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	Towards Human Resilience: Sustaining MDG Progress in an Age of Economic Uncertainty by United Nations Development Programme   The recent global economic crisis has reinforced significant concerns about the impact of financial and economic shocks on human development. The increasing frequency of such shocks raises important questions about their systemic character and the ability of developing countries to withstand the most damaging and lasting impacts of economic uncertainty.   Indeed, vulnerability to macro-level shocks has the potential of significantly slowing progress towards MDGs and other development goals that have taken developing countries many years to achieve. This report addresses essential questions about economic vulnerability and resilience.   Most significantly, it explores the following: How do macro-economic crises affect the world’s most vulnerable economies? What structural characteristics make some economies more susceptible to the harmful effects of such shocks? And what policies can help developing economies build resilience in the face of unpredictable economic change globally? In doing so, it identifies key structural determinants that shape how countries experience and adapt to economic and financial shocks while considering policies and practices that minimize susceptibility.   Rising global inequalities are a unique driver of vulnerability in that they are both a cause and effect of the crisis itself. Rising income inequalities create the necessary conditions for a vicious cycle, whereby increasing inequalities contribute to increasing the frequency and volatility of financial crises and financial crises further worsen income inequality.   Indeed, income inequalities have surged in advanced economies since the 1980s and this trend is closely corroborated with the increase in the incidence of financial crises that have rocked the global economy over the same period. Moreover, in many developing countries too, income inequalities have been rising sharply since the 1990s, which has similarly been strongly associated with the increase in the incidence of domestic financial crises.   Income (and wealth) inequality contributes to financial instability through several interrelated channels: generally, a rise in income inequality reduces the purchasing power of middle- and low-income households, creating a tendency toward reduced levels of aggregate effective demand. Moreover, the search for highreturn investments by those who benefit from the increase in inequalities leads to the emergence of asset bubbles.   Thus, rising inequalities fuel financial instability because they create a political environment whereby procyclical investment policies (such as poor regulation and loose monetary policy) are more likely to be implemented in order to avoid political instability and lower economic growth.   Rising global inequalities are a unique driver of vulnerability in that they are both a cause and effect of the crisis itself. Even more troubling is the fact that the persistence of inequalities at high levels in many developing countries has made it more difficult to reduce poverty.   This relationship appears to be especially pronounced in countries where a large part of the population is trapped in chronic poverty. Moreover, high inequalities also reduce the likelihood that policies fostering inclusive growth and human development will be delivered and implemented. For instance, richer groups may allocate public funds for their own interests rather than for those of the country. And where institutions of government are weak, rising inequality can exacerbate the problem of creating and maintaining accountable government, thereby increasing the probability of the adoption of policies that inhibit growth and poverty reduction.   The Full Report can be accessed here: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/poverty-reduction/inclusive_development/towards_human_resiliencesustainingmdgprogressinanageofeconomicun.html   Chapter 6: Income Inequality and the Condition of Cronic Poverty: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Poverty%20Reduction/Inclusive%20development/Towards%20Human%20Resilience/Towards_SustainingMDGProgress_Ch6.pdf Visit the related web page
	Urgent policy actions needed to tackle food & nutrition security in the Arab world by International Food Policy Research Institute   Poverty and income inequality rates in the Arab world are higher than official numbers have suggested. Food security and poverty are particularly closely linked in Arab countries due to high vulnerability to food-related external shocks, including food price volatility, natural disasters, increasing water scarcity, and conflicts.   Food security poses a serious challenge for the Arab region due to high dependency on food imports exacerbated by global price volatility, diminished capacity for generating foreign exchange to pay for imported food, rising food demand driven by continued high population growth, and limited potential for agricultural growth due to severe water constraints and water resource management challenges.   Officially, less than 20 percent of the population in the Arab region lives under the $2/day poverty line, but income-only measures can be misleading. Child undernutrition rates, an alternate and arguably more comprehensive measure of food security, are high and have not decreased with GDP growth to the same extent as other regions in the world.   In some cases, such as Egypt, undernourishment of children has increased over the past eight years. Child undernutrition is measured by the percentage of children younger than five years of age who are stunted. In the Arab region, one in five children is stunted, and the prevalence of child undernutrition in countries like Sudan, Comoros, Somalia, and Yemen is considerably higher, with rates around 40 percent or greater.   “As food security was one of the triggers of the Arab Awakening, finding policy responses to food insecurity is particularly important for policymakers in Arab countries,” said Clemens Breisinger, IFPRI research fellow. “Given the high levels of growing dissatisfaction of people in the region, urgent actions should be taken.”   The report offers three key policy recommendations including fostering growth that enhances food security, and revisiting the allocation and efficiency of public spending.   The region’s food-security progress is significantly slowed by a lack of reliable data. Poverty estimates only exist in half of the Arab countries and there is no common food security indicator in the region. Our report proposes that countries should develop and improve the availability, accessibility, and quality of data to allow for accurate, evidence-based decisions for the wellbeing of the region’s economies and people. It also suggests that existing data, such as household surveys, social indicators, national accounts, and consumer prices should be made available in a timely fashion.   Fostering economic growth is a key to enhance food security. Governments must improve food security at the national level and work to generate foreign exchange revenues that allow food imports. Improving food security at the household level requires inclusive growth that generates income and jobs for the poor in both rural and urban areas.   Even though governments in the Arab region spend more (as a share of GDP) on their citizens than anywhere else in the developing world, the efficiency of this spending should be assessed. “Public investments in agriculture, education, health, infrastructure, and social protection are most critical for reducing poverty and improving food security,” says Shenggen Fan, IFPRI’s director general. Because education spending is much less effective at reducing poverty in the Arab region compared to the rest of the world, countries should institute education system reforms to address relevant job market needs and skill gaps.   During this time, when the level of dissatisfaction among the region’s people is high and growing higher, there is an urgent need for strategic policies that address constraints to food security. Successful design and implementation of these strategies will require leadership, sound laws and institutions, politicians who are accountable and listen to the voices of the people, and civil society members that are part of the tenants of democracy.
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