At the bottom of the short project description on this page, you'll find an e-mail link to Jonathan Bradshaw (one of the principal researchers in this project) for more information.

Internet Scout Project
(from the University of Madison, Wisconsin)
The Internet Scout Project points to the best resources on the Internet. Librarians and educators do the filtering for you, reading hundreds of announcements each week looking for the online resources most valuable to the education community.

Social Science Information Gateway - SOSIG
(Review by the Scout Report for Social Sciences)
"The Web's premiere Social Science gateway has gotten even better, with a new interface and several other features that help users find quality social science research and education resources, hand-picked and described by librarians and subject specialists."
The Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) aims to provide a trusted source of selected, high quality Internet information for researchers and practitioners in the social sciences, business and law. It is part of the UK Resource Discovery Network.
Thousands of links to resources around the world, including Canada.

World Bank
(Focus on : Africa - East Asia and the Pacific - Central Europe & Central Asia - Latin America & the Caribbean - Middle East & North Africa - South Asia)
This is an enormous site - check out the site map.
Here are but a few of the pages you'll find here:
- PovertyNet - "Resources and support for People Working to Understand and Alleviate Poverty"
Incl. Trends in Poverty and Voices of the Poor: prospects for poverty reduction - December 1999 Report
Latest data on income poverty and social indicators, and results from the "Consultations with the Poor" study
- Safety nets and transfers - focuses on safety net programs that target the poor, and provides program specific examples of design issues and principles as it relates to: Cash Transfers, In-kind Transfers, and Public Works.
- Labour and Social Protection is a collection of measures to improve or protect human capital, ranging from labor market interventions, publicly mandated
unemployment or old-age insurance to targeted income support.
Under "Thematic Sites", you'll find links to information about: Disability - Labor Markets - Pensions - Safety Nets - Social Funds - Vocational Education & Training
- Including Persons with Disabilities - incl. links to: The World Bank and Disability - Supports for Project Design - Documents On-Line - Web Links - Disability Organizations
- Understanding Poverty - incl. What is Poverty - Measuring Poverty - Poverty Trends Over Time...
- Inequality, Poverty, and Socio-economic Performance - "...a resource on: (a) the relationship between distributional dynamics, economic growth, and poverty reduction; (b) the effect inequality might have on social outcomes and behaviors; and (c) current discussions and methodologies that might be useful for operational and research work."
- Social Capital - "Increasing evidence shows that social cohesion -- social capital -- is critical for poverty alleviation and sustainable human and economic development" - including a database of more than 600 abstracts of articles on social capital
- Social Capital Surveys and Other Measurement Tools
World Bank Research

Global Poverty Monitoring Web Site
- provides World Bank estimates of various poverty and inequality measures both at the regional and country level
- also gives access to a list of poverty-related papers and to Povcal, free software used to calculate poverty measures from grouped data.
For more sources of data on poverty, check out the World Bank PovertyNet Data Page

Web Guides - Excellent collection of links!
- Web Guide: Regional Information - Almost a hundred links to websites and organizations around the world - including Canada - where you can obtain information about poverty issues.
- Web Guide: Non-Governmental Organizations - Links to over 50 international organizations working with the poor
- Web Guide: Inequality
- Web Guide: Safety Nets
- Web Guide: Social Capital

PovertyNet Newsletter

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Launch of World Development Indicators 2005 Report
World Bank Report Urges Faster Progress In Reducing Child Deaths, Primary School Enrollments – Particularly Among Girls
Press Release
April 17, 2005
"WASHINGTON—Five years after the Millennium Declaration, many countries have made progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but many more lag behind. Faster progress is needed in reducing maternal and child deaths, boosting primary school enrolments, and removing obstacles to greater numbers of girls going to school, according to the World Bank’s latest World Development Indicators (WDI) 2005."

World Development Indicators 2005
"The 2005 WDI includes more than 800 indicators in 83 tables organized in 6 sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links. Data are shown for 152 economies with populations of more than 1 million and 14 country groups, plus selected indicators for 56 other smaller economies. Indicators are shown for the most recent year or period for which data are available and, in most tables, for an earlier year or period (usually 1990 in this edition)."
- incl. links to ordering information the full text online (free) the press release, time series database access and more

WDI 2005 full text

Source:
The World Bank Group

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Wolfensohn's Warnings
Embassy, March 30th, 2005
By Sarah McGregor
"Outgoing World Bank President says foreign aid must double in order to lift millions from poverty
The failure of powerful leaders to capture 'the hearts and minds'of their citizens is having devastating consequences for the world's poorest people, warns outgoing World Bank President James Wolfensohn. (...) Canada at one time earmarked 0.54 per cent of its annual budget to foreign aid, but this year only reached 0.29 per cent. The Liberal government has promised to double its official foreign aid, but even then it will only achieve about 0.33 per cent of gross domestic product in five years, said Mr. Wolfensohn. 'It's too low.'
Mr. Wolfensohn has noted the absurdity of a world that spends annually $3,000 billion on arms, $300 billion on agriculture subsidies and just $60 billion on development aid. (bolding added)"
Source:
Embassy News (Canada) Online

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Regional Trade Pacts Must Create – Not Divert – Trade to Reduce Poverty: World Bank Report
Global Economic Prospects 2005 predicts highest growth in 30 years for developing countries
News Release
November 16, 2004

Global Economic Prospects 2005: Trade, Regionalism and Development
The proliferation of regional trade agreements is fundamentally altering the world trade landscape. The number of agreements in force surpasses 200 and has risen eight-fold in two decades. (...) The Global Economic Prospects 2005: Trade, Regionalism and Development argues that agreements leading to open regionalism-that is, deeper integration of trade as a result of low external tariffs, increased services competition, and efforts to reduce cross-border and customs delays costs-are effective as part of a larger trade strategy to promote growth.

Overview Booklet (PDF file - 279K, 55 pages)
- includes a summary of the Report, the short-and Long-term outlook and the regional global outlook.
[word search: "poverty" appears 42 times in this document]

Full Text:
Global Economic Prospects 2005: Trade, Regionalism and Development
- links to the complete report and to individual chapters : Overview and Front Matter - Table of Contents, Foreword, Acknowledgments, Overview and Abbreviations - Global Outlook and developing Countries - Regional Trade and Preferential Trading Agreements: A Global Perspective - Regional Trade Agreements: Effects on Trade - Beyond Trade Policy Barriers: Lowering Trade Cost Together - Beyond Merchandise Trade: Services, Investments, Intellectual Property and Labor Mobility - Making Regionalism Complementary to Multilaterialism
[word search: "poverty" appears 52 times in the complete PDF version this document] - 1MB, 172 pages)

Regional Summaries
- incl. East Asia and Pacific - Middle East and North Africa - Europe and Central Asia - South Asia - Latin America and the Caribbean - Sub-Saharan Africa

Prospects for the Global Economy
"an interactive, user-friendly website that features: forecast database for all World Bank regions and income groups, including latest macroeconomic data out to 2006; insightful calculators and simulation tools; valuable one-page briefs summarizing countries' external financial position and trade; individual commodity reports and price forecasts; and timely analysis of worldwide economic prospects and risk.

Source:
The World Bank Group

But let's not forget ...

What the World Bank Means by Poverty Reduction (PDF file - 213K, 18 pages)
April 2003
"Critics of the World Bank have variously attributed its proclaimed commitment to poverty reduction to empty rhetoric, hypocrisy, incompetence, confusion, or overload in the absence of a coherent agenda. This article argues that the commitment is genuine, but that it is not a first order goal: poverty reduction is an intended consequence of its principal objective, the transformation of social and governmental relations and institutions in the developing world in order to generalize and facilitate capitalist accumulation on a global scale, and build capitalist hegemony through the promotion of tightly controlled forms of 'participation' and 'ownership'."

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World Development Report (WDR) 2005: A Better Investment Climate for Everyone - The World Bank
September 2004
"A Better Investment Climate for Everyone, the World Bank’s annual World Development Report for 2005, was launched on September 28, 2004. The Report focuses on what governments can do to improve the investment climates of their societies to increase growth and reduce poverty."

Easing Policy Risks, Costs And Barriers To Competition Keys To Faster Growth, Less Poverty: World Development Report 2005
News Release
September 28, 2004

Click on "Full Text" in the left margin of the WDR 2005 home page for links to the complete report and to individual sections.

Table of Contents & Foreword (PDF file - 121K, 16 pages)

Measuring the Investment Climate & Selected World Development Indicators (PDF file - 259K, 30 pages)
- incl. : Introduction + Classification of economies by region and income (Key indicators of development - Poverty and income distribution - Economic activity - Trade, aid, and finance - Key indicators for other economies

World Development Reports for Earlier Years (back to 1992)

Source:
The World Bank

Related Link:

2004 Annual Meetings Boards of Governors
International Monetary Fund
World Bank Group
OCTOBER 3, 2004
Washington. DC
- incl. : About the Annual Meetings - Schedule of Events - Contact Information - News Releases, Speeches, Committee Papers, Documents - Program of Seminars - Information for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) - Information for Journalists - Photographs

2004 Annual Meetings - more info from the World Bank

Source:
The World Bank
International Monetary Fund

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World Development Indicators 2002
"The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. WDI 2002 includes approx. 800 indicators in 87 tables, organized in six sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links. The tables cover 152 economies and 14 country groups-with basic indicators for a further 55 economies."
[Excerpts are free - but you must pay for the complete report]
Source : World Bank Group

World Bank Data on Poverty
- includes : Trends in regional indicators (Income poverty, Social indicators) - Global Poverty Monitoring website - Poverty Monitoring Database - DAPeR (Data for the Analysis of Poverty Reduction) - Regional and country level indicators (income poverty, inequality, World Income Inequality Database, GNI per capita, Country information sheets on health, nutrition, population and poverty) - Millennium Development Goals - Social indicators - Household surveys - Participatory poverty studies - Country data sets (India Poverty Project) - Free Poverty Datasets - Poverty Mapping - Poverty data analysis tools
Source : World Bank Group

The Sincerest Form of Flattery...(?)

World Bunk - "Who are you going to believe? Me, or your own eyes?"

The Whirled Bank Group - Our Dream is a World Full of Poverty
Very professional, very tongue-in-cheek, very biting. As the name and the catchy logo imply, this is a spoof of the World Bank site. It's got excellent and extensive content and a very polished look and feel. Includes information about recent and forthcoming World Bank/IMF protests and links to many corporate watchdog sites and content...
- The [Corporate] Confessional of the First Church of the Almighty Dollar is a good example of the type of satire you'll find in this site!

The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research (TFF) expresses a vision and is an experiment in applied peace research and global networking.
We are a networking organization with associates all over the globe. We believe that alternatives to the main trends of our time are desirable and possible - indeed necessary for humankind to survive and live with dignity.
Great links page - includes : Conflict-Resolution in the Field - Peace Research - Non-violence - Ex-Yugoslavia, KOSOVO/A & Albania - Georgia - Iraq
- See Globalization Links (also part of the links page) for links to over two dozen international websites

Global Falsehoods: How the World Bank and the UNDP Distort the Figures on Global Poverty (1999)
By Michel Chossudovsky

Halifax Initiative
Halifax Initiative is a Canadian coalition of development, environment, faith, rights and labour groups. [It] was formed in the context of an international movement of non-governmental organizations focused on evaluating the role and record of the Bretton Woods Institutions at the time of their 50th Anniversary. Canadian NGOs formed the Halifax Initiative in December 1994 to ensure that demands for fundamental reform of the international financial institutions were high on the agenda of the G7's 1995 Halifax Summit.
- incl. links to : Debt - Export Credit Agencies - International Monetary Fund - Tobin Tax - World Bank - G-20 - Finance for Development - Publications - Media - Events - Links

Bretton Woods Project - "Critical voices on the World Bank and IMF"
Bretton Woods Project was established by a network of UK NGOs to monitor the World Bank and IMF. The Project's reports and bi-monthly bulletin Bretton Woods Update aim to clarify current issues and provide links to campaigners and researchers worldwide. The Bretton Woods Project was set up in 1995 to facilitate the work of UK non-government organisations (NGOs) concerned about the social and environmental impacts of World Bank and IMF financing in developing countries. The Project circulates information to NGOs in the UK and across the world, identifies lobbying or campaigning opportunities, organises meetings with officials and prepares briefings on important issues. The Project's quarterly newsletter, the Bretton Woods Update, summarises key World Bank, IMF and NGO activities and lists available documents and important dates."

Bretton Woods Committee
"The Bretton Woods Committee is a bipartisan, non-profit group organized to increase public understanding of international financial and development issues and the role of the Bretton Woods institutions -- the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the regional development banks -- in the global economy."

The Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee

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Report on Operations under the Bretton Woods and Related Agreements Act - 2000
Prepared by:
International Trade and Finance Branch
Finance Canada
March 2001
-Links to information about : International Monetary Fund - Overview - Benefits of Membership - Canada’s Priorities at the IMF - Efforts to Promote International Financial Stability - Poverty Reduction and Debt Relief - Lending Developments in 2000 - Managing Canada’s Interests at the IMF - Canada’s Office at the IMF - Canada’s Financial Participation - Challenges Ahead. World Bank - Overview -World Development Report 2000-2001 - Supporting Country-Led Development and Poverty Reduction Strategies - Global Public Goods - Consultation and Information Disclosure - Improving Co-ordination With Other Agencies - Other World Bank Operations in FY 2000 - International Development Association - IDA Priorities - Canada’s Priorities at the World Bank - Managing Canada’s Interests at the World Bank - Canadian Procurement at the World Bank - International Finance Corporation - Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency - Learning About Opportunities - Canada’s Financial Participation - Future Challenges. Joint Issues - Overview - Strengthening Financial Sectors - Multilateral Debt Relief - World Bank and IMF Participation in the United Nations Financing for Development Conference. Don't miss the six annexes...

BankWatch.org
Central and Eastern European NGO Network for Monitoring the Activities of International Financial Institutions in the Europe-Central Asia Region
The CEE Bankwatch Network is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) with member organisations currently from 11 countries of CEE and CIS region. The basic aim of the network is to monitor activities of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in the region, and to propose constructive alternatives to their policies and projects in the region.
Citizens' Guide to International Financial Institutions - This hypertext booklet provides information and practical guidance for citizens and non-governmental organizations about the international financial institutions in the Europe and Central Asia region.
The guide contains information (history, structure, policies, available information resources) about the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Child Poverty Across Industrialized Nations (1999) - (PDF File, 468K - 90 pages)
BRUCE BRADBURY and MARKUS JÄNTTI (Innocenti Occasional Papers, Economic and Social Policy Studies, no. 71. Florence: UNICEF International Child Development Centre)
Estimates of patterns of child income poverty in 25 nations using data from the Luxembourg Income Study.
Includes Canada.
Released in 1999, but most statistical tables and charts date back to 1995 and 1996.
The following is a partial table of contents:
The Measurement of Child Poverty - Income, consumption and saving - The poverty threshold and counting methods - Child Income Poverty across Nations - Three measures of child poverty - Trend - Lone parenthood and child poverty - Children compared to the Elderly - The LIS surveys - Non-cash benefits - Social Transfers, Market Incomes and Child Poverty - Welfare effort - State, market and patterns of child poverty

Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA)
CESSDA promotes the acquisition, archiving and distribution of electronic data for social science teaching and research in Europe. Use the clickable maps to get to the social science data archives of 16 European countries or 14 North American states and provinces (links to data libraries from UBC [British Columbia] to Carleton [Ontario] universities).
If you're looking for links to international social science data, this is an excellent launchpad.

New Policy Institute (NPI) - United Kingdom
The New Policy Institute is a progressive think tank, founded in 1996. Wholly independent, it has neither financial backers nor political patrons. Its funding is project-based, from charitable foundations, private and public companies, and trade unions.

Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
"ODI is Britain’s leading independent think-tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Our mission is to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods in developing countries."
The Meaning and Measurement of Poverty
February 1999
Excerpt:
"Absolute or relative poverty
The World Bank currently uses a figure of $US 1 per day (in 1985 purchasing power dollars) for absolute poverty. The alternative has been to define poverty as relative deprivation, for example as half mean income, or as exclusion from participation in society. Thus the European Union has decided that ‘the poor shall be taken to mean persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material, cultural, social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the member state in which they live’. "

International Labour Organization - Français - Español
The International Labour Organization is the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights.
- Check out the ILO Site Map of the ILO site - this is an enormous site, containing thousands of links.
- List of ILO Departmental websites - incl. Employment Sector - Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Sector - Social Dialogue Sector - Social Protection Sector - Support Services

Most of World Lacks Unemployment Insurance : Social Protection Systems under Strain
ILO launches World Labour Report 2000
21 June 2000
"... identifies Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States as belonging to 'medium-level type systems'. Fewer of the unemployed in these countries receive benefits and the compensation that is provided is lower than those available in the first tier of countries." [NOTE: first tier countries = European countries]
"The report says that the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are also rated low because 'the duration of unemployment benefit payments is short, with benefits payable for less than 12 months'. In addition, neither the United States nor Canada has a second layer of unemployment assistance available when the first layer runs out."

Banking With The Poor Network
- The BWTP Network is a network of some 35 national policy institutions, commercial banks and NGOs from nine countries in Asia - namely Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Its objective is to link microfinance with the financial system. It pursues this objective through research, advocacy, policy dialogue, information sharing and capacity building.

The WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources
- Nongovernmental Organizations
- The United Nations
- The European Union
- Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs

The North-South Institute - "Research For A Fairer World" (Canada)
- For more than 20 years, the North-South Institute (NSI) has built a reputation for sound research and analysis of Canadian foreign policy, offered an independent voice on the urgent importance of world development issues, and brought those issues before the Canadian public and decision makers. Established in 1976, it is the only independent, non-governmental research institute in Canada focused on international development.

Microcredit Summit Fulfillment Campaign - Over 2,900 people, representing 1,500 organizations from 137 countries, attended the Microcredit Summit in Washington, D.C., February 2-4, 1997. The Summit launched a nine-year campaign to reach 100 million of the world's poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by 2005.
Present at the Microcredit Summit were Prime Ministers and Presidents, Queens and First Ladies, Heads of UN Agencies and Donor Agencies, Ministers of Governments, leaders in business and finance, and hundreds of grassroots leaders from around the world.

We Are the World: Welfare States on the Web

Social Policy Association of the UK
Yahoo Country Pages - this is a springboard to all kinds of information organized alphabetically by country name (covers over 150 countries)

World Socialist Website
International site, incl.links to Canada

EFFweb - The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Internet Privacy Coalition
The Center for Democracy and Technology
ACLU Freedom Network
Benton Foundation - ("... working to realize the social benefits made possible by the public interest use of communications") - Washington, D.C.
Coalition for America's Children

Internet Nonprofit Center - Information for and about nonprofit organizations

CANADIAN SOCIAL RESEARCH LINKS HOME PAGE

PAGE D'ACCUEIL - SITES DE RECHERCHE SOCIALE AU CANADA

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How to Search for a Word or Expression on a Single Web Page
Open any web page in your browser, then hold down the Control ("Ctrl") key on your keyboard and type the letter F to open a "Find" window. Type or paste in a key word or expression and hit Enter - your browser will go directly to the first occurrence of that word (or those exact words, as the case may be). To continue searching using the same keyword(s) throughout the rest of the page, keep clicking on the FIND NEXT button.
Try it. It's a great time-saver!

Site created and maintained by:
Gilles Séguin (This link takes you to my personal page)

E-MAIL: gilseg@rogers.com

Social Research in Other Countries - NGOs

La recherche sociale ailleurs dans le monde - les ONG

Social Research in
Other Countries - NGOs

La recherche sociale
ailleurs dans le monde - les ONG