Arable Land - Land that is suitable for agriculture.
Civilization - A civilization is formed when countries (nation-states) are regionally grouped together in varying degrees of association by common history, culture, religion, language, location and institutions.
Continent -
Country - A term covering both sovereign bordered nations, and nonsovereign territories (dependencies or colonies) which are not integral parts of larger parent nations. (WCE definition) CO2 Emissions Carbon dioxide emitted from energy combustion, industrial processes, and land change, in billion tonnes (gigatonnes) carbon (GtC).
Demographic Transition - people, like Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, who believe that good ideas and man-made capital can substitute for ecological resources in fixed supply.
Evangelize -
Economic Convergence - Economics use the concept of convergence to describe the processes by which the poorer countries catch up with the richer countries. (Sachs, Common Wealth, p.19)
EthnoCultural People - An ethnic or racial population of people group defined by its ethnic and cultural behavior and features. (World Christian Encyclopedia).
Evangelization - The whole process of spreading the good news of the Kingdom of God; the extent to which the good news has been spread; the extent of awareness of Christianity, Christ, and the gospel. (World Christian Encyclopedia)
Evangelize - To spread the good news of Christ, with signs following, in both supernatural power and compassionate deed, to preach, to persuade, to call to faith in Christ; and 700 other meanings in English. (World Christian Encyclopedia)
EthnoSphere - The world with its populations and cultures seen in terms of its ethnicity. (WCE definition) World Christian Encyclopedia’s (Volume 2) world ethnocultural classifications provides 12,600 people profiles.
Equity -
Equitable Distribution - Fortress World Senario (Tellus Senario Description) - The Fortress World scenario is a variant of a broader class of Barbarization scenarios, in the hierarchy of the Global Scenario Group (Gallopín et al., 1997). Barbarization scenarios envision the grim possibility that the social, economic and moral underpinnings of civilization deteriorate, as emerging problems overwhelm the coping capacity of both markets and policy reforms. The Fortress World variant of the Barbarization story features an authoritarian response to the threat of breakdown. Ensconced in protected enclaves, elites safeguard their privilege by controlling an impoverished majority and managing critical natural resources, while outside the fortress there is repression, environmental destruction and misery.
Foresight - Foresight as "the ability to create and maintain a high-quality, coherent and functional forward view and to use the insights arising in organizationally useful ways." (Australian educator Richard Slaughter)
Frontier Missions - Missionary work among the unreached or unevangelized peoples of the world (World A).
Futurist - A futurist is someone who has learned how to study the future and how to use this knowledge to enable others to identify options and choices now. By studying the future you can move away from a passive or fatalistic acceptance of what may happen to an active and confident participation in creating the future you want. Learning about the future is essential. When people and organisations are not aware of their choices they may well end up being part of someone else's future. In order to create the future you want, a futurist may encourage you to think and plan ahead further than before. Some futurists work for companies or government departments, some teach in schools or universities, some work for non-government organisations and consulting futurists work in all these areas.Most futurists believe that the future can be shaped by the careful and responsible exercise of human will and effort. Futurists differ in many of their views, but most agree that individuals, organisations and cultures that attempt to move into the future blindly are taking unnecessary risks. So they would agree that we need to understand and apply foresight in our private, public and professional lives. Futurists believe that 'forewarned is forearmed' and 'a stitch in time saves nine'.
G8 Nations - An annual forum created by France in 1975 for governments of eight nations of the world's eight biggest economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition, the European Union is represented within the G8, but cannot host or chair.
G20 Nations -
Great Escape - How millions of people escaped extreme poverty during the last few decades of the 20th century.
Great Transition Senario (Tellus Senario Description) - The Great Transition scenario explores visionary solutions to the sustainability challenge, including new socioeconomic arrangements and fundamental changes in values. This scenario depicts a transition to a society that preserves natural systems, provides high levels of welfare through material sufficiency and equitable distribution, and enjoys a strong sense of local solidarity.
Human Flourishing - Horizon Scanning -
Kingdom Mission - That which includes and also goes beyond the church itself to see “God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Ralph Winter, Mission Frontiers, May-August 2009, p.4)
Market Forces Scenario (Tellus Senario Description) - The Market Forces scenario is a story of a market-driven world in the 2lst Century in which demographic, economic, environmental and technological trends unfold without major surprise relative unfolding trends. Continuity, globalization and convergence are key characteristics of world development – institutions gradually adjust without major ruptures, international economic integration proceeds apace and the socioeconomic patterns of poor regions converge slowly toward the development model of the rich regions. Despite economic growth, extreme income disparity between rich and poor countries, and between the rich and poor within countries, remains a critical social trend. Environmental transformation and degradation are a progressively more significant factor in global affairs.
MetroScan - World Christian Encyclopia’s survey of the metropolises of the world: 7,000 city profiles. Volume 2
Mission - Misssion is God’s overall plan for the redemption of humankind and for the world itself at every level (Romans 8:18-25) (Patrick Johnstone, Church is Bigger, p.35)
Missions - The varied human initiatives to further God’s mission.(Patrick Johnstone, Church is Bigger, p.35)
Missiological Breakthrough - Defines the point in the evangelization of a people-group when the impact of the gospel becomes so significant that there is both a “critical mass” of indigenous believers and where Christianity has become a viable component of the indigenous culture (Ralph Winter).
Median - In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the number separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half.
Net Reproduction Rate (NRR) - the number of surviving daughters per mother. Net reproduction rate The average number of daughters a hypothetical cohort of women would have at the end of their reproductive period if they were subject during their whole lives to the fertility rates and the mortality rates of a given period. It is expressed as number of daughters per woman.
ProvinceScan - World Christian Encyclopedia’s (Volume 2) profiles of 3.030 major civil divisions (MCDs) in 238 countries.
Poverty Trap -
Poverty Traps -
Policy Reform Senario (Tellus Senario Descriptions) - The Policy Reform scenario envisions the emergence of strong political will for taking harmonized and rapid action to ensure a successful transition to a more equitable and environmentally resilient future. Rather than a projection into the future, Policy Reform scenario is a normative scenario constructed as a backcast from the future. It is designed to achieve a set of future sustainability goals. The analytical task is to identify plausible development pathways for reaching that end-point. Thus, the Policy Reform scenario explores the requirements for simultaneously achieving social and environmental sustainability goals under high economic growth conditions similar to those of Market Forces.
Pioneer Mission Fields - Where the indigenous Church is either non-existent or still too small or culturally marganalized to impact their entire people-group in this generation without outside help.
People-Group - A significantly large grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity for one another because of their shared language, religion, ethnicity, residence, occupation, class or caste, situation, etc., or combinations of these.”
People-Group (Least-Reached/Unreached) - By "least-reached" Ethne and Joshua Project mean "a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group." The original Joshua Project editorial committee selected the critieria of less than 2% Evangelical Christian and less than 5% Christian Adherents.
People-Group (Unreached) - same definition as least-reached people-group.
Population Growth Rate (PGR) - the population increase as a percentage of the world’s population.
Poverty - Poverty is the shortage of common things such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine the quality of life. It may also include the lack of access to opportunities such as education and employment which aid the escape from poverty and/or allow one to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. According to Mollie Orshansky who developed the poverty measurements used by the U.S. government, "to be poor is to be deprived of those goods and services and pleasures which others around us take for granted."[1] Ongoing debates over causes, effects and best ways to measure poverty, directly influence the design and implementation of poverty-reduction programs and are therefore relevant to the fields of public administration and international development. Poverty may affect individuals or groups, and is not confined to the developing nations. Poverty in developed countries is manifest in a set of social problems including homelessness and the persistence of "ghetto" housing clusters.[2]
Poverty (Exteme or Absolute) - extreme poverty is only found in developing countries ... means that people/families can’t meet the basic needs for survival. They are chronically hungry, no access to health care, lack safe water, sanitation, cant afford education, often lack basic shelter, lack basic articles of clothes such as shoes. World Bank uses a complicated statistical standard of income of $1 day per person measured by purchasing power to determine the numbers of extreme poor around the world. They estimate around 1.1 billion in 2001 that dropped from 400 million people from 1981. (End of Poverty p.20) The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US $1.25 (PPP) per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day, estimating that "in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day." The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty fell from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001. Looking at the period 1981-2001, the percentage of the world's population living on less than $1 per day has halved.
Poverty (Moderate) - the basic needs of life are met but only barely. World Bank categories the moderate poor of income between 1-2 dollars per day. 87 percent of the 1.6 billion moderate poor live in East Asia, South Asia and sub-Sahara. (Sachs, End of Poverty)
Poverty (Relative) - generally caculated as a household income level that is below a given propotion of average national income. the relative poor in rich countries lack cultural goods, enertainment, quality health care ...
Poor Nation (Extreme or Absolute) - A country is categorized as an extreme poor country when as a whole at least 25 percent of its entire population live in extreme poverty (Sachs, End of Poverty, p22).
Poor Nation (Moderate) if not an extreme poor country but 25 percent of the households of the country as a whole lives are extreme or moderate poor living under $2 per day. (Sachs, End of Poverty p. 22)
Scenarios - A scenario is a hypothetical narrative or pathway of how the future may unfold. See Scenario Descriptions for summaries of the Market Forces, Policy Reform, Great Transition and Fortress World scenarios that are quantified in the motion chart. Scenario analysis offers a structured approach for illuminating the vast range of possibilities. A scenario is a story, told in words and numbers, describing the way events might unfold. If constructed with rigor and imagination, scenarios help us to explore where we might be headed, but more, offering guidance on how to act now to direct the flow of events toward a desirable future. Subcontinent - A subcontinent is a large, relatively self-contained landmass forming a subdivision of a continent. A subcontinent signifies having a certain geographical or political independence from the rest of the continent, or a vast and more or less self-contained subdivision of a continent.
Supercontinent - A supercontinent is a landmass comprising more than one continental core. For example, Eurasia qualifies as a supercontinent. (United Nations)
Slum Conditions - Lacking at least one of four basic amenities: clean water, improved sanitation, durable housing, and adequate living space. (UN Report 2009)
Sustainable Development - "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs." (Sustainable development has been defined various ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report)
Sustainable Development - Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs." All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system—a system that connects space; and a system that connects time. When you think of the world as a system over space, you grow to understand that air pollution from North America affects air quality in Asia, and that pesticides sprayed in Argentina could harm fish stocks off the coast of Australia.
And when you think of the world as a system over time, you start to realize that the decisions our grandparents made about how to farm the land continue to affect agricultural practice today; and the economic policies we endorse today will have an impact on urban poverty when our children are adults. We also understand that quality of life is a system, too. It's good to be physically healthy, but what if you are poor and don't have access to education? It's good to have a secure income, but what if the air in your part of the world is unclean? And it's good to have freedom of religious expression, but what if you can't feed your family? The concept of sustainable development is rooted is this sort of systems thinking. It helps us understand ourselves and our world. The problems we face are complex and serious—and we can't address them in the same way we created them. But we can address them. It's that basic optimism that motivates IISD's staff, associates and board to innovate for a healthy and meaningful future for this planet and its inhabitants.
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) - Average number of children per women during her reproductive years.
Total Health - Total Health. What is Total Health? Total Health is the capacity of individuals, families and communities to work together to transform the conditions that promote, in a sustainable way, their physical, emotional, economic, social, environmental and spiritual well being.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
ReligioMetrics - World Christian Encyclopia profiles of the 270 largest of the 10,000 distincts religions worldwide. Volume 2: The World By Segments: Religions, Peoples, Languages, Cities, Topics.
Water Stress - Number of people in areas with inadequate freshwater resources for human, economic and environmental needs, in millions (See Technical Documentation p. 231 for details).
Water Use Total freshwater withdrawals from natural sources, desalinization facilities, and recycled waste water, in trillion cubic meters (10^12 cubic meters).
Water Use per capita Water Animal Share of Diet Percentage of calories in an average diet from animal products, including meat, seafood, and dairy.
World Evangelization Monitoring - To observe, supervise, or keep under review; to measure or test at intervals. In world evangelization, observing, supervising, and measuring are necessary to properly track progress and to take appropriate action where it is warranted. Monitoring requires taking raw data, and collecting, analyzing, supplementing, interpreting and the like for true monitoring can take place. (World Christian Encyclopedia rends, 435)
World Christian Encyclopedia (Volume 1) - The world by countries: religionists, churches, ministries.
World Christian Encyclopedia (Volume 2) - The world by segments: religions, peoples, languages, cities, topics.
World Christian Encyclopedia (Volume 3) - World Christian Trends (AD30-AD2200); Interpreting the annual Christian megacensus.
World A - All non-Christians who are unevangelized and likely to remain so without a new effort by Christians to bring the gospel to them. (Barrett; Patrick Johnstone, Church is Bigger, p 67) Countries that are less than half evangelized; each less than half evangelized, meaning E<50%, i.e. less than 50% or less than half the populace have heard the Gospel.
World B (Evangelized Non-Christian World) - Consists of all non-Christians who have heard the gospel, or who live within societies and areas where they were or are likely to hear it during their lifetime. These are evangelized non-Christians. (Barrett; Patrick Johnstone, Church is Bigger, p 67)
World C - All persons who individually are Christians anywhere in the world. This is Christianity in its broadest expression and includes Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, Evangelical, and all derived or deviant forms of Christianity. (Barrett; Patrick Johnstone, Church is Bigger, p 67)
World Bank - Started in 1944, Not a traditional bank, the World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. We are made up of two unique development institutions owned by 186 member countries—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) The IBRD focuses on middle income and creditworthy poor countries and the International Development Association (IDA). while IDA focuses on the poorest countries in the world.
Each institution plays a different but collaborative role to advance the vision of an inclusive and sustainable globalization., Together we provide low-interest loans, interest-free credits and grants to developing countries for a wide array of purposes that include investments in education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management. Since inception in 1944, the World Bank has expanded from a single institution to a closely associated group of five development institutions. Our mission evolved from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) as facilitator of post-war reconstruction and development to the present day mandate of worldwide poverty alleviation in close coordination with our affiliate, the International Development Association, and other members of the World Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).. Based in Washington, DC. we have a multidisciplinary and diverse staff that includes economists, public policy experts, sector experts and social scientists-and now more than a third of our staff is based in country offices.
Reconstruction remains an important part of our work. However, the global challenges in the world compel s to focus on: poverty reduction and the sustainable growth in the poorest countries, especially in Africa; solutions to the special challenges of post-conflict countries and fragile states; development solutions with customized services as well as financing for middle-income countries; regional and global issues that cross national borders--climate change, infectious diseases, and trade; greater development and opportunity in the Arab world; pulling together the best global knowledge to support development. At today's World Bank, poverty reduction through an inclusive and sustainable globalization remains the overarching goal of our work.
For more on the World Bank's history, visit the Archives.World Bank’s Poverty Assessment - The poverty assessment is a key instrument of the World Bank's poverty reduction strategy. It is designed to assess the extent and causes of poverty in a given country and to propose a strategy to ameliorate its effects. It reviews levels and changes over time and across regions in poverty indicators, assesses the impact of growth and public actions on poverty and inequality, and reviews the adequacy of a country's poverty monitoring and evaluation arrangements. PAs generally feed into country-owned processes to develop strategies to reduce poverty, help build in-country capacity, and support joint work and partnerships.
