Off the coast of Mozambique, 80 percent of Madagascar’s population lives in extreme poverty. In these conditions, malnutrition thrives, increasing the population’s susceptibility to diseases that are no longer fatal elsewhere, like tuberculosis and diarrhea. USAID estimates that 100 children in Madagascar die daily from common preventable diseases. One NGO, PIVOT, is trying to make a difference in health outcomes in Madagascar.
Health Care in Madagascar
In 2014, Madagascar boasted the lowest reported per capita health spending in the entire world, $13.56. Even though the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights declared health to be a basic human right, 50 percent of children suffer from chronic malnutrition and one in seven children die before the age of five in Madagascar. Further contributing to poor health outcomes in Madagascar, the country’s national health policy often demands that patients locate drugs and the money to pay for all services before seeking treatment.
Such a policy, with no possibility of delayed payment, often disincentives impoverished people who need care from seeking treatment. Health policies like this, coupled with poor a transportation infrastructure, make delivery and distribution of medical care and supplies very challenging. In rural villages in Madagascar, community health clinics are often a two to 12 hour hike depending upon the village. For those struggling with illness, such a hike is often not an option.
PIVOT’s Solution
In southeastern Madagascar in the Ifanadiana district, PIVOT “combines accessible and comprehensive health care services with rigorous scientific research to save lives and break cycles of poverty and disease.”After they establish a model health system in this district, they hope to export it to all of Madagascar and eventually resource poor areas all over the world.
Located in a mountainous rain-forested area in the Vatovavy-Fitovinany region of southeastern Madagascar, the Ifanadiana district is home to over 200,000 people. In 2014, Ifanadiana’s mortality rate for children under the age of five was more than double the rate for the rest of the country — coming in at 1,044 per 100,000 live births. PIVOT selected the Ifanadiana, saying, “if we can do it here, we can do it anywhere.”
Partnered with the Madagascar Ministry of Health, Partners in Health, Centre Val Bio and Harvard Medical School, PIVOT began in January 2014 to establish a model health district in Ifanadiana. While many of these partners seem logical, dealing with humans has been a change for Centre Val Bio, formerly a biodiversity research lab who was central to establishing the Ranomafana National Park in Ifanadiana. Madagascar is known for its extreme biodiversity; species live there who live nowhere else in the world.
Targeted at improving health outcomes in Madagascar, PIVOT’s model health district consists of a clinical program within a tiered system of community health centers, regional centers and hospital care. Their clinical programs include Emergency, Patient Accompaniment, Malnutrition, Tuberculosis, Maternal Health and Child Health. Within this clinical structure, PIVOT is pursuing an aggressive data collection program. The health indicators they are focusing on are focusing on Maternal Mortality, Under-Five Mortality, Lifetime Fertility, Composite Coverage Index and the Percentage of People Covered by PIVOT.
As of 2017, PIVOT was reaching 37 percent of the Ifanadiana district. By 2018, they were covering 61 percent of the population and as of 2019, 70 percent benefited from their services. PIVOT hopes that 2022 will mark complete coverage and a total implementation of Ifanadiana as a model health district under PIVOT’s protocols. PIVOT’s own data suggests that from 2014 to 2017 they oversaw a decline in both the maternal mortality rate and the under 5 mortality rate. The maternal mortality rate declined from 1,044 to 828 and the under 5 mortality rate fell from 136 to 114.
Working with the Ministry of Health, PIVOT is helping to implement pilot fee exemption programs. According to their data, only one-third of patients accessed facilities where point-of-service fees were in place; however, with the introduction of fee exemptions the use of healthcare increased by 65 percent for all patients, 52 percent for children and 25 percent for maternity consultations. The fee exemption pilot program cost on average 0.60 USD per patient. Currently, external donor support is essential to the survival of these programs.
Due to a successful democratic election in 2014, international sanctions were lifted which in turn opened the door to increased health spending from national and international sources. PIVOT seems to be making a difference in the Ifanadiana district, and hopefully their revolutionary model health district will spread to the rest of the country reshaping health outcomes in Madagascar as a whole.
– Sarah Boyer
Photo: Flickr
Wowowee and Pity Poverty on Television
A show called Wowowee aired from 2005 to 2010 on Philippine television. The premise of the show was that contestants would come on the show to play games and recount the story of their daily suffering. Based on the pity their stories invoked in the host, Willie Revillame, the contestants received an award of cash, groceries, livelihood packages and even houses.
Jonathan Corpis Ong’s book “The Poverty of Television: The Mediation of Suffering in the Class-Divided Philippines” explains that Philippine television spectacularly displays poverty rather than sanitizing or ignoring it, as in other countries. This would often come in the form of awarding prizes to impoverished contestants, Wowowee was by far the most extravagant and the only one to specifically reward people for their stories of suffering.
In his book, Ong discusses the moral implications of financially encouraging severely impoverished contestants to engage in this pity poverty on television. Coaxed to share their life stories, the contestants hoped that Willie would singlehandedly alleviate their suffering.
Should Pity Receive Reward?
Wowowee themed its episodes in which all the contestants either had a disability or recently lost their jobs. The contestants would receive a reward for maintaining a convincing and sincere persona while telling their pitiful story. If the host did not deem them deserving enough, this would affect their monetary gain and the audience could be disappointed.
To make the show more engaging, Willie would switch between feigned tears and laughter, while the reality show would exhibit sound effects and canned laughter. Based on how tragic their life story was, contestants could get an award of almost $10 before playing any games on the show. The host, Willie, solely made this decision and he could also give hints during games to the most pitiful contestants.
Educated critics called Wowowee the opium of the Filipino masses, making the impoverished viewership Wowowee’s victims. However, Ong argues that these upper-class critics “lacked acknowledgment of structural conditions of inequality that pushed these contestants to perform suffering in excess on television.”
Wowowee’s high ratings came from the low-income viewers that made up the majority of the audience. These people also waited outside the television studio for the chance to go on the six-day-a-week show. Seventy-five percent of the viewership were low-income Filipinos. With such a huge viewership, Wowowee and its advertisers profited, since its audience’s “low purchasing power was made up for by sheer numbers.”
Ong argues that the show’s format creates patron-client ties in which poor people rely on rich individuals for salvation. This benefits the show more than the individuals waiting in line, who are unlikely to end up on the show but increase the show’s fame.
A Tragedy Without Consequences
The rumors of the prizes for the 2006 first anniversary show were so lavish that people attended who could not afford the return trip. When the show announced that fewer than half of the people who had been waiting days in line would make it in, a stampede started that resulted in the deaths of 73 people and the injuring of over 800. None of the producers of the show faced legal consequences and many viewers actually blamed the victims themselves for their actions of desperation.
In 2010 Wowowee received cancellation due to a controversy unrelated to the topic of the show. The following day a new game show took its place, called Pilipinas, Win na Win, which never matched the fame its predecessor received from its ostentatious use of pity poverty on television.
– Daria Locher
Photo: Flickr
7 Annual Races Against Global Poverty
7 Annual Races Against Global Poverty
These annual races against global poverty are in the United States, but there are countless races around the world. They are all a great way to combine fitness and poverty reduction and runners can raise much more for the organization by pushing themselves in their fundraising.
– Daria Locher
Photo: Pixabay
Growing Together: Agri-tech innovations in Africa
In 2017, African countries spent over $65 billion importing food. Current and future agri-tech innovations in Africa will play a large roll in reducing this trade deficit and improving the lives of small scale farmers in the process.
A Boom in Agri-tech
Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana are leading agri-tech markets, accounting for over 60 percent of active startups in the sector. The agricultural industry has consistently been a crucial component of economic systems throughout Africa, but until recently has been untouched by technological innovation.
Over 80 percent of Nigerian farmers are smallholder farmers, producing 90 percent of domestic output. Nearly half of all working Nigerians are engaged in small-hold farming and account for the poorest 40 percent of the population. This level of poverty among smallholder farmers can be attributed to the low use of mechanized tools, inadequate market information, and lack of access to credit and financing options.
This is changing in recent years, following an increase of 121 percent in fundraising for agri-tech from 2016 to 2017. Nearly a third of all agri-tech startups are e-commerce agricultural focused platforms, connecting farmers with investors, markets, training and mechanized tools. These platforms help to lift many small scale farmers out of poverty while also mitigating food insecurity in local communities.
The Benefits of Crowdfunding
Given the massive potential for growth, crowdfunding has the possibility of ushering the African agricultural industry to the forefront of the world market. There is a public perception issue with smallholder farmers, as many people associate this brand of agriculture with poverty. Crowdfunding, however, can change how people throughout Africa look at farming.
The average age of a farmer is currently 60 years old. This in large part is due to younger people’s inability to secure financing for farming as well as a lack of willingness to participate in the sector. The rise of these crowdfunding agri-tech innovations in Africa is providing young Africans with financial support, technical training and improved mechanical tools needed succeed.
The Startups Making a Difference
Nigeria’s first digital platform for agricultural crowdfunding, Farmcrowdy, launched in September 2016. This platform connects Nigerian smallholder farmers with investors who select the farms they want to invest in. Farmcrowdy then uses the accrued funds to hire additional farmers, lease land, and provide valuable inputs to farms, such as fertilizer, seeds and technical support from sowing through harvest.
Agri-tech solutions such as Farmcrowdy have introduced Nigerians to a trusted platform used to pool resources and support small scale farmers in an effort to alleviate poverty and expand food production capacity. Farm supporters using the Farmcrowdy platform can invest in farms producing rice, maize, poultry, cassava and soya beans. The return on investment typically ranges anywhere from six percent to 25 percent. This allows urban Nigerians to invest directly in the livelihood of their fellow communities and the future of their food security.
Local farmers are appreciative of Farmcrowdy’s advanced training in modern farming practices and the use of mechanization to increase productivity. As a result of this training, many farmers have seen an increase in yield by over a third. These agricultural goods are even selling at a higher price due to access to more stable markets and reputable buyers.
Agri-tech innovations in Africa, such as the rise of crowdfunding, have linked different aspects of the agriculture value chain, improving efficiency and food security in local communities. This is just the beginning of what crowdfunding can do for the agriculture industry. African countries such as Nigeria have massive untapped potential when it comes to food production. The introduction of financing and new farming technologies to small scale farmers can unlock this potential and make a massive impact on the lives of impoverished farmers throughout Africa and potentially the world.
– Peter Trousdale
Photo: Flickr
10 Things to Know about Living Conditions in Qatar
Qatar is a small nation bordered predominantly by Saudi Arabia. The nation has the highest GDP production in the Arab speaking world. Because of this, living standards are higher than many other Middle Eastern nations. Yet, Qatar is not without its issues surrounding living conditions despite its perceived excessive wealth.
10 Things to Know About Living Conditions in Qatar
Life in Qatar is vastly different and often times more difficult than that of the Western World. Human rights abuses still occur every day. Women, by international standards, are struggling to find a prominent socio-economic role. Even still, Qatar has a few unique features, including its single-payer healthcare system, that separate it positively from other nations. There is clearly more work to be done in regards to living conditions in Qatar.
– Sarah Bradley
Photo: Flickr
How Empowering Women Reduces Poverty
Gender inequality has been a major topic of concern since the end of the 19th century and countries around the world have made huge strides to empower women and make changes for gender equality ever since. Yet specifically in developing countries, gender inequality still plays a huge role in women’s lives and has a lasting effect on the economy, environmental degradation and poverty. Here’s how empowering women reduces poverty.
Effects of Gender Inequality
According to The Life You Can Save, one in three people in the world live on less than $2 a day, and 70 percent of them are women. Often, women in poverty have higher fertility rates and zero access to vaccines and health care, resulting in living on even less per day and in more deaths.
Empowering women reduces poverty and makes a huge difference overall for women and their children’s lives. The fact that some women do not have the same rights as men make it almost impossible for them to start businesses, earn an income and have the opportunity to live an independent life. Nonprofit Women for Women states that 25 million women in the Middle East and Africa do not have the constitutional and statutory property rights that men do. This often prevents women from being able to start a business from the lack of financial security and respect from community members.
Ways to Empower Women
Women’s empowerment is crucial to mitigating poverty and allowing women to reach their full potential. Below are several ways how empowering women can reduce poverty, and how individuals can help:
Change Starts with People
In conclusion, there are plenty of ways to involve oneself in the community and have a lasting effect on young girls’ lives. Empowering women reduces poverty, and supporting charities and Acts that help empower women and make a difference in their lives is crucial to giving women and girls around the world the opportunity to flourish.
– Paige Regan
Photo: Flickr
Four Ways Drone Pilots Can Save Lives
Four Ways Drone Pilots Can Save Lives
Drone pilots have plenty of ways to use their skills to help fight poverty and get involved in global relief efforts. Pilots are encouraged to volunteer to help out locally and/or internationally. As Dr. Peter Meir says, “The best use of a drone is to save a life.”
– Mark Sheehan
Photo: Unsplash
PIVOT: Health Outcomes in Madagascar
Off the coast of Mozambique, 80 percent of Madagascar’s population lives in extreme poverty. In these conditions, malnutrition thrives, increasing the population’s susceptibility to diseases that are no longer fatal elsewhere, like tuberculosis and diarrhea. USAID estimates that 100 children in Madagascar die daily from common preventable diseases. One NGO, PIVOT, is trying to make a difference in health outcomes in Madagascar.
Health Care in Madagascar
In 2014, Madagascar boasted the lowest reported per capita health spending in the entire world, $13.56. Even though the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights declared health to be a basic human right, 50 percent of children suffer from chronic malnutrition and one in seven children die before the age of five in Madagascar. Further contributing to poor health outcomes in Madagascar, the country’s national health policy often demands that patients locate drugs and the money to pay for all services before seeking treatment.
Such a policy, with no possibility of delayed payment, often disincentives impoverished people who need care from seeking treatment. Health policies like this, coupled with poor a transportation infrastructure, make delivery and distribution of medical care and supplies very challenging. In rural villages in Madagascar, community health clinics are often a two to 12 hour hike depending upon the village. For those struggling with illness, such a hike is often not an option.
PIVOT’s Solution
In southeastern Madagascar in the Ifanadiana district, PIVOT “combines accessible and comprehensive health care services with rigorous scientific research to save lives and break cycles of poverty and disease.”After they establish a model health system in this district, they hope to export it to all of Madagascar and eventually resource poor areas all over the world.
Located in a mountainous rain-forested area in the Vatovavy-Fitovinany region of southeastern Madagascar, the Ifanadiana district is home to over 200,000 people. In 2014, Ifanadiana’s mortality rate for children under the age of five was more than double the rate for the rest of the country — coming in at 1,044 per 100,000 live births. PIVOT selected the Ifanadiana, saying, “if we can do it here, we can do it anywhere.”
Partnered with the Madagascar Ministry of Health, Partners in Health, Centre Val Bio and Harvard Medical School, PIVOT began in January 2014 to establish a model health district in Ifanadiana. While many of these partners seem logical, dealing with humans has been a change for Centre Val Bio, formerly a biodiversity research lab who was central to establishing the Ranomafana National Park in Ifanadiana. Madagascar is known for its extreme biodiversity; species live there who live nowhere else in the world.
Targeted at improving health outcomes in Madagascar, PIVOT’s model health district consists of a clinical program within a tiered system of community health centers, regional centers and hospital care. Their clinical programs include Emergency, Patient Accompaniment, Malnutrition, Tuberculosis, Maternal Health and Child Health. Within this clinical structure, PIVOT is pursuing an aggressive data collection program. The health indicators they are focusing on are focusing on Maternal Mortality, Under-Five Mortality, Lifetime Fertility, Composite Coverage Index and the Percentage of People Covered by PIVOT.
As of 2017, PIVOT was reaching 37 percent of the Ifanadiana district. By 2018, they were covering 61 percent of the population and as of 2019, 70 percent benefited from their services. PIVOT hopes that 2022 will mark complete coverage and a total implementation of Ifanadiana as a model health district under PIVOT’s protocols. PIVOT’s own data suggests that from 2014 to 2017 they oversaw a decline in both the maternal mortality rate and the under 5 mortality rate. The maternal mortality rate declined from 1,044 to 828 and the under 5 mortality rate fell from 136 to 114.
Working with the Ministry of Health, PIVOT is helping to implement pilot fee exemption programs. According to their data, only one-third of patients accessed facilities where point-of-service fees were in place; however, with the introduction of fee exemptions the use of healthcare increased by 65 percent for all patients, 52 percent for children and 25 percent for maternity consultations. The fee exemption pilot program cost on average 0.60 USD per patient. Currently, external donor support is essential to the survival of these programs.
Due to a successful democratic election in 2014, international sanctions were lifted which in turn opened the door to increased health spending from national and international sources. PIVOT seems to be making a difference in the Ifanadiana district, and hopefully their revolutionary model health district will spread to the rest of the country reshaping health outcomes in Madagascar as a whole.
– Sarah Boyer
Photo: Flickr
Top 5 Global Poverty Films
Top 5 Global Poverty Films
Set in India, Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of Jamal Malik, an 18-year-old boy raised in the slums of Mumbai. The film depicted many hard to watch, yet realistic, scenes of poverty in India, including children being recruited to beg on the street for food, and children living in extreme poverty being forced into labor to survive. The film was widely acclaimed and became extremely popular; in 2009, it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won eight of them, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also won seven BAFTA Awards, five Critics’ Choice Awards and four Golden Globes.
Queen of Katwe is a film based on the true story of Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan girl living in a slum in Katwe. The movie follows her journey as she learns and begins to excel at chess, with the goal of lifting her family out of poverty. Queen of Katwe was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and ESPN films, receiving praise from critics as a realistic portrayal of poverty in Africa. In a review by Angela Watercutter for WIRED, she writes, “it is a very Disney movie in that it centers around a family and has a happy ending, but it is a very un-Disney story in that it unblinkingly examines the poverty, violence and racism its protagonists face every day.” It also had a high profile cast—starring David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong’o and Madina Nalwanga, which helped to raise even more awareness for poverty in Uganda.
The First Grader is based on a true story about Kimani Maruge, an 84-year-old Kenyan villager and farmer who enrolls in elementary school after the Kenyan government announced free universal primary education in 2003. The film shows a realistic depiction of rural and urban Kenya, as well as many issues that those living in extreme poverty in Kenya had to face both at that time and in the present, such as lack of access to schooling, being separated from family and having to suffer in work and prison camps at the hands of the British. The film raised a lot of awareness of how big the issue of lack of schooling and access to education is in Kenya and Africa. National Geographic described its impact as “a triumphant testimony to the transforming force of education.”
Neria, made in Zimbabwe’s golden age of “Zollywood,” is a story about a rural woman who becomes a widow, and loses her farm and livelihood. Neria became the most critically-acclaimed film of the decade and highest-grossing film of all time from Zimbabwe. Part of its popularity came from the fact Zimbabwe’s biggest cultural icon, Oliver Mtukudzi, made the soundtrack. This star power gained global attention, with major U.S. newspapers reporting about it, leading to much more awareness about global poverty and poverty in Africa.
Girl Rising is a documentary-style film that follows the stories of nine girls from Haiti, Nepal, Ethiopia, India, Egypt, Peru, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan on their journey to education. The film highlighted issues surrounding girls’ educations around the world and promoted the organization Girl Rising, which works to ensure that girls around the world are educated and empowered. Girl Rising has partnered with Michelle Obama by producing the documentary special We Will Rise: Michelle Obama’s Mission to Educate Girls Around the World, which has become one of CNN’s highest-rated documentary specials.
These five films show how film can be an amazing medium for spreading messages and garnering worldwide attention. That is why films surrounding global poverty are so important, as they are able to raise awareness for a number of prevalent issues.
– Natalie Chen
Photo: Creative Commons
Efforts to Improve Water Quality in Myanmar
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is a nation with 32.1 percent of the population living below the poverty line, according to 2015 data.
Accessing water in Myanmar has always been difficult, despite the country’s natural resources. It once was recognized to have the fourth-richest supply of groundwater in the world, holding more than 19,000 square meters per capita. This is 16 times the available levels of Myanmar’s neighboring country, Bangladesh.
A typical summer season in the last few years would introduce water shortages in only central Myanmar, but now, deforestation – as a result of urbanization – and hot temperatures contribute to water shortages in other additional areas of the country, leaving hundreds of thousands in danger.
However, recent changes to the water system have significantly improved water quality in Myanmar:
Fixing the Irrigation Systems
Myanmar’s agriculture industry provides jobs for 60 percent of workers, so it is crucial that irrigation systems are functional. In the past, Myanmar struggled with irrigation upkeep and water distribution, so The Pyawt Ywar Pump Irrigation Project stepped in to improve irrigation infrastructure, reform water management and provide education to farmers. Since its implementation, farmers and the government have worked together to make sure water distribution is fair and regulated, and farmers have learned how to use land efficiently to increase crop growth. The agriculture industry has improved as a result: the gross domestic product for agriculture increased from 12,316,081.8 MMK mn to 13,964,771.2 MMK mn in just five years.
Purifying Wastewater has Increased Access to Water
Proctor & Gamble’s Children Safe Drinking Water program and World Vision teamed up to give Myanmar residents a tool to clean non-potable water: a powder mixture invented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The powder transforms 10 liters of contaminated water into clean, drinkable water in just half an hour, providing a day’s worth of resources for a five-member family. This means that poor families living in Myanmar can purify water from rivers and streams instead of spending a lot of money on bottled water. P&G has helped with improving Myanmar’s water since 2008, and the water purification tool has helped 200,000 people gain access to safer water.
Decreasing Illness
Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease, is a common occurrence in Myanmar because of people’s tendency to collect water in their homes. Stored water attracts mosquitoes and creates a large breeding ground for the disease. Myanmar is labeled as a high burden dengue country, and citizens take preventative measures by learning how to protect their water against mosquitoes and to keep their spaces dry and clean. In 2015, there were 42,913 cases of dengue, but after a year of water education and awareness, the number dropped to 10,770.
Looking Ahead
Access to clean water has increased in the last 15 years, but there is still more to be done. In 2000, 47.31 percent of citizens in rural areas had access to potable water, and that number has increased to 59.85 percent as of 2015, but it is still low. The Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene plans for universal access to water by 2030, and improving water quality in Myanmar may be achieved with increased awareness and action.
– Katherine Desrosiers
Photo: Flickr
How The Production of Smartphones Harms Children
Now, more than ever, the world is becoming more interconnected. While the new societal and political inter-dependencies are obvious, even fields like manufacturing are a part of this trend. One product serves as a glaring example of this phenomenon: the smartphone. This hand-sized piece of technology has a shocking amount of components from a shocking number of places. Tech giant Apple sources materials from nearly 45 countries to make its products. While global interconnectedness can certainly be a positive thing, especially in worldwide manufacturing arrangements, at-risk communities in this process can pay a price. Though there is potential for exploitation at many stages of production, it is especially bad at the raw materials stage. Mining toxic minerals like nickel, cadmium and cobalt can come at a high cost to human health. Unfortunately, the production of smartphones harms children in poverty.
To explore the specific threats to child laborers, it is helpful to focus in on one microcosm within the larger mining industry. One particularly harmful mineral in cell phone production is cobalt. Largely mined by hand, cobalt is a silvery-gray metal that people use for many different products, including metal alloys in jet engines and powerful magnets. It is also common in lithium-ion batteries, which are rechargeable energy sources that power mobile devices. The rise in the prevalence of electric cars, which use the same technology, means the demand for cobalt is only rising.
What Conditions Do Children Face?
While countries like Russia and Cuba produce this ore, workers mine more than 50 percent of the world’s cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Due to this high rate of production, most of the exploitation in cobalt mines occur in this country. As mine operators struggle to keep up with demand, the poverty rate in the DRC stands at nearly 65 percent. That means that many desperate people are willing to work in dangerous conditions for hardly any money.
In January 2016, Amnesty International published an investigation into human rights abuses in the DRC’s cobalt mines and it found horrifying conditions. Workers face permanent lung and skin damage, as well as immediate physical harm from cave-ins and other accidents. Not only that, but the investigation also found children as young as 7 years old employed in these conditions. This is how the production of smartphones harms children in poverty.
Children told Amnesty International that for 12 hours of work, they could expect to earn only $1 or 2. When government or industry authorities visited mines, supervisors order the children to hide or stay away from the mines for a few days so others would not spot them. These poor conditions and ill-policed regulations are the reasons why cobalt is known as “the blood diamond of batteries.”
How Can People Fix This Problem?
Some companies have taken the initiative to reduce child exploitation, especially in the years following the 2016 Amnesty International report. Electric car-maker Tesla and its battery provider, Panasonic, have worked hard to pursue cobalt-free battery alternatives. These companies managed to cut cobalt use by 60 percent in six years. However, current technologies have reached their limits. Removing more cobalt will start to pose a longevity problem, as well as a fire-risk.
Because cobalt will remain in use for at least the near future, it is essential to protect impoverished child workers. Most simply, because this issue seems far away, it is easy to forget its gravity. For that reason, remembering the power of consumer impact is important. Pay attention to how companies operate and support businesses that perform the necessary due diligence to run responsibly.
For example, Apple, like many large tech and development companies, has a website with details about the ethics of its supply chain. Read up on brands’ efforts, and make sure to voice any concerns (or potentially, any support) at a website like this one.
What Can People Do to Make a Personal Impact?
Direct habits also make a difference. Try to avoid buying new electronic devices if possible. There are many websites, such as Gazelle, where customers can buy like-new phones to prevent the need for mining new cobalt. Additionally, if a device bites the dust, consider recycling its components. While lithium-ion batteries cannot go into the usual blue recycling bins, resources like this one at call2recycle can help identify the most convenient option.
Lastly, consider learning more and keeping up with the latest news on the Cobalt Institute’s website. This group is a non-governmental trade association that provides information and assists in identifying and solving problems in the cobalt industry. With 62 years of experience and all of the major producers in membership, this group has great influence in these matters.
While today, the production of smartphones harms children in poverty, improving conditions are just around the corner. With responsible choices, better supply chain management and technical innovations, this problem could soon be one of the past.
– Molly Power
Photo: Wikipedia Commons