Some of homophobia’s consequences are well-known: lack of access to education and health care, violence, unemployment, illiteracy, displacement to urban areas, lack of legal rights, loss of community-based safety nets, brain drain, lack of economic opportunities, lack of access to land, exclusion from informal networks, mental health problems and substance abuse, suicide, imprisonment, lack of cultural representation, and, of course, HIV/AIDS.

 

However, the amplitude of LGBT economic marginalization and the costs of homophobia are unknown. Those who suffer homophobia in the West are not always economically disadvantaged (think Elton John or most gay middle-class American men). Nevertheless, LGBT people worldwide, as I have experienced on my current trip to Nepal and India, are also very often poor, sometimes profoundly.

One of Asia’s fastest growing economies in the last 40 years, South Korea, has emerged as a manufacturing powerhouse that has virtually eliminated poverty.  Its resilient economy survived the 2008–2009 financial crises better than almost any other country, but it is far from complacent.  Korea spends a bigger percentage of GDP on research and development than Germany, the UK and the US.

Today, Korea is a global champion of green growth with a long-term plan for transitioning to green growth and a focus on exporting green tech, and it is moving away from energy imports and energy-intensive industries.  Korea’s journey is not complete, but its progress stands as an inspiration to developing countries wherever they are in theirs.

At the second Global Green Growth Summit, in Seoul on Thursday, President Lee Myung-bak reinforced Korea’s commitment to playing a leadership role on the global stage, restating Korea’s commitment to increasing official development assistance through to 2020 and announcing that 30 percent of that ODA will be green.

Launching our report in Seoul was an excellent opportunity to further strengthen our partnership with Korea and expand our inclusive green growth knowledge base.

Back in 2004, the electrical utility in Brazil’s biggest city had a major problem. AES Eletropaulo was losing a large proportion of its revenue due to almost half-a-million illegal connections, most of them in São Paolo’s slums. Not only that, but they were causing often multiple-house fires on a monthly basis, along with frequent electrocutions.  But the utility’s efforts to fix the problem were stymied by its poor relations with slum-dwellers, which made it almost impossible to work in these communities.

AES Electropaulo decided to shift course and made a concerted effort to open a dialogue with São Paolo’s urban poor. New credit instruments were extended to poor families, and campaigns conducted on smart energy consumption and the benefits of safe connections. The breakthrough came with AES Eletropaulo’s decision to train large numbers of local agents who conducted door-to-door outreach to households in slum areas to listen to their comments and concerns. In the process, new safe, efficient connections were extended to 1.4 million households across the vast metropolis.

AES Electropaulo’s effort is just one example of the approaches being taken by countries around the world to meet one of the world’s greatest development challenges:  delivery of modern energy services to the urban poor. 

The site comes with better search capabilities and more user-friendly features. This is one of the first steps to replace the old D&R site, also known as the World Development Sources (WDS) site, and the redesign was based on feedback from many different user groups. Key features of the new site include: