Malawi’s Ministry of Health states that their current overall policies are meant to focus on: “the development of a sound delivery system capable of promoting health, preventing, reducing and curing diseases, protecting life and fostering general well-being and increased productivity.” In recent years, the country has made substantial advancements in the field of medicine in terms of addressing their most pressing health issues, namely the top diseases in Malawi.
Infant and child mortality have been declining, and HIV rates among citizens have begun to level out. Despite having made progress, Malawi continues to be characterized by the burden of high infectious disease rates. The average life expectancy of a person living in Malawi is 57 years for males, and 58 years for females, making it the country with the twentieth lowest life expectancy in the world. However, the five top diseases in Malawi are all either preventable or treatable with basic medical care.
HIV/AIDS: 27% of deaths
Malawi is making impressive strides in combating their HIV epidemic, specifically in the prevention of mother to child transmission of the disease. However, Malawi’s HIV presence is still one of the highest in the world. It is home to roughly four percent of all people with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa.
As of 2015, 10.3% of the population was living with HIV or AIDS; 9.3% of these people were between the ages of 15 and 49 years. That averages to around 980,000 people. The disease disproportionately affects females in Malawi, with an average of 4.5% of young females, and 2.7% of young men from 15 to 24 years living with HIV.
It is estimated that only 61% of all infected adults are on antiretroviral treatment. This epidemic, which killed 48,000 people in 2013 alone, is largely responsible for Malawi’s low life expectancy of 57.5 years.
Lower Respiratory Infections: nine percent of deaths
Lower respiratory problems have topped the charts as a reason for hospital admission in Malawi prior to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Lower respiratory infections cover everything from pneumonia to bronchitis, and Malawi has seen an increase in these infections particularly in its citizens with the HIV virus.
Pneumonia is the single biggest killer of children in Malawi, prematurely ending the lives of an estimated 1,000 infants in 2010 alone.
Malaria: six percent of deaths
Despite progress, malaria continues to be one of the top diseases in Malawi. Malaria is responsible for nearly 40% of hospitalizations in children under the age of 5, 30% of all outpatient visits and is one of the highest causes of mortality in all age groups.
Transmission of the disease occurs mostly from November to April, during Malawi’s rainy season. However, with global support, the Ministry of Health’s National Malaria Control Program in Malawi has been able to distribute treatment more easily throughout the population.
Since efforts were put in place in 2004, the mortality rate for children 5 years and younger has fallen by more than 36%. This is largely due to Malawi introducing the pneumococcal vaccine as part of routine childhood vaccination in November 2011, and the additional rotavirus vaccine in October 2012. Malawi is one of the four countries in the African Region that offers these vaccinations.
Diarrheal Disease: five percent of deaths
Diarrheal disease poses a serious threat, particularly to 5% of the children of Malawi, as it claims nearly 600 lives of Malawian children per year. Support from such initiatives as the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the GAVI Alliance has given us an opportunity to offer those in Malawi protection from diarrheal diseases.
More lives could be saved through basic interventions, such as improving drinking water, increasing sanitation efforts and distributing a simple solution of oral rehydration salts and zinc supplements during bouts of diarrhea.
Perinatal Conditions: three percent of deaths
Perinatal conditions are any conditions existing in a baby before or immediately after birth. These conditions often stem from preexisting conditions in the mother, and are more easily prevented than treated. Solutions posed for this problem include better sex education for women, easier access to contraceptives — only 41% of Malawian women showed an understanding of preventative measures for sexually transmitted diseases in 2015 — and more accessible treatments for diseases such as HIV and malaria.
Currently, Malawi faces problems in addressing many of their health issues with regard to domestic funding and external stigma against the country. However, Malawi is committed to addressing the challenges of the top diseases in Malawi at the national level with cooperation and innovation in order to have a lasting impact.
– Kayla Provencher
Photo: Flickr
Fleeing Crises: Nine Facts About Venezuelan Refugees
The South American country of Venezuela is facing a political and economic storm that has unraveled into a humanitarian crisis. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Venezuelans to leave and live in the country, but those that do manage to escape are in search of living a better life. Here are nine facts about Venezuelan refugees:
The current situation in Venezuela is abysmal and many Venezuelans continue to suffer within its borders. Life does not get any easier for those who try to leave that have difficulties finding jobs and sustaining themselves.
The solution to this is in the referendum that could possibly take current president, Nicolás Maduro, out of power in order to make Venezuela the home that people once knew. Countries that have worked along with Venezuela like Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay should now be offering asylum for Venezuelan refugees and assistance to the wounded country.
– Mariana Camacho
Photo: Flickr
Prevention and Treatment: The Top Diseases in Malawi
Malawi’s Ministry of Health states that their current overall policies are meant to focus on: “the development of a sound delivery system capable of promoting health, preventing, reducing and curing diseases, protecting life and fostering general well-being and increased productivity.” In recent years, the country has made substantial advancements in the field of medicine in terms of addressing their most pressing health issues, namely the top diseases in Malawi.
Infant and child mortality have been declining, and HIV rates among citizens have begun to level out. Despite having made progress, Malawi continues to be characterized by the burden of high infectious disease rates. The average life expectancy of a person living in Malawi is 57 years for males, and 58 years for females, making it the country with the twentieth lowest life expectancy in the world. However, the five top diseases in Malawi are all either preventable or treatable with basic medical care.
HIV/AIDS: 27% of deaths
Malawi is making impressive strides in combating their HIV epidemic, specifically in the prevention of mother to child transmission of the disease. However, Malawi’s HIV presence is still one of the highest in the world. It is home to roughly four percent of all people with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa.
As of 2015, 10.3% of the population was living with HIV or AIDS; 9.3% of these people were between the ages of 15 and 49 years. That averages to around 980,000 people. The disease disproportionately affects females in Malawi, with an average of 4.5% of young females, and 2.7% of young men from 15 to 24 years living with HIV.
It is estimated that only 61% of all infected adults are on antiretroviral treatment. This epidemic, which killed 48,000 people in 2013 alone, is largely responsible for Malawi’s low life expectancy of 57.5 years.
Lower Respiratory Infections: nine percent of deaths
Lower respiratory problems have topped the charts as a reason for hospital admission in Malawi prior to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Lower respiratory infections cover everything from pneumonia to bronchitis, and Malawi has seen an increase in these infections particularly in its citizens with the HIV virus.
Pneumonia is the single biggest killer of children in Malawi, prematurely ending the lives of an estimated 1,000 infants in 2010 alone.
Malaria: six percent of deaths
Despite progress, malaria continues to be one of the top diseases in Malawi. Malaria is responsible for nearly 40% of hospitalizations in children under the age of 5, 30% of all outpatient visits and is one of the highest causes of mortality in all age groups.
Transmission of the disease occurs mostly from November to April, during Malawi’s rainy season. However, with global support, the Ministry of Health’s National Malaria Control Program in Malawi has been able to distribute treatment more easily throughout the population.
Since efforts were put in place in 2004, the mortality rate for children 5 years and younger has fallen by more than 36%. This is largely due to Malawi introducing the pneumococcal vaccine as part of routine childhood vaccination in November 2011, and the additional rotavirus vaccine in October 2012. Malawi is one of the four countries in the African Region that offers these vaccinations.
Diarrheal Disease: five percent of deaths
Diarrheal disease poses a serious threat, particularly to 5% of the children of Malawi, as it claims nearly 600 lives of Malawian children per year. Support from such initiatives as the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the GAVI Alliance has given us an opportunity to offer those in Malawi protection from diarrheal diseases.
More lives could be saved through basic interventions, such as improving drinking water, increasing sanitation efforts and distributing a simple solution of oral rehydration salts and zinc supplements during bouts of diarrhea.
Perinatal Conditions: three percent of deaths
Perinatal conditions are any conditions existing in a baby before or immediately after birth. These conditions often stem from preexisting conditions in the mother, and are more easily prevented than treated. Solutions posed for this problem include better sex education for women, easier access to contraceptives — only 41% of Malawian women showed an understanding of preventative measures for sexually transmitted diseases in 2015 — and more accessible treatments for diseases such as HIV and malaria.
Currently, Malawi faces problems in addressing many of their health issues with regard to domestic funding and external stigma against the country. However, Malawi is committed to addressing the challenges of the top diseases in Malawi at the national level with cooperation and innovation in order to have a lasting impact.
– Kayla Provencher
Photo: Flickr
The Role of Grandmothers: The Heroes Everyone Overlooks
Working women have a lot for which to thank their mothers. Without the help of their mothers in the home, it would be difficult for young women to balance having a family with advancing in their careers. By taking care of their daughters’ children, grandmothers give their daughters the time they need to work.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales claim grandmothers’ childcare provision leads to a rise in their daughters’ labor force participation (LFP). According to their research, “grandparents are the largest source of informal childcare” for working women. In Italy and Greece, almost 50 percent of grandparents provide daily care for their grandchildren.
Although passing the responsibility of childcare over to their parents gives women freedom and independence to pursue their careers, it creates a problem for grandmothers. Grandmothers, rather than young daughters, get saddled with having to balance work and family.
Madonna Harrington Meyer, author of Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs, argues, “In the same way that women who reduce employment hours when raising their young children experience reductions in salary, savings, and public and private pensions, the mothers of those same women, as grandmothers, are rearranging hours to take care of their grandchildren, experiencing additional loss of salary and reduced old-age pension accumulation.”
Grandmothers do not only make sacrifices for their children and grandchildren in countries like Italy and Greece, but the role of grandmothers is very important in developing regions of the world as well. Veronica Nankya, a 93-year-old Ugandan grandmother taking care of her four grandchildren, told Daily Monitor Magazine that, after her children died of HIV/AIDS, life became very difficult because taking care of orphaned grandchildren is “an enormous duty,” particularly when she has to be the sole breadwinner for the family.
These matriarchs have carried the brunt of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa in multiple ways. They have not only taken up the responsibility of caring for the orphaned children of HIV casualties but have also cared for the millions of adult AIDS patients who have nowhere to go but their parents’ homes.
Research by the World Bank shows grandmothers are “the managers of indigenous knowledge systems that deal with the development, care and well-being of women and children” in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Grandmothers, therefore, play an essential role in maternal and child nutrition, health and survival rates in these regions.
Community health specialist Dr. Judi Aubel claims that because the role of grandmothers is central in “advising younger women and male family members on nutrition and health matters, especially during pregnancy, childbirth and when children are infants or still young,” they should be involved in national and international programs and policies targeting these issues. It is through grandmothers that new knowledge and better health practices can be transmitted to the rest of society.
UNICEF in Laos showed that when grandmothers were involved in health campaigns, great results were possible. For example, when grandmothers became involved in diarrhea treatment workshops, the proportion of families providing the necessary fluids to children went up from 30 to 74 percent.
The role of grandmothers in the developed and the developing world is different but crucial to their families. In the developed world, grandmothers provide the needed childcare that young mothers need to continue rising in their professions.
In the developing world, grandmothers are essential for the care of orphaned children and for advising young mothers on health issues. It is very important that in the future, grandmothers in both the developed and developing world are given the help they need so that they are not required to make so many sacrifices and carry such a heavy burden of responsibility.
For women’s emancipation and empowerment to be complete, all women must have time for themselves and their own life regardless of age. It is not true women’s empowerment if older women must sacrifice their own freedoms for those of their daughters.
– Christina Egerstrom
Photo: Flickr
Reducing the Prevalence of The Top Diseases in Morocco
Although modern in many respects, Morocco remains a traditional country that struggles to combat certain diseases. The country with a population of 33,680,000 has a life expectancy of 71, which is right at the world’s average. Although there are a good number of physicians and medical centers available, the rural population still experiences difficulty accessing these facilities and safe drinking water. Here are the top diseases in Morocco:
Hepatitis
Hepatitis A, B, C, and E are all prominent in Morocco, but currently, hepatitis A and B are the only forms that can be prevented through a vaccine or medication. Regardless of where you are staying or what food you are eating, there is a high possibility of obtaining hepatitis A in Morocco due to contaminated food and water. It is also transmitted through person-to-person contact.
Hepatitis B, which is transmitted via blood and bodily fluids, is another dangerous disease. Activities such as intercourse with the local population, intravenous drug use, contaminated tattoo and piercing equipment or exposure to blood may yield hepatitis B. Symptoms usually include nausea, fatigue, dark urine, abdominal pain and jaundice.
Hepatitis C is a viral infection that inflames the liver. This form of hepatitis is similar to the others because it can be transmitted person to person and through activities that expose one to blood and other bodily fluids.
Hepatitis E is extremely endemic in Morocco and also inflames the liver. Water contaminated with fecal matter and foods that contain raw or undercooked meats, may result in exposure to hepatitis E.
Rabies
Rabies, which is found everywhere, is another prominent disease in Morocco. One can obtain rabies through mammal bites, especially from dogs, cats and bats.
Typhoid
Common in areas with poor sanitation, Typhoid Fever is a gastrointestinal infection that is transmitted from person to person. It’s found in Southeast Asia, Africa, Central and South America and Western Pacific countries. Symptoms include headaches, lack of appetite, enlarged liver and constipation. Similar to hepatitis E, ensuring that one’s food is thoroughly cooked is an easy way to avoid typhoid.
Schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis, a disorder that has become more prevalent due to irrigation, is characterized by the inflammation of the intestines, bladder, liver and other organs. It was first detected in Morocco in 1914, but reached its peak post-independence when the new government was constructing numerous irrigation systems across the country.
Almost as dangerous as malaria, it is a serious parasitic infection that affects nearly 200 million people in Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean. The lack of clean water makes schistosomiasis easily attainable because worms that carry the parasite can be found where people work, bathe or swim.
Although the top diseases in Morocco are affecting not only the population but those who visit the country, there is ample aid given to reduce the prevalence of these diseases. Organizations such as USAID and the World Health Organization (WHO) funnel money to provide more portable water, vaccinations and access to medical personnel and facilities. The U.S. planned to give $33,500,000 to combat top diseases in Morocco.
The country has been open to implementing strategies that lead to impressive differences. For example, Morocco started using azithromycin on a large-scale, the first country to do so, in an attempt to control trachoma.
Overall, Morocco has also made great strides towards eliminating other diseases including eradicating malaria, which it accomplished in 2010.
– Ashley Morefield
Photo: Flickr
The Current Situation of Water Quality in Burkina Faso
Named “land of honest men” Burkina Faso is a landlocked country located in West Africa. With an approximate population of 17.4 million, Burkina Faso has been a center for concern regarding human rights. Many critiques of Burkina Faso’s human rights violations revolve around failing to provide quality water to its inhabitants.
Water quality in Burkina Faso has suffered over the years in part due to its status as one of the poorest countries on the planet.
A statement from WaterAid reports that sanitation and water quality are insufficient in meeting the needs of the people. Approximately 14 million people in Burkina Faso do not have access to improved sanitation.
Roughly 3 million individuals do not have access to improved sources of water. Additionally, 2,800 children die annually from preventable diarrheal diseases as a result of poor sanitation and water.
Access to basic sanitation is a major concern for the people of Burkina Faso. Only an estimated 20 percent of Burkina Faso’s population has access to a toilet.
On top of insufficient sanitation and water resources, water is in limited supply due to environmental issues. Nationwide droughts within Burkina Faso make the availability of water very scarce. This forces many people in rural areas to migrate to urban locations despite poor quality water and sanitation.
Since gold is a major source of income for the country of Burkina Faso, pollution has also reduced Burkina Faso water quality. Mining operations cause large amounts of arsenic to seep into the surrounding environment. This, in turn, causes arsenic to contaminate the local water making water sources completely useless.
However, despite the dismal situation of Burkina Faso water quality, many humanitarian organizations, as well as the government of Burkina Faso, are making significant improvements to the countries overall water quality.
According to WaterAid, they have provided 19,000 people with safe water and 98,000 people with improved sanitation. UNICEF, the WHO and the NGO Global 2000, have helped improve the water quality in Burkina Faso. In 2005, these organizations were able to reduce guinea worm infection cases from 11,784 to only 30 in a course of 13 years. Guinea worm is a waterborne disease that results from contaminated water and poor sanitation.
Moreover, the government of Burkina Faso is making slow, but noticeable improvements to the overall water quality of its country. Since 2000, the government has made a significant amount of reforms in regard to tackling water-related issues.
One of these reforms involves setting up a water basin committee whose goal is to protect and improve water basins for equitable use. Of Burkina Faso’s five major water basins, two of the basins, the Mohoun and Comoé, have established water basin committees.
The formation of these committees came from the MCA-Burkina Faso which is an organization that has helped to form a Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) economic compact. The MCC compact is a plan for providing equitable and maintainable water usage nationwide and has been part of the government of Burkina Faso Integrated Water Resource Action Plan.
Through humanitarian aid and government intervention, water quality in Burkina Faso is slowly improving on a national scale.
– Shannon Warren
Photo: Flickr
Identifying and Preventing the Top Diseases in Chad
Since its independence from the French in 1960, the northern Central African nation of Chad has faced political instability in addition to harsh desert climates in the north. Due to complex political and environmental situations, Chad is ranked 185 out of 187 countries on the 2014 UNDP Human Development Index.
Health resources in Chad are low as a result of its poverty and politics, compared to the rest of Africa. Chad has a large refugee population of over 380,000 and 80 percent are Sudanese. With a deficit of proper resources and infrastructure to combat communicable diseases, here is a list of the top diseases in Chad.
Hepatitis
Hepatitis is an infection in the liver and is identified through five different hepatitis viruses. Chad is at risk for hepatitis A, B, C and E. Hepatitis A and E are spread by contaminated food or water and human waste. Chad’s hepatitis A and E risk is correlated with its sanitation and water practices. About 44% of Chad’s population does not have access to clean water.
While hepatitis A and E are endemic because of contaminated food or water, hepatitis B and C are spread through blood, semen and other bodily fluids. Hepatitis is resolved after four weeks of medical treatment.
Vaccines are recommended for children, as hepatitis can develop without symptoms during childhood. Vaccines for hepatitis B are more prioritized since it’s transmitted from person to person. In 2015, WHO-UNICEF estimated only 55% of people were vaccinated for hepatitis B, compared to the government’s estimate of 925.
Some solutions to solve hepatitis include more coverage of hepatitis B vaccines to prevent people from infecting others. Improving water conditions and sanitation would eliminate hepatitis A and E.
Meningococcal Meningitis
Meningococcal meningitis is a bacterial form of meningitis and infects the meninges in the brain membrane. The potentially fatal disease can cause brain damage and deafness. Outbreaks are prevalent during the dry season in the Sub-Saharan meningitis belt.
The Sub-Saharan meningitis belt is a wide region of countries with a high risk of the disease, stretching from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east. During the 2012 outbreak, there were 2,828 cases of meningitis in Chad and 135 deaths.
There are many campaigns supporting meningitis vaccine coverage in the belt. In 2014, meningitis epidemics reached their lowest levels. After Chad’s campaign, meningitis cases dropped by 94%.
Typhoid
Typhoid is a gastrointestinal infection transmitted from one infected person with poor hygiene to another person when handling food and water. The bacteria can multiply and enter the bloodstream and cause high fevers and fatigue. Typhoid is common in countries that have poor water and improper sanitation. Typhoid vaccines are highly recommended for travelers visiting Chad.
Malaria
Chad has a very high risk of malaria, with a greater incidence rate of over 85% of plasmodium falciparum malaria. Because of the high amount of malaria cases, Chad is receiving help for malaria prevention.
While progress for adopting preventative therapy for children is slow among WHO member states, Chad is the only country that adopted the recommended policy for infants.
There still is a lot of progress needed for top diseases in Chad to be completely combated against and its health resources to be improved. However, solutions are available to prevent most of these top diseases in Chad.
– Taameen Mohammad
Photo: Flickr
WFP ShareTheMeal App Supports Food Relief in Malawi
The World Food Program (WFP) is the world’s largest organization dedicated to fighting hunger and promoting food security. As a branch of the U.N. the WFP is funded solely through voluntary donations which allow the organization to reach around 80 million people annually in 80 countries.
Though the WFP has a strong impact on the battle against world hunger, over 795 million people remain undernourished globally. Often people in developing countries become undernourished when faced with external factors like natural disasters or political instability. These factors can cause entire communities to lose access to necessities like food and water.
Currently, southern Africa is experiencing drought due to the year’s El Nino weather pattern — it is believed that Malawi was hit the hardest of the countries affected. The drought coupled with severe flash floods has devastated the country’s crops.
Up to 40 percent of the population of Malawi may need emergency assistance. In an attempt to provide food relief to vulnerable populations like those in Malawi, the WFP created an app called ShareTheMeal.
ShareTheMeal allows users to help those in need with the touch of a button. By choosing to share a meal, users donate 50 cents, the cost to feed one child for one day, to school children in Malawi. Of course, more than one meal can be donated at a time, but allowing users to donate as little as 50 cents makes food relief an affordable act for all.
At this time, WFP is focusing ShareTheMeal towards food relief in Malawi, but the app has been used to help several other vulnerable communities since its inception in the summer of 2015. In fact, the ShareTheMeal website states that donations on the app have provided over 7.5 million meals to those in need.
Recently, between June and July of 2016, all donations on the app went to feeding Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. The donations from those two months were enough to provide one year worth of food to 1,500 children.
While these numbers may seem impressive, the WFP is setting the bar even higher for relief in Malawi. Through ShareTheMeal, the WFP’s goal is to provide 58,000 school children with food for an entire year. If the goal is reached, those 58,000 children will have better chances of staying in school and learning the essential skills that could one day lift them out of poverty.
– Weston Northrop
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About Zimbabwe Refugees
Here are 10 facts about Zimbabwe refugees:
– Marcelo Guadiana
Photo: Flickr
Small Island, Big Appetite: Seven Facts About Hunger in Japan
While Japan enjoys one of the largest economies in the world after the U.S. and China, hunger in Japan is an undeniable threat to one of the most highly developed nations. Here are the top seven facts you should know about the imminent food crisis of the most populous island nation:
As a leader in child nutrition programs, Japan is tackling food insecurity by improving its meal programs for children who live in food-insecure households.
Non-profit organizations such as Second Harvest Japan help fight hunger in Japan by serving 100 families, 75 percent of which are single mothers, with weekly or monthly food shipments.
Producing only 39 percent of the country’s food demand, Japan currently has the lowest food self-sufficiency ratio among all major developed countries, compared to Britain producing 70 percent and France producing 120 percent of what each country consumes respectively.
Reliance on food imports puts Japan’s meager food supply in a vulnerable position as hunger worsens.
From living off of what the local marine life offers, Japan is now the largest meat importer in the world. Not only is Japan’s food supply more fragile because it relies on imports, but studies also show that global meat production has severe environmental consequences.
Even if Japan began domestically producing meat, Japan would need to devote 50 percent of its arable land to meet the demand for just chicken and pork.
Tokyo alone boasts nearly 14 million residents, making it the most populous city in the world. However, Japan’s population has shrunk by 1 million in the past five years and is aging quickly.
As the population ages and low fertility rates prevail, Japan’s economy is expected to shrink and projected to have fewer farmers and fewer people to pay for food imports.
In the wake of Japan’s industry and tourism boom, farmers found that they could make more profit selling their land or renting it rather than cultivating it.
The agricultural shift to a more industrial focus is the primary culprit to blame for Japan’s food insecurity.
Instead of focusing on domestic efforts to prevent further food insecurity, Japan is helping Mozambique and other developing regions of Africa to become future exporters for Japan’s food demand.
Japan’s ProSavana project has been criticized as a “neo-colonialist economic exploitation” that is sold to Mozambique and the international community as sustainable agricultural development, according to the Journal of Global Initiatives.
The UNAC President Augusto Mafigo voiced his concerns for the possible consequences of the ProSavana project: “We are extremely frustrated that the ProSavana program is not designed for the weak. It is designed for facilitating companies to acquire land. If that really happens, that would destroy our community.”
A projected 5-8 million tons of wasted food is actually edible but is discarded because of small blemishes or visual imperfections. If Japan would take a cue from France, who recently made it illegal for supermarkets to waste edible food, the amount of edible food waste rescued in Japan would be equivalent — or even surpass — the amount of annual global food aid.
As one of the most prosperous nations in the world, Japan risks underestimating its fragile food supply. To address the roots of hunger in Japan, solutions centered on domestic development rather than international food importing is crucial.
– Daniela Sarabia
Photo: Flickr
Why Global Poverty Still Exists
For the first time in human history, the goal of eliminating poverty is within our grasp. Recently, the World Bank announced global poverty has fallen below 10 percent for the first time, a measure the organization defines as a person living on less than $1.90 a day.
However, the numbers surrounding poverty are still daunting. About 702 million people or 9.6 percent of the world’s population still live in extreme poverty. More than 3 billion people, nearly half the world’s population, live on less than $2.50 a day.
Where does this level of poverty come from? Are resources limited?
According to the CIA’s World Fact Book, the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of the world at purchasing power parity is $21,470. That means the value of goods and services produced for every person in the world each day is about $58.78.
World poverty isn’t a problem of limited resources, it is a problem of inequality. This inequality is upheld by the idea that aid creates dependence. The old proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” embodies this idea.
Aid can take the form of instruction. New efforts related to relief have revealed poverty can be reduced by offering productive assets, training and cash to people living in destitute countries. The non-profit Innovations for Poverty Action tested what they call the “Graduation Program” in a nine-year, six-country study following 21,000 adults in 10,495 households in India, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Peru and Honduras.
The program successfully reduced poverty through providing goods such as livestock, business advisement and a small amount of cash to live off of while receiving training. Testers found a boost of 133 to 433 percent on investment. In other words, for every dollar spent on the program in India, participants received an increased income of $4.33.
The creators of the Graduation Program understood poverty is a vicious cycle that can be hard to break free from. People living in extreme poverty often have to choose between immediate gratification like eating every day and long term investment like procuring an education. By providing immediate aid to people in need, we can help them out of poverty by allowing them to focus on learning the skills they need for self-sufficiency.
The world without poverty is possible and desirable. The six countries that field the most expensive militaries spent almost a trillion dollars on defense expenditures in 2015 alone. Despite this astronomical military spending, our world remains locked in conflict. Removing poverty would make our world more stable. Access to economic opportunity helps insulate populations from extremist ideologies. By shifting a fraction of what we spend on defense to international aid, we can eliminate global poverty in a generational period.
In turn, a poverty-free world would create expanded overseas markets and additional job opportunities in developed nations. A future without poverty is a more productive one. By coming together to tackle the plague of destitution around the world, we have the opportunity to advance the human condition and eliminate global poverty in a way no one has done before.
– Will Sweger
Photo: Flickr