Brexit and Poverty in Britain

Brexit and Poverty in Britain
In 2016, 51.9 percent of voters in The United Kingdom voted for Britain to leave The European Union. This controversial decision left many scholars and politicians scrambling to predict what social and economic consequences would follow for the country. Many significant studies have been conducted on the possible effects of Brexit and poverty in Britain, but it is impossible to definitively know what repercussions the transition will bring.

In March 2019, the transition out of the EU is set to begin. Many facets of British life, politics and economics will be impacted by this shift, yet the effect of Brexit on poverty in Britain remains complicated and vague. Some may claim that Brexit will not increase British poverty rates while others argue that it will. Some of the most influential determinants of national poverty are healthcare, food security, and household income and expenditure.

Health Care and Medical Services

The British National Healthcare System (NHS) has historically been dependent on non-U.K./ EU nationals to contribute to the medical workforce. In 2017, 60,000 workers in the NHS were non-U.K./EU nationals. Since Brexit, however, many medical professionals have left The U.K. due to uncertainty about legal status and protections post-Brexit. Leaving the EU also makes recruiting international employees more difficult as there will be less recognition of professional qualifications received in other countries.

Immediately after the Brexit vote, the number of non-U.K./EU nurses applying to join the British nursing register fell by about 96 percent. Patients are being forced to wait over longer periods of time for treatment simply because there are not enough medical professionals available. This is a dangerous and potentially fatal repercussion of Brexit.

Food security

In the case of a no-deal Brexit, food security would suffer as 30 percent of the national food supply comes from the EU The country does not have a clear food stockpiling location as it is accustomed to importing food and consuming it rather quickly afterward. The EU is such a large provider of food for Britain that no other country could easily replace this supply.

The U.K. itself will have trouble producing enough to make up for the deficit since it faces its own problems with food production as a result of things like changing weather conditions. Many are concerned that a no-deal Brexit could cause catastrophic food shortages in the country.

Household costs and incomes

Brexit will have a negative impact on the ability of the U.K. to import any kinds of foreign European goods and services. Because of this, the prices of goods and services will increase. Of course, this will affect all populations in Britain, but it will be felt most intensely by poorer households who will not be able to keep up with these price increases.

On the other hand, it is possible that if Brexit may lead non-U.K./EU workers to leave Britain, there may be an influx of job opportunities in the country. This could mean that some poor British citizens may be able to find more lucrative work.

As Brexit approaches, the United Kingdom is beginning to take precautions to ensure that the transition occurs smoothly. Though there is disagreement on what a proper Brexit would entail, all seem to agree that the priority should be the protection of the British citizenry. The political and partisan debates over what Brexit will mean for the country can only involve precaution and prediction as no one can be certain what March 2019 will bring or what the effect of Brexit on poverty in Britain will be. One can only hope that the well being of vulnerable citizens will be considered.

– Julia Bloechl
Photo: Flickr

Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Mogadishu

Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Mogadishu
Mogadishu is the capital of Somalia, located in the eastern coast of Africa. This country continues to be challenged with natural disasters along with a lack of political stability and security, which all adds up to the extreme poverty that already affects the country.

After the destruction caused by decades of conflict, a new federal government came to power in Mogadishu according to the guidelines established by the Provisional Constitution in 2012.

The emergence of the new ruling party under this new framework has enabled the country to get international assistance in resolving its ongoing economic and political issues. International relations were further augmented after a peaceful transition of power occurred in 2017 that made the National partnership for Somalia successful, assuring longer-term support from international organizations toward alleviating big issues.

The top 10 facts about poverty in Mogadishu presented in the article below portray the different aspects of the challenges facing the capital such as its historical context, ongoing efforts and the hurdles that the citizens need to overcome to achieve better future of the city.

Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Mogadishu

  1. In 2017, Somalia’s GDP decreased to 1.8 percent from 2.4 percent in 2016 despite the new deals of international support. The decrease was mainly caused by the severe drought that occurred in 2017. 
  2. Mogadishu is considered to be one of the fastest urbanizing cities in the world, which is mainly attributed to its improving security, economic potential and urban displacement. The Somalia Economic Update (SEU) showed that 70 percent of Somalia’s aforementioned GDP is urban-based.
  3. Somalia did make efforts to stop the recent famine that occurred in 2017 from being widespread, however, the drought still resulted in large-scale food insecurity that affected more than six million people. 
  4. Given that agriculture is one of the main sectors anchoring the economy of the nation, the fact that the agricultural sector had experienced a near collapse from a widespread shortage of water and pasture along with an increase in livestock mortality, had an insurmountable effect on the overall country’s economy.
  5. The emergence of a new federal government in Mogadishu resulted in the establishment of a fiscal policy that has significantly improved sectors like domestic revenue that grew by 26.5 percent, from $112.7 million in 2016 to $142.6 million in 2017. This increase was driven by trade taxes.
  6. There are around 5,000 young boys living on the streets of Somalia’s capital, a trend that seems to have been increasing over the years mainly due to their parents being too poor to provide for them.
  7. The government does claim its responsibility to look after and create ways to ensure the welfare of the children in the streets. However, there is a lack of funds and a lack of action from the international organizations that made previous promises, according to the government.
  8. One of the main effects of the country’s history of conflict and political insecurity affecting the country’s economy is the destruction of much of the statistical infrastructure and important data. This has created a huge challenge in strategic planning due to the lack of reliable economic and development data. 
  9. Following the identification of the data issue in 2012, between October and November 2014, 20 trained Somali enumerators collected data from 1,500 households, putting together a statistically representative sample that encapsulates both residential neighborhoods and camps that house internally displaced people in Mogadishu.
  10. In order to augment this door-to-door data collection, a high-frequency survey initiative has been launched that aims to bridge the gap of accessibility through the use of a dynamic questionnaire loaded on a smartphone that can collect data on expenditure, price and perception within 60 minutes of interviewing a household.

For many experts in Somalia, the capital’s economic prospects and potential to be a leader of the new economy is a given since it resides by the longest coastline on mainland Africa with a prospering private sector, a population dominated by a young labor force and untapped natural wealth. 

In addition, there is a huge trend in the Somalian diaspora community of returning to Somalia with the much-needed economic force for growth and development. Therefore, producing sustainable solutions for the issues of poverty in Mogadishu and the nation as a whole described above is a worthwhile investment with potentially big returns. 

– Bilen Kassie
Photo: Flickr

Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Indonesia

Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Indonesia
In a country that is spread to more than 13,000 islands in the southern part of Asia, Indonesia has a population of roughly 267 million people. This makes Indonesia the fourth most populated country in the world.

Of these 267 million, an estimated 10 percent found themselves living in poverty throughout the country in 2017. With the hopeful expansion for opportunities for economic growth, this article presents the top 10 facts about living conditions in Indonesia, the country that lies in the area of active volcanos.

Top 10 Facts about Living Conditions in Indonesia

  1. Indonesia sits on what Johnny Cash refers to as the “burning ring of fire” of the Pacific that is responsible for 90 percent of the Earth’s earthquakes. Due to its 127 active volcanos, Indonesia falls victim to many earthquakes and other natural disasters stemming from the natural phenomenon. Since 2004, there have been 13 reported earthquakes that have caused irreparable damage to Indonesia’s infrastructure and took the lives of thousands of people.
  2. A known side effect of Indonesia’s earthquakes are the tsunamis that inevitably follow. These tsunamis are making the country’s coastlines barely inhabitable. In September 2018, the latest tsunami struck Indonesia and claimed the lives of over 1,500 people, according to CBS. In addition, Indonesia experiences a period of harsh rainfall for a couple of months each year which leads to damaging floods and landslides in some parts of the country.
  3. Indonesia has an unusually high life expectancy rate of 71 years. This number was much lower in the past but thanks to government-funded health programs for the poor, 111.6 million people now have access to health care. The government isn’t stopping at this number either and they predict that in 2019, 95 percent of the population will be enrolled in the health program making it universally accessible.
  4. Indonesia is classified as a lower-middle-class country. However, like in most world countries today, there is large income disparity between the very poor and the very wealthy. While the top 20 percent of the population has a food budget of up to $100 dollars a day, people of lower income are living off on less than $1 a day.
  5. The country lacks access to food. Due to its coastal environment, transportation is scarcely limited which affects Indonesia’s ability to access goods such as food staples. Rice is one such staple that Indonesians depend on for meals but the price of it has risen up to 70 percent higher in comparison to other nearby countries making it inaccessible to low-income households.
  6. Malnutrition is a huge problem among Indonesia’s children due to the lack of a well-rounded diet caused by rising food prices. An estimated 37 percent of children aged 5 years or younger are stunted in growth. This causes them to develop serious health problems later in life as a result. In children 15 and older, obesity is becoming more common because of nutritional deficiencies.
  7. Over the last few years, many of Indonesia’s leaders have dedicated initiatives to combat the poverty problem in the country. In 2014, the number of funds dedicated to decreasing the income inequality in Indonesia was increased by 2 percent and focused on education and health programs. From 2015 to 2018, leaders increased the budget again from 9 to 12.8 percent and aimed it toward Indonesia’s infrastructure.
  8. One of Indonesia’s many projects targeting changes in the country’s infrastructure is aimed at connecting its many islands and bringing the country into the 21st century. The country hopes to provide internet to people in rural and urban areas alike by extending a cable underwater. This initiative could have a profound effect on the literacy and education rate in Indonesia and can be another step closer to poverty eradication in Indonesia.
  9. Indonesia sets 20 percent of its annual budget aside for education expenses, but money doesn’t always equal the education. An overwhelming amount of children in Indonesia lack some of the fundamental education skills like reading, math and science needed to be successful in life.
  10. Lack of clean water and inefficient sanitation is also a big problem in Indonesia. UNICEF reports that one in eight households do not have access to clean water that has been linked to the high number of deaths caused by diarrhea. Lack of proper sanitation facilities has led to 29 percent of people in rural areas defecating in public.

In recent years Indonesia has proven to be very successful in poverty reduction. This was done by improving the infrastructure and closing the gap in income inequality by connecting the country’s islands. The top 10 facts about living conditions in Indonesia presented above prove it.

The only thing that seems to be in the way of Indonesia’s success for unity and poverty reduction is the towering threat of natural disasters. While money is being allocated to assist the poor, progress is being swept away by its frequent natural disasters that add to the rate of poverty in the country.

– Catherine Wilson
Photo: Flickr

Top 10 Facts About Girls’ Education in Developing Countries

Top 10 Facts About Girls' Education in Developing Countries
Girls’ education in developing countries is proving to be an important factor in improving these nation’s quality of life. Educational equality is not only a lucrative asset to a country’s economy, but also reduces rates of child malnutrition and decreases the wage gap between men and women in many developing countries. The top 10 facts about girls’ education in developing countries that will be presented below will help to illustrate the global situation regarding the participation of girls and women in general in the classrooms of developing countries.

Top 10 Facts About Girls’ Education in Developing Countries

  1. Girls’ education affects a nation’s economy. According to the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), when girls receive an education, it increases their ability to gain access to higher paying jobs. This adds to a nation’s economy and increases a woman’s involvement in politics. Investing in girls’ education provides a boost to a developing country’s progress and acts as a catalyst for gender equality on multiple levels.
  2. Provided with an education, girls are more likely to earn a higher income later in life, increasing their family’s overall quality of life. Globally, if all girls received a primary education, 1.7 million children would be rescued from poverty-induced malnutrition. In addition, if all girls worldwide received a secondary education, 12.2 million children could avoid malnutrition and stunted growth.
  3. In 2013, UNESCO reported that nearly 25 percent of all girls in developing countries have not completed primary school, and that out of the 774 million people in the world who are illiterate, two-thirds are women.
  4. Education equality has been on the rise in many countries. Thanks to the Global Partnership for Education’s (GPE) and many other organizations efforts, the total number of girls enrolled in school worldwide increased by 38 million in the period from 2002 to 2015.
  5. Many factors play into the inequality seen in educational systems in numerous developing countries, such as India, where for every 100 boys not enrolled in primary school there are 426 girls. Often, poverty is the primary reason for this discrepancy. When families struggle to send multiple children to class, male children are often prioritized. Many girls in developing countries are oppressed by traditional gender roles that marginalize a female’s role in society.
  6. For every year of secondary school completed, there is an increase in woman’s income by 25 percent. This may seem logical, but many people do not think this way.
  7. Girl’s education can prevent pregnancy in childhood. For each year that a girl in a developing nation is in school, her first child is delayed by 10 months. Pregnancy in childhood can prevent a girl from receiving an education which decreases the chances of her child suffering from malnutrition and disease.
  8. If all women worldwide received a secondary education, this would prevent the deaths of 3 million children.
  9. Girls’ education in developing countries reduces the gender gap found in the workplaces of many progressing countries. UNESCO found that Pakistani women with a primary education made 51 percent of what their male counterparts made. This number was increased to 70 percent when a woman completed her secondary education.
  10. In Somalia, 95 percent of girls aged from 7 to 16 have never been to school. This is the highest instance of educational inequality found worldwide. This statistic affects girls later in life, where Somali women aged from 17 to 22 have received four months of schooling their entire life on average.

Going forward, improvements to girls’ education in developing countries will provide these countries with a more knowledgeable workforce, healthier families, less early-life pregnancies and lower wage gaps often found between men and women.

By providing women with the chance to better themselves academically, our global community has made us all the richer. With the number of girls’ enrolling in school increasing every year, gender equality in developing countries worldwide is becoming a reality.

– Jason Crosby
Photo: Flickr

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Top 10 Facts About Hunger in South Sudan

Top 10 Facts About Hunger in South Sudan
South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. That same year, the country was admitted into the U.N. as the world’s youngest country.

Since then, the South Sudanese people have struggled in dire circumstances of famine and violence. The following top 10 facts about hunger in South Sudan described below delve into the issue of famine and violence in the country, but also reveal hope for its better and more promising future.

Top 10 Facts About Hunger in South Sudan

  1. More than 5.7 million people in South Sudan lack sufficient food to satisfy their basic needs. That number is predicted to rise to 6 million by the end of 2018. This food crisis is in part due to what the U.N. calls a man-made catastrophe, brought on by conflict and economic collapse.
  2. Famine has not yet been officially declared except for in two out of 10 counties of Unity State. At that time, 100,000 people were on the verge of starvation. While the state of famine officially ended as of February 2018, it is predicted that it will have to be declared again later this year due to a lack of consistent humanitarian access and funding.
  3. More than 1.3 million children under the age of 5 are at risk for acute malnutrition. The rainy season that begins in April exacerbates this problem as communities become geographically isolated and people from these areas are unable to reach medical services. Particular areas of concern are Leer, Mayendit, Longochuck and Renk where acute child malnutrition is labeled as extreme.
  4. The harvest of 2018 was the smallest recorded since South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. According to the World Food Program, the country is only producing a fraction of what it needs. Even in the capital city, relatively immune on the food crisis, a rise in food costs make it impossible for families to afford food and their options are disappearing as the South Sudanese currency crashes.
  5. Food production is crippled mainly because of the civil war in South Sudan. According to the U.N., the civil war began the largest refugee crisis in Africa since the Rwandan Genocide. More than 2 million people have fled the country which has crippled food production.
  6. About 80 percent of the country’s population live in rural areas and rely on livestock and subsistence farming to survive. This lifestyle is caused by a severe lack of infrastructure. Few paved roads that do exist in the country are usually completely cut off during the rainy season.
  7. A meal that would cost a New Yorker $1.20 would cost someone in Juba, South Sudan equivalent of $321.70. This means that people need to spend 155 percent of their daily income for a plate of bean stew. This finding complements the 2017 World Food Program report that stated that the relative price of a meal in South Sudan was among the highest in the world.
  8. Aid agencies that have the goal of improving the situation on the ground face a relentlessly hostile operating environment. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) reports that in April alone, there were 80 reports of aid workers being prevented from delivering their aid. The next month, the NRC was forced to suspend emergency food distribution in Unity State because of active fighting on the ground.
  9. This geographic region has been known for its rolling hills and greenery, once regarded as South Sudan’s breadbasket. However, even those who are capable of cultivating crops choose not to, as they fear they will get caught be government soldiers and be labeled as rebels. Despite first-hand witnesses, the army denies these allegations and claims that it would never steal the people’s food.
  10. The problems in the country have not been ignored by the international community. In 2017, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The World Food Programme (WFP), and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and their partners conducted their largest ever aid campaign to the country. FAO provided 5 million people with seeds and tool and also vaccinated more than 6.1 million livestock to keep the animals alive and healthy. UNICEF and its partners admitted 208,000 children with severe acute malnutrition in 2017. Finally, WFP is pre-positioning 140 metric tons of food in 50 areas across the country that are likely to be cut off during the rainy season.

The situation in South Sudan may have been officially labeled as a famine too late, however, the issue has not gone without international attention. Many aid agencies, although with a lot of struggles, remain committed to improving the situation for the South Sudanese people.

What these top 10 facts about hunger in South Sudan reveal is that despite the fighting and economic problems, the land remains fertile and ripe for when peace prevails and crops can once again be sewed.

– Georgie Giannopoulos
Photo: Flickr

Ebola Epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ebola Epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
On May 8, 2018, The Ministry of Health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared an outbreak of the virus disease Ebola in the North Kivu Province. The Democratic Republic of the Congo declared the epidemic over on July 24, 2018. This represented the ninth Ebola epidemic in this African country since 1976.

The Development of Ebola Epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The disease had been slowly building to the epidemic, even catastrophic levels. According to The World Health Organization (WHO), the country had seen and been aware of the virus in the area since the April 4. The organization reports that, in April, a total of 44 people had been infected with the Ebola virus, which included 23 deaths.

However, in May, this number was disputed, as only 3 new cases were confirmed. The World Health Organization later narrowed the origins of this particular epidemic and found that it began in the northwestern area of Bikoro, which was the place where first cases were recorded on May 8. From this, The World Health Organization identified nearly 400 contacts of Ebola victims that are currently and continuously being followed up.

The History of Ebola Outbreaks in DRC

This isn’t the first Ebola outbreak the country has seen, however. Though Ebola outbreaks are uncommon, the Democratic Republic of Congo has experienced multiple flare-ups of the virus- nine since 1976. One such flare-up happened in not so distant past, in 2017 to be exact, with five confirmed cases that were quickly dealt with. The fast response and eradication convinced many, including the World Health Organization and health officials that the 2018 Ebola epidemic in the country will be easily dealt with. Yet, this prediction proved to be optimistic and naive since, within a month of declaring the outbreak of an epidemic, two health officials were among those affected.

The Declaration of Epidemic

The World Health Organization was very quick to declare this year’s Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a global emergency to public health. Unlike the Ebola epidemic that ravaged Western Africa in 2014, The World Health Organization declared a state of emergency in the Democratic Republic of Congo swiftly after seeing the number of cases increase.

Moreover, the organization made an immediate urgent request for $57 million to stop the spread of Ebola. In total, the money received amounted to $63 million, exceeding the appeal by $6 million. Among those who contributed to the funding towards ending this Ebola epidemic in the DRC was USAID who contributed with $5.3 million.

On July 24, 2018, Al Jazeera reported that the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been declared over. The virus had lasted a total of 10 weeks and had taken a total of 33 lives. Fortunately, the disease had remained contained, as Bikoro, the epicenter of the epidemic is a remote area of the country.

Although the people that were infected as a result of last Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo have completed their treatment, and have thus been declared cured, the health ministry of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as The World Health Organization are monitoring the situation in the country closely to ensure the virus does not spread.

– Isabella Agostini
Photo: Flickr

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Top 5 Nonprofits Combatting Human Trafficking

Top Five Nonprofits Combatting Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a problem that affects the entire world. In 2017, 100,409 victims of human trafficking were identified worldwide. That is a dramatic increase from 2012, the year that saw the total number of victims reach 46,570 people. However, there are several organizations in the United States and abroad that are working to end human trafficking. In the text below, top five nonprofits combating human trafficking are presented.

Top 5 Nonprofits Combatting Human Trafficking

  1. The Polaris Project began in 2002, with the objective of tracking and ending human trafficking. This program aims to achieve this goal through several objectives. One of the objectives is running National Human Trafficking Hotline that provides support for victims inside the United States. Recently, the Polaris Project began to expand its work beyond the United States. The organization partnered with Consejo Ciudadano organization and begun work in Mexico and Latin America. The partnership with Consejo Ciudadano allowed both projects to merge their hotlines to track victims being smuggled to the United to Mexico and vice versa. In 2016, the partnership helped 508 victims find support after being trafficked. Support included psychological evaluation and legal advice. Also, calling the hotline number provided crucial details that lead to the identification of 559 traffickers.
  2. A21, since 2008, works to end slavery and human trafficking across the world and wants to ensure that freedom is a right secured to every human. A21 has 14 offices across the world including the United States, South Africa, Thailand and Ukraine. One of A21’s largest programs is the Walk for Freedom, which is a march that raises awareness of slavery and human trafficking. The march is also an opportunity for A21 to raise money to help its other causes like the Can You See Me campaign that aims to raise awareness of trafficking through social media. Last year, 400 marches took place in 50 countries. Seventy million people saw these marches either in person or through the media.
  3. Stop the Traffik, like other nonprofits combatting human trafficking, focuses on intelligence-led preventative measures that lead to disruption of human trafficking worldwide. The most important service that Stop the Traffik offers is the Stop App. This app can be downloaded by anyone in the world and is a place for victims of human trafficking to share their stories. The app allows victims to feel heard but also provides Stop the Traffik with valuable data. The information shared on the app allows Stop the Traffik to create hotspots and predict further activity in these areas. The data and findings are published online and are accessible to everyone. In August 2018, Stop the Traffik released a three-page report on child trafficking in Kenya that included the areas most affected by human trafficking, the most popular types of exploitation, the ways in which traffickers trick victims and how to spot the signs that someone is trafficked.
  4. Love146 fights to end child trafficking and exploitation through prevention and care for survivors. One of the many caring services that Love146 offers is the Round Home. The Round Home is a recovery house for girls who are victims of human trafficking. The goal of the house is to help girls renter society by helping them overcome trauma and realize their potential. The home is located in the Philippines and has several facilities including a volleyball court, a treehouse designated for therapy and a punching bag to help girls take out their aggression. While girls are staying at the house, Love146 helps locate the girls’ families to ensure they do not re-trafficked and that they can return to a stable living situation.
  5. Shared Hope’s goal is to bring an end to sex trafficking through prevention, justice and support. While Shared Hope focuses on human trafficking in the United States it also expanded its support programs to Nepal, India and Jamaica. In 2005, Shared Hope founded Asha Nepal, a Village of Hope that offers to house women who are victims of human trafficking. The village hosts 11 women and 15 children year round and offers counseling, HIV and STI treatment and vocational training. Like the Round House, the goal of Asha Nepal’s housing is to help victims of human trafficking re-enter the society with valuable skills so they do not get re-trafficked.

In recent years human trafficking increased worldwide. Despite these harsh facts, the nonprofit organizations like the Polaris Project, A21, Stop the Traffik, Love146 and Shared Hope are working hard to end it. These and many other organizations are fighting for a world where no will have to worry about being exploited for sex or labor.

– Drew Garbe

Photo: Flickr

 

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Learn to Live Campaign: UK Students and Students in Conflict Areas

Top Five Nonprofits Combatting Human Trafficking
War Child, a nonprofit organization that supports and educate the children affected by wars, in association with British newspapers, Evening Standard and Independent, launched the Learn to Live Campaign.

As a part of this campaign, students in the United Kingdom have connected with students in conflict areas around the world. By pairing U.K. classrooms with other classrooms worldwide, the campaign hopes to encourage empathy, understanding and support across borders. With this new understanding, students in the U.K. can learn about students around the world and become their advocates.

Education of Young People in Conflict Areas

According to the Global Partnership for Education, 21.5 million children, 15 million adolescents, and 26 million youth that are out-of-school worldwide live in 32 countries affected by conflict. Needless to say, these young people need educational support. Recently, humanitarian efforts have focused more on this need and over the past five years, requests for education funding in emergencies have risen by 21 percent.

Despite the desperate need for improvement of this situation, only 2.7 percent of humanitarian aid went towards education efforts in 2016. Education should be a focus for humanitarian efforts since access to education directly affects young people’s lives and their future.

Providing young people with quality education and support does only help them overcome the circumstances of war, but also lowers the risk of conflict. In fact, education helps make conflict less prevalent and reduces the risk of conflict by approximately 20 percent. Therefore, educating young people in conflict areas is an important investment not only to individual students but also to the future of conflict-stricken parts of the world.

The Work of Learn to Live Campaign

The Learn to Live Campaign aims to broaden understanding and compassion and it centers around facilitating communication between British students and students in conflict areas. Students send video messages and letters back and forth, detailing their personal lives and challenges.

This exchange of information enables students in U.K. to learn about the reality of students in other parts of the world. In conflict areas, these relationships can give students psychosocial support by making them feel heard and understood by their peers. As the campaign teaches U.K. students about other parts of the world, it also draws attention to the needs of students in conflict areas.

The Art Project

Recently, Andria Zafirakou, an art teacher who was named world’s best teacher in 2018, started an art project, incorporated in Learn to Live campaign, for students from all of the participating U.K. schools. Currently, four U.K. schools have paired with students affected by conflict in Jordan, Iraq and the Central African Republic. 

The art project challenges students to spell “Learn to Live” with materials found in their environments. Several schools are working on the art project, and their works will eventually be combined into one piece. As one of the participating students, Harriet Webster, commented, the art project “is something people will understand, as they will have seen something similar in newspapers or online all over the world.”

Zafirakou also notes the importance of the campaign in expanding British advocacy for global issues. In Zafirakou’s view, The Learn to Live Campaign will educate and empower British children, then those children will go on to raise awareness in their own school and communities, and become a really powerful force. Thus, the campaign’s effects have the potential to spread far beyond the classrooms and the students themselves.

Support for the Campaign

The Learn to Live Campaign has gained wide support in the U.K., from London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, to celebrities, such as Sam Smith and Richard Curtis. In addition to backing up the project, Khan has encouraged Londoners to get involved. In his words, “children living in areas of conflict deserve our unconditional compassion, as well as our solidarity and support.”

The growing visibility and reach of The Learn to Live Campaign will continue to foster empathy and support for students in conflict areas. Luckily, other students will follow the example and get in touch with their underprivileged peers.

– Morgan Harden
Photo: Flickr

Women’s Health in Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea is a small, Spanish-speaking country located off the coast of Central Africa. Similar to many developing nations, Equatorial Guinea continues to work to reduce poverty rates and enhance the quality of life for its citizens.

As part of the effort to meet the targets set by The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG), there was a strong focus placed on improving women’s health in Equatorial Guinea. A great emphasis was placed on reducing maternal mortality by strengthening the healthcare infrastructure and expanding the health workforce.

Maternal mortality

Maternal mortality refers to the number of women who die each year due to causes related to pregnancy, childbirth, and/or the period after delivery or termination of pregnancy. The MDG 5 target for maternal health was to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters between 1990 and 2015 and to achieve universal access to reproductive health.

This translates to a maternal mortality ratio below 75 deaths per 100,000 live births. In order to meet the MGD goal and improve women’s health in Equatorial Guinea, the country needed to improve access to family planning services, encourage consistent prenatal care and quality health facilities with trained workers needed to be established.

Healthcare Infrastructure

In 1992, the country’s Ministry of Health created The National Plan of Action for Women and Children to increase access to family planning services, prenatal care and skilled delivery. A key component of this plan included strengthening the health care infrastructure by establishing a system of polyclinics, regional, provincial and district hospitals. This introduced accessible care throughout the country, especially in vulnerable regions.

The Ministry of Health also instituted a set of guidelines and regulations for these new facilities to improve the quality of care that patients received. Public health education campaigns were then utilized to increase awareness of the healthcare services and to encourage women to access these services. These efforts were successful in increasing the number of women who were aware of the importance and benefits of prenatal care. In fact, women were much more likely to show up for appointments and go earlier in their pregnancies when they had received antenatal education early on.

Healthcare Workforce

In 2008, to ensure that women received quality care, the Foundation for the Development of Nursing (FUDEN) was formed by The Ministry of Health to recruit and train nurses and midwives. Within its first 5 years, FUDEN successfully trained 153 new nurses and midwives. With this strong emphasis placed on expanding the health workforce, part of The Ministry of Health’s goals is to ensure that each village in the country had at least one trained midwife.

The introduction of trained health workers resulted in a direct improvement to women’s health in Equatorial Guinea. The percent of births attended by a skilled health worker increased from 5 percent in 1994 to 65 percent in 2000. The number of women who received prenatal care also increased from 37 percent to 91 percent from 1994 to 2011.

Setting the Goals for 2020

Through improved access to facilities and trained health workers, there was a great improvement in women’s health in Equatorial Guinea. The country successfully achieved MDG 5 with an 81 percent reduction to maternal deaths. As Equatorial Guinea looks to meet the Horizon 2020 goals, there will be a continued focus on improving maternal mortality and women’s health.

The Ministry of Health has developed plans to implement a nationwide reproductive health policy and to use a “Reach Every District” strategy to ensure that all regions are provided with the same resources to improve the health of all citizens. Hopefully, these plans will capitalize on the success of the MDG and continue to improve women’s health in Equatorial Guinea.

– Chinanu Chi-Ukpai
Photo: Flickr

Credit Access in Côte d’Ivoire

Credit Access in Côte d’Ivoire
Recent reports indicate that the economic performance of the country of Côte d’Ivoire’s is improving.  In 2016, the Ivorian government committed to a National Development Plan designed to transform the country into a middle-income economy by the year 2020. A quick analysis indicates that these efforts have been successful so far. In fact, the country’s economic growth between 2016 and 2017 has it ranked among the most booming economies in Africa. Unfortunately, this growth has not translated into increased credit access in Côte d’Ivoire.

The Importance of Credit Access

In 2017, only 1 in 7 Ivoirians had an account with a financial institution. This statistic has remained unchanged over the past year. Since banks and other formal financial institutions are the primary providers of credit, a lack of access to these institutions can have major effects. Credit is often used to fund education, pay medical bills and purchase property. It is an essential tool in working toward socio-economic mobility. Thus, increasing credit access in Côte d’Ivoire is a crucial step toward improving the lives of the 46 percent of Ivorians currently living in poverty.

Limitations on Credit Access

According to the 2017 Global Findex Survey, the greatest obstacle preventing Ivorians from opening a bank account is a lack of sufficient funds. Roughly two-thirds of Ivorians cite this as the primary reason they do not have an account. Associated account fees are an additional barrier for nearly a third of the population. Other obstacles include a lack of necessary documentation, distance from a physical bank and a lack of trust in these institutions. As a result, more than half of the adult population has never used formal financial services.

The prospects of obtaining an account are even grimmer among disadvantaged populations. The poor are twice as likely as their more prosperous counterpart to be excluded from using formal financial services. Women are 45 percent more likely to be excluded than men; the gap between men and women’s access to financial institutions has risen by 90 percent in the last three years.

Even if an individual overcomes these obstacles, the possession of an account does not guarantee access to credit. Although 15 percent of Côte d’Ivoire’s adult population had a financial institution account in 2017, only 3 percent of Ivorians have borrowed from a financial institution or used a credit card. If a loan is needed, the most common solution among Ivorians is to borrow from friends and family. In fact, only 34 percent have ever borrowed outside of the household.

Mobile Money as an Alternative

While participation in traditional financial institutions remains low, Ivorians are finding other digital means to manage their money. Over the past decade, mobile money has been on the rise. Mobile money is essentially a digital wallet – its basic functions allow users to store, send and receive money as though it were cash. As of 2017, roughly 42 percent of Ivorians have a mobile money account. Moreover, statistics show that mobile money accounts are more accessible to disadvantaged populations.

While mobile money has helped circumvent the barriers associated with traditional banking, it is not designed to offer credit access in Côte d’Ivoire. Digital credit lenders are operating in several sub-Saharan economies, but they have yet to emerge in the Ivorian economy.

However, surveys suggest that Ivorians would welcome these new services. 59 percent of Ivorians express interest in using a digital credit product. Their decision to participate would depend on interest rates and associated fees, the feasibility of the repayment plan and the speed at which they can access the loan. Half of the Ivorians surveyed indicated they would be willing to pay 10 percent interest for a six-month loan if a CFA 100,000 digital loan was made available to them.

The introduction of these new digital credit services could have a profound impact on the Ivorian poor. However, in order to maximize the impact, additional materials must be provided to address low rates of technological and financial literacy. Although 87 percent of Ivorian adults have access to mobile phones, only 50 percent possess a feature phone or smartphone, which is necessary to access the digital financial services. Even fewer know how to navigate the phone’s interface, and even if they can navigate the interface, only 33 percent are considered financially literate. This means that a large group of new credit users in the country may be vulnerable to hidden fees and marketing fraud. Nonetheless, if provided with the proper assistance to improve financial and technological literacy, these digital alternatives to traditional banking could prove to be an effective solution to limited credit access in Côte d’Ivoire.

– Joanna Dooley
Photo: Flickr