Bed nets. Insecticide. Preventative medicine. These are the tools that are most known for fighting malaria—and for good reason. Tactics like these have saved millions of lives. However, when a country manages to eliminate most incidences of malaria, the traditional techniques lose their impact. One group of researchers, realizing the need for new strategies against malaria, decided to not focus on mosquitoes (the traditional tactic) but on humans themselves. Ultimately, studying human behavior can help eradicate malaria by targeting weak spots in preventative plans and providing a clearer implementation of resources. To better understand malaria, its far-reaching impacts and the importance of a new human-centered technique, it is helpful to start from the beginning.
What is Malaria and How Was it Treated in the Past?
Malaria has plagued humans for, quite literally, as long as humanity remembers. The earliest written records — Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets — describe symptoms characteristic of the disease. Scientists found human remains dating back to 3200 BC with malaria antigens. Ancient scholars called the illness the “king of diseases.” It certainly lives up to the title. It is thousands of years old and it has killed hundreds of millions of people.
Anopheles mosquitoes, most active at dusk and night-time, are responsible for the malaria parasite’s spread. Carried in the insect’s stomach, the parasite enters the human bloodstream through the mosquitoes’ saliva (the same substance that makes bites itch and swell) as they feed.
Humans first exhibit symptoms a week or so after infection. If untreated, the disease quickly becomes serious. Sufferers feel flu-like symptoms, including body aches, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea. Patients can die within 48 hours after they first exhibit symptoms.
In 1820, chemists developed quinine, the first modern pharmacological treatment for malaria. In the 1900s, the men who identified the malaria parasite, demonstrated that mosquitoes were responsible for transmission and developed the mosquito-repelling insecticide DDT all won Nobel Prizes for their respective discoveries. Understanding and preventing malaria were matters of great international importance.
What is Malaria’s Global Presence Today?
Fighting this disease remains a top global priority. Modern preventative measures now include insecticide-treated bed nets (to keeps the nocturnal malaria-carrying mosquitos away) and indoor sprays. Children in high-transmission areas are also eligible for seasonal malaria chemoprevention. Thanks to a surge in global humanitarian attention, the disease’s presence has fallen worldwide. Between 2010 and 2017, malaria incidence decreased by nearly 20 percent and fatalities decreased by nearly 30 percent.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 216 million clinical cases still occurred worldwide in 2016 alone, resulting in 445,000 deaths. The disease causes a massive drain on economies, due to healthcare costs and loss of workforce efficiency. In sub-Saharan Africa, where potent strains of the parasite thrive, those damaging effects are especially notable. Malaria and its effects cost Africa a stunning $12 billion every year and, because people living near unclean water sources and insecure housing are most at risk, malaria disproportionally affects the impoverished. By prohibiting individuals from attending work or school, let alone its potential to kill, malaria perpetuates the cycle of poverty. While reducing prevalence is a key factor, eradication continues to be the ultimate goal. That means the end to malaria’s ill-effects on communities, particularly impoverished ones.
How Studying Human Behavior Can Help Eradicate Malaria
When regions successfully employ traditional tactics, as many have, they find themselves with a new problem. “Lingering cases” is a term used to describe when a region no longer experiences outbreaks, but that the disease still exists locally. In general, eliminating any illness gets harder the fewer instances of it that occur. Tracking the carrier mosquitoes is infeasible, if not impossible. However, researchers in Zanzibar took a new approach – they decided to track humans instead.
In July 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs published an article in Malaria Journal that details the reasoning behind the new technique. While indoor measures work, people are not necessarily confined to the home at nighttime. One Zanzibari woman remarked in an interview, “When you are outside, you can’t really wear the bed nets, can you?” Existing steps against malaria are not effective outdoors, which makes it nearly impossible to eliminate the last few cases.
Researchers conducted over 60 in-depth interviews and studied routine human movements: between homes, stores, public spaces, religious services and even special events, like weddings. They found many insights. For example, men were at the highest risk for infection because they most often work or socialize outside after dark. There is also a notable population of seasonal workers that come to Zanzibar from Tanzania’s mainland. These individuals rarely own mosquito nets nor insecticides to spray their residences. Better understanding the movements of people vulnerable to malaria, as well as those that find themselves periodically unprotected, is important. That information allows scientists to create better-targeted interventions, including community support programs, outdoor areas with preventative measures, and basic indoor resources for those without.
Small scale use of these techniques has proven effective, and the researchers behind this investigation believe they could be scaled up successfully. Best of all, 26 other countries have similarly low rates of malaria incidence. If Zanzibar, a high-transmission area for the parasite, could push back against this disease so successfully, other countries could benefit greatly from the same changes.
Conclusion
Malaria, a disease that has lasted for around 5000 years, has never been closer to eradication. The last century has seen a great surge in momentum for fighting this illness. The results are stunning; millions of lives saved, several countries eliminated the disease entirely, and dozens more are nearing that goal. In turn, people have prospered. For every dollar invested in African malaria control, the continent sees 40 dollars in economic growth. Much of that prosperity goes back to impoverished people, who can thrive with less illness and more economic efficiency. Now, researchers are pursuing the “last mile” strategies. Studying human behavior can help eradicate malaria by preventing remote cases. Total eradication and the end of malaria’s drain on the impoverished has never been closer.
– Molly Power
Photo: Wikimedia
8 Facts About Education in Switzerland
Switzerland is one of the leaders in education within the European Union. With a national initiative to have accessible education to all of its citizens, the Swiss education system ranks number six on the Study E.U. education ranking of 2018. So what exactly is it that allows for such a praiseworthy education system? These eight facts about education in Switzerland show why the country is so successful in the education of its people.
8 Facts About Education in Switzerland
Switzerland’s educational system is the ultimate goal for what education should be across the world. These eight facts about education in Switzerland show how the country is striving to create a more learned and prosperous future for its youth. Switzerland is a fantastic example of a country that has met the fourth goal on the global goals for sustainable development: quality education.
– Emma Hodge
Photo: Flickr
Slow Fashion And Guatemalan Textile Production
Global interest in slow fashion and Guatemalan textile production often leads to exploitation of the designs and the profits. The weavers themselves often do not receive a fair wage for their work, which is incredibly time and labor-consuming. Fortunately, recent efforts are pushing for collaborations to protect these traditions and the indigenous weavers while still sharing their extraordinary work with the world.
The Guatemalan Textile Production Tradition
Mayan mothers and grandmothers teach women in Guatemala how to work with cotton from a very young age. They learn to use a loom and to create traditional natural dyes from ingredients such as avocado, banana, lemon and cochineal, a local insect. The hand-spun cotton and loom that the indigenous women use represents the very essence of their cultural practices. The result of this process is beautiful and colorful garments, bags and accessories that tourists have long purchased as souvenirs. People often purchase the goods and mark them up for resale, leaving the artisan behind.
An awareness of concerns about exploitation and cultural appropriation, along with movements of slow fashion has led to efforts to protect, preserve and appropriately collaborate and share traditional Guatemalan textile weaving.
Slow Fashion and Traditional Guatemalan Textile Production
A short documentary called “Artisans Guatemaya” sheds light on the complexities of the relationship between the 1 million Guatemalan artisans who need to have their opportunities and rights protected as well as the perspective of fashion industry leaders. Mutual goals may include a vision of sustainability, collaboration, preservation of culture, knowledge-sharing and a mutually profitable model of cultural tourism which makes tradition and history economically viable today. In addressing the ethics of this dynamic, it is important to move away from cultural appropriation toward cultural appreciation. The women face poverty and need to make a living. Therefore, people should place attention on these women’s economic and social development.
Small collectives of indigenous women join forces to protect their rights. Pablo Martinez of Etnica Travel Eco Tours says there are occasions when outsiders offer the women help that is inappropriate and therefore not useful. He emphasizes the necessity of listening carefully to the needs and wishes of local, artisan women and including them in the outcome of the exchanges. Through co-creation efforts, one should not lose sight of the artistry of the women.
A New Protected Artisanal Market in Guatemala
Slow fashion and traditional Guatemalan textile production also led to a specialized and protected artisanal market in Guatemala. Ethical Fashion Guatemala protects the rights of artisans and prevents high markup resale of goods purchased and then resold. James Dillon and Kara Goebel, both from the U.S., founded Ethical Fashion Guatemala. They bring the technology platform to provide a global market to local artisans. The pair also led the battle against 64,000 Etsy sellers for copyright infringement of Guatemalan patterns. This legal action was highly effective in curbing the blatant stealing of designs.
Ethical Fashion Guatemala claims transparency. It states that Guatemalan artisans receive 80 percent of the money that people spend on textile goods on its site and that all other sites that make such claims are imitations. Customers can purchase traditionally woven goods and can also arrange to have a tourism experience and connect with the local weavers. Many local artisans create very high-quality and high-fashion handmade goods. People especially know them for purses and bags.
The Consequences of Fast Fashion in Guatemala
One side effect of fast fashion that threatens traditional practices is the occurrence of pacas. Pacas are small, second-hand clothing shops that some indigenous women run as a small business. Indigenous women chose to run these as opposed to weaving as a matter of convenience. Weaving traditional textiles is time and labor-intensive, often with a small payout. It can take weeks or a full month to weave a traditional garment. Resale of used clothes arriving from the U.S., on the other hand, is quick and easy. There is a concern that this model could be a threat to traditional practices as fewer women will pass on the ways of dying and weaving to their daughters. Pacas are one of the primary reasons that indigenous women have stopped wearing their traditional clothing. Guatemalan factories still churn mass-produced textiles (fast fashion), known as maquilas. This type of industry is highly competitive with China and continues to boom, despite a movement for more sustainable products. Ten to 20 years ago, the spotlight revealed the labor violations in these maquilas. There are still some labor violations, but paople have been paying much less attention to these factories in recent years.
In summary of slow fashion and traditional Guatemalan textile production issues, artisans can protect their heritage and legacy, and craft in collaboration with each other and with concerned and interested outside partners. There will always remain the vulnerability of exploitation, but awareness, legal action and strong relationships can minimize these challenges.
– Susan Niz
Photo: Flickr
Advances in Cambodian Health Care
Cambodia is a country located in Southeastern Asia, bordering Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and the Gulf of Thailand. The Khmer Rouge regime and its actions brought the nation’s mostly positive trajectory to a definitive halt in the 1970s. However, the nation has been rebounding. The recent advances in Cambodian health care illuminate the country’s gains and foreshadow the possibilities for this economically developinging country.
Cambodia‘s regression in the 1970s was significant in its health care field. This is because the Khmer Rouge explicitly targeted the educated and elite in Cambodia during the reign of the regime. In fact, one could easily qualify the regime’s activities as genocide. By the end of the regime’s four-year rule, it is estimated that only 12 doctors remained in Cambodia.
Regardless of the strife and hardships Cambodians faced, those in Cambodia have not lost faith. The Cambodian health care system has made advances from a multitude of angles. Through its work with NGOs and making advancements within its own government by way of reform, Cambodia is developing a just and proper health care system.
Transform Healthcare Cambodia
There are a variety of NGOs offering assistance with the health care crisis in Cambodia. Transform Healthcare Cambodia’s work highlights these efforts. The goal for Transform Healthcare Cambodia is to protect the region from diseases the Southeastern Asian population do not receive treatment for.
With Khmer Rouge eliminating almost all of the country’s doctors, the number of doctors has remained limited. However, by training physicians to diagnose, treat and manage diseases prominent in the region, the organization is taking action against diabetes and many infectious diseases plaguing the region.
The charity accomplishes this by sending its partners to Battambang Provincial Hospital where they train the Cambodian staff in instances of health care. In turn, the existing staff trains future medical professionals.
Governmental Reforms
A health care system is only as strong as the government that supports it. That is why the Second Health Sector Support Program Project (HSSP2) has taken on the task of governmental reform in Cambodia. By improving the coverage and quality of health care, it gives the government a quality guideline to uphold.
By supplying and supporting these health programs, it gives the health care system legs to stand on. Since its involvement, the project has accomplished much in the region, including the following:
Through strife, struggle and hardship to the extent of genocide, the Cambodian people have persevered. Although Cambodia still requires much work in regards to regulating and sustaining its health care system, the advances the country has made are a clear indicator of growth and a sign of a brighter future.
– Austin Brown
Photo: Flickr
Human Behavior Can Help Eradicate Malaria
Bed nets. Insecticide. Preventative medicine. These are the tools that are most known for fighting malaria—and for good reason. Tactics like these have saved millions of lives. However, when a country manages to eliminate most incidences of malaria, the traditional techniques lose their impact. One group of researchers, realizing the need for new strategies against malaria, decided to not focus on mosquitoes (the traditional tactic) but on humans themselves. Ultimately, studying human behavior can help eradicate malaria by targeting weak spots in preventative plans and providing a clearer implementation of resources. To better understand malaria, its far-reaching impacts and the importance of a new human-centered technique, it is helpful to start from the beginning.
What is Malaria and How Was it Treated in the Past?
Malaria has plagued humans for, quite literally, as long as humanity remembers. The earliest written records — Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets — describe symptoms characteristic of the disease. Scientists found human remains dating back to 3200 BC with malaria antigens. Ancient scholars called the illness the “king of diseases.” It certainly lives up to the title. It is thousands of years old and it has killed hundreds of millions of people.
Anopheles mosquitoes, most active at dusk and night-time, are responsible for the malaria parasite’s spread. Carried in the insect’s stomach, the parasite enters the human bloodstream through the mosquitoes’ saliva (the same substance that makes bites itch and swell) as they feed.
Humans first exhibit symptoms a week or so after infection. If untreated, the disease quickly becomes serious. Sufferers feel flu-like symptoms, including body aches, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea. Patients can die within 48 hours after they first exhibit symptoms.
In 1820, chemists developed quinine, the first modern pharmacological treatment for malaria. In the 1900s, the men who identified the malaria parasite, demonstrated that mosquitoes were responsible for transmission and developed the mosquito-repelling insecticide DDT all won Nobel Prizes for their respective discoveries. Understanding and preventing malaria were matters of great international importance.
What is Malaria’s Global Presence Today?
Fighting this disease remains a top global priority. Modern preventative measures now include insecticide-treated bed nets (to keeps the nocturnal malaria-carrying mosquitos away) and indoor sprays. Children in high-transmission areas are also eligible for seasonal malaria chemoprevention. Thanks to a surge in global humanitarian attention, the disease’s presence has fallen worldwide. Between 2010 and 2017, malaria incidence decreased by nearly 20 percent and fatalities decreased by nearly 30 percent.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 216 million clinical cases still occurred worldwide in 2016 alone, resulting in 445,000 deaths. The disease causes a massive drain on economies, due to healthcare costs and loss of workforce efficiency. In sub-Saharan Africa, where potent strains of the parasite thrive, those damaging effects are especially notable. Malaria and its effects cost Africa a stunning $12 billion every year and, because people living near unclean water sources and insecure housing are most at risk, malaria disproportionally affects the impoverished. By prohibiting individuals from attending work or school, let alone its potential to kill, malaria perpetuates the cycle of poverty. While reducing prevalence is a key factor, eradication continues to be the ultimate goal. That means the end to malaria’s ill-effects on communities, particularly impoverished ones.
How Studying Human Behavior Can Help Eradicate Malaria
When regions successfully employ traditional tactics, as many have, they find themselves with a new problem. “Lingering cases” is a term used to describe when a region no longer experiences outbreaks, but that the disease still exists locally. In general, eliminating any illness gets harder the fewer instances of it that occur. Tracking the carrier mosquitoes is infeasible, if not impossible. However, researchers in Zanzibar took a new approach – they decided to track humans instead.
In July 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs published an article in Malaria Journal that details the reasoning behind the new technique. While indoor measures work, people are not necessarily confined to the home at nighttime. One Zanzibari woman remarked in an interview, “When you are outside, you can’t really wear the bed nets, can you?” Existing steps against malaria are not effective outdoors, which makes it nearly impossible to eliminate the last few cases.
Researchers conducted over 60 in-depth interviews and studied routine human movements: between homes, stores, public spaces, religious services and even special events, like weddings. They found many insights. For example, men were at the highest risk for infection because they most often work or socialize outside after dark. There is also a notable population of seasonal workers that come to Zanzibar from Tanzania’s mainland. These individuals rarely own mosquito nets nor insecticides to spray their residences. Better understanding the movements of people vulnerable to malaria, as well as those that find themselves periodically unprotected, is important. That information allows scientists to create better-targeted interventions, including community support programs, outdoor areas with preventative measures, and basic indoor resources for those without.
Small scale use of these techniques has proven effective, and the researchers behind this investigation believe they could be scaled up successfully. Best of all, 26 other countries have similarly low rates of malaria incidence. If Zanzibar, a high-transmission area for the parasite, could push back against this disease so successfully, other countries could benefit greatly from the same changes.
Conclusion
Malaria, a disease that has lasted for around 5000 years, has never been closer to eradication. The last century has seen a great surge in momentum for fighting this illness. The results are stunning; millions of lives saved, several countries eliminated the disease entirely, and dozens more are nearing that goal. In turn, people have prospered. For every dollar invested in African malaria control, the continent sees 40 dollars in economic growth. Much of that prosperity goes back to impoverished people, who can thrive with less illness and more economic efficiency. Now, researchers are pursuing the “last mile” strategies. Studying human behavior can help eradicate malaria by preventing remote cases. Total eradication and the end of malaria’s drain on the impoverished has never been closer.
– Molly Power
Photo: Wikimedia
Japanese Organizations Combating Poverty Globally
Just like other highly developed nations, Japan actively pursues international affairs. People tend to think of America as a country that aids in poverty reduction before Japan, with famous American humanitarian groups like the Red Cross or Salvation Army in mind. Japan has charities of its own, though; a handful of them focus on eliminating poverty in various locations. Here is a list of Japanese organizations combating poverty on a global scale, expanding the visions of a better future from Japan to the rest of the globe.
The Nippon Foundation
One Japanese organization is the Nippon Foundation, which participates in several areas of activity, including how to enrich communities and bring them closer together. The Nippon Foundation describes itself as a social innovation hub, but it is also a nonprofit organization providing grants to fund research. The Establishment of Model Learning Deaf School in the Philippines receives around $161,000 in grants. Scholarships, fellowships and supporting projects in social issues are also part of the Foundation’s scope. Projects of the Nippon Foundation branch out into multiple fields; it provides resources to directly address poverty itself and its reach goes to a diverse number of countries.
One focus of the organization is child poverty, as it attempts to bring awareness to the issue. Important research in economics helps display the burden children have when they try to attend schools. More specifically, the project targeted the fact that a difference in education produces a difference in income, and a higher income leads to more taxes and social security premiums, reducing the government’s fiscal load. By comparing scenarios, the organization proved that a higher number of well-paying jobs yields significantly more premiums.
The Foundation set up an initiative in Africa to teach agricultural farmers how to increase their production, wishing to teach farmers how to process and preserve crops rather than only provide resources. It aimed to create a value chain or framework for sustainable agriculture to help farmers establish a market for their crops.
In Myanmar, the Foundation supported the building of schools and treatment for leprosy. From the 1960s until the present day, the cases of leprosy per 10,000 have reduced from 250 to 10. The Nippon Foundation began building schools and similar infrastructure during Myanmar’s period of military rule, where the country did not connect with the rest of the world. The government directly requested the organization to establish schools, eventually creating a link with the local communities it was helping.
Oxfam Japan
Oxfam believes that poverty is an injustice in a rich world and that every person should live with dignity. Comprised of a confederation of smaller organizations, Oxfam Japan also places heavy emphasis on community and global interactivity. Poor people, Oxfam believes, should possess a voice in the decisions that affect them and enjoy an improved livelihood in the process.
The organization’s actions include emergency responses that provide immediate relief to natural disasters and conflict as well as long term development. The organization places a significant effort on assisting those impacted by the Syrian crisis. The organization provided water tank installations, vouchers and cash assistance for foods and sanitation goods. It also distributed essential items like blankets during winter.
Apart from long and short-term program work and relief, Oxfam Japan practices advocacy. Lobbying often influences the powerful and the organization is using its years of experience and research to address the issues revolving around poverty. Oxfam then amplifies this advocacy work with campaigning, which raises the voices of the people, invigorating the general public. Topics of their campaigns include debt relief, basic education and humanitarian response.
Japan considers raising awareness of disadvantaged citizens important. The fact that Japan belongs to the Group of Eight (G8), or the eight most industrialized countries in the world, means that it can accomplish substantial influence when it addresses poverty. Oxfam shares its experiences helping around the world and in Japan to pique interest in global affairs. Campaigning to Japanese officials about global poverty helps prioritize this issue on the international agenda.
Japan’s Emergency Nonprofit Organization (JEN)
A third Japanese organization combating poverty is JEN or Japan Emergency Nonprofit Organization. Responding to disasters across the globe, JEN meets the current needs of its recipients with emergency relief and reconstruction assistance.
JEN enlists projects in different countries. One example is when the organization sent emergency relief goods to Haiti after its 2010 earthquake. Later, the organization sent support to repair water and sanitation; it taught citizens how to lead self-reliant lives after the quake upheaved the normal facilities they had grown used to.
The organization carried out a similar action plan after an earthquake in Indonesia in 2009. It delivered emergency supplies to the people in the mountainous areas of the affected Indonesian coast first due to the little attention that area received. It also implemented workshops to teach how to lessen the effects of natural disasters. After also realizing the government provided food and water but not housing repair, JEN provided toolkits to make reconstruction possible. These projects align with the mission statement of the organization that includes addressing the specific needs in a situation and focusing on the people most left out.
Community participation is also invaluable to JEN’s goal. A section on the organization’s website seeks out volunteers and invites participation in its events and lectures. JEN welcomes corporate and foundation supporters, suggesting ways smaller groups can support them, such as mobilizing a workforce.
JEN tries to retain strong engagement by providing a news page with periodic updates, lists of meet-ups, lectures and even wine and fishing events. These are all to spread awareness of the countries that require attention.
These Japanese organizations combating poverty are still up and running today. Each of their efforts has helped reduce the impact of disaster within the countries they have aided and allowed the countries to adapt quickly.
– Daniel Bertetti
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts about Human Trafficking in Honduras
Honduras is a country located in Central America. Guatemala borders it to the west, Nicaragua to the southeast and the Pacific Ocean to the south, which makes Honduras a hub of activity in Central America. These 10 facts about human trafficking in Honduras highlight the critical information about human trafficking in general and what groups are fighting for the rights of human trafficking victims.
10 Facts About Human Trafficking in Honduras
These 10 facts about human trafficking in Honduras show that while Honduras has some catching up to do in the fight against human trafficking, the country is well on its way to eliminating it. Honduras will be able to take on the difficulties of modern-day human trafficking with groups like USAID, Global Communities, SEDIS and CICESCT. As these 10 facts have shown, eliminating human trafficking may be difficult, but it is most certainly a just and attainable goal.
– Ryan Holman
Photo: Flickr
Energy Use in Sub-Saharan Africa
Energy demand is estimated to increase by 85 percent in Africa between 2010 and 2040. To compensate for growing infrastructure and population, the cheapest and most environmentally-friendly energy sources are in high demand as well. Countries within sub-Saharan Africa have taken numerous measures to improve affordable living through receiving aid and implementing programs to promote efficient energy use. However, challenges hinder the implementation of efficient energy use in these countries. For example, the trained workforce that could take on massive energy projects is very small. There is also very minimal awareness of the benefits of efficient energy use so many people prefer to stick to traditional sources. Governments and global organizations are combating these challenges as they work to advance energy efficiency and indirectly reduce poverty and over-spending in sub-Saharan Africa.
Energy Efficiency in Emerging Economies Training Week
The International Energy Agency and the Department of Energy of South Africa hosted the very first Energy Efficiency in Emerging Economies (E4) Training Week for sub-Saharan Africa in Pretoria, South Africa from Oct. 14 to Oct. 17, 2019. The objective of the training was to educate junior policymakers from all over sub-Saharan Africa to model future politicians into environmental activists. The week included courses on the ability of energy-efficient sources to reduce extra expenses and, therefore, improve living conditions. The courses taught participants about energy efficiency policy in buildings, appliances, equipment, industry, cities and indicators and evaluation. E4 Training Week also made a key point to encourage women to apply for the program.
Numerous organizations supported the E4 Training Week, including Global Environment Fund (GEF), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), East African Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EACREEE) and SADC Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SACREEE).
The Domestic Energy and Rural Access to Basic Sources Project
The World Bank’s Domestic Energy and Rural Access to Basic Sources Project (PEDASB) worked to install a 52-kilowatt plant in Zantiébougou, south of Bamako in the Sikasso region. The plant has provided electricity to 765 people and allows women to carry out other economic activities and trades as they are no longer concerned about gathering fuel, such as wood. PEDASB also implemented a hybrid electricity system that combines solar photovoltaic and diesel power in Niena. The system improved the quality of health care in local clinics and increased school performance in students. This energy sector as a whole is contributing to the economy of sub-Saharan Africa and increasing the wealth of its people.
Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
Ethiopia’s government is taking the initiative to improve efficient energy use. Through a collaboration with the World Bank Project, the Ethiopian government introduced compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL), which help rural families save money. 80 fewer megawatts of electricity is used by distributing 2.5 million CFL bulbs, which quantifies as $100 million saved. Through a $4 million investment, 5 million CFL bulbs were distributed all over the country. Households under the poverty line were able to reduce their energy usage by 55 percent which significantly cut utility costs for families. Beyond lightbulbs, 2.5 million efficient cookstoves were distributed in Ethiopia, reducing 40 to 60 percent of wood fuel. This not only helps the environment but also boosts families’ lifestyles all over the country.
The Electrify Africa Act
In 2016, President Barack Obama signed the Electrify Africa Act (S.2152) into law. The Electrify Africa Act ensures that the Obama Administration’s Power Africa initiative remains in effect, providing millions of sub-Saharan Africans with access to electricity which in turn, increases economic growth and development.
In conclusion, sub-Saharan countries are breaking the cycle of poverty through creatively implementing efficient energy sources. From educating young policymakers to governments distributing free equipment and implementing laws, numerous countries are able to benefit from efficient energy use in sub-Saharan Africa.
– Haarika Gurivireddygari
Photo: Flickr
4 Books on Poverty: The Power Of Words
Listed below are four fiction and non-fiction books on poverty. The novels not only share interesting stories and plots, but they also demonstrate the injustice of poverty and remind the readers of the importance of fighting back and helping people overcome these odds.
4 Books on Poverty
Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a non-fiction novel by Katherine Boo — Pulitzer Prize winner and staff writer for The New Yorker. Her novel sheds light on families trying to better their lives in a makeshift settlement in Annawadi, while the rest of India begins to flourish. Boo spent three years in India personally gathering stories about the struggles these families faced. The novel begins by revealing the harsh truth of living in slum life; families make money by selling rich people’s garbage while facing adversity like wrongful imprisonment. Boo also shows how corruption in institutions like hospitals, charities and the education system threatens poor communities. Behind the Beautiful Forevers won the National Book award in 2012. The novel has been added to the common core and the teachings continue to be shared in high schools everywhere.
NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names
We Need New Names is a fictional novel written by Zimbabwean author, NoViolet Bulawayo. Bulawayo’s novel is about a young girl’s journey out of Zimbabwe and into the United States. The book focuses on life in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s. At that time, the country was in a political upheaval; the young girl and her family were forced to move to a new village after their home was bulldozed by the government. The book tells of the obstacles of living in a poverty-stricken country, and the family’s need to get out and start a new life.
Robert D. Kaplan’s Surrender or Starve: Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea
Kaplan’s Surrender or Starve: Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea is a non-fiction novel that explores the ethnic, religious and class conflicts of people in Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea in the 1980s. Kaplan studies the reasons for famine in the region and offers both a forward and afterward, which explains how the region has developed since the famine in the 80s.
Nicholas D. Kristof’s and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Half the Sky is a non-fiction novel about the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. The novel introduces struggling women throughout Africa and Asia, some of which share their tragic experiences of being sold into sex slavery and suffering dangerous injuries during childbirth. The novel also gives hope to the audience by sharing how these women overcame the obstacles of living as a woman in poverty to lead fulfilled, successful lives.
Not only do these four books on poverty entertain their readers with interesting stories, but they also emphasize the importance of fighting back and helping to end poverty by sharing the harsh reality of living in a poverty-stricken community.
– Juliette Lopez
Photo: Flickr
3 Countries That Have Eliminated Trachoma
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affect more than 1.4 billion people in 149 countries. These diseases flourish in areas of the world where there is a lack of basic sanitation, which means that the global poor have the highest risk of contracting them. These diseases are preventable and treatable, but due to a lack of resources and aid, millions of people still suffer from these diseases that can cause them to be disfigured, disabled and may even result in death.
However, with the help of several different organizations and national campaigns, many countries have successfully eliminated some NTDs, including trachoma, which is the leading cause of blindness in the world. Trachoma is a bacterial eye infection that affects the eyes and eyelids, causing the eyelashes to turn inward toward the eye leaving patients blind.
Here are three countries that have eliminated trachoma.
3 Countries That Have Eliminated Trachoma
These three countries worked for years to eradicate this trachoma and improve their citizens’ quality of life. The combined efforts of multiple organizations and governments brought medication, surgeries and public education to these countries toward achieving this goal. In addition to Ghana, Laos and Mexico, countries such as Cambodia, Togo, The Marshall Islands, Oman and Morocco have also made progress against this disease.
– Jannette Aguirre
Photo: WHO
India’s Digital Transformation
Over the last decade, India has tackled barriers like undocumented citizen identities and minimal access to formal banking and new technologies with a series of innovative programs and digital services. This article will explore India’s digital transformation.
Digital Identification and Financial Inclusion
Efforts to digitize India first took off in 2009 with the launch of a digital identity system called Aadhaar. Aadhaar aimed to provide every citizen with a digital identity. Aadhaar obtained IDs through a biometric-authenticated 12 digit number that created them according to applicant’s iris and fingerprint scans. Aadhaar has provided over 600 million voluntary applicants with UID’s (unique identifications) since its launch. The success of Aadhaar gave even the most rural populations the ability to identify themselves and avoid the hassle of ineffective systems.
Although the majority of citizens obtained digital IDs, a portion of the population still lacked access to digital banking services. Limited access excluded citizens from participating in formal banking that could improve their lives. With the demand for digital banking services increasing, India embarked on its next phase of digital innovation.
In 2014, with added backing from the Modi government, India created the Jan Dhan financial inclusion program. Jhan Dhan sought to get as many Aadhaar identity holders to participate in digital banking as possible. Within the first day of the program’s launch, Aadhaar identifications set up 10 million paperless bank accounts. The program also promised account holders accident insurance for up to 100,000 rupees (or $1,500) and an overdraft capacity of 5,000 rupees ($80).
Empowered with digital identification and banking, citizens could digitally access government services with more ease. The increase in mobile banking also created new layers for India’s digital transformation.
Demonetization and BHIM
By 2017, Aadhaar identification had become a required function for formal banking, SIM connections and income tax returns. With the majority of the population using digital services, the need for India to demonetize became more apparent. India’s total demonetization seemed daunting, but it appears to have worked well for the country. India’s decision to demonetize was so abrupt, the demand for services like Aadhaar and Jan Dhan, among others, increased rapidly. With the replacement of its old currency and the demand for digital services rising so quickly, India’s digital transformation took its next steps.
To help with the transition of demonetization, India’s Prime Minister launched BHIM (Baharat Interface For Money) in 2016. The app serves as a digital payment platform in tandem with the country’s UPI interface. BHIM also works with a 2G network, meaning that people even the most rural parts of India can access this service. This network allows UPI account holders to send and receive instant payments from non-UPI holders, which cushioned the shock of demonetization for more of the population.
The app also offers a wealth of diverse services for users and businesses. Currently, it allows users to shop/pay for services online, transfer money to family and friends, receive customer payments with no additional cost and check transaction history and account balance at any time.
Three years after its launch, BHIM collaborated with over 100 banks nationwide and in early 2018 people downloaded the app 21.65 million times for Android phones and over a million for Apple. Data that RBI and the National Corporation of India collected also demonstrated that out of 145 million UPI transactions that year, BHIM carried out 9.1 million of them.
Although India requires more work, it has dedicated itself to improvements through innovative technology and creative solutions over the last decade. As it continues its efforts, the country’s citizens should have increased access to banking services.
– Ashlyn Jensen
Photo: Flickr