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Frost over the World: Talk with Amartya Sen. Al Jazeera English, 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02J7ecw0FWI&feature=related
Time: 5:47
Professor Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University, addresses participants at the UNDP’s “Capacity is Development” global event via video message. The event was held on 17–19 March, 2010 in Marrakech, Morocco. In this message, he emphasizes that institutions play a huge role in enabling people to fulfill all that they are capable of achieving in their lives. He added this key role is not only of state institutions but also of a larger network including freedom of information, a democracy that enables people to participate and ex-press their views, and a well-functioning market.
Creating Capabilities. Harvard University Press, 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoD-cjduM40
Time: 9:40
If a country’s gross domestic product increases each year, but so does the percentage of its people deprived of basic education, health care, and other opportunities, is that country really making progress? If we rely on conventional economic indicators, can we ever grasp how the world’s billions of individuals are really managing?
In this video and in her book, Creating Capabilities, Martha Nussbaum argues that our dominant theories of development have given us policies that ignore our most basic human needs for dignity and self-respect. As an alternative to metrics like GDP, Nussbaum and the other members of the Human Development and Capability Association suggest that we should be asking what each human is actually capable of being and doing.
Ending Poverty – Thomas Pogge. The RSA, 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2w6BqUBghg
Time: 20:46
Influential political philosopher Thomas Pogge argues for a new global institutional commitment to the swift and complete eradication of severe poverty.
What alternative is there to GDP? The European Commission, 2007.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3mVedLbMI0
Time: 3:18
Gross domestic product, which measures the value of goods and services produced or provided in any given year, is the best-recognized measure of economic performance in the world. For many, a rise in economic growth—as measured by GDP—is shorthand for a rise in living standards and an increase in well-being. However, GDP has severe limitations as a human development indicator, as even one of the founders of the GDP concept, Nobel Prize–winning economist Simon Kuznets, realized. The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measure of national income, he wrote in a 1934 report to the US congress. If the GDP is up, why is America down? Distinctions must be kept in between quantity and quality of growth, between costs and returns, and between the short and the long run. Goals for more growth should specify more growth of what and for what? GDP measures all economic activity: fighting crime, natural disasters, and environmental depletion—whether or not it contributes to an individual’s well-being or a community’s progress. This can produce some perverse results.
Hear our Voices – The Poor on Poverty. World Bank, 2001.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KJSPEacHxw
Time: 31:07
Hear Our Voices—The Poor on Poverty explores the complexities of poverty from the perspectives of poor people themselves. It reveals that although the experiences of poor people vary widely by location and situation, there are significant commonalties in the way poor people describe their lives: sense of powerlessness and voicelessness; precariousness of their livelihoods and lack of security; isolation, humiliation, and lack of connections to resources and opportunities; and gender inequality. The result is a “domino effect” of disadvantages and inequalities, all of which make it difficult for poor people to escape the hold of poverty. Hear Our Voices—The Poor on Poverty introduces viewers to people who are challenging these obstacles, and initiatives that are helping to empower the poor, make their lives more secure, and give them access to greater opportunities.
Gary Haugen: The hidden reason for poverty the world needs to address now. TED Talk, 2015.
Time: 22:06
Collective compassion has meant an overall decrease in global poverty since the 1980s, says civil rights lawyer Gary Haugen. Yet for all the world’s aid money, there is a pervasive hidden problem keeping poverty alive. Haugen reveals the dark underlying cause we must recognize and act on now.
Richest 1% to own more than rest of world, Oxfam says. BBC News, 2015.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30875633
Time: 2:06
The wealthiest 1% will soon own more than the rest of the world’s population, according to a study by anti-poverty charity Oxfam. The charity’s research shows that the share of the world’s wealth owned by the richest 1% increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% last year. On current trends, Oxfam says it expects the wealthiest 1% to own more than 50% of the world’s wealth by 2016.
Dambisa Moyo: Is China the new idol for emerging economies? TED Talks, 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q2aznfmcYU
Time: 16:23
(From the TED website): The developed world holds up the ideals of capitalism, democracy and political rights for all. Those in emerging markets often don't have that luxury. In this powerful talk, economist Dambisa Moyo makes the case that the west can't afford to rest on its laurels and imagine others will blindly follow. Instead, a different model, embodied by China, is increasingly appealing. A call for open-minded political and economic cooperation in the name of transforming the world.
What is international development really? Alanna Shaikh. TED Talks, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R08tIdvs0AY
Time: 6:12
(From the TED website): Reduction of poverty, liberation, freedom: all of these words have been used to define international development, but no definition is set in stone. Global development expert and TED Fellow Alanna Shaikh breaks it down for us: It is about providing aid, while understanding that the developing world actually subsidizes the developed world. In this talk she points a light at corruption in an effort towards a more just world.
A Strategy to End Extreme Poverty in Africa: Jeffry Sachs, 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GokTFMfPx8A
Professor Jeffry Sachs expands on the Millennium Development Goals with a focus on examining the issues around extreme poverty in Africa and South Asia.