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Bill Gates: Solving malnutrition is both a global health and economic imperative

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is focusing on the need to invest in global health in its 2024 Goalkeepers Report.
"It's an investment in their stability, their child survival, their helping the world economy," Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said. Malnutrition is a key focus of this year's Goalkeepers Report, which the Foundation releases annually to track progress on United Nations' targets for global improvement.
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Latest Census data show an increase in childhood poverty

Sep 13, 2024
Despite wage gains, lower-income families have been hit hard by inflation and the expiration of pandemic-era benefits.
In 2021, largely because of a temporary expanded child tax credit, only about 5% of children lived in poverty. Now,  nearly 14% of children do.
Larry French/Getty Images for SKDK
The survey found over a quarter of trans people in the U.S. couldn't afford to visit the doctor when they needed to. Lack of health care access has economic effects, says Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen.
Zackary Drucker and Alyza Enriquez/ Gender Spectrum Collection

Here’s what’s in the new bill to expand the child tax credit

Jan 17, 2024
The temporary 2021 expanded child tax credit helped millions out of poverty. A new bill will enhance the tax credit, although experts say it will have trouble passing in Congress.
Amber MacQuarrie, a member of the group Moms Rising, speaks during a press briefing about the importance of expanding the child tax credit.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Economic Security Project

A plan for alleviating poverty and climate change

The two challenges are interrelated, and a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute says they must be addressed in tandem.
It'll take investment equal to about 8% of global GDP annually to close both the economic empowerment gap and the net-zero transition gap, according to the McKinsey Global Institute,
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Census: Income fell, poverty increased in 2022

Sep 12, 2023
The expiration of pandemic-era government benefits is partially responsible for the increases in poverty.
Above, a food pantry, in Queens, New York. With pandemic-era benefits ending, post-tax real incomes fell 14% for the lowest earners in the U.S. in 2022.
Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

Yes, you can be employed and homeless

Jun 1, 2023
Fast-food workers, who are often paid low wages and work limited hours, make up 11% of homeless workers in California, a study finds.
An Economic Roundtable study looks at the fast-food industry in California, which has the "highest rate of poverty employment" in the state, according to author Daniel Flaming.
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For public good, not for profit.

Child poverty fell by nearly half in 2021, Census Bureau says

Sep 13, 2022
The supplemental poverty rate fell to its lowest since 2009. Children living in poverty fell by almost half.
A volunteer hands out lettuce at a food pantry in December 2021. Last year, the supplemental poverty rate fell to 7.8%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

When governments fail to address community issues, who steps in?

Jul 6, 2022
In an excerpt from "The Fight to Save the Town," the author describes how residents get by in an Oregon county with a declining government.
A person in Detroit walks past the remains of the Packard Motor Car Co., which ceased production in the late 1950s.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Pandemic-driven poverty in New York City persists amid recovery, report finds

The report from Robin Hood and Columbia University sheds light on the enduring economic hardship faced by many New Yorkers.
New data from Robin Hood and Columbia University paint a picture of poverty in New York City amid multiple crises.
Brad Barket/Getty Images for Action/2015