Girls’ Education in Bulgaria Requires Much Improvement

Girls’ education in Bulgaria is severely lacking in Roma communities, in part due to poor socioeconomic conditions and also as a result of the communities’ social norms. Many Roma children live below the poverty line which creates barriers to achievements in education, even barring some children from finishing primary school.

The Current Situation in Bulgaria

Often families cannot keep up with the costs of schooling. Boys will leave school for work to support the family and girls will stay home to care for children and chores. Women also abandon education because of early marriage or pregnancy.

The majority of the annual 45,000 student dropouts in Bulgaria are of Roma ethnicity. An estimated 130,000 children do not attend school in Bulgaria—most of them are Roma—and 22 percent of the Roma population in the Bulgarian area are illiterate, with only nine percent having reached a secondary education.

Why Roma Women Get Left Behind

In the past, the Roma marriage age was lower (15-16 for girls and 17-18 for boys). However, a small but increasing trend in higher-aged marriages among the young Roma community members has begun to take hold. Now the average marriable age is 17 years for women and 18.9 for men.

The older women get married, the longer they can stay in the education system and finish primary school. Continuing school after marriage for women is almost unheard of as the traditional role of being a committed wife and mother would make further education strenuous.

Certain actions, like dropping out of school and marrying young, are seen by officials in Bulgaria as typical Roma behavior. There has been a reoccurring pattern of Roma girls ending their education around fifth grade and the municipalities do not exercise the statutes that prevent early dropouts.

According to article 36, paragraph 1 of the of the Bulgarian National Education Act, the Municipal Councils are expected to “ensure compulsory school education of children up to the age of 16,” however there is little done to enforce this. Thus, Roma girls in Bulgaria are still leaving school at an early age. There is very little action from social workers, as they see school dropout and young marriages as the cultural Roma norm.

Improving Girls’ Education in Bulgaria

A report from UNICEF suggests strategies that could help alleviate some of the socioeconomic problems surrounding girls’ education in Bulgaria, recommending ways of mitigating the costs of education through financial assistance that will provide free programs and food at schools. Other ways of alleviating high dropout rates are reaching out to communities in isolated areas and either building a school in those places or providing free transport to other campuses.

While financial issues are prominent, social discrimination is another main contribution to dropout rates. UNICEF’s report also provides strategies that may ease the discrimination against and segregation of Roma citizens: providing national and local monitoring to ensure each child is included and progressing through the educational system. Investing in early education could also provide an opportunity for education to people who otherwise would not have had the chance.

The trending increase in marrying age is a good sign, but unless Bulgarian officials come forward to enforce primary education for all, the drop out rate will continue to disproportionately affect young Roma women. With further effort, opportunities to better girls’ education in Bulgaria, especially among Roma communities, will continue to arise.

-David Daniels
Photo: Flickr

10 Facts About Poverty in Laos That Everyone Should Know

Laos, officially known as the Lao People’s Democratic, is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. Ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International, Laos also suffers from major poverty. To get a better understanding of the daily struggle in Laos, below are 10 facts about poverty in Laos.

10 Facts About Poverty in Laos

1. According to Vision Launch Discover, 90 percent of Lao people lived off of $1 a day in the 1990s; now, this number is about $1.25. The other 10 percent live in Vientiane, the capital and largest city of Laos. Vientiane draws in the most wealth as the economic center of Laos.
2. Laos is the most bombed country in history because of World War II. From 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of ordnance over Laos during 580,000 bomb missions. Fifty people a year are killed from unexploded bombs left over from the war. These bombs scattered around the country are usually mistaken for toys and get tossed around before exploding; thus 40 percent of bomb deaths are children. Since 80 percent of people depend on their land to eat and live, people in Laos have no choice but to risk their lives working in fields covered in unexploded bombs.
3. Forty-four percent, or 363,000, of Lao children under 5 years old are affected by stunting, a highly common condition in Laos. Stunting is usually caused by maternal undernutrition before and during pregnancy.
4. More than 60 percent of children are malnourished and anemic. These conditions become potentially fatal due to the inadequate nutrition and lack of access to healthcare providers.
5. Although improving, 23.2 percent or about 1.4 million Laos people are still living at or below the poverty line. Still, this is a major improvement from the 33.5 percent of the past.
6. Agriculture is a key pillar in life in Laos, accounting for 80 percent of employment. The most important and produced crops are rice, vegetables, beans, sugarcane, starchy roots and tobacco.
7. Education is scarce; therefore, people are forced to work in agriculture since there is little to no access to established schools and workplaces. According to United Nations Lao PDR, 70 percent of employed people work in agriculture and over a third of them don’t make enough to live sufficiently.
8. Women receive less schooling but work longer hours than men; however, 70 percent of the illiterate population are women. According to UNESCO, more than 4,000 villages lack access to education.
9. Two-thirds of people have a short supply of food and living essentials. During May and October of 2010, Laos faced what community leaders called the worst drought in living memory after Typhoon Ketsana in late 2009. This drought left 85,000 people affected with no seeds to harvest and no place to live. While poor climate is not unusual in Laos, this puts more burden onto the people that depend on their land to survive.
10. For more than 20 years, the United States has donated more than $100 million to support UXO programs. This money is intended to clean up unexploded ordinances and give victims access to rehabilitation centers. Also, in February 2016, the United States and Laos signed to a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, which will allow more opportunities and investments between the two nations.

Hardship and Progress

These top 10 facts about poverty in Laos illustrate the struggles and hardships that Laos people face daily. However, despite being one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia and the entire world, about half a million of Laos people have been lifted out of poverty thus far.

Fortunately, the United States and Laos continue to rebuild a relationship with each other with a goal of saving lives and rebuilding a better country for the Laos people.

– Kristen Uedoi
Photo: Flickr

10 Eye-Opening Facts about Human Rights in Haiti

Located on the island of Hispaniola, Haiti is home to a population of around 11 million people and has been victim to environmental disasters and political corruption. These issues are still prevalent today and continue to affect Haitians around the country; here are 10 facts about humans rights in Haiti that everyone should know.

10 Facts About Human Rights in Haiti

1. Throughout history, Haiti has suffered many natural disasters that have ruined entire regions and left families homeless and in dire need of government support. The last category-5 hurricane – Hurricane Matthew – killed around 336 people, and displaced more than 60,000 others. The Haitian government worked with UNICEF and other humanitarian programs since to assist families and children and provide clean drinking water.
2. The prison system is one of the greatest human rights issues in Haiti. Haitian prisons have the highest overcrowding rate in the entire world, and around 80 percent of the inmates are still awaiting trial and have never been convicted of a crime.
3. Haiti’s illiteracy rate is the highest in the western hemisphere. Despite efforts to reform the education system, the country still faces shortages in school supplies and qualified teachers. Enrollment rates, however, have been steadily increasing, allowing Haitian children the fundamental right to receive an education.
4. The displacement of Haitian children after the 2010 Hurricane led to a striking increase in human trafficking. Today, around 30,000 children live in orphanages. Many of these so-called “orphanages” are actually trafficking businesses exploiting children and forcing them to work in dirty, inhumane environments. J.K. Rowling, the writer of the best-selling Harry Potter novels, has created a non-profit organization called Lumos that strives to end corrupt human traffickers from preying on vulnerable children.
5. In 2015, allegations were made about fraudulent behavior related to the presidential election in the nation. After the allegations were confirmed in 2016, another election was held and declared Jovenel Moise as the new Haitian president in 2017. Recently, Moise has been in political turmoil over the new fuel price hike and Haitians are violently demanding that he step down from office.
6. The LGBTQ community continues to suffer substantial discrimination from the Haitian government. In 2017, the Haitian Senate introduced a bill that grouped homosexuality as a reason to deny a citizen a certificate, and included child pornography and incest; the Senate has since approved the bill.
7. The Haiti labor code does not set a minimum age for work in domestic services. Restaveks, also known as child domestic workers, are often impoverished girls sent to work for wealthy families in hopes of a better lifestyle. These children end up receiving no schooling, work long hours and are often victims of sexual abuse.
8. Haiti has the highest rate of infant, toddler and maternal mortality in the western hemisphere. Haitians are deprived of basic human rights such as healthcare — 60 percent lack healthcare access.
9. Refugee rights are the same thing as human rights. Haitians were given a temporary status (TPS) given to eligible nationals of certain countries who reside in the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a decision to terminate protection for around 60,000 people, making Haitians at risk of deportation in the U.S.A.
10. Food insecurity has also been exacerbated by natural disasters. Thirty-eight percent of Haitians are food insecure and do not have basic access to food. Subsequently, food prices are on the rise and destruction of agricultural fields have only worsened the food deficit within the country.

Proactive and Concentrated Efforts

These 10 facts about human rights in Haiti raise many concerns. Nevertheless, nationwide and international programs are dedicated to finding solutions to provide a better lifestyle for people in Haiti.

– Lilly Hershey-Webb
Photo: Flickr

Road to Improvement: 10 Facts on Girls’ Education in Mexico

Girls’ education in Mexico has steadily improved over the last 50 years in terms of school accessibility, educational infrastructure and attendance rates. The opportunity to attend primary school is almost equal for girls (49 percent) and boys (51 percent) in Mexico.

However, the Mexican government still faces many challenges to educational attainment for girls, with poverty as its primary determinant. There are many factors and influences on girls’ education in Mexico, as well as programs offering a positive change in recent years.

10 Facts about Girls’ Education in Mexico

1. Primary School Attendance Vs. Higher Education Attendance
   The Mexican school system consists of mandatory free primary and, as of 1992, secondary education as well as optional tertiary education. While the number of girls in school has caught up to the number of boys in school, “this is only true until the age of 14.” Starting at around age 15, girls in Mexico face sociocultural barriers to continue to higher education. Early marriages or unions, early pregnancies, domestic responsibilities and traditional roles of women encourage girls to leave school earlier than boys.
2. Family Poverty
   Family poverty is a key determinant of girls’ underrepresentation in Mexican schools. A 2001 study showed that, compared with boys, girls from poor families – families from the lowest fifth of the income distribution in each year – were less likely to attend school full-time. Girls in the lowest 20 percent of the income distribution were less likely than boys to be in school or employed; however, there was no significant difference between school attendance rates of boys and girls in Mexico living in upper-income households.
3. Regional Poverty
   In Mexico, rural areas are defined as localities with less than 2,500 residents. These localities tend to have a higher percentage of the population in poverty with less access to health and educational systems. Regional poverty contributes to the underdevelopment of girls’ education in Mexico; southern Mexico – Mexico’s least developed region – is the region where girls are most disadvantaged in terms of school access.
4. Indigenous Populations
   In Mexico, indigenous populations are defined by either self-identification or language. Ten percent of Mexico’s 130 million inhabitants are indigenous and there are over 68 linguistic groups coexisting in Mexico. Southern Mexico has the greatest concentration of indigenous populations. Despite extreme variation in household languages, all primary education is taught in Spanish, “which contributes to an uneven learning process in classrooms.” Furthermore, girls’ education in Mexico within indigenous populations is complicated by the limited availability of transportation and by sociocultural barriers, such as the expectation for women and girls to maintain the household. Though the Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico (2017) showed that access to primary level school is almost equal for girls (49 percent) and boys (51 percent), the statistics do not necessarily reflect the cultural barriers that indigenous girls face if they are to continue into higher education.
5. Parental Involvement
   Parental involvement and maternal education is a key determinant of girls’ education in Mexico. In general, high parental education levels are positively associated with their children’s achievement. Specifically, studies conducted in Mexico have found that a mother’s level of education has a strong positive effect on their daughters’ enrollment in school. Mothers with basic education are significantly more likely to educate their children, and especially their daughters. Data suggests that support to uneducated mothers’ literacy programs should be a high priority for the Mexican government since these programs help to increase girls’ school enrollment, attendance and participation.
6. HIP: Investing in Girls’ Education in Mexico
   In 2017, Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) began to invest in girls’ education in Mexico as part of their mission to promote Latino equity and inclusion across Latin America. Findings from their research into international and national actors led them to the conclusion that there are several educational initiatives in Mexico to improve the quality of education. However, these efforts are not designed specifically with girls in mind. To improve girls’ education in Mexico, HIP intends to increase investments in programs to reduce early marriages, unions and pregnancies. HIP relies on its 15 years of grantmaking experience in the U.S. and Latin America, partnerships with over 270 donors and investments in Latino-serving organizations throughout the U.S. and Latin America to achieve their goals regarding in girls’ education in Mexico.
7. PROGRESA-Oportunidades
   Since 1998, PROGRESA — a national poverty-alleviation initiative, later called Oportunidades —  provides stipends to millions of Mexican households on the condition of children’s school enrollment and attendance, with higher stipends for girls’ education. This program was one of many conditional cash transfer programs started by the Mexican government, which incentivized Mexico’s poorest households to send their children — especially their girls — to school. Beginning with secondary school, stipends are higher for girls to remain in school due to their higher drop-out rate. Since Oportunidades’ inception, 39 percent of girls in the program advanced more rapidly through the school system, and 18 percent of girls who dropped out at the third-grade level now remained in school.
8. The New Educational Model
   The New Educational Model, Mexico’s latest educational reform, is dedicated to ensuring that a greater number of indigenous girls have access to education. The last time the Mexican government implemented a new educational model was in 1959; however, this new educational reform encourages comprehension over memorization and allows for greater parental involvement regarding subject selection. These changes will, in turn, encourage girls’ education in Mexico.
9. Fields of Education
   In recent years, there has been a greater push for girls to go into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields in higher education in Mexico. Jointly run by Mexico’s Ministry of Public Education, The Mexican Academy of Science and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), new programs in Mexican higher education are promoting STEM education, “placing significant focus on female students.” According to OECD, 5 out of 10 students studying at Mexican universities are women; however, many females have refused to choose science as a career in the past. The U.S.-Mexico Foundation (USMF) created a STEM mentoring program for Mexican female high school students, which had exceptional results: 100 percent of the girls in the program who graduated from high school attended college, and around 85 percent of them are studying STEM-related careers.
10. Expansion of Early Childcare Programs
    In Mexico, there is a societal expectation that “daughters should provide domestic support.” Girls’ school enrollment and attendance rates are based, in part, on the sibling composition of the family. Younger sisters are freed from the domestic responsibilities when their older sister remains in the home to fulfill that role. Though policymakers have made some headway with initiatives and educational reforms, girls’ access to Mexico’s secondary schools could be significantly improved with the implementation of policy to expand early childcare programs. With this policy intervention, more girls would be freed up to attend school.

Girls’ education in Mexico is influenced by family features (e.g. family poverty, parental involvement, maternal education and sibling composition), sociocultural barriers (e.g. early marriages, early pregnancies and domestic responsibilities and expectations), and instability (e.g. regional poverty, limited transportation and poor educational infrastructure).

Despite the challenges to education for girls in Mexico, there have been many educational reforms and initiatives in the past 20 years (e.g. PROGRESA-Oportunidades, HIP, The New Educational Model, USMF’s STEM mentoring program, among others) that have encouraged positive change.

If this kind of trajectory continues, education for girls in Mexico will hopefully reach unprecedented levels of success.

– Kara Roberts
Photo: Flickr

Improving Credit Access in Jordan and SMEs

Credit access in Jordan has improved dramatically over the past two years thanks in part to changes in the regulation of funds by the government and the creation of newer, better lending programs across the country.

This year, global indicator, Doing Business has given Jordan’s overall credit access performance a ranking of 159 out of 189 countries, which shows an increase from a dismal 2016 ranking of 185 out of 189 countries. The continued improvement of these numbers will hopefully help Jordan to start pulling itself out of its nine-year stagnation of economic growth.

Background of Credit Access in Jordan

Lack of credit access in Jordan affects all citizens, but especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In 2016, SMEs accounted for an estimated 98 percent of all Jordanian business and affected 40 percent of the country’s GDP.

A 2011 survey by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) reported that 70 percent of SMEs considered themselves ‘credit constrained’ and thus had to put plans of growing and improving their business on hold.

Before the recent creation of new lending systems, SMEs found themselves having to choose between going to one of the many banks in Jordan for a loan and utilizing non-profit microfinance institutions (MFIs). Each of these methods proved to have significant flaws that made accessing credit impractical, if not impossible.

On the one hand, banks found it difficult to work with SMEs as most of them did not have enough collateral to mitigate the risk of providing the smaller business with a loan. On the other hand, while MFIs can provide loans to SMEs without the necessity of collateral, a system of regulation for MFIs did not yet exist within the Jordanian government.

Without regulation, interest rates varied wildly between MFIs, with some of them even going beyond the legal standard. As no clear method of recording credit existed, clients reported receiving the wrong amount of funds.

Remedying the Situation

Providing businesses with alternative forms of funding seems like the best method of helping them cross over the current financial gap. The Jordanian government, as a 2016 Oxford Business Group article reports, has already begun to put forward “initiatives with banks and multilateral institutions to offer more credit to smaller businesses”. The creation of the first credit bureau in Jordan, for example, will hopefully provide a more regulated method of credit access in Jordan than MFIs.

SMEs can also look into more private funding programs. The peer-to-peer lending program liwwa, for example, allows any SME with “business operations that are managed ethically” to apply for loans and, if accepted, campaign to receive loans from an individual or institutional investors. The program also helps regulate these funds by offering such services as negotiating overdue loan repayments with borrowers and investigating the businesses of borrowers to assure qualification. While the program has only processed 305 loans so far, this number can hopefully grow in the future.

The Jordan Loan Guarantee Corporation also provides SMEs with a more accessible finance option by acting as a facilitator between borrowers and investors. Created by a collaboration of USAID with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), this program supports businesses that “(1) have a well-defined marketing opportunity to start-up or expand, (2) need financing to achieve their goal; but (3) lack the collateral banks usually require for making loans” by offering a ‘loan guarantee’ to possible investors (mostly banks in this case). A loan guarantee means that in the case of a borrower defaulting on their loan, a business like JLGC will pay the investor back a large percentage of their investment. So far, the program has issued over 214 loans guaranteed and allowed SMEs to access over $50 million in finances.

Further success in these programs will provide SMEs with the opportunity to expand and thus create more job opportunities for those currently struggling to find employment. Along with this, if credit access in Jordan continues to improve, financially constrained entrepreneurial individuals will have more opportunity to create their business ventures.

Both of the aforementioned benefits can allow even those in poverty to change their social status and become consumers. This, along with expanding businesses, will hopefully improve Jordan’s rate of economic growth.

 – Lyz Frerking
Photo: Flickr