On July 27, Harry Styles of One Direction spoke in a video sanctioned by his campaign, action/1D, about his views on global education and those who deserve a better quality of life.
“I want to live in a world where every child can go to school,” Styles said at the beginning of the video.
Styles, along with bandmates Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Niall Horan, recently launched the action/1D campaign to inspire fans and promote awareness for global education, poverty, climate change, disease and inequality.
With action/1D, supporters can get involved in the campaign by posting pictures and videos that correspond to a topic related to the cause. Fans of One Direction can also catch the boys in videos where each band member will begin with the phrase: “I want to live in a world where…”
In Styles’ video, he spoke about how much he enjoyed school, and the children that he met in Ghana who dream of getting an education. These children cannot afford school, Styles said, and they spend their days working instead of learning.
“At the moment, they have to work all day every day just to earn enough to eat,” Styles said.
The “What Makes You Beautiful” singer brings light to a continuing problem.
According to UNICEF, there are almost 624,000 children not in primary school. Those who do receive an education do not learn the tools required to be successful in secondary school or professional work.
“Often, the school environment is not conducive to learning: classes are overcrowded, water and sanitation facilities are lacking and trained teachers and school books are in short supply,” UNICEF reports.
For those children with disabiliites, education is even more difficult to attain. According to the 2010 national census, 20% of children with physical disabilities are not attending school.
In addition, gender inequality does not provide for an equal amount of girls in school as boys. The national average amount of education is seven years, and in Northern Ghana, girls attend school for just three years.
“Making education available to 100 percent of people around the world is one way to ensure that poverty declines,” the article said.
Along with The Borgen Project, Styles and other members of action/1D agree that education a key to ending extreme poverty. One Direction’s campaign, which is associated with a similar organization, action/2015, seeks to create a world where education, along with health, climate change and inequality, are no longer a problem.
This year, two U.N. summits will gather some of the most influential people in the world. During each conference, these leaders will formulate plans to fix these issues.
With the help of these conferences, numerous humanitarian organizations and Styles, extreme poverty just might end; as Styles pointed out in his video, this change can begin with education.
“Going to school could literally change their lives, but for now, all they can look forward to is a life of struggle, and they deserve so much more,” he said.
Action/1D asks fans of the band to group together to make a difference. To contribute to the cause and to learn more about the campaign, visit the action/1D website.
– Fallon Lineberger
Sources: Action/1D 1, Action/1D 2, Action/2015, The Borgen Project, United States Census, Twitter, UNICEF
Photo: Sugarscape
Senate Revives Export-Import Bank
On July 26, 2015, the Senate voted to revive the federal Export-Import Bank, a substantial tool in promoting development and reducing poverty. Authorization for the bank expired on June 30, 2015.
The Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank, an independent federal agency, is the official export credit agency of the United States. Since the Ex-Im Bank’s founding in 1934 by an executive order issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it has provided financial support for American businesses exporting goods overseas when private sector financiers are unable or unwilling to step in.
The financial instruments the Ex-Im Bank provides include direct loans, guarantees and insurance. These instruments supported an estimated $27.5 billion in U.S. exports of goods and services in 2014. Interestingly, the bank operates at no cost to the taxpayers – it offsets collections to cover the cost of its operations. Just as interesting, in 2014, the bank reported a default rate of 0.175 percent.
In recent years, the financial services that the Ex-Im Bank offers have increasingly helped American businesses export to emerging markets as opposed to advanced economies. More than two-thirds of the projects financed by the bank occurred in relation to emerging markets in 2014, which the bank attributes to worldwide demand for infrastructure rising in emerging markets.
Creating infrastructure in the developing world is crucial for development. For those in poverty, access to electricity, telecommunications, clean water and transportation saves crucial time and resources. In 2014 the bank authorized $11.6 billion to support U.S. exports in infrastructure projects, more than half of its total financing for the year.
Looking at Sub-Saharan Africa, in the past five years the Ex-Im Bank has approved more than $6.3 billion to finance U.S. exports to that region, including $2.1 billion in 2014. That same year, Ex-Im Bank supported exports accounted for approximately 8 percent of an estimated more than $25 billion of total manufacturing exports to the region.
While these numbers ideally would be higher, they are still significant, likely affecting hundreds of thousands of African lives directly and millions indirectly. Facilitating the capacity of U.S. businesses to invest in developing regions of the world not only reduces poverty in those regions but also stimulates the U.S. economy. For example, the bank contends that for the fiscal year 2014, it supported 164,000 U.S. jobs by authorizing $20.5 billion for 3,746 financial transactions.
Looking at the bank holistically, it operates at no cost to the taxpayer, helps develop the developing world and stimulates the U.S. economy. However its detractors, many of who are Tea Party members, do not see the bank in such a light. They assert that the use of taxpayer’s funds for private benefit, whether for large or small businesses, distorts the market since, ideally, the private sector is more efficient in financing exports.
Yet the entire Republican Party does not see it this way. A bipartisan vote to attach a measure to a highway and infrastructure bill included almost half of the Republicans in the Senate, and a majority in the House supports resurrecting the agency.
Ultimately though, it will be up to the Republican leadership in the House whether to pass the bill with the measure or not. Unfortunately for proponents of the bank, the House majority leader, the majority whip, the Ways and Means Committee chairman and the Financial Services Committee, all opponents of the bank, stand in the way.
– Connor Bohannan
Sources: Congressional Research Service, Export Import Bank 1, Export Import Bank 2, Las Vegas Sun, The New York Times
Photo: Flickr
Facts About Poverty in Kenya
The stereotype remains that Africa as a whole is vastly impoverished and desolate. While certainly some pockets of the continent continue to suffer, poverty in Kenya is showing great improvement. Here are a few things to know about poverty in the East African country.
1. Kenya has one of the highest rates of population growth
Kenya’s population has nearly doubled in the last 25 years, from about 29.14 million in 1998 to 56.2 million in 2024 and the rapid population increase is set to continue. The United Nations (U.N.) has projected that Kenya’s population will grow by one million annually for the next 40 years, ultimately reaching 85 million by 2050. This will result in the rapid urbanization of Kenya’s rural areas. Furthermore, according to the World Bank, it will play an important role in “determining Kenya’s social stability.”
2. Children make up a large amount of the population
Of those living in Kenya, 38% (2022 estimate) are children aged less than 15. This has major implications for the country’s infrastructure and leaders realize it is past time to support these children.
3. Life expectancy is increasing
Life expectancy in Kenya has greatly increased over the years, from 53 years old in 2000 to more than 60 years in 2021. The majority of these improvements are from public health initiatives, particularly surrounding HIV/AIDS prevention after the disease was officially declared a natural disaster by the government in 2001.
4. There are not many physicians in Kenya
With a doctor-to-patient ratio of 1:17,000 and a nurse-to-patient ratio of 100:100,000, Kenya’s health care workforce density falls below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended density of at least one doctor per 1000 patients and 365 nurses per 100,000 patients. This shortage of medical professionals has compromised quality health care delivery in Kenya. However, major public health interventions have helped to reduce the mortality rate, such as those taken with HIV/AIDS, as well as many waterborne illnesses.
5. The poorest inhabitants live in rural areas
With limited access to the few physicians and nurses who inhabit the country, rural areas suffer the greatest. Comprised mostly of farmers and other agricultural workers, those living in rural areas often go without health care, clean water, sanitation and many other social services, which are primarily located in the cities and business regions. Poverty in Kenya is a widespread problem but is concentrated in rural areas.
6. The nation is not economically diverse
The vast majority of all work lies in the agricultural sector,” which employs more than 40% of the total population and 70% of the rural population.” Thus, when droughts and other natural disasters occur, farmers are out of luck.
7. Kenya has one of the highest literacy rates in Sub-Saharan Africa
The youth literacy rate in Kenya is 89% percent as of 2022, which is greater than that of some of its neighboring nations. For example, the youth literacy rate is approximately 70.5% in Somalia.
8. There is hope
Kenya Aids NGOs Consortium (KANCO) is a leading nongovernmental organization in Kenya dedicated to combating HIV/AIDs, malaria and Tuberculosis and promoting public health. In 2022, the organization reached nearly 30,000 households through community health outreaches, supported 4,000 health workers and screened more than 40,000 people for Tuberculosis.
Through its comprehensive approach, KANCO continues to make significant contributions to the improvement of public health outcomes in Kenya.
– Liz Vestal
Photo: Flickr,
Updated: May 27, 2024
Where Soccer and Global Poverty Innovation Collide
Soccer unites people. It is one of the few things that crosses social, geographic, ethnic and religious boundaries. It is widely understood and played by many. This is why Uncharted Play tapped into the love of soccer to make a difference in the world. They believed in the power of play.
Uncharted Play was founded in 2011 with the strong belief that through the pursuit of play and happiness, they could create something that “would show the world how play could be a tangible tool for inspiring social invention.”
The two founders of Uncharted Play, Jessica O. Matthews and Julia Silverman, met during their junior year at Harvard University, where they teamed up to create the SOCCKET as a class project.
The SOCCKET is a soccer ball with an LED light and a plug off the side. It has a mechanism on the inside that converts kinetic energy to electricity, which powers an LED light for three hours after just thirty minutes of play.
Uncharted Play’s first large-scale success was in Mexico in March 2013, where the largest television station, Televisa, gave out 150 SOCCKETs for free at a ceremony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtgpRo-Jd5k
However, the first big problem that users ran into with the SOCCKETs was the invention’s low durability. Uncharted Play took this into account and began making improvements. Matthews said, “We’re not Nike. We’re not Walmart… We’re a group of eight people in an apartment in New York City.” She later added, “Things may not always go right, but we are always, always, always… trying to do our best and doing it for the bigger picture.”
Since the creation of the SOCCKET in 2008 and the establishment of Uncharted Play in 2011, they have created a second product—energy-storing jump ropes—and have improved on the first.
Uncharted Play recognized that nearly 1.2 billion people live without electricity and sought to find a solution that not only reduced this number, but also increased happiness. The SOCCKETs are used to light homes and help children do their homework, and most importantly, it gets the kids out to play. Here, soccer and global poverty truly do collide—with positive results.
– Hannah Resnick
Sources: Smithsonian, Public Radio International, Uncharted Play, World Bank
Photo: Development Crossing
Source via a nice article published in SoccerTimes
Chelsea Clinton Visits Haiti
On July 28 and 29, Chelsea Clinton, the Clinton Foundation Vice Chair, visited Clinton Foundation-funded Haitian projects in Port-au-Prince to oversee agricultural improvement, health reform and female employment progress.
The Clinton Foundation’s slogan is “Partners in Haiti’s Future,” and the organization has definitely created many opportunities for the country to flourish in the present. The work of the foundation and its supporters has aided more than 85,000 farmers with new agriculture techniques. In addition, more than 350,000 people’s lives were bettered because of the organization’s social enterprises, and 9.9 million people have access to HIV/AIDS medication.
In total, the Clinton Foundation has helped raise more than $30 million for Haiti for its Trees of Hope program, Clinton Climate Initiative, Chakipi Acceso Distribution Enterprise, the Clinton Health Access Initiative and more.
Clinton visited Haiti to supervise the projects as well as inspire those who are being helped by the foundation. Clinton observed local artisans, posting an Instagram picture of herself holding a locally crafted doll with the caption “#ActionIsGreater through partnership and collaboration.”
This photo practices some of the Clinton Foundation’s guiding principles: “We’re all in this together,” and “The greatest good is helping people live their best life story.”
To further acknowledge these principles, Clinton hosted a meeting with the Clinton Foundation President, Donna Shalala, where the two discussed women’s success in the Haitian workplace and ways to create more opportunities for female employment.
Clinton said the implementation of new programs for the betterment of Haiti’s female youth is crucial to female empowerment and achievement.
“We need programs… to help close the gap, so that girls and young women who haven’t had the chance to get educated don’t live with the burden of illiteracy their whole lives,” she said.
During her stay, Clinton made it a point to visit local female-owned businesses to show support for successful female entrepreneurship. The business, Caribbean Craft, is supported by the Clinton Foundation where products are crafted and later sold in popular U.S. stores like Anthropologie and HomeGoods.
In support of other projects, Clinton visited the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership’s (CGEP) Acceso-Haiti depot. There, local farmers can store their peanuts for safe-keeping. The depot also serves to empower local farmers.
“Across Haiti, CGEP is helping more than 1,500 local smallholder farmers increase their peanut yields dramatically and better sort and store their peanuts,” Clinton said.
Because of depots like this, the Clinton Foundation has helped Haitian farmers grow higher yields of crops and improve market access. In turn, the organization’s help with agriculture creates greater opportunities for a healthy lifestyle.
To check up on the Foundation’s projects for better health in Haiti, Clinton visited Partners in Health’s Mirebalais Hospital. This hospital is the country’s top educational hospital because of the influence of one of the Clinton Foundation’s supporters, Paul Farmer.
Because of his commitment, Clinton said that the hospital employees were just as good as health workers in any developed country.
After leaving the hospital, Clinton said she took time to reflect on stories about the projects created by the Clinton Foundation in her heart. She said she feels confident that Haiti’s future is bright.
“I left with an even stronger belief in what’s possible in Haiti,” Clinton said.
The Clinton Foundation has many projects that have greatly benefited the people of Haiti, and the organization is continually editing and drafting plans to implement for the persistent improvement of the Caribbean country.
– Fallon Lineberger
Sources: ABC News, Caribbean Journal, Clinton Foundation 1, Clinton Foundation 2, Vogue
Photo: Jakarta Post
Harry Styles Speaks In Video About Education
On July 27, Harry Styles of One Direction spoke in a video sanctioned by his campaign, action/1D, about his views on global education and those who deserve a better quality of life.
“I want to live in a world where every child can go to school,” Styles said at the beginning of the video.
Styles, along with bandmates Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Niall Horan, recently launched the action/1D campaign to inspire fans and promote awareness for global education, poverty, climate change, disease and inequality.
With action/1D, supporters can get involved in the campaign by posting pictures and videos that correspond to a topic related to the cause. Fans of One Direction can also catch the boys in videos where each band member will begin with the phrase: “I want to live in a world where…”
In Styles’ video, he spoke about how much he enjoyed school, and the children that he met in Ghana who dream of getting an education. These children cannot afford school, Styles said, and they spend their days working instead of learning.
“At the moment, they have to work all day every day just to earn enough to eat,” Styles said.
The “What Makes You Beautiful” singer brings light to a continuing problem.
According to UNICEF, there are almost 624,000 children not in primary school. Those who do receive an education do not learn the tools required to be successful in secondary school or professional work.
“Often, the school environment is not conducive to learning: classes are overcrowded, water and sanitation facilities are lacking and trained teachers and school books are in short supply,” UNICEF reports.
For those children with disabiliites, education is even more difficult to attain. According to the 2010 national census, 20% of children with physical disabilities are not attending school.
In addition, gender inequality does not provide for an equal amount of girls in school as boys. The national average amount of education is seven years, and in Northern Ghana, girls attend school for just three years.
“Making education available to 100 percent of people around the world is one way to ensure that poverty declines,” the article said.
Along with The Borgen Project, Styles and other members of action/1D agree that education a key to ending extreme poverty. One Direction’s campaign, which is associated with a similar organization, action/2015, seeks to create a world where education, along with health, climate change and inequality, are no longer a problem.
This year, two U.N. summits will gather some of the most influential people in the world. During each conference, these leaders will formulate plans to fix these issues.
With the help of these conferences, numerous humanitarian organizations and Styles, extreme poverty just might end; as Styles pointed out in his video, this change can begin with education.
“Going to school could literally change their lives, but for now, all they can look forward to is a life of struggle, and they deserve so much more,” he said.
Action/1D asks fans of the band to group together to make a difference. To contribute to the cause and to learn more about the campaign, visit the action/1D website.
– Fallon Lineberger
Sources: Action/1D 1, Action/1D 2, Action/2015, The Borgen Project, United States Census, Twitter, UNICEF
Photo: Sugarscape
Rotary International Continues Fight Against Poverty
For the past 110 years, Rotary International has brought together business leaders, philanthropists and other individuals to promote interdisciplinary discussion to find solutions to the world’s biggest problems.
Started in the United States, the group now operates on a global scale. Through monetary donation or helping on the ground, Rotary’s 1.2 million members have positively impacted the world’s poor in a variety of ways.
Promoting Peace, Fighting Disease, Providing Clean Water, Saving Mothers and Children, Support Education and Growing Local Economies are Rotary’s biggest campaigns—made up of thousands of initiatives that work in different, but important, ways. Rotary International recognizes poverty is an intricate problem, and combatting it requires employing a litany of methods that enable individuals and countries alike to attain economic security.
Their greatest achievement is highlighted by the role they’ve played in the worldwide fight against polio. Launched in 1979, Rotary International has contributed $1.3 billion and countless volunteer hours to the campaign to eradicate polio. Since then, the number of polio-ridden countries has plummeted from 179 to three.
In January of this year, Rotary contributed an additional $35 million for immunization efforts that many believe will fully eliminate the disease.
Rotary can be just as effective on the ground. Their Clean Water campaign has provided millions with access to toilets, sanitation facilities and other water infrastructure.
Clean water also has many residual health and economic benefits. Healthy children mean less premature deaths, which stabilizes population growth. It also prevents the spread of infectious diseases, such as dysentery, diarrhea and ulcers. Access to local and clean water allows children to attend school instead of walking miles to retrieve it.
Since Rotary has expanded its Clean Water campaign in Ghana, the country has experienced a stark drop in waterborne diseases. Not surprisingly, 85 percent of Ghana’s citizens have access to a reliable water supply due to the newly drilled wells.
Rotary’s part in ending polio and bringing water security to Ghana are just the surface of what the group’s achievements. Its unique structure creates solutions at the local level, but change on a global scale. Going forward, they will have a substantial role in reducing and eventually eliminating global poverty.
Based on the past century, that role will be in safe hands.
Here is the link to Rotary’s website. Check it out to learn more about their mission and campaigns.
– Kevin Meyers
Sources: End Polio Now, Forbes, Rotary International 1, Rotary International 2, Rotary International 3
Photo: Rotary International
New Census Reveals Depth of Poverty in India
According to India’s most recent Socioeconomic and Caste Census (SECC), the extent of poverty in India could be worse than ever before.
A total of 300 million Indian households were surveyed in this census, and 73 percent of those households are in small, rural villages. Of these villages, those who have a job that provides a stable salary make up 10 percent. Those who can afford to pay taxes or own a car make up only 5 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.
This data solidifies the fact that roughly one-third of the world’s poor currently live in India.
“It is our firm belief that the member countries will not only overcome the endemic poverty in the region but will in the coming years develop the capacity to address all problems relating to poverty,” said SECC Minister of State of Rural Development Sudarshan Bhagat.
In the meantime, those problems are still piling up. According to the SECC, literacy rates in rural India are disheartening, with 35.7 percent of residents illiterate and only 3.5 percent of students graduating from school.
The SECC data, however, is not without its flaws. The data is not quite as concrete as what might be found in a more formal federal survey, but it does provide the most cohesive look at poverty in the country published in recent years.
“We should beware of any illusion that SECC data can be used for the purpose of drawing a line between poor and non-poor households,” said development economist Jean Drèze. “There are fundamental, conceptual and practical difficulties with doing that on the basis of proxy indicators, even with good-quality data.”
According to a different study, a report made by India’s Planning Commission, 363 million Indians, or 29.5 percent of the total population, were living in poverty between 2011 and 2012. Even though this data is a few years old, it does not paint a much brighter picture of the current state of poverty in India. For now, the SECC report is the best bet.
“Quite likely, the SECC dataset is more reliable than earlier Below Poverty Line (BPL) surveys and could be well used, for pro-active identification of people who need social security pensions, housing subsidies and so on,” added Drèze.
– Alexander Jones
Sources: Economic Times, CNN, Huffington Post
Photo: Deccan Chronicle
“Plant Doctors” Fighting Hunger in Kenya
Every year across the developing world an enormous percentage of crops are thrown away due to disease, which contributes to hunger. But what if those sick plants could be cured? In Kenya, when there are sick plants, they call in the “Plant Doctors.”
The Food and Agriculture Administration defines the major developing world’s food crops in order of volume as rice, wheat, maize, cassava, fresh vegetables and sweet potatoes. Other essential crops are sugarcane, oil palm fruits and soybeans. With approximately 4.47 billion people out of the global population of 5.77 billion living in the developing world, the health of these plants are immensely important to food security.
Crops grown in the developing world are more commonly used to feed the public rather than for export. Because of this, volume is lower, there are much lower input costs so pesticides/herbicides are used less extensively or are less effective, and far less inorganic fertilizer is used. Additionally in developing countries, the plant varieties are usually not improved, resistant or higher yielding. The effect of viruses on agriculture in poor nations is more significant and less food grown as a result.
Plant Doctors are highly trained plant health advisers educated in the science of botany and global plant health who take research from the laboratory to the fields to help farmers eradicate diseases plaguing their crops. They also run Plant Clinics, where farmers can take a sample plant to find diagnosis of the problem and give best-practice advice. The plant clinic also provides a meeting place for Plant Doctors and the farmers they aim to serve.
The Plant Clinic works like a doctor’s office visit. When a farmer has a problem with sick plants, the sample plant can be brought in to a Plant Clinic, which operates in local farmers markets. A trained Plant Doctor will then diagnose the problem and recommend an affordable, locally available solution that the farmer can use to manage it. If the farmer follows the plant doctor’s advice; losses are reduced and productivity increases, increasing food to sell and feed his or her family.
Miriam Otipa is a Plant Doctor. She is the Principal Research Scientist & Head of the Plant Pathology Department, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization. She posted a blog at Feed the Future about her experiences and the importance of Plant Doctors. She says in her blog that in Kenya, greenhouse farmers routinely lose between 80-100 percent of their tomato crops to pests and diseases.
As Miriam Otipa explains in her blog, it was while growing up in a small Kenyan Village she became interested in career in science. She turned her curiosity and childhood questions into solutions for struggling farmers with ailing crops.
According to Miriam Otipa, success in curing diseased plants is spreading across Kenya. Through the PlantWise program, supported by an international nonprofit called CABI, she has trained over 140 agricultural extension staff to operate 89 Plant Clinics in 13 counties across Kenya and has jointly trained 45 farmers as Plant Nurses, who regularly visit farms, assist with plant examinations, and encourage farmers to use nearby Plant Clinics.
In developing nations, food insecurity is a sad consequence of global poverty. Plant Doctors can help treat sick plants improving agricultural yield and increase the food on hungry people’s tables.
– Jason Zimmerman
Sources: USAID, Plantwise
Photo: Flickr
Do Gender Equality Programs Work in Developing Countries?
Until now, there has been no method to assess the effectiveness of Gender Equality Programs (GEPs) in developing countries. In July 2015, UN Women published a research report entitled “The Effect of Gender Equality Programming on Humanitarian Outcomes.” The researchers developed a unique assessment tool, Gender Intensity Measure, to analyze data and determine the degree to which gender equality and women’s empowerment are perceived to be effective by the beneficiaries of GEPs.
The research, commissioned by UN Women, was conducted by the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in 2013 and co-funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development of Canada. IDS collected and analyzed information from four case-study locations: Nepal, the Philippines and two sites in Kenya: the county of Turkana and the Dadaab refugee camps.
The research study surveyed over 2,000 households in crisis and focus groups in the four locations. The Gender Intensity Measure interviewed women as well as men, humanitarian workers and community leaders to determine how gender-sensitive programs promote gender equality and empower women—and why.
The report confirms that the quality of life for all community members is improved with GEPs. The study measured improved humanitarian outcomes as well as gender equality for all community members. Specific examples of the effectiveness of GEPs from each of the four sites include:
In Nepal, women were able to afford school fees and supplies for their children because of programs that promote income-earning opportunities for women.
In the Philippines, hunger was decreased by 37 percent in households where women reported being more satisfied with the availability of gender equality programming.
In Dadaab refugee camps, 70-90 percent of pregnancy deliveries were attended by skilled personnel due to programs encouraging women to utilize safer delivery options.
In Turkana, the proportion of literate children per household rose by 4.8 percent, due to increasing the Gender Intensity Measure from low to high.
In the Philippines, Nepal and Turkana, women noted greater decision-making power when humanitarian services were considered to be gender-equal.
In Dadaab, women noted greater empowerment and young girls’ aspirations increased when women held leadership roles in the implementation of humanitarian services.
“The Effect of Gender Equality Programming on Humanitarian Outcomes” also provides guidance as to how to increase the effectiveness in the future. For example, two issues that need improvement are increasing awareness of GEPs and the involvement of men and boys in order to empower women.
Prior to this unique research, GEPs were measured only on paper by how well they prioritize gender equality programming according to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Gender Marker. The Gender Marker rated aid proposals only to see if they were designed well, meaning if they would satisfactorily benefit women, men, girls and boys equally. The Marker also predicts (but does not measure) the effectiveness of a program.
Humanitarian programs that promote gender-sensitive programming are crucial to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. “Empowering women and girls is not only the right thing to do: It’s also smart economics and vital to ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity,” according to the World Bank.
– Janet Quinn
Sources: U.N. Women 1, U.N. Women 2, WHO Western Pacific Region, IRIN, World Bank
Photo: Why Poverty
The School Fund Connects Investors with Students
There are 63 million secondary school-aged children around the world who are unable to attend school. In West and Central Africa, this number amounts to 40 percent of their youth population. In India, 16 million children of lower and secondary school age do not receive an education. The School Fund works with investors to provide resources and funds to developing regions to help children in need.
On average, an individual’s wage increases 15 to 25 percent for each additional year of schooling he or she receives. Girls and young women who receive an education are far less likely to become a child bride and typically grow up to be healthier and more educated about sex. Women who receive an education are more prone to have healthier children and smaller families. Education can also help girls grow up to become leaders in their communities.
The School Fund operates its services by first helping investors find students to support. This process is determined by selecting a student based on their country, gender, academic interests or fundraising deadlines. The second step helps the investors decide how much to donate, and step three allows the donators to stay in touch with the students they have helped in order to see how they are contributing the funds to their education.
The School Fund has been able to provide scholarships to over 1,100 students in Africa, Asia and Latin America, totaling over US$400,000 in funds used for tuition, uniforms, materials, exam fees and food. Students have been funded by over 3,500 donors, representing more than 1,500 years of education.
The organization was founded by Matt Severson and Andrew Perrault in 2009. Having been friends for many years and sharing interests in both traveling and development, the pair traveled to Tanzania in 2007 while still in high school. While there, they were both touched by how friendly and thoughtful the residents were. Even though many of them lived in poverty, they were still willing to share with the two of them.
During his travels, Matt Severson met a young boy named John Medo. Medo came from a family of seven who lived on US$45 a month. John Medo was intelligent — he had aced all of the exams necessary for secondary school, but his family could not afford the US$150 fee for tuition. When Severson met Medo, he was working to become a farmer. Matt Severson was inspired by John Medo’s kindness and decided to provide funds for his schooling. This marked the beginning of The School Fund.
Over the next two summers, Severson and Perrault worked to expand and build The School Fund from the ground up. Now The School Fund supports students in Tanzania, Haiti, the Philippines and many other places in the world. As Matt Severson puts it, there are many other “John Medos” in the world who need support to attend school. The School Fund plans to continue to connect investors with students in need.
– Julia Hettiger
Sources: The School Fund 1, The School Fund 2, UNICEF
Photo: Ghana Culture Politics