Poverty cuts deep – malnutrition, stress, a lack of access to medical care, little social mobility and other factors all affect how a person can interact and engage with their environment and community.
For those in poverty, a neural bias caused by stress can limit one’s ability to consider events neutral; this has implications for education, conflict resolution, gender equality and rates of violence.
This bias is called the hostile attribution bias. The hostile attribution bias primarily affects how people view neutral stimuli, such as a dog barking in the distance, a pencil dropping or a sudden movement by a person nearby.
As a result of this bias, an individual may attribute negative, hostile intent to this action, assuming that the action will end up hurting them in some way. This thinking views the world in binary: good or bad, black or white, safe or unsafe.
For those who grew up in stressed environments and were frequently exposed to or victims of aggression, this is a perfectly natural way to react; it works as a protective mechanism.
But, it also can lead to an inability to focus, difficulty trusting others and higher levels of perceived threats. In addition to its effects on cognition and emotional processing, the hostile attribution bias is also correlated with higher levels of aggression and violence.
While this bias may be protective for those in conflict areas, it also perpetuates conflict whether or not the affected individual is in a conflict zone. Consequently, if an individual is at home or any safe place, they may perceive a threat when there is none.
This can lead to acts of aggression in the home, such as domestic violence, abuse or neglect. If this behavior is being conducted by an adult, this behavior will most likely be passed down to children.
For children with this bias, this affects their development of social skills and also their academic performance.
Because neutral events are immediately perceived as negative, this increases their reactivity and reduces attention while impacting their relationships with teachers and peers. In conjunction with malnutrition and poverty, the hostile attribution bias creates another hurdle to success.
The hostile attribution bias has several implications for aid and development work. First, given the propensity of the hostile attribution bias in conflict areas, mental health initiatives should consider the bias during program development and implementation.
Secondly, since the hostile attribution bias is often occurring in tandem with malnutrition and poverty, it emphasizes the necessity of proper nutrition for mothers and children to ensure healthy brain development.
In ensuring the brain is healthy, the plasticity of the brain is more feasible as individuals move from poverty and conflict zones and the individual will be able to adapt.
While the hostile attribution bias may be a safety skill for those in conflict zones or facing abuse at home, this bias is ultimately maladaptive. As individuals are empowered, gain safety and reduce stress in their lives, addressing this bias will help them be more productive and successful in changing not only their lives but also the lives of those in their communities.
– Priscilla McCelvey
Sources: Pacific Standard, Practical Ethics
Photo: Amazon News
The Poorest City in the World
A poor city in a wealthy country: Monrovia, Liberia.
In examination of the ten poorest cities in the world, all ten of them are in Africa. In a Western African country on the coast lies a city full of slums. Theorists suggest the poorest city in the world is in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia. The population of Liberia is currently 4,294,000 and is one of the least populated countries in Africa. It is considered the fifth poorest country, despite being the oldest independent country.
The population suffers from poverty and hunger despite numerous political administrations and new policies being introduced. According to the United Nations’ The Food and Agriculture Organization, Liberia is a low-income and food-deficit country. Over half of the country’s population is food-insecure or highly vulnerable to food insecurity.
Twenty-nine percent of the population of the country live in Monrovia, for a total of 1,010,970 residents. At the turn of the century, 80 percent of the people living in the city were living in poverty. The gross national income is estimated at $790 USD annually. However, eighty-five percent of the population lives on less than one USD per day.
Conflict with q neighboring country, Sierra Leone, has had a major impact on the city. Despite the civil war that ended twelve years ago, the city still endures the effects. The constant turmoil between the two countries has caused the educational system to be broken down, abject poverty and inadequate educational access in these slums. The children of Monrovia continue to be subjected to the cycle of both poverty and illiteracy.
On the outskirts of the city, the agricultural sectors have major challenges that compound its poverty. There are low yields as a result of technological disadvantages. Inadequate roads and little to no access to markets limit the possible value chains. A majority of the people who live in these rural areas suffer from poverty.
In Monrovia, basic necessities are rarely available. Electricity and water resources are scarce and at best unreliable. Both the health care and social services are lacking. The GDP, the health expenditures is ten percent and the amount of health expenditures per capita is eight dollars USD annually. Slums are rampant with disease due to the flooding that has occurred. The streets of Monrovia are filthy, dangerous and unfinished, making it very unsafe to drive on them. The city lacks infrastructure and public transportation despite being the capital city. In Monrovia, the crime index is 82.81 and has a safety index of 17.19. Over the last three years, the crime rate has increased in the city.
Liberia is a country that is the home of many precious gem and diamond mines. Violent acts and war crimes are ongoing for power struggles over their control. This has left the city war-torn and vulnerable as a result of the exploitation of no true supply chain. The resource-rich country suffers from the pandemic of poverty and hunger. Monrovia is a city that depicts global poverty’s existence even in a naturally wealthy country.
– Erika Wright
Sources: AllAfrica, Nations Encyclopedia, NUMBEO, Rural Poverty Portal, The Richest, WHO
Photo: Flickr
Nature’s Answer to Antibiotic Resistance
Overuse of antibiotics throughout the world has led to a growing problem of antibiotic resistance that could lead to the total ineffectiveness of these often life-saving drugs. In the developing world, the problem is especially acute.
According to an article in the journal Nature, some studies have suggested that in Nigeria, as many as 88 percent of Staphylococcus aureus infections cannot be treated with methicillin — once a potent weapon against the microbe.
Antibiotic resistance is also a significant issue in the emerging economies known as the ‘BRIC’ states: Brazil, Russia, India and China, the article says, as well as in India and Pakistan.
The problem is especially worrisome to public health officials due to the lack of new antibiotic compounds introduced into medical practice.
But last January, researchers at Northeastern University and NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals announced they had developed a new potential antibiotic, called Teixobactin, that has some exciting new properties.
In addition to proving itself effective in the treatment of MRSA, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and M. Tuberculosis in animal efficacy trials, the compound has the potential to become resistance-proof.
Richard Novick, a microbiologist at New York University’s Langone Medical Center has called it “a major breakthrough because it is virtually certain to be effective for the multi-resistant strains that are now all but impossible to treat.”
Doctors are eager for new medicines to treat infectious diseases. In the past, most antibiotics were developed through screening soil samples for microorganisms. But soil samples eventually gave way to millions of dollars fruitlessly spent on synthetic attempts to produce antibiotics.
The team from Northeastern and Novobiotic decided to turn back to mining soil-based uncultured bacteria by using a new technology called Ichip. In this approach, soil samples are diluted with agar, allowing a single bacterial cell to be isolated. Researchers are able to isolate up to 96 cells in individual “chambers” in each Ichip device. Teixobactin was discovered from a soil sample from Maine.
Seventy years of antimicrobial use and overuse have given bacteria ample time to genetically fortify themselves for a new wave of infectious disease. Now, the CDC estimates that antibiotic-resistant bacteria will infect two million people and among those two million, 23,000 will die from those infections.
The techniques used to extract Teixobactin from the Maine soil sample have opened up millions of microorganisms for future study. Ichip allows researchers to harness this biodiversity in traditionally rich environments such as forest soil and even marsh water.
“This biodiversity is also hiding a lot of chemical diversity that may include new, other antibiotics,” wrote Gerard Wright, director of the Institute for Infectious Disease Research in Canada.
– Emma Betuel
Sources: The Scientist, Nature 1, The Lancet, Nature 2, ACS, CDC, Popsci
Photo: medicaldaily
Tackling Income Inequality in Asia-Pacific Region
Policies that support quality education and provide social protection are investments that can help stem rising income inequality in the Asia Pacific, according to Axel Van Trotsenburg, the World Bank Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific who spoke recently at a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) finance ministers in Cebu, Phillippines during a session called “Global Economic and Financial Outlook, Growing Inequality and Regional Connectivity.”
For poverty-stricken households, labor is often the sole asset they depend on. However, Van Trotsenburg said that if labor were to be made more productive through quality education and the addition of skills training, inclusive growth could begin to happen.
Van Trotsenburg suggested focusing education policies on quality teaching and better learning outcomes. The goal would be to reach youth in their primary and secondary school years.
Education initiatives alone could produce significant improvements for the livelihoods of the poor and reduce income inequality. But additional social protection measures can greatly support and enhance these efforts, significantly improving people’s lives, he said.
For example, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs can raise school attendance, preventive health care and nutrition among the poor and vulnerable. CCT programs have been successful in places like the Philippines, Mexico, Peru and Chile.
In 2010, The Economist magazine praised CCT programs for their effectiveness. “The programs have spread because they work. They cut poverty. They improve income distribution. And they do so cheaply.”
Despite growth in middle-income East Asian households, poverty and class divide are still very present throughout the region. Van Trotsenburg describes the complexities of the situation:
“In middle-income East Asia, rapid, inclusive growth enabled hundreds of millions to lift themselves out of poverty. Yet, there are still challenges. The bottom 40 percent of the region’s population – almost 800 million people – still live on less than $3 a day in terms of purchasing power parity. These people might fall right back into poverty if the global economy takes a turn for the worse, or if they face health, food-price and other shocks.”
He urged APEC members to continue or accelerate economic reforms to sustain growth that will increase the living standard of those at the bottom of the income distribution.
In particular, he advocated for physical infrastructure investments. “In this region, 142 million households still have no access to electricity while 600 million people lack access to adequate sanitation,” he said. “It will be very important for greater investment to be accompanied by increases in efficiency of such expenditure. And this points in turn to the importance of strengthening institutions, including through public financial management reforms.”
– Nikki Schaffer
Sources: World Bank, Economist
Photo: jonahkessel
Improving Land Management for Economic Growth In Uganda
According to a recent World Bank report, economic growth in Uganda may continue to develop if the country institutes better land management strategies. “A more effective system of land governance, including for registering land, strengthening institutions for resolving disputes and urban planning, will boost productivity and transform livelihoods in Uganda,” the report states.
The World Bank released the sixth edition of the Uganda Economic Update, entitled “Searching for the Grail – Can Uganda’s Land Support its Prosperity Drive?” It points out that improving land management will help Uganda to achieve commercialization of agriculture and urbanization.
In Uganda, around 20 percent of the total land is registered, which is higher than the average level of 10 percent for sub-Saharan African countries. However, the current system of land tenure makes it difficult to transform land uses to spur higher levels of productivity.
For starters, unclear property rights lead to difficulty in transferring ownership as well as a large number of disputes and conflicts. Due to the unclear land rights, 37 percent of individually owned land cannot be sold; 34 percent cannot be rented and 44 percent cannot be used as security for a loan.
Another problem is that current land policies and systems are too weak to efficiently implement urban planning and reduce the cost of infrastructure development in the country. The report states that compared with most major cities worldwide, which derive revenue from land to finance their infrastructure development, Uganda hasn’t fully applied land value capture tools, such as development fees, land auctions and property taxation, into its system of land management.
According to the World Bank report, Uganda’s population is expected to increase from 35 million to over 70 million by 2040, and there will be about 388 more people increased on every square kilometer of arable land. Uganda’s rapidly expanding population is putting pressure on land usage, especially in urban areas.
“With the fast-growing urban population, Uganda needs to enforce the existing policies to promote better urban land management that will allow them to build livable cities.” Said Christina Malmberg Calvo, World Bank Country Manager. “For Uganda, key among these would include land value capture to finance urban infrastructure.”
The report states that the Ugandan government can promote more efficient land use to support the healthy transformation of the agricultural sector and a shift towards higher-value economic activities located in urban areas by taking the following four actions:
According to Calvo, the Ugandan government has begun the process of systematically registering land and improving land information management. By accelerating these activities and the overall reform programs, she says the country would raise the share of land that has secure rights and ease the process of transferring land. These measures to improve land management will contribute to spurring long-term economic growth and transformation in Uganda.
– Shengyu Wang
Sources: Daily Monitor, World Bank
Photo: Flickr
Launch of W20 for Women’s Economic Empowerment
On September 6, financial leaders from the G20 countries met to discuss issues within the global economy. During this meeting, they launched W20, an engagement group focused on advancing women’s economic empowerment.
W20 will work in conjunction with U.N. Women, the IMF and other international bodies to promote women’s involvement in financial decision-making and monitor the G20’s commitment to women’s education and entrepreneurship initiatives.
Because G20 countries hold two-thirds of the world’s population and produce 85 percent of the world’s GDP, holding these countries accountable to their pledges for gender equality sets the standard for how women should be treated globally.
The launch included speakers such as the U.N. Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri, IMF Chief Christine Lagarde and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Generally, speakers remarked on the connection between women’s economic empowerment and the well-being of a community, and thus a country. In the words of Davutoglu, “If the women are smiling… you can be sure that their country is happy.”
With the 2014 pledge from the G20 to improve gender equality in the labor force, international bodies and governments have much to do, and the assistance of W20 will be a critical resource in guiding their success.
If the goal is reducing the gender gap in labor force participation by 25 percent, more than 100 million women will be added to the labor force. To do so, issues of maternal health, unpaid care work and access to education must be addressed.
In addition, the recently-passed Sustainable Development Goals include gender-sensitive targets in 12 of the 17 goals, adding further significance to the launch of the W20.
“Addressing the significant underinvestment in gender equality and women’s empowerment is critical in and of itself,” Ms. Puri said at the launch.
“The W20 has the potential to influence economic governance and promote gender-inclusive economic growth in a more potent way than has ever been possible in the G20 until now.”
The W20 will be led by Gulden Turktan, one of the founders and the president of the Women Entrepreneur’s Association. The two-day inaugural summit will be held on October 7-8 in Istanbul.
– Priscilla McCelvey
Sources: UN Women, US News
Photo: Wikipedia
Preparing for Smart Cities in India
Last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his plans to revitalize Indian cities through the creation of 100 “Smart Cities” in India. More recently, Mr. Modi has announced that he will be giving annual federal grants of 15 million for the next five years to a list of 98 cities to help them become ‘smart.’
Modi, who has faced critique over the vague nature of his ‘smart city’ concept, has himself argued that “there is no universally accepted definition of a smart city.” Nevertheless, experts argue that the idea of a smart city generally refers to a city with criteria such as good roads, power, access to water, and livable homes–which many Indian cities currently fail to meet.
Mr. Modi’s Smart City project has also more specifically toyed with the idea of promoting mixed land use in area-based developments, creating walkable areas in cities, and creating a variety of clean and safe transport options.
According to Mr. Modi, the Indian Smart City initiative is only one among many urban development projects aimed at keeping up with the pace of economic and population growth within India. Indeed, India, which has a burgeoning population boom that will overtake China’s by 2028, also has the world’s third-largest growing economy, according to the World Bank.
India has also experienced an enormous influx in rural to urban migration in recent years, with more than 30% of India’s once mostly urban population now living in cities. This figure is also expected to rise, as many Indians move to urban areas in search of better job opportunities and diminished caste-based persecution.
In light of the demographic changes occurring in India, many experts have argued that Mr. Modi’s ‘Smart City’ initiative is an enlightened plan that will serve to bring relief to millions of Indians migrating to larger cities.
By focusing on issues in Indian cities–such as poor sanitation and access to water–the ‘Smart City’ initiative is thus not only a retroactive plan that serves to correct the poor state of many cities, but also a proactive plan, that takes into account the strain that a burgeoning urban population will pose to Indian cities in the future.
As Mr. Modi’s plan regarding his list of 98 Indian cities begins to be finalized, the Prime Minister also hopes that the somewhat paltry funds currently allocated to the project will be able to be bolstered by private donations.
Other government officials, such as Home Minister Rajnath Singh, have also proposed ways in which the ‘Smart City’ concept could be further improved. Mr. Singh, for instance, just recently proposed the idea that ‘Smart Cities’ could also be built as ‘Safe Cities’, which would require the installment of security equipment such as CCTV, aerial surveillance, and an increase in female cops.
Other officials have also begun to float ideas for how Indian cities can be better improved–making them overall smarter, safer, and more livable for the millions of Indians who currently live in sub-par urban conditions.
– Ana Powell
Sources: BBC, Forbes, India Times, NY Times, Smart Cities Challenge
Photo: KadvaCorp
The “Big Push”: MIT-Yale Partnership Could Fight Poverty
In the United States, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Yale University partnered by conducting an experiment using the concept of the “big push” theory in relation to extreme poverty.
With positive results, the ivy league universities can improve the experiment, helping more people around the world suffering from extreme poverty.
Originally, the big push theory was an economic term coined by Paul Rosenstein-Rodan in 1943.
In relation to the economy, Rosenstein-Rodan proposed, “That even the simplest activity requires a network of other activities and that individual firms cannot organize such a large network, so the state or some other giant agency must step in.”
The MIT-Yale partnership used the basic concept of the big push to conduct their experiment.
Between 2007-2014, 10,000 households in Peru, Pakistan, India, Honduras, Ghana and Ethiopia were given the graduation program, a resourceful package that included a stipend for food and money, income in the form of bees or chickens, health care, advice for saving money and regular visits to reinforce the skills and accountability.
The goal was to give these families the initial “push” and a sense of stability so they could carry on positive habits even after the experiment concluded.
“The results show that three years after the intervention, hunger is down, consumption is up, and income is up,” says Abhijit Banerjee, the Ford Professor of International Economics at MIT, and a co-author of the paper detailing the findings.
With positive results, governments around the world are considering giving the program a try.
In regards to the original big push theory, MIT and Yale University can further improve their experiment with more partnerships including other U.S. universities.
With more partnerships, the experiment can gain more funds and a larger pool of volunteers.
For many college students, especially ones majoring or interested in the nonprofit sector, being part of this type of experiment would give them real-world experience and a once in a lifetime opportunity. In this way, students can play a part in helping end extreme poverty by 2030.
With the original MIT-Yale partnership, there was hope for people who believe extreme poverty is not savable. Now, a larger network can be created to make further impacts, turning the “big push” into a “big leap” toward the end of extreme poverty.
– Alexandra Korman
Sources: MIT News, The Boston Globe, The Economist
Photo: Flickr
Overcoming Neural Bias and Living in Poverty
Poverty cuts deep – malnutrition, stress, a lack of access to medical care, little social mobility and other factors all affect how a person can interact and engage with their environment and community.
For those in poverty, a neural bias caused by stress can limit one’s ability to consider events neutral; this has implications for education, conflict resolution, gender equality and rates of violence.
This bias is called the hostile attribution bias. The hostile attribution bias primarily affects how people view neutral stimuli, such as a dog barking in the distance, a pencil dropping or a sudden movement by a person nearby.
As a result of this bias, an individual may attribute negative, hostile intent to this action, assuming that the action will end up hurting them in some way. This thinking views the world in binary: good or bad, black or white, safe or unsafe.
For those who grew up in stressed environments and were frequently exposed to or victims of aggression, this is a perfectly natural way to react; it works as a protective mechanism.
But, it also can lead to an inability to focus, difficulty trusting others and higher levels of perceived threats. In addition to its effects on cognition and emotional processing, the hostile attribution bias is also correlated with higher levels of aggression and violence.
While this bias may be protective for those in conflict areas, it also perpetuates conflict whether or not the affected individual is in a conflict zone. Consequently, if an individual is at home or any safe place, they may perceive a threat when there is none.
This can lead to acts of aggression in the home, such as domestic violence, abuse or neglect. If this behavior is being conducted by an adult, this behavior will most likely be passed down to children.
For children with this bias, this affects their development of social skills and also their academic performance.
Because neutral events are immediately perceived as negative, this increases their reactivity and reduces attention while impacting their relationships with teachers and peers. In conjunction with malnutrition and poverty, the hostile attribution bias creates another hurdle to success.
The hostile attribution bias has several implications for aid and development work. First, given the propensity of the hostile attribution bias in conflict areas, mental health initiatives should consider the bias during program development and implementation.
Secondly, since the hostile attribution bias is often occurring in tandem with malnutrition and poverty, it emphasizes the necessity of proper nutrition for mothers and children to ensure healthy brain development.
In ensuring the brain is healthy, the plasticity of the brain is more feasible as individuals move from poverty and conflict zones and the individual will be able to adapt.
While the hostile attribution bias may be a safety skill for those in conflict zones or facing abuse at home, this bias is ultimately maladaptive. As individuals are empowered, gain safety and reduce stress in their lives, addressing this bias will help them be more productive and successful in changing not only their lives but also the lives of those in their communities.
– Priscilla McCelvey
Sources: Pacific Standard, Practical Ethics
Photo: Amazon News
Bankers Without Borders: Global Integration
The developing world is constantly in need of skilled professionals to not only provide immediate assistance but also to help train future workers so as to create a sustainable and self-sufficient community workforce.
For years, organizations like Doctors Without Borders, and Engineers Without Borders have been doing just that: on the one hand these organizations provide care and construct necessary structures respectively, but they also train and instruct local medical students and potential engineers.
However, as developing economies grow, there too needs to be financial assistance and instruction. Bankers Without Borders is attempting to propel developing countries into commercial modernity.
The mission of the organization is to enable citizens in developing countries to realize their full economic potential given the proper tools and training.
The organization was founded by a parent body called the Grameen Foundation. The Grameen Foundation was formed to help optimize other NGOs in terms of gross impact and overall efficiency.
In 2008, the group realized it could use its expertise to directly help those living in abject poverty.
Bankers Without Borders works as an independent organization and also teams up with local and global businesses to offer educational, financial, and consulting services across the developing world.
The organization utilizes nearly 19,700 business professionals, all of whom volunteer their time to help grassroots campaigns, small businesses, and individual investors and entrepreneurs.
As cliché as it is to say, knowledge is power, and anyone who posses it can reach a higher plane of potential. Those living in poverty certainly have the drive to become financially independent, and Bankers Without Borders is giving them the tools.
By encouraging modern, practical, and useful financial knowledge as well as helping to optimize new businesses, the organization is proving to be a huge relief to developing economies.
Bankers Without Borders hopes that one day those in developing countries can pass on the information learned to the next generation, thereby creating strong and self-sufficient modern economies.
– Joe Kitaj
Sources: Bankers Without Borders, Stand4, Doctors Without Borders, EWB-USA
Photo: Bankers Without Borders
Innovative Ways Universities are Fighting Poverty
Many university presidents and college students alike have taken it upon themselves to help fight for those less fortunate than them. From creating chapters of organizations like ONE and conducting research for the benefit of medicine, universities have played a major role in shifting the scale of poverty over the years.
The Economist once said Africa was the “hopeless continent,” but after years of innovation, the same magazine has deemed it “Africa Rising.” One way colleges and universities play a significant role in this is by partnering with global nonprofits.
Universities originally began creating partnerships to support low-income students and help them carve a secure pathway to college, but in doing so, they also managed to foster relationships with these nonprofits that have blossomed into much bigger roles.
Much of the research conducted by students and professors has also contributed to aiding those living in poverty. Many universities, such as Stanford, UC Davis and Columbia University have designated research departments for research on global poverty.
Columbia University has The Earth Institute, which focuses on a magnitude of projects ranging from agricultural sustainability and global poverty mapping to economic growth in underserved communities.
Their Millennium Villages Project, led by The Earth Institute, United Nations Development Programme and the Millennium Promise, a charity dedicated to fighting poverty, focuses their efforts on reducing global poverty by helping rural African villages become more economically and agriculturally sustainable.
The Center for Poverty Research at the University of California at Davis dedicates their time to training scholars to combat poverty. Their research net encompasses topics like health, education and the intergenerational transmission of poverty, which studies how poverty can be transferred from parent to child.
The Center is one of three poverty research facilities focused on using this research net to decrease poverty. The other two centers are comprised of the University of Kentucky and the University of Wisconsin.
In February of 2014, Stanford launched a new research facility focused on ending global poverty called the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED).
SEED’s initiatives focus on using entrepreneurship, economics and business innovation to help create new markets and job opportunities in underdeveloped communities to help them rise out of poverty.
The program grants researchers at Stanford sums of money to conduct interdisciplinary research focused on poverty. SEED is housed in Stanford’s graduate school of business and has so far dedicated over ten million dollars to its research.
Lastly, universities contribute to fighting poverty through action-based organizations that use their efforts to create awareness, raise money and advocate for the alleviation of poverty.
For example, universities around the world continue to use their resources to end poverty, and with their efforts can help Africa go from “Africa Rising” to an economically and agriculturally stable continent.
– Julia Hettiger
Sources: University of California, Davis, Columbia University, Stanford University
Photo: Flickr