As concerns grow about assisting countries in the developing world in a way that is both meaningful and sustainable, it should not surprise Scout Report readers that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is Canada's federal agency that is charged with coordinating Canada's efforts to reduce poverty and "to contribute to a more secure, equitable and prosperous world." First-time...

Established in 2000, with a series of innovative grants and funding schemes from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the Chronic Poverty Research Center (CPRC) is primarily concerned with researching chronic poverty around the globe and creating well thought out analyses that will be useful to different government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other...

The Brookings Institution has a broad range of research interests, ranging from informed commentary on the Middle East to energy policy here in the United States. One of the organization's more recent pieces analyzed participation in the USDA's food stamp program, in conjunction with Census 2000 data. Their report revealed a few troubling situations, including the fact that only about one-half of...

Founded in 1937, the Plan organization was initially intended to provide food and education to the unfortunate children whose lives were disrupted by the trauma and horror of the Spanish Civil War. Almost 70 years later, Plan continues to provide much needed assistance to 45 countries around the world, primarily in the areas of education, housing, and cross-cultural learning. First-time visitors...

Founded in 1995, Social Watch was first established to provide a global platform for non-governmental organizations to monitor and promote the effective implementation of the commitments made by national governments during the United Nations World Summit on Social Development. Since that time, the group's work has continued in the areas of monitoring poverty eradication and gender equality and...

Since John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson declared war on rural poverty during their time in the White House, there has been an overriding concern with alleviating the persistently high levels of poverty in the American South. A number of organizations have developed to provide assistance to the region, and the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC), located at Mississippi State University is one...

In the year 2000, all of the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions signed on to a compact sponsored by the United Nations in order to assist the needs of the world's poorest people. This compact included eight primary development goals that would be met by 2015. Some of these goals included a significant reduction of child mortality and the promotion of gender...

Recently released, this annual report on the state of world development (written by staff members at the World Bank) is an important document that adopts as its main thesis that broad improvements in human welfare around the globe will not occur unless "poor people receive wider access to affordable, better quality services in health, education, water, sanitation, and electricity." From this main...