Is the empowerment of women through conditional cash transfers illusory? It is important to distinguish between the positive effects of conditional cash transfers and ‘empowerment’ as well as between different degrees of empowerment. But to effectively and sustainably tackle women’s poverty and vulnerability we must support women’s capabilities and income-generating capacities, and understand the gender... ...

Social protection programmes have expanded rapidly in the developing world in recent years. In Southeast Asia, the experience of the Asian Financial Crisis of the 1990s heightened awareness of vulnerability to poverty and the role of government in protecting households from a sudden loss of employment and income, or from contingencies such as ill-health and... ...

An elevated electric train in Holland Smart grid leads to more efficient electric trains By Brian Dodson SolidarityEconomy.net via Gizmag July 11, 2012 – Electric commuter trains, while quiet and fast, have one glaring inefficiency – when they brake at a station, the energy of the moving train is lost, even when the motors are... ...

This year Oikocredit will be hosting two study tours, with its first heading to the Dominican Republic. A group of volunteers, members and investors of Oikocredit in Canada and the USA will visit partners across the Dominican Republic from 27 April to 2 May 2014. The second tour heads for Bolivia in May. The annual... ...

Access to adequate social protection in old age remains a luxury limited to a minority of older people globally. This huge gap is symptomatic of the wider failure of social protection systems as a whole to guarantee the right to social security, which constitutes a fundamental barrier to tackling pervasive poverty and growing inequality across... ...

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/04/17/303772556/plant-breeders-release-first-open-source-seeds Backers of the new Open Source Seed Initiative will pass out 29 new varieties of 14 different crops, including broccoli, carrots and kale, on Thursday. J. Scott Applewhite/AP A group of scientists and food activists is launching a campaign Thursday to change the rules that govern seeds. They’re releasing 29 new varieties of... ...

UNRISD is briefing delegates from UN Member States on social inclusion and the post-2015 development agenda at an Orientation Briefing organized in New York by UNITAR on 16-17 April 2014. UNRISD Director Sarah Cook prepared a short video for the Briefing, using lessons learned from UNRISD research to set the stage for the two days... ...