Poverty in Iran? Big yes. Iran’s economy grew at an accelerated pace of 9.2 percent at the close of the Iranian fiscal year, an auspicious preview to the “economic revolution” promised by President Hassan Rouhani in his inauguration earlier this year. However, developments from the economic sector did little to create jobs for Iranians and failed to translate to any significant impact in addressing poverty in Iran. Over 70 percent of Iranians still live in poor conditions, while 30 percent were classified as absolute poor at the end of 2016.
Unemployment due to the lack of available jobs is still a grave concern among citizens, as the government is still unable to improve from the annual job creation rate of 600,000. This dismal number presents an even graver issue to be addressed: with over a million students graduating from college every year, most of these young Iranians are not able to find work and a source of income. One out of four young Iranians are unemployed, and most of them end up falling into the 61 percent of the population who are neither employed nor looking for employment.
Even graduating with a higher degree (for example a master’s degree or a Ph.D.) does not guarantee anybody a job upon graduation. Many of these people have struggled to find jobs that are in line with their specializations and often opt for blue-collar jobs with meager salaries just to put food on the table. Mehdi Ebrahimi, an Iranian man who received a master’s degree from Tehran’s Payame Noor University, has chosen to carry heavy loads in border areas to be able to earn income and fend for his family, instead of embarking on a painstaking search for work in line with his degree.
What Causes Poverty in Iran
Hardship does not end with securing a job, however, since 90 percent of the labor force lives below the poverty line. Disgruntled workers argue that the minimum wage income of 8,112,000 Iranian rials (roughly $246) is barely enough to cover basic necessities. For a family of four, surviving requires roughly twice the amount.
“Many workers cannot even afford the basic products they need for survival. Many of these items are now considered luxuries,” said Rahmatollah Poormoussa, head of Iran’s state labor organization.
To put the wage disadvantage that these workers have in contrast to their international counterparts, the Iranian minimum hourly wage of roughly $1 is a tenth of the average minimum wage in Western countries and only a third of the wage taken home by workers in Turkey. China, notorious for paying workers the lowest minimum wage, pays about 1.2 times more than their Iranian counterparts.
Contractual employment is also a challenge for these workers. For irregular laborers, contractual work often means an unstable and unreliable flow of income. Most of these workers are not paid until weeks after they are due their wage, and most of the time their wage does not come before their stock of basic necessities is depleted. It is no surprise that 95 percent of contractual workers fall under the poverty line.
Subsequently, they and their dependents suffer from the insecurity of not knowing when breadwinners will be able to take their wages and buy food and other needs. Contractual workers and their families comprise a large amount of the 70 percent of Iranians who reported to be food insecure.
The difficulty of creating jobs may likely be a result of long political turmoil, caused by national and international conflicts, as well as the previous closure of industrial and manufacturing units. Economic conditions have become slightly better after sanctions against the country were lifted, but it has still not been enough to promote the well-being of citizens and alleviate conditions for the poor.
Critics of the Rouhani’s administration have also cited the regime’s pouring of funds into foreign conflicts and military spending rather than on infrastructural and social welfare projects as a reason for the ineffectiveness of government to address poverty in Iran. If Rouhani’s government really wants to jumpstart the “economic revolution” he has promised his people, they say, he must begin to see infrastructural and welfare projects as a top priority for his administration.
Investing in these projects will be a good starting point in fixing the market, improving the quality of lives of workers and subsequently address the growing problem of poverty in Iran.
– Bella Suansing
Photo: Flickr
Female Genital Mutilation Protection App Helps Girls
The creators of the female genital mutilation app are Ivy Akinyi, Stacy Owino, Cynthia Otieno, Mascrine Atieno and Purity Achieng, who refer to themselves as the Restorers. According to CNN, Dorcas Adhiambo Owino was the girls’ mentor on the project.
The female genital mutilation protection app i-Cut, as explained in Ebony, has five options: “”help”, “rescue”, “report”, “information on FGM” and “donate and feedback”.” “Help” alerts the authorities when FGM is about to occur, and “Rescue” gives young women information about places to receive medical treatment after FGM. “Report” informs the authorities that an instance of FGM has occurred.
Although FGM is illegal in Kenya, it is still heavily practiced, with one in five girls experiencing it. According to Mashable, FGM is seen as a rite of passage in many communities, preparing young women for marriage and purportedly discouraging premarital sex. These traditions are commonly found in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Unfortunately, girls experience many challenges after FGM. According to Mashable, young girls are often unable to go to school, which prevents many of them from being employed. There is also a connection between girls who become young wives and mothers and FGM. Worse still, many girls die as a result of the process.
The creators of the female genital mutilation app have a personal connection with FGM: even though their tribe is opposed to the practice, a friend of theirs from school went through it. The friend, as they explained to Reuters, was intelligent, but dropped out of school after the procedure was done. The app is meant to combat situations like this.
i-Cut is currently one of the technological innovations competing for the Technovation Challenge award of $15,000, and is the only African country represented this year. “Sponsored by Google, Salesforce and Adobe, Technovation challenges girls aged 10-18 to create an app that solves problems faced by their communities,” according to CNN.
Regardless of whether or not they receive the prize, the young inventors of the female genital mutilation protection app are content that the app gives young girls a way “to decide their own destinies.”
– Cortney Rowe
Photo: Flickr
International Youth Day 2017
Each year, the day of August 12 is used to spread awareness of the World Program of Action for Youth, which works to improve situations for children and young adults around the world. International Youth Day is also a tool to recognize the ability of youth to instill change in the world.
Since the first observance of International Youth Day in 2000, a theme has been selected each year. Some of the themes include Addressing Health and Unemployment, Tackling Poverty Together, Change Our World and the 2017 theme of Youth Building Peace.
In 2017, the theme of Youth Building Peace was used to highlight the ability of youth to contribute to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 aims to ensure that decision making is responsive, inclusive, representative and participatory at all levels.
On December 9, 2015, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Youth, Peace and Security and identified five key pillars for action: participation, protection, prevention, partnerships and disengagement and reintegration.
Both the U.N. Security Council and The World Program of Action for Youth recognize though International Youth Day that youths are often left out of important decision making because of their age. “When youth are excluded from political, economic and social spheres and processes, it can be a risk factor for violence and violent forms of conflict,” according to the U.N.
“Therefore, identifying and addressing the social exclusion of young people is a precondition for sustaining peace.”
Throughout the decades, many steps have been taken towards building peace. But in recent years, the occurrence of violence and conflict has been far too prevalent. Youths comprise a large part of populations where violent conflict is prevalent.
Since the population of youth across the globe is the biggest it has ever been, it is important now more than ever to include this population in decisions that will affect the future of peace.
– Madeline Boeding
Photo: Flickr
Poverty Rate in Bhutan Declines Due to Government Initiatives
In recent years, Bhutan has significantly lowered the number of citizens living below the poverty line. Between 2007 and 2012, the country was able to reduce the number of those living in poverty from 23 percent of the population to 12 percent. While most of the poverty reduction has been in rural areas of the country, these same families are the ones most at risk for slipping backwards.
The commercialization of agriculture as well as the creation of roads and hydropower projects allowed for more economic stability for those who made their living in the farming industry. While this has created great prosperity for rural areas in Bhutan, the agricultural industry is still the most vulnerable within the country, susceptible to environmental catastrophes.
While the poverty rate continues to decrease and the country’s GNI per capita increases yearly, the Bhutanese government refuses to stop there. The government has recently made a commitment to reduce multidimensional poverty to five percent by the end of 2018. One of the biggest initiatives under this new plan is to give land to 245 households that previously had unusable or no land.
While a good portion of the country’s people still live in poverty, Bhutan has seen incredible progress in the past 10 years. The poverty rate in Bhutan has seen a dramatic decrease and the government continues to implement programs in hopes of providing more opportunities for the people.
– Olivia Hayes
Photo: Flickr
Common Diseases in Gabon
UNAIDS reports that 44,000 Gabonese adults (ages 15 and older) are infected with HIV. 30,000 women (ages 15 and older) are among that demographic. There are 2,600 Gabonese children (ages 0 to 14) living with HIV and 16,000 Gabonese orphans due to parents who died from AIDS.
Gabon has high incidences of malaria and other insect-transmitted diseases. While Gabon has a yearly malaria risk, the risk is especially high during and immediately after the country’s rainy seasons (October through December and February through April). The disease is mainly transmitted through Anopheles mosquitoes that feed from dusk to dawn.
In July 2017, a vaccine called RTS,S was found to have the capability of stopping malaria before it starts. The vaccine was tested in Gabon from May 2009 to early 2014. In July 2015, the European Medicines Agency gave the vaccine a “positive scientific opinion,” revealing that it could be used for Gabon’s future malaria cases.
Tuberculosis is an increasing epidemic in Gabon. In 2013, a research study observed 64 tuberculosis-infected children in a Lambaréné, Gabon hospital. The findings showed a discrepancy between the tuberculosis burden and the commitment to controlling it. Tuberculosis was found to be especially prevalent in Gabonese children.
International funding agencies have attempted to implement a “DOTS Strategy” program that could slow down and reverse the effects of tuberculosis. However, Gabon is unable to qualify for the program due to the country’s commodities and a high per capita income. As a result, the country’s national program against the disease is funded entirely by the state and tuberculosis remains one among many common diseases in Gabon.
However, efforts are still being made to combat Gabon’s disease outbreaks. In August 2017, a Regional Collaborating Centre was established as part of Africa’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The center will coordinate efforts to prevent infectious and non-communicable diseases in Gabon and other central African countries.
While common diseases in Gabon remain a problem for many residents, these efforts can help Gabonese people combat disease risks. The RTS,S vaccine could prevent many malaria cases if it continues to be used in the country. Gabonese children who are highly vulnerable to tuberculosis and other diseases will need continuing treatment as well.
– Rhondjé Singh Tanwar
Photo: Flickr
Common Diseases in Uruguay
1. Cardiovascular diseases
Cardiovascular diseases constitute 30.6 percent of deaths in the country. Ischemic heart disease is the most common form of cardiovascular disease. Risk factors include unhealthy weight, high cholesterol and blood pressure, diabetes, unhealthy eating habits, smoking, stress and lack of exercise. In Uruguay, 56.6 percent of the population is overweight or obese, 29.2 percent have high cholesterol, 30.4 percent have hypertension and 5.5 percent have diabetes. Most people do not eat enough fruits and vegetables.
2. Neoplasms
Cancer makes up 24.8 percent of deaths in Uruguay. For men, the most common cases of cancer are lung cancer (45.32 percent of cases), prostate cancer (22.13 percent) and colorectal cancer (11.37 percent). For women, the most common cases are breast cancer (22.74 percent), colorectal cancer (12.65 percent) and lung cancer (6.43 percent).
3. Respiratory diseases
Respiratory diseases account for 9.2 percent of deaths in Uruguay. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the most common respiratory disease in the country. COPD is caused by breathing in smoke, dust and chemicals. Smoking is a major risk factor for respiratory diseases as well as lung cancer. About 29.7 percent of adult males and 19.1 percent of adult females smoke. Additionally, 22.9 percent of adolescents ages 15 to 18 smoke. Secondhand smoke is another risk factor, and roughly 11.8 percent of adults are exposed.
In 2006, Uruguay passed a smoke-free policy that mandated public facilities and workplaces be smoke-free. This lead to a 26 percent decrease in hospitalization for respiratory diseases between 2006 and 2012. There has been a significant reduction in asthma and pulmonary infection. However, COPD has not had the same decrease.
4. Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
Dementia is a major cause of death and disability and most common in the elderly. About 4.03 percent of the population has dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is a common form of dementia. Between 40,000 and 50,000 people in Uruguay have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Understanding and further research of these common diseases in Uruguay can aid in the fight against poverty.
– Francesca Montalto
Photo: Flickr
Caribbean Education System Seeks Improvement
The 13th biennial conference of the Schools of Education of the University of the West Indies took place on June 20 to June 23. During this conference, educators from the United Kingdom, the United States and the Caribbean discussed the changes that are to be made to the Caribbean education system. The theme of the conference was “Envisioning Future Education: Cross-Disciplinary Synergy, Imperatives and Perspectives,” which addressed the importance of improving the state of the Caribbean education system for future generations.
In past years, governments throughout the Caribbean focused on increasing the enrollment rates of primary and secondary schools; however, this improvement in quantity did not have the same effect on the quality, making future education quality a main focus of development.
Caribbean governments are increasing funding for their education systems, as well as developing curriculums to better prepare students for issues facing the economy, climate change, food security and water conservation. They hope these efforts will help make the Caribbean more sustainable.
Also, parents throughout the Caribbean are being encouraged to put greater importance on their childrens’ education by preparing them well ahead of their school years and educating them on prominent concepts and defining features of the Caribbean.
The Caribbean education system has consistently lacked proper safety measures throughout its schools, so Caribbean governments are putting an emphasis on improving safety conditions. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) has developed a toolkit to test vulnerabilities of schools throughout the Caribbean. Additionally, schools are implementing safety policies and hazard risk data assessments to understand how they might be at risk of damages due to natural disasters and other hazards. Thus, schools will be better prepared in the case of an emergency and staff and students will be aware of these potential threats and how to handle them.
With the precautions taken by CDEMA and the efforts being made by governments throughout the Caribbean, it is expected that the education system will soon see improvements. This “new kind of school” will provide students with a better understanding of the issues Caribbean countries are facing and ways to improve them for future generations.
– Kassidy Tarala
Photo: Flickr
Causes of Poverty in Jordan
According to the World Bank, around 13 percent of the population in Jordan live in poverty. This means 13 percent of the population spend less than $2.60 U.S. a day. However, nearly a third of the population in Jordan live in what is known as transient poverty, which means that they live in poverty for a quarter of the year. Considering that even the types of poverty in Jordan are varied, the causes must also be complex and varied, depending on the household and the area of residence. Outlined below are just a few of the causes of poverty in Jordan.
Top Causes of Poverty in Jordan
While Jordan has begun improving public education tremendously at the secondary level in past years, it still lags behind the prestige and high-priced private school system. Those in the higher-middle and upper classes are able to afford good education, while the middle and lower classes are not able to pay for such schooling. The result is an education gap between the middle and upper classes. Furthermore, while some families might be well off during the time of year that their children do not attend school, often times they slip into poverty in order to afford tuition once school begins again.
Another one of the causes of poverty in Jordan is the stagnant income. Many middle class families struggle with the difference between their salary and cost of living. While salaries have largely remained the same in recent years, cost of living is steadily rising – particularly in larger cities like Amman. This, along with the above factor of education, have forced some members of the middle class into what would be considered poverty. Another result of stagnant wages has been a decrease in spending of not only the lower class, but the middle class as well. In fact, 51 percent of Jordanian families spend as though they were living in poverty.
Strangely – or perhaps not – the season of Ramadan weighs considerably on Jordanian residents’ pocketbooks. During the month of Ramadan this year, Jordanian citizens collectively spent about $493 million U.S. on food alone. Considering the substantial increase in spending, some middle class citizens dip into poverty after the month of festivities associated with Ramadan.
The stagnation of income and shortcomings of the public education system reveal only some of the causes of poverty in Jordan. In order to combat a majority of these issues, creating jobs with reasonable salaries seems to be a solution offered by experts. In turn, King Abdullah II has introduced Jordan Vision 2025. Jordan Vision 2025 is a blueprint for social and economic development. The King hopes that the project will bring jobs along with it, which would likely help bring people out of poverty.
– Sydney Roeder
Photo: Pixabay
Education and Reintegration Against Boko Haram
DDR, now seen as a useful tactic to countering violent extremism, has become a political strategy, one that supports education and vocational training rather than violence and imprisonment. Rather than fighting violence with violence, the idea is to stimulate peace by instilling conventional development goals for society. Despite the de-radicalization classes and vocational training in the DDR camps, jobs are scarce and poverty is still rampant, making extremism more attractive to civilians.
Structural issues in the prison system and reintegration issues in society create more obstacles for the government in maintaining peace. Niger lacks the proper legal mechanisms or sorting criteria for prisons and the DDR program. No set standards exist for distinguishing between the detainees and escapees sent to prison or to the DDR program. Without these legal processes, the Boko Haram ex-insurgents are still legally terrorists. The U.N. excludes Niger and refuses to provide them with international assistance; the U.S. also does not grant them foreign material aid.
There is a need for supporting this method at the community level as well. Many ex-insurgents find it hard to reintegrate into a society that rejects them. People need to understand that in order to thwart the threat of extremism, it is necessary to destroy the ideology and punish those who spread it, not those who were a product of it.
This initiative has been pioneered by the southern town of Diffa. Diffa governor Mahamadou Lawaly Dan Dano has requested that the University of Diffa help build the community for those in the program. With 150 people in the program, including fighters’ wives and 28 young boys, conditions in Diffa became poor. After an escape attempt, it was relocated to a refugee camp in Goudoumaria where it can expand. They now have food, water and even a small infantry.
Despite not having schools until the 1990s, this region is now receiving 12 EU-funded vocational training centers and is set to put this into action. Another DDR program is working with this effort to release some of the 80 minors detained on both sides of the border to transit and orientation centers in Diffa.
Limiting risk through a national acceptance of the larger enemy and incentivizing peace through a collaborative systematic process are how education and reintegration could save Niger from Boko Haram.
– Tucker Hallowell
Photo: Flickr
Why Is South Sudan Poor?
Why is South Sudan poor? The landlocked country is isolated from humanitarian professionals and foreign investors. Poor roads make the country impassable during the rainy season. The World Food Program reported that they only have a three-month window to deliver 100,000 tons of food (roughly 6,500 truckloads) before the rains come and make many areas inaccessible.
Before South Sudan’s independence, the Sudanese government largely failed to build good roads in rural areas and left them neglected. Corruption was prevalent, causing those who controlled the companies’ capital to use those resources purely for their own gain.
The world’s newest country is still developing government infrastructure. Between 1955 and 2005, Sudan was engulfed in a brutal civil war, which left countless dead and homeless. After a failed peace agreement, South Sudan seceded from the north in 2011. However, fighting broke out in the country in 2013 and continues off and on to this day.
The new government is wracked by division and as a result does not have the ability to build roads, provide basic education or ensure the welfare of its constituents. Moreover, funds and resources are often channeled into certain areas while others are ignored. Violence also plays a key factor in hindering aid from reaching key areas.
However, conditions in the country could improve in the near future. A new government policy relying more on the country’s vast oil wealth could improve living conditions. The government has also made health and education a focus. The World Food Program is making progress in the country as well. The organization helped stave off a famine in 2014 when it dispatched 190,000 tons of food to the country and assisted 2.5 million people. South Sudan is poor, but there are many opportunities for improvement.
– Bruce Edwin Ayres Truax
Photo: Flickr
Causes of Poverty in Iran
Poverty in Iran? Big yes. Iran’s economy grew at an accelerated pace of 9.2 percent at the close of the Iranian fiscal year, an auspicious preview to the “economic revolution” promised by President Hassan Rouhani in his inauguration earlier this year. However, developments from the economic sector did little to create jobs for Iranians and failed to translate to any significant impact in addressing poverty in Iran. Over 70 percent of Iranians still live in poor conditions, while 30 percent were classified as absolute poor at the end of 2016.
Unemployment due to the lack of available jobs is still a grave concern among citizens, as the government is still unable to improve from the annual job creation rate of 600,000. This dismal number presents an even graver issue to be addressed: with over a million students graduating from college every year, most of these young Iranians are not able to find work and a source of income. One out of four young Iranians are unemployed, and most of them end up falling into the 61 percent of the population who are neither employed nor looking for employment.
Even graduating with a higher degree (for example a master’s degree or a Ph.D.) does not guarantee anybody a job upon graduation. Many of these people have struggled to find jobs that are in line with their specializations and often opt for blue-collar jobs with meager salaries just to put food on the table. Mehdi Ebrahimi, an Iranian man who received a master’s degree from Tehran’s Payame Noor University, has chosen to carry heavy loads in border areas to be able to earn income and fend for his family, instead of embarking on a painstaking search for work in line with his degree.
What Causes Poverty in Iran
Hardship does not end with securing a job, however, since 90 percent of the labor force lives below the poverty line. Disgruntled workers argue that the minimum wage income of 8,112,000 Iranian rials (roughly $246) is barely enough to cover basic necessities. For a family of four, surviving requires roughly twice the amount.
“Many workers cannot even afford the basic products they need for survival. Many of these items are now considered luxuries,” said Rahmatollah Poormoussa, head of Iran’s state labor organization.
To put the wage disadvantage that these workers have in contrast to their international counterparts, the Iranian minimum hourly wage of roughly $1 is a tenth of the average minimum wage in Western countries and only a third of the wage taken home by workers in Turkey. China, notorious for paying workers the lowest minimum wage, pays about 1.2 times more than their Iranian counterparts.
Contractual employment is also a challenge for these workers. For irregular laborers, contractual work often means an unstable and unreliable flow of income. Most of these workers are not paid until weeks after they are due their wage, and most of the time their wage does not come before their stock of basic necessities is depleted. It is no surprise that 95 percent of contractual workers fall under the poverty line.
Subsequently, they and their dependents suffer from the insecurity of not knowing when breadwinners will be able to take their wages and buy food and other needs. Contractual workers and their families comprise a large amount of the 70 percent of Iranians who reported to be food insecure.
The difficulty of creating jobs may likely be a result of long political turmoil, caused by national and international conflicts, as well as the previous closure of industrial and manufacturing units. Economic conditions have become slightly better after sanctions against the country were lifted, but it has still not been enough to promote the well-being of citizens and alleviate conditions for the poor.
Critics of the Rouhani’s administration have also cited the regime’s pouring of funds into foreign conflicts and military spending rather than on infrastructural and social welfare projects as a reason for the ineffectiveness of government to address poverty in Iran. If Rouhani’s government really wants to jumpstart the “economic revolution” he has promised his people, they say, he must begin to see infrastructural and welfare projects as a top priority for his administration.
Investing in these projects will be a good starting point in fixing the market, improving the quality of lives of workers and subsequently address the growing problem of poverty in Iran.
– Bella Suansing
Photo: Flickr