For villagers in Eastern Nepal, the indigenous knowledge they have acquired through generations of living and farming locally can be a new source of livelihood, via participation in the ‘Vertical University‘ initiative.
The project involves a series of interconnected villages whose microclimates provide a trail for learning about ecosystems and biodiversity. This program also employs villagers as teachers in these outdoor classrooms. The innovative effort comes at a dire time for socioeconomic progress in Nepal, with the 2015 earthquake pushing more than 1 million Nepalese below the poverty line.
The Vertical University trail, which stretches across Eastern Nepal, encompasses the living grounds of 150,000 individuals and 107 different habitat types. Visitors travel from one outdoor learning space to the next, absorbing locals’ knowledge of native species and diverse habitats as they go.
The founder of the Vertical University is an organization called KTK-BELT. This group engages important local actors, like farmers and teachers, in “community-based biodiversity conservation.” The Vertical University initiative represents conservation in action, resulting in a 100-acre land trust and critical tools for preventing deforestation.
For Nepalese community members, the project represents more than an opportunity for environmental conservation. This project has been instrumental in providing locals with economic and educational opportunities.
The outdoor classrooms are free and open to visitors at all times, as the local Nepalese have mapped and tagged the indigenous knowledge they can offer. For Nepalese youth, the opportunity to be involved in the process can mean acquiring valuable educational skills or receiving a stipend to pursue further education.
Young girls in particular benefit from programs like this because they face deeply entrenched gender stereotypes regarding education. Most girls find themselves restricted to domestic tasks. However, the Vertical University teaches them to catalog species for the trail, as well as survey local farmers and communities.
Not only do girls lack in schooling, but there’s also a dire overall need for education funding in Nepal. The country’s educational system is quite young relative to global advancement in education.
Additionally, schools in rural areas lack in productivity, effective learning and testing. The lack of quality education offered in rural schools is also a widespread problem for public schools as a whole. Females, Dalits, Muslims and other minority groups suffer in particular. However, outdoor classrooms offer a viable solution.
Adult community members in the Vertical University villages receive the additional economic opportunities borne from protecting the environment. Creating the trails led to the discovery of a variety of natural products, such as essential oils and soapnuts. The locals can then sustainably produce and sell those products. They also learn a variety of education skills, which can compensate for the low rates of higher education in Nepal.
The many facets of the project translate into various opportunities for the Nepalese living within the Vertical University belt. Education funding and employment as mappers of indigenous knowledge are just the beginning. People have repurposed barren land for permaculture and highlighted the danger of poaching. They have also mapped and labeled 6,600 plants in areas frequently devoid of Internet access.
Co-founders Rajeev Goval and Priyanka Bita created the project through a Kickstarter campaign. The power of crowdfunding has enabled the education and livelihoods of countless villagers within the region. This is especially important for Nepal, as it is still reeling from the 2015 earthquake.
In creating outdoor classrooms and employing local farmers to map and catalog their indigenous knowledge, the KTK-BELT Vertical University represents a conservation approach with both involves the community and fights global poverty. Its ability to provide education funding in Nepal, a country where that funding can change the lives of girls and disadvantaged youth, creates widespread change.
– Charlotte Bellomy
Photo: U.N. Multimedia
How Refugees Improve Countries of Resettlement
More than 1.3 million refugees sought asylum in Europe in 2015 alone, the influx demonstrating the escalating urgency of the refugee crisis. As these unprecedented numbers flow in, refugee camps have been pushed far past the limits of their capacities and countries within the European Union have struggled to negotiate sharing the burden.
Citizens of these countries fear that the refugee influx could threaten safety and job security. For those who do not find humanitarian duty reason enough to intervene, the situation leaves many wondering how refugees improve countries.
However, a number of unexpected benefits of refugees entering a country make stepping up in this humanitarian crisis potentially beneficial for both parties. Below are six ways in which refugees improve countries to which they’ve been granted resettlement.
Germany has been at the forefront of countries extending open arms to refugees–announcing that it will accept 800,000. The country also has the lowest birth rate in the world, which continues to decline at a fast pace. In order to support the aging community and state pension system, an estimated 1.5 million skilled immigrants is needed. By 2060, Hamburg’s World Economy anticipates that Germany will need two workers to support each individual in retirement. As a result, there is a significant opportunity for refugees to improve countries with declining birth rates.
The biggest receivers of refugees have also become focus areas for humanitarian aid. While often this aid is woefully insufficient, what does come can accomplish a great deal for the host nation itself. It is estimated by the United Nations that in countries like Lebanon, the multiplier effect of aid means that every U.S. dollar worth of assistance generates $0.50 for the local economy.
Companies looking to grow need skilled, young workers to take on the roles of aging European work forces. Notably, the head of Mercedes Benz, Dieter Zetsche, has expressed that refugee workers are precisely what countries like Germany and corporations like Mercedes Benz need.
Putting systems in place to allow refugees to become employed and contribute to society creates a larger tax base. This enables refugees to help improve countries by decreasing tax burden, maintaining state systems and increasing public services.
A number of potential security benefits may come with accepting refugees from the Middle East to countries like the U.S. These movements have the ability to counter the anti-U.S. propaganda that many radical groups like ISIS depend on. The migration of people and the decreased potency of propaganda could deprive radical groups of the resources and recruits that they need. In addition, the inclusivity and acceptance which comes from welcoming refugees to Western parts of the world has the potential to decrease the marginalization of Muslim and Middle Eastern people living in the West. This could be a potent tool against internal-radicalization.
Obtaining information regarding realities on the ground in areas like Syria has been a large obstacle for the U.S. and other countries involved in combating terrorism. Patrick Eddington, a former CIA intelligence officer, has described Syrian refugees in the U.S. as the most valuable source of insight regarding the realities of living in ISIS-controlled territory. Through Syrian refugees, intelligence has been obtained regarding ISIS funding, leadership and military-related inventory. Therefore, refugees improve countries combating terrorism by contributing to security and intelligence needs.
These six examples of how refugees improve countries of resettlement demonstrate the multifaceted contributions of refugee populations. By joining the formal workforce, they have the potential to offset varying degrees of the economic burden which accompanies a humanitarian crisis and influx of migrants. Intelligence contribution and the decreased marginalization of refugees also offer significant security benefits. Finally, facilitating the movement of refugees to safety can decrease the efficacy of extremist propaganda and recruitment tactics.
– Charlotte Bellomy
10 Facts About Forced Migration
The subject of forced migration, especially related to refugees, is a major topic in current news and politics across the world. Columbia University defines forced migration as “the movements of refugees and internally displaced people (those displaced by conflicts within their country of origin) as well as people displaced by natural or environmental disasters, chemical or nuclear disasters, famine, or development projects.” Below are 10 facts about forced migration:
migrated within their own countries. The UNHCR reports there are over 38 million people classified as IDPs.
Forced migration has been a major issue for quite some time now. Although countries around the world have stepped in to help refugees and other displaced individuals, these facts further prove that it will take much more to reduce these numbers.
— Saroja Koneru
Photo: U.N. Multimedia
The buildOn Organization: Constructing Opportunities
The buildOn organization has been building schools globally and domestically for more than twenty years, but the construction of schools is not the only focus. The organization builds and develops the abilities of every member of the community in which the schools are placed.
In 1989, Jim Ziolkowski, a recent college graduate and the future founder and CEO of the buildOn organization, took a trip around the world by way of hitchhiking and backpacking. During his travels, he came across a village in Nepal that had recently built a school, and he noticed a dramatic difference between this community and others that he had visited in his travels. This Nepalese village had a unique brightness about it that was centered around education.
Upon returning to the United States he was unable to remove the comparison of what he had seen from his mind. After a short time, he quit his job and began to develop ways in which he could give the gift of education to those who would not be able to obtain it otherwise. In 1992, the first school was built in Malawi, and since then, hundreds of schools have been built in some of the most impoverished locations across the world.
The buildOn website notes, “Our holistic approach ensures that schools are built with a community rather than for a community. It involves villagers as true partners rather than as recipients of aid.” The program claims that this nature of approach incentivizes the residents, and shows them what can be accomplished when they work together in a common cause.
When a community is under consideration for a new school, each member is required to give his or her consensus in writing—or in fingerprint—that he or she will fulfill respective obligations to render local supplies, assist in construction and maintain the school upon completion. It has been observed that “Even as many must sign with a thumbprint, everyone is overjoyed to pledge their commitment to a school that will end illiteracy for their children, their grandchildren, and themselves.”
As mentioned, young children are not the only ones who benefit from the placement of these schools. At night, in the same schools where their children are educated by day, parents and grandparents are given the opportunity to engage in adult literacy classes. These classes address the issues of healthcare, poverty, and inequality, in addition to the fundamental teachings of reading, writing, and math. This is all gauged to help the people build a better life for themselves and their children.
Unfortunately, in many countries, women do not hold the same status as men. For this reason, buildOn places a centralized focus on gender equality. In the written covenant, there is an included agreement that boys and girls alike will be allowed to attend school in equal numbers. From the beginning to the end of each project, women are highlighted as key members of the community. The right to education is for everyone.
Though the construction of schools is the physical product of buildOn’s effort, it is not the ultimate focus. When asked as to what his favorite aspect of working for buildOn is, Badenoch answered by saying simply, “The people. Unlocking opportunity for people who are very capable and intelligent. The key players aren’t our staff, rather the people in the community play the major role.”
– Preston Rust
Photo: Flickr
Why Vaccines are an Economic Investment
In addition to preventing serious illnesses, vaccines are an economic investment as they have the added bonus of saving money. As fewer people get sick, this reduces the need for complex and often long-term medical treatment which allows communities to save greatly.
Research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in addition to other studies, has shown that the returns on vaccines are 16 times the investment; that is to say, every dollar spent on vaccines, on average, saves sixteen dollars in future medical spending.
The journal Health Affairs, which published the Johns Hopkins study, noted that when other factors are considered beyond direct medical costs, such as time not taken off from work due to illness, the return rises to as high as $44 for every dollar spent.
While the economic benefits of vaccinations are great for every country, they especially matter in poor or developing countries, where funds are often stretched thin and accessing affordable health care can be difficult if not impossible.
The World Health Organization estimates that malaria costs Sub-Saharan Africa $100 billion every year. In a region plagued by poverty, that is too much money for countries to be spending on preventable diseases.
Vaccines show that when we invest in prevention, we can make huge savings on treatment. In turn, the money that would be spent treating preventable diseases can go to other places, such as to education, poverty reduction schemes or energy programs.
Vaccines are an economic investment that not only save lives, but they also save money in so many ways, not just treatment costs.
When people are sick with a debilitating illness, not only do they spend money on treatment, they lose money when they cannot work resulting in a vicious cycle of economic hardship. Continued increased access to vaccines can help millions around the world.
– Emily Milakovic
Photo: U.N. Multimedia
Sadiq Khan: Revolutionizing the Western View
In his acceptance speech, Khan said, “I am determined to lead the most transparent, engaged, and accessible administration London has ever seen, and to represent every single community and every single part of our city as mayor for all Londoners.”
Over the last year, Khan has risen from a relatively obscure character in the British parliament to a world-renowned figurehead. His campaign was fraught with controversy over his reputation, and many did not trust his intentions as a politician. Why? Who is Sadiq Khan, and what is it that makes him such a controversial figure in British politics?
Sadiq Khan is the first Muslim to become mayor of a major Western city. And though some radicals believe the world is coming to an end with such a change, this historic event is generally viewed as a positive political breakthrough. London specifically sees this significance, but various countries throughout Europe and the West agree.
Originally planning to become a dentist, Khan instead pursued law after a teacher commented on his talent for arguing. A few years later, he graduated from the University of London and began his career as a human rights lawyer.
He quickly received attention from various high profile cases, but after a number of years as an attorney he left his practice in order to become more involved in politics. The rest is history.
In his new job as mayor, Khan plans to focus on two central points: significant reductions in poverty and inequality. CNN has observed that the divide between rich and poor in the financial powerhouse of Europe has been steadily increasing.
Statistics show that 27 percent of the nearly 9 million inhabitants are living below the poverty line. Additionally, prices for travel and housing are rising and jobs cannot compensate for the cost of living in London.
Khan has listed a number of strategies that he will implement to improve the current financial situation. First, he intends to attack the housing crisis currently facing London.
On his campaign webpage he writes, “For young families and individuals on average incomes, housing is increasingly unaffordable – with home ownership a distant dream.” Khan also intends to make affordable homes a focus of his tenure through construction reform. He plans on stopping the outsourcing of property to foreign investors.
Another problem that currently besets London is in-work poverty. Employers cannot give their workers sufficient pay raises to compensate for rising price inflation. Consequently, Khan intends to provide tax breaks to companies who pay their employees enough money to cope with London’s high living costs.
The new mayor also plans to address ethnic and gender inequality. Khan is committed to tackling each of these issues in order to help London stem the tide of its inflation while bringing poverty and inequality rates down.
– Preston Rust
Photo: Flickr
Entrepreneur Fighting Hunger in Zimbabwe
Shasha iSeminar is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing individuals living in poverty in Zimbabwe with access to educational materials. Munjoma believes with the rise of knowledge comes the decline of poverty.
Shasha iSeminar bridges the education gap by using technology and broadband connection, which is prominent in the country, to connect with people. Munjoma’s vision is to end poverty across the continent and views empowerment as critical to achieving this goal.
The free online classroom offers high school students an online library, career guidance, notes and access to past exams to help guide them through the material. The website is divided into several sections, giving students the opportunity to check out a creative center, learn about recent news and events and learn about careers related to their interests.
Since its introduction in 2014, Shasha iSeminar has changed the face of digital platforms in Africa. The website has received acclaim from students all around Zimbabwe, and it has helped many achieve their academic goals.
Munjoma began collecting material for the website when he was 17 and decided to make it free of charge to help break the financial barrier that prevents many in Zimbabwe from receiving an education.
Recently, Munjoma was one of 12 finalists for the Anzisha Prize, an award given to young entrepreneurs in Africa working for the greater the good. Since being a finalist for the award, Munjoma has continued his education at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa, receiving a Merit Global Scholarship. Munjoma hopes to use his newfound knowledge to further Shasha iSeminar’s progress and reach, to continue to attempt to end poverty and hunger in Zimbabwe.
In the future, Munjoma wants to expand Shasha iSeminar into Zimbabwe’s neighboring countries, like Botswana and Mozambique. He also hopes to expand the website’s reach by developing online classrooms and seminars, where students can meet and learn from actual professors and engage with students in real time. Although this idea presents several challenges, like a large learning curve and slow internet, Munjoma is determined to see it through.
– Julia Hettiger
Photo: Flickr
Outdoor Classrooms: Opportunities for Rural Nepalese
The project involves a series of interconnected villages whose microclimates provide a trail for learning about ecosystems and biodiversity. This program also employs villagers as teachers in these outdoor classrooms. The innovative effort comes at a dire time for socioeconomic progress in Nepal, with the 2015 earthquake pushing more than 1 million Nepalese below the poverty line.
The Vertical University trail, which stretches across Eastern Nepal, encompasses the living grounds of 150,000 individuals and 107 different habitat types. Visitors travel from one outdoor learning space to the next, absorbing locals’ knowledge of native species and diverse habitats as they go.
The founder of the Vertical University is an organization called KTK-BELT. This group engages important local actors, like farmers and teachers, in “community-based biodiversity conservation.” The Vertical University initiative represents conservation in action, resulting in a 100-acre land trust and critical tools for preventing deforestation.
For Nepalese community members, the project represents more than an opportunity for environmental conservation. This project has been instrumental in providing locals with economic and educational opportunities.
The outdoor classrooms are free and open to visitors at all times, as the local Nepalese have mapped and tagged the indigenous knowledge they can offer. For Nepalese youth, the opportunity to be involved in the process can mean acquiring valuable educational skills or receiving a stipend to pursue further education.
Young girls in particular benefit from programs like this because they face deeply entrenched gender stereotypes regarding education. Most girls find themselves restricted to domestic tasks. However, the Vertical University teaches them to catalog species for the trail, as well as survey local farmers and communities.
Not only do girls lack in schooling, but there’s also a dire overall need for education funding in Nepal. The country’s educational system is quite young relative to global advancement in education.
Additionally, schools in rural areas lack in productivity, effective learning and testing. The lack of quality education offered in rural schools is also a widespread problem for public schools as a whole. Females, Dalits, Muslims and other minority groups suffer in particular. However, outdoor classrooms offer a viable solution.
Adult community members in the Vertical University villages receive the additional economic opportunities borne from protecting the environment. Creating the trails led to the discovery of a variety of natural products, such as essential oils and soapnuts. The locals can then sustainably produce and sell those products. They also learn a variety of education skills, which can compensate for the low rates of higher education in Nepal.
The many facets of the project translate into various opportunities for the Nepalese living within the Vertical University belt. Education funding and employment as mappers of indigenous knowledge are just the beginning. People have repurposed barren land for permaculture and highlighted the danger of poaching. They have also mapped and labeled 6,600 plants in areas frequently devoid of Internet access.
Co-founders Rajeev Goval and Priyanka Bita created the project through a Kickstarter campaign. The power of crowdfunding has enabled the education and livelihoods of countless villagers within the region. This is especially important for Nepal, as it is still reeling from the 2015 earthquake.
In creating outdoor classrooms and employing local farmers to map and catalog their indigenous knowledge, the KTK-BELT Vertical University represents a conservation approach with both involves the community and fights global poverty. Its ability to provide education funding in Nepal, a country where that funding can change the lives of girls and disadvantaged youth, creates widespread change.
– Charlotte Bellomy
Photo: U.N. Multimedia
Alaffia: Fair Trade Products for Empowerment
Alaffia’s Empowerment Projects are funded through the marketing of its fair trade products. The company believes that African products should be available at a fair price and contribute to a sustainable future.
Their Empowerment Projects include “several Education-Based Projects, Maternal Health, FGM [female genital mutilation] Eradication, Eyeglasses and Reforestation. All of Alaffia’s projects empower Togolese communities to provide their skills and knowledge to the rest of the world and rise out of poverty.”
Education Projects
Proceeds are dedicated to projects which help get children to school and keep them there. So far, Alaffia has constructed 10 schools, helped 23,700 children get school supplies and built 1,855 benches for children to sit on at school. One of the most important projects the company participates in is supplying children with bicycles to ride to school.
To date, Alaffia has provided 7,100 bikes for children to attend school. According to the company’s website, “95 percent of Bicycles For Education recipients graduate secondary school.”
Maternal Health and FGM Eradication
Alaffia helps protect mothers and babies by funding prenatal care and clinics. The funds raised from sales of products goes to help fund over 3,500 births to date. Profits are also used to build women’s clinics in Togo, which help to fight against Female Genital Mutilation.
Reforestation and Eyeglass Collection
The company has planted 53,125 trees and invests in alternative fuels. The Alaffia team also collects eyeglasses and has distributed 14,200 pairs to those in need.
Fair Trade
Alaffia defines fair trade as a “movement of individuals and organizations working to ensure producers in economically disadvantaged countries receive a greater percentage of the price paid by consumers.” To that end, the company pays 15-25 percent more than the fair price for the shea nuts that are used to make its products.
In addition, Alaffia employees make four times what most in the area do and get full benefits. Not surprisingly, the company’s production costs and overheads are higher than other shea manufacturers, but Tchala will not compromise.
Alaffia sells fair trade products certified through Fair for Life: Social & Fair Trade. The Fair for Life website states that the organization “offers operators of socially responsible projects a solution for brand neutral third party inspection and certification in initial production, manufacturing and trading.
It combines strict social and fair trade standards with adaptability to local conditions. The system is designed for both food and non-food commodities such as cosmetics, textiles or tourist services.
– Rhonda Marrone
Photo: Flickr
US Donation of Surplus Peanuts to Haiti Causes Controversy
Its March 31st announcement has met criticism from Haitian peanut farmers, manufacturers, concerned citizens, and a variety of both Haitian and foreign NGOs.
Many have called the action “crop” or “peanut dumping” that will negatively impact the Haitian economy and its people, pointing to the example of the impact of subsidized rice on the Haitian market years ago. Others point to the need to feed thousands of malnourished children.
As the USDA describes, the action is a part of the “Stocks for food” federal program that sends surplus goods to feeding programs and food banks both in the United States and abroad. The specific Haitian project that targets primary schools struggling against poverty, malnutrition and disease receives its funding from the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program.
However, many believe that sending cheap stock like peanuts to Haiti could negatively impact the country’s ability to sustain its own food production and undermine the local economy.
Partners in Health released a statement urging the USDA to reverse its decision. A letter to the USDA from the Institute of Justice and Democracy in Haiti points out that peanuts are fundamental to the country’s economy as 150,000 local farmers produce 70,000 metric tons, much like rice was a staple of Haitian market in the mid-1990s.
Floods of foreign, mostly U.S.-produced rice drove the price of Haitian rice down, and many farmers were left without income and forced to leave to find work elsewhere.
The Haitian economy and food security depend strongly on peanuts, especially in their role in the production of a spicy peanut butter called Mamba, which provides income for a large number of Haitian women.
Bill Clinton has been repeatedly quoted acknowledging the export of rice to Haiti as a mistake and the “lost capacity” it caused. While it benefitted U.S. farmers, he said, it hurt Haitian ones.
Alexis Taylor, deputy undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services at the USDA, has defended the shipment of surplus peanuts as a source of much-needed relief for a poverty-stricken country in which one-third of all children’s deaths are caused by malnutrition.
The peanuts will be a supplement to Haitian school children’s morning snack as part of the U.N. World Food Program.
In contrast to the USDA’s action, the U.S. has funded other programs such as the World Food Programme that support locally sourced food production and procurement in Haiti.
These efforts to encourage Haiti’s self-sustainability and independence from foreign aid could be compromised by the USDA’s pending peanut program. Critics say it would be better to continue efforts to help Haitian peanut farmers produce better, bigger crops as programs like the Feed the Future Initiative, the Clinton Foundation, and Partners in Health aim to do.
However, the White House petition against the donation failed to receive enough signatures and closed.
USDA press secretary responded to NPR’s article stating that the USDA worked with the WFP to ensure the donation of surplus peanuts would have no negative impact on Haiti’s domestic peanut market by limiting the peanuts’ consumption to only be at school and closely monitoring the impact.
– Esmie Tseng
Photo: U.N. Multimedia
ILO Report Details Trends in Global Poverty Levels
The International Labor Organization (ILO) released a new report, “World Employment and Social Outlook 2016 – Transforming Jobs to End Poverty”, which assesses current global poverty levels. Director-General Guy Ryder states that poverty continues to remain frustratingly high in Africa and parts of Asia.
“For example, more than 40 percent of the African population continues to live in extreme poverty and some 64 percent in extreme or moderate poverty. Another element, which I think we have to pay attention to, is the fact that in the developed world, there has been an increase, an absolute increase in poverty, notably in this continent of Europe.”
According to the ILO, this is most likely due to the high number of refugees seeking comfort in Europe in the past few years.
Income inequality is becoming a bigger problem in these regions, cautions Ryder. After years of decline, the disparity between the “haves” and the “have-nots” is currently expanding and slowly turning the wheel of the socioeconomic inequality cycle.
“In addition, the ability of growth to reduce poverty is compromised by the inequitable income distribution, showing that the rich are taking a disproportionately high share of the benefits of growth and, in a way, could be considered partly responsible for this perpetuation of poverty.”
Despite Ryder’s precautions however, global poverty levels are the lowest they have been in history. Vast advances have been made in China and a majority of Latin America.
ILO approximates the number of people living in extreme poverty in 107 emerging and developing countries, with incomes of less than $2 a day, has dropped from 50 percent in 1990 to roughly under 15 percent in 2012. If this trend continues, poverty levels should continue to drop in the future.
The ILO continues to work with the United Nations to eradicate poverty worldwide. A study performed by ILO revealed an estimated $10 trillion will be needed to eliminate extreme and moderate poverty all across the nations by 2030. ILO also stated, “Quality jobs that provide social protection must play a central role to end poverty.”
– Rachel Hutchinson