Inequality is rising across the post-industrial capitalist world. The problem is not caused by politics and politics will never be able to eliminate it. But simply ignoring it could generate a populist backlash. Governments must accept that today as ever, inequality and insecurity are the inevitable results of market operations. Their challenge is to find ways of shielding citizens from capitalism's adverse consequences -- even as they preserve the dynamism that produces capitalism's vast economic and cultural benefits in the first place.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues that with the help of the private and public sector, women entrepreneurs are helping to combat global poverty, but more work is needed to overcome the challenges of access to finance, access to markets, and access to skills-building and networks.

Vivek Maru and Michael Woolcock evaluate efforts of nonprofits and global development institutions to help all people exercise their rights, increase government accountability, and participate in governance.

Vivek Maru and Michael Woolcock evaluate efforts of nonprofits and global development institutions to help all people exercise their rights, increase government accountability, and participate in governance.

Libya is experiencing a transition away from its earlier state into a region that has changed in its political and religious landscape.

This was a meeting of the roundtable series, Opportunity and Exclusion in the Global Economy.

Peter Orszag explains how monthly cycles of food-stamp benefits may contribute to disciplinary problems among students from low-income families.

Isobel Coleman discusses the importance of leveraging new resources, such as commitment accounts and mobile technology, for poverty alleviation.

The UN Development Programme released its yearly Human Development Report on November 2, 2011.

This report from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies analyzes the causes and impacts of hunger and malnutrition from emergency and long-term perspectives.

Isobel Coleman argues that increased access to voluntary family planning is one of the most cost-effective ways to improve health and reduce poverty.

Is globalization to blame for rising unemployment and income inequality in the United States?

This official list of Millennium Development Goals Indicators is maintained by the UN. It includes indicators on poverty, hunger, gender equality, disease, education, maternal health, child mortality, environmental stability, and development.

This roundtable, Crisis in the Horn: Can We Prevent One Million Deaths Today and Worse Famines Tomorrow?, was part of CFR's Global Health program.

Morgan Bazilian, Patrick Nussbaumer, Giorgio Gualberti, Erik Haites, Michael A. Levi, Judy Siegel, Daniel M. Kammen, and Joergen Fenhann provide an analysis of energy poverty and the "funding gap" that impedes universal household access to electricity.

This session was part of the project, Maternal Health in Afghanistan and Pakistan, organized by CFR's Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 17/13 regarding extreme poverty and human rights on June 17, 2011.

Experts discuss the impact of technology and banking on the economic and political development of women.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says microfinance is only part of the solution to helping women entrepreneurs in poor nations.

For over a half-century the Egyptian government has sold cut-rate wheat flour to bakeries for the production of bread. Many Egyptians rely on this subsidy, but in the face of a looming global food crisis, the program may cost billions of dollars for the new Cairo leadership.