1 G20 summit – High on promise low on delivery
(Linda Yueh on BBC) The G20 summit of world leaders has concluded with a
communique, a fancy way of describing a joint statement, that has both
delivered more, but also somewhat less, than expected.
Where they've delivered more is by putting issues
such as climate change in the message from world leaders. Those weren't on the
formal agenda as the host, Australian PM Tony Abbott, had nixed climate change,
for one. But, after US President Obama mentioned the urgency of dealing with
climate change before the summit, it's unsurprising that it was discussed after
all. Ebola is also in the final statement.
But, where they have delivered less is with respect
to concrete commitments on those issues. For instance, the gist of the G20
statement on climate and Ebola is that they are concerned, and support
effective action - without committing money or quantitative targets. Maybe
that's too much to expect given that these originally weren't on the agenda.
Fighting tax evasion was on the agenda, and the G20
agreed to automatically share tax information, but I've already heard criticism
from Transparency International and others that it doesn't go far enough
because the information won't be in the public domain.
World leaders reaffirmed their goal of lifting the
GDP of G20 economies - which represent 85% of the world's economy - by an
additional 2% within four years, by 2018. It's equivalent to adding $2 trillion
to global output, and they say that will create millions of jobs. How they can
achieve that, of course, is the big question. The statement says that they'll
deliver jobs through increasing "investment, trade and competition".
2 UK grocery sales dip, first time in 20 years
(Sarah Butler in The Guardian) UK grocery sales have gone into decline for the
first time in at least 20 years as a raging price war and the falling cost of
food commodities hit Britain’s supermarkets. In good news for shoppers, the
average price of a basket of everyday essentials such as milk, bread and
vegetables now costs 0.4% less than it did a year ago, according to the latest
figures from market research firm Kantar Worldpanel.
But the figures highlight lean times for the UK’s
biggest retailers with all of the “big four” supermarkets seeing sales fall
back in the 12 weeks to 9 November as the overall grocery market contracted by
0.2% compared with a year ago. This is the first time there has been a decline
in UK grocery sales by value since it data collection began in 1994. Back then
Sainsbury’s was still the market leader but was to be overtaken by Tesco the
following year.
The “big four” are spending billions of pounds
cutting prices in an effort to stem the rate of shopper defections to German
discounters Aldi and Lidl. The declining grocery market is likely to be of
concern to retailers as they gear up for the key Christmas trading season. In
keeping with a trend that has continued throughout this year, the German
discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to grow strongly, as did the up-market
grocer Waitrose.
3 Abuse, hunger await South Africa children (Tanya
Farber in Johannesburg Times) Abuse and hunger await millions of South African
children, according to a new report. It paints a grim picture of the treatment
of children at the hands of the adults who would be expected to care for them. In
some communities, the report says, more than half of the children have been
abused on a long-term basis by caregivers, teachers or relatives.
The responsive approach to dealing with violence
against children, the report contends, does not decrease its incidence and is
expensive. A preventative approach is advocated. About 40% of children have
witnessed violence against their mother, causing them severe trauma and, in
some cases, mental illness.
The ground-breaking Child Gauge 2014 report, which
brings together in-depth research by specialists, also says that: 15% of
children are neglected by their parents; 74% of all child homicides involve
children under the age of five, and half of these are due to babies being dumped
before they are a week old; and at least 10% of child murders involve sexual
assault.
The Human Sciences Research Council's senior
research specialist, Mokhantso Makoae, says in the report that a responsive
approach does not decrease the incidence of violence against children and is
expensive. A preventative approach is advocated. "The costs of prevention
programmes are a fraction of the treatment costs and are estimated to give a
saving of 96% to 98%."
Other figures from the report: 2million children
live in shacks; more than half live in poverty; 6million live in a household in
which no one is employed; one-third of children have no access to water on
site; one third of children have no basic sanitation; about 800000 are orphans;
and about 2.5million go hungry.
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