Countries in the Caribbean, specifically Jamaica, are experiencing severe obesity and malnutrition rates. Since 1999, both Jamaican men and women have shown increasing rates of diabetes and obesity. According to the Jamaica Observer, childhood obesity rates have doubled between 2013 and 2018. This drastic growth has seen a particular prevalence between the ages of 13 and 15. The Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) found that within that age group, 18.1% of boys and 25.2% of girls are overweight. In the same survey, obesity rates in girls increased from 6.7% to 9.9% between 2010 and 2017. Furthermore, The Caribbean and Latin American regions show that more than 50% of women in the population are overweight or obese as of 2013, according to the World Health Organization. In addition, according to a 2016-2017 survey, 54% of Jamaicans older than 15 were deemed either overweight or obese.
Considering these data, obesity rates in Jamaica are a concern no matter what the demographic is. Every day, Jamaicans are unable to maintain healthy, nutritionally-dense diets. So, what is causing obesity and malnutrition in Jamaica?
The Causes
There are many factors to these growing numbers. However, one of the main causes of malnutrition in Jamaica is the lack of availability of essential, whole foods for all citizens. The New York Carib News states that Jamaica produced 144,319 tons of yams, 72,990 tons of oranges and 64,815 tons of bananas in the year 2017. All of this nutrient-dense food, however, is not necessarily supplied for Jamaicans; a mere 2% of Jamaicans consume a sufficient amount of essential foods like fruits and vegetables.
The global average consumption of protein-filled red meat is around 25 grams, whereas in Jamaica, the average is close to 10 grams as of 2016. Adequate protein intake results in stronger bones and muscles and aids in hormone production; Jamaicans are simply not given the opportunities for these benefits.
Moreover, grain and soybean milling facilities, two of the most popular crops in Jamaica, have a large portion of their shareholding with the United States. Such crops are used for many U.S. milk substitutes like soy milk, for example. This is a glaring problem regarding obesity and malnutrition in Jamaica as Jamaicans are not given healthier options for themselves like in the United States.
Sugar intake is also a large reason for malnutrition in Jamaica. In 2012, the Global Nutrition Report found that 61% of calories consumed by Jamaicans come from non-staple food items, or items that are not nutritionally rich (legumes, grains, fruits, vegetables). Jamaica’s consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks, like Coca Cola, was 191 grams in 2016. Globally, the average was 95 grams, while the suggested midpoint is a meager 2.5 grams.
A high sugar diet is detrimental leading to many health problems like fatty liver disease, and such is apparent in Jamaica in the form of diabetes and obesity. In an article by Vital Strategies, 87% of Jamaicans feel that sugary drinks are a large reason for the country’s obesity rates, calling for policy proposals.
The Solutions
Some solutions to this problem include the potential tax on sugary drinks. In other Latin American and Caribbean countries, like Barbados, a tax on sugary drinks has shown positive effects. Within the first year of the tax, Barbados’ consumption of these drinks decreased by 4.3%, while bottled water sales increased by 7.5%. If implemented, obesity and malnutrition in Jamaica may see a decline from said tax as well.
In regards to Jamaican export policies, there has been some attention to the issues that CARICOM (Caribbean Common Market) raises, including completing the intraregional integration scheme as well as creating ways to implement CARICOM into its relations with the United States. With the resolution of these issues, Jamaica may be able to better its relationship with the U.S. foreign economy. This may then create more opportunities for more nutrient-dense imports.
Not only this, but there have been school policy proposals put forth in an effort to decrease these numbers, according to the Jamaican Information Service (JIS). Such proposals being the National School Nutrition Policy. This policy promotes physical activity and nutrient-enriched meals as a priority in schools across Jamaica. Not only will these focuses benefit students’ long-term physical health, but Jamaican Senator Reid asserts that they too will improve psychological and social development.
This model emulates Brazil’s efforts for similar concerns with childhood obesity. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Brazil has experienced one of the most successful school feeding programs created more than 50 years ago. The program managed by the National Fund for Education Development (NFED) and the Ministry of Education has provided staple, nutrient-rich foods to 45 million children across Brazil. With hopes for similar results, the Jamaican National School Nutrition Policy was set to be finalized during the 2019-2020 school year.
In a country with a lack of readily available staple foods, malnutrition in Jamaica continues to be a problem across the country. Through efforts like school feeding programs and a tax on sugary drinks though, young children and adults alike will see long-term physical benefits. Perhaps through these reforms, Jamaica will continue with more policy changes in its imports and exports to reverse the growing numbers of obesity and malnutrition in Jamaica across the country.
– Anna Hoban
Photo: Pixabay
Plant-Based Diets and Sustainable Agriculture
Around 820 million people face hunger today due to droughts, high food prices, wars and insufficient access to healthy foods. Many vulnerable communities around the globe do not have access to healthy or affordable meats. For some communities, meat is not a cultural staple and is otherwise unattainable. In these cases, some impoverished individuals can focus on plant-based diets as a sustainable agriculture alternative.
7 Quick Global Hunger Facts
Nutritional Facts of Meat and Plant-Based Diets
“Food insecurity is not just about insufficient food production, availability, and intake, it is also about the poor quality or nutritional value of the food,” Former Assistant Director-General of UNESCO Paris, Albert Sasson, said in his 2012 research publication, “Food security for Africa: an urgent global challenge.”
There is no scientific evidence of whether incorporating meats into one’s diet is overall more or less beneficial to one’s nutritional health than consuming only plant-based diets. Many cultures cut out some or all meats, such as Jewish and Muslim communities, while others encourage mainly meat consumption, like the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic. Professor of Nutrition at Texas A&M University and Associate Department Head of Texas A&M’s AgriLife Extension Service Jenna Anding, Ph.D., said in an interview with The Borgen Project that both types of diets have benefits. However, for communities where healthy and affordable meat is unattainable, there are sustainable and healthy alternatives found in plant-based foods. These foods help increase food security.
“Both plant- and animal-derived foods are important to the diets of vulnerable populations,” Anding said. “Plants can provide a source of energy (calories), fiber, and essential nutrients. Foods derived from animals also provide energy, but also protein as well as essential nutrients … such as vitamin B12, selenium and iron needed for growth and development.”
Sustainable Agricultural Practices for Vulnerable Communities
The Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture Office of International Training is a leading U.S.-based agricultural training program that works with developing and middle-income countries. The program provides education and resources on sustainable agriculture to scientists and researchers. Those individuals are then able to share these practices with their home countries and communities.
In 2015, the Borlaug Institute successfully completed the Food, Agribusiness and Rural Markets II project, which helped share sustainable agricultural practices with 36 payams in South Sudan. Borlaug scientists focused on growing maize, cassava, groundnuts and beans. These crops are the most sustainable, affordable, accessible and culturally accepted foods available for those communities. Thus, a plant-based diet is the most food-secure option in that particularly vulnerable community.
The African Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) is a global nonprofit corporation that seeks to empower African farmers to choose sustainable agriculture. ASAP works directly with farmers across the continent to educate them on best practices that will increase their profit yields. The best practices will also provide safe and affordable food for the communities.
Through their Zamura Farms Quality Protein project, ASAP has reached approximately 4,000 preschool-aged children in Rwanda by providing one egg per day. They also employ 20 Rwandan women in their Musanze hen farm. This provides them with a steady income in the formal economic sector.
Meats are not always available in vulnerable communities. However, plant-based diets can provide an alternative source of necessary nutrients for food-insecure populations. Some communities will increase food security by focusing on growing only foods for plant-based diets. However, others may find the best option is to raise animals for consumption. It is important for scientists and researchers to continue expanding sustainable agricultural practices across the world. The practices should be tailored to each specific physical and socioeconomic climate in order to achieve zero hunger by 2030.
– Myranda Campanella
Photo: Flickr
Fighting Extremism in West Africa
Poverty Brings Extremists to West Africa
West Africa is an attractive target for jihadist groups because of its extreme poverty levels, lack of government law enforcement and scarcity of basic services. In West Africa, 30% of the population lives on around $1.90 a day; in Nigeria, 60% of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day. Government services such as electricity and education are also lacking; 70% of impoverished girls in Niger never attended primary school.
In exchange for recruits, jihadist groups are providing services such as medical aid, protection and access to water. It is widely known that poverty creates conditions advantageous to radical groups. For instance, Boko Haram has pushed into the Lake Chad region, which suffers from particularly poor governance. They use the area as a base to conduct offensive operations against the surrounding villages. The same strategy has helped many radical groups gain traction in West Africa. Knowing this illuminates how to fight extremism in West Africa.
The Path Forward
One path toward fighting extremism in West Africa is providing basic services to the local population. Many governments’ military forces have had a reputation for human rights abuses. They are now trying to win over local populations by providing vital services. This helps governments gain legitimacy in the minds of the people, while it helps them combat terrorism.
Another solution is an initiative known as African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA), which aims to create a single market in the African Union. Such an agreement would create a large free trade zone that would increase the prosperity of many countries in the African Union. This will address some of the socioeconomic conditions that create weak states. These conditions often make regions vulnerable to radical groups, so AfCTA can also help fight extremism in West Africa. The United States, particularly Congress and the White House, has largely supported this initiative.
Fighting extremism in West Africa will require multi-level analysis and solutions. Focusing on military-oriented solutions may seem tempting, but these are only short-term quick fixes. Instead, new organizations and initiatives must address the root causes of extremism. Increasing governmental support and bringing prosperity to the people of West Africa is the surest way to prevent jihadist groups from gaining greater influence in the region.
– Mustafa Ali
Photo: Flickr
Obesity and Malnutrition in Jamaica: Causes and Potential Solutions
Considering these data, obesity rates in Jamaica are a concern no matter what the demographic is. Every day, Jamaicans are unable to maintain healthy, nutritionally-dense diets. So, what is causing obesity and malnutrition in Jamaica?
The Causes
There are many factors to these growing numbers. However, one of the main causes of malnutrition in Jamaica is the lack of availability of essential, whole foods for all citizens. The New York Carib News states that Jamaica produced 144,319 tons of yams, 72,990 tons of oranges and 64,815 tons of bananas in the year 2017. All of this nutrient-dense food, however, is not necessarily supplied for Jamaicans; a mere 2% of Jamaicans consume a sufficient amount of essential foods like fruits and vegetables.
The global average consumption of protein-filled red meat is around 25 grams, whereas in Jamaica, the average is close to 10 grams as of 2016. Adequate protein intake results in stronger bones and muscles and aids in hormone production; Jamaicans are simply not given the opportunities for these benefits.
Moreover, grain and soybean milling facilities, two of the most popular crops in Jamaica, have a large portion of their shareholding with the United States. Such crops are used for many U.S. milk substitutes like soy milk, for example. This is a glaring problem regarding obesity and malnutrition in Jamaica as Jamaicans are not given healthier options for themselves like in the United States.
Sugar intake is also a large reason for malnutrition in Jamaica. In 2012, the Global Nutrition Report found that 61% of calories consumed by Jamaicans come from non-staple food items, or items that are not nutritionally rich (legumes, grains, fruits, vegetables). Jamaica’s consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks, like Coca Cola, was 191 grams in 2016. Globally, the average was 95 grams, while the suggested midpoint is a meager 2.5 grams.
A high sugar diet is detrimental leading to many health problems like fatty liver disease, and such is apparent in Jamaica in the form of diabetes and obesity. In an article by Vital Strategies, 87% of Jamaicans feel that sugary drinks are a large reason for the country’s obesity rates, calling for policy proposals.
The Solutions
Some solutions to this problem include the potential tax on sugary drinks. In other Latin American and Caribbean countries, like Barbados, a tax on sugary drinks has shown positive effects. Within the first year of the tax, Barbados’ consumption of these drinks decreased by 4.3%, while bottled water sales increased by 7.5%. If implemented, obesity and malnutrition in Jamaica may see a decline from said tax as well.
In regards to Jamaican export policies, there has been some attention to the issues that CARICOM (Caribbean Common Market) raises, including completing the intraregional integration scheme as well as creating ways to implement CARICOM into its relations with the United States. With the resolution of these issues, Jamaica may be able to better its relationship with the U.S. foreign economy. This may then create more opportunities for more nutrient-dense imports.
Not only this, but there have been school policy proposals put forth in an effort to decrease these numbers, according to the Jamaican Information Service (JIS). Such proposals being the National School Nutrition Policy. This policy promotes physical activity and nutrient-enriched meals as a priority in schools across Jamaica. Not only will these focuses benefit students’ long-term physical health, but Jamaican Senator Reid asserts that they too will improve psychological and social development.
This model emulates Brazil’s efforts for similar concerns with childhood obesity. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Brazil has experienced one of the most successful school feeding programs created more than 50 years ago. The program managed by the National Fund for Education Development (NFED) and the Ministry of Education has provided staple, nutrient-rich foods to 45 million children across Brazil. With hopes for similar results, the Jamaican National School Nutrition Policy was set to be finalized during the 2019-2020 school year.
In a country with a lack of readily available staple foods, malnutrition in Jamaica continues to be a problem across the country. Through efforts like school feeding programs and a tax on sugary drinks though, young children and adults alike will see long-term physical benefits. Perhaps through these reforms, Jamaica will continue with more policy changes in its imports and exports to reverse the growing numbers of obesity and malnutrition in Jamaica across the country.
– Anna Hoban
Photo: Pixabay
3 Ways Silicon Valley is Combating COVID-19
Silicon Valley is highly regarded as a center of entrepreneurship that has solved many of the world’s problems. Recently, these innovators have shifted their attention to COVID-19 through a variety of strategies like creating safer and more efficient ways to treat patients, shortening the supply chain of personal protective equipment and donating money to help mitigate the virus’ effects. The sector boasts produces $275 billion in profit every year, deeming it one of the wealthiest regions on Earth and underscoring its immense financial power. Silicon Valley is mobilizing its resources to create innovations and provide financial firepower to help eliminate the virus globally. Here are three ways Silicon Valley is combating COVID-19.
Robots
Robot production, an already increasingly popular industry worldwide, is playing a significant role in COVID-19 prevention. Robots are capable of performing a myriad of tasks that could help mitigate the virus. For example, machines programmed with ultraviolet disinfection techniques are being used to clean medical areas in a way that is faster and more effective than human workers. Knightscope, a Silicon Valley company that produces security robots, recently updated its fleet to spread COVID-19 information through speaker systems.
Robots have proven especially beneficial in many developing countries for disinfection and testing purposes, highlighting how technology can help the impoverished. In Rwanda, for instance, robots record temperatures and deliver supplies to medical facilities across the capital city of Kigali. Similarly, Egypt is using remote-controlled robots to administer COVID-19 tests to minimize the risk of virus transmission during testing. With technological innovations like these from Silicon Valley, there is hope for reducing the spread of COVID-19 in countries across the world.
3D Printing
Silicon Valley is home to some of the world’s largest 3D printing companies like HP and Formlabs and is widely regarded as the leader of innovation in the field. Now, 3D printers are being used to quickly and affordably generate personal protective equipment such as masks and face shields for health care professionals. 3D printers are especially efficient in bringing needed equipment directly to medical facilities by bypassing government bureaucracy. This is an especially valuable asset for developing nations, as critical supplies are often not available due to government corruption or inadequacy. 3D printing technologies are currently being made more affordable so more developing countries can invest and benefit from their advantages. 3D printing is another way how Silicon Valley is addressing COVID-19 t internationally.
Donations
Many Silicon Valley billionaires have contributed some of the biggest donations for COVID-19 mitigation efforts. These philanthropic actions have shown how Silicon Valley is addressing COVID-19 beyond its technological endeavors. The CEO of tech giant Twitter, for example, has pledged over $1 billion in stock of his online payment company Square to global COVID-19 relief. This donation represents 28% of his wealth, inspiring other tech moguls to make similarly substantial donations. Renowned Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has allocated at least $350 million to COVID-19 relief through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. However, these generous moves by Silicon Valley elite are not enough: less than 11% of all billionaires have provided financial assistance for COVID-19 relief. With its notorious wealth, Silicon Valley has the power to great;y help solve the world’s problems through philanthropy.
Silicon Valley is combating COVID-19 through its world-renowned innovation and financial capabilities. While robots and 3D printing are especially helpful in supporting the world’s poor in and the fight against COVID_19, these innovations cannot end with the pandemic. To truly eradicate global poverty, Silicon Valley must take a continued vested interest in the world’s poor.
– Garrett O’Brien
Photo: Flickr
How 5G Transformed Quingyuan’s Agricultural Sector
With the ability to connect people faster than ever, 5G has transformed Quingyuan’s agricultural sector from an impoverished community to a thriving online agricultural production center in less than a year.
How can 5G Alleviate Poverty?
5G is better than 4G for three main reasons: higher bandwidth, lower latency (lag time) and much faster speeds. The implications of 5G are endless for these reasons. Specifically, 5G can alleviate poverty by driving economic growth. The Imperial College of London found that a 10% increase of mobile broadband, or more commonly known as wireless internet access, is associated with a 0.6-2.8% increase in economic growth.
Installation of 5G in Quingyuan
Quingyuan is home to over 3 million people. It is a city located in northern Guangdong, a coastal province in South China. Quingyuan became China’s first administrative village to be covered by 5G networks, two months ahead of schedule. Citizens in Quingyuan began using 5G last fall with the installation of two 5G base stations.
Guangdong’s Goals for 5G
According to the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Department of Guangdong Province, Guangdong will use 5G to further assist the country’s rural revitalization strategy. The overall goal of the rural revitalization strategy is to provide rural areas with the necessary tools so the citizens can have pleasant living conditions, thriving businesses and prosperity. Guangdong plans to focus on building both a 5G smart agricultural pilot zone and, ultimately, a 5G agricultural industrial cluster. 5G would allow farmers to utilize technology to monitor their crops and host webcasts to sell them.
Intelligent Agriculture
In the Lianyi village of Quingyuan, farmers are using an intelligent agricultural base to increase labor input while alleviating poverty. The intelligent agricultural base is a targeted poverty reduction project from Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. There are 10 planting areas in the agricultural base, which covers an area of more than 16 acres. The agricultural base uses advanced technology to manage and monitor the crops, which increases the traceability of agricultural products. The system has irrigation pipes and a weather station to monitor the environment as well.
After the execution of the project, the land rental income of villagers increased by around $6,298. The working income of poor households and villagers also saw an increase of about $57,109 after the implementation of the project.
Webcasts
Another way 5G has transformed Quingyuan’s agricultural sector is allowing farmers to host live-streaming promotions, which substantially increase the number of customers that local farmers can reach. Lu Feihong, secretary of the Party branch of the Lianzhang village in Quingyuan, noted that “5G not only facilitates access to the Internet, but also establishes good conditions for [farmers] to develop smart agriculture and e-agricultural businesses through live streaming promotions.”
According to Feihong, watermelon farmers sold their entire harvest, totaling more than 55,000 lb, in May 2020. A yam farmer experienced a similar situation when he was able to sell his entire harvest of 16,000 lb worth of Chinese yams after an online webcast that attracted more than 400,000 viewers.
5G transformed Quingyuan’s agricultural sector and helped farmers in the city maintain, and even increase, their incomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
– Araceli Mercer
Photo: Flickr
Laos’ Healthcare System Improves During Impoverished State
Located in Southeast Asia, Laos is the country around seven million people call home. Despite the multitude of people that reside in Laos, the country’s healthcare system does not sufficiently support all those who live there. As a nation that was once colonized by France, Laos was left in a state of dependency towards wealthier countries, as colonization and poverty oftentimes go hand in hand.
Since Laos is one of the poorest countries in Asia, healthcare is a struggle that many have to endure on top of other poor living conditions. Insufficient government funding affects how low spending on healthcare is in Laos. Since public spending towards healthcare is low, people have to rely on out-of-pocket options and external financing rather than having comprehensive healthcare covered by the government. Health insurance in Laos currently only covers 20% of citizens, with less than 15% of the nation’s poor having access to health insurance. With basic necessities like food and shelter existing as one’s biggest priority, healthcare becomes an afterthought for those who cannot afford it.
Recent Advancements in Healthcare
In 2016, domestic allocation for healthcare was 5.9% which is lower than the goal of 9% of general government spending. Despite the lack of funding for Laos’ healthcare system, there have been advancements made in more recent years. According to the World Health Organization, “over the past 10 years, the health of the Laotian population improved significantly,” which has allowed the life expectancy at birth to reach 66 years in 2015.
One effective way to measure the health of a country like Laos is by looking at the mortality and life-expectancy rates. The mortality and life-expectancy rates have decreased and risen respectively due to the reported vaccination coverage. In the 2000s, 82.5 infant deaths per 1000 live births and 5.46 maternal deaths per 1000 live births were reported. Since then, the MMR, or maternal mortality ratio, has seen a reduction by more than 75%, meaning both mother and child death rates have improved. Laos was given praise for their tremendous reduction of maternal mortality rates, as Laos was the “third fastest country…between 2000 and 2013” to achieve the feat.
Laotian Health Policies
Adding policies to Laos’ healthcare system has been beneficial in the past years. A major policy implemented in 2005 called the Law on Health Care allowed for Laos to significantly improve the country’s healthcare system. This policy guarantees that all citizens of Laos be given equitable and quality health care so that everyone can “effectively contribute to the protection and development of the nation.” Financially struggling health patients are awarded free medical care if they have been certified “with the regulations of the relevant organization.” This is a step forward for Laotian healthcare, as those who are struggling the most are able to have healthcare guaranteed and one less financial obstacle to worry about.
Similarly, Laos has also implemented different healthcare programs for different income groups, to increase coverage for a broader cross-section of individuals. The State Authority for Social Security is healthcare used for civil servants, the Social Security Office is for those who are employees of state and private enterprises, the Community-based Health Insurance is for those who are informal-sector workers, and lastly, the Health Equity Funds is for the impoverished and provides maternal and child health services at no cost.
Another major policy that made advancement in Laos is the 2008 National Nutrition Policy. This healthcare policy aims to help with “the reduction of malnutrition among all ethnic groups and decreasing associated…mortality risks.” The most vulnerable groups such as women and children have a better fighting chance at surviving during childbirth. Lao children “are exclusively breastfed from 0-5 months,” which means that establishing the National Nutrition Policy was a crucial development, as babies get their nutrition from mothers and mothers need nutrition to nourish their young ones. By enabling and ensuring a baseline nutrition level be met in Laos, the country can take a step forward in healthcare and continue to promote healthy habits as a whole.
-Karina Wong
Photo: Pixabay
Social Media Platforms Aid Global COVID-19 Efforts
Illustration of abstract background.
Three of the most prominent social media sites have taken steps to help with the coronavirus pandemic: TikTok, Instagram and Facebook have integrated unique techniques into their platforms to raise awareness and money for international COVID-19 relief. They are encouraging their users to utilize the platforms to raise money for their coronavirus fundraisers. Here are a few ways that these social media platforms are helping out with COVID-19 aid.
Facebook
Facebook has supported coronavirus relief in many ways. One way in which it has helped is through hosting the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization (WHO). Facebook pledged to match donations up to $20 million, and the platform ended up raising over $6 million on its site for WHO’s global efforts to fight the pandemic. They also donated $25 million to frontline healthcare workers.
Another way in which Facebook has helped with the pandemic is through the distribution of information and resources available. They have invested $100 million into the news industry and have supported fact checkers to make sure that coronavirus information is correct and to reduce misinformation distribution. Recognizing that social media and COVID-19 relief ought to work in tandem, they have also allowed global health organizations to utilize advertisement space free of cost to disperse information. Overall, Facebook has taken many steps towards aiding global organizations and providing resources for coronavirus aid.
TikTok
TikTok has been at the forefront of social media and COVID-19 efforts internationally. Content creators, for one, have posted inspirational messages for healthcare workers and spread awareness on resources available to people.
One of the most substantial ways that TikTok has started helping with relief aid, though, is through the concept of donation stickers. These stickers are interactive and embedded straight into videos and lives on users’ channels, allowing them to donate through Tiltify, a charitable fundraising platform. The stickers are currently available in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Italy.
TikTok has focused on highlighting COVID-19 focused charitable foundations with these stickers. Through the utilization of the campaign #doubletheimpact and the donation stickers, TikTok has matched up to $10 million in donations for these organizations. With these stickers, hundreds of thousands of users were able to raise money for foundations and nonprofit organizations.
Instagram
As social media and COVID-19 relief can only vary so much, Instagram has also answered the call for action through interactive fundraising on its platform. Similar to the donation stickers utilized by TikTok, Instagram uses a form of donation sticker to allow users to donate towards specific organizations, with over a million to choose from.
Another specific way that Instagram has allowed fundraising is through the live feature. Through Instagram Lives, users are able to interact with comments and encourage donations to organizations right on videos. Previously, nonprofits were unable to fundraise via that platform; during the pandemic, though, Instagram has allowed these organizations to utilize the technology to raise money in this time of need. One hundred percent of all fundraising on the platform goes towards the organizations, with Instagram taking none of it. As the platform is owned by Facebook, the company has promised to match up to $10 million in donations.
During this time, Instagram has highlighted organizations with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Influencers across the world have utilized this platform to give back to everyday people as well, in cash amounts ranging in the thousands. Fitness influencer Katie Sturino and friends pooled together $6,000 to give to those in need during the pandemic.
Social Media and COVID-19
These companies have shown the power of social media platforms and how users and companies can come together to make a real impact on coronavirus aid efforts. With the importance of social media in this day and age, utilizing it to help raise money for COVID-19 is an important role that Facebook, TikTok and Instagram have taken up. Fundraising is still continuing, and contributions towards awareness and funding is a battle that we all can continue supporting.
-Kiana Powers
The Past and Future of Education Reform in Mexico
One of the most fundamental features of poverty and inequality in Mexico comes in the form of educational corruption. Despite its size and economic power, Mexico’s education system is rampant with inequality and inefficiency: according to recent rankings in 2018, among OECD countries, Mexico’s national higher education system ranked a mere 46 out of 50. As a result, education reform in Mexico has reemerged as a major focus of national politics in recent years.
The victory of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, better known as AMLO, has highlighted education reform in the country’s 2018 general elections. Although AMLO and his MORENA party had promised to bring about seismic change and reform to Mexico’s public education system, ongoing corruption and the country’s experience with the COVID-19 pandemic may halt any hope of bringing change to this important issue.
Nieto’s 2013 Reform Plan
The contemporary debate over education reform in Mexico dates back to the beginning of Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency in 2012. During the campaign, Nieto had promised to tackle the deep-rooted corruption in Mexico’s national teacher’s union. The national teacher’s union in Mexico is the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, or SNTE, an organization ubiquitous in the country for its kickbacks, bribery, record manipulation and various other forms of corruption.
Nieto’s reform aimed to restructure the distribution of salaries and the overall payroll policies of the SNTE, which entered law soon after his ascendancy to the presidency. Primarily, the reform enforced performance-based criteria for hiring and salaries, with promotions and bonuses being based on students’ testing results. Furthermore, the reform has placed more control over school management and bureaucracy in the hands of the federal government instead of the SNTE.
Criticisms of Nieto’s Education Reform in Mexico
Nevertheless, a significant wing of the SNTE and Mexican teachers, in general, have found Nieto’s education reforms to be inadequate or outright malevolent. Even with a new performance-based structure, the issues of a bloated bureaucracy and unequal spending continued to be a significant issue.
Importantly, Nieto’s reform did not address the inequalities of the education system. Five years into Nieto’s education reform policy, many of the same differences in quality of instruction and schooling between Mexico’s rich and poor remained the same. According to Patricio Solís, a professor at the Center for Sociological Studies of the National Institute, young Mexicans in the highest income group have seven times greater access to higher education than those in the lowest income group.
Nieto’s popular mandate in fighting corruption in Mexico’s education system came to a sudden halt in 2016 when violent protests broke out between dissident teachers and Mexican police in the southwestern state of Oaxaca leaving six people dead. Many of these demonstrators were members of the SNTE who viewed Nieto’s education reform as inadequate; they criticized the redistribution of funding, the recently adopted merit-based philosophy for promotions and the arrest of several union leaders on charges of money laundering.
AMLO’s Reform in 2018
AMLO, Mexican’s first left-wing president of the 21st century, made discontent with Nieto’s educational reform a central tenet of his 2018 campaign. The 66-year-old often said on the campaign trail that Nieto had “turned education into a business.”
The scrapping of Nieto’s education reform under the new administration had two primary components; firstly, repealing the merit-based structuring to salaries and promotions which had come under fire from Mexican teachers and the public at large, and, secondly, expanding access to free higher education among the country’s most impoverished children. This latter part involved the construction of over 100 new public universities and the introduction of public scholarships for 300,000 students.
Nevertheless, many ordinary citizens and experts alike have criticized these new policies under AMLO. For example, Alexandra Zapata, director at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness in Mexico City, views the repeal of the merit-based system as a way for corruption to grow internally. She believes educational achievement criteria may be less trustworthy than under the previous system. Furthermore, much of the revenue for free higher education came at the expense of funding for early learning and primary care, resources that many rural and impoverished Mexican families desperately need. Zapata believes that the greatest efficiency for upward social mobility comes at the beginning of education, not at the university level. The question of to what extent this balance between earlier education and higher education can alleviate the issue of inequality in Mexican education can only be determined down the road.
COVID-19 and Education Reform
Like many other places around the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shutdown have created a paradigm-shifting challenge for public education in Mexico. Stay-at-home orders early in the spring shut down Mexican public schooling; the access to resources for learning at home, such as internet connection and computer hardware, has further exacerbated the educational and economic gap between Mexico’s richest and poorest.
However, some experts view the chaos stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to kickstart real, lasting reform in Mexico’s public education system. Julia Coyoli, a Ph.D. candidate from Harvard focusing on educational reform in Latin America, believes that home-schooling and remote learning will shine a public light on the underlying inequities in the country’s public education system. Once these blatant injustices come into the light, it should force the Mexican government to take more of a stand-in specifically targeting low-income students’ education.
– Jason Beck
Photo: Flickr
3 Infrastructural Changes for Healthcare in Guinea
Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a Western African country located between Mali to the northeast and Sierra Leone to the southwest. With a population of 12.41 million and a total gross domestic product (GDP) equivalent to $11.4 billion, Guinea is one of the poorest nations in the world. Guinea’s poverty has limited its ability to develop the infrastructure necessary to sustain the health of its citizens. The people of Guinea have historically faced widespread public health risks such as malaria and Ebola. Infrastructural improvements resulting from domestic and global efforts are improving healthcare in Guinea.
The Problem: Lack of Healthcare Spending
As of 2018, Guinea’s per capita GDP of $920.80 amounted to only 7% of the world’s average. Within this figure, Guinea’s healthcare spending averaged the equivalent of $34 per capita. This minute healthcare budget has led to a variety of public health problems in Guinea, especially before 2014, such as:
Despite these issues, healthcare in Guinea is showing significant progress thanks to a combination of domestic and global efforts beginning in 2014. In the midst of the 2014 Ebola epidemic, the United States, alongside almost 30 other countries, co-initiated the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). The agenda focuses on struggling countries at high risk for infectious diseases like Guinea, equipping them with the resources to improve health systems by revitalizing their physical and organizational infrastructure. The GHSA would mark the beginning of a series of legislation to improve the capacity of Guinea’s healthcare system through infrastructure improvement. Here are the top three infrastructure changes for healthcare in Guinea.
3 Infrastructure Changes for Healthcare in Guinea
These global efforts have already proven effective. Guinea’s maternal mortality rate decreased from 724 per 100,000 births in 2006-2012 to 576 in 2017. Similarly, the under-5 mortality rate dropped from 120 per 1,000 births to about 100.
While Guinea’s mortality rates may be decreasing and its healthcare improving, there is still much the country needs to do to attain a suitable healthcare system: even the country’s lower mortality rates are still among the highest in the world. Guinea must maintain and push forward global initiatives for better infrastructure for the sake of its livelihood.
– Asa Scott
Photo: Flickr
Private Education in Developing Nations
Education can make or break someone’s ability to be successful. It is important to provide education universally, but education must be of quality. Private education has been able to provide this higher quality education to children in low-income areas internationally. Here is some information about private education in developing nations like India.
Private Education in India
In a study involving 918 schools in three “slum” zones in Hyderabad’s Old City, 24% of people receive public education while 11.4% attend private schools while receiving assistance with funding. Meanwhile, 23.1% attend private schools (unregistered) and 41.5% attend private institutions (registered). The majority of funding for private schools comes from charitable trusts, societies or community groups.
The student to teacher ratios for private schools was much less than public schools. In fact, registered private schools had a 27:1 student to teacher ratio while public schools had a 42:1 ratio. Teacher absenteeism was also higher for public schools than private schools. In recognized private schools, teachers were absent 2.5% of the time, whereas public schools had a 25.4% absent rate among teachers. Private schools also had better access to resources including clean drinking water with 99.5% of private school students having access to clean water while only 57.5% of public school students have clean water access.
In India, there is a pattern of private schools having better access to resources. These resources include desks, chairs, fans, technology, blackboards, playgrounds, toilets, libraries, lighting, televisions and computers. With better access to resources, one can see why private school students scored 22-23% higher in maths than public school students and even higher in English. The lack of resources could also explain why private school teachers tend to have more dedication to their work, even though they receive less pay. One can surmise that a teacher may find it difficult to dedicate themselves to their work without the correct tools to do their job.
India is no outlier. In fact, countries like Ghana, China and Nigeria have also seen significantly better results and quality of education for students attending private schools rather than public ones.
Why Do People Go Private?
Many can acknowledge that the key to economic prosperity is education. For many developing nations, this involves investing in public education. If the investments that governments make are not enough to provide good quality schooling, then the people attending public schools simply have to wait for the government to invest more. This is inefficient and has led to the creation of many private schools globally. These frequently exist in developing nations’ poorer neighborhoods.
A misconception is that private education in developing nations would cost more to low-income families than public schools. Though this may be true in some cases, public schools often operate so poorly that parents still have to pay for school supplies, transportation and tutors because of high rates of teacher absenteeism. Private school is a better investment. Additionally, many of these private schools have given scholarships to orphans or children of the heavily impoverished. In Hyderabad’s slums, 20% of children attend private schools on a need-based scholarship.
How Do Private Schools Succeed?
The reason that private schools can succeed is that they provide more resources to their teachers. Children taking part in private education perform better than those in public schools, despite costing a third of what public schools do. Even though private education can be extremely cheap, sometimes at $1 per week, they can budget and invest in resources. This might be because private schools pay their teachers less so they can reallocate funds to resources. This is not necessarily bad for the teachers as they are able to do more in their job with more resources, which means they enjoy it more.
An Example
Peace High school is a private school with 285 students and 13 teachers in Hyderabad run by Mohammed Wajid. Wajid began teaching in 10th grade while attending another private school in the area. The school has a courtyard, slides and pet rabbits. The school used to be an old home, and though the infrastructure needs much work, the school’s staff has a genuine desire to better the lives of children in the neighborhood through education. Many of the staff dedicate their weekends to science competitions and cyber-Olympics. Many of the challenges with the school were external including pollution, loud streets and temperature. The school charges $1.33 to $2.22 per month which many parents have been able to pay.
The Role of Donating
Some private schools do very well with philanthropic aid from charities and organizations globally. Education is a key tool in being able to invest in countries, create jobs and help people provide for themselves in the long term. It is important to acknowledge that many of the issues public schools face are because of their poor funding and inability to attract students who can spend more time studying. The world must not only invest in private education in developing nations but also support developing nations to invest in public education.
– Hope Arpa Chow
Photo: Flickr