The Republic of Kosovo is a disputed Southeastern European territory nestled in the Balkan Peninsula. Over the last two decades, the country has battled intense civil wars, horrific ethnic cleansings and a fight for freedom that finally culminated in its independence from Serbia (previously Yugoslavia) in 2008. In the early years of its autonomy, Kosovo’s poor economic conditions led the international community to brainstorm ways of how to help people in Kosovo.
As a result, Kosovo was under supervised independence by the International Steering Group until 2012. After 2012, the new country’s economy finally established some semblance of equilibrium. Kosovo held its own elections in 2013 and 2014 for the first time. Since then, their GDP has steadily been on the incline.
Although things are starting to look up for Kosovo, the country is still grappling to stabilize its workforce and job creation. In fact, 30 percent of the population still lives in poverty, 10 percent of which live off less than $1 per day. These discouraging numbers make sense considering the current growth model relies heavily on the remittance of citizens that fled during the war.
However, this strategy cannot be sustained over the long term, especially when the number of migrants leaving Kosovo for neighboring countries is still quite high. Thankfully, there are many charitable organizations and governmental efforts strategizing how to help people in Kosovo. Below are but a few that are doing spectacular things to bolster the Kosovo economy.
The Stabilization Association Agreement
The Stabilization Association Agreement (SAA) could perhaps be the single most influential document in Kosovo’s membership in the European Union. Negotiated in 2013 and 2014, the SAA was signed in 2015 and finally implemented the following year.
The agreement represents a new phase of Kosovo’s relationship with the E.U. and will pave the way for a more stable and prosperous Kosovo by implementing democratic principles and a variety of reforms set in accordance with E.U. standards. These restructurings will not only increase Kosovo’s wealth, but they will also bring the country closer to its goal of joining the European Union.
CARE International
Care International is a nonprofit organization that fights poverty around the world. They also have a specific focus on empowering women and girls. The organization has been working in the Balkans since 1993, providing humanitarian assistance during the worst of the conflict between the Serbs and Albanians. More recently, CARE has been initiating programs to build sustainable peace and development. These programs help to integrate minorities and youth into the job market, two of the largest unemployed groups in the county.
Anyone interested in learning how to help people in Kosovo through CARE need only visit their website, where the organization has a variety of strategies that the average person can act on today to join the fight against global poverty. These strategies include: signing petitions to help protect U.S. foreign aid; information on how to volunteer; and ways to raise money for the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Established more than 90 years ago by businessman and philanthropist Charles Mott, the foundation’s original purpose was to address the growing economic problems facing Flint, Michigan. As the organization built traction, however, it expanded its efforts to include international initiatives, as well.
For the last several decades, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has been providing assistance to the western Balkans, including Kosovo, through its Civil Society program. In 2008, Mott provided Kosovo with a two-year $50,000 grant to the Kosovo Women’s Network in support of its efforts to ensure that women play an active role in Kosovo’s key political policies.
Although Kosovo is still struggling with high rates of unemployment and fluctuating markets, the nation has demonstrated economic expansion every year since establishing its statehood in 2008. It has been able to accomplish this in part through its constitutional rule of keeping public debt below unsustainable levels and maintaining competitively low corporate tax rates.
The admirable efforts of the governmental reforms and non-profit organizations listed above, and many others like them, also reveal powerful ways of how to help people in Kosovo. Hopefully in the coming years, the combination of these factors will thrust Kosovo into a time of much-deserved economic growth, leaving its painful recent history to fade.
– Micaela Fischer
Photo: Flickr
3 Violations of Human Rights in Tanzania
To understand the extensive violation of human rights in Tanzania, one must first understand what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says. This document was created on December 10, 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly because of the events of World War II. The document lists thirty articles or rights that belong to all people. The three articles of the document that are regularly transgressed in Tanzania are:
Mistreatment of Young Women
Tanzanian women lack the human rights guaranteed to all in articles 3 and 26: the rights to livelihood, freedom, safety and an education. In their 2016 report, “I Had a Dream to Finish School,” the Human Rights Watch reported that girls in Tanzania are sexually harassed by teachers, bus drivers and adults. The leaders in their lives who are supposed to guarantee their safety instead request sex in exchange for gifts, rides or money. Schools in the country do not report sexual abuse cases to police. In addition, there is no system for reporting these infractions confidentially. The result? Less than one-third of girls entering lower-secondary schools graduate.
In addition to being sexually harassed, girls also are forced to take pregnancy tests at school. If a girl is pregnant, the school then expels her. Tanzanian schools expel around 8,000 pregnant girls each year. This policy reinforces President Magufuli’s June comments and is intended to discourage an upsurge in teen pregnancies. In reality, the policy violates the human rights of these young women. It also targets the victims rather than the offenders.
Barring Education through Testing
Tanzanian school children lack the human rights guaranteed in articles 5 and 26: the rights to not be exposed to cruel punishments and to seek an education. According to the Human Rights Watch, the Tanzania government controls the number of students who can seek a secondary education by making it mandatory for all students to take the Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE). The only students who can attend secondary school are students who pass the exam.
However, passing the exam is very difficult. This is because quality of education at the primary level is poor. At the primary level, students are taught by teachers who have not specialized in the subject they instruct and class sizes are enormous. The average class has 70 students enrolled. Many students fail the PSLE as a result and are not allowed to retake it. Since 2012, more than 1.6 million adolescents can’t pursue secondary education because of their exam results. This violation of human rights in Tanzania thus denies an opportunity for upward mobility.
Corporal Punishment in the Classroom
In addition to impeding children’s chances to continuing their education, adults utilize corporal punishment to discipline students when they do attend school. Students suffer from physical and psychological abuse in Tanzanian schools. Some teachers beat students with bamboo or wooden sticks, or with their hands or other objects. These actions make securing rights that much harder for this population.
While the state of human rights in Tanzania may seem grim for vulnerable populations, there is hope. Legislation currently in Congress can help to reverse these violations if passed. The Protecting Girls Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act seeks to work with international governments to ensure all women and children can peaceably seek an education. Help get this important piece of legislation passed by contacting your leaders today.
– Jeanine Thomas
Photo: Flickr
Learning From the History of Refugees
A common question is whether an individual is a migrant or a refugee, and the difference is force versus choice. Being a refugee means having been forcibly pushed out of a community or home, usually by violent means. On the other hand, a migrant makes the conscious decision to leave one’s home and seek a better life. However, these words have recently been used more interchangeably, which has led to failures in international treaties, in the view of government intervention and in the role of the public at large in amending refugee crises.
Upon investigating the definitions of refugee and migrant, there are several examples of forced movements of groups of people throughout history. The post-war movement following WWII has been one of the largest in history, coming second to present-day examples in the Middle East. The WWII refugee movement spawned several ideas surrounding the human rights of refugees, most importantly, the Common Asylum System out of the Geneva Convention. This grants international protection to anyone that meets the criteria of a refugee. However, current political structures and views of refugee-receiving nations have been less than ideal despite treaties that grant asylum, which has perpetuated poverty crises and large death tolls.
It is important to learn from the history of refugees the facts and lessons surrounding current and future refugee movements. The major factors leading to these movements are poverty and political corruption, whether from the government or from radical groups. However, the most important takeaway is of human rights for the innocent, usually dynamic members of society who are willing to integrate into safer living situations and have proved to be productive and non-violent in their new homes.
– Casey Hess
Photo: Flickr
Economic Context for Poverty in Belize
The nation’s economy provides context for Belize’s poverty. However, it seems like Belize should not face such high rates of poverty. For example, Belize is integrated with global politics and trade. Since gaining its independence from the United Kingdom in 1981, Belize has become a member of organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Central American Integration System and the Caribbean Community.
Belize’s location and its membership in these organizations allow the country to serve as a bridge between Central America and the Caribbean. Regarding the domestic economy, Belize has a booming tourism industry, which employs 25 of working Belize citizens. Tourism has picked up because Belize possesses the largest living coral reef in the world, and this attracts many divers and marine enthusiasts. Furthermore, U.S. economic expansion has helped boost the tourism industry.
However, Belize still faces challenges to economic growth and stability. The country’s economy is dependent on agriculture, manufacture and tourism. Belize produces citrus, sugar, bananas and fisheries and manufactures petroleum. Profit from petroleum can fluctuate depending on world commodity prices for oil. Both agriculture and tourism in Belize, which account for 13 percent and 25 percent of the GDP respectively, are influenced by weather conditions.
Belize must also confront its high debt repayments. In 2005, Belize’s debt to GDP ratio was 93 percent. By 2014, this percentage decreased to 78.6 percent. However, this ratio is still high and restricts the government’s budget for development programming.
The current economy is not conducive to reducing poverty in Belize. Belize must accelerate national income growth and ameliorate the growing wealth disparity. The slow-growing economy and high debts prohibit spending on social services and investment in human capital. Furthermore, Belize’s resources and economic sectors alone will not resolve issues of poverty. Poverty in Belize can only be reduced with help from international donors.
Fortunately, Belize has received aid from Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Belize also receives aid and assistance from a number of countries and organizations including Cuba, Venezuela, the United States, the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.
Though reducing poverty in Belize may have a long way to go, Belize is on the right track with the foreign aid they receive and their membership in development organizations.
– Christiana Lano
Photo: Flickr
Reducing the Poverty Rate in the Solomon Islands
Exploring the Poverty Rate in the Solomon Islands
Although modern tourism has added to the Islands’ economic portfolio, these profits are still few and far between and unevenly distributed. The vast majority of wealth is concentrated in the capital city, Honiara, in which 85 percent of the population is in the Islands’ highest wealth quintile.
According to the Asian Development Bank, in 2013, 12.7 percent of Solomon Islanders lived below the national poverty line. Nutrition-wise, they fared better: only 4.4 percent lived below the food poverty line. However, a mere 35.1 percent had access to electricity.
Technological developments and investment continue to play a vital role in reducing poverty in the Solomon Islands. In April 2017, the World Bank reported that the Green Climate Fund has approved $86 million toward the Tina River Hydropower Project, an effort to reduce reliance on imported fuel for electricity generation. This investment accompanies the $15 million provided by the International Renewable Energy Agency/Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (IRENA/ADFD).
The Solomon Islands’ electricity retail tariffs are currently among the highest in the world, at $0.65 per kilowatt-hour. Given that the Islands generate 97 percent of their electricity from diesel fuel and only 12 percent of homes are currently connected to grid power, this project stands to reduce the burden on working families and illuminate the islands like never before.
And, with electricity, the Islands should see an economic boost. The Asian Development Bank notes that tourism is a largely untapped market with great potential for development. Cheaper and more abundant energy is good for more than just powering residential areas: it can also lay groundwork for the sort of 24-hour “City of Light” that modern tourism creates and feeds on. With a stronger, cheaper energy grid in place, private investment will follow.
New technology and investments like these, guided by sound and prescient public policy, will be crucial to reducing the poverty rate in the Solomon Islands and materializing those mythical riches dreamed of since the days of de Mendaña.
– Chuck Hasenauer
Photo: Flickr
Addressing the Causes of Poverty in Namibia
Seventy percent of the population depends on agriculture. The country has fourteen regions, with many rural, agricultural regions. The agricultural regions do not fare well and the people there have had to deal with severe droughts as it is very arid. At these times, people cannot grow the food that they need to sell and to eat. Hunger and poverty are connected in this specific instance, showing that other issues are byproducts of poverty.In 2008, SKILLSHARE International began working with local organizations to create the Sustainable Livelihoods Project for Rural Communities in Namibia. Reports show that in order to reduce poverty, the country must understand subsistence farming. Some experts see this as the key to finding a way to reduce poverty because it affects so many lives in urban and rural areas.
The gap between the rich and the poor is seen through the separation of the northern and southern regions of Namibia. Large amounts of wealth are concentrated in the hands of the few. The Gini coefficient for Namibia, which measures inequality, shows that inequality is still pretty high at 0.6 (perfect equality is 0).Seventy percent of personal income taxes come from the top 10 percent of the population. This small group at the top has a lot more opportunity than those at the bottom who struggle to farm the arid land. There is a divide between the rural and urban areas. A large amount of the population lives in rural areas, while the few in the urban areas have more opportunities for jobs and economic success.Another socioeconomic factor is that the poor have little access to public services, which is something on which the Namibian government is starting to focus more. With more access to education and sanitation, the poor will be better off.To fight the causes of poverty in Namibia, the government started to change its fiscal policies. According to the World Bank, the fiscal policies adopted by Namibia have been successful thus far in reducing poverty.The World Bank described the policy as “a progressive social benefits and tax system,” which basically means that it creates higher taxes for the rich in order to provide the poor with more social benefits. This money can be used for healthcare, education, and for transfers, which give the poor money to use for living. The next step for the fiscal policies is to promote job creation to help the poor find employment.
Namibia’s maternal mortality is 200 deaths per 100,000 births, and its neonatal mortality is 19 deaths per 1,000 births. Nonprofit organizations like Synergy work on reducing maternal and infant mortality. They also want to increase youth employment and assist agricultural growth in Namibia.
Over the past twenty years, poverty is in decline in the country of Namibia. But, the situation is far from perfect and there remain many causes of poverty in Namibia. Through the continued work of the government and effective aid organizations, more of the vulnerable communities in Namibia will be able to find a path to prosperity.
– Emilia Beuger
Photo: Flickr
How to Help People in Kosovo
As a result, Kosovo was under supervised independence by the International Steering Group until 2012. After 2012, the new country’s economy finally established some semblance of equilibrium. Kosovo held its own elections in 2013 and 2014 for the first time. Since then, their GDP has steadily been on the incline.
Although things are starting to look up for Kosovo, the country is still grappling to stabilize its workforce and job creation. In fact, 30 percent of the population still lives in poverty, 10 percent of which live off less than $1 per day. These discouraging numbers make sense considering the current growth model relies heavily on the remittance of citizens that fled during the war.
However, this strategy cannot be sustained over the long term, especially when the number of migrants leaving Kosovo for neighboring countries is still quite high. Thankfully, there are many charitable organizations and governmental efforts strategizing how to help people in Kosovo. Below are but a few that are doing spectacular things to bolster the Kosovo economy.
The Stabilization Association Agreement
The Stabilization Association Agreement (SAA) could perhaps be the single most influential document in Kosovo’s membership in the European Union. Negotiated in 2013 and 2014, the SAA was signed in 2015 and finally implemented the following year.
The agreement represents a new phase of Kosovo’s relationship with the E.U. and will pave the way for a more stable and prosperous Kosovo by implementing democratic principles and a variety of reforms set in accordance with E.U. standards. These restructurings will not only increase Kosovo’s wealth, but they will also bring the country closer to its goal of joining the European Union.
CARE International
Care International is a nonprofit organization that fights poverty around the world. They also have a specific focus on empowering women and girls. The organization has been working in the Balkans since 1993, providing humanitarian assistance during the worst of the conflict between the Serbs and Albanians. More recently, CARE has been initiating programs to build sustainable peace and development. These programs help to integrate minorities and youth into the job market, two of the largest unemployed groups in the county.
Anyone interested in learning how to help people in Kosovo through CARE need only visit their website, where the organization has a variety of strategies that the average person can act on today to join the fight against global poverty. These strategies include: signing petitions to help protect U.S. foreign aid; information on how to volunteer; and ways to raise money for the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Established more than 90 years ago by businessman and philanthropist Charles Mott, the foundation’s original purpose was to address the growing economic problems facing Flint, Michigan. As the organization built traction, however, it expanded its efforts to include international initiatives, as well.
For the last several decades, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has been providing assistance to the western Balkans, including Kosovo, through its Civil Society program. In 2008, Mott provided Kosovo with a two-year $50,000 grant to the Kosovo Women’s Network in support of its efforts to ensure that women play an active role in Kosovo’s key political policies.
Although Kosovo is still struggling with high rates of unemployment and fluctuating markets, the nation has demonstrated economic expansion every year since establishing its statehood in 2008. It has been able to accomplish this in part through its constitutional rule of keeping public debt below unsustainable levels and maintaining competitively low corporate tax rates.
The admirable efforts of the governmental reforms and non-profit organizations listed above, and many others like them, also reveal powerful ways of how to help people in Kosovo. Hopefully in the coming years, the combination of these factors will thrust Kosovo into a time of much-deserved economic growth, leaving its painful recent history to fade.
– Micaela Fischer
Photo: Flickr
How Poverty Is Reduced Through Basic Technology
How is poverty reduced through basic technology? First and foremost, by understanding the realistic and productive uses for technology in a community and ensuring that it is relevant.
Too often there are stories of computers collecting dust in African classrooms, or new smartphone apps that can help impoverished people find work — in places where smartphones are unattainable. Despite the vast amount of information on the internet, it is hardly relevant to a rural family in a developing country and will rarely help them escape poverty. In reality, the technology that will help end poverty is more basic.
The United Nations is at the forefront of this vision, with the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) working towards the global spreading of information and communications technology (ICT). Founded in 1996, the IICD has come a long way in understanding the pragmatic strategy needed for implementing modern technology in developing countries. The IICD has learned that “it is not the technology itself that makes the difference but rather the people who own it and apply it.” Therefore, helping people get the most out of ICT is now as equally important to the organization’s mission as introducing it.
The IICD works to apply ICT to health, economic and education sectors in different communities around the world. It’s main focus is in the context of helping the U.N. meet its Millennium Development Goals — an effort that the IICD has been at the center of. In short, the IICD works to instigate large-scale social change through low-tech, relevant technology.
Other organizations, such as Kopernik, work on a smaller scale to improve the lives of many through simple technology. Kopernik connects poor, rural families with basic, life-altering technologies that not only save lives, but also save money and time. These simple technologies include water filters, fuel-efficient stoves and solar lights.
Technologies such as solar lights are affordable and sustainable, and their usage is linked to positive behavioral changes and higher household productivity. Investing and distributing this basic technology should be a major priority, for it is fundamental to increasing human development and reducing poverty.
It is not to say that computers and the internet are not infinitely useful and powerful, but we should keep in mind that the internet won’t help a child if they only have access to contaminated water. So, perhaps the question of how to eliminate poverty has a simple answer: distribute relevant, basic technology.
– Catherine Fredette
Photo: Google
Conflict in Myanmar and Gender Equality
An impressively free election in 2015 gave power to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy (NLD). The foremost goal of the administration is to end the decades of ethnic conflict, but the complexity of these issues does not allow for easy solutions.
The Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process works to promote women’s rights and gender equality as a method to end Myanmar’s ethnic conflict.
Obstacles to women entering decision-making roles include the prevalence of gender violence and entrenched societal expectations that women must play supporting roles in society. Myanmar’s constitution condones discrimination, with section 352 stating “nothing…shall prevent the appointment of men to the positions that are suitable for men only.” Women are frequently characterized as “decorative.”
The conflict affects women, men and children differently since they occupy different roles in society. Men are susceptible to combat-related injuries, while women bear the burden of sexual violence, damage to property, and mental trauma. Despite these obstacles, women take an active role in mitigating the damage done by the conflict in Myanmar.
Women have convinced conflicting groups to fight in locations farther from villages. They have also protected men and children by sending them away or hiding them and stepped up to keep the village functioning as their men fled for safety. Excluding women from the peace process prevents the perspective and experiences of 52 percent of the population.
Women better understand the impact of conflict on women, children, the disabled and the elderly. The role of men in these conflicts effectively prevents them from being able to effectively represent large portions of society in negotiating solutions.
International research has shown that women tend to best represent marginalized groups. According to a study by the United Nations, women participating in the decision-making process is a crucial element for achieving sustainable peace.
Involving women in political processes is also an effective strategy for countering extremism. Extreme religions tend to restrict women’s rights, but funding and supporting women weakens the influence of extremists.
In Myanmar, women have crucial roles in dealing with and responding to conflict, and the efforts supported by the Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process are a promising step in the right direction to ending decades of conflict in Myanmar.
– Kristen Nixon
Photo: Google
On the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
As a result, a slew of arguments for and against the Overseas Private Investment Corporation have been published in recent months. This article is an attempt to provide clarity about the role of OPIC and suggest that its overall benefits outweigh its costs.
Established by President Nixon in 1971, OPIC provides loans and political risk insurance to private American companies seeking to invest in developing countries. Developmental financing was conceived as a complement to governmental aid insofar as it facilitated the transference of private capital to developing economies.
Critics of OPIC often argue that, as a public institution, the agency crowds out private banks that should, in theory, be more efficient financiers of international development.
The truth is that, although a robust private market for developmental finance exists, private capital oftentimes averts especially risky and poor countries due to the inevitably high premiums and interest rates.
OPIC, on the other hand, is in a unique position to support investments in these countries.
With the backing of the U.S. government, OPIC has been able to recover over 90 percent of its political risk claims. This fact has allowed the agency to offer affordable loans and political risk insurance in countries deemed too risky by private finance institutions.
Other critics of OPIC claim that it represents a form of “corporate welfare,” citing the fact that the agency gives loans to some of the largest U.S. firms, like J.P. Morgan, Citibank, and Wells Fargo.
Although all American firms are welcome to apply for financing, year after year, more than half of OPIC’s commitments go to small- and medium-sized businesses.
Even if one remains unconvinced about the benefits of OPIC, it is important to recognize that the agency imposes virtually no cost on the U.S. government. While OPIC does require federal backing to insure its $20 billion worth of outstanding loans, the agency has been self-sustaining for almost four decades. In fact, it has used its interest receipts to contribute nearly $4 billion to U.S. deficit reduction.
In the end, while there are many arguments for and against the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the truth is that the agency has a net positive effect on American firms and developing economies alike.
– Nathaniel Sher
Photo: Flickr
Universal Basic Income in Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir’s State Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu proclaims that a UBI will prevent wastage of monetary funds. In a January 2017 budget presentation, Drabu announced that the J&K would use direct benefit transfers. This means that the government deposits money directly into individual bank accounts.
Economic experts have for long endorsed a UBI. According to Pranab Bardhan, emeritus professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, Below the Poverty Line (BPL) lists in most Indian states exclude persons legally designated as poor, while numerous well-off families succeed in bribing their way onto the lists.
In Jammu and Kashmir, where geopolitical turmoil wreaks havoc on the economy and the public’s standard of living, UBI systems could tackle poverty. The J&K has a poverty rate of 21.63 percent. Additionally, the unemployment rate among young people is an alarming 24.6 percent.
In 2011, the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), in a project funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), launched pilot studies of the effectiveness of such UBI grants in India. Several results stood out:
The SEWA/UNICEF trial yielded greater benefits for working class families, women, and persons with disabilities. Universal Basic Income helps reduce debt and renders less likely the need to go into more significant debt. Individuals reduced the need to borrow money for short-term purposes.
UBI will replace several current welfare schemes, compelling cooperation between the central Indian government and Jammu and Kashmir. Aside from lowering the cost of delivering social programs, Drabu declares UBI plans will deter leakages that plague many current social programs. Existing policies have left over 350 million people mired in poverty, even after two decades of high economic growth.
Universal Basic Income in Jammu and Kashmir will replace several current welfare schemes, necessitating cooperation between the central Indian government and J&K. In addition to reducing the expense of delivering the social projects, Drabu maintains UBI will deter leakages that plague many current social programs.
– Heather Hopkins
Photo: Flickr