2004/10/19
Licking poverty “unlikely“
Sharp disparities in incomes, education and health, combined with unrelenting civil strife in parts of Visayas and Mindanao, make it very unlikely for the Philippines to attain key targets set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a public administration expert said on Monday.

2004/09/21
Ghana's Housing Sector, Who Cares for the Poor
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to which the Ghana government is a signatory, in Goal 7, Target 11, commits governments to achieve a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.

Judging by the pace of progress in the delivery of housing in Ghana, it is doubtful that this goal would be achieved.

2004/08/31
Paraguay invests only U$S 140 per person in social spending
Asunción, Aug. 27. "Paraguay has a large outstanding debt to itself: its extremely high spending on defence is scandalous in comparison with its low social spending, in a situation of growing poverty and inequality,” said Patricia Garcé, executive secretary of the International Secretariat of Social Watch, speaking at the launching of Social Watch’s Report for 2004, “Fear and Want: Obstacles to human security”.

2004/08/26
When the interest is bigger than the loan
NGOs demand that development aid projects cease being a ‘political football’ and start reaching the people who most need them. For every euro received by poor countries as aid, they end up giving back at least the same amount in trade obligations or in revenue evasion in tax-free havens. Development aid, supposed to show the commitment of international organisations and developed countries to narrowing the gap between North and South, the rich and the poor, is coming increasingly under question. The same hands that reputedly give, later take away even more.

2004/07/02
Zambia: Finance Minister debates Social Watch findings
The launching of the Social Watch report 2004 in Zambia sparked a nation-wide discussion on poverty in the country. Finance Minister Ngandu Magande argued there is now plenty of food in the country and even stone crushers have bank accounts and questioned the accuracy of the Social Watch indicators. In an editorial comment, the influential Zambian daily "The Post" advised the minister "to look at his own government's statistics on poverty produced by the Central Statistical Office" and argued that "the issues raised in the 2004 Social Watch report are true and deserve our government's and indeed all our politicians' most serious considerations".

2004/04/27
Poverty is the source of citizen insecurity in Latin America
A report by NGO Social Watch says that insecurity in the region is caused by poverty, rather than wars or political violence.

2004/04/27
International Report slams Philippines over Mindanao
ILOILO CITY, April 26 (IslamOnline.net) – An international network of non-governmental organizations lambasted in its annual report released Monday, April 26, the Filipino government over its failure to end the decades-old crisis in Mindanao. "As long as the government talks peace but makes war, and as long as the economic model does not recognize the need to battle against inequality and poverty, human security will remain a remote possibility," said Social Watch.

2004/02/19
Social Watch El Salvador launches campaign
In the struggle to reduce high indicators that prevent social development, Social Watch El Salvador launched the “No excuses 2015” campaign advocating the Millennium Development Goals undertaken by the Salvadoran government in the United Nations in 2000.

2004/01/28
Pick your crisis
There is now general agreement that the Philippines needs to come to grips with the fiscal deficit and the debt problem. Whether it is a fiscal problem or a fiscal crisis, the fact remains that the deficit remains unmanageable while the public debt is now calculated to be 80 percent of the GNP. In the meantime, the Philippines still has very high poverty levels and is hard put to raise additional resources for the Millennium Development Goals.

2004/01/19
Mother of Protest Meets Targets Uncle Sam
Leonor Briones, coordinator of Social Watch Asia and professor at the University of the Philippines was more concerned over the lack of involvement of the poor at large in the privatisation process. She pointed out that the ongoing privatisation was being actively pursued by the multilateral agencies with a message: either privatise or die. The global experience has proved that only a handful were the beneficiaries of the much debated privatisation, she said.