On Feb. 20, 2016, the World Bank approved a $450 million conditional cash transfer (CCT) to the Philippine anti-poverty program, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4PS).
Five months earlier at a conference held in Cebu entitled “Global Economic and Financial Outlook, Growing Inequality and Regional Connectivity,” the World Bank’s Vice President Axel van Trotsenburg advocated for the bolstering of the region’s CTT program to set higher education, health and nutrition standards.
“Primary and secondary education systems should increasingly focus on quality teaching and better learning outcomes, by strengthening the autonomy and accountability of educational institutions,” he said, according to a World Bank press release. He called for dramatic government attention towards Filipinos currently living below the minimum wage, almost 800 million people.
Since it was founded in 2008, 4PS has worked to provide poor Filipinos with greater access to healthcare, adequate nutrition and education. In partnership with the Commission on Higher Education, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges, 4PS allocates funds into two types of cash grants: health and education.
The grants are distributed to beneficiaries—pending a family’s qualification—through the Land Bank of the Philippines. The cash grants can reach up to a maximum of P1,400.00 (1,400 pesos) per household, or roughly 18 percent of a family’s expenses, depending on size and need. For this reason, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) assures that these benefit amounts effectively boost community development without fostering dependency.
The role of 4PS has been tenuous, but ultimately effective. In 2012, The Philippine Institute for Development Studies published a research discussion paper, written by Celia M. Reyes and Aubrey D. Tabuga, detailing the history, implementation and progress of the program since its rollout four years earlier. The study brought to light several key issues in the program’s early stages and the ways in which the CTT would best serve a population of both transient and chronically impoverished benefactors.
Four years later, necessary considerations have been taken to ensure a multi-dimensional approach in decreasing the nation’s poor populations.
The number of beneficiaries, for example, have increased nearly every year since the CTT’s inception, from 2.3 million in 2011 to 3.93 million in 2013, to over 4 million in August 2015. This is largely due to consideration of supply-side allocations—improving health facilities and providing jobs—and a more detailed process of beneficiary selection.
Ultimately, 4PS is an influential program because of its long-term payoff. Its specific focus on health and education in children provides a spectrum of disadvantaged citizens with subsistence aid, while also undoing a poverty cycle present in the country’s chronically poor.
In 2013, AusAID consultant Dr. Tarcisio Castaneda surveyed the program’s progress, both in its hard data and on-the-ground effects. In an interview with Southeast Asian news source, Rappler, he commented that the program could prove to be an example for other countries.
With 82 percent of its benefits going to the bottom 40 percent of the population, according to the World Bank, 4PS is a strong Philippine anti-poverty measure. One worthy, the World Bank confirms, of its generous funding.
— Nora Harless
Sources: GovPH Official Gazette, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Philippine Statistics Authority, Rappler, Reuters, USAID, The World Bank
Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Moringa Leaf Tea: The Natural Way to Fight Diabetes
Vanessa Zommi is a young entrepreneur in Cameroon who decided to fight back against diabetes after losing both of her grandparents to the disease. When she was 17 years old, her mother was also diagnosed with diabetes, which was when Zommi decided to take action. Since then, Zommi has developed a natural way to fight diabetes using Moringa leaf tea.
“She came across the Moringa oleifera tree, which grew in her region, and discovered it has a number of nutritional and medicinal benefits,” says an article about Zommi in How We Made It In Africa. “One of these is reducing blood sugar levels to treat diabetes and, after a bit more research, Zommi found she could easily process the Moringa leaf into a tasty tea.”
According to the article, studies show that two hours after drinking the tea, sugar levels in the body decrease. Zommi’s discovery led to the development of her own business, the Emerald Moringa Tea Company, which now supplies over 40 African offices with the medicinal Moringa leaf tea.
According to Zommi’s team research, about 15 percent of the Buea population aged 15 to 99 suffer from diabetes and up to 80 percent are not aware of their condition. The disease is prevalent in the region in part because of a lack of access to healthy food that is high in nutrients and low in sugar.
Another problem is that the high cost of medicine and healthcare makes diabetes a low priority disease in the eyes of healthcare providers. Moringa leaf tea is an affordable, practical treatment for Cameroonians.
Zommi’s company currently employs nine people and is looking at expanding its distribution to other regions in Cameroon, as well as other parts of Africa. In 2015, she became one of the top 12 finalists for the Anzisha Prize, Africa’s premier award for young entrepreneurs. Shortly after she became a finalist for the award, she met with the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, to discuss ideas for the future.
Zommi is a strong advocate of African women in entrepreneurship, as she believes it is a way to empower women both financially and socially. Her advice to young aspiring entrepreneurs is to educate themselves in any way they can and just take the leap. “I hope through my story that I can be a role model for young girls who want to do something like this,” she said.
– Megan Hadley
Sources: How We Made it in Africa, Anzisha Prize, Emerald Moringa Tea
Photo: Flickr
How to Utilize Big Data in the Fight Against Poverty
Big Data, as its name would suggest, refers to large sets of unstructured and structured data generated at high speeds from digital and traditional data sources around the globe. The big data movement has gained momentum over the years, particularly in the business sphere, but experts have also realized that insights derived from big data have implications for the fight against poverty.
In the agricultural space for example, The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa has found that farmers in Africa barely produce what they need to get by.
Food Policy experts have found that helping these farmers in Africa and other parts of the world produce more food is key to lifting millions out of poverty. One of the key ways of attaining this goal, according to the experts, is by providing farmers, scientists and entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector with adequate access to data and information generated at agricultural research centres worldwide.
Ft Magazine highlights how big data is being used to mitigate the harmful effects that accompany natural disasters. It explains that in the aftermath of the devastating Haiti earthquake of 2010, researchers at the Karolinska Institute of Columbia University successfully managed to track the locations of 600,000 displaced people using data mining techniques.
The article in Ft Magazine also illustrates how analyzing data from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can provide early warning systems for both human and natural disasters. For example, increased references to food or ethnic strife on these sites can serve as indicators of possible famine or civil unrest.
Mark Van Rijmenam, the founder of Datafloq, further empathizes the use of Big data in the disaster response field, saying “Big data offers, for example, the possibility to predict food shortages by combining variables such as drought, weather conditions, migrations, market prices, seasonal variation and previous productions.”
In the area of public health and sanitation, Van Rijmenam talks about harnessing data from call detail records to map variations in the population of low-income dwellers in order to direct efforts at building water pipes and latrine facilities for the slum dwellers. This effort will see improved sanitation in such areas, bringing about better health.
A pilot program by the World Bank in Tanzania called SMS for life has generated major improvements in the distribution of malarial medical stock. By getting clinical workers to send an SMS with their stock count every week, the program has enabled senior coordinating staff to re-stock clinics more accurately.
SMS for life has managed to reduce the number of rural health facilities in Tanzania without medical stock from 78 percent to 26 percent.
World Bank blogger Alla Morrison has likened the transformative potential of big data to the transformative effect that electricity had on industry in the 19th century. She argues that big data is a game changer for business, and notes the unprecedented productivity gains in the second industrial revolution due to businesses in all sectors taking advantage of the new electrical resource.
Likewise, as humanity forges ahead, it is important that organizations, governments and individuals take advantage of big data to address the seemingly intractable challenge of poverty.
— June Samo
Sources: Enterra Solutions 1, Enterra Solutions 2, FT Magazine, IEEE, SAS, Smart Data Collective, UN GLOBAL PULSE, World Bank 1, World Bank 2
Photo: Flickr
Five Important Facts About Stunting from Malnutrition
According to the U.N., one in nine people or 795 million people are undernourished. Poor nutrition causes 45 percent of deaths in children under five.
One of the key indicators of child malnutrition is stunting, a condition in which children are much shorter for their age than they should be.
The following are five important facts about stunting:
1. One in four of the world’s children suffer stunted growth.
According to the U.N. World Food Programme, in developing countries the proportion can rise to as high as one in three. The World Health Organization indicates that stunting affects approximately 162 million children globally. The World Health Assembly, the decision making body of the WHO, drafted the resolution to reduce stunting in children under the age of five by 40 percent.
2. Stunting is caused by poor maternal health and nutrition.
The first 1,000 days from a mother’s pregnancy to a child’s second birthday are vitally important to a child’s overall health and development. It is during this period that good nutrition sets up a child for a healthy life.
Stunting in 20 percent of children occurs in the womb from women that are malnourished themselves. The WHO lists several maternal contributors to stunting that include short stature, short birth spacing, and adolescent pregnancy, breastfeeding complications, and severe infectious diseases.
3. Stunting has lasting effects for the child.
1000 Days is an organization that brings attention to the importance of nutrition in early child development. They note that the effects of stunting last a lifetime. Some include impaired brain development, lower IQ, weakened immune system and greater risk of serious diseases like diabetes and cancer later in life. The problem becomes a vicious cycle in which girls that suffer from malnourishment grow up to be mothers that give birth to malnourished babies.
4. Stunting is a huge strain on economic growth and prosperity.
Good nutrition is a staple of any good economy. The World Bank finds that the investment in nutrition improving programs far outweigh their costs. Ignoring the nutritional development of a country’s human capital will lead to direct losses in productivity, from poor physical status and indirect losses, poor cognitive development and losses in schooling. In fact, economists find that stunting can result in a three percent drop in overall GDP.
Research shows a strong relationship between the height of a labor force and productivity. A 2005 paper in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that reduced adult height for childhood stunting is associated with a 1.4 percent loss in productivity for each one percent loss in adult height.
5. Stunting is irreversible but also preventable.
Once stunting occurs, it cannot be reversed. However, if adequate conditions exist for mothers during pregnancy to access proper nutrition, stunting can be prevented. Significant progress in reducing the number of stunted children has already been seen.
Progress has been seen in many countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and India. These countries have launched specific programs to tackle the effects of malnutrition such as the Rajmata Jijau Mother–Child Health and Nutrition Mission in India and CRECER – the National Strategy against Child Malnutrition in Peru.
– Michael A. Clark
Sources: 1000 Days, NHRI, U.N., UNICEF, World Bank, World Food Programme, World Health Organization
Photo: Flickr
Finding Hope in Syria: A Statement from the UN
On March 11, humanitarian leaders from the United Nations and the World Food Programme issued a press statement updating the world about the continuous danger created by the conflict in Syria.
Both organizations have led efforts to provide relief to the Syrian communities under the most duress because of the occupation of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). While these operations have been successful, the basic supplies have “yet to reach one in every five besieged Syrians who urgently need help and protection.”
Most of the unreachable people live in the areas of Homs and Aleppo where ISIS occupation makes it challenging to reach the individuals who don’t have access to basic necessities. The United Nations estimates that “500,000 people are caught behind active frontiers” and “two million are in areas controlled by ISIL.”
The statement was released just four days before the start of the conflict’s sixth year. Brutal military tactics and urban fighting has caused the deaths of “over a quarter of a million Syrians” and counting. The large Syrian population has been fragmented by the conflict with “4.6 million people…in places that few can leave and aid cannot reach” and about “4.8 million people” who have emigrated due to the violence.
The message left its depressing tone for a global call to action directed at all parties involved in the war and organizations seeking the opportunity to move in and help those in need. “However, until all parties to this conflict stop attacking civilians, schools, markets and hospitals, we will continue to press them on their obligations and hold them to account,” said the UN humanitarian leaders, condemning the hindrance of aid as “unacceptable.”
Their undertones of hope quickly turned to a stubborn sense of defiance. The authors of the statement were clearly frustrated by the length and severity of the Syrian civil war and feel troubled by their blocked attempts to provide supplies. To sidestep the problem, organizations are “trying new delivery methods” despite the added “danger and uncertainty.”
On the political side, the United States and Russia have begun new campaigns to establish a ceasefire between the warring parties before the sixth year of the conflict commences. Western countries have increasing relied on the power of the Russian government in Moscow to reach a Syrian delegation in Damascus. Despite new diplomatic pressure, the third parties have yet to convince the belligerents of a “direct” meeting reported the Wall Street Journal.
A gridlocked diplomatic landscape, though, does not deter the relief efforts of non-governmental organizations and the World Food Programme. The Wall Street Journal also reports that a senior adviser to the UN’s convoy to Syria has approved “deliveries to 15 new hard-to-reach areas.” Delayed or denied shipments have created a new urgency for these fresh aid packages to arrive in areas with the most destruction.
With all of the negative updates behind, the statement retains an optimistic tone to the end. The United Nations cites that 6 million individuals have been reached in the first three and a half months of 2016. In order to increase that number, crusaders for relief are willing to “negotiate” for access to the most deprived people.
By accessing these hard-to-reach communities, UN leaders hope to inspire the young population of Syria to “believe that their future lies in their homeland.” This resilient generation has to repel violence and poverty in their country if they choose to fight for relief and believe.
– Jacob Hess
Sources: World Food Programme, WSJ
Progress For Child Malnutrition Treatment
Child malnutrition is the leading cause of death in children under five years old. Some 2.7 million children die annually due to undernourishment. However, promising research coming from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is raising hopes to change that.
Two studies led by Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD and Dr. Robert J. Glaser demonstrate potentially life-saving progress in the treatment of child malnutrition.
Gordon and Glaser have been studying the connection between gut microbes and the development of children. Child malnutrition is often diagnosed in children with stunted growth and they have found that the gut microbes in these malnourished children resemble microbes of a much younger child.
These findings suggest that the microbes themselves have become stunted. Healthy gut microbes are extremely important to the development of a child’s health. Such microbes contribute to the child’s ability to properly extract the necessary nourishment from their food. Without them, this inability means that even children who have received treatment for malnutrition can continue to have problems in the future.
The first study published in Science and carried out by Laura V. Blanton found that “that malnourished children have defects in this developmental scenario, leaving them with gut microbial communities that look younger than what would be expected based on their chronological ages.”
Blanton took samples from healthy and malnourished children from Malawi and implanted them in germ free mice. Knowing that mice eat each others feces, Blanton hoped that when caged together the healthy microbes would transfer to the mice implanted with the microbes from the malnourished children. She found just that, meaning that a process for implanting healthy microbes into malnourished children could be in the works.
The second study, done by graduate student Mark R. Charbonneau and published in Cell, targeted the effects of the mother’s breast milk on child malnutrition. Research shows that these mothers breast milk often contain low levels sialic acid, which is linked to healthy brain development.
Charbonneau, again using germ free mice, implanted healthy and malnourished microbes with differing levels of sialic acid. He found that the mice that received sialic acid at comparable levels to healthy mothers breast milk, grew much larger then the mice without it, even though each group of mice received the same diet.
Mice in both studies experienced “improvements in skeletal development and a better metabolic profile in the blood, brain and liver.” The researchers were also able to reproduce these results in germ free piglets, which more accurately reflect the metabolism of a human.
While the conditions of the two studies may not exactly represent natural conditions, microbial interventions in combination with more research could lead to improved treatments and perhaps even a cure. With millions of children and families relieved from the stress of finding their next meal, the globe moves one step closer to eliminating poverty.
– Michael Clark
Sources: The New York Times, The Source, The Washington Post
Differences Between Senators and Congressmen
Within the legislature of the federal government, there are two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Senators and Congressman work within these two lawmaking bodies. Both are representative voices for their constituents, but their roles differ in terms of length, power and apportionment. Here are some key facts on the differences between Senators and Congressmen.
House of Representatives
Senate
– Nora Harless
Sources: Diffen.com, USGovInfo
Photo: Flickr
The World Bank Funds The Philippine Anti-Poverty Program
On Feb. 20, 2016, the World Bank approved a $450 million conditional cash transfer (CCT) to the Philippine anti-poverty program, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4PS).
Five months earlier at a conference held in Cebu entitled “Global Economic and Financial Outlook, Growing Inequality and Regional Connectivity,” the World Bank’s Vice President Axel van Trotsenburg advocated for the bolstering of the region’s CTT program to set higher education, health and nutrition standards.
“Primary and secondary education systems should increasingly focus on quality teaching and better learning outcomes, by strengthening the autonomy and accountability of educational institutions,” he said, according to a World Bank press release. He called for dramatic government attention towards Filipinos currently living below the minimum wage, almost 800 million people.
Since it was founded in 2008, 4PS has worked to provide poor Filipinos with greater access to healthcare, adequate nutrition and education. In partnership with the Commission on Higher Education, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges, 4PS allocates funds into two types of cash grants: health and education.
The grants are distributed to beneficiaries—pending a family’s qualification—through the Land Bank of the Philippines. The cash grants can reach up to a maximum of P1,400.00 (1,400 pesos) per household, or roughly 18 percent of a family’s expenses, depending on size and need. For this reason, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) assures that these benefit amounts effectively boost community development without fostering dependency.
The role of 4PS has been tenuous, but ultimately effective. In 2012, The Philippine Institute for Development Studies published a research discussion paper, written by Celia M. Reyes and Aubrey D. Tabuga, detailing the history, implementation and progress of the program since its rollout four years earlier. The study brought to light several key issues in the program’s early stages and the ways in which the CTT would best serve a population of both transient and chronically impoverished benefactors.
Four years later, necessary considerations have been taken to ensure a multi-dimensional approach in decreasing the nation’s poor populations.
The number of beneficiaries, for example, have increased nearly every year since the CTT’s inception, from 2.3 million in 2011 to 3.93 million in 2013, to over 4 million in August 2015. This is largely due to consideration of supply-side allocations—improving health facilities and providing jobs—and a more detailed process of beneficiary selection.
Ultimately, 4PS is an influential program because of its long-term payoff. Its specific focus on health and education in children provides a spectrum of disadvantaged citizens with subsistence aid, while also undoing a poverty cycle present in the country’s chronically poor.
In 2013, AusAID consultant Dr. Tarcisio Castaneda surveyed the program’s progress, both in its hard data and on-the-ground effects. In an interview with Southeast Asian news source, Rappler, he commented that the program could prove to be an example for other countries.
With 82 percent of its benefits going to the bottom 40 percent of the population, according to the World Bank, 4PS is a strong Philippine anti-poverty measure. One worthy, the World Bank confirms, of its generous funding.
— Nora Harless
Sources: GovPH Official Gazette, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Philippine Statistics Authority, Rappler, Reuters, USAID, The World Bank
Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation
WHO: Maternal Mortality Realities Worldwide
According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), maternal mortality is a prominent issue in many developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Deaths from childbirth disproportionately impact the poor as well as women living in rural areas. According to the WHO, “99 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries.”
In addition, more than 50 percent of deaths during childbirth occur in sub-Saharan Africa.
The WHO also asserts that many complications that arise during pregnancy are treatable. The organization states that complications that present before birth may worsen during pregnancy and consequently become fatal.
Common complications accounting for deaths during pregnancy include severe bleeding (mostly after childbirth), infection, high blood pressure while pregnant, problems with the delivery and unsafe abortion.
According to the U.N., girls aged 15-19 are especially likely to experience fatal births.
The WHO explains that only 51 percent of women can afford skilled care by “a midwife, a doctor, or a trained nurse”. Therefore, millions of women face risks from unmonitored pregnancies. The WHO goes on to say that women need access to skilled care, not only during pregnancy, but also during childbirth and afterward.
A report from the U.N. shows that significant progress has been made in addressing the issue of maternal mortality. The organization states that Equatorial Guinea has achieved its Millennium Development Goals, reducing death during childbirth by 81 percent. Additionally, Eritrea reduced maternal mortality by 77 percent; Ethiopia saw a 69 percent decline and Rwanda reduced maternal mortality by 76 percent.
Moreover, U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon has launched a program named the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, 2016-2030. The strategy “seeks to end all preventable death of women, children and adolescents and create an environment in which these groups not only survive, but thrive and see their environments, health and wellbeing transformed”.
– Mayra Vega
Sources: World Health Organization, United Nations 1, United Nations 2, Central Intelligence Agency
Photo: Flickr
Oxfam Fights Poverty Around the World
Oxfam works with its local partners from about 90 countries to tackle causes of poverty. Some of these countries include Afghanistan, Kenya, Somalia, South Africa and Liberia.
Among the issues addressed are food poverty, climate change, health and education, money for aid development, women’s rights, water resources, conflict and disasters.
What makes Oxfam unique is its ability to work on a plethora of projects such as:
Aside working on projects at the grassroots level, Oxfam encourages ordinary citizens to donate to charity and take part in the fight against global poverty. Here, this allows for ordinary people to feel as though they are being stewards of the world.
Some of the successes of the organization include (1) a rice growing revolution in Liberia; (2) seeds of change in Nepal, which allowed vegetable seed farmer Kalpana Oli create income through smart farming and finding a gap in the market; (3) a lift-off for girls’ education in Pakistan and (4) a water project in Zimbabwe, which creates an irrigation system to provide clean water in Zimabwean communities.
Oxfam has helped improve many impoverished lives around the world and is expected to further its influence in the future.
– Vanessa Awanyo
Sources: Oxfam, Key One
Photo: Flickr
Ban Ki-moon’s Career as UN Secretary-General
Like all jobs, the role of Secretary-General of the U.N. comes with its own challenges and rewards, especially when you’re following in the footsteps of someone like Kofi Annon. Ban Ki-moon has served in this position since January 2007.
Ban Ki-moon’s agenda has been all encompassing — promoting sustainable development, empowering women, supporting countries facing crisis and instability, dealing with arms control and non-proliferation, all while strengthening the U.N.
“Be a global citizen. Act with passion and compassion,” said Ban Ki-moon at Our World, Our Dignity, Our Planet: the Post-2015 Agenda and the Role of Youth. “Help us make this world safer and more sustainable today and for the generations that will follow us. That is our moral responsibility.”
In his first year as secretary-general, he called attention to the genocide in Darfur and made it a top priority. Under Ban Ki-moon’s leadership, a hybrid force, part African-Union and part U.N., was established for peacekeeping, according to the BBC.
“He worked doggedly on agreements between the government of Sudan and the African Union that led to a UN Security Council resolution last summer authorizing a hybrid UN force made up largely of African Union soldiers,” said Howard LaFranchi in a March 2008 Christian Science Monitor article.
Not only has Ban Ki-moon worked to address humanitarian issues like global poverty through the use of the Millennium Development Goals but he has also made it his mission to tackle climate change through the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
“The Goals are universal; they apply to all countries, since we know that even the wealthiest have yet to conquer poverty or achieve full gender equality,” said Ban Ki-moon in an op-ed for the Huffington Post in 2015.
According to his U.N. priorities, he also sought to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation along with increasing monies for the Green Climate Fund and putting them to good use.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel applauded Ban Ki-moon’s efforts to address climate change, global humanitarian issues and the refugee crisis. “With sound preparations, and when the many partners involved pull together, the international community can accept shared responsibility,” said Merkel at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris. “To a very great extent we have you to thank for this achievement. And I would like to thank you most warmly.”
Although Ban Ki-moon’s term as secretary-general concludes at the end of this year, he can leave knowing he had a positive impact on the global community.
— Summer Jackson
Sources: Bundesregierung , BBC, Huffington Post, UN 1, UN 2, UN 3