Going to the bathroom: a subject that, as humans, we like to pretend doesn’t even happen most of the time. However, for rural Ethiopians living without the most basic sanitary structures, an initiative to improve latrine use was one which needed to happen.
In the village of Kurt Bahir, local carpenter Kefale Demelash used his skills to build a two-room latrine for public use within the village after becoming inspired to initiate sanitary improvements after a diarrhea outbreak plagued the area.
For this particular latrine, one side was designated for women and the other side for men. Smaller pits were also dug for children which would be safer than customary ones, encouraging the young to start the habit of using them early.
With just the establishment of this one latrine, others were motivated to create their own. Soon, with the help of Demelash, 126 latrines were created within Kurt Bahir, all meeting the international standards for improved sanitation. These new latrines would help reduce the risk of communicable diseases, which are commonly spread by unsafe sanitation practices.
Demelash was able to receive training as a village coordinator through the government’s Health Extension Program (HEP), which trains and deploys members into rural areas of the country to educate and promote sanitary practices.
Further progress in sanitation is also being made through the Water and Sanitation program (WSP), a five-year multi-donor partnership between the World Bank and the government.
The World Bank describes the program goals as “scaling up its capacity, improving sanitation and hygiene services and increasing access by the poor in 104 selected districts in Amhara, Oromia SNNP and Tigray regional states.”
Ethiopia has suffered through many different kinds of communicable diseases attributed to poor hygiene and sanitation. However, with the execution of the government’s Universal Access Plan (UAP), it is hoped that sanitation can be improved by 100 percent.
Currently, more than 7 million people have been educated on healthy sanitation practices by 1,782 trainers and implementers under the program. Prior to the program, open defecation was a recurring problem, but with the organization in full-swing, 52 percent of the kebeles (an administrative unit within Ethiopia) in the woreda (districts) are defecation free.
Taking a creative approach in the program’s expansion strategies, prizes were offered within villages. This was initiated by a local “savings mechanism” through the woreda, where the prize money was given to the best innovator, performer or implementer of an improved sanitation project.
With this strategy in mind, neighbors found inspiration in one another, which ultimately led to improvements across woredas.
The World Bank found “in Mecha and Medebayzana woredas, more than 55,000 households now have improved latrines, and communities have also started applying the sanitation lessons they learned in their daily lives, such as keeping their homes, compounds and communities clean, making themselves safer and healthier.”
– Nikki Schaffer
Sources: World Bank, We Are Water
Photo: Flickr
Midwives in Chiapas: Lowering Maternal Mortality Rates
Maternal mortality rates in Mexico have steadily decreased over the past fifteen years. The global maternal mortality rate has decreased by nearly 50 percent between 1990 and 2013. However, the work is far from over.
Ninety-nine percent of maternal deaths happen in underdeveloped countries according to the World Health Organization. Chiapas is the poorest state in Mexico with a poverty level at over 76 percent.
Maternal mortality rates can be significantly lowered with skilled care and supervision throughout the childbirth and traditional birth attendants are being trained to offer this care through workshops and programs in Chiapas.
Traditional midwives are extremely important in communities within Chiapas because of the negative connotation that comes with hospitals and the hesitation that women have toward giving birth in hospitals. Fifty-five or more out of every 100,000 women die in Chiapas during childbirth.
The traditional midwives are receiving training for problems that arise during obstetric emergencies. Understanding the protocol will allow them to act quickly in situations that may cost the mother’s life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCuE8Y0d8sk
One such organization is the Global Pediatric Alliance. The alliance has started a training program for midwives in Chiapas. They have programs in four different municipalities in Chiapas. Los Altos de Chiapas is the first community and 88 percent of the population is poor. Fifty-six percent of the population lives in extreme poverty.
The plan is to train at least 120 Tzeltal and Tzotzil-speaking midwives between 2014 and 2017. An estimated 100,000 people will be impacted by the project. The second municipality is Las Margaritas, a highly marginalized area with extremely low Human Development Index rankings.
The isolated communities in the area particularly suffer from the lack of care adequate obstetric care. The program with GPA has already held five trainings for 29 traditional birth attendants in the area.
The training of midwives is changing the maternal mortality rates and the risks of home births in Chiapas.
– Iona Brannon
Sources: Arizona State University, Global Pediatric Alliance, New York Times, Reuters, World Health Organization 1, World Health Organization 2
Seven Things You Didn’t Know About the Poorest Country in the World
Malawi is ranked as the poorest country in the world according to GDP per capita. However, Malawi does not just consist of poverty. Below are seven facts that shed light on Malawi:
– Iona Brannon
Sources: Al Jazeera, Carlsberg Group, Encyclopedia of Earth, Fair Trade, Global Finance Magazine, InterPress Service News, Mail and Guardian Africa, US National Library of Medicine
Photo: Flickr
Big Gains Seen in Socially Responsible Investments
Socially Responsible Investments (SRI), those that pay attention to the environmental and social impacts of what they fund while still turning a profit, have ballooned. The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, an association for professionals and organizations engaged in sustainable, responsible, and impact investing, recently released a report detailing the growth of SRI in the United States, showing huge increases in funding.
Coming in at over $6.5 trillion in 2014, the Socially Responsible Investments market in the United States has shown a 76 percent increase since 2012 and has grown nearly tenfold from 1995. “These assets account for more than one out of every six dollars under professional management in the United States,” the report states. The dollar amount is over 200 times larger than the annual flow of Official Development Assistance from the United States.
The growth in SRI is not limited to the United States. The Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, a worldwide collaboration of sustainable investment organizations takes a broader view, looking at the amount of money invested in SRI around the world by region.
In 2014, $21.4 trillion was tied up in SRI around the globe, an increase of $8.1 trillion from two years previously. Europe leads the pack, with 63.7 percent of the total, more than doubling the amount held by the United States. Canada contributes 4.4 of the share, an impressive number considering its relatively small population. In fact, per capita SRI in Canada is higher than the United States. These three regions contribute 99 percent of the total, with Asia and Australia/New Zealand taking .2 and .8 percent respectively.
Europe also has the highest proportion of SRI to total managed assets, with 58.8 percent of all investments channeled towards socially beneficial growth. The global average is just over 30 percent and has grown nearly 50 percent in the last two years.
To be sure, foreign investment by governments to aid developing nations must also be strong. “The global challenges are so complex and the size of the funding that’s needed is so large, traditional funding sources like philanthropy are probably not going to be sufficient to meet it,” said Anna Kearney, associate director for corporate social responsibility at the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon), in July.
In addition, the issue of how much of SRI ends up aiding environmental and social development in the developing world is unclear.
However, the Global Impact Investing Network — a nonprofit working to scale up impact investing — sheds some light on the answer. The group surveyed 146 SRI firms around the globe and found that 48 percent of the $60 billion under management by these firms was invested in emerging markets. That may be a proxy for the ratio of the $21.4 trillion in SRI that is invested in developing economies.
The trajectory for SRI remains promising. As more consumers look to put their money toward helping the planet and the poor while earning a profit, a growth in investment options that offer this will follow.
– John Wachter
Sources: Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment 1, Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment 2, Global Impact Investing Network, Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, The Guardian, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
Photo: Flickr
How Renewable Energy Leads to Opportunities for All
Electricity connects people to opportunities such as the internet. The internet has multiple economic and social benefits and is increasingly the gateway to opportunities such as jobs and education. The number of new users has tripled in the past 10 years, but its adoption has slowed due to the lack of access to electricity.
Access to electricity is expanding in cities where they are adopting smart energy grids and building sensor-driven transport systems. In rural areas, electrification is progressing slowly.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, this is especially true, where the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates almost 1 billion will have electricity by 2040, but 530 million who live in the countryside will not.
There is a huge disparity in living standards and economic opportunities between cities and countryside. The world’s 600 largest cities generated $30 trillion GDP in 2007, more than half the global total. They are predicted to generate $64 trillion GDP (60% of total) in 2025.
There are two approaches to dealing with the disparities between cities and rural areas. The cheapest is what happens if nothing is done to address the problem: people move to cities for better economic opportunities. The second solution is rapidly establishing renewable energy and battery storage in rural areas.
Renewable energy is now more feasible given the advances in technology. They also make better use of scarce resources. The use of advanced batteries in electricity grids improves efficiency and allows energy managers to take electricity to remote and underserved areas.
An example of where this can be deployed is India. India could become one of the most energy-insecure countries with 300 million without electricity. However, given renewable energy technologies, it could expand electricity to about 80 million and 110 million in a small period of time.
China is already using digital technologies for ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission systems to transport its energy to parts of the country that use the most energy, but have no energy sources.
A South African company uses a combination of a solar charger and battery storage units in remote areas to allow consumers to be able to power mobile phones, computers, radios and lighting.
It would be great to see the development of large-scale renewable solutions continue. This would lead to the sun becoming the world’s largest source of power by 2050. As a result, those in the developing world would be using carbon-free energy.
Given that the per-watt price of photovoltaic cells dropped by 85% since 2000, the McKinsey Global Institute predicts energy storage production will be valued at $100 billion per year by 2025.
– Paula Acevedo
Sources: Stanford Social innovation Review, United Nations
Photo: Pixabay
Developing World Connections: Poverty-Alleviating Projects
Of the 31 million people living in Peru, roughly 26 percent of them live in poverty. With the idea of a globally engaged, poverty-free and socially just world, Developing World Connections and its many volunteers work alongside locals to counter poverty in Lima, Peru and surrounding communities among many other countries on different continents.
Developing World Connections’ mission is to connect people and resources through international community development. The organization has impacted nine countries on three different continents so far.
Developing World Connections has worked in Peru, Guatemala, Nepal, India and Kenya among others. Some of the projects include working with children and youth, education and training, food and water security and homes and community building. As a whole, the organization is focused on having a global impact.
In Nepal, Developing World Connections works with Creating Possibilities, an organization dedicated to increasing the rights for women and children. The goal of this partnership is to help women make substantive income to provide their children. In India, Developing World Connections works with Comfort the Children International to create sustainable change.
Developing World Connections bases its projects on a number of guiding principles as follows:
– Julia Hettiger
Sources: Developing World Connections, Verge Mahazine, Haganaisworth
Photo: Flickr
Making a Difference: School Gardens in Developing Countries
Right now, world leaders are faced with a daunting challenge. At the current rate the population is growing, it is predicted that there will not be enough food to feed the world, especially in developing countries. Fortunately, the introduction of school gardens to education gives hope to the end of global poverty.
For many children in developing countries, students must walk to school at an utmost of 4 miles. Some children even walk to school knowing they will not have a lunch because their family could not afford the cost.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), 795 million people are undernourished, meaning one in nine people will not receive enough food to lead a normal, healthy and active life.
Students cannot focus or comprehend new information in the classroom without a proper meal. If students do not learn and go to school, the cycle of poverty will most likely continue.
A solution to this problem exists with school gardens that can help overcome the nutritional crisis. Not only will children be guaranteed a meal during lunch, but they can also learn how to eat a healthy and nutritious meal.
For 14-year-old Marita Wyson, a student from Malawi, her school garden is making a lasting impact on her life and helping her gain the proper nutrients for healthy adolescent development.
“I am able to understand what my teachers are telling me,” she said. “My grandmother doesn’t have to worry so much about how she will provide food for me and my sister.”
With governments partnering with organizations around the world, school gardens are becoming increasingly popular and have shown to give students a better understanding about the environment. If children are introduced to agriculture and the environment at an early age, they are more likely to have a better attitude about the subject.
While the deadline for the U.N.’s 2015 Millennium Development Goals has passed this September, two of the most important goals — cutting poverty in half and making primary education universal — have come a long way since the turn of the century.
While poverty has been cut in half since 1980, primary education lags behind in developing countries including sub-Saharan Africa.
The introduction of these school gardens in developing countries may become the turning point in eradicating global poverty. With the world united, school gardens can make not only an immediate difference but ensure the future of children living in developing countries.
– Alexandra Korman
Sources: FAO, KCET, The Christian Science Monitor, Vox World, WFP
Photo: Flickr
Mission of Hope Haiti Builds 500 Homes
In 2010, an earthquake killed over 200,000 Haitians and left crumbling housing infrastructure. Since then, homelessness in Haiti has steadily declined but more than 85,000 people still remain without a home. Rebuilding from the damage is the toughest task for the poorest country in the Americas.
Before the earthquake, Haitians lived in relatively poor housing built from inadequate materials. Haiti ranks near the bottom in the world in providing shelter for their citizens. Shelter includes availability of affordable housing, access to electricity, quality of electricity supply, and household air pollution attributable deaths.
The international community has been very supportive of Haiti. The EU provided $996 million to Haiti from 2008 to 2013. Money that was used for roads, education, food security, human rights, agricultural, electricity, and trade.
On a smaller level, charities and volunteers have been a strong driving force for recovery in Haiti.
Mission of Hope Haiti, a Christian missionary organization, provides education for people in the island nation. The organization has a partnership with Hope for Haiti, and the government in Haiti to build homes. Recently, Mission of Hope celebrated its 500th home built for the affected families since 2010, an average of 100 homes each year.
Every house has three rooms, land for farming, detached bathroom, access to education, water, two fruit trees, and agricultural training. The cost of each home is relatively low at $6,000.
Mission of Hope has educated 6,000 children, provided 91,000 nutritious meals each day, and housing for hearing-impaired families. Their work has helped make Leveque one of the best settlements in Haiti.
“Our vision from the first home built has been to provide those who lost their homes with a quality, cost efficient Haitian home that will not only provide a place to live but a place to thrive,” said Mission of Hope President Brad Johnson.
Homelessness in Haiti is still a serious threat to human security, but organizations like Mission of Hope provide solutions and help that will benefit thousands of people’s lives.
– Donald Gering
Sources: EurActiv, Good News Network, Huffington Post, Social Progress Imperative
Photo: Google Images
Sanitary Improvements for Millions in Ethiopia
Going to the bathroom: a subject that, as humans, we like to pretend doesn’t even happen most of the time. However, for rural Ethiopians living without the most basic sanitary structures, an initiative to improve latrine use was one which needed to happen.
In the village of Kurt Bahir, local carpenter Kefale Demelash used his skills to build a two-room latrine for public use within the village after becoming inspired to initiate sanitary improvements after a diarrhea outbreak plagued the area.
For this particular latrine, one side was designated for women and the other side for men. Smaller pits were also dug for children which would be safer than customary ones, encouraging the young to start the habit of using them early.
With just the establishment of this one latrine, others were motivated to create their own. Soon, with the help of Demelash, 126 latrines were created within Kurt Bahir, all meeting the international standards for improved sanitation. These new latrines would help reduce the risk of communicable diseases, which are commonly spread by unsafe sanitation practices.
Demelash was able to receive training as a village coordinator through the government’s Health Extension Program (HEP), which trains and deploys members into rural areas of the country to educate and promote sanitary practices.
Further progress in sanitation is also being made through the Water and Sanitation program (WSP), a five-year multi-donor partnership between the World Bank and the government.
The World Bank describes the program goals as “scaling up its capacity, improving sanitation and hygiene services and increasing access by the poor in 104 selected districts in Amhara, Oromia SNNP and Tigray regional states.”
Ethiopia has suffered through many different kinds of communicable diseases attributed to poor hygiene and sanitation. However, with the execution of the government’s Universal Access Plan (UAP), it is hoped that sanitation can be improved by 100 percent.
Currently, more than 7 million people have been educated on healthy sanitation practices by 1,782 trainers and implementers under the program. Prior to the program, open defecation was a recurring problem, but with the organization in full-swing, 52 percent of the kebeles (an administrative unit within Ethiopia) in the woreda (districts) are defecation free.
Taking a creative approach in the program’s expansion strategies, prizes were offered within villages. This was initiated by a local “savings mechanism” through the woreda, where the prize money was given to the best innovator, performer or implementer of an improved sanitation project.
With this strategy in mind, neighbors found inspiration in one another, which ultimately led to improvements across woredas.
The World Bank found “in Mecha and Medebayzana woredas, more than 55,000 households now have improved latrines, and communities have also started applying the sanitation lessons they learned in their daily lives, such as keeping their homes, compounds and communities clean, making themselves safer and healthier.”
– Nikki Schaffer
Sources: World Bank, We Are Water
Photo: Flickr
Bangladesh Nonprofit Wins World Food Prize
In early November of 1970 a category-3 tropical cyclone made landfall over what was then called Eastern Pakistan. It was the single deadliest tropical storm in human history with a death toll reaching over 500,000. The next year, in 1971, the region would fight a war to form the independent nation of Bangladesh.
Due to so much devastation in so little time, Bangladesh would go on to become the second poorest country on the planet. That’s where one man, Fazle Hasan Abed, felt something had to be done.
Abed formed BRAC, or the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, in the early 1970s as a temporary organization dedicated to providing aid to individuals and their families who were affected by the catastrophes. But after providing immediate relief Abed realized the need for round the clock, global aid.
Since its creation, the Bangladesh nonprofit has evolved into one of the largest organizations fighting to end global poverty and hunger. As a result, Abed was announced as the recipient of the 2015 World Food Prize on September 2 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Estimates on the scope of BRAC’s now 40-year impact show that the organization has helped nearly 150 million people across Africa and Asia. The organization has plans to expand its reach into 10 additional countries.
The World Food Prize was created in 1986 to recognize individuals who contribute to the production, innovation and availability of global food supplies. The prize is a donation of $250,000. The award ceremony will take place in October.
Initially, Abed and BRAC worked to combat the incredibly high childhood mortality rates in Bangladesh before seeing the need to combat poverty on an even grander scale. In 2010, Abed was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his efforts to empower women through STEAM and agricultural education.
Most recently, BRAC has begun a self-sufficiency and financial training program in 9 different countries. The program gives participants a weekly stipend to discourage begging and menial labor.
A bank account is set up in their name so as to teach financial and practical skills. Participants may also receive a grant to buy a computer, a cow, or a chicken coop to begin their own business.
On the program Abed said, “In many countries, poor people are not seen as a solution to the problem but the problem. Poor people can be organized and become the solution to the poverty themselves…All we need to do is provide them opportunities and conditions and give them the tools.”
Sir Abed, who recently celebrated his 79th birthday, now has yet another trophy to add to his collection that shows his undying desire to end global poverty, suffering and hunger.
– Joe Kitaj
Sources: Fortune, Huffington Post, BRAC, Word Food Prize
Photo: Globalhand
UNRWA Funding Gap Prevents Palestinians from Visiting School
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency was set to run out of money in September due to a $100 million funding gap. As of Aug. 19, $70 million in last-minute donations were reported from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, the U.S., Britain and Sweden. As a result, the funding gap is now $22 million but luckily, services will continue.
The last minute donations came right before the school year is about to start, averting the closure of 700 schools that educate half a million children. The schools have already been forced to increase their class size from 38 to 43. UNRWA already had cut 85 percent of its short-term contracts with international consultants.
As of July, the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees was facing its biggest funding crisis since it started in 1948, which would have led to a hold in the school year and not being able to help the displaced people in Yarmouk camp near Damascus.
UNRWA receives most of its funding from a small number of donors, primarily the U.S., Saudi Arabia, E.U. and the U.K. Just Syria needs $415 million and UNRWA only has 27 percent of that. Why is the funding gap so wide, one may ask?
According to UNRWA’s commissioner general, Pierre Krahenbruhl, “Palestinian refugees are facing their most severe situation since 1948. They have had 50 years of occupation, nine years of a blockade in Gaza and now five years of conflict in Syria. When you look at all of that, how much more can they absorb?”
He spoke with The Guardian about how the four year war in Syria, siege of Yarmouk, and continuous blockade of Gaza has all led to the depletion of UNRWA’s finances and Palestinians facing the greatest crisis since the Arab-Israeli war in 1948.
In the past four years, about 60,000 Palestinians have left Syria and joined long-term refugees who have lived in camps in Jordan and Lebanon for decades.
Krahenbuhl has gone to the E.U. and U.K. government to secure funding. He believes young people without school will leave them susceptible to radicalization, given the instability in the region. He also believes many refugees may try to migrate to Europe.
UNRWA works with 600,000 Palestinians still in Syria, 2 million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, 1.2 million in Gaza, 700,000 in West Bank, and 300,000 in Lebanon. UNRWA is doing great work for people that are in dire circumstances, so one would think it could receive more donations from more donors.
– Paula Acevedo
Sources: Seattle Pi, The Guardian
Photo: Flickr