$3.1B set aside for jobless unclaimed, By Matt Kelley, August 30, 2009, USA Today: “More than $3.1 billion in stimulus money for state unemployment insurance programs is sitting in a federal trust fund because 23 states haven’t expanded their jobless benefits, Labor Department records show. Nearly 350,000 out-of-work Americans could get benefits if all those states revamp their unemployment systems to qualify for federal money, according to estimates from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a workers’ advocacy group. In all, the stimulus package offers $7 billion to states that make changes, which can include offering benefits to part-time workers…”
Month: August 2009
Microfinance and Poverty Reduction
Some fear profit motive to trump poverty efforts in microfinance, By Matthew Saltmarsh and Cat Contiguglia, August 28, 2009, New York Times: “From a warehouse in this scruffy suburb outside Paris, Jacques Attali has been building what he calls the ‘McKinsey’ of the microfinance world, a one-stop consulting shop for the sector. A consummate French insider, Mr. Attali, a former banker and presidential advisor, has recruited big names as board members and advisors, including Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of the Nobel prize-winning Médecins Sans Frontières, now the French foreign minister; and Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel-winning founder of Grameen Bank, a pioneer in the field of microfinance. He has attracted a host of corporate partners, like SAP, the German software company, and BNP Paribas, the largest bank in France. The result – PlaNet Finance – now has a staff of 700, about 10 percent based in Saint-Ouen, active in more than 60 countries. Since 1998, it says it has provided help to 140,000 entrepreneurs and set up $80 million in financing. It also has an investment arm and offers technical assistance to donors and recipients. Some services, like ratings, have become benchmarks; others, like insurance, are less successful. The expansion illustrates just how microfinance – the providing of small business loans to individuals, usually in developing countries – has become big business. Companies like PlaNet Finance and BlueOrchard, based in Geneva, attract not only public investors, but private ones seeking a “double bottom line” of socially responsible returns…”
Climate Change and Hunger – Nepal
Millions in Nepal facing hunger as climate changes, By Binaj Gurubacharya (AP), August 28, 2009, Bradenton Herald: ” Millions of people in Nepal face severe food shortages because global climate change has disrupted weather patterns and slashed crop yields in the Himalayan nation, an international aid agency warned Friday. Changing weather patterns have dramatically affected crop production in Nepal, leaving farmers unable to properly feed themselves and pushing them into debt, Oxfam International said in a report released in Katmandu…”