HDRO Conference Room
25 August 2009
Time: 12:30- 1:30 p.m.
Topic
Progress towards achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Pacific has not been good. As noted by the Sachs Report: “Oceania is off track for nearly every goal, and falling back in some areas. Even where there is progress, it is too slow to achieve MDGs. Only Sub-Saharan Africa is off track on more indicators than Oceania.” (2005) Per capita economic growth in the Pacific has been slower than other similar countries, and population growth rates in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu outstrip economic growth rates. Many children in the PICs suffer from malnutrition, lack access to and support for education, improved water supply and sanitation. Further challenges include issues of increasing cash poverty, family fragmentation, deterioration of cultural/traditional systems, widening development gaps between urban and rural areas, persistent gender inequality, increasing vulnerability to natural disasters, unsustainable exploitation of marine and land resources and poor donor coordination and poor targeting of the resources to obtain better development and social outcomes. This paper discusses the preliminary results of a benchmark study of child poverty and disparities carried out by the University of New South Wales.
About the Speaker
Peter Whiteford is a professor at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He has extensive experience in social security policy and research, having worked as Adviser on Social Security to the Federal Government of Australia, and in related fields at the University of York in the United Kingdom, and for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2000-08). His work covers many areas of social policy, including retirement income provisions, family assistance, social assistance, income support and labour market issues, and income distribution and poverty analysis. While at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, he worked on social protection and social safety nets in developing countries, social security policies for older workers, and policies to address child poverty. His recent work has been on child poverty in Pacific Island countries.
Download the presentation here: Peter Whiteford PPT [498 KB]
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