Top 10 Facts about Hunger in Angola

Top 10 Facts About Hunger in Angola
Angola, located on the western coast of Southern Africa, has a current population of over 31 million people. Unfortunately, many men, women and children continue to live in poverty and are going hungry. The current Global Hunger Index score of the country is 32.5. Luckily, there are several if not many organizations that have a desire to eradicate the country’s hunger epidemic. Below are the top 10 facts about hunger in Angola.

Top 10 Facts about Hunger in Angola

  1. While the number of undernourished people in 2015 was at 14 percent (according to UNICEF), malnutrition is affecting many children within the country, with a 37 percent prevalence of moderate and severe stunting.
  2. According to the World Vision, the civil war that had lasted for 27 years is still affecting the people of Angola, despite the fact that it has ended in 2002. Because of this as well as the drought in 2015, malnutrition and food insecurity rates have increased.
  3. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), farmers are unable to access certain agricultural resources, preventing the production of crops that also leads to food insecurity.
  4. The Salesian Missions is an organization that aspires to help children and families in poverty and provides aid to their needs. Their mission and focus are not only in providing training and educational programs to the youth, but they also deliver meals in Luanda to about 40 students who are undernourished. This program was able to purchase and provide food for many boarding students in the city.
  5. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is working in Angola in order to not only help with the productivity of the citizens but also help nourish and provide food for many of the Angolan people. According to FAO, their assistance will be created in accordance with 2018-2022 Country Programming Framework (CPF) that focuses on areas regarding food security, management of resources and strengthening farming productions. Because people are going hungry in Angola, FAO is helping regarding methodology and a Farmer Field School.
  6. FAO also supports a policy and strategy regarding the hunger epidemic in Angola. This strategy is called the National Food Security and Nutrition Strategy (ENSAN) and was implemented in 2009. This strategy works to provide not only access to food for the people of Angola but also ensures the quality of it.
  7. Angola’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also helps increase nutritional needs which support the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network or FANRPAN for short. FANRPAN is a nonprofit organization that promotes and suggests strategies for food, agriculture and natural resources including developing activities and opportunities for development.
  8. Rise Against Hunger is an organization and global movement that desires to eradicate hunger. They provide aid and assistance to countries in need, distributing packaged meals to Angola, but to other countries around the world as well.
  9. IFAD desires to fight against hunger in Angola by providing loans to expand and increase nutritional assistance in the country. One of their activities includes helping with the expansion of food crops and fisheries.
  10. The United Nations Joint Program on Children, Food Security and Nutrition in Angola is determined to end malnutrition in children. This program desires to strengthen efforts to end hunger, advocate for decreasing food prices and improve the evaluations as well as monitoring of nutrition among the people.

These top 10 facts about hunger in Angola demonstrates that many organizations, programs and movements have every desire to eradicate the hunger epidemic. They give people hope for both a better nation and a better future for their families.

– Charlene Frett
Photo: Flickr

Life Expectancy in Chad

Life Expectancy in Chad
Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world and has the lowest life expectancy of all countries. In 2017, the life expectancy for a Chadian citizen was found to be only 50.6 years. For comparison, Monaco is the country with the highest life expectancy, and citizens of this country live, on average, almost 40 years longer. This is a scary and stark contrast that can be attributed largely to the instability and poverty that people of Chad continuously face.

Chad in Numbers

In 1960, The Republic of Chad attained its independence from France and has faced much hardship since. The country has felt the recurring impact of civil war, religious war and natural disasters. For these reasons, the country has been unable to maximize its rich gold, uranium and oil resources.

Food and water are extremely scarce resources in the country as only 4 percent of Chadians living in rural areas have access to clean water. This makes them very susceptible to dangerous water-borne diseases including diarrhea and cholera. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that medical resources are also extremely scarce. For every 38,000 inhabitants of the country, there is only one doctor .

Close to 63 percent of Chadians are living in poverty, and only 32 percent of the population is literate. This is related to the fact that 80 percent of the population depends on subsistence farming and livestock. With a lack of educational resources, the Chadian people are forced to rely on their agricultural skills to maintain a livelihood. This is problematic for a country that has faced repeated natural disasters.

These are just some of the many statistics that point to the dire living conditions that contribute to the country’s extremely low life expectancy. There are, however, a number of efforts being undertaken to ameliorate the situation.

Actions Being Taken

In February 2018, after visiting several African countries including Chad, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator of the United Nations, Ursula Mueller, brought attention to the dire need for greater relief efforts in Chad.

Groups like the Chad Relief Foundation (CRF) have been responsive to such calls for a number of years now. CRF provides assistance to refugees in Chad and, as of December 2017, had provided Chad with a total of $983,257. This money goes toward efforts to provide citizens with resources like medicine, education and some means to reduce the spread of illness, such as mosquito nets.

Additionally, The World Food Program is providing food relief to 1.4 million Chadians affected by chronic food insecurity. The organization provides the citizens with money that allows them to buy food from local markets in order to support the local economy. One can only hope that by ameliorating food insecurity in the country, life expectancy in Chad will begin to rise.

Solutions to the Problem

Although there are relief efforts at work in the country, Chad faces dire prospects if more is not contributed to the country’s efforts to stabilize. The life expectancy in Chad is frighteningly low and perhaps the most alarming thing about it is that it is caused by factors that can be fixed or prevented with adequate assistance. It is important that countries with the means to do something contribute to the efforts of improving the standard of living in Chad so that the citizens of the country can enjoy the long and full lives that all humans have a right to.

– Julia Bloechl

Photo: Flickr

Top 10 Facts about Girls’ Education in Mexico

Top 10 Facts about Girls’ Education in Mexico
Educating girls is known to boost the economy and social development indicators. When a girl is more educated, she is more likely to have fewer children, work full-time, have an increased life expectancy and her children are less likely to die young. In developing countries like Mexico, issues like these are of the utmost importance for the development of the country. In the text below, top 10 facts about girls’ education in Mexico are presented.

Top 10 Facts about Girls’ Education in Mexico

  1. Mexico mandates free primary and secondary education for children. After secondary school, students can choose between college and technical school. Women tend to outnumber men in technical schools.
  2. Mexican girls who live in rural areas tend to be less educated than their male counterparts. This is because of the prevalence of poverty, a marked lack of access to health care and social services and inadequate infrastructure provisions such as roads, water systems and telephone services. Parents might also be more reluctant to educate their daughters due to the cultural priority placed on getting married.
  3. Many girls in Mexico get married young, leading them to have many children instead of staying in school. The BBC reported that more than 320,000 girls between the ages of 12 and 17 were cohabiting with a man. More than 80 percent of these girls who were formally married left school. More than 90 percent of those who lived informally with the man dropped out of school.
  4. Although the literacy rate for women between the ages of 15 and 24 years old is 98.5 percent, women still overwhelmingly carry the burden of household chores and looking after children instead of pursuing higher education or advancing in their careers. Most girls drop out of school and become housewives instead of being incorporated into the workforce.
  5. Indigenous girls in Mexico face perhaps the most barriers to the attainment of even advanced primary level education. The poverty of many indigenous families conditions them to view their daughters, let alone their education, as a heavy economic burden. Mayan girls usually help with their parents’ income through agricultural work and household chores. Thus, they must drop out of school in the early stages.
  6. Although there are scholarships and programs to alleviate the cost of their daughters’ educations, many parents aren’t aware of them. There is a clear informational asymmetry regarding this question. Even if the parents did know of the existence of these programs and scholarships, they would not know how to apply for them.
  7. Indigenous girls also face a language barrier when learning the national curriculum. For example, girls from the Yucatan Maya community speak the Mayan language but are taught in Spanish. For this reason, they participate minimally in class and are often overlooked by teachers.
  8. Some Mayan girls report facing discrimination from their teachers and peers at school that obviously hinders their education. During interviews researchers conducted with some Mayan girls, they expressed feeling humiliated and discouraged when their classmates and even teachers called them derogatory names related to being darker-skinned or having trouble speaking Spanish.
  9. Rural Mexican girls have difficulty getting to school safely because of how remote their villages are. Unpredictable transportation often means walking long distances in desolate areas, leaving girls exposed to threats of physical or sexual violence on the roads.
  10. Mexico is a member of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI). This initiative is committed to narrowing the gender gap in education through the enhanced focus on marginalized and excluded groups, reduction, or in best case elimination, of school-related gender violence and improved learning outcomes for girls.

Mexico still has a long way to go before it eliminates the drastic gender gap in education, particularly for rural and indigenous women. However, with efforts such as the UNGEI, the situation appears hopeful and is changing for the better.

– Maneesha Khalae
Photo: Flickr

Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Colombia

Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Colombia
Colombia is well-known for its coffee plantations and scenic mountains and beaches, but also for harboring conflict and political unrest. After 50 years of civil war, the country has finally entered into a peace agreement and is now in a post-conflict period of reconstruction. Because travel to the country was considered unsafe until quite recently, there are many aspects of Colombia that are widely unknown and most foreigners have little concept of what life there truly is like. Below are the top 10 facts about living conditions in Colombia.

Top 10 facts about living conditions in Colombia

  1. Colombia has a population of over 47 million people, with 23.6 percent of the population residing in rural areas. Colombia is ranked the seventh most inequitable country in the world, with almost 63 percent of national incoming going to the wealthiest 20 percent of the population.
  2. After 50 years of conflict, President Juan Manuel Santos signed a peace treaty with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), winning himself the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016. This was the first major step toward ending violence in the region, creating economic growth and altering the global perception of Colombia.
  3. Due to regional conflict and violence, many locals were forced to leave their homes. Since 1985, 5.9 million people have been displaced, with the majority being women and children. After Syria, Colombia has the second largest population of internally displaced persons. As a result, 5 percent of the population has been left homeless, and 30 percent of Colombian families (3.8 million) do not have adequate housing.
  4. Displacement has led to the formation of informal settlements on the outskirts of major cities. These communities are characterized by a lack of access to schooling and health care, unsafe home construction, houses built on land that is not owned by the homeowner and limited employment opportunities. Groups like Habitat for Humanity are working to improve conditions by assisting with housing construction and community infrastructure, as well as promoting local engagement and providing training workshops.
  5. While water infrastructure is commonplace in urban cities, many Colombians continue to struggle for access to clean water and proper sanitation systems. One in four individuals residing in rural areas lacks access to drinking water, which is considered a basic human right.
  6. Despite recent economic improvements that make the country to have one of the world’s emerging economies, poverty remains a prevalent issue, with 34 percent of the population living below the poverty line. This is a result of multiple factors, including low-income, high unemployment rates (10 percent of the population) and residual impacts of conflict and displacement.
  7. Agriculture has become a government focus and is seen as an opportunity to improve the economy, lower unemployment rates and connect Colombia with the global market. The agricultural sector is responsible for almost 7 percent of the country’s GDP and offers employment to over 15 percent of the population. With less than 30 percent of its arable land currently being used to produce crops, there is significant room for growth in this industry.
  8. Despite being rich in natural resources, Colombia has high rates of food insecurity that affects 43 percent of the population. Chronic malnutrition impacts over 13 percent of children under the age of five and individuals that have been displaced or belong to an ethnic minority group are more likely to suffer.
  9. The World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked Colombia in 22nd place for their health care. In comparison, the United States ranks number 37. However, access to these resources is limited for those living outside of urban areas.
  10. With its scenic, diverse landscape and rich culture, Colombia has recently become a popular tourist destination for travelers around the world. The New York Times ranked Colombia in the second place for the touristic destination in 2018. This offers the opportunity for growth in the tourism industry and a chance for Colombia to share its history, resources and traditions with the world.

These top 10 facts about living conditions in Colombia demonstrate that the country has come a long way since creating peace in the region, but is still dealing with many socioeconomic issues. Continued efforts by government and advocacy groups offer hope for security and growth in the upcoming years.

– Georgia Orenstein

Photo: Flickr

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D-Rev Technology is Helping to Reduce Poverty 

6. D-Rev Technology Helping to Reduce Poverty 
In today’s world, technology is everywhere. Our cell phones are constantly glued to our hands, and our eyes are glued to the screens. Although many may say that our technologically advanced world has created many negatives, there are certain positives as well. Technology has more uses than just convenience, entertainment and connections. Modern technology companies can drastically change the lives of those in poverty by aiding them with technology that helps improve their lives, health and overall well-being.

D-Rev Technology is Helping to Reduce Poverty

One company that has stepped up and focused its technological equipment and research on helping the well-being of those in poverty is D-Rev Technology. D-Rev Technology, or Design Revolution, is a newly established company whose mission is to design and deliver affordable, innovative medical devices that protect and transform the lives of those in poverty.  

The company has partnered with organizations like The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Stanford School of Medicine, Child Relief International, One Heart World-Wide, US Aid, UK Aid, Saving Lives at Birth and many others who are interested in helping those less fortunate. The team has worked hard to build this company to ensure that D-Rev technology has a positive impact on the health and well-being of its patients.

As for the products, its most recent product is the ReMotion Knee, a prosthetic device, and the Brilliance phototherapy machine, which is used to treat jaundice in newborns. D-Rev Technology uses its products to address global health inequalities by recognizing that treating health is one of the biggest steps in treating poverty.

D-Rev Technology’s Main Focus

Through its innovative products, D-rev is able to focus on the main problems and solutions. The biggest problem it has seen so far is the” lack of access to high-quality, affordable medical devices for hospitals and clinics serving the world’s poor”. The healthcare gap has created a cycle of poverty that is never-ending.

D-Rev Technology focuses on two specific problems for now: severe jaundice and prosthesis. Newborns in developing countries are often born with jaundice, which is a yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes. This is usually easily treated with phototherapy. However, in developing countries, phototherapy machines are not easily accessible because they are very expensive. If the children are not treated, jaundice can lead to severe brain damage, which is why D-Rev wants to focus on developing affordable devices to help treat these children.

Secondly, in developing countries, millions of amputees don’t have access to affordable, high-quality prosthetics that would allow them to live longer and healthier. Cheap knees are unstable and can create problems for those who live in environments that are not paved or are very crowded. So, D-Rev Technology wants to help those in developing countries have access to these critical devices.

A lack of proper healthcare is one of the key reasons for poverty in many developing countries. The people in these countries can’t afford the equipment to treat their patients. However, companies like D-Rev Technology want to help create and deliver high quality, low-cost products that are easily accessible to doctors and patients. Quality medical treatment allows individuals in poverty to be more productive, happy and independent.

– Negin Nia

Photo: Flickr

Top 15 Facts about Poverty in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

Sensing that change in multiple forms is necessary for economic growth, Saudi Arabia has begun massive and unprecedented reform. At the heart of the reform, the Saudi government recognizes the need to invest more in improving its impoverished people. Here are the top 15 facts about poverty in Saudi Arabia.

  1. Saudi Arabia has one of the highest national poverty rates in the Middle East, at 13.6% (2021 estimate). One in every seven Saudi Arabians experiences poverty. However, the Saudi government does not release regular statistics regarding this information, resulting in varied estimates by outside agencies.
  2. The country is highly urbanized, with more than 80% of its citizens living in cities. However, many impoverished citizens, estimated to be around 17.9%, reside in slums on the outskirts of those cities.
  3. Saudis who do not even live in the slums still struggle to afford homes in the cities. An estimated 60% of urban Saudis cannot afford to own their homes outright.
  4. The unemployment rate has declined significantly, from 12.8% in 2017 to 8% in 2023. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi government have made tackling unemployment a key component of their economic and social reform program Vision 2030.
  5. The government has implemented an insurance program for unemployed Saudis. However, it is still difficult for recipients to survive when the cost of living is constantly increasing.
  6. A major factor in unemployment is the number of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia. In 2021, foreign nationals made up approximately 76.4% of the country’s private workforce.
  7. Vision 2030 discusses plans to reduce Saudi Arabia’s reliance on oil as the largest economic asset. Instead, the country plans to invest in other industries that will generate more jobs for unemployed Saudis.
  8. The government announced plans to implement nationalization quotas for small businesses and education programs to allow impoverished Saudis to prepare for employment.
  9. Salman believes that addressing poverty and unemployment is as necessary from an economic perspective as it is from a humanitarian standpoint. He believes that by diversifying the economy and improving the poverty and unemployment rates, Saudi Arabia will attract more foreign investment.
  10. Saudi Arabia’s lifting of its long-standing movie theater ban has drawn AMC to create numerous theaters throughout the country, introducing service industry jobs for impoverished citizens who may not be qualified for more specialized positions.
  11. The government has lifted several bans preventing women from working and participating in the economy. With these barriers eliminated, women will be able to work and help provide for their families.
  12. Despite Salman’s popularity and economic ambitions, many are still troubled by the vast wealth gap in Saudi Arabia. While many Saudi citizens live in poverty, Salman’s father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has an estimated net worth of more than $17 billion.
  13. With the possibility of water and farmable land becoming scarce in Saudi Arabia in the next few decades, the government will likely need to establish new ways of ensuring food production and food availability at a rate that can support the country’s population.
  14. Saudi Arabia has a history of refusing help from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) because of fears of deterring investors. However, the government has recently begun changing its policies in favor of helping its impoverished citizens.
  15. Changes will take time. While it is clear that Saudi Arabia needs immediate change in some aspects, sustainable growth will take time to implement.

As Saudi Arabia finds itself in a highly transitional period in terms of social reform and economic reevaluation, its citizens face great uncertainty. However, despite what some of these top 15 facts about poverty in Saudi Arabia may suggest, the country’s leadership has made clear that their top priority is to build the economy into something that will work for, rather than against, the Saudi people.

– Rob Lee

Photo: Flickr
Updated: May 27, 2024

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9 Facts about Poverty in the United States

10 Facts About Poverty in the United States
While the U.S. is one of the most advanced countries in the world, this does not exempt the nation from struggling with poverty. Issues like food insecurity and homelessness continue to pervade communities in America. Forty million people in the U.S. are living in poverty and the U.N. estimates that almost half of this number are people living in deep poverty. In the text below 10 facts about poverty in the United States are presented.

9 Facts about Poverty in the U.S.

  1. Poverty affects women and people of color disproportionately in the U.S. African Americans have the highest poverty rates of any ethnic group, at 27.4 percent. Around 45.8 percent of black children under the age of 6 are living in poverty, compared to 14.5 percent of white children of the same age.
  2. The U.S. spends only 16.2 percent of its GDP on social programs, compared to 21.3 percent that similarly developed countries do. Social programs like veteran’s benefits and unemployment compensation can make a huge difference in a country’s rates of poverty. An increased amount of spending on these programs has the potential to significantly decrease the number of people in the U.S. living in poverty.
  3. The U.S. is 36th out of 175 developed countries in rates of childhood poverty. This report considered factors like the dropout from school rates, adolescent birth rates and access to quality food. The U.S. has particularly high rates of teen pregnancy and child mortality in comparison to other developed countries.
  4. Rates of child poverty in rural areas are higher than in urban areas in more than 85 percent of states in the U.S. One of the facts about poverty in the United States that is most striking is that one in four children in rural areas in America live in poverty, compared to one in five in urban areas. Southern states have the highest rates of child poverty in the U.S.
  5. Various nonprofit organizations, such as Save the Children, are at work in the U.S. The organization works to give childhoods back to children who have been deprived of this because of their living circumstances. Save the Children has been at work in the U.S. since the Great Depression.
  6. Child poverty rates in the U.S. hit a record low in 2016, at 15.6 percent. This dip is said to be attributed to government programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps. The success of programs like SNAP proves that the U.S. should be spending more on public assistance.
  7. The U.S. has one of the largest wealth inequality gaps in the world. The wealthiest 1 percent of households in America own more than 40 percent of the nation’s wealth. In recent decades this gap has gotten even wider. This vast inequality is bad for the American economy and even more detrimental to poor households with no upward mobility.
  8. The affordable housing crisis in the U.S. contributes to high levels of homelessness, especially in major cities. Large cities with the highest living costs often have the highest levels of homelessness. Iowa and Nebraska, two of the cheapest states for housing in America, have the lowest levels of homelessness in the country.
  9. The number of homeless Americans is growing. Rates of homelessness jumped by 9 percent in 2017. The U.S. fiscal plan for 2019 has $8.8 billion of proposed budget cuts for the Department of Housing and Development, so the issue does not seem to be ameliorating in the upcoming years.

Since the U.S. is such an advanced country, issues like poverty often go ignored despite their prevalence. Many of these 10 facts about poverty in the United States are unknown by the American public. With increased awareness in the American population, the nation has the potential to learn to work together and achieve lower rates of poverty across the board.

– Amelia Merchant
Photo: Unsplash

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What Role Can the Private Sector Play in Poverty Alleviation?

What Role Can the Private Sector Play in Poverty Alleviation?
The private sector constitutes a large portion of wealth and job creation in most countries, rendering it a powerful social tool that can be used to alleviate poverty and promote the wellbeing of the general public. Unfortunately, historically, this tool has been used to promote the interests of private actors.

The interests of private actors and the interests of the public have often come in contradiction, particularly as the world has globalized. However, the alignment of public and private interests is possible when you consider that those living in extreme poverty represent a largely untapped and mismanaged resource for a lot of private actors. When determining what role the private sector can play in poverty alleviation, it must be understood that poor corporate labor practices have contributed greatly to global poverty and proper practices have the ability to reverse it.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Those living in poverty, particularly extreme poverty, are often surrounded by economic deprivation, including unemployment, low wages and a lack of investment from private actors. Corporate social responsibility is one of the many avenues that can be taken to bring the structures and goals of the private sector in line with the needs of the public.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business model of private accountability to the public, meaning that businesses and corporations incorporate practices that create positive social impacts domestically and throughout the world. CSR is a broad concept, allowing it to manifest itself in several different ways. There is certainly room for error in the implementation of CSR practices, but when carried out effectively, CSR can serve as a sharp tool for alleviating poverty while also increasing a corporation’s bottom line.

Patagonia: A Model for Effective Corporate Social Responsibility

The apparel industry is one of the most competitive in the private sector. With that competition, there has historically been a “race to the bottom.” Organizations have looked to manufacture in places with the most lenient regulations on worker rights, wages and environmental waste. These places, non-coincidentally, tend to be the most impoverished. However, this has not been the case within Patagonia.

Patagonia has been integrating CSR into its business model since its conception in 1973. The corporation operates in several nations around the world, with portions of its manufacturing happening in Sri Lanka, Mexico, Thailand and more. The company has prioritized its Fair Trade Certifications, paying a premium on top of the costs that they already incur. This money goes straight into the hands of factory workers who get to vote on its use. This not only ensures that Patagonia’s workers are well compensated but also that the most pressing needs of the community are met.

At the Hirdaramani Mihilia CKT Factory, workers decided to spend their premium on a daycare. For many women in the factory, employment would not be possible without it. The piece of mind workers get from knowing that their kids are not only safe but progressing in their development, allows for more diligent and quality work in the factory.

What Role Can the Private Sector Play in Poverty Alleviation?

Fair Trade USA CEO, Paul Rice, stated that the organization has to “prove that fair trade is good for business.” Patagonia is one of its partner companies that is doing just that for them. Patagonia has more Fair Trade Certified styles than any other apparel brand, and it is expanding every year. In 2017, 30 percent of its product was fair trade certified, indicating that there is plenty of room for further expansion, but also that expanding the scale of CSR practices can be sustainable for business as well—even when its competitors do not engage in the same practices.

Consumer awareness of the Fair Trade Certified seal has almost doubled to 63 percent since 2008. As the world has globalized and the reality of billions of people living on less than two dollars a day has become common knowledge, consumers have begun to pay greater attention to how their goods are made. Corporate responsibility is becoming the standard, and as consumers, governments and most importantly corporations themselves continue to promote and enforce that standard, the number of exploited and impoverished workers will fall.

Today, transparency and responsibility translate into dollars. More consumers are willing to pay for goods that they know were made ethically, employee turnover is lowest at corporations that integrate CSR and workers in developing countries perform better when their wages and standard of living are adequate. More than 1,250 corporations have recognized this to be true and that number is sure to increase in the coming years. So what role can the private sector play in poverty alleviation? The answer is, quite simply, a large one and one that can also benefit their business as well as the public.

– Julius Long
Photo: Flickr

How to Fight Global Hunger with ShareTheMeal

ShareTheMeal App
This year, The Shorty Awards, an awards program that recognizes the best of social media, expanded their reach to include Shorty Social Good awards. The Shorty Social Good awards honor initiatives, projects or programs designed to combat lack of food or shelter. ShareTheMeal, a smartphone app, was among this year’s winners in the Mobile Campaign, Poverty & Hunger and nonprofit categories. The app shows us how to fight global hunger by reaching donors through smartphones and social media sharing.

Fighting Global Hunger with ShareTheMeal App

According to the Food Aid Foundation, approximately 795 million people around the world don’t have enough food to live a productive lifestyle. Beyond this, lack of proper nutrition is life-threatening for children worldwide.

Malnutrition is responsible for 45 percent of deaths for children under the age of five. Put more simply, around 3.1 million children every year die from poor nutrition. However, it costs as little as $0.50 to feed a child for an entire day. The ShareTheMeal app fights global hunger by focusing on microdonations and empowering users to donate from anywhere using their smartphones.

As an innovative part of the World Food Programme, ShareTheMeal mobilizes users to give through social media. Starting with donations of just $0.50, users can fund a child’s meals for an entire day. When someone donates, The United Nations’ World Food Program, in turn, supplies the meals to hungry children.

The food assistance provided varies according to the situation in the donor’s choice country. While children in more stable countries may receive school meals, children in high-risk situations may receive staple foods, designed to fortify basic nutrition. Donors may also opt to join The Table, a monthly giving club that receives regular updates and focused stories on global hunger.

Managers of the World Food Programme, Sebastian Stricker and Bernhard Kowatsch, developed the app in 2014. Though it began as an independent startup, it quickly earned the backing of the World Food Programme.

The founders wanted to expand the demographic of donors for programs fighting global hunger. They focused on social media and smartphone technology since they saw great potential for growth among millennial donors.

During its first trial run, the app earned nearly $850,000 to fight hunger in Lesotho. This successful trial run lead to a global launch focused on feeding Syrian refugee children in Jordan. With that initiative, ShareTheMeal fed 20,000 refugee children for a year.

Since then, the app has grown tremendously. Now, there are more than 1.1 million users worldwide and the app fights global hunger in various developing countries. According to ShareTheMeal’s data, nearly a third of their users are millennials, so the app has reached its target demographic.

Making Donations Easy and Personal

ShareTheMeal has innovated the World Food Programme’s donations, by making donations easy and personal. Each user can choose where to direct their donation by swiping through pictures of individual children in need of meals. These pictures give the donations a personal character, backed by information about the status of global hunger in that country.

The app also provides a constant tally of the total meals shared so far which allow donors to see the app’s progress. As of now, users have shared over 26 billion meals through the app and the number is constantly growing.

Beyond merely working through smartphones, the ShareTheMeal app fights global hunger via social media. Individuals can mobilize their friends and family through social media platforms, such as Facebook, by creating teams. These teams invite others to donate together and track their progress as a group.

Finally, the app also offers an innovative tool called Camera Giving. This feature capitalizes on food photos shared on Instagram and similar platforms. By taking a photo of their meal and donating through ShareTheMeal, users gain access to a #ShareTheMeal filter which they can use to publicize their food photo as well as their donation to ShareTheMeal on social media. With tags like “this picture fed a hungry child,” ShareTheMeal not only gains publicity through the Camera Giving feature but also it turns the food photo trend into a vehicle for positive change.

Moving Forward: How to Fight Global Hunger with Technology

In today’s technology-driven world, there are 20 times more people with smartphones than children suffering from hunger. Wondering how to fight global hunger with technology? The ShareTheMeal app fights global hunger by connecting lots of people to the problem.

Anyone around the world with a phone, iOS or Android, can download the app in nine different languages with donations payable in 27 different currencies. With the mere tap of a button, users are connected to global hunger from anywhere and at any moment. ShareTheMeal is turning social media into social good.

– Morgan Harden
Photo: Flickr

Prison Systems in Developing Nations: Basic Human Rights

Prison Systems in Developing Nations: Poverty Compromises Basic Human Rights
The global imprisonment rate has surpassed the rate of the world population growth, increasing by nearly 20 percent from 2000 to 2015. In 2016, the Institute for Criminal Policy Research estimated the global prison population to be around 10.35 million.

The Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) is a governing body within The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In 2016, the CCPCJ reported that, out of the 198 countries on which there is data, prisons in 114 of them were filled past capacity. Of these, 78 had occupancy rates over 120 percent with 52 of those being over 150 percent. In the Philippines, where overcrowding is the worst, the occupancy level is over 450 percent.

The Issue of Overcrowded Prisons in Developing Nations

Overcrowding disproportionately affects the prison systems in developing nations, with the highest rates in Central America, South Asia and East, Central and West Africa. In 2013, The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the conditions created by overcrowding qualified as torture and/or inhuman treatment. Prisoners in overcrowded facilities are especially vulnerable.

In 2017, The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights listed violence and abuse as by-products of overcrowding, and evidence suggests that the consequences are actually much more extensive. Generally, prisoners experience high rates of mental illness and premature death. Unsanitary prison conditions make them more vulnerable to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV with prisoners being five times more likely than the general public to contract the latter.

Research by The U.S. Department of State and Penal Reform International (PRI) links overcrowding to malnutrition, lack of clean water and sanitation, inadequate health care, lack of accommodation for the disabled, mistreatment of prisoners, corruption of prison staff and insufficient legal protection; all of which contribute to even lower states of mental health. Those who are poor or of a national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minority are the most afflicted since they are both more likely to be imprisoned and given longer sentences.

The Effects of Poverty on the Prison Systems

According to the CCPCJ, prison systems in developing nations experience higher rates of overcrowding despite having much lower imprisonment rates than high-income nations, and only in part due to lower capacities. Poverty and instability leave these countries lacking in the resources necessary to address critical situations. In their 2018 analysis of global prison trends, PRI also cites outdated legislation, corruption, and insufficiently trained staff as barriers to addressing shortcomings.

The CCPCJ measures corruption by the percentage of survey respondents within a given country who say they have paid a bribe within the past 12 months. In their 2013 data, fewer than 10 percent of respondents in high-income countries had paid bribes to any public officials. In low-income countries, more than 50 percent had bribed a judiciary official, and more than 60 percent had bribed a member of the police. PRI additionally reported instances of family members bribing prison staff to ensure that prisoners receive basic provisions, including food.

Similarly, high percentages of pre-trial detainees within the prison population of a developing country indicate systemic flaws that slow the processing of cases. For example, The World Prison Brief estimated in early 2017 that 71.1 percent of Haitian prisoners were still awaiting trial. In Liberia in 2012, The U.S. Department of State reported cases in which pre-trial detention lasted longer than the maximum possible sentence for the alleged crime.

Improvements Being Made to Reduce Overcrowding

The latest data from the CCPCJ shows progress in that the rates of pre-trial detainees had decreased in Africa and Asia between 2003 and 2014. In this period, Africa’s rate was reduced from around 45 percent to 38 percent, and Asia’s fell to 40 percent from just over 50 percent.

The UNODC is at the forefront of international initiatives that foster such progress. The Office strives to uphold The U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and works to ensure legal safeguards that protect their rights. Prison reform projects address non-custodial alternatives to imprisonment, flaws in criminal justice legislation, inadequate training of prison staff, prisoner reintegration into society and poor prison conditions.

With the help of the UNODC, countries have begun to more strategically and comprehensively address corruption within their criminal justice systems, with 17 of them adopting national anti-corruption policies in 2015 alone. In the same year, The U.N. General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. With these goals in place, the development of prison systems in developing nations will remain a priority until at least 2030.

– Ashley Wagner
Photo: Flickr