The solutions to problems are often implicit in the way they are framed. If I tell you my car won’t start, you might tell me to consult a mechanic. If, on the other hand, I tell you I can’t find my keys, well, we have a completely different problem. In public policy, frames can often conflate symptoms with causes, other times, such as with the example I gave, they just obscure a possible solution.

But frames turn out to be fundamentally important to the problems’ solutions. As Albert Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first fifty-five minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”

In early 2012, outgoing World Bank President Robert Zoellick announced that the Millennium Development Goal of halving the global poverty rate relative to its 1990 level had been achieved in 2010 – five years ahead of schedule.

However, many analysts have challenged estimates that rely on the World Bank’s current poverty line, raised in 2008 from $1 to $1.25 per day, in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Dear Mr Van Rompuy,

As a broad coalition working on tax justice and the fight against tax evasion and tax avoidance both in developed and developing countries, we are pleased to hear that you have put this subject on the agenda of the next EU leaders Summit on 22nd of May.

We urge EU leaders to take this opportunity to agree on concrete measures including multilateral automatic information exchange; disclosure of beneficial owners through public registries; combined and country-by-country reporting for transnational corporations in all sectors; and a common binding definition of tax havens and effective non-compliance sanctions.

EU finance ministers failed once again to agree on ending loopholes in the EU savings directive, under which Luxembourg and Austria are exempted from provisions on automatic information exchange, due to continued opposition from those two countries. The Greens hit out at the continued obstruction by Luxembourg and Austria to this key measure aimed at ensuring banking transparency, with a view to tackling tax avoidance.

On 18 April of 2013, the European Parliament adopted an initiative report on the impact of financial and economic crisis on human rights. The resolution is very interesting, focusing on the right to social security and other social and economic rights, support for a global financial transaction tax, welcoming the proposal for a global fund for social protection ...

Read the text

In six out of ten examined countries over 60 % of young people are either unemployed, working in low quality, irregular, low wage jobs, often in the informal sector ...

Read the report

“Imagine an African continent, where leaders use mineral wealth wisely to fund better health, education, energy, and infrastructure too. Africa, our continent has oil, gas, platinum, diamonds, cobalt, copper, and more. If we use these resources wisely, they will improve the lives of millions of Africans. If we don’t, they can fuel corruption, conflict, and social instability. Transparency and accountability are key. The US and Europe are demanding new transparency from companies who work in Africa. We must also take responsibility. Our governments may have become more open. Big businesses may have improved their ways of working.

But we — Africans –must do so much more. This issue is too big for the politicians and big business to manage without the involvement of civil society. I’m Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the Africa Progress Panel. Work with me to demand more transparency from Africa’s national leaders and foreign investors. What are they doing? How much is it worth? And how will the money be spent? Because this is our continent, our minerals, our children’s and grandchildren’s future.”

Despite assurances by financial elites that austerity economics is a prescription to improve the lives of the masses, research contained in a newly published book shows that the push for steep cuts in wages, social programs, and public health programs is literally killing people throughout Europe and the US.

The book—titled The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills, written by David Stuckler, an Oxford University political economist, and Sanjay Basu, an epidemiologist at Stanford University—uses historical case studies from around the globe and throughout history to show "how government policy becomes a matter of life and death" during deep or prolonged financial crises.

Shaheena is finally out of the building, but not alive. Rescuers on Sunday made a frantic effort to pull out Shaheena from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza. She was alive then. The operation had to be suspended after a fire broke out at the site that day. Her death came as a great shock to everyone at the disaster site yesterday.

“Low prices. Every Day. On everything” — Wal-Mart’s new slogan replaces the old one in circulation since 2007 — “Save money. Live better”.

Both show the sad face of garment business. They also reveal the crux of the problem: when you want to go cheap, your operation will go cheap too.