Nigeria is a business-oriented economy, with an estimated 37 million micro, small and medium-sized companies (MSMEs). The entrepreneurial economy contributes roughly 48 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and employs over 60 million people, making Nigeria the largest economy in the sub-Saharan region.
Although these numbers look promising, few businesses are successful in obtaining loans from financial institutions. According to The Credit Crunch, a joint report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the 840 MSMEs surveyed in Nigeria, only 31 percent successfully obtained a loan from a bank or microfinance institution. MSMEs are often burdened by a myriad of challenges like multiple taxation systems and high costs. The risks associated with credit access in Nigeria stem from many causes.
Lack of Collateral
To secure a loan from financial institutions, collateral is one of the prerequisites. This protects the lending bank in case the borrower defaults on the loan. For MSMEs looking for small business loans, inadequate collateral is a major reason for not receiving loans.
Secure land is the most common collateral for banks in Nigeria, but only 5 percent of the land is formally titled, mostly consisting of urban land or commercial farms. Low-income households own a large portion of rural land, which does not have validated titles.
This acts as a major obstacle for microenterprise owners and low-income households that are keen to obtain affordable credit from formal financial institutions. Many analysts argue that the provisions and implementations of the Land Use Act of 1978 are largely responsible for limiting the authenticated titling of rural land. Since banks ask for land or buildings as collateral in 98 percent of loan applications, low-income loan seekers remain unable to secure loans.
But efforts are being made to allow greater use of moveable and reputational collateral in bank loans. The CBN recently established the National Collateral Registry to improve credit access in Nigeria. Additionally, it is supporting the development of a modern credit reporting system in Nigeria with backing from the World Bank.
No Awareness of Credit Reporting System
Many borrowers are unaware of their credit history, and despite having a good credit record, they are reluctant to apply for loans simply because they do not meet the collateral requirements.
This becomes a concern for borrowers, particularly rural dwellers looking for microloans for their small businesses. They have been reluctant to approach banks for loans, which in turn has slowed down the entrepreneurial growth of small businesses that may have had a promising growth but could rarely take off due to a lack of financing.
The country remains a part of a large-scale campaign, the Credit Reporting and National Collateral Registry Education and Awareness Campaign. The campaign’s goal is to create awareness of credit tools through the collateral registry and the credit reporting system and is a collaborative initiative of the CBN and IFC. Such efforts promise to promote responsible lending and borrowing among those borrowers.
CBN has also teamed up with other stakeholders to promote the Credit Awareness campaign. The campaign promises to educate consumers on rural financial services and shares information on issues that will improve and allow greater appreciation of the rights and responsibilities of microfinance institutions and other financial institutions, along with their clients and stakeholders. Subsequently, Credit Awareness Nigeria plans on launching another public campaign on credit awareness and financial literacy to bring together microfinance practitioner institutions, development partners, stakeholders and clients of microfinance institutions.
No Interaction with Financial Institutions
Of those surveyed, less than a third of MSMEs successfully acquired loans for their businesses. A reason for this is that rural borrowers do not have an established relationship with banks. Due to their lack of interaction with financial institutions, rural borrowers fail to understand the conditions of getting a loan or the required loan application procedures. This also causes problems for rural dwellers who do not have a credit history, resulting in borrowers resorting to informal savings and reinvested profits.
Nigerian Businesses Remain Hopeful
While there remain considerable concerns about inadequate credit access in Nigeria, not all hope is lost. MSMEs overall have confidence in Nigeria’s economy and feel that economic growth will improve in the next five years as financial lenders become more willing to lend to smaller-scale businesses.
Nigeria is one of the 25 priority countries to become a part of the World Bank Group’s Universal Financial Access 2020 initiatives. The World Bank project aims to extend access to financial services to all adults by 2020. Moreover, many projects are joining hands to ensure that the rural dwellers get credit access, with programs being introduced to overhaul the obsolete land registration system and paving way for more credit options for rural farmers.
– Deena Zaidi
Photo: Flickr
Progress of Road Infrastructure in Mali Drives Development
Mali is the eighth largest country in Africa bordering Algeria, Niger, Mauritania, Guinea, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso and is located in the North-Western region of the continent.
Infrastructure Development
Most of the population in Mali is concentrated in the southern area with mostly nomads inhabiting farther north. In the south, there is easier access to resources, agriculture and the market for buying/selling goods.
Infrastructure greatly reflects the accommodation to this geographic and demographic distribution. Road infrastructure in Mali is particularly keen on creating a network of connectivity between people, resources and export ports. This is why Mali has one of the most spatially concentrated infrastructure networks in the continent.
There are three international corridors that link landlocked Mali to the sea: Tema-Ouagadougou-Bamako, Dakar-Bamako and Abidjan-Ferkesessedougou-Bamako. These routes help bring Malian exports to central ports for shipping as well as interregional trade between other nations. Both of these help build the economy in Mali rather than keeping it as a self-reliant country struggling with poverty.
Local and Global Connectivity
The connectivity of road infrastructure in Mali has greatly improved local and global business prospects. For example, there is a transnational intercity highway known as Kankan-Kourémalé-Bamako that is the only way to enter and exit between Conakry (a port city in Guinea) and Bamako (the capital city of Mali). The African Development Bank Group highlights how this highway has “revolutionized the daily lives of thousands of people.” The highway has seen an increase in traffic for commuting workers who are now able to travel longer distances for better work. Traders set up their stalls along the highway and have seen a significant increase in customers and profits.
Mali does excellent work to maintain their roads, especially the significant highways and interregional methods of transport. Road infrastructure in Mali has guaranteed excellent safety for all users; in fact, a newly generated Road Authority has allowed for necessary maintenance throughout the year.
Despite inadequate funding, road infrastructure in Mali has been a highlighted priority to pave the way for economic growth. The nation’s government has directed much of its national funds toward maintenance and development of the overall road network, and as a result, Mali has set an excellent example for neighboring countries for how to diversify the economy by expanding transportation networks.
– Caysi Simpson
Photo: Flickr
Sustainable Agriculture in Honduras Helping Rural Farmers
Honduras has long relied on U.S. trade and remittances for economic stability. Regarding agriculture specifically, in April 2015 the U.S. and Honduras signed an agreement to support the development of sustainable agriculture in Honduras. It will provide the government of Honduras with a vast amount of U.S. agriculture products valued at $17 million.
By selling these products, the government will then have the money to implement their own projects that focus on job creation and income opportunities for vulnerable citizens such as rural farmers. Similarly, it hopes to build a stronger agricultural sector that can begin to focus on sustainable forms of farming.
TechnoServe, a nonprofit that aims to help the impoverished, recognizes that climate change severely affects Honduras. Its Dry Corridor has had recent issues with flooding and droughts that are wreaking havoc on rural farming. TechnoServe decided to start the Sustainable Agricultural Improvement project (MAS in Spanish) to help build farmers’ resilience to climate change in their bean and coffee farms—two of the country’s major exports. It provides training on sustainable agriculture practices and access to high-quality products.
By learning from TechnoServe, farmers have been able to buy more drought-tolerant seeds than traditional varieties and organic fertilizers that increase water retention, all at a better price thanks to a marketing agreement that MAS facilitated. Similarly, 3,400 bean farmers and 16,000 coffee farmers have increased their incomes by an average of 50 percent.
The project has also helped these farmers access more than $15 million in funding during the past four years, which has allowed over 700 farmers to build solar-powered machinery to reduce regular fuel-based machines that are not as sustainable. As a result of these sustainable practices, participating coffee farmers have sold 14,500 tons directly to exporters.
With help from USAID and smaller programs and groups, sustainable agriculture in Honduras has slowly improved. As climate change increasingly wreaks havoc on poorer nations with droughts, extreme weather and varied agricultural productivity, these projects support Honduran farmers through loans, financing, knowledge and exceptional products.
Slowly, sustainable agricultural in Honduras is gaining ground in a manner that similarly sustains economic growth and stability for farmers. With international support, Honduras as a nation can sustain and improve its agricultural market.
– Nick McGuire
Photo: Flickr
Success of Humanitarian Aid to Malawi Visible in 2018
Malawi, a country in eastern Africa, has long battled with issues of governmental corruption, famine and widespread disease. However, in recent years, Malawi has seen vast improvement in important areas of societal life, with most of that improvement being a result of focused effort of international aid programs that increase the successful return of humanitarian aid to Malawi.
With 2017 having drawn to a close, the success of humanitarian aid efforts and investments to the country of Malawi are most noticeable in two distinct categories: technological advancements and food security.
Technology
In regard to technology, the most recent “hot-button” word in Malawi is drones. As of this month, UNICEF has reported the completion of a corridor for testing drones, the first of its kind in both the country, region and in the continent of Africa as a whole.
The corridor was built in the Kasungu district of Malawi, in the Kasungu Aerodrome, and according to UNICEF officials, the drones piloted in and out are planned to be used to further humanitarian causes and programs.
In a press release, UNICEF said that the drones would focus on aerial imaging, Wi-Fi and cell phone signals and transportation of goods, food and medical supplies — much like the drones that were built and piloted in the 2016 testing of the program. The early machines were put through various trials such as transporting dried blood samples from infants for HIV testing in remote clinics.
Malawi’s Minister of Transport and Public Works Jappie Mhango said that the Malawi government was already looking into using the drones to respond to natural disasters like floods and fires.
Food Security
With food sustainability, numbers have improved dramatically from September and October’s low statistics. In late 2016 and early 2017, the majority of Malawian households reported a minimal to crisis level of food security, meaning that families didn’t know where their next meal was coming from, or if it was even coming at all. Malawian crops in recent years have been affected by both an unstable economy and a surge of armyworm infestations, as well as a long-lasting and regional-spanning drought.
Humanitarian Aid to Malawi
According to the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network, humanitarian aid to Malawi has caused an 87 percent decrease in low food security for households in the Malawi districts of Balaka and Machinga.
Project Concern International (PCI), Feed the Future and Concern Worldwide distributed more than 22,800 crop storage bags, trained 225 households across 45 communities on the use of the bags and collectively raised over $500,000 to improve food security and agricultural sustainability in Malawi in 2017.
In addition, USAID/OFDA provided a total of more than $3.5 million in 2017 to partner organizations to aid in the recovery of water sanitation and hygiene interventions.
Heading into 2018, Malawi’s food sustainability and security is on the rise, the country has embraced new technological solutions to humanitarian crises and the future looks brighter than it has in years past.
– Arianna Smith
Photo: Flickr
Growing Up in Exile: Who Is Monique Macías?
Born in Equatorial Guinea in 1970, only two years after the country gained independence from Spain, her father, Francisco Macías Nguema, was the small country’s first elected president. As a new president, Macías sought to form relationships with leaders of other countries such as North Korean President Kim Il-sung.
Monique Macías stated that her father and Kim Il-sung became fast friends because they had “a lot in common”, pointing out that “both fought against colonial powers and both built their support base through nationalism.”
Regardless, Francisco Macías had a short term due to a series of illegal acts he implemented through the Equatorial Guinean government. In the late 1970s. Francisco Macías was overthrown as president of Equatorial Guinea and tried for numerous crimes including genocide, embezzlement and treason. Francisco Macías was executed by firing squad in the late 1970s.
Foreseeing his exile and later execution, Franciso Macías sent his three children to North Korea to live and receive an education. Monique Macías, along with her sister and brother, attended Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in Pyongyang, North Korea, where they learned to shoot Kalashnikov rifles and participated in daily physical drills that involved running and climbing.
Formerly an all-boys school, the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School made a new class for Macías and her sister as an exception. The special treatment often led other students to ask: who is Monique Macías and why do she and her siblings deserve preferential treatment? Macías was not too young to recognize the special treatment that she and her siblings received in Pyongyang:
“[We] were the only Korean-speaking long-term foreign residents during that period. We lived a privileged lifestyle compared to other foreign students and the majority of North Korean people. Throughout those years Kim Il-sung stayed in regular contact with us…”
Macias lived in exile in Pyongyang for 15 years before relocating in 1994.
So, who is Monique Macías outside of exile? Still affected by the conditions in which she spent her formative years, Macías continues to author memoirs and articles about her incredibly unconventional childhood and discusses how living in Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, Spain and the United States informed her opinions of the North Korean regime.
“There are people in North Korea who know that this is not the right way to live,” she said in an interview with Reuters. “I don’t think it’s going to collapse easily.”
However, Monique Macías does not shy away from defending the country that took her in upon her father’s death and formed her childhood:
“I have found that Western media normally just focuses on nuclear issues, politics or human rights. Together, all this makes people think that North Korea is an evil country and that its people are simply robots….But having lived there, I am proof that all of these things are not always true.”
In the 2000s, Monique Macías published her memoir “I’m Monique, From Pyongyang” in Korean.
Photo: Flickr
Credit Access in Nigeria Growing as Obstacles Are Addressed
Although these numbers look promising, few businesses are successful in obtaining loans from financial institutions. According to The Credit Crunch, a joint report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the 840 MSMEs surveyed in Nigeria, only 31 percent successfully obtained a loan from a bank or microfinance institution. MSMEs are often burdened by a myriad of challenges like multiple taxation systems and high costs. The risks associated with credit access in Nigeria stem from many causes.
Lack of Collateral
To secure a loan from financial institutions, collateral is one of the prerequisites. This protects the lending bank in case the borrower defaults on the loan. For MSMEs looking for small business loans, inadequate collateral is a major reason for not receiving loans.
Secure land is the most common collateral for banks in Nigeria, but only 5 percent of the land is formally titled, mostly consisting of urban land or commercial farms. Low-income households own a large portion of rural land, which does not have validated titles.
This acts as a major obstacle for microenterprise owners and low-income households that are keen to obtain affordable credit from formal financial institutions. Many analysts argue that the provisions and implementations of the Land Use Act of 1978 are largely responsible for limiting the authenticated titling of rural land. Since banks ask for land or buildings as collateral in 98 percent of loan applications, low-income loan seekers remain unable to secure loans.
But efforts are being made to allow greater use of moveable and reputational collateral in bank loans. The CBN recently established the National Collateral Registry to improve credit access in Nigeria. Additionally, it is supporting the development of a modern credit reporting system in Nigeria with backing from the World Bank.
No Awareness of Credit Reporting System
Many borrowers are unaware of their credit history, and despite having a good credit record, they are reluctant to apply for loans simply because they do not meet the collateral requirements.
This becomes a concern for borrowers, particularly rural dwellers looking for microloans for their small businesses. They have been reluctant to approach banks for loans, which in turn has slowed down the entrepreneurial growth of small businesses that may have had a promising growth but could rarely take off due to a lack of financing.
The country remains a part of a large-scale campaign, the Credit Reporting and National Collateral Registry Education and Awareness Campaign. The campaign’s goal is to create awareness of credit tools through the collateral registry and the credit reporting system and is a collaborative initiative of the CBN and IFC. Such efforts promise to promote responsible lending and borrowing among those borrowers.
CBN has also teamed up with other stakeholders to promote the Credit Awareness campaign. The campaign promises to educate consumers on rural financial services and shares information on issues that will improve and allow greater appreciation of the rights and responsibilities of microfinance institutions and other financial institutions, along with their clients and stakeholders. Subsequently, Credit Awareness Nigeria plans on launching another public campaign on credit awareness and financial literacy to bring together microfinance practitioner institutions, development partners, stakeholders and clients of microfinance institutions.
No Interaction with Financial Institutions
Of those surveyed, less than a third of MSMEs successfully acquired loans for their businesses. A reason for this is that rural borrowers do not have an established relationship with banks. Due to their lack of interaction with financial institutions, rural borrowers fail to understand the conditions of getting a loan or the required loan application procedures. This also causes problems for rural dwellers who do not have a credit history, resulting in borrowers resorting to informal savings and reinvested profits.
Nigerian Businesses Remain Hopeful
While there remain considerable concerns about inadequate credit access in Nigeria, not all hope is lost. MSMEs overall have confidence in Nigeria’s economy and feel that economic growth will improve in the next five years as financial lenders become more willing to lend to smaller-scale businesses.
Nigeria is one of the 25 priority countries to become a part of the World Bank Group’s Universal Financial Access 2020 initiatives. The World Bank project aims to extend access to financial services to all adults by 2020. Moreover, many projects are joining hands to ensure that the rural dwellers get credit access, with programs being introduced to overhaul the obsolete land registration system and paving way for more credit options for rural farmers.
– Deena Zaidi
Photo: Flickr
Hydroelectric Power a Key Part of Infrastructure in Lesotho
In the middle of South Africa lies the small, mountainous country of Lesotho. The landlocked country, also known as the Kingdom of Lesotho, gained independence from British rule in 1966.
Lesotho is a poor country with a gross income of $570 per capita and a life expectancy of 51 years for men and 56 years for women. Infrastructure in Lesotho has its strengths and weaknesses; while the country may lack secure road infrastructure, it has one natural resource that has proved profitable through the years.
Road Transportation
The main transportation infrastructure in Lesotho is an 8,000 km road system, which accounts for 70 percent of the country’s transport system. The vast majority of the roads are made of gravel or earth; a smaller percentage is paved. The gravel and earth roads are often vulnerable to extreme weather conditions and the hilly, winding roads make navigating through Lesotho quite difficult. One of Lesotho’s biggest issues with road transport is a lack of safety. The country has an exceptionally high number of road incidents, especially in poor weather conditions.
In 2010, the Lesotho government elected to participate in the Decade of Action for Road Safety initiative developed by the United Nations. Member states are to adhere to the five pillars of the initiative, which are road safety management, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer road users and improved post-crash response. The initiative will focus largely on improving the quality of existing roads and building more paved roads throughout the country.
The project aims to decrease the number of road incidents by 50 percent in 2020, the final year of the initiative.
Water and Dams
As far as providing potable drinking water, Lesotho is comparable to most other countries in southern Africa. Lesotho does reasonably well with providing water to the rural population; however, issues of access and distance to drinking water still remain. However, with Lesotho’s numerous rivers, the country has no shortage of water overall. In fact, the water may prove profitable in the very near future.
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project was established by the signing of a treaty between South Africa and Lesotho in 1986. The initiative relies on the creation of numerous dams along the Lesotho rivers and tunnels that will deliver water to South Africa. The dams will also provide hydroelectric power for Lesotho.
The project was established by the signing of a treaty between the two countries in 1986. Phase I of the project, which was completed in 2003, involved the construction of two dams: the Katse and the Mohale. The second construction of Phase I was a hydropower station that will provide hydropower energy to improve the access to and quality of electricity throughout the country. Phase II is still in progress and its projected conclusion is not until 2024.
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project should benefit the overall infrastructure in Lesotho and contribute to the country’s income. Taking advantage of this abundant resource can be of great benefit to the country’s impoverished people and improve their lives greatly in the future.
– Danielle Poindexter
Photo: Flickr
5 Development Projects in Tonga
Tonga is a country comprised of 170 islands in the South Pacific, located close to Fiji and American Samoa. The island nation has a relatively high unemployment rate. This, coupled with an economy largely dependent on agricultural means of making money, has led to the creation of various development projects in Tonga. In recent years, these projects have improved stability in different aspects of the country.
Education
In 2012, the Peace Corps began a development project in Tonga designed to teach English as a foreign language. Aside from teaching English, the project’s larger goals are to improve the Tongan education system through the utilization of more computers and other technology. It also assists Tongan teachers in discovering new methods of teaching that are more student-centred. In addition, the project focuses on helping students develop healthy lifestyle habits. These lifestyle lessons are taught as part of the English language curriculum.
Growth Development
One of the more recent development projects in Tonga began in April 2017. The World Bank approved $5 million for policy reforms in the island nation. According to a press release on the World Bank website, these reforms aim to “improve the management of public finances, boost government accountability and encourage a more dynamic and inclusive economy.”
Climate Change
In 2013, the Asian Development Bank launched the Climate Resilience Sector Project in Tonga. This projects helps strengthen the country in the face of increasingly dangerous threats from climate change. The project finances low cost solutions which are executed at the local community level. Aside from this, the Asian Development Bank is also working with the Tongan government to create more renewable energy. By 2020, Tonga hopes to get 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources.
Environmental Protection
In July 2014, the United Nations Development Programme’s Pacific Office in Fiji created a project with the intention of protecting the ecosystem of the Fanga’uta Lagoon Catchment on Tongatapu Island. The project’s three main goals are to improve management of the lagoon, introduce an environmental management plan and educate local communities and national stakeholders about the role of the lagoon ecosystem and the benefits of protecting it.
Improved Healthcare System
The Australia-Tonga Aid Partnership, created in 2016, is a project where the Australian government provides funding each year to assist development projects in Tonga. Just last year, Tonga received around $30.4 million in aid from Australia. In particular, one of the projects that utilizes this funding is the Tonga Health System Support Program.
Phase One of the program began in 2009. Following this, Phase Two of the program started in March 2015. The objectives of the program are to stop the progression of noncommunicable diseases, generally advance health care services across the nation, provide enhanced mental health services, improve gender equality and provide access to universal health care.
Tonga has begun to experience a flourishing tourism industry that is becoming a main source of income for the nation. As a result of these five development projects in Tonga, the country can maintain economic, environmental and social stability as it continues to progress.
The support from these organizations will help Tonga combat increasing environmental risks that the country will face from climate change. Through these programs, Tonga will only continue to grow and further advance their infrastructure.
– Jennifer Jones
Photo: Flickr
The Success of Humanitarian Aid to Vanuatu
Vanuatu is an island nation located in the South Pacific, west of Fiji. One of the major problems Vanuatu faces is cyclone storms, which are tropical storms that create a heavy circulation of strong winds, thunderstorms and severe rain. Following such disasters, humanitarian aid to Vanuatu is critical.
Recently, in 2015, Vanuatu suffered one of the worst cyclones yet. Cyclone Pam was the second most intense cyclone in the South Pacific Ocean and one of the worst natural disasters in Vanuatu to date. During Cyclone Pam, winds exceeded 185 miles per hour, destroying 90 percent of the country’s infrastructure. As a result of this disaster, the success of humanitarian aid to Vanuatu was essential during this time and thereafter.
The Airbus Helicopters Foundation
Following the natural disaster, helicopters carrying aid was one success of humanitarian aid to Vanuatu. Having most of the infrastructure completely destroyed, helicopters were the best way to reach the communities in need. The Airbus Helicopters Foundation worked with the French Foreign Affairs Ministry Crisis Center. Together, they distributed humanitarian aid to people affected by the cyclone, including medical supplies and food.
The Airbus Helicopters Foundation also worked with numerous stakeholders to send helicopters to humanitarian workers. These workers would then get the supplies to the communities in the most desperate areas. They partnered with Garden City Helicopters from New Zealand in order to provide even more helicopter assistance to Vanuatu people in need.
Australian Government Assistance
One of the main humanitarian aid contributors during this disaster was Vanuatu’s neighbor, Australia. The Australian government committed $35 million after Cyclone Pam, between 2015 and 2018. The aid focuses on long-term recovery support and is delivered through the assistance of the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu. The recovery plans include:
These improvements will be focused on Shefa and Tafea, the provinces where nearly 90 percent of damage and destruction occurred after Cyclone Pam.
Israeli Assistance
Israel also helped the success of humanitarian aid to Vanuatu by sending food to feed 2,000 of the Island’s residents for the length of one month after Cyclone Pam hit. Food scarcity became a problem after the disaster as approximately 70 percent of Vanuatu’s crops were destroyed.
The food was a porridge in powder which was high in nutrients and helped people retain a healthy diet during the crisis. Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation in the Foreign Ministry sent food aid, which was then delivered locally by the Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid.
In addition to the food aid, volunteers from Israel stayed behind to help the local population. They renovated water systems and reestablished medical and mental health systems for the community.
The success of humanitarian aid to Vanuatu is just one of many examples where aid has helped thousands of people recover after a crisis occurs.
– McCall Robison
Photo: Flickr
Efforts to Improve Sustainable Agriculture in Venezuela
Agriculture is one of the most vital and ever-changing foundational blocks of a country, and can change due to environmental or man-made change. In Venezuela, food scarcity is a major issue in urban areas; thankfully, sustainable agriculture in Venezuela may make a huge difference in bringing food security to inner-city and rural areas. With the ever-changing weather conditions and political upheaval, though, Venezuela may not be able to maintain the sustainable agriculture market it is currently trying to build.
Sustainability Plan
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States, Venezuela has a six-year sustainability plan for agriculture in the region. It focuses on four major areas of sustainable agriculture in Venezuela: Supporting sustainable agricultural development, supporting initiatives aimed at achieving food security and sovereignty, supporting adaptation to climate change, risk management and preservation of the environment and promoting the Latin America and the Caribbean Without Hunger initiative and support to the South-South cooperation.
The government has a total of $22,650,000 allotted to be distributed among these four areas. However, these only touch the surface of efforts to protect and increase sustainable agriculture in Venezuela.
Agricultural Production
The Venezuelan Embassy to the United States has shared fact sheets on agriculture in the area. In 2012, they reported that nearly 64 percent of Venezuelans live in urban areas, and that with the increase of movement to cities and other rapidly modernizing areas, the amount of available produce and farming capability decreased. To combat such statistics, the Venezuelan government has not only increased the amount of agriculture-protective policy, but has also supported the development of 191 agricultural production units in major cities across the country.
These agricultural production units aim to help communities become self-sustaining in their local agriculture, and offer the ability to grow and collect fresh fruits and vegetables in a majorly commercial area. These units are supported by the Agro-Ciudad program, an organization which focuses on helping provide healthy and environmentally friendly food products for the schools, businesses, universities and communities that have adopted the program.
Meaningful Impacts and Political Climates
According to the fact sheet, the Agro-Ciudad aided 1,600 people and over 12,306 producers in the growth of their community produce. In addition, Agro-Ciudad helped create several workshops to teach local groups about all of their opportunities for growing produce in their area.
With so many opportunities to support sustainable agriculture in Venezuela, it is also not surprising that people are incredibly passionate about protecting the innovations against a volatile political culture. According to the Council of Foreign Relations, on July 30, 2017, President Nicolas Maduro won his election undisputedly, and moved to make a political coup almost immediately.
With Maduro in complete control of the government, changes impacting agriculture in Venezuela have yet to play out. Overall, sustainable agriculture in Venezuela is emerging, but the question of whether or not it will last within a new political sphere requires time to determine.
– Molly Atchison
Photo: Flickr
The Effects of Overcrowding and the Behavioral Sink Theory
A high population density may, in some instances, lead to inconveniences. Some of these inconveniences, like traffic and crowded sidewalks, are frustrating while others, such as a lack of resources, may be dangerous. Ethologist John B. Calhoun studied the effects of increased population density on the behavior of mice and concluded his studies with the theory of the behavioral sink. The theory is still largely contested and influences studies of human behavior, and this article will seek to answer the questions: what is a behavioral sink and how valid is the theory?
The Experiment
At the start of the study, Calhoun crafted a utopia where the mice could thrive in a secluded space and reproduce without a fear of predators or a lack of resources.
The mice utopia quickly spiraled into chaos once overcrowding commenced. In the worst instances of overpopulation, pregnant female mice experienced a higher number of miscarriages and mothers were losing track of their children. Other mice resorted to fighting when in direct contact with other mice for prolonged periods.
The strange actions of the group of mice are assumedly correlated with the heightened population; this relationship is then referred to as “behavioral sinks.” Calhoun reported the results of his mice experiment in the 1962 issue of Scientific American, and the concept of the behavioral sink soon garnered the attention of the public.
The Controversies
The work eventually proved controversial for a few reasons: first, the behavior of mice cannot be used independently to understand the behavior of humans; second, when scientists tried to study the behavioral sink theory in humans, they had to decide which human behaviors they would consider similar to the unusual behavior of the mice. For instance, some mice exhibited different sexual behaviors ranging from asexuality to bisexuality; and third, in order to detect this behavior in human beings, some researchers used STDs and illegitimacy as equivalents, an obviously offensive comparison.
The other controversy involved further experiments that proved the theory of behavioral sink did not hold up in human populations. Psychologist Jonathan Freedman conducted a similar, but significantly more humane, experiment with students to observe their behavior in situations of overcrowding in which he found no negative effects of overcrowding, but instead of over-socialization.
The Results
“Rats may suffer from crowding; human beings can cope,” stated Freedman in regards to Calhoun’s findings.
The theory played on the anxieties of those who disliked crowded areas, which were often people of low-income. Many felt that there was not only a higher rate of general crime in the low-income areas, but that there was also a higher chance that a crime would be committed against them. These classist conclusions led some to ask: what are the positive contributions of the behavioral sink theory?
Calhoun began to explore the importance of “spiritual space” as well as physical space, a concept that aligned pretty directly with Freedman’s theory of coping strategies. Calhoun cited creativity and art as giving people the ability to create distance between others in order to cope with overcrowding. This concept of stress related to over-socialization was a part of Calhoun’s experiments that positively influenced thought and research well after the 1970s.
– Danielle Poindexter
Photo: Flickr