Projects World Poverty

World poverty: Responding to the challenge

This contains case studies of World Bank programmes on rebuilding Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch, educating girls in Bangladesh and reducing Third World Debt.

A booklet has been distributed to schools in the United Kingdom with the Autumn 2000 issue of the Global Eye magazine and it is also available here.

It has been compiled and published by Worldaware for the World Bank Group and it provides an effective way of illustrating the role of this major international institution.

The Teacher's notes with learning activities to accompany World Poverty: Responding to the Challenge, are available to download, print and photocopy from a portable document file (PDF 128kb) here. They also appear on this page below with links to the activities in html format.

The full document of World Poverty: Responding to the Challenge is also available here (PDF 3,061kb) is also available here. This is a large file and will take some time to download.

The teacher's notes also include a special offer on the World Development Indicators and the World Bank Atlas 2000.

Note: Portable Document Files (pdf) can be downloaded and read onscreen, or printed out, using Adobe Acrobat Reader. This software may be on your computer or can be downloaded, without charge, from Adobe.

Teachers' notes and activities (will open in a new window in a printable format)

The aim of reducing global poverty brings together the interface of governments and international institutions; private sector business and industry; civil society and non-governmental organisations. Underpinning the players in this super-aim is our own individual decision-making and democratic participation. We have a responsibility to be informed about the issues, to make sense of the complexity and alternative perspectives, in order to become active citizens.

The booklet has been prepared with a view to being used in its entirety but with emphasis on the different sections according to the age groups progressing from years 9-11 to 12 and 13.

Rebuilding after Hurricane Mitch

Global Express, published by Development Education Project, Manchester, has an issue on Hurricane Mitch available at www.dep.org.uk/globalexpress/editions/hurr.html This has links to other sites.

More background information is provided on the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Mitch at www.disasterrelief.org and www.honduras.com/weather

Satellite images of Mitch and other hurricanes are accessible from www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane

Educating girls in Bangladesh

"The State of the World's Children 1999" published by UNICEF (ISBN 92-806-3389-9) focuses specifically on Education, including plenty of useful supplementary articles and statistical data. UNICEF also has a detailed section on "Education for All" on their website, www.unicef.org/girlseducation/index.html. This includes information on their "Global Girls' Education Programme" in 63 different countries and the final report of the Dakar, April 2000, World Education Forum.

Oxfam International's "Education now - break the cycle of poverty" website, www.oxfam.org/educationnow, provides background material to the international development targets for primary education. There is also a page on the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and a summary of the role of BRAC in educating girls in Bangladesh.

Reducing Third World debt

The BBC documentary referred to on the activity sheet was called "Earth Report III - In the balance". The quotations have been arranged so you have the option of separating them from the source.

Cafod provides background information on the debt crisis and useful links other debt-related issues. www.cafod.org.uk/debtfs.htm.

Also check the World Bank Group site at www.worldbank.org/hipc

General resources

The Bank, the President and the Pearl of Africa (an IBT production for Channel 4) is two fly-on-the-wall documentaries first shown on Channel 4 in August 1998. It follows the negotiations between the World Bank and the Ugandan government on debt relief, exploring the relationship between donors and indebted countries. The accompanying booklet explains the origins of the World Bank and how it works, using Uganda as a case study. Suitable for years 12 and 13. Two 50 minute videos, 24pp booklet, teachers' notes £30.00 plus £3.95 p&p available from Oxfam Education. Tel: 01865 311311

Special offer for teachers

Teachers are invited to submit 400 words on how you have placed the subject of world poverty in your schemes of work or course specifications. The five most imaginative and clearly expressed will receive a copy of World Development Indicators 2000 in print and on CD-ROM and the World Bank Atlas 2000. These have a combined retail price of over $300. The deadline for submissions, email preferred, is 31 October 2000 and normal competition rules apply. Worldaware may refer to teacher's submissions, and their schools, in future publications.

'World poverty: responding to the challenge' is published by Worldaware, 31-35 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TE
Tel: 020 7831 3844 Fax: 020 7831 1746 Email: education@worldaware.org.uk

Written by Olly Phillipson, Simon Scoones and Angus Willson. With special thanks to Sarah Cambridge, The World Bank Group, London

Design by wave 01424 715754

Worldaware would like to thank The World Bank Group for the financial support making this publication possible.

The contents of this educational publication do not necessarily reflect the views of Worldaware's staff or the Council of Management.

The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the co-editors and contributors and should not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations, or to members of its Board of Executive Directors or the countries they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any consequence of their use. The boundaries, colours, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this volume do not imply on the part of the World Bank Group any judgment on the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.

© Worldaware, 2000