Research Papers
Hunger and Poverty Among Latino Immigrant Children
Background Paper June 2011
In 2000, Latinos became the largest ethnic minority in the United States. Today, 16.3 percent of the U.S. population is Latino—more than 50 million people. The growing Latino presence is increasingly evident in schools, communities, and workplaces.
Moreover, more than half of the U.S. population growth since 2000 has been among Latinos, due partly to immigration and partly to a higher birthrate. Thus, a higher percentage of U.S. children than of the total U.S. population is Latino: 22 percent. This percentage is expected to increase because the Latino population is younger than the U.S. average. Children who are U.S. citizens but have at least one parent who is an immigrant are now the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.
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Better Foreign Assistance, Fewer Hungry People
Background Paper Number 215 (June 2011)
Better, more effective U.S. poverty-focused development assistance is critical to reducing hunger and poverty around the world. Bread for the World, as a collective Christian voice urging our nation's decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad, is working to make poverty-focused assistance more efficient and more effective.
Bread for the World Institute's annual Hunger Reports—particularly the 2011 report, Our Common Interest: Ending Hunger and Malnutrition, and the 2009 report, Global Development: Charting a New Course—offer recommendations on how to accomplish this.
The U.S. Budget: Myths and Realities
Background Paper Number 214 (May 2011)
Did your attention begin to wander as soon as you saw “U.S. Budget” in this headline?
Perhaps the most pervasive “myth” of all is that the issues and unfamiliar terms swirling around the budget make it nearly impossible to understand.
U.S. Foreign Aid: Focus on Poverty Bread for the World’s 2011 Offering of Letters
Background Paper Number 212 (January 2011)
Just a few hundred miles from the U.S. coast, people in Haiti are struggling to recover from longstanding poverty made worse by the devastating earthquake of January 2010. Halfway around the world in West Africa, Liberia is rebuilding farms, schools, and health clinics torn apart by two successive civil wars.
Development and Migration in Rural Mexico
Briefing Paper Number 11 (January 2011)
The immigration debate, while focused on domestic issues, largely overlooks some of the principal causes of unauthorized migration to the United States: poverty and inequality in Latin America.
The U.S. government identifies Latin America as the primary source (80 percent) of unauthorized immigration, but its responses internally, at the border, and through its foreign assistance to migrantsending countries is focused on enforcement.
Border enforcement fails to impact the causes of unauthorized migration in Latin America and U.S. foreign assistance to Latin America typically doesn’t take into account its impact on migration pressures.
This report analyzes a project in rural Mexico that was designed with an awareness of the connections between development and migration. The project is analyzed in this report to inspire discussion and action linking development and the reduction of migration pressures.
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Our Common Interest: Ending Hunger and Malnutrition
Background Paper Number 211 (December 2010)
2011 is a time of opportunity to achieve lasting progress against global hunger and malnutrition. For the United States, it is a time of renewing our commitment to this objective and strengthening partnerships with countries that are eager to work together in this common interest.
Strengthening the U.S. Role in Accelerating Progress
Briefing Paper Number 10 (September 2010)
The U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) generated unprecedented levels of commitment to cut poverty and disease, improve access to education and health, and promote gender equity and environmental sustainability.
Progress on the MDGs is a mixed bag, particularly in Africa, where many of the targets will not be met.
With a focused strategy, based on measurable results, the United States can redouble its efforts to accelerate progress on the MDGs.
The Millennium Development Goals: Stepping Up Efforts
Background Paper Number 210 (September 2010)
The U.N. Millennium Development Goals aim to improve the lives of extremely poor people around the world. How have governments fared in achieving them?
Rebuilding Haiti: Making Aid Work Better for the Haitian People
Briefing Paper Number 9 (July 2010)
With unprecedented levels of goodwill, focus, and commitment to Haiti, there are still enormous hurdles in laying the groundwork for a country-led recovery.
Haiti’s 10-year national reconstruction plan includes a multi-donor trust fund and an interim reconstruction authority to oversee rebuilding.
The mechanisms driving Haiti’s recovery must prioritize civil society participation, promote real transparency, and not compromise broader goals for quick short-term results.
Safer Motherhood: Significant Progress on Maternal Mortality
Background Paper Number 209 (June 2010)
Global maternal mortality has fallen by about 40 percent since 1980. What is behind this good news, and how can we sustain progress?
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