Development and
Cooperation

Digital monthly 7/2021

Middle-class prosperity

Vaccine hesitancy is spreading, but many people are proud of getting their jab.
Chronic diseases

Brazil’s health-care challenges

With chronic diseases on the rise, Brazil’s health-care headaches extend beyond the Coronavirus

Saw mill in a Lagos slum.
Personal prospects

Many Nigerians seek greener pastures abroad

The big issue in Africa’s most populous country is worsening poverty

Artist honouring frontline workers in Nepal.
Relevant reading

Progress undone by pandemic

International reports show that Covid-19 has interrupted middle-class growth and exacerbated poverty

More Articles

Many middle-class families earn their incomes with a small shop.
Social mobility

How to spot members of Nepal’s middle class

Nepal’s middle class is growing, but slower GDP growth threatens its progress

E-waste piled up for disassembling on a scrap yard in Ghana in 2019.
Planetary boundaries

Consumerism is unsustainable

Why other world regions must not copy western consumption patterns

In Ethiopia, greater purchasing power has not led to a strengthening of democracy: salesman in Addis Ababa.
Social stratification

Myths of middle class dynamism

Africa does not have a homogenous, progressive and fast growing middle class

Small-scale fishing still provides livelihoods in Dakar.
Income inequality

Why Africa lacks a robust middle class

African countries need major reforms for their middle classes to grow

Increasing purchasing power: shoppers in the electronic goods department of a store in Accra in 2007.
Our view

Foundations of broad-based prosperity

How the middle class matters in a country’s development

A good cotton harvest might help.
Recession

Growing dependence on Benin’s informal sector

In Cotonou and Porto Novo, economic slump has hit middle class hard

More people have more choices: shoppers in Dhaka.
Growing prosperity

Middle-class lifestyles start with $ 10 per person and day

The middle class is expanding, particularly in developing countries

“A pair of flip-flops does not amount to any kind of lasting prosperity”: construction workers on the outskirts of Dhaka.
Social stratification

“The promise of well-paid, secure jobs did not come true”

Oxfam strategist Duncan Green explains why the economic paradigm seems to be shifting internationally