The G7 summit has drawn to a close, and as world leaders depart Germany so too do the many anti-poverty campaigners who protested at the summit. But is the public movement to end poverty and inequality as effective as it used to be? Researcher Alex Evans argues that development activism is in decline and anti-poverty campaigners have much to learn from climate change activism, which has attracted a new generation of supporters. We asked readers who protested at the G7 to share their photos; here are some of the best.
A study has attempted to place a dollar figure on women’s contribution to global healthcare. A Lancet report found women contribute around $3tn to healthcare, but almost half of it is unpaid and unrecognised. The unpaid work is mostly domestic care for family members, which is only officially acknowledged and compensated in a small number of countries, such as the UK, Turkey and Costa Rica.
Elsewhere on the site
Opinion
Addis Ababa is set to host the financing for development conference in July, where leaders will negotiate how to fund the new development agenda. But as Jonathan Glennie argues, the conference is missing the leadership required to make funding commitments possible. Instead, Glennie says, “the conference is in danger of not being remembered at all, as lower-level ministers and bureaucrats argue the toss over the jargon, with no era-defining clarion calls to speak of, and few timetables for action”.
As part of our review of the millennium development goals, two experts shared their views on the state of progress on reducing child and maternal mortality. The World Health Organisation’s Dr Flavia Bustreo argued that tackling inequality should be the highest priority when addressing preventable deaths in childhood, while Amref Health Africa’s Dr Joachim Osur called for leaders to keep their promises on healthcare funding in order to prevent mothers dying in childbirth.
Multimedia
Podcast: What causes conflict and how can it be resolved?
Video: Protecting women and girls in India: building a toilet for an urban community
Pictures: Refugee children in Tanzania find stability at school
Pictures: Around Lake Chad: Boko Haram’s legacy of ruin and fear
Coming up
How far has the world progressed on the sixth millennium development goal – combat HIV and Aids, malaria and other diseases? We take a look at what the world has achieved, what has failed, and what action is required for the next 15 years.
What you said: top reader comment
On the piece What can G7’s dwindling anti-poverty protesters learn from climate activists?, SteB1 wrote:
Instead of seeing all these matters as separate issues, poverty, development, wealth distribution, social justice, climate change, biodiversity loss, the depletion of the oceans, and a whole host of other sustainability issues, we need joined-up thinking that sees them as one big, joined-up interrelated problem, dealt with by the same focused analysis, and dealt with by the same focused problem solving … As the article hints at, what has created the rebirth of the climate movement is turning it into a moral issue ie something that really matters, and why we need to do the right thing. What motivates people is “meaningfulness”.
Highlight from the blogosphere
Overseas Development Institute: What if growth had been as good for the poor as everyone else?
And finally …
Poverty matters will return in two weeks with another roundup of the latest news and comment. In the meantime, keep up to date on the Global Development website. Follow @gdndevelopment and the team – @swajones, @LizFordGuardian, @MarkC_Anderson and @CarlaOkai – on Twitter, and join Guardian Global Development on Facebook.
