What do you think of when you think of NASA technology? “Space” is probably going to be the answer most people give, unless they’ve heard of SERVIR, the result of a partnership between NASA, USAID, the World Bank in Washington, and several other organizations.
Daniel Irwin, the director of the program, knows this better than anyone. “When people think of NASA,” he says, “they think of Mars Exploration Rovers or finding water on the moon, but a big part of our mission is to study earth from space, to advance scientific understanding and meet societal needs.”
SERVIR is actually not an acronym – it is taken from the Spanish word meaning “to serve,” because the goal of the initiative is to do just that.
By combining NASA’s technology and humanitarian groups’ understanding of what areas need what resources and what would benefit people the most, SERVIR is able to better serve the needs of populations.
The NASA website says that the resources developed by SERVIR can help governments and other agencies to more effectively “respond to natural disasters, [improve] food security, safeguard human health, [and] manage water and natural resources.”
SERVIR has hubs at locations throughout the globe, ad just this August, SERVIR-Mekong was launched in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Mekong river is located in Southeast Asia that acts as a major trade route to China. Depending on the seasons, the Mekong sometimes floods the surrounding area, leaving the residents of the Mekong area in severe need.
This is one of the reasons why Mekong was chosen as a location for this SERVIR project.
The Mekong center in particular was the result of NASA and USAID partnership with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC.) This is a partnership that will work to make land use more sustainable and to monitor and (hopefully) decrease the effects of climate change.
For example, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is something that can be monitored with NASA technology. It is an indicator that comes from the amount of light reflected off of the surface of the earth based on the quantity and quality of plant life.
Areas that have lots of healthy vegetation will have a high NDVI and vice versa. Understanding the NDVI of an area can provide everyone from small farmers to forestry service personnel a better understanding of where to plant crops, develop urban centers, and more carefully preserve vegetation.
The power to help individuals and populations all over the world better respond to the effects of climate change extends to areas of food security and water resourcing as well. It truly is a remarkable innovation.
NASA technology can also be used to chart the course of natural disasters. For example, in the past, during hurricanes, it has allowed scientists to map out the paths of mudslides, which allowed them to understand which areas would be most affected and need the most help.
SERVIR’s track record has been vastly successful. Its team has worked with over 200 institutions in over 30 countries to develop local solutions, and to link local offices all over the globe in a network of ideas and innovations. Over 40 custom tools have been developed through the work of SERVIR.
It’s an excellent example of many of the tenets of humanitarianism: utilizing technology, creating partnerships, thinking big (even beyond the global scale) and dedicating existing resources towards a worthwhile cause.
As Irwin says, NASA technology and USAID’s resources together are helping to create “real time, real world applications that are changing the lives of people where they live.”
– Emily Dieckman
Sources: USAID, NASA, Servir Global, Washington Post
Photo: AmericaSpace
Cheapest Smartphone: Productivity and Connectivity for All
Global mobile carrier, Orange, has just launched the world’s cheapest smartphone. By doing so, they have opened up countless potential opportunities for low-income individuals and their families.
The new device is called Klif and runs on Mozilla’s Firefox 2.0 mobile operating system. Retail has been set at $34, or the equivalent exchange rate in countries where American dollars are not used. Features of Klif include a two megapixel camera, Firefox web browser, an FM radio and full Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth integration.
While smartphones are readily available to Africa’s upper and middle classes, those in lower income brackets are typically unable to afford the devices, let alone the sky-high data plans required to run them. Klif includes a data, text and voice plan, and can be run immediately after activation.
Klif marks a key milestone in the greater tech revolution already occurring across Africa. The device allows for thousands to afford Internet access, and increased connectivity has been shown to increase economic income and output. It also allows for thousands to now contact friends and family in a moment’s notice.
With smartphones and certain apps, farmers can check the weather, nurses and doctors can receive patient updates and students can supplement their learning. As Orange expands its network, even more people will be able to reap the benefits of increased data access.
Orange has released Klif in 13 countries across Africa and the Middle East, with the hopes to enter more markets in the near future.
Executive Vice President of Connected Objects and Partnerships for Orange, Yves Maitre, said of Klif, “By scooping up all the costs into one, incredibly priced digital offer, we hope that critical access to the mobile internet and all the opportunities that that opens up, will be within reach of many more people.”
With Klif and increased mobile access in general, developing countries have more potential to catch up with the top nations of the world.
— Joe Kitaj
Sources: CNET, It News Africa
Photo: Wired
Addressing the Measles Outbreak in DR Congo
The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing the worst measles outbreak since 2011, according to Doctors Without Borders. So far this year, over 23,000 cases of measles were reported in the Katanga region of the country. The UN and Doctors Without Borders have calculated over 400 deaths.
The epidemic started in February of this year. In just one village with a population of 500, 30 children died in just 2 months. Despite the number of deaths, the central government in Kinshasa hadn’t recognized the measles epidemic and the deaths caused by it until earlier this month.
Doctors Without Borders has vaccinated over 300,000 children, despite the difficulties of having to keep the vaccine cold and requiring 2 shots, weeks apart for effectiveness.
An additional difficulty has been the lack of infrastructure with bad roads and railroads that are usually never fixed or where fuel runs low. Some villages are hardly accessible, only way to get there is by foot, motorcycle or canoe.
The UN has estimated $2.4 million to vaccinate everyone. The vaccine is effective enough it has wiped out the measles outbreak in western countries. The problem in countries such as the DR of Congo is children’s immune systems have been weakened from malnutrition, malaria and cholera.
The vaccine while effective, cannot prevent death when complications such as blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhea and related dehydration, or severe respiratory infections.
In addition, vaccination has proved difficult in a region which has tried to become independent from the rest of the country. The ongoing fighting between local militia and Congolese army over mining areas leads to villagers fleeing for days or weeks. However, efforts are ongoing to improve the current living conditions for Congolese citizens, especially children.
– Paula Acevedo
Sources: New York Times, Yahoo
Photo: CDN
NASA and USAID Partnership: Mekong River
What do you think of when you think of NASA technology? “Space” is probably going to be the answer most people give, unless they’ve heard of SERVIR, the result of a partnership between NASA, USAID, the World Bank in Washington, and several other organizations.
Daniel Irwin, the director of the program, knows this better than anyone. “When people think of NASA,” he says, “they think of Mars Exploration Rovers or finding water on the moon, but a big part of our mission is to study earth from space, to advance scientific understanding and meet societal needs.”
SERVIR is actually not an acronym – it is taken from the Spanish word meaning “to serve,” because the goal of the initiative is to do just that.
By combining NASA’s technology and humanitarian groups’ understanding of what areas need what resources and what would benefit people the most, SERVIR is able to better serve the needs of populations.
The NASA website says that the resources developed by SERVIR can help governments and other agencies to more effectively “respond to natural disasters, [improve] food security, safeguard human health, [and] manage water and natural resources.”
SERVIR has hubs at locations throughout the globe, ad just this August, SERVIR-Mekong was launched in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Mekong river is located in Southeast Asia that acts as a major trade route to China. Depending on the seasons, the Mekong sometimes floods the surrounding area, leaving the residents of the Mekong area in severe need.
This is one of the reasons why Mekong was chosen as a location for this SERVIR project.
The Mekong center in particular was the result of NASA and USAID partnership with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC.) This is a partnership that will work to make land use more sustainable and to monitor and (hopefully) decrease the effects of climate change.
For example, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is something that can be monitored with NASA technology. It is an indicator that comes from the amount of light reflected off of the surface of the earth based on the quantity and quality of plant life.
Areas that have lots of healthy vegetation will have a high NDVI and vice versa. Understanding the NDVI of an area can provide everyone from small farmers to forestry service personnel a better understanding of where to plant crops, develop urban centers, and more carefully preserve vegetation.
The power to help individuals and populations all over the world better respond to the effects of climate change extends to areas of food security and water resourcing as well. It truly is a remarkable innovation.
NASA technology can also be used to chart the course of natural disasters. For example, in the past, during hurricanes, it has allowed scientists to map out the paths of mudslides, which allowed them to understand which areas would be most affected and need the most help.
SERVIR’s track record has been vastly successful. Its team has worked with over 200 institutions in over 30 countries to develop local solutions, and to link local offices all over the globe in a network of ideas and innovations. Over 40 custom tools have been developed through the work of SERVIR.
It’s an excellent example of many of the tenets of humanitarianism: utilizing technology, creating partnerships, thinking big (even beyond the global scale) and dedicating existing resources towards a worthwhile cause.
As Irwin says, NASA technology and USAID’s resources together are helping to create “real time, real world applications that are changing the lives of people where they live.”
– Emily Dieckman
Sources: USAID, NASA, Servir Global, Washington Post
Photo: AmericaSpace
Top 50 Technologies Fighting Poverty
There is no question that the technology revolution of the past 40 years has had an immense effect on human health and development, but many have wondered if there is a single, specific innovation that has proven to be the most impactful.
The answer ends up being that there are many necessary technologies and innovations crucial to human development: 50 to be exact.
The Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies at the Lawrence Berkeley National Research Laboratory (LIGTT) has recently published a report called, “50 Breakthroughs: Critical scientific and technological advances needed for sustainable global development.”
The Berkeley Lab, as it’s commonly known, was founded in 1931 at UC Berkeley, and is now owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Energy. A subdivision of the lab, the LIGTT’s mission is to “identify, develop, and deploy, the next generation of breakthrough technologies for sustainable global development.”
The report ob 50 technologies fighting poverty comes after two years of intense analysis and research. The project was funded in part by USAID’s Global Development Lab.
USAID’s Dave Ferguson, who serves as the Director of the Center for Development Innovation, said “We believe science, technology, and innovation can deliver transformational results, and the 50 Breakthroughs study is an extremely valuable contribution in this endeavor.”
The study is divided into nine different categories and aims to give aid organizations and agencies a map of where to invest their time, funds and resources so as to have the greatest impact.
The categories are global health, food security and agricultural development, human rights, digital inclusion, water, access to electricity, gender equality and resilience against climate change and environmental degradation.
The report finds that water is the most important and needed breakthrough. Director of the study, Shashi Buluswar, said, “Water will be the defining problem of the next 50 years. It’s probably the single most important thing that needs to be solved.”
Other breakthroughs include greater access to vaccines, improved and highly efficient fertilizer and increased water filtration capacity.
Buluswar states that the Berkeley Lab is capable of working to implement many of the breakthroughs but encourages organizations both domestically and around the globe to contribute to their further development. You can read the report here.
– Joe Kitaj
Sources: Berkeley Lab 1, Berkeley Lab 2, LIGTT
Photo: desalinate4kids
Startups Ending Poverty
As successful businesses began springing out of Silicon Valley like a garden first introduced to fertilizer, entrepreneurs started to wonder how they could profit from filling the holes in market demands.
According to Business Dictionary, a startup is the “early stage in the life cycle of an enterprise where the entrepreneur moves from the idea stage to securing financing, laying down the basic structure of the business, and initiating operations or trading.”
But what do startups have to do with global poverty? While many businesses, including most startups, are looking to meet the demand of customers who will shell out enough cash to generate their owners and employees increasing incomes, some ventures are looking to fulfill a different demand.
Below are three for-profit startups that are using their business plans in one way or another to help alleviate poverty. These companies differ from nonprofits because they function as a business instead of an organization. While both work towards bettering the lives of others, they do so in distinctly different ways.
Nuru
Nuru provides training-based poverty solutions for local leaders in poor communities. Their leadership programs are intended to create profitable businesses owned and run by local entrepreneurs.
Nuru staff train and equip their counterpart local teams and in return part of that business’s profit is returned to Nuru where it is distributed to shareholders and reinvested in other development projects.
Instead of reaching into markets with foreign goods or services, Nuru allows locals to provide their own communities with desired and necessary products in a self-sustaining manner. Once Nuru implements their programs they withdraw their staff and allow local leaders to become self-reliant and continue making their own difference.
BioLite
BioLite was created by two camping enthusiasts and sells portable, clean energy stoves, kettles and LED lights. The profits made from their western markets help offset the costs required to make their other product. In addition to camping equipment, BioLite produces a cheaper stove to sell in developing nations.
Since most people living in poverty use open fires for cooking and heating purposes, the demand for inexpensive and safe stoves is high.
This company offers a desired product to untapped markets in developing countries for an affordable price due to their other successful profit earning products. Their business plan is sustainable because they do not rely on donations to continue their work.
Good Cloth
An online clothing store that sells exclusively ethically crafted goods. They’ve divided their products into several categories including recycled, sustainable, organic, made in the U.S. and one titled “Trade Not Aid.”
Good Cloth helps companies who design and create goods without exploiting workers, sell their products. Good Cloth and the brands they sell work to eradicate poverty by pushing against the norm of cheap labor.
They want to help companies who treat their employees fairly and pay them a just wage be successful.
Nuru, BioLite and Good Cloth are only three examples of for-profit business models that are working towards alleviating poverty. While nonprofits play an undeniably imperative role in the fight on global poverty, there is also a place for solutions that include profits.
Businesses have a high interest and investment in their success; in order to eradicate global poverty there needs to be a high interest and investment in finding successful solutions. If incorporating business models and profit as a motivation will lead to poverty reduction, why would we not use it?
– Brittney Dimond
Sources: Business Dictionary, The Good Trade, MIC, Nuru International
Photo: Pixabay
The Magic of ORS
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has expressed a strong belief that providing access to known health interventions will go a long way toward saving lives, specifically the lives of children.
Because global health has been such a priority over the last 25 years, preventable child deaths have been reduced to half since 1990. That still leaves many children dying from diseases that are entirely preventable. One of the leading causes of death in children in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia is diarrheal disease.
Diarrheal disease causes a child to lose enormous amounts of fluids which then causes them to become extremely dehydrated. This disease can have a long-term effect on a child’s overall health and development.
Fortunately, there is a low-cost solution that will help to re-hydrate children who have lost a dangerous amount of fluids quickly and effectively. The Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) is a simple, yet highly effective sugar and salt mixture. There are many benefits to this relatively new solution, which include:
Unfortunately, this life-saving solution is not being used in many countries that could benefit from it. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is dedicated to making sure preventative treatments such as ORS are available where they are needed most.
– Drusilla Gibbs
Sources: Impatient Optimists, Rehydrate, WHO
Photo: defeatdd
Medical Tourism in Dubai
In front of representatives and officials from more than 80 countries, Dubai was presented with the award for “Destination of the Year” at the 10th World Health Tourism Congress.
Those in attendance at the reception, which took place in Dubai Healthcare City at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Center, included senior government officials, ministers, and health and medical experts, as well as tourism industry stakeholders.
According to Dr. Ahmed Bin Kalban, the CEO of the Hospital Services Sector at Dubai Health Authority (DHA), the city is known for its high-quality medical care and attractiveness as a destination. Both factors are key drivers for medical tourism in Dubai, a concept in which people travel to another country to receive medical care.
The top services offered in the medical tourism field in Dubai include orthopedics, aesthetics, dental care, fertility tests, and preventive health and wellness. In the first half of this year, 260,000 medical tourists visited Dubai, generating revenues of over one billion dirhams, equivalent to more than $272 million.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, created DHA in June 2007 via Law 13 to serve as the strategic health authority for the nation. It works to set policies and strategies for health and make sure both are implemented.
DHA’s aim is to deliver an efficient, accessible and unified healthcare system, improve the quality of life, and protect public health. The mission of the body is to guarantee access to health services, improve the status of health for nationals, residents and visitors, and supervise an effective and modern health sector.
Prior to the creation of DHA, the authority for the delivery of health services in the UAE was the Department of Health and Medical Services (DOHMS), which was established in 1973.
– Matt Wotus
Sources: CDC, Prometric, Zawya,
Photo: Pixabay
Fighting the TPP’s Bad Medicine
After months of negotiation, the public has spoken. Public health outcry surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) resounds online, in print and on television.
“We have raised our voice as loudly as we can,” said Manica Balasegaram, executive director of Doctors Without Borders’ (DWB) access campaign. “This is a terrible deal for access to affordable medicines.”
The idea behind campaigns like the one headed by DWB is to remove the intellectual property laws (many pertaining to pharmaceuticals that treat life-threatening conditions) from the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership (TPP).
As it stands, according to a November 13 Wikileak, the TPP would seek to extend the patent on brand-name pharmaceuticals an additional five years (delaying the onset of cheaper generic drugs that compete with brand-names), as well as 12 years of “data exclusivity” for biologic drugs, of which include many cancer and multiple sclerosis therapies.
While these intellectual property rights are sure-fire ways to keep pharmaceutical prices high—even unreachable for many in developing countries—defenders of the TPP laud them as ways to improve health, not hamper it.
The first line of the secret TPP document that was leaked by Julian Assange in 2013 decries that the thought process behind these intellectual property laws is to “enhance the role of intellectual property in promoting economic and social development in relation to the new digital economy, technological innovation, and transfer the dissemination of technology and trade.”
As increases in antibiotic resistance demands more innovation in pharmaceuticals, they remove incentives for Big Pharma to pursue antibiotic options (data shows that the more times you use these antibiotics, the less effective they are, so profits are capped).
Beneath this intellectual property clause that is a roadblock to doctors and patients everywhere, lies a real problem–how can we incentivize further development of life-saving antibiotic therapies?
The best way our society knows how to incentivize something is to monetize it. The idea of writing hours of code at a computer was abhorrent, for many, until Bill Gates and Steve Jobs turned personal computers into million-dollar industries.
The intellectual property laws surrounding pharmaceuticals (especially, antibiotics) exist to serve this purpose—to create an industry that is robust, profitable and differentiated.
It is even present in the existing TRIPS free trade agreement which guarantees some intellectual property laws in free trade agreements, even providing special waivers to certain developing countries that exempt them having to abide by pharmaceutical patents until at least January 2016.
“The LDC waivers [exemption from TRIPS-sponsored patent law for drugs] are among the important flexibilities available in the TRIPs agreement,” wrote a UNAID 2012 report.
“Retaining the flexibility to adapt intellectual property law and policy to meet national development objected has facilitated the development of robust generic industries such as India and Brazil. Generic competition, primarily from Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers, has been one of the key factors in the dramatic decrease in prices of…medicines for HIV treatment.”
If the TPP must go through, which according to some reports will happen before the dawn of the 2016 election year, the TRIP waiver program has already given us the skeleton of a tool to combat it.
If intellectual property rights for biologic therapies and drugs in the US are to be tightened, the extension of the waivers for generic development elsewhere may be necessary.
Diversify the market–let the developing nations step in with their own budding pharmaceutical industries and mollify the situation that the TPP has the power to create.
– Emma Betuel
Sources: UNITAID, UNAIDS, About News, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), WikiLeaks, Health Affairs, Center for American Progress
Photo: Pixabay
South Korea Anticipates Building an Agricultural Training Center
With a history of agriculture and farming, the Korean Rural Community Corp. (KRC) has decided to spread its knowledge by building an agricultural training center.
The corporation plans to begin construction for the estimated $43 million dollar Rural Community-International Education Exchange Center (RC-IEEC) in 2016 and will start running the facility in 2017, training government officials from developing countries to learn more about Korea’s knowledge of agriculture.
“Many developing countries are seeking to learn from Korea about how it developed its agricultural industry,” said KRC CEO Lee Sang-mu.
According to the CEO, “To meet this growing demand, we decided to build the RC-IEEC to more effectively share our knowledge about farming, agricultural infrastructure and experience with the developing world. The planned facilities will enable us to share our knowledge in a more systematic manner.”
In the 1970s, farming and agriculture accounted for half of South Korea’s economy. Known for their long, hot humid summers that are favorable for the development of varied vegetation, South Korea’s most popular crops include rice, pork, beef, and milk.
Due to the rapid growth of technology, currently agriculture only accounts for 6.2 percent of the economy.
After joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994, the government was forced to cut tariffs and eliminate quotas, resulting in today’s 20 percent grain production compared to its 70 percent grain production in 1970.
Today, South Korea is the Asian leader in organic agriculture production, making this announcement a timely decision to build the RC-IEEC and share their agricultural knowledge with developing countries.
“The RC-IEEC will play a crucial role in spreading Korea’s experience and knowledge in agriculture by inviting public-and private-sector government officials from 50 developing nations to come and learn,” Lee said. “The center will contribute significantly to improving the livelihoods of farming villages across the globe.”
The four-story building will have classrooms, conference rooms, and other teaching facilities that will create an environment to learn and conduct business. The center plans to provide at least 50 academic training programs in the areas of rural development, rural welfare, and individual empowerment.
With the announcement of the training center, many developing countries are already on board for training with hopes to solve their countries’ personal food crisis.
– Alexandra Korman
Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, The Korea Times, The Nation
Photo: Prospect Farm
World Vision: Let’s Make the World Hunger Free
World Vision has launched a new initiative to raise funds for a hunger free world. Through the #hungerfree movement, people can “double up” the cost of their meal and donate the money to fight global hunger.
Presently, more than 795 million people are food insecure, usually as a product of poverty. Food insecurity can mean not knowing where one’s next meal is coming from, not having access to foods with necessary nutrients or not being able to intake enough calories to maintain health.
For individuals facing food insecurity, it affects all aspect of daily life. Food insecurity affects the ability to focus in a school or workplace environment, have healthy physical and neural development and functioning. For mothers, pregnant women and children, these effects are compounded.
Fighting food insecurity and world hunger is a critical component to fighting global poverty. By ensuring people have enough to eat, they can have more energy and ability to be healthy, productive individuals, citizens and communities.
The mid-September launch of #hungerfree by World Vision is timed well for World Food Day 2015 on October 16. The #hungerfree program targets people in Kenya and South Sudan, countries whose food production is dependent on subsistence farming.
Furthermore, the prevalence of hunger in Kenya and South Sudan is also exacerbated by the disproportionate amount of unemployed young people, who are often displaced by conflict and/or climatic shocks.
The #hungerfree initiative works to promote agricultural development in order to implement technologies and provide support to increase food production. By promoting sustainable, long-term development, World Vision hopes to reduce the amount of food aid sent to combat hunger in Kenya and South Sudan and create circumstances that empower communities.
To support #hungerfree, all individuals and groups have to do is “double up” the cost of their meal. The extra funds would be donated to #hungerfree. So, if a meal costs $10, an individual would match the cost of their meal as a donation to World Vision.
The program runs until World Food Day 2015 on October 16. #hungerfree is being run through a partnership between World Vision and the Misfit Foundation, which works to promote donor participation via social media and technology. Currently, World Vision sends aid to 8 million people in 35 different countries annually.
– Priscilla McCelvey
Sources: Hunger Free, World Vision
Photo: World Vision