For Action/2015, “This is our year.” The coalition of more than 1,950 organizations worldwide is carving a brighter future in order to make 2015 the year of action and change. The agenda includes tackling climate change, poverty, and inequality, and so far, Action/2015 made substantial progress through key campaigning and advocacy events.
January
Action/2015 launch:
On January 15, 2015, Action/2015 launched campaigns all over the world from Mali, Mexico, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Uganda, and the UK to name a few. Twitter helped spread #Action2015 to millions of people.
March
International Women’s Day:
On March 8, 2015, the coalition held street marches and rallies around the work in support of women’s rights. They could be spotted from the UK, Nicaragua, Spain, Ecuador, New York City, Bangladesh, Spain, and South Africa.
April
Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day:
The coalition mobilized its campaign via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, in order to address the annual spring meeting of the World Bank held in Washington D.C. #Hero, addressed the world’s Finance Ministers to fund poverty reduction projects such as the Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Goals.
May
Throughout the month, Action/2015 campaigned to pressure world leaders attending the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goal Summit in September and the COP21 climate negotiations in December. More than 22 million advocates in 150 countries held events to call for change. In Kenya, the President responsively agreed to a 12 percent pay increase for workers.
May’s Days of Actions guided support through various themes of change. May 1 was Yes to Labour Rights, No to Social Exclusion Day, and May 13 was Poverty is Sexist Day. Among more, these days calling for global action complemented other events like Citizen Heartings, community sports days, caravans, and concerts.
June
The G7 Summit was held on June 7-8 in Germany. The coalition played its part by taking to Twitter to stand #AgainstPoverty. Many participants were also a part of a free concert, United Against Poverty, also calling to the G7 leaders for greater attention to end poverty.
July
The Financing for Development was held on July 13-16 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Just before the conference, 4.8 million coalition events in 150 countries rallied to demand that world leaders “meet outstanding sending commitments, fight structural injustices of unfair tax, and many other issues.”
August
International Youth Day unleashed #YouthPower. Sri Lanka, South Africa, Brazil, and Benin hosted marches, workshops, political meetings, flash mobs in honor of the movement. The coalition offered guidance through the options to download from their website, International Youth Day toolkits, YouthPower Workshop plans, and contact the team for direct consultation.
September
The United Nations General Assembly will take place on September 15-28. The world’s most influential leaders will meet to conclude the Millennium Development Goals and create a new set of Sustainable Development Goals. The coalition is scheduling September 24 as a Global Day of Action for global mobilization.
November-December
From November 20 to December 11, Paris will host the UN Climate Change Conference. Action/2015 advocates will join around the globe to pressure their world leaders for stronger leadership and progress in poverty reduction.
– Lin Sabones
Sources: Action/2015 1, Action/2015 2, Action/2015 3, Action/2015 4, Action/2015 5, Action/2015 6, Action/2015 7, Action/2015 8, Action/2015 9, World Bank
Photo: Restless Development
Action/2015 Progress by Month
For Action/2015, “This is our year.” The coalition of more than 1,950 organizations worldwide is carving a brighter future in order to make 2015 the year of action and change. The agenda includes tackling climate change, poverty, and inequality, and so far, Action/2015 made substantial progress through key campaigning and advocacy events.
January
Action/2015 launch:
On January 15, 2015, Action/2015 launched campaigns all over the world from Mali, Mexico, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Uganda, and the UK to name a few. Twitter helped spread #Action2015 to millions of people.
March
International Women’s Day:
On March 8, 2015, the coalition held street marches and rallies around the work in support of women’s rights. They could be spotted from the UK, Nicaragua, Spain, Ecuador, New York City, Bangladesh, Spain, and South Africa.
April
Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day:
The coalition mobilized its campaign via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, in order to address the annual spring meeting of the World Bank held in Washington D.C. #Hero, addressed the world’s Finance Ministers to fund poverty reduction projects such as the Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Goals.
May
Throughout the month, Action/2015 campaigned to pressure world leaders attending the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goal Summit in September and the COP21 climate negotiations in December. More than 22 million advocates in 150 countries held events to call for change. In Kenya, the President responsively agreed to a 12 percent pay increase for workers.
May’s Days of Actions guided support through various themes of change. May 1 was Yes to Labour Rights, No to Social Exclusion Day, and May 13 was Poverty is Sexist Day. Among more, these days calling for global action complemented other events like Citizen Heartings, community sports days, caravans, and concerts.
June
The G7 Summit was held on June 7-8 in Germany. The coalition played its part by taking to Twitter to stand #AgainstPoverty. Many participants were also a part of a free concert, United Against Poverty, also calling to the G7 leaders for greater attention to end poverty.
July
The Financing for Development was held on July 13-16 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Just before the conference, 4.8 million coalition events in 150 countries rallied to demand that world leaders “meet outstanding sending commitments, fight structural injustices of unfair tax, and many other issues.”
August
International Youth Day unleashed #YouthPower. Sri Lanka, South Africa, Brazil, and Benin hosted marches, workshops, political meetings, flash mobs in honor of the movement. The coalition offered guidance through the options to download from their website, International Youth Day toolkits, YouthPower Workshop plans, and contact the team for direct consultation.
September
The United Nations General Assembly will take place on September 15-28. The world’s most influential leaders will meet to conclude the Millennium Development Goals and create a new set of Sustainable Development Goals. The coalition is scheduling September 24 as a Global Day of Action for global mobilization.
November-December
From November 20 to December 11, Paris will host the UN Climate Change Conference. Action/2015 advocates will join around the globe to pressure their world leaders for stronger leadership and progress in poverty reduction.
– Lin Sabones
Sources: Action/2015 1, Action/2015 2, Action/2015 3, Action/2015 4, Action/2015 5, Action/2015 6, Action/2015 7, Action/2015 8, Action/2015 9, World Bank
Photo: Restless Development
Counting the Uncountable – Displaced Individuals
One of the biggest issues humanitarian agencies face today involves counting the number of displaced individuals in stateless populations globally. Stateless people, or those who are not recognized as nationals of any country, are often denied human rights and services, are forced to live out of the way of modern society and are undocumented and unseen by political officials. They often have limited access to employment opportunities, healthcare, education and protection. Clearly, these groups of people are in critical need of aid, but because many organizations have no idea of the sheer number of those in need, they have limited access to it.
There are many causes of statelessness. Lack of birth registration, changing national boundaries or discriminatory policies are some sources. For example, Myanmar refuses to recognize its more than 1.3 million Rohingya people, who face violent backlash, homelessness and disease. In Zimbabwe, people born to foreign parents became stateless as a result of the country’s 2001 Citizenship Act. The UN estimates there are 700,000 undocumented people in the Ivory Coast alone. Further, many stateless people are hesitant to identify themselves as such because it leads to further exclusion: they fear the stigma, and further danger, it will attract.
Last year, the UN launched a campaign aiming to end the invisibility of stateless people by 2024. It has developed a plan working to improve qualitative and quantitative measures in countries all around the world to improve the recognition of these people and increase their access to necessary aid. Presently, the UN has only counted 3.5 million such people from 77 countries, but it estimates that there are at least 10 million stateless people on Earth.
There are significant challenges facing these “counters,” however. For one, organizations such as the UN can not rely on national governments to help them number their stateless populations. Because many countries refuse to recognize these populations due to their own policies or border changes, getting proper numbers would require going door to door surveying individual households. The UN plans on focusing on countries that have recently experienced changes in boundary lines, such as South Sudan or former USSR countries. There are also many people who are not explicitly stateless — they claim nationality in a certain country — but who cannot return to that country due to conflict, and thus cannot seek refuge from other countries or aid organizations because stateless aid does not apply to them. There is much to be done beyond simply recognizing the problem that is undocumented populations.
However, efforts to put a number on undocumented people around the world will encourage aid organizations to provide these people with the help they so desperately need. Organizations will be able to design better policies and programs to help a broader number of stateless people. Though counting uncountable people comes with numerous challenges, it is an effort that will bring about numerous changes and rewards.
– Jenny Wheeler
Sources: IRIN News, UNHCR
Photo: Flickr
The Heat Wave in Karachi
On June 20, 2015, a heatwave struck the city of Karachi. Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan and is home to about 20 million residents. The heatwave that struck had disastrous consequences for many of the residents of the city, killing about 1,300 people and sending scores to hospitals.
Daytime temperatures in Karachi climbed to about 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), the hottest that it has been in Pakistan since 2000. The effects of the heatwave were also compounded by the fact that it occurred during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when people fast until sunset and when eating and drinking during daylight is forbidden by Pakistani law.
What’s more, many residents of Karachi did not have power or access to water during the week of extremely high temperatures. Power cuts in Pakistan are common, but the federal government and the main private power company for Karachi, K-Electric, assured the citizens of Karachi that they would make sure that there was power during the heatwave for when Pakistanis broke their fast at sunset. However, they failed to deliver on their promises, and many died due to the lack of air conditioning, water and fans.
Hospitals filled up quickly, with over 65,000 people visiting them for help and to seek shelter. The hospitals had to rely on donations and volunteers for many of their supplies. Some patients were not able to be treated by doctors, and their families were forced to attempt to take care of them while waiting for assistance.
A human body’s normal core temperature is around 38 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit). When our body temperatures rise to 39-40 degrees Celsius, fatigue begins to impact the body and the brain starts to slow the muscles down in order to cool the body. Above 41 degrees Celsius, our body cells deteriorate, chemical processes are affected and the body’s organs start to fail. This heatwave in Karachi affected the homeless the most, and also had a larger impact on poor families, many of whom did not have access to the air conditioning they desperately needed. Older people also suffered disproportionately.
The largest morgue in Karachi, the Edhi Morgue, normally has the capacity to hold about 200 people. It was soon overflowing due to the number of people killed by the heat and received over 900 bodies in the eight days of the heatwave. Many families who visited hoping that the morgue would help them to bury their dead had to be turned away, and cemeteries in Karachi ran out of room in which to bury the dead, leading to mass graves and burials.
Pakistan has suffered from heatwaves before, but this heatwave has led to an abnormally large number of casualties. Some attribute that to the fact that the heatwave occurred during Ramadan, while others blame pollution and climate change for extreme temperatures. These, combined with power outages and water shortages, most likely led to the massive casualties that occurred during the heatwave.
Temperatures have begun to normalize once again, but the residents of Karachi are still suffering from the consequences of the heatwave. In order to help those in Karachi, people have been donating to the Edhi Foundation (https://edhi.org/), which runs an ambulance service and the Edhi Morgue and is working to ensure that those who have died due to the heatwave receive a proper burial.
– Ashrita Rau
Sources: BBC, New York Times, CNN, International Business Times, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Edhi Foundation
Photo: Today Online
Life Saving Dot: Iodine Coated Bindis
In India, 350 million people are at risk for iodine deficiency. Iodine deficiency leads to a variety of harmful conditions in adults, including hypothyroidism, goiter, an increased risk for breast cancer, and brain damage. In the unborn children of mothers with a deficiency, the condition results in a condition known as fetal hypothyroidism, improper conditioning of the gland in unborn children which can result in cognitive birth defects and even stillbirth.
So when Grey for Good, a charitable branch of the Singapore-based Grey Group, offered a solution to the problem, it needed to be innovative in combatting this very real public health risk. What they noticed is this: many Indian women wear a bindi, or a small red dot in the center of the forehead, for cultural or religious reasons. With this came an idea: is there a way to use the cultural trend to combat the condition?
Grey for Good teamed up with Indian NGO Neelvasant Medical Foundation and Research Center to begin distributing affordable bindis which double as iodine supplements. Called Life Saving Dot, or Jeevan Bindi, the back of each bindi is coated in iodine, creating a “patch” which can deliver up to 150 micrograms of iodine through the skin over the course of eight hours, which is the recommended amount of iodine for women.
Life Saving Dot is also affordable. A pack of 30 bindis is sold for 10 rupees, or just 16 cents. Perhaps this is why the bindis have reached over 300,000 women in 100 villages that the Indian government has deemed at risk for iodine deficiency.
In distributing Life Saving Dot, Grey for Good has taken an innovative approach to solve a problem, uniting medicine, technology, business and culture as a force for good. By bringing these things together, they have created a truly modern solution to the problem of iodine deficiency.
– Andrew Michaels
Sources: Take Part, NPR, UpWorthy, Global Healing Center
Photo: Life Saving Dot/Facebook
Global Nonprofit Focuses on Prize Model in India
The XPrize is a highly sought-after award that is given when seemingly unsolvable goals are incentivized to change the world for the better. Associations of nearly every kind make several of the same mistakes that lead to market failure, and one of those mistakes is not addressing an issue when it’s thought to be impossible.
According to XPrize’s mission statement, “We believe that challenges must be audacious, but achievable, tied to objective, measurable goals. And understandable by all. We believe that solutions can come from anyone, anywhere and that some of the greatest minds of our time remain untapped, ready to be engaged by a world that is in desperate need of help.” Anyone, no matter the background or training, can participate in helping to make achieving the goals of XPrize a reality.
India is the second most heavily populated nation in the entire world as well as a leader in innovation, so it’s no surprise that there are already two confirmed donors. Gregory S. Thomas of the Deccan Herald reports, “Besides Coca-Cola, the Motwani-Jadeja Foundation is another [donor]. But the latter is at a much [more] preliminary stage, with Asha Jadeja, wife of late Professor Rajeev Motwani, a mentor to Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, merely expressing her intent to fund another Grand Challenge on the theme of women and girls.”
Zenia Tata, representative for and Program Director of XPrize, announced the contest last month. It focuses on the theme of water; she says that it “will completely change perceptions on where water comes from and how you can use it.”
But the global nonprofit hopes to also take its incentivized prize model a step further and solve other challenges that India, along with other developing countries, has faced. These include improving energy consumption and sourcing, education, healthier lifestyles, shelters, social justice, waste and global connectivity.
With these goals in mind, XPrize hopes to expand and bring its methods to other developing countries across the globe to inspire others to help create a healthier and more sustainable world.
– Anna Brailow
Sources: Deccan Herald, XPrize 1, XPrize 2, XPrize 3
Photo: Indie Gogo
Jessica Watson Visits Syrian Refugees
Jessica Watson would like to see children around the world pursue their dreams. In order for that to happen, she must first tackle world hunger.
The 22-year-old is a Youth Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Hailing from Queensland, Australia and awarded Young Australian of the Year in 2011, Watson is the youngest person to ever sail around the world solo and unassisted, having completed the global voyage when she was 16 years old.
Watson’s most recent expedition, however, brought her to Lebanon and Jordan, where she visited Syrian refugees. Her “Sail with WFP” initiative recognizes the intimidating journey made by young Syrians who have left their homes for Lebanon or Jordan. As WFP’s Youth Ambassador, Watson provided food and support for suffering families.
Founded in 1961, WFP is the largest hunger-fighting organization in the world, supplying food in times of emergency and working with communities to create sustainability. The goal of the organization is to end world hunger and eliminate global poverty. Funded by governments, companies and private individuals, WFP provides annual assistance to more than 80 million people in 75 countries.
In Lebanon, Watson sailed with five Syrian and Lebanese youths from Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, to a northern port. In Jordan, she spent time in the Azraq refugee camp. There, Watson met a single Syrian mother Manal and her eight children. She accompanied the family to the camp’s only grocery store, where refugees buy food with electronic food cards from WFP.
Earlier this year, however, WFP had to reduce refugee stipends due to a lack of funding. As a result, the refugee program is 81 percent underfunded and many Syrian families are struggling to stay alive. The organization requires $138 million to continue helping refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey and Iraq through September.
Watson also visited a Save the Children International youth center in Amman, Jordan’s capital, and hopes her journey will bring attention to the hardships faced by the Syrian people. A WFP Youth Ambassador since her young global voyage, Watson sails towards a new, hunger-free future.
– Sarah Sheppard
Sources: WFP 1, WFP 2, WFP 3
Photo: News Pronto
E-Health Point Provides Access in Rural India
E-Health Point is a series of medical units owned by Healthpoint Services India that provide medical care, clean water and medicines to families living in rural regions in India. They specialize in unique concepts and models to improve wellness, productivity and quality of life. E-Health Point also follows a Social Business Enterprise Model that demonstrates democratizing healthcare, social impact, sustainability, growth potential and innovation.
The organization was launched in 2009 with the goal of providing preventative and curative healthcare to people in impoverished communities. E-Health Point operates based on Electronic Medical Records which provide doctors and patients knowledge of proper healthcare and real-time disease surveillance capability. Clinics are initially formed as water services and become clinics over time. As of 2011, there were eight clinics and 16 water stations in India.
E-Health Point works with multiple unique technologies and methods like Broadband and Telemedicine and Point of Care/Mobile diagnostics and combines models used by private and public organizations to pioneer the rural health industry. They have collaborated with organizations such as Bhati AirTel, Athenahealth USA and Procter and Gamble to provide funds and resources to ensure physicians and patients give and receive proper medical attention.
E-Health Point treats water for contaminants by using advanced reverse osmosis, a process that uses a semipermeable membrane to remove large particles from drinking water and applied pressure to eliminate chemicals. Reverse osmosis can also remove molecules, ions and bacteria to make water potable.
To democratize the healthcare system in India, E-Health Point provides healthcare to citizens regardless of their gender, caste, social or economic status. They create a social impact by helping residents living in rural regions and semi-urban communities receive access to healthcare especially when the majority of them do not have the funds or resources to obtain it.
E-Health Point was founded by Amit Jain, Dr. Allan Hammond and their team of health and business professionals. With a global and local team, the organization has successfully teamed up with multiple business partners to keep healthcare systems intact in multiple regions in India including Malout, Bathinda and Goniana. The organization hopes to increase its medical coverage to rural regions of Africa and South America.
– Julia Hettiger
Sources: Health Market Innovations, Changemakers, Forbes
Photo: NPR
Portable, Rentable Toilets: An Innovative Solution to Ghana’s Sanitation Crisis
Today, cities in Africa are rapidly urbanizing. The population is growing faster than infrastructure is being built, which causes a shortage of sewage and sanitation systems, especially in impoverished areas.
Over 2.6 billion people do not have access to sanitation. Every day, thousands of tons of feces are not disposed of properly, polluting water and spreading diseases among women and children.
Every year, 1.8 million people die from waterborne diarrheal diseases. Ninety percent of these deaths are children under five-years-old.
Clean Team Ghana has made it their mission to fix this sanitation crisis. The company has invented an inexpensive toilet service to help low-income citizens.
“People of all ages, regardless of circumstance, deserve the right to perform their necessary bodily functions in safety, without the risk of spreading or contracting disease. Our mission is to ensure as many people as possible can enjoy that right,” explains the company’s website.
Kumasi, where Clean Team Ghana has focused its efforts, is Ghana’s second-largest city; here, rapid urbanization and development issues are rampant. Unplanned slum areas do not have any type of sewer system. Half of the population of Kumasi uses public toilet blocks.
According to How We Made it in Africa, public toilet blocks are “often over-burdened, poorly maintained and unhygienic. Those that cannot brave the stench would prefer to do their business openly–or in packets that are then thrown into gutters, polluting water supplies and causing diseases such as cholera.”
Families without proper sewage can rent out Clean Team Ghana’s portable toilets, which the company installs and treats three times per week, exchanging the used canister for a fresh one. The dirty canister is treated at a processing site and reused.
One toilet provides service to five to seven people, and only costs $2.50 to install. The service costs a family $8.90 a month for one toilet. Clean Team Ghana offers weekly payment services, as very few customers earn monthly salaries.
“Most of our customers are traders and earn daily sums of money, maybe even weekly sums. So we have account managers who visit these customers at least once a week so they can pay in bits,” said Clean Team Ghana CEO Abigail Aruna.
The toilets are odorless: the company uses chemicals to mask the smell. They do not require water or pipes, only some space.
So far, Clean Team Ghana has installed over 1,000 toilets across Kumasi. The company aims to install 1,500 more by the end of 2015. Clean Team Ghana markets their toilets by going door-to-door in settlements and explaining how the toilet works.
Aruna believes that in the next few years, Clean Team Ghana can install 10,000 toilets in Kumasi. Once they reach 10,000, the company plans to expand to other cities in Ghana.
“Research is ongoing around that. There are regional differences and we will take them into consideration before we expand. The situation in Kumasi is quite different from the situation in Accra or in Tamale, or in other towns,” explained Aruna.
Clean Team Ghana began when the nonprofit Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor partnered with Unilever, a company that produces cleaning agents. IDEO.org designed the toilets, and at the beginning of 2012, the project was funded by the Stone Family Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“Innovative ideas like ours are really necessary in Ghana and other African countries that cannot afford to put adequate sewage systems in place in their towns and cities. So I think the future of Clean Team Ghana and other sanitation companies is very bright–and is a way forward to solve the sanitation issues in Africa for now,” said Aruna.
– Margaret Anderson
Sources: How we made it in Africa, Clean Team Toilets
Photo: Core 77
Cocoa Workers in Ghana: Certification and Co-Operatives
In Ghana, the cocoa bean sector is the second-largest economic sector behind gold. Accordingly, the welfare of the workers takes on heightened importance because of their magnitude and the importance they play in the Ghanaian economy.
In 2010, cocoa accounted for 8.2% of Ghana’s GDP and 30% of total export earnings. Cocoa production in Ghana is based on smallholder farms, which grow 90% of the cocoa. In total, in a country of roughly 26 million, around 700,000 households grow cocoa, and the livelihood of about 6 million people depends on the cocoa sector.
Beginning in 1947, Ghana’s government stepped forward to tightly control the cocoa trade. In the 1990s, this control slightly loosened at the behest of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in order to provide loans for “structural adjustments.” This loosening led to the liberalization of internal marketing and privatization of the input market. Ultimately, relative to other cocoa producers in the world, Ghana still has a controlled marketing system.
In Ghana, there are many steps in the supply chain to get the cocoa beans from the farm to the manufacturer. According to the Cocoa Initiative, there are 7 to 10 steps, but in essence, the farmers sell their cocoa to a private buying company, which sells it to the Ghanaian government cocoa marketing board, which sells it to international buyers.
These extra steps in the supply chain move the producer farther from the consumer, siphoning the profits that the farmer would make if he or she sold directly to international buyers, to other actors in the supply chain. Looking beyond Ghana, Oxfam America estimates that cocoa farmers around the world make about three percent of the price of a chocolate bar.
Some global chocolate companies such as Nestle, Hershey and Mars have recognized the unsustainable aspects of cocoa farming in places such as Ghana. These companies, along with nine others, have joined the World Cocoa Foundation’s “CocoaAction” sustainability strategy. The strategy, comprised of educational opportunities and teaching farmers productivity-increasing farming methods, will affect 100,000 farmers in Ghana by 2020.
Ghana’s cocoa farmers have not sat idly by, either. To combat their disempowerment at the bottom of the supply chain, some farmers have turned to certification. Certification is a model in which farmers are awarded a premium, in addition to the price they receive for their cocoa when they work with certified chocolate companies.
Other Ghana cocoa farmers have created co-operatives, most notable of which is Kuapa Kokoo, meaning “good cocoa farmer.” Founded in 1993 and Fair Trade certified in 1995, the co-operative is a democratically run organization that brings its farmers into direct relationships with Fair Trade buyers. The Kuapa Kokoo co-operative made a historic move by forming its own chocolate marketing company, Divine, in 1999. This addition to the organization removes another actor from the supply chain, further facilitating the flow of money from the international buyers to the farmers who grew the cocoa.
By 2013, the co-operative had grown to hold over 87,000 members, of which 32% are women. Beyond dealing with the private sector, the co-operative has enough clout on village levels to leverage much support from the government, such as scholarships, credit and development resources.
These supports will prove crucial in improving the bargaining position of cocoa farmers and also allow them to educate their children. These benefits are the goal of arrangements such as certification and co-operatives, which have proved themselves to be effective in empowering the disempowered in Ghana.
– Connor Bohannan
Sources: Cocoa Initiative, Divine Chocolate, Fairtrade, FAO, Ghana Cocoa Board, NBC, Papapaa, WIEGO
Photo: Flickr
Poverty in Mexico Violates the Country’s Own Constitution
Mexico’s rising poverty levels, which have been a growing crisis for years now, just reached a new benchmark—they violate Mexico’s constitution.
According to Mexico’s constitution, the minimum salary must guarantee citizens a “decent standard of living.” While individual Mexican employees chalked up 2,327 work-hours on average in 2014, workers only earned an average annual salary of $12,850.
In comparison, American workers logged around 1,800 hours in 2014 and earned an average annual salary of $57,139 in the same time frame.
“In Mexico poverty affects those who work. It’s not just the unemployed that fall into poverty, as happens in developed countries,” Mexican nongovernment organization Acción Cuidadana Frente a la Pobreza (Citizen Action Against Poverty) said in a statement. “In our country, income from labor is insufficient to be above the poverty line.”
Poverty in Mexico is increasing at such a rapid rate due to the increasing income disparity between the country’s upper and lower classes. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Mexico’s wealthiest 10% earn 30.5 times more than the country’s poorest 10%.
Those outside of Mexico’s wealthiest are finding it incredibly difficult to live off of the country’s present minimum wage regulations, which vary geographically. The highest in the country is 70.1 pesos a day, or around $4.30.
“These numbers are the result of a perfect storm of events,” Inter-American Development Bank economist David Kaplan told The Wall Street Journal. “This tendency regarding wages–adjusted for inflation and adjusted for the basic food basket–is part of a long-term trend that began with the crisis.”
Conveal, a Mexican social policy tracking organization, reported that the overall poverty rate in Mexico rose to 46.2% in 2014, or roughly 55 million people. This number is up from 45.5% in 2012.
Despite efforts to combat rising poverty in Mexico, the lack of a substantial living wage is making progress almost impossible. Still, Mexico’s Social Development Ministry is acknowledging the crisis.
“Multidimensional poverty is fought with greater economic growth, job creation, democratization of productivity and better distribution of income,” the ministry said.
– Alexander Jones
Sources: El Daily Post, Harrup, Webber, Woody
Photo: Flickr