As the great and the good prepare to gather at the snow-capped mountains of Davos for the World Economic Forum, a vital question sits on the agenda that holds the potential to transform the lives of the world's poorest people. That question, as Lee Howell, Managing Director for the Centre for Global Events at the World Economic Forum puts it, is how do we ensure growth that is, "Sustainable... equitable and...  inspiring for future ... Read more

For a time in the nineties and early noughties, as financial services promised untold riches for all, discussing inequality was seen as the preserve of people at the fringe of debate. Since the onset of the credit crunch and austerity in Western countries, inequality is firmly back at the centre of the public discourse. A new Oxfam report is adding to this conversation, looking at how inequality increases poverty and vulnerability and... Read more

What you make of 2011 depends on your vantage point. The year's events look completely different depending on whether you are sitting at the bottom or the top, in the old north or the old south. From the bottom, this was a year of protest and revolution, toppling tyrants and throwing up new governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and (probably) Yemen. So far, thankfully, fears about the negative impact of such revolutions on women's... Read more

I've been privileged to be in the Arab region during the uprisings and revolutions in what has been called the Arab Spring. I've mingled with hundreds of thousands protesting for their rights, conquering decades of fear, when for most such expression never went further than the dinner table; witnessed grown men crying in street cafes on the day they saw the downfall of their dictator; women finding themselves shaking their fists in public... Read more

In 2009, 29 of the world's leading Earth-system scientists drew up a set of nine 'planetary boundaries': critical natural processes that we must not breach if we want to maintain Earth's stable state of the last 10,000 years. Like what? Like climate change, ozone depletion, and biodiversity loss. No small fry. They got bold and attempted a first quantification of these boundaries (eg setting a climate change boundary... Read more

Renewable energy has an important role to play in fighting poverty, but practitioners wishing to develop energy access projects often struggle to know where to start. That's why Oxfam, Practical Action and Christian Aid have joined forces to create a guide or 'toolkit' that aims to help development practitioners deliver energy access projects. The toolkit is free to download here: http://practicalaction.org/iret The Interactive... Read more

Workers wearing goggles upside down, as the personal protective equipment has only been rented for a day to pass an audit.  A training course for Chinese factory managers on 'how the mice can escape the cats'.  To pass an audit, they coached workers to give the 'right answer'. Software that shows how to keep double books on hours worked and wages... Read more