Weekly Roundup

Hello everyone and welcome to weekly roundup. Below is a selection of news articles and a video that caught our eye from our blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.  We hope you enjoy the read. 

The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013: The Multiple Dimensions of Food Security.  The newest edition of the State of Food Insecurity in the World Series by FAO presents updated estimates of undernourishment and progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and World Food Summit (WFS) hunger targets. The 2013 report goes beyond measuring food deprivation. It presents a broader suite of indicators that aim to capture the multidimensional nature of food insecurity, its determinants and outcomes.

Below a Q&A session on the report

The Global AgeWatch Index 2013  was unveiled by the HelpAge Network on October 1^st, International Day of Older Persons. It is the first ever tool to measure the quality of life and well-being of older people around the world. It responds to the urgent need to tackle the poverty and discrimination faced by the growing numbers of older people across the globe and demonstrates there is much to do. 

Allianz - Open Knowledge, HelpAge, Centre for Social Protection, European Network on Measuring Progress, Institute of Social and Medical Studies, Global Alliance of International Longevity Centres, International Council on Social Welfare, OECD - Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, PRO Global, Wikiprogress and World Bank invite you to participate in their online discussion, on “How should older people’s well-being be measured?” from 3 - 14 October 2013. Here is the short link http://bit.ly/17iDNBy and the hashtags for Twitter are #OlderPeople and #AgeingIndex.

After a Decade of Growth in Africa, Little Change in Poverty at the Grassroots, the most recent Policy Brief by the Afrobarometer Research Center shows the discrepancy between the economic growth in the African continent and the well-being of Africans. More than 50,000 individuals have been targeted in this survey (2010-2) in 34 African countries. 56% of the surveyed considered “bad” or “very bad” the management of the economy by their national governments and 69% had the same opinions on the policies targeting poverty.  67% believed that there was no improvement or a worsening of their quality of life.

Africa’s century?, this brief paper builds its arguments on an article by Myles Wickstead, Head of the UK Commission for Africa, on the OECD Observer, to discuss the economic growth in the continent in the last decade and the challenges to overcome. In the same page, are accessible several background papers of the International Economic Forum on Africa.

Ressources minières: un tremplin pour le développement de l'Afrique  by the Director of UNDP Africa, Abdouaye Mar Dieye. The article was published ahead of this year’s International Economic Forum on Africa which calls for a harnessing of natural resources’ for development. The articles calls for an efficient and transparent exploitation of these resources through taxes and fees; a better use of those taxes in uplifting sectors such as education and health and a progressive diversification of the economy through investments in high added-value sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing.

Below this infographics by Standard Chartered gives a glimpse of the potential of the continent

Políticas Públicas para El Buen Vivir y el Bienestar, the theme for Wikiprogress América Latina’s first online discussion. Only 3 DAYS left to make your points and share the best practices on well-being and “buen vivir” in Latin America. Here is the link:   http://bit.ly/19vQBTK and the hashtag for Twitter: #Bienestar and #PoliticasPublicas

Stay tuned the same time next week for another roundup of the week that was.

Yours in progress,
Wikiprogress Africa