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Remeasuring Poverty

Talking about the number of people living on or below a “dollar a day” is a simple, effective way of telling the story of progress (or the lack of it) in reducing global poverty. But focusing on income alone has obvious limitations as a measure of extreme poverty. These have been highlighted by the launch […]

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Conservative Promises

David Cameron is widely expected to become Britain’s next prime minister. Plenty of people in the world of international development worry that a Conservative British government will be less committed to international aid than the current Labour government. So the surprise appearance that Cameron made last night at an event at the World Economic Forum […]

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Just the Ticket?

Around $1 billion has been raised so far to help developing countries by taxing plane tickets. The idea, proposed by former French president Jacques Chirac, first took effect in July 2006. Travellers in countries participating in the scheme pay two euros on top of an economy ticket in Europe, four euros in business class, rising […]