At the Leader’s Summit on Refugees on September 20, 2016, then-President Barack Obama announced the creation of the World Bank Global Concessional Finance Facility in response to the additional costs middle-income countries have incurred because of the refugee crisis.
As of June 2017, the Global Concessional Finance Facility has approved $900 million of concessional financing — financing at a reduced rate compared to market value — for development projects in target nations.
Initially, the concessional finance facility provided funds solely to Jordan and Lebanon, two middle-income nations which together have accepted two million Syrian refugees, the largest amount in the world relative to population.
The new objective is to raise $1 billion for Jordan and Lebanon and an additional $500 million for other potential middle-income countries which could face an influx of refugees in the next five years.
While refugee host nations generally receive humanitarian assistance, long-term development is often ignored, hurting native populations. Jordan, for example, has had to spend an additional $550 million annually to assist the refugees.
The goals of the World Bank’s Global Concessional Finance Facility are to bridge humanitarian into long-term assistance, increase international coordination to address the refugee crisis, provide aid to both the native and local populations of target nations and implement sustainable policy reforms.
Japan is the top contributor to the fund allocating $100 million. The U.S. has contributed $50 million. Overall, there are 10 supporting countries.
Every dollar in grant contribution equals $4 in concessional financing. If the World Bank’s goal is reached, the international organization will be able to provide $6 billion in financing to middle-income countries for development projects.
Two recent projects funded by the Global Concessional Finance Facility that benefited both native and refugee populations were a $250 million grant for improving water and electricity delivery and $200 million apportioned for updating the road system in Lebanon.
The very first project funded by the facility was a $300 million investment called the Economic Opportunities for Jordanians and Syrian Refugee Program, which bolstered Jordan’s labor market. This was especially useful in Jordan, where 84% of refugees live in urban and rural areas as opposed to refugee camps.
The issues facing countries that accept Syrian refugees are daunting. In relative terms, Lebanon has accepted the equivalent of the population of France moving to the U.S. Nevertheless, the global community has taken a step to alleviate the burden of a few countries to not only avert disaster but to recognize public good and promote international cooperation.
– Sean Newhouse
Photo: Flickr
Powerful Women in Poor Countries
Women in developing countries are one of the most vulnerable and oppressed groups in the world. But even in the face of challenges such as disproportionate violence, child marriages, teenage pregnancy and minimal education, many women are fighting back. The Borgen Project highlights five powerful women in poor countries who are asserting their power against fierce adversity.
This international icon has been an inspiration to girls everywhere since she survived a Taliban attack in 2012. The Pakistani teenager was targeted by the extremist group for her advocacy in support of girls’ education rights. Since her miraculous recovery, Yousafzai has continued her fight against gender inequality by founding the Malala Fund. This organization advocates for and invests in girls’ education in the poorest and most unequal countries in the world. At age 17, she became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Her story of resistance has made her one of the most powerful women in poor countries.
This Yemeni scientist is breaking cultural barriers and scientific boundaries despite hardship and discrimination. Like Malala, she has been physically attacked for defiance of her culture’s strict gender roles. She was forced to flee to Malaysia from the civil war in her native Yemen. In the face of these extreme obstacles, Dauqan has managed to become an awarded chemist. In a country where many women need a man’s permission to leave the house, Dauqan earned a college degree and a Ph.D. in biochemistry. She has gone on to publish a popular book, earn international awards for her scientific contributions and be named assistant professor and head of her department at Al Saeed University. It is no wonder that NPR calls her “unstoppable.”
This Palestinian inventor created Green Cake, a revolutionary new building block made from ashes. In her war-torn home of Gaza, resources are limited and many buildings are in ruins. Al-Asharawy researched for six months to develop her special brick out of the resources available in Gaza. Green Cake is environmentally friendly and fire-resistant, weighs half what a concrete block does and costs half the price. This inspiring young inventor is yet another woman utilizing her limited resources to revolutionize the world around her.
India is one of the most rapidly improving countries in the developing world, but gender equality in the country is not up to pace. Ninety-two women are raped in India every day. After being harassed by men on the street, Sharma teamed up with a kung fu coach to offer free self-defense classes to underprivileged girls. By working with parents and teachers in the girls’ communities, she has built up a small army of girls with the skills and confidence to defend themselves. Sharma is helping to equip more powerful women in poor countries to stand up to violence and sexual harassment.
In Southeast Asia, the human trafficking of young girls is rampant. Five hundred Buddhist nuns from India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet are fighting this practice through a 4,000-kilometer bike trip. For the fourth time, the nuns biked from Kathmandu to Leh, India to raise awareness of human trafficking and promote messages of gender equality. Along the way, they met with local officials, provided food to poor communities and helped marginalized people access medical care. They are even trained in martial arts to defend themselves against male harassment. These powerful women in poor countries are blazing a new trail for girls in Southeast Asia.
There is still a lot of work to be done by the international community and local governments to support gender equality in the developing world. But these powerful women in poor countries are proving that they are far from powerless.
– Bret Anne Serbin
Photo: Flickr
WBG Funds Guyana Education Sector Improvement Project
On April 28, 2017, the World Bank approved a $13.3 million credit toward the Guyana Education Sector Improvement Project. The project aims to improve various aspects of school operations at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels in Guyana.
While school enrollment is rapidly expanding at all levels, many Guyanese students still fail to meet baseline standards in math or English. In the 1970s, Guyana faced major economic decline and public schools received little funding. Many teachers left the country in order to pursue higher-paying positions, leaving schools with untrained and inexperienced teachers.
The economy began to improve in the 1980s as Guyana diversified its exports. Several education-focused aid programs began implementation. Approved by the World Bank in 1989 and completed three years later, the Primary Education Improvement Program of Guyana aimed to train more teachers and provide better physical facilities at the primary level. From 1987-1992, UNESCO sponsored the Equal Opportunity for Girls in Technical and Vocational Education, which involved the training of teachers and female students in the industrial arts at the secondary level.
These and similar programs that ran at the same time had mixed successes. Girls studying the industrial arts program scored better than their peers on standardized tests, and a significant number went on to take courses in the industrial arts at the Guyana Industrial Training center. However, despite the amount of work that has been done to sufficiently train teachers in different disciplines, the Cyril Potter College of Education, Guyana’s main teacher-training facility, simply cannot meet primary and secondary schools’ demand for teachers.
Taking this into account, the Guyana Education Sector Improvement Project will mainly work toward developing new curriculums at the primary and secondary levels and training 6,500 teachers in these curriculums. As a lack of facilities continues to pose a problem, the project will also build a new facility to house the University of Guyana’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
Tahseen Sayed, the World Bank Country Director of the Caribbean, notes that “[q]uality education is one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty.” As Guyana’s GDP has continued to rise dramatically every year since 2005, the Guyana Education Sector Improvement project will hopefully reinforce this economic growth–and vice versa.
– Caroline Meyers
Photo: Flickr
Ghana Using GeneXpert to End Tuberculosis
Ghana plans to end tuberculosis (TB) and other lung-related diseases by 2030 through the aid of diagnostic technology GeneXpert, according to Ghanaian doctor Frank Bonsu. He spoke at a press conference before the opening of the 20th Conference of the Union Africa Region on Lung Health. The four-day-long conference, held approximately every two years, brings together more than 800 international and African delegates to discuss and plan tactics for eliminating TB and other lung diseases from the African continent.
Bonsu is the chairman of the conference as well as the program manager of Ghana’s National TB Control Programme. He said that although Ghana has made strides in fighting TB, there are still many cases that go undetected. Ideally, 44,000 cases of TB should be detected each year, but currently, only 15,000 are diagnosed. Bonsu blames the country’s lack of modern diagnostic equipment, its low number of microbiologists, the population’s poor awareness and the stigma of the disease that keeps people from seeking medical aid.
A combination of Ghana using GeneXpert and a reduction of the negative stigma against TB, Bonsu believes, is needed for effective eradication. The National TB Control Programme also changed its emphasis from treating those who seek medical attention at facilities to its current outreach strategy in risk communities. The program hopes going out and offering aid will encourage early diagnosis, increase treatment and decrease stigma.
GeneXpert is a molecular test that can detect even the smallest amount of TB bacteria. It can also test for resistance to the common TB antibiotic Rifampicin. The main difference between GeneXpert and the other methods of TB detection, such as sputum microscopy, is its reliability and speed. GeneXpert can have results in less than two hours as opposed to weeks.
GeneXpert can only be used for diagnostic purposes and cannot be used to properly monitor treatment. It also does not eliminate the need for conventional microscopy culture and drug sensitivity testing, according to the World Health Organization, as these tactics are still needed to monitor treatment progress and detect other types of drug resistance. Yet GeneXpert is a major milestone in TB diagnostic technology.
With Ghana using GeneXpert, many more cases of TB can be caught early and treated more effectively. Ghana hopes that with the introduction of this new technology by the end of this year, along with outreach programs and a decrease in negative stigma, the country will be free of TB in 2030.
– Hannah Kaiser
Photo: Flickr
Care Helps Limit Top Diseases in Monaco
Monaco already is making records with the highest life expectancy in the world. The average expectancy is 90 years old, which crushes the average worldwide life expectancy of 72. Monaco has a very small population, coming in at 37,731 in 2015. There aren’t many of the top diseases in Monaco that aren’t seen around the world, yet communicable diseases are coming in very low at just 6%. Non-communicable deaths account for 86% of the total number of fatalities in the country.
Non-communicable deaths account for the vast majority of the deaths and diseases in Monaco. Just more than a quarter of all non-communicable deaths are people under the age of 60. Just about 17% of males die before reaching the age of 60, while females are sitting at about 8.5%.
The top two of the top diseases in Monaco are cardiovascular diseases at 33% and the various cancers at 28% of total deaths in Monaco. These are both on the higher end of both of these spectrums as compared to the rest of the world. Cancers, especially, usually have a lower proportional mortality percentage. The treatment and care for those that are stricken with these diseases are very good in Monaco thus contributing to its very high life expectancy.
Injuries and other communicable diseases make up just 14% of the diseases in Monaco. It is fairly common for communicable diseases to be very low around the world in each country.
The only two risk factors that were stated in 2008 by the World Health Organization were physical inactivity and tobacco use. This is a good trend with the majority of the other risk factors not existent among the citizens of Monaco.
Monaco is a fairly safe area to travel to with the majority of the country in the higher income group and better off than most of the world. Just routine vaccinations should be enough before leaving.
Monaco is a country with a lot of wealth and resources to be able to take care of those that are in need. The life expectancy is not all that surprising when looking at the resources at hand to help those that need it.
– Brendin Axtman
Photo: Flickr
10 Impacts on Food and Hunger in Iceland
Iceland, a small island nation located in the North Atlantic northwest of the United Kingdom, went bankrupt in 2008 when global financial markets collapsed. Since then, the economy has recovered, but many factors affect its food-related economy. Here are 10 impacts on food and hunger in Iceland.
As these impacts on food and hunger in Iceland indicate, food poverty is not only a problem in the developing world, and it continues to have a disproportionate impact on children. In addition, even countries with plenty of food to export can be dependent on food imports and what it takes to produce food. What may be more, when talking about impacts on food and hunger in Iceland, is the effect of natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions.
– Laurie Gold
Photo: Flickr
Combating Non-Communicable Diseases in the Maldives
The top diseases in the Maldives mirror those in much of the rest of the globe. Non-communicable illnesses dominate the majority of the diseases in the Maldives. However, at 77 years, life expectancy in the Maldives is much better than the majority of the world. In addition, the annual mortality rate among healthy people in the Maldives is 578 per 100,000 people. This is with a very small population of around 400,000.
Worldwide, there needs to be more of a focus and research on cardiovascular diseases. It impacts hundreds of thousands of individuals every year, and it is the most common disease in the Maldives. Of all the major diseases, 37% of them are various types of cardiovascular disease.
The majority of the top diseases in the Maldives are non-communicable, including different cardiovascular diseases. Some of the other non-communicable diseases that impact the Maldives included chronic respiratory diseases, which have a mortality rate of just over 9%. Mortality rates for diabetes and other blood and endocrine diseases sit at just over 8%. Cancer is a major disease around the world that is receiving a lot of research, and the mortality rate in the Maldives is sitting at 7.5%.
Unintentional injuries also have a high spot on the list of mortality rates at just over 7%. Additionally, self-harm is just over 2%. Injuries seem to be a lot higher on lists than other countries around the world and are avoidable. The unintentional injuries are tough to prevent, but self-harm is preventable with proper help and care.
One of the most common communicable diseases is neonatal disorders (6% mortality rate). Additionally, diarrhea and lower respiratory diseases have a 5% mortality rate. These are rarely seen around the world.
Risk factors in the country include tobacco smoking, with 42% of current male smokers at risk and only 7% of females at risk of medical problems caused by tobacco smoking. Elevated blood pressure is also a problem, with 23% of the country having blood pressure problems. The other major risk factor in the Maldives is obesity.
Zika is still a major concern in the Maldives, so there are many precautions for individuals visiting the area. Travelers need to be aware of other diseases in the area and have their vaccinations up-to-date before entering the Maldives.
Non-communicable diseases dominate the list of top diseases in the Maldives. There needs to be more of a focus on preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases and other non-communicable diseases in this region.
– Brendin Axtman
Photo: Flickr
Narrowing the Gap: Investing in the Poorest Children
On June 28, the U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) released its report “Narrowing the Gaps: The Power of Investing in the Poorest Children.” The new peer-reviewed report compiled data from 2003-2016 and supports the claim that investing in the health of the world’s poorest communities saves lives and is cost-effective. The following are 10 facts learned from the compelling report.
While previous thought may have suggested that investing in the extreme poor is a hopeless cause, UNICEF’s report “Narrowing the Gaps: The Power of Investing in the Poorest Children” clearly shows that doing so saves more lives and is more cost-effective. Pursuing equity in health coverage between and investment in poor and non-poor communities is right not just in principle but also in practice.
– Sean Newhouse
Photo: Flickr
World Bank Global Concessional Finance Facility
At the Leader’s Summit on Refugees on September 20, 2016, then-President Barack Obama announced the creation of the World Bank Global Concessional Finance Facility in response to the additional costs middle-income countries have incurred because of the refugee crisis.
As of June 2017, the Global Concessional Finance Facility has approved $900 million of concessional financing — financing at a reduced rate compared to market value — for development projects in target nations.
Initially, the concessional finance facility provided funds solely to Jordan and Lebanon, two middle-income nations which together have accepted two million Syrian refugees, the largest amount in the world relative to population.
The new objective is to raise $1 billion for Jordan and Lebanon and an additional $500 million for other potential middle-income countries which could face an influx of refugees in the next five years.
While refugee host nations generally receive humanitarian assistance, long-term development is often ignored, hurting native populations. Jordan, for example, has had to spend an additional $550 million annually to assist the refugees.
The goals of the World Bank’s Global Concessional Finance Facility are to bridge humanitarian into long-term assistance, increase international coordination to address the refugee crisis, provide aid to both the native and local populations of target nations and implement sustainable policy reforms.
Japan is the top contributor to the fund allocating $100 million. The U.S. has contributed $50 million. Overall, there are 10 supporting countries.
Every dollar in grant contribution equals $4 in concessional financing. If the World Bank’s goal is reached, the international organization will be able to provide $6 billion in financing to middle-income countries for development projects.
Two recent projects funded by the Global Concessional Finance Facility that benefited both native and refugee populations were a $250 million grant for improving water and electricity delivery and $200 million apportioned for updating the road system in Lebanon.
The very first project funded by the facility was a $300 million investment called the Economic Opportunities for Jordanians and Syrian Refugee Program, which bolstered Jordan’s labor market. This was especially useful in Jordan, where 84% of refugees live in urban and rural areas as opposed to refugee camps.
The issues facing countries that accept Syrian refugees are daunting. In relative terms, Lebanon has accepted the equivalent of the population of France moving to the U.S. Nevertheless, the global community has taken a step to alleviate the burden of a few countries to not only avert disaster but to recognize public good and promote international cooperation.
– Sean Newhouse
Photo: Flickr
The Impact of Market Prices on Poor Countries
There are various global markets providing third world countries with necessities such as food and hygiene care products. These markets are the center for resources for areas in poverty. These areas are prone to high inflation rates, and therefore, setting prices and controlling costs are important to the industry.
Market prices have a great impact on poor countries, especially to avoid hunger. Poor households spend about 60-80% of their income on food. They will be scraping everything they have just to be fed. With an increase in food prices, they will have even less to spend on other necessities, such as clothes, medicine and books.
Over the years, prices within these markets have increased and about 44 million people and counting have fallen into poverty as a result of these higher prices. Prices are influenced by expanding populations, reliance on food crops and shifting food prices. Increasing prices are threatening poor people around the world.
Because of the increase, the impact of market prices has caused poor countries to restrict advancements to people’s households. Food price-related riots have taken place in a few countries, as the demand for affordable food and supply increases.
Along with food and supply, education seems non-essential as well. While market prices increase, more of a poor household’s income decreases, leaving less money going into children’s education. Children may have to work as a farmer or merchant to earn a few coins for the family.
With the effects most visible in poor countries, often, businesses will alter their products, influence government negotiations and predict the pricing. These alterations will minimize the effects of price control.
The impact of market prices is crucial. It is a factor in determining survival for households in poor countries. Market prices may determine whether a family will be able to afford to eat, or even save farmers with replaceable food when their crops are demolished by drought. The impact of market prices is what drives the economy of many countries. Whether there is an increase or decrease in its prices, there is an immediate reaction in the countries themselves, especially those in poverty.
– Brandi Gomez
Photo: Flickr
Why is Jamaica Poor?
Jamaica is known to be an upper-middle-income country. Yet, it is one of the slowest-developing economies in the world. Its poverty rate has improved, decreasing from 19.9% in 2012 to 18.7% today. Although there is a significant improvement, there are still present causes that answer the question, “why is Jamaica poor?” Crime, unemployment rates, reliability on imported goods and other social conflicts contribute to poverty in Jamaica.
Jamaica constantly faces crime and violence. It has an above-average crime rate as well as high poverty levels. People commit crimes usually when they are in need. Because of poor conditions, there is a need to steal food out of hunger or other circumstances. These criminal acts are a direct effect of Jamaica’s impoverished state.
Unemployment is a great challenge many Jamaican families go through. The unemployment rate is around 12.9% as of the end of last year. This creates difficulty for children trying to go to school. With no education, there is no social growth within the community. This is another answer to the question “why is Jamaica poor?”
Jamaica’s education system requires most schools to have fees. This creates a barrier for many households because they cannot afford these fees. Limiting children’s education limits their opportunities to reduce poverty in the country, and the cycle continues.
With an 8.29% inflation rate and high reliance on imported goods for daily necessities, most of Jamaica is scraping its way through survival. And so, why is Jamaica poor? Jamaica’s public debt, unemployment and crime rates have weakened the economy over the years. While Jamaica has many in poverty now, it does not mean it is its fate. With organizations working to reduce poverty around the world and Jamaica’s significant improvement, the country has a developing future.
– Brandi Gomez
Photo: Flickr