What would you spend it on?

Poverty has risen in Nigeria with almost 100 million people living on less than $1 or 63p per day - so what would you buy?

And I know what you are thinking "that must be a fortune in Nigeria", but look at the following shopping list:

1 litre of milk = $2.50

Loaf of bread = $1.27

12 egss =$3.21

1 pair of jeans = $25.75

1 pair of trainers = $125.00

1 minute of mobile phone = $0.19

One way bus ticket = $0.85

So what would you buy?

Read more at the following BBC page.

Urbanisation

Rapid urbanisation in developing nations threatens to trigger a water and sanitation crisis in quickly expanding slums, a report has warned.
Charity WaterAid said chronic water shortages in many of the world's slums were being exacerbated by the arrival of millions of people each week.

Read more on the BBC - click here

To learn more about WaterAid UK click this link.

Africa's Green Revolution

From the begging bowl to the bread basket: in just two years, Malawi has gone from famine to food surplus - according to national statistics.

Smallholder farmers are being given access to new crop breeds; fertilisers; irrigation systems; and new techniques in crop rotation and soil management.

Agro-science is helping families to cope with climate change and helping Malawi to buck the trend in neighbouring African countries.

Drought hits Ethiopia

Aid agencies are warning that Ethiopian authorities are under-estimating the scale of the country's drought.
Official estimates of the number of people facing hunger and hardship stand at 4.6m but agencies warn the real figure could be more than 8m.
There is also confusion over the amount of money needed to meet the crisis, with the Oxfam agency estimating it at about $500m.
However, the United Nations reports that $772m has already been pledged.

World Population Day

Today (11 July) is the United Nations World Population day.

For more information click on this link to the UN Population Fund.

Rising food prices

As Mrs M complains about the rising cost of staple foods such as bread and milk the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) - has warned the industrialised countries that unless they increase yields, eliminate barriers and move food to where it is needed most, a global catastrophe could result.

The recent food crisis is believed to have pushed 100 million people into hunger worldwide. Poorer countries are faced with a 40% increase in their food imports bill this year, and experts say some countries' food bills have doubled in the past year.

According to the World Food Programme higher food prices are rooted in increased energy costs, rising demand from economic growth in emerging economies, the growth of biofuels and increasing climatic shocks such as droughts and floods.

The map below shows how the rising cost of food is affecting countries ballance of trade. Balance of tarde is the difference between the cost of exports and the cost of imports for a country.