Amylia Deng’s sense of purpose and drive to make an impact emerged at a young age. As a naturally observant adolescent, she keyed in on the challenges around her, especially those affecting women and children, and she knew she wanted to be a part of that change. Growing up in South Sudan and Kenya gave her a unique perspective. Exposure to both environments shaped her worldview — one experience rooted in resilience and community, the other established with opportunities and possibilities.
Health Action in South Sudan
As CEO of Health Action in South Sudan since January 2019, Amylia Deng has dedicated herself to driving lasting impact. She helped enroll more than 200 children back into school, opening doors to children and families faced with financial, structural and social barriers. Deng said that many families cannot afford school fees or live in areas where schools are inaccessible. “There are also cultural factors where education is not always prioritized. Some children are forced into labor or early marriage instead of being in classrooms,” she said.
According to recent United Nations (U.N.) data, South Sudan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. Around 70% of adults cannot read or write, approximately 84% of girls over the age of 15 are illiterate, and an estimated 2.8 million children are not in school.
Even before she fully understood it, Deng identified as an activist, author and had a flair for fashion. Writing became her way of processing and telling stories, activism became her voice and fashion allowed for self-expression. All three combined, allowing her to communicate who she is and what she stands for.
Representing South Sudan on a Global Stage
As a diplomat working within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in South Sudan and author of two books — Even After the Darkest Moments and Rising from the Ashes — her journey has led her to represent South Sudan on the global stage. In 2022, she founded Amylia Cosmetics. In 2024, she was crowned Miss International South Sudan.
When asked what challenges she has witnessed as a South Sudanese woman that still drive her work today, Deng said she witnessed limited access to education, early marriages, lack of opportunities and societal expectations that often silence women’s potential. She personally experienced instability and moments where she had to navigate systems that were not built to support young women. These experiences continue to drive her work because she knows what it feels like to have potential but limited access.
Deng said access to education is still one of the most urgent needs. Beyond that, there is a strong need for economic empowerment, health care and protection from gender-based violence. She emphasized that women and children need systems that not only support survival but also create pathways for growth and independence.
According to a statement by U.N. Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Anna Mutavati, approximately 5 million women and girls in South Sudan need help, with half requiring gender-based violence services.
The 2025 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey for South Sudan showed that 19% of children are stunted, only 42% attended primary school and 43% of women were married before age 18.
Deng said she would want the world to understand that South Sudan is more than a challenge. It is a country full of resilient, talented and ambitious people who, despite difficult circumstances, continue to rise, create and hope for a better future.
The challenges and responsibilities Deng carried early on had an impact on her life’s trajectory. They forced her to grow quickly and shaped her mindset. The roots of her drive and resilience, however, came from the strength of the women around her and her family.
From a global perspective, Deng said the international community should play a supportive but respectful role when partnering with local leaders and organizations in improving access to education in developing countries, rather than imposing solutions. She mentioned investment in infrastructure, teacher training and sustainable economic education programs as critical. Most importantly, she said those efforts should focus on long-term impact rather than short-term visibility.
A Crown as a Catalyst for Health Action in South Sudan
In many ways, Amylia Deng has become a bridge between the two worlds of hardship and possibility that originally influenced her. For her, the crown is not just an achievement but a duty and an honor to make an impact.
“Success is impact,” Deng said. “Changing lives. Creating opportunities where there were none. Building something that outlives me. It is not just about personal achievement. It is about how many people I can bring up with me.”
In closing, Deng expressed that young people, especially girls, growing up in difficult situations, do not have to let their environment determine their future. “You may start with less,” she said, “but you are not less. Stay focused, believe in your vision even when no one else does. Do not be afraid to take up space. Your story matters. You have the power to change not only your life, but the lives of others.
– Erin Sian Mongillo
Erin is based in North Haven, CT, USA and focuses on Celebs for The Borgen Project.
Photo: Flickr
Community Groups Supporting Indigenous Families in Mexico City
That is why local support matters. In practice, it can mean food, shelter, help staying in school or simply the reassurance that someone is taking a family’s future seriously. Community groups supporting Indigenous families in Mexico City are, at heart, about that kind of practical support and the difference it can make.
The Indigenous Education Support Program
The Indigenous Education Support Program provides lodging and food, promotes cultural identity and supports Indigenous and Afro-Mexican youth as they continue their studies. It is aimed particularly at students who do not have local educational options in their communities. This helps address longer-term issues when poverty is not only about income but also about whether young people can remain in school without being forced to choose between education and survival.
A program like this does more than meet an immediate need; it gives families a better chance of staying stable while helping younger people move forward without losing touch with their cultural identities.
Casa Tochán
Support in Mexico City also comes through shelters and community organizations that help people rebuild and settle after periods of upheaval. Casa Tochán is one such organization that supports people in migration in Mexico City through housing, medical and psychological care, job support and cultural activities. The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) describes it as a place that helps people not only survive but begin to recover some sense of ordinary life.
Casa Tochán also provides paralegal advice, community health campaigns and support with local integration issues. Even though the shelter is not exclusively for Indigenous families, its work still speaks to the wider reality of exclusion in the city. Families arriving with few resources often face overlapping pressures related to housing, legal uncertainty, health and work.
Casa Tochán’s model is useful because it treats those pressures as connected rather than separate. Its works allow families to focus on their own lives rather than becoming caught in the various bureaucratic webs these issues can create when kept separate.
The Impacts of Support
What stands out about both the Indigenous Education Support Program and Casa Tochán is that neither treats poverty as an abstract issue. They respond to it by asking whether a child can remain in school, whether a family has food and shelter and whether people trying to build a life in Mexico City are met with respect rather than indifference. That may sound simple, but it is not insignificant.
For underrepresented families, consistent, local and humane support can shape the course of daily life. These community groups supporting Indigenous families in Mexico City are not only responding to need, but also reflecting the effort, care and quiet solidarity that help people endure and rebuild. Mexico City remains a difficult place for many families living at the margins.
However, these examples show that practical support is within reach. When organizations invest in education, shelter and everyday dignity, they make it easier for families not just to endure the city but to find some footing within it.
– Elliott Carter
Photo: Unsplash
School Readiness: Early Childhood Education in Ghana
These foundational experiences help children transition more successfully into elementary school. However, access remains unequal, particularly in low-income contexts, where many children miss out on early learning opportunities. Expanding early childhood education in Ghana reflects a broader effort to ensure that more children benefit from a strong start.
Expanding Access Through Free Kindergarten
A central feature of early childhood education in Ghana is the integration of two years of free and compulsory kindergarten into the national basic education system. This policy ensures that children ages 4 to 5 have access to structured early learning before entering primary school, helping them develop foundational skills in literacy, numeracy and social interaction. By making kindergarten part of compulsory education, Ghana recognizes early learning as an essential stage rather than an optional step, strengthening school readiness nationwide.
Recent national efforts continue to build on this foundation by improving coordination across sectors and expanding inclusive services that support young children’s development and well-being.
Ongoing Challenges in Early Childhood Education
Despite strong national policies, early childhood education in Ghana continues to face several challenges that affect both access and quality. Shortages of trained kindergarten teachers remain a concern, along with limited teaching and learning materials in many classrooms. In some areas, infrastructure is inadequate to support young learners and classrooms can be overcrowded.
There are also gaps in coordination between institutions and limited data at local levels, making it harder to plan effectively. In addition, family and community engagement is not always consistent and children in rural or underserved areas are less likely to benefit fully from early learning opportunities.
Strengthening Quality Through Teacher Support
Improving the quality of early childhood education in Ghana has become a key priority alongside expanding access. National and international partners support teacher training initiatives to improve classroom practices and learning outcomes. For example, Sabre Education works with kindergarten teachers in Ghana to provide training and ongoing support in delivering the national curriculum through structured, play-based learning.
This approach helps teachers use guided activities and classroom materials to support early literacy and numeracy development. These efforts show how targeted teacher support can strengthen daily learning experiences and improve school readiness.
Building a Strong Foundation for the Future
The progress of early childhood development in Ghana shows how sustained policy commitment and targeted support can improve school readiness and long-term outcomes. By making kindergarten free and compulsory and investing in teacher training and system coordination, Ghana is strengthening the foundation of its education system. While challenges remain, continued efforts to expand access and improve quality can help ensure that more children enter elementary school prepared to learn and succeed.
– Isil Ertas Senturk
Photo: Flickr
Using Football to Protect Vulnerable Women from Exploitation
Homeless World Cup
Poverty and football are complexly and deeply entangled. As an accessible game for most people, football holds great power as a catalyst for social change with grassroots programmes creating jobs and opportunities, developing vocational and life skills and empowering marginalised groups through social cohesion.
The Homeless World Cup has one vision – to create a world in which homelessness does not exist. According to the U.N., there are more than 1.8 billion people who lack suitable housing worldwide, despite it being a human right. Through both its one-of-a-kind Homeless World Cup tournaments and by delivering year-round programs in 75 countries, they help to achieve their mission by helping players into stable housing, education programs, and employment.
Football to Protect Vulnerable Women from Exploitation Project
The FIFA Foundation and the Homeless World Cup Foundation recognized the transformative power of football to protect vulnerable women from exploitation and create safer communities. They partnered with four Homeless World Cup countries to develop and implement a curriculum of both football and non-football related activities: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Programs in each country have used the power of sports to focus on and improve on local issues. The overall project had several goals:
Kenya
Around 45% of the Kenyan population lives below the global poverty rate of $3.00 a day. Additionally, around 1.4 million Kenyans live with HIV. As such, the partnership between the FIFA Foundation, the Homeless World Cup Foundation and Vijana Amani Pamoja (a football club formed in 2003 in an area of Kenya with a high rate of HIV), this project to use football to protect vulnerable women also had a large focus on sexual reproductive health and rights for girls and young women. Young women and girls who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation due to poverty and inadequate housing are at an increased risk of HIV, which makes this project all the more important.
Tanzania
Despite seeing significant growth in their economy and a major reduction in poverty since 2000, the poverty rate remains high, with around 29 million people still living in poverty, and 3 million houses are necessary to address the current shelter shortage. Gender-based violence remains a large issue in Tanzania; around 10%, or 2 million, girls and women have experienced female genital mutilation despite the law prohibiting it on girls under the age of 18. Consequently, the project to use football to protect vulnerable women from exploitation in Tanzania focuses largely on tackling gender-based violence to ensure sustainable and safe social development for young people.
Zambia
An astonishing 71% of the Zambian population lives below the poverty line, making it one of the poorest countries in the world. There has been a rapid rate of urbanisation with ‘higher’ paid jobs concentrating in urban areas; there remains a 1.3 million urban housing unit deficit. Zambia’s project partner is Bauleni United Sports Academy, which focuses on children and young people aged 6 to 20 who struggle with poor economic situations and social injustices. They provide resources and facilitate opportunities for 10,000 children to access high-quality sports programmes for positive impacts that last a lifetime.
Zimbabwe
Approximately 9.9 million people live on less than $4.20 a day, and around one in five people live in slums with limited access to water and electricity. Partnering with the FIFA Foundation and the Homeless World Cup Foundation, Zimbabwe’s Young Achievement Sports for Development is a community-based organisation that uses football and education to reach young people and help increase their confidence and prevent substance abuse.
Project Outcomes
This partnership and project have already helped and empowered many girls and women throughout the four partner countries through football and wider initiatives. Sport and football are powerful and effective transformative forces, helping create safer communities by protecting vulnerable women and girls from exploitation. Football and this initiative are far more than a game, but a lifeline for so many experiencing social injustices such as poverty and gender-based violence.
– Stephanie Gable
Photo: Flickr
Poverty Reduction and Water Access in Mayotte
The same European Commission regional fiche reports that current water demand is about 42,000 cubic meters per day, while production capacity is around 39,000. In a territory where 77% of residents live below the poverty line, poor water access in Mayotte has made residents more vulnerable to health risks, increased daily costs and tough living conditions.
When Water Becomes a Poverty Issue
For many residents, the issue is not about lacking a large water supply, but affordability and safety as well. The European Commission states that water-related spending accounts for 17% of average household budget in Mayotte. Families who lack indoor water access most often depend on backyard taps, neighbors or informal sources such as standpipes, wells or streams. Interruptions also pose a health hazard since bacteria and other waterborne disease agents can spread when stored water deteriorates in Mayotte’s heat. Therefore, poor water access in Mayotte negatively affects residents’ public health and a household’s concentration on work, school and other essential needs.
AFD says Mayotte has a population of at least 300,000 people on just 376 square kilometers and continues to experience a growing population. At the same time, the European Commission notes that many of the water network was built to support a much smaller population and that malfunctions in one part of the system can severely disrupt supply across the territory. This helps explain why water shortages in Mayotte are not just the result of a drier climate, they are also related to problems such as aging infrastructure, limited capacity and years of delayed investment.
Major Investments Are Underway
However, active responses are already underway. The European Commission announced additional national investment plans of around €450 million for succeeding years, while the ERDF 2021-2027 program plans to invest €77.5 million ($90,845,500.00 US dollars) in water and sanitation in Mayotte.
AFD also works with local stakeholders to develop infrastructure and support local authorities, including through a project that provides organizational and financial aid to Mayotte’s communes and inter-communal bodies. These efforts matter because poverty reduction in Mayotte partly depends on whether essential services become more reliable and affordable.
A 2024-2027 Water Plan Offers Concrete Steps
The Mayotte prefecture’s 2024-2027 water plan adds more concrete measures. According to the prefecture, leak-repair teams have inspected more than two-thirds of the network since mid-2023 and have repaired more than 1,000 leaks. The plan also includes new boreholes at Coconi and Combani and an Ironi Bé desalination plant with a planned capacity of 10,000 cubic meters per day. Water access in Mayotte is therefore not only a crisis story. It is also a story about whether current repairs, investments and long-term planning can finally turn a basic service into a more stable foundation for health and poverty reduction.
– Ashirah Newton
Photo: Flickr
Gender Wage Gap in Kyrgyzstan
Statistics
According to the United Nations (U.N.) Women, the average female employee’s salary equates to roughly 75% of the average male worker’s earnings. Even when working similar jobs, men tend to receive higher pay. Some reasons for this gap include the fact that women often occupy lower-paying sectors such as education and health care. On top of working paid jobs, women on average take on approximately 4.5 times more domestic tasks than men, including household chores, food preparation and child care. These tasks go unpaid and limit career opportunities. Traditional gender norms in Kyrgyzstan have also caused the women’s employment rate to drop from 49.3% to 43.8% over the past 15 years.
Community Impact
The gender wage gap has caused hardship within communities. Some argue that the gap is deliberately unfair and discriminatory toward female employees, limiting their opportunities for career growth. In some cases, it has caused households to go without food. The Borgen Project recently spoke to a resident who has lived in Kyrgyzstan his entire life and agreed to share his story. The interviewee requested to remain anonymous and will be referred to as T.
T was born and raised in a close-knit community and grew up with a mother and a sister. Household finances were limited, which motivated his mother to work as a barista for several years to keep the family income afloat. T recalled that the family was sometimes unable to afford basic necessities, meaning he and his sister would spend some nights going hungry and having to fend for themselves when their mother was not home.
Discrimination against women in the workplace is not a series of isolated incidents. It can affect entire communities at once. T said the divide in pay between male and female workers was significant enough that local families relied on the generosity of others to make ends meet. He described communities of hard-working families in similar situations, where trust and mutual support became essential for survival. Despite his mother’s extra work hours, the family barely cleared the threshold for many nights.
T said his mother worked long days and nights and received very little in return. He noted that he knew many other hardworking women who faced harassment or mistreatment simply because of their gender.
Outside of traditional gender roles limiting work opportunities, Kyrgyzstan also faces an increased number of domestic violence cases targeting women and girls. According to the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry, police reported 10,164 cases of domestic violence and assault in early to mid 2025, with numbers continuing to rise. Many instances go unreported due to coercion, isolation or financial reliance on the perpetrator.
Solutions
Several solutions are being implemented to address the gender wage gap in Kyrgyzstan. These include the Kyrgyzstan Gender Equality Strategy of 2030, which aims to strengthen protections for women, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which oversees and monitors workplace harassment and discrimination. The National Federation of Female Communities of Kyrgyzstan (NFFCK) is a nongovernmental organization working to eliminate harmful practices such as domestic abuse and bride kidnapping. Activist Urkuya Salieva, who fought for social justice and women’s rights, continues to serve as a symbol of advocacy in Kyrgyzstan.
Looking Ahead
Traditional gender norms in Kyrgyzstan have contributed to the gender wage gap, causing a loss of jobs and career opportunities for women and making it more difficult for them to provide for themselves and their families. As shown by T’s account and the rising number of domestic violence cases, the gender wage gap has had direct effects on local communities and households. These incidents are not isolated but are systematically affecting many residents of Kyrgyzstan, meaning cooperation between government, civil society and international organizations remains essential to closing the gap.
– Will Mancuso
Photo: Flickr
Countering Educational Poverty for Dalits in India
If illiteracy is considered an indicator of exclusion from education, then Dalits bear a disproportionate share of this burden, with 62% of Dalits illiterate, indicating they have likely not completed primary school. Informal data suggests that more than 60% of children who drop out of school are Dalit children.
Caste discrimination aligns with gender discrimination to fuel illiteracy. The literacy rate of female Dalits in Bihar was 38.5% in 2011. Despite widely recognizing education as the most effective pathway out of poverty, Dalit children in India continue to face systematic exclusion.
While the caste system has been abolished in law, discrimination and prejudice against Dalits persist throughout India, including in education. Dalit families face such extreme poverty and unemployment that children are sometimes sold into bonded labor so that families can eat, preventing them from attending school. Many Dalit children who do attend school are malnourished.
In schools, Dalit children are often bullied and discriminated against. In Bihar, where there is a legal obligation to include children from all castes, schools are often abandoned or barely functioning. Dalit children who do attend are treated with cruelty or neglect. Practices of discrimination include being forced to sit at the back of the class and being prevented from touching or interacting with classmates from other castes. Accounts of verbal and physical abuse from both teachers and classmates are well-documented.
The dropout rate for girls is exceptionally high. Children already vulnerable due to caste prejudice face even greater danger, perpetuating a cycle of poverty that has remained unchallenged for generations.
Countering Educational Poverty for Dalits
Education is key to increasing prosperity, security and opportunity in any country. If the Dalit community faces exclusion from learning, the country cannot advance as a whole. Steps have been taken by several developmental bodies, including the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation and other international bodies.
Numerous charities also aim to educate Dalits in India and achieve educational equality. Guru Ravidas inspired one prominent charitable movement. He was born into a Dalit family in 14th-century India. According to Chaman Lal Madahar, General Secretary of the Sri Guru Ravidass International Organization and Assistant General Secretary of the Shri Guru Ravidass Temple, Newham, London, Shri Guru Ravidass Temples in England are part of a broader movement to support Dalit education across Indian states through financial contributions.
Madahar said these organizations help Dalits in Ravidassia communities with financial support directed to education organizations established in Indian states such as Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar. Funds are transferred by bank or delivered in person, with recipients required to show proper identification. He estimated that the scale of aid from a U.K.-registered charity in this network would be approximately 5% to 8% of the organization’s total resources. Two registered charities confirmed by Madahar provide financial support to Dalit communities for both education and health needs, such as hospitals and schools.
Madahar said the long-term aim is to continue support for education and health for Dalits, while acknowledging that ensuring funds reach the right institutions remains a challenge.
Looking Ahead
There are encouraging signs that efforts to counter educational poverty for Dalits are producing results over time. The Ministry of Education of India’s All India Survey on Higher Education for 2021 to 2022, the most recent available data, notes that of the 43.3 million students enrolled, 15.3% belong to the Scheduled Castes.
Official census data from 2011 suggested that 16.6% of India’s population were Scheduled Castes.
Where Dalits have been given access to education throughout their student lives, they are roughly proportionate in the student body, though there is still work to achieve full representation. These figures contrast with the situation in the 1980s and 1990s, when prejudice meant Dalits did not enjoy proportional representation in higher education. Investment and development work for Dalits appears to be slowly translating into greater higher education participation, with the potential for greater social mobility and career opportunities over time.
– Suneel Mehmi
Photo: Unsplash
Health Action in South Sudan
Health Action in South Sudan
As CEO of Health Action in South Sudan since January 2019, Amylia Deng has dedicated herself to driving lasting impact. She helped enroll more than 200 children back into school, opening doors to children and families faced with financial, structural and social barriers. Deng said that many families cannot afford school fees or live in areas where schools are inaccessible. “There are also cultural factors where education is not always prioritized. Some children are forced into labor or early marriage instead of being in classrooms,” she said.
According to recent United Nations (U.N.) data, South Sudan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. Around 70% of adults cannot read or write, approximately 84% of girls over the age of 15 are illiterate, and an estimated 2.8 million children are not in school.
Even before she fully understood it, Deng identified as an activist, author and had a flair for fashion. Writing became her way of processing and telling stories, activism became her voice and fashion allowed for self-expression. All three combined, allowing her to communicate who she is and what she stands for.
Representing South Sudan on a Global Stage
As a diplomat working within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in South Sudan and author of two books — Even After the Darkest Moments and Rising from the Ashes — her journey has led her to represent South Sudan on the global stage. In 2022, she founded Amylia Cosmetics. In 2024, she was crowned Miss International South Sudan.
When asked what challenges she has witnessed as a South Sudanese woman that still drive her work today, Deng said she witnessed limited access to education, early marriages, lack of opportunities and societal expectations that often silence women’s potential. She personally experienced instability and moments where she had to navigate systems that were not built to support young women. These experiences continue to drive her work because she knows what it feels like to have potential but limited access.
Deng said access to education is still one of the most urgent needs. Beyond that, there is a strong need for economic empowerment, health care and protection from gender-based violence. She emphasized that women and children need systems that not only support survival but also create pathways for growth and independence.
According to a statement by U.N. Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Anna Mutavati, approximately 5 million women and girls in South Sudan need help, with half requiring gender-based violence services.
The 2025 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey for South Sudan showed that 19% of children are stunted, only 42% attended primary school and 43% of women were married before age 18.
Deng said she would want the world to understand that South Sudan is more than a challenge. It is a country full of resilient, talented and ambitious people who, despite difficult circumstances, continue to rise, create and hope for a better future.
The challenges and responsibilities Deng carried early on had an impact on her life’s trajectory. They forced her to grow quickly and shaped her mindset. The roots of her drive and resilience, however, came from the strength of the women around her and her family.
From a global perspective, Deng said the international community should play a supportive but respectful role when partnering with local leaders and organizations in improving access to education in developing countries, rather than imposing solutions. She mentioned investment in infrastructure, teacher training and sustainable economic education programs as critical. Most importantly, she said those efforts should focus on long-term impact rather than short-term visibility.
A Crown as a Catalyst for Health Action in South Sudan
In many ways, Amylia Deng has become a bridge between the two worlds of hardship and possibility that originally influenced her. For her, the crown is not just an achievement but a duty and an honor to make an impact.
“Success is impact,” Deng said. “Changing lives. Creating opportunities where there were none. Building something that outlives me. It is not just about personal achievement. It is about how many people I can bring up with me.”
In closing, Deng expressed that young people, especially girls, growing up in difficult situations, do not have to let their environment determine their future. “You may start with less,” she said, “but you are not less. Stay focused, believe in your vision even when no one else does. Do not be afraid to take up space. Your story matters. You have the power to change not only your life, but the lives of others.
– Erin Sian Mongillo
Photo: Flickr
Establishment of Mexico’s Universal Health Care System
The Necessity of a New System
Since the creation of the Mexican health care system in 1943, fragmentation has created disparities in quality and access due to divisions based on economic, social and regional factors. As of 2023, the system was divided into the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), which covered salaried private sector workers; the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE), which covered salaried public sector workers; PEMEX, which covered workers in the oil industry; and IMSS-Bienestar, or INSABI, which covered those who did not qualify for the others, such as contract workers, the unemployed and the self-employed. INSABI replaced Seguro Popular in 2018, causing the number of citizens without access to health services to increase by 15.6 million in only two years. As of May 2023, the government had dismantled INSABI. However, the effects still remain, increasing the need for Mexico’s universal health care system.
In 2025, Mexico ranked below Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) averages in life expectancy (75.5 years), preventable mortality (243 per 100,000), eligible children vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) (78%) and women screened for breast cancer (20%). Mexico spent $1,588 per capita on health, compared with the OECD average of $5,967. Much of this was due to fragmentation’s effects on the rural poor. Because access to health services was based on employment status and proximity to salaried jobs in the public or private sector, the poor could not always use the closest hospital or institution if a specific subsystem ran it. Additionally, changes in the labor market caused by the COVID-19 pandemic placed more than half of the population in the informal sector. This created disparities in quality of care between the formal and informal sectors, effectively splitting the country’s health care system in half.
How a Universal System Will Address These Issues
Beyond providing free coverage for its citizens, Mexico’s universal health care system will integrate these subsystems into a national network. In doing this, the government hopes that quality care and accessibility will transcend employment status or geographical location. Citizens will be able to use any health care institution, regardless of personal factors, with a health ID card. The card will be connected to an app displaying an individual’s medical records, upcoming appointments and available services.
The health ID card and connected app should streamline the health care process and improve efficiency. The consolidation of subsystems should also help efficiency, as specialized equipment can now be shared across hospitals that it previously could not. Patients will have the option to remain at a specific health center for the full duration of care, removing forced transfers that shortened treatments. The unification of these subsystems is necessary for both universal coverage and an efficient, centralized network.
Looking Ahead
According to Sheinbaum’s timeline, the exchange between institutions will begin by Jan. 1, 2027, with services covering emergency care, high-risk pregnancies, heart attacks, strokes, cancers, vaccinations and primary care consultations. The second half of 2027 marks the beginning of coverage for specialized medical services. By 2028, universal coverage will include prescriptions, referral-based hospitalization and specialized outpatient care. Mexico’s universal health care system represents a significant shift in access for millions of citizens, particularly those in the informal sector and rural communities who have historically been underserved.
– Joshua Megson
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Fight Against Rural Poverty in Paraguay
While the numbers are still worrying, the situation is improving. In rural areas, the poverty rate decreased from 28.1% to 25.9% between 2023 and 2024. Behind those numbers are two government programs: Tekoporã Mbareté and Hambre Cero en las Escuelas (Zero Hunger in Schools), which are reshaping social protection in one of South America’s most unequal landscapes.
What Is Tekoporã Mbareté?
Tekoporã means “living well,” and Mbareté means “strong” in Guaraní, Paraguay’s widely spoken indigenous language. Tekoporã Mbareté is a conditional cash transfer program that has anchored Paraguay’s anti-poverty strategy since 2005. It is implemented by the Ministry of Social Development (MDS) and built around two components: sociofamilial community accompaniment and a direct cash transfer to help families exercise their rights in health, education and food security.
In August 2023, President Santiago Peña launched Tekoporã Mbareté, raising the cash transfer by 25% for all participating families. Peña called the increase “an act of justice, because in recent years those who have suffered most have been the most vulnerable families.” By March 2025, approximately 197,000 families were enrolled nationwide.
Transfers are delivered via debit cards distributed by Paraguay’s national postal service, Correos, reaching families in remote communities where banking infrastructure is scarce. The system also serves as a pathway to financial inclusion for people previously outside the formal banking sector.
Zero Hunger in Schools: Feeding Children, Supporting Farmers
Paraguay’s Zero Hunger in Schools program has reached full national coverage in 2025, serving more than one million students in the public school system. Its design sets it apart from a standard school meals program. Suppliers are legally required to reserve 10% of contracted spending on goods purchased directly from small family farms and 5% on products from local small and medium-sized businesses.
Minister of Social Development Tadeo Rojas described the accountability method: “From now on, suppliers have to present monthly invoices proving their purchases from family farms and medium-sized businesses. This is required for them to receive payment.” The result is a program that channels public spending back into rural economies, giving small producers a reliable market and greater financial security while improving child nutrition and school attendance.
Results, Context and Rural Poverty in Paraguay Moving Forward
Without Tekoporã Mbareté, the Zero Hunger in Schools program and complementary initiatives for older adults, Paraguay’s national poverty rate in 2025 would have reached 19.9% instead of 16%. This means these social programs kept roughly 239,000 people above the poverty line. Additionally, its GDP grew approximately 6% in 2025, the fastest in South America and around 242,000 new jobs were created over the preceding 2.5 years.
Economic growth and targeted social policy together produced what neither could have achieved alone. However, gaps remain. Departments such as Caaguazú, Caazapá and San Pedro continue to record poverty rates well above the national average.
The 2021–2022 drought, which devastated soybean production and pushed rural poverty upward, is also a reminder of how exposed the country’s agricultural economy remains to climate shocks. Still, the trajectory is meaningful. A country that once left its rural poor beyond the reach of the state is now designing programs that find them, measure results honestly and deliberately expand coverage.
– Gia Sen
Photo: Flickr
Poverty in the Sahel Region: Rural Neglect Versus Urban Bias
Because poverty is more visible and politically concentrated in cities, government spending, humanitarian aid and infrastructure projects tend to prioritize urban areas. As a result, rural regions like the Sahel receive fewer health facilities, weaker transportation networks and less reliable energy access, despite facing equal or greater levels of need.
Malnutrition and Disease Outbreaks in the Sahel
Nigeria, a Sahel country, has one of the highest percentages of residents living in extreme poverty. Additionally, its arid climate makes it more likely to experience drought. This reality makes the area vulnerable to food shortages.
In context, close to one million children in the Sahel region under the age of 5 experience extreme malnutrition. The average lifespan in the Sahel region is about 20 years shorter than that of someone from Switzerland. Aside from malnutrition, the Sahel region is also particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks and epidemics.
For instance, there were more than 110,000 recorded cases of cholera in the area in 2021, compared to two in the U.S. that same year. These nutrition and health outcomes are not solely the result of climate or geography. Urban bias limits rural access to clean water systems, preventative health care and rapid disease surveillance, allowing otherwise preventable health crises to escalate in the Sahel.
Logistics
Logistical challenges in the Sahel, such as transporting food, medical supplies, staff and other resources, are often treated as natural obstacles but usually stem from decades of urban-biased investment decisions. Limited road networks, underdeveloped supply chains and weak rural transport systems are the result of prioritizing cities over rural connectivity. For solutions to reduce poverty in the Sahel region, there must be measures that enable transportation across this vast, arid area.
The Sahel Adaptive Social Protective Program
The Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program (SASPP) is a multi-donor trust fund established by the World Bank in 2014. It was created in response to several issues facing the Sahel region. It works with institutions and groups to strengthen social programs in the region.
The program provides technical assistance, capacity building and financial support for pilot interventions in six Sahelian countries. Since its inception, the project has allocated more than $270 million to investment projects, strengthening Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) systems in the region. ASP systems are social programs that help build the resilience of impoverished households.
They do this by investing in their capacity to anticipate, respond to and recover from crises like climate shocks or economic downturns, ensuring they do not fall deeper into poverty.
Closing Remarks
If access to low to no-cost transportation expands, those living in the Sahel would be able to use these resources much more freely. By expanding technology access, the possibilities could be endless. Current technology is developing in such a way that it could help all of the factors determining extreme poverty in the not-too-distant future.
Redirecting resources to rural infrastructure and services offers one of the most realistic paths to reducing extreme poverty in the region.
– Nicole Miller
Photo: Flickr