Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Côte d’Ivoire

Top Ten Facts About Living Conditions in Côte d'Ivoire
The Côte d’Ivoire is just one of those numerous developing countries that, though undoubtedly facing problems, is unfairly regarded by most people. Indeed, peeling back the poverty statistics and tear-jerking photographs, one finds a portrait of a people rich in shared determination towards building a better future. In the text below, top 10 facts about living conditions in Côte d’Ivoire and the everyday struggles of the people of the country, are presented.

Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Côte d’Ivoire

  1. Hunger has become a real problem in Côte d’Ivoire after post-election violence disrupted cyclical planting and regular harvesting times for farmers. With so much of the population suffering from food insecurity, it is just as unsurprising as it is regrettable that the country received a Global Hunger Index Score with the score of just 25.7 out of 100.
  2. In addition to the various initiatives of Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, organizations like the World Food Programme and Action Against Hunger have provided food for a combined one million Ivorians. The positive forward momentum is strong but gradual.
  3. Poverty in Côte d’Ivoire has led to the prevalence of substandard housing that further led to an increase in diseases as poorly constructed lodgings have granted malarial mosquitoes and similar infectious-insects easy opportunities to spread illness. Most families live in traditional homes made of mud walls and thatch roofs. However, local Habitat for Humanity office has succeeded in helping to break that deadly cycle. Since setting out on their mission 20 years ago to provide safe and secure homes with decent sanitation to the poor, their team of almost 10,000 volunteers have built or repaired over 6,000 homes, as well as provide around 10,500 local people with additional sanitation.
  4. The education problem in Côte d’Ivoire is reflected by one powerful statistic: in 2007, nearly one in two children did not attend primary school. Public schooling is both painfully underfunded and frustratingly overcrowded, owing to previous civil conflicts that shattered the national economy, and with it, the chance at a solid educational infrastructure.
  5. Through the concerted efforts of the UNICEF and the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, over two-thirds of children now attend primary school. Their accomplishments range from improving up to 200 schools with better furniture and more extracurricular activities, to a four-year national development plan to make the push for education a priority.
  6. The Tai Rainforest is one of the last primary rainforest left in West Africa and it is home to hundreds of species of plants and animals, including the endangered pygmy hippo, chimpanzee and leopard. But similar to such defining features of Côte d’Ivoire, its teeming, verdurous rainforests have also become one of its most vulnerable, regularly encroached upon and deforested by ambitious cocoa farmers. As country relies primarily on cocoa for its economy and is the world’s largest cocoa exporter, serious concerns surround the remaining, protected 4 percent of the rainforests as illegal farmers continue to make moves.
  7. The government has worked with large chocolate companies to help stop the farming of protected land, but faces economical and ethical dilemmas as 40 percent of cocoa farms are estimated to be on such protected territory, and ending them would land a big punch to the country’s economy. Additionally, most farmers are poor and use the farm to support themselves and their families. One bill proposes legalizing cocoa plantations in reserves, which would create a place where new trees are planted while farmers continue to grow cocoa, dubbed as “protected agroforests” and is hoping to be footed soon.
  8. In 2011, when the Second Ivorian Civil War broke out, forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Côte d’Ivoire, battled against supporters of the internationally recognized president-elect, Alassane Ouattara. While Ouattara’s forces were victorious in the end, horrific human rights violations were reported on both sides. As a result, tensions between supporters of the two camps have increased ever since. Going into the new elections in 2020, Ivorians are hoping that the tension doesn’t lead the country into a new crisis. Nevertheless, Ouattara maintains that the 2020 elections will “take place in excellent conditions”.
  9. The standard of Côte d’Ivoire health care and health facilities is poor, especially in areas outside of the major cities and this problem is in no small part exacerbated by the previous abolishment of free public health care by the government in response to the political upheaval. At the start of 2015, Ivorians got their health care back, but endemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria still run rampant. As the HIV/AIDS problem is largely attributed to the lack of sexual education, UNICEF stresses the importance of information and awareness related activities when educating youngsters. So far, hundreds of thousands of kids have been educated and sensitized.
  10. One of the Côte d’Ivoire’s most endearing traditions is the Festival of Masks, held each December in the city of Man. In this well-known “fête”, competitions are held between villages to find the best dancer and homages are paid to the forest spirits that are represented on their decorated masks. In a politically divided country, Festival of Masks has helped to unify a people who are occasionally at odds with each other. Indeed, after suffering from two civil wars within the last 20 years, Côte d’Ivoire has been an at-times hotbed of political turmoil.

In conclusion, Côte d’Ivoire has its problems, but just as the country is experiencing them, innovative ways and solutions exist side-by-side. Hunger, poverty, disease, political strife and other discouraging statistics that the Ivorians are facing have not stopped the country’s improvements in many fields and various organizations are there making sure that the grim realities do not stop the citizens from sparking breathtaking change.

– William Cozens
Photo: Flickr

Are Bio-Bricks the Future of Sustainable Building?

Bio-Bricks Today, over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and that number is expected to increase to 68 percent by 2050.  This rapid influx can often put a strain on cities as the need to provide services, infrastructure and housing grows. With so many people expected to move to cities, the need for sustainable housing increases as well. Thankfully, the development of new technologies, such as the recently developed bio-bricks, might be the future of sustainable building.

Low-Income Urban Growth on the Rise

Ninety-six percent of the world’s urban growth through 2030 is projected to occur in the developing world, and the rate of this occurrence is expected to be highest among low-income populations. Sustainable housing is difficult to access for such populations, and new solutions to sustainable development must be implemented if the populations increase as projected. Current housing shortages exist in Asia, Africa and Latin America, are most noticeable in cities and urban areas and are projected to increase.  Such a housing lack would mean millions of new homes needed to accommodate for growing populations.

What are Bio-Bricks?

Created by students at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, bio-bricks are bricks made by combining sand and human urine through a chemical reaction. The combination creates a new, strong and sustainable building material; the process has been tested before using synthetic urine, but these bricks are the first to use the real fluid.

How are Bio-Bricks Made?

Bio-bricks are created by colonizing loose sand with bacteria to produce an enzyme called urease.  When combined with urine, the urease starts a chemical reaction that produces calcium carbonate, cementing the sand into place — much like the process that creates coral reefs.  The bricks are versatile and can be made into any shape. The strength of the material also depends on how long the bacteria is allowed to react, which provides the opportunity to create stronger bricks than current, traditional building materials. The bricks are made in molds at room temperature that produce zero greenhouse emissions, unlike kiln-fired bricks which bake at a high temperature and produce large amounts of carbon dioxide. In addition, the urine used in the process is collected through a waterless urinal, where nitrogen and phosphorous are separated and turned into fertilizer. The remaining liquid is then separated and combined with the sand to create the bio-bricks.  It takes about one week for the process to occur and the bricks to be made, and there are no health risks posed by using human waste.

Scaling Up

Before these bio-bricks can be used commercially, infrastructure needs to be put in place to collect urine. Each brick needs between 25-30 liters of the liquid to grow, but the eventual cost of large-scale collection is unclear as no infrastructure currently exists. BioMASON, the company that tested this process with synthetic urine, had the capabilities of making 5,000 bricks every two days, but needs the appropriate infrastructure to make such potential a reality.

Promising Potential

Once the logistics are worked out, bio-bricks will still face a social hurdle. Large-scale collection and use of urine are not yet socially acceptable, and the bricks do produce a strong ammonia smell when first made (although it dissipates after about 48 hours). It may be too early to tell if bio-bricks are the future of sustainable building, but the innovative creation shows great promise. With a slight change in production and better waste capture systems, the future of sustainable building looks promising. – Peter Zimmerman Photo: Flickr

Most Interesting Facts About Living Conditions in Barbados

Top Ten Facts About Living Conditions in Barbados
Barbados, known famously as a tropical destination, is one of the most prosperous of the Caribbean Islands despite the increase of its total poverty rate which now sits at 17.21 percent compared to 15 percent in 2010.

The country used to rely economically on sugar exports, but now heavily relies on tourism and finance. Many resorts have had success in Barbados as the white sand beaches, tropical vegetation, warm weather and bright blue water welcome a reputation as a relaxing vacation getaway. However, away from the resorts and tourism, living conditions do not portray the same picture. Below are the top 10 facts about living conditions in Barbados.

Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Barbados

  1. The most expensive properties are located on the west coast of Barbados, which heavily caters to extremely wealthy tourists. A three-bedroom house rents for around $1,500-$5,000 a month, while the south coast of Barbados rent runs for about $1,350 a month. Fifty-four percent of households own the property without a mortgage, and as a result, the Barbados housing market remains weak. Residential property prices in Barbados, especially in the high-end market, are still about 29 percent below the peak levels seen before the global crisis.
  2. The reported overall poverty rate in 2016 was 17.21 percent. The St. John Parish — which caters mainly towards local inhabitants — was reported as the poorest parish on the island as it had a 15.56 percent increase in poverty since 2010. In Barbados, 3.39 percent of the population do not receive their minimum caloric requirement; in terms of early childhood development, 4 percent of children living in extreme poverty and aged 0-5 were reported as stunted in growth. These numbers were calculated in comparison to the international average of anthropometric of height and weight for children in this age group.
  3. Sixty percent of households have outer walls with masonry and 51 percent have roofs built from corrugated metal sheets that provide sturdy protection against weather. Eighty-eight percent of households have WC connected to a well system and 96 percent have water pipelines. Most homes are equipped with modern amenities.
  4. The 2017 statistics on crime rates in Barbados reported that the country had 11 murders, 84 robberies and 29 shootings per every 100,000 people. Drug-related crimes are the most prevalent type of crime  in Barbados, with residential burglaries coming in at a close second. The population of Barbados was reported at 285,719 in 2017, which puts into perspective how large the issue of drug-related crime and residential burglary is within the nation.
  5. In 2012, the Barbados government enacted a poverty intervention plan called the Implementation Stabilization Enablement and Empowerment (ISEE) Bridge Program. The program was created in order to address intergenerational extreme poverty and aid welfare at the household level. Each member of the household in need receives aid which will eventually reduce their dependency on the government. The goal of this program is to prevent extreme poverty from continuing in the next generation and release families from the cycle of poverty.
  6. The Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS) is the official communications arm of the Barbados government. This department is responsible for the dissemination of public information to the various news media and the general public.
  7. In 2015, the Inter-American Development Bank provided $10 million to the government of Barbados to carry out the ‘Strengthening Human and Social Development in Barbados’ project. The project will last for 5 years and sets out to aid unemployment, youth from the ages of 16-30 and retrenched workers. This project will strengthen the active labor market policy, enhance information sharing capacity through a new management information system, and expand the number of households aided by the ISEE Bridge Project.
  8. It is not often that the words ‘poverty’ and ‘Barbados’ are used in the same sentence. The island enjoys a high ranking on the UNDP Human Development Index, and according to a Barbados Country Assessment of Living Conditions Report, it ranks in the top 50 countries in the world.
  9. Teen motherhood in Barbados — measured for women who had children at or below the age of 19 — sat at 25 percent for women 30 years old or older. However, data shows that as education levels increased for women in Barbados, teen motherhood decreased. The amount of teen motherhood for women in their twenties (a decade or so later) was at about 14 percent.
  10. In terms of education in Barbados, 97.02 percent of the population attended a formal educational institution, 66 percent had completed secondary education and 32.3 percent obtained higher qualifications. Of the 32.3 percent that continued past secondary education, 13.5 percent pursued vocational/technical training and 18.8 percent pursued tertiary education. In regards to public healthcare, Barbados has 8 accessible polyclinics which provide immunization services and curative acute care for children. A few of the polyclinics also provide dental and eye care; as a whole, these polyclinics provided 87.5 percent of all immunizations in Barbados.

A Nation in Progress

As this list of top 10 facts about living conditions in Barbados reveals, Barbados still has issues to address regarding poverty and living conditions. However, according to Barbados Country Assessment of Living Conditions, Barbados ranked in the top 50 countries in the world, and the Barbados government is active and dedicated in launching social welfare programs and progressing their country.

– Mary Spindler
Photo: Pixabay

Declining Child Mortality in India

Child Mortality in India
Child mortality rate, according to Our World in Data, is defined as the probability that the newborn baby will die before reaching the age of five. It is calculated as the percentage of babies that do die before this age, per 1,000 births. Similarly, the infant mortality rate is the number of children deaths occured before the child reaches his or her first birthday, per 1,000 births. Over the course of world modernization, the child mortality rate has declined greatly, in some areas more than others.

Child Mortality Statistics

In 1990, one in 11 children died before their fifth birthday worldwide, whereas in 2017 that number has more than halved and only one in 26 children died before the age of five. This positive trend can be attributed to improvements in the health field, education and technology, as well as many other factors. The drop in child mortality rate is not exclusive to developed countries, because the developing country of India has also seen tremendous declines in mortality rate over the past several decades.

Child Mortality in India

In India in the 1960s, anywhere between 20 percent and 25 percent of children died before their fifth birthday. This trend continued through the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st. As of 2015, only 4.8 percent of children are projected to die before they turn the age five. Despite the declining child mortality in India, the country still contributes significantly to the world’s children mortality rate, as it still has negative statistics of 42 deaths per 1,000 live births. The main causes of death for children under the age of five are highly preventable, given the right tools. The most prevalent cause is pneumonia, followed by newborn infections, birth complications and malaria. If more women in India were receiving effective prenatal health care, the numbers would likely drop even more.

The Decline of Child Mortality in India

The declining child mortality in India can be attributed to a number of factors. India saw a great increase in the funding of health care initiatives in the first two decades of the 21st century. The percent of GDP used towards public health was 1 percent in 2004 and jumped to 1.4 percent in 2014, which is a 40 percent boost over the decade. With increased funding towards health care, the country is able to set up set up health infrastructures in areas that did not have any and train community health workers. These trained health workers could serve as the frontline in the mission to improve health in India, and women and newborns would benefit greatly from the extra care.

The elimination of communicable diseases such as polio and tetanus also play a huge role in the declining child mortality in India. There are also plans being put in place for the elimination of more diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis in years to come. While the public health system is not yet in a place to focus on curing diseases, they are aiming for much funding at prevention.

While the declining child mortality in India has been a success for the country thus far, there is, of course, still a long way to go. One of the main areas that could be significantly improved is the time and health care to the women before the child is even born as not enough pregnant women are engaging in prenatal checkups, and many don’t have traditional deliveries in medical institutions. If both these practices were increased, child mortality would drop even more and children would have a better chance at living a healthy life from the beginning. Additionally, the continued improvement of water sanitation and hygiene would improve the lives of all people in India, and certainly contribute to healthier children.

Although the child mortality rate continues to drop in India year after year, the country still needs to understand that this battle is not won. While all citizens must participate in order for the country to continue the positive trend, the government must focus on improving the health care system and devote the attention to the mothers and young children.

– Charlotte Kriftcher

Photo: Pixabay

10 Facts About Life Expectancy in the Maldives

10 Facts About Life Expectancy in Maldives
The Republic of Maldives is a prime example of a nation that has seen tremendous development and a transformation in the quality of life over the last half-century. Formerly among the least developed countries in the world, the Maldives has achieved upper-middle-class status with one of the highest life expectancies at birth worldwide. These 10 facts about life expectancy in the Maldives demonstrate the achievements of the cooperation and efforts of many sources:

10 Facts About Life Expectancy in the Maldives

  1. The Maldives is one of only five countries to graduate from the U.N.’s least developed countries (LDC) designation, achieving upper-middle-class status in 2011 in part because of its eradication of extreme poverty and vastly improved rates of life expectancy.
  2. The Maldives has seen the greatest increase in life expectancy at birth of any country over the last 59 years. According to the World Bank, Maldivians’ life expectancy has risen from 37 years in 1960 to 77 years in 2016. That’s one year lower than the United States, at 78, and above the worldwide average of 72 years. The 40-year improvement is well above the 19 year increase worldwide over the same period.
  3. The Maldives met five out of eight of the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as of 2011 and is on track to meet its Sustained Development Goals (SDG) by 2030. The SDGs are an extension of the health, financial and infrastructure MDGs set by the U.N. to equalize global development by 2000. Millennium goals to conquer poverty, hunger, child mortality, HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases, as well as to achieve universal primary education and improve women’s health are considered fully achieved. Sustained health goals are a focus for the Maldivian government, including implementing successful initiatives to improve health, end hunger, improve nutrition, food security and apply sustainable agricultural practices.
  4. Foreign aid efforts by the World Bank, AusAID and the EU and the governments of several individual nations have played a vital role. Aid began in the 1980s with infrastructure improvements to Maldives’ fisheries and central airport, providing income for 20 percent of the population involved in fishing and improving the transport of aid and foreign resources by air. Education and training projects totaled $39.2 million by 2000 and aid increased after the 2004 tsunami to include $14 million in emergency funds.
  5. The United States has provided long-term aid to the Maldives since 2005. Projects sponsored by USAID helped restore water supply systems, upgrade sewage systems and power facilities and improve financial operations. Other United States aid efforts from the CDC are currently helping the Maldivian Ministry of Health monitor and treat communicable diseases like influenza across the country.
  6. Investments in health initiatives and the availability of care have dramatically improved life expectancy in the Maldives. The Maldivian government spent 7.5 percent of its gross national product on healthcare in 2004 and 13.7 percent in 2014, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The nation has had a universal healthcare system since 2011,  and with help from WHO, eradicated Lymphatic Filariasis in 2016 and Measles in 2017. Mass drug administration, preventive chemotherapy and a political commitment to vaccinate children helped achieve eradication, with 99 percent of children under 12 having received a Measles vaccine as of 2017.
  7. Significant improvements in the health of women and children have been reported since 1990. In 2017, the fertility rate was at an all-time low, with only 2.1 births per woman rather than six in 1990. This drop contributed greatly to improvements in maternal health and quality of life for Maldivian children. Mortality rates for children under 5 years old dropped to eight in 1,000 births, helped by the increase in births attended by a healthcare professional from 70 percent in 2000 to 96 percent in 2017. Early childhood malnutrition, however, remains a serious threat to future life expectancy in the Maldives.
  8. Improved water quality and sanitation have decreased infectious disease outbreaks. At least 99 percent of Maldivians had access to improved water sources in 2015, with 98 percent reporting improved sanitation. However, inadequate waste disposal has continued to lead to water stagnation, worsening outbreaks of Dengue in certain areas.
  9. Maldives status as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) put it at risk of devastation from environmental change. The lowest-lying nation in the world, Maldives highest point is six feet above sea level, with several islands having already been evacuated due to flooding caused by rising oceans. Increasing numbers of young Maldivians migrating to urban centers face overcrowding, increased drug use and strained resources, as well as economic difficulties resulting from an unemployment rate of 23.5 percent in 2016. Health consequences arising from urban lifestyles, namely malnutrition and obesity and increased rates of heart disease, cancer and other non-communicable diseases, threaten future life expectancy in the Maldives.
  10. Current and proposed initiatives hold promise for overcoming environmental and health challenges. Five current World Bank projects are targeting preservation of the nation’s marine ecosystems, while five programs in the pipeline aim to diversify a Maldivian economy threatened by dependence on fishing. At the same time, health providers are focusing on mental health and contraceptive services, while policymakers tackle gender-based violence and public hygiene.

Progress in health and sanitation, as well as investment and aid from international NGOs, have enabled Maldivians to live 40 years longer than they would have two generations ago. As a Small Island Developing State, however, Maldives faces threats from climate change. These 10 facts about life expectancy in the Maldives show incredible progress, yet it is unclear whether the nation has now achieved the self-sufficiency to meet these challenges without further international assistance.

– Marissa Field
Photo: Pixabay

Red Notice Abuse

Red Notice
Interpol was founded as a means to coordinate law enforcement agencies, allowing for the international pursuit of criminals, thwarting the wild-west cliché of outlaws crossing the border and escaping justice. The notice system is the primary tool of that coordination. While each category of notice has its own color code and significance, Red Notices are by far the most famous. Akin to an old-school wanted posters, Red Notices serve as a request from one member country to another asking for the location, arrest and, ultimately, extradition of a wanted individual.

Bill Browder Case

This system provides a valuable service to the whole world. However, it has come under the criticism for the way in which repressive governments have been able to use it to target political refugees. Labeling peaceful protestors, journalists and dissidents as criminals and tricking law enforcement into extraditing them to suffer sham trials and grim fates. Nations like Russia, Turkey and China have been able to do this virtually free of consequence.

The name Bill Browder has become synonymous with Red Notice abuse. Mr. Browder is a prominent critic of Russia, having been instrumental in the creation of the global Magnitsky Act, named after Browder’s lawyer who was murdered after exposing corruption in the Russian government. As recently as May 2018, while giving a talk in Madrid, Browder was arrested by Spanish authorities. Two hours later, after the intervention of Interpol’s General Secretary, Browder was a free man. By his count, “this is the 6th time that Russia has abused Interpol in his case.”

Other Specific Red Notice Cases

While Mr. Browder’s case has received international attention, many others never caught public attention. Baran Kimyongür, a Turkish activist, interrupted an exchange between the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee and the Turkish foreign minister in 2000. Later, the Turkish government gave a Red Notice for him, holding this act as proof of his connection to a terrorist organization. Kimyongür has been arrested three times by the authorities in Netherlands, Spain and Italy. Each government refused to extradite him due to the lack of any proof as well as the human right to self-expression.

Another hidden tragedy is that of Dolkun Isa, a renowned activist and member of the World Uyghur Congress. After fleeing China, now living as a German citizen, Mr. Isa has been subject to a Chinese Red Notice abuse since 2003. The resulting travel restrictions have hobbled his advocacy work to promote Uyghur self-determination. This and many other cases have been collected in a report published by the Council of Europe, an official U.N. observer.

Massive Increase in Red Notices

Each Notice is supposed to be reviewed before publication. Yet, stories like these illustrate the shortcomings of that process. The number of Notices has almost tripled over the past decade, growing from 5,020 to 13,048 by the time of the 2017 Annual report. With such a dramatic shift in volume, the potential for missteps and need for reform come into greater focus.

Each Interpol officer serves as a representative of his home government. Now, after the surprise resignation of Meng Hongwei, the recent election of Kim Jong Yang gives this organization a sorely needed opportunity to improve on the reforms made in 2016 and the organizations’ desire to create safer and more transparent processes.

– John Glade

Photo: Flickr

10 Facts About Girls’ Education in Guyana

10 Facts About Girls’ Education in Guyana
Guyana, a nation located on the Northeastern shoulder of South America, has continually made efforts to improve its education system but the country’s social, political and economic problems have had a devastating effect on it. The lack of funding for education had lead to poor conditions in schools, but Guyana’s government has implemented the Education Sector Plan 2014-2018 in order to improve its education system at all levels. In the text below, 10 facts about girls’ education in Guyana are presented.

10 Facts About Girls’ Education in Guyana

  1. The gender disparity in education between Guyanese boys and girls continues to grow as they transition into higher grade levels. Girls are outperforming boys in numerous subjects and are more likely to stay in school while boys tend to discontinue. Primary school enrollment for girls was 83 percent, compared to the same figure for boys that was at 95 percent. Secondary school enrollment for girls is 100 percent while it is 96 percent for boys. Primary completion rates for girls is 97 percent and for boys- 98 percent. At the tertiary level, enrollment for girls is twice as high compared to boys.
  2. In 2013, girls in the coastal areas of Guyana scored 15 to 23 percentage points higher in Math and English than those in the hinterland areas of Guyana. These results are partly due to the higher percentage of poverty and lack of school resources in hinterland areas.
  3. The teaching profession is seen as the feminization of schooling because women dominate this field. In 2012, 70 percent of secondary education teachers were female and only 27 percent were male. This result is due to tight gender roles in Guyana as girls are seen as more nurturing, open-minded and cooperative. Boys tend to choose non-traditional subjects such as Science and Technology.
  4. The Ministry’s Labour Department is responsible for creating the National Training Project for Youth Empowerment, which is a 12-week technical and vocational education and training program that targets out-of-school-youth in Guyana. Compared to boys, there was a higher rate of girls that signed up for service occupations such as health services, home economics (623 girls, 8 boys) and IT/Clerical (183 girls, 30 boys).
  5. First Lady Sarah Granger and Minister of Telecommunications Cathy Hughes have implemented Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Guyana that encourages girls to pursue non-traditional careers. They believe that Information Communications Technology (ICT) will provide girls and women with essential skills that will “promote literacy, improve access to health care, and enable the exercise of legal rights and participation in government.” Girls in STEM are the future that will allow Guyana to succeed. Women are a part of present too, as 30 percent of Guyana’s Parliament are female. This percentage of women in Parliament is active since 2005.
  6. Guyana has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS and it is one of two countries that are a part of the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief. The knowledge about HIV prevention among young girls aged between 15 and 25 is about 50 percent. For young boys, the knowledge about HIV prevention is 40 percent. Knowledge about safe sex and HIV/AIDS prevention increases with education level for both boys and girls. It is important to educate girls about prevention because girls are more likely to get HIV/AIDS to due biological, socio-cultural and economic reasons. Encouraging girls to stay in school is a way to ensure a better quality of life and an important factor in preventing HIV/AIDS.
  7. Teenage pregnancy between the ages of 15 and 19 affects 97 out of 1,000 girls in Guyana. The teenage pregnancy rate is the second highest in the Caribbean and South America. Young girls between the ages of 15 and 19 with higher literacy rates have lower adolescent birth rates. Girls who remain in school are less likely to become pregnant.
  8. The Education Sector Plan (ESP) of 2014-208 was created to provide a quality education for all of Guyana’s citizens. Its main objectives were eliminating illiteracy, strengthening tolerance and modernizing education. The ESP has made huge progress in regards to improving access to education at all levels, increasing the proportion of trained teachers and providing more access to interactive technology, computers and upgrading physical facilities in particular.
  9. After ESP 2014-2018, students improved 14 percentage points in English but did not improve in Mathematics. ESP is still trying to tackle this lack of progress. ESP was also able to professionally train 70 percent of teachers. It also provided and implemented numerous support programs, including School Health, Nutrition and HIV/AIDS, Health and Family Life Education as well as School Welfare Program.
  10. Too often, girls are not able to reveal their full potential in improving Guyana’s economy due to discriminatory social norms, incentives and legal institutions. Girls often tend to be overworked, underpaid and sexual harassed in the workplace. A major issue that hinders girls’ education and work is gender-based violence. The World Bank Report of 2017 revealed that only 53 percent of females aged 15-64 participated in Guyana’s labor force compared to 80 percent of males of the same age. This result is the reason why The National Task Force on Prevention of Sexual Violence was established.

Although most of these 10 facts about girls’ education in Guyana shed light on the need for improvement in education, progress is still being achieved. Plans and actions are being supported by the Guyanese government and numerous organizations that are willing to help. Education for both girls and boys is key to improving Guyana as a whole.

– Jocelyn Aguilar
Photo: Flickr

Healthcare Improvements in Indonesia

Healthcare Improvements Indonesia
Healthcare improvements in Indonesia have been increasingly prevalent and apparent due to the government’s focus on improving the sector. Indonesia has set a goal of establishing universal healthcare by 2019, a move commended by the United Nations as part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Addressing Non-Communicable Diseases

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which are mostly related to unhealthy lifestyle choices are a problem in Indonesia, accounted for 71 percent of all deaths in the country om 2014.

In addition to such sobering statistics, the poor continue to suffer disproportionately from Indonesia’s major health problems and are thus less likely to be immunized. In fact, children from the most impoverished families are nearly four times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than children from the richest families.

Local governments have become the focal point for healthcare provision. To demonstrate such prioritization, this group’s share in total public health spending increased from 10 percent (prior to decentralization) to 50 percent in 2001. This shift could make public spending more responsive, relative to local conditions and variations in disease patterns.

Healthcare Improvements in Indonesia

Telemedicine and software development for healthcare has begun in Indonesia on a small-scale. Close collaboration between the government and private sector is needed to bring this technology to its full potential. However, one of the major challenges in accomplishing bringing telemedicine to Indonesia is the lack of solid regulations. Telemedicine weds medical devices with IT — a combination often not present in government regulations.

Infant mortality has dropped from 118 deaths per thousand births in 1970 to 35 in 2003, and life expectancy increased from 48 years to 66 years over the same period. Such positive developments can be attributed to the expansion of a public health provision in the 1970s and 1980s and increased development in programs for family planning.

Long-Terms Strategies to Create Healthcare Improvements in Indonesia

The government’s Ministry of Health strategy is built on four pillars:

  • Community empowerment
  • Health financing
  • Access to health services
  • Surveillance

Some of the key issues in the decentralized setting for the health sector in Indonesia include: an increase in allocation for health and the improvement of allocative efficiency, the prioritizations within reproductive health and the attempt to ensure the availability of reliable information to support decision-making processes.

Project Development Objective in Indonesia

The World Bank has a specific Project Development Objective in Indonesia known as the Health Professional Education Quality (HPEQ). The aim of the objective is to improve higher education in the health sector through a number of developments. These improvements include:

  • Strengthening policies and procedures for school accreditation
  • Developing a national competency-based examination at the school level for graduates
  • Improving school quality to meet accreditation standards
  • Leading schools to accelerate progress among less strong schools

Healthcare improvements in Indonesia occur because of increased support from the Indonesian government, as well as the help from local and national organizations. With such internal and external support and increased levels of impact, Indonesia continues to make steady improvement in its healthcare system and positively change the lives of its constituents. Other nations would do well to follow in Indonesia’s healthcare-focused footsteps.

– Casey Geier
Photo: Flickr

Top 10 Facts About Human Rights in Honduras

Top 10 Facts About Human Rights in Honduras
Since the 2009 military coup that ousted President Manuel Zeyala from the Honduran government, gang-related crimes, scarce living conditions and attacks against indigenous peoples, journalists and human rights defenders have remained rampant throughout the country. According to the 2012 “Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights,” there is a direct, causal link between the enjoyment of human rights — such right to work, to an adequate standard of living, adequate housing and to education — and the eradication of poverty. With these principles in mind, here are the top 10 facts about human rights in Honduras.

Top 10 Facts About Human Rights in Honduras

  1. Honduras is a country that has one of the highest murder rates in the world. Attacks against women, journalists, indigenous peoples, activists and human rights defenders are incredibly prevalent; additionally, there is a serious lack of accountability for police and public safety officials. Throughout the country, police fail to investigate 80 percent of homicide cases and of those that were looked into, 96 percent did not result in the prosecution or conviction of a perpetrator.
  2. Honduras has the highest femicide rate in the world and a woman is murdered every sixteen hours, according to the Honduras Center for Human Rights. Although there are laws in place to protect women from rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, discrimination and other forms of violence, abuse is under-reported and rarely investigated.
  3. When authorities do convict perpetrators, they often suffer from scarce living conditions within prison and detention centers. Designed for a total capacity of 10,600 people, the twenty-seven prison and detention center system held 18,950 prisoners as of 2017 — a 10 percent increase in the prisoner population since 2016. As a result, inmates face several scarce conditions such as insufficient access to food and water due to overcrowding. Equally, violence imparts of inmates and prison officials adds to the scarcity of prison life.
  4. Although there is no conclusive data on how much of Honduras’ violence is gang-related, the Association for a More Just Society estimated that there are between 12,000 and 40,000 active gang members in Honduras, where gang-related crime is concomitant with murder, robbery and drug trafficking.
  5. In addition to high crime and murder rates, Honduras also has one of the leading poverty rates in the world with more than 66 percent living in extreme poverty. In fact, one out of five Hondurans lives on less than $2 per day in many rural areas.
  6. To help amend and eradicate such abuses as those listed above, the U.S. and other countries increased the amount of aid directed to Honduras. For example, 4 percent of $25.83 million of U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) went to “Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance,” in Honduras in 2011; while in 2018, 50 percent of the $90.24 million budget went to the same category – an increase of nearly $42 million in aid from the U.S. in a span of just seven years.
  7. Among many socio-economic plans set to improve human rights conditions in the country is the “Honduras 2020” plan. The Investment Entrepreneurship Facilitation and Transformation Unit implemented this comprehensive plan that aims to reconstruct the economy by focusing specifically on tourism, textile and apparel, light manufacturing, outsourcing services, housing and agribusiness. In fact, it aims to create 600,000 more jobs by 2020.
  8. In addition to the Honduras 2020 plan, programs such as the “Project for Education Quality, Good Governance and Institutional Strengthening,” the “Nutritional and Social Protection Project” and the “Project to Modernize the Water and Sanitation Sector” are all working to secure equal and safe access to education, safe water and food security among other necessities.
  9. In 2005, the U.S. committed $20 million to the “Nutritional and Social Protection Project in Honduras,” a plan that succeeded in reducing malnutrition of children under 2 years of age in the program from 32 to 26 percent. In 2007, it gave an additional $30 million to aid the “Project to Modernize the Water and Sanitation Sector,” which helped 650,000 people gain access to clean water by providing Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) services and training almost 17,000 people in hygiene and sanitation practices.
  10. Implemented in 2008, the “Project for Education Quality, Good Governance and Institutional Strengthening” saw an increase in preschool enrollment as well as an increase in 6th grade completion by 2013.

From Poverty to Recovery

While relief efforts are in the works, these top 10 facts about human rights in Honduras show that many Hondurans are still facing extreme poverty, high crime and murder rates, harsh living conditions and other issues that are tantamount to human rights abuses.

Honduran leaders have begun to recognize poverty as a leading factor in the recovery of their nation and continue to prioritize it on both economic and social scales. In the wake of all this progress and a year out from their 2020 goal, Honduras is making steady progress towards creating safe and stable living conditions to precede economic and social progress.

– Morgan Everman
Photo: Flickr

Causes of Human Trafficking in India

causes of human trafficking in India
Human trafficking, defined as the illegal trade of humans most commonly for the purposes of sexual slavery and forced labor, currently claims an estimated 24.9 million victims worldwide, and the Global Slavery Index estimates that 8 million trafficking victims live within India’s borders. In 2016, there were 8,132 human trafficking cases reported in India, a 20 percent increase from 2015, and there were 23,117 people rescued from the human trafficking system.

Of the people rescued, 60 percent were children, women and girls accounted for 55 percent, 33 percent were trafficked for sexual services, and 45 percent were trafficked for forced labor. While much of the global pervasiveness of human trafficking can be explained only by extreme poverty, political instability and war, the causes of human trafficking in India are more nuanced.

Causes of Human Trafficking in India

The causes of human trafficking in India can be explained in part by gender-based discrimination, responsible for the deaths of approximately 239,000 girls under the age of five in India each year. Gender-based discrimination is a cultural norm in India, as sons are considered more useful to the family than daughters. This heavily patriarchal society leaves girls with limited access to education, leading to gender gaps in both literacy rates and financial earning potentials.

According to the 2011 census, the literacy rate was 82 percent for men and 65 percent for women, and according to the 2013 census, men were paid 25 percent more than women. As a result of gender-based discrimination, the sex ratio in India is greatly skewed.

Because there are far more men in India than young women, bride trafficking, or the illegal sale of women for the purpose of marriage, is becoming more prevalent in India. In the more rural Northern states, where the sex ratio is worse than the national average, bride trafficking has become a norm. More than 90 percent of married women in these Northern states have been sold from other states, some as many as three times, often first becoming brides as preteens. Gender-based discrimination in India has perpetuated a societal structure that strongly favors males over females to the point of self-destruction, as men are unable to find wives, thus driving demand for the human trafficking of women in India for the purpose of marriage.

Sex Trafficking

Another cause of human trafficking in India is a lack of opportunity in India’s poor communities, especially for uneducated women, to provide for their families. In 2012, only 43 percent of women in India worked regular wage or salaried positions. Victims of sex trafficking in India are predominantly young, illiterate girls from impoverished families in rural states. Although poverty is decreasing in India, 28 percent of the population still lives below the poverty line.

Poor communities are especially vulnerable to human traffickers, as they often offer better job opportunities or debt relief to lure victims. With limited opportunities to make money, offers like these are hard to decline for young women. Sex trafficking victims average 10 to 14 years of age, down from its previous average of 14 to 16, because younger girls are thought to be less likely to carry sexually-transmitted diseases.

Forced Labor

The causes of male trafficking in India is primarily tied with forced or bonded labor. Bonded labor, defined as a system of forced or partly forced labor under which a debtor accepts an advance of cash for a pledge of labor, by the debtor or any member of the debtor’s family, for the benefit of a creditor, is deeply entrenched in India’s social structure. While bonded labor was abolished in India in 1976, many industries who rely on bonded labor schemes for their workforces have turned to the human trafficking trade for workers in their spinning mills, granite quarries and brick kilns.

Like the bride and sex trafficking trade, forced labor traffickers recruit victims from poor, rural areas of India, promising lump-sum payments at the end of their contracts. Workers are meagerly compensated for their labor, and terrible working conditions provoke illnesses that lead to wage advances and loans that keep the worker in lifelong debt to their contractors.

Solutions

The Government of India has been making strides to address its human trafficking problem by heightening its border security, increasing its budget for aid to trafficking victims and drafting an anti-trafficking bill. In February 2018, the Union Cabinet passed the Trafficking in Persons Bill to be voted on by Parliament. If passed, the bill would criminalize aggravated forms of trafficking and establish a national anti-trafficking bureau, along with locally stationed anti-trafficking units. This bill also includes methods to rehabilitate victims, addresses physical and mental trauma and promoted education, health and skill development.

Additionally, the Rescue Foundation, established in 2000, helps to investigate, rescue and rehabilitate victims of human trafficking in India. Rehabilitation programs include education, computer training, legal aid and counseling. As a result of the Rescue Foundation, more than 5,000 victims have been rescued and more than 15,000 have been rehabilitated and repatriated.

The causes of human trafficking in India include gender discrimination, a vulnerability of the impoverished population and the desperation of the impoverished to support their families. Trafficking industries in India are taking advantage of the plight of India’s disadvantaged and impoverished population for the benefit of others, as trafficking victims are rarely paid as they’re promised.

However, human trafficking in India seems to be endangered as the government progresses in reducing human trafficking in the nation by increasing its border security, aid for trafficking victims and passing the Trafficking in Persons Bill to Parliament. Moreover, nongovernmental organizations like the Rescue Foundation have been successful in rescuing, rehabilitating, and repatriating victims of trafficking back to their families.

– Jillian Baxter
Photo: Flickr