Homelessness is a problem waiting to be solved everywhere around the globe. The Institute of Global Homelessness was launched in 2014 to be a resource to solve this problem and believes that the cause is not hopeless. DePaul University and Depaul International partnered to establish the IGH.
It is located at DePaul University in Chicago and is the brainchild of Depaul International, a charity based in London. The university is the largest Catholic University in the U.S. The charity is the parent organization of a group of charities that supports the homeless and marginalized people around the world. Both organizations were founded by the Vincentians, a congregation of priests and brothers, who follow the values of St. Vincent de Paul, a 17th century French priest. Throughout his life, St. Vincent dedicated himself to serving the poor.
IGH focuses its efforts to solve global homelessness on research, leadership and responding to need. On June 1-2, 2015, less than a year after its opening, IGH hosted its first bi-annual research conference, Homelessness in a Global Landscape, at DePaul. Kat Johnson, the Director of IGH, has previously worked for nine years around the globe on issues related to housing and homelessness in various support and leadership roles.
What were the reasons for establishing the Institute of Global Homelessness at DePaul University?
The idea for IGH came from the realization that there was nothing operating at the international level that could act as a resource and consulting hub for leaders around the world who are working to end homelessness.
Mark McGreevy, group chief executive of Depaul International in the U.K., often fielded requests for advice and expertise about ending homelessness by policymakers, service providers and nonprofits and realized there was nowhere to refer them. McGreevy contacted DePaul University in Chicago knowing that aiding the poor is central to the university’s Vincentian mission. DePaul University’s belief in coordinated, effective public service informed the institute’s aim to provide research, leadership, consultancy and shared resources to those working to end homelessness.
Why is DePaul interested in global homelessness instead of focusing on homelessness in Chicago (since it is one of the top 25 cities in the country with a large homeless issue)?
The idea behind IGH is that by connecting effective practice and tenacious leaders across regions, we can accelerate an end to homelessness everywhere. It is DePaul University’s hope that the institute’s work will directly contribute to ending homelessness here in the city. In fact, the day following the conference, we worked with five Chicago-based homelessness organizations to host tours and exchanges with the international attendees.
Since assuming the director role for the institute, I’ve met many professors and students who work closely with the Steans Center for Community-Based Learning, University Ministry and academic programs at DePaul University that look at homelessness from various angles or volunteer with programs addressing homelessness around the city. The decision to lead the IGH has only strengthened DePaul’s drive to contribute to and support the efforts of Chicago’s homelessness advocacy organizations.
How did DePaul come to host the Homelessness in a Global Landscape Conference?
We wanted to gather the best and brightest minds working in the homelessness field in a room and to begin building a global movement to end homelessness. We also used the opportunity to get feedback on our global framework on homelessness, which attempts to set out a common vocabulary and broad definition of homelessness to enable collaboration.
What is your overall reaction to the conference?
The conference convinced me that a global movement to end homelessness is possible. Although we had a back-to-back schedule, people approached us between sessions with the desire to discuss concrete steps toward building a global movement. As a result of those informal conversations, we rearranged the second day’s agenda to include facilitated discussions.
It was one of the most heartening things I’ve seen—delegates from places as varied as India, Canada, Chile and Kenya raising their hands, saying, “I’m ready to see an end to this problem. What will we do to make sure that happens?”
Did the conference fulfill its purpose?
The conference was a success. We saw a robust exchange of ideas, knowledge and sharing of best practices among leaders from almost 30 countries. Our proposed definition and framework of homelessness was largely accepted by attendees, and a willingness to join a global movement emerged.
Could you give some examples of what homelessness means across the globe including an example from a developed country and a developing country?
Soon, we will be sharing widely the final framework, which captures variations of what homelessness can mean. We break homelessness into categories and sub-categories. Any given country will see some of these categories as homeless and others not. Our first category identifies people without accommodation. If you went to Delhi you might hear people talking about “pavement dwellers,” who stay on the pavement in a consistent location. In the U.S., you would more likely hear the term “street homelessness” or “unsheltered homelessness” to describe pavement dwellers. In a third category, there is considerable variation across countries for people defined as living in severely inadequate housing. Some places might consider someone staying on a relative’s couch homeless, others not. I was recently in Pretoria, South Africa, where we saw an informal settlement with structures that consisted of a few boards of wood as walls and a piece of corrugated metal along the top. The structure provided very little protection from weather and no sanitation services. Some people you ask would absolutely consider that homelessness; others would say it isn’t.
When we set out to write a framework of homelessness that would resonate globally, it was important for us to capture all the complexities in naming and defining homelessness in order to offer common language to discuss the various circumstances that can be described as homelessness. So it’s not that any one country would consider everything in our framework as homelessness, and we aren’t pushing anyone to do that. But for the first time, we have a menu with language that will make it possible to compare apples to apples.
Finally, I’d like to note that within this broader set of categories, IGH drew a very clear line around our own focus populations, which are people without accommodation as well as some forms of people living in crisis or temporary accommodation (for example, homelessness shelters or women and children living in refuges for those fleeing domestic violence).
Did you come any closer to a universal definition of homelessness?
We presented our proposal for a global framework of homelessness and received feedback during and following the conference. We are now in the process of refining the definition and expect to publish the final version soon.
Measuring homelessness was a goal of the conference. Is homelessness measured by the reasons people are homeless? Is there any way to tell the numbers of homeless based on the reason for homelessness, such as extreme poverty, natural disasters, runaway youth or LGBT issues?
We begin by looking at a person’s living situation. For example, “people sleeping in the streets or LBGT in other open spaces” will measure exactly that. In most of the world this basic level of measurement is not happening; getting those basic numbers will be paramount at a high level in assessing trends and determining how policy affects the issue. But, of course, to solve the problem we need to know why people experience homelessness and, ideally, also know the individual people experiencing homelessness in a particular place by name and housing need. We see basic measurement as necessary but not sufficient to end homelessness outright. So we will be working on causes—and even more importantly, solutions—alongside the measurement work.
What are your plans for future conferences?
We plan to hold a conference every other year, so look for the next one in 2017. We anticipate narrowing the focus to a specific topic within homelessness. Of course, between now and the next conference, we will continue to run small convenings to support and connect regional networks and gather people.
– Janet Quinn
Sources: Institute of Global Homelessness, DePaul University
Photo: DePaul University
The Jompy Water Boiler: A Lightweight, Inexpensive Solution
From 1990 to 2011, over 2 billion people gained access to an improved water source—that’s a hugely improved standard of living for more children, families and communities worldwide. However, not all water is clean drinking water, which is exactly what Celsius Global Solutions aimed to fix with the Jompy Water Boiler.
The Jompy Water Boiler is a lightweight, inexpensive device that simultaneously enables people to cook a meal and heat water to bacteria-killing temperatures, making the water safe for drinking and bathing.
The boiler itself is a flat metal disk with a handle connected to a container of water through a tube. The flat disk is placed over the heat source. Its shape allows the user to put cooking tools right on top of it. As the disk gets hot, the heat is transferred through the tube to the water container, which quickly heats up, and the water becomes decontaminated. The Jompy Water Boiler works equally well on stovetops and on open fires, making it useful in urban and rural settings.
In 2006, Glasgow University did a test run of the Jompy Water Boiler in Uganda. The test was conducted with 99 families, 49 of which were given water boilers. The World Health Organization set the objective of this research to have zero water-born diseases, such as E. coli, in the families that used the product.
The results were impressive. Of the 49 families with Water Boilers, only one family had a case of E. coli. Meanwhile, of the 50 families without water boilers, there were several cases of the water-born disease.
On top of reducing the risk of disease, families reported that they saved an average of 3 kg of firewood per day and more than three hours of their time due to reduced cooking times using the Jompy Water Boiler. It saves time and effort, all while consuming less fuel and reducing CO2 emissions.
The Jompy Water Boiler is currently used in India, Kenya and Uganda, but it has the potential to make a serious impact on the lives of those living in developing countries. It is efficient, cheap and worthwhile.
– Hannah Resnick
Sources: Empowering People, Jompy, UNICEF, Venture Beat, Wikia
Photo: Siemens
Ingredients for Clean Drinking Water: Saltwater and a Car Battery
As of 2013, around 738 million people across the world do not have access to clean drinking water. Of these people, an approximate 8 million die as a consequence of this inaccessibility.
Water is the paramount need for all human being. Sanitation of this water is vital for preventing many water-borne diseases that can potentially be fatal. Despite the development of new methodologies to sanitize water, the process of chlorination remains unparalleled in its prevalence and efficiency.
The process of chlorination, as the name suggests, uses chlorine gas or bleach to purify water. Chlorine gas is highly toxic and an effective antimicrobial agent. Chlorine also remains in water through longer periods of time than its alternatives. This reduces the costs of repeated purifications.
Despite these advantages that put chlorination far ahead of its counterpart purification methods, it is still difficult to successfully utilize this technique in developing countries. Chlorine gas and its derivatives – such as bleach – are highly reactive and can be dangerous in excessive quantities. The chlorine gas is sold compressed in cylinders, and its pressure requirements change in accordance with the water source to be chlorinated. Hydraulic equipment necessary for safe chlorination is not always accessible in remote areas.
These safety considerations pose a dilemma for the safe sanitation of drinking water. Recently, Mountain Safety Research (MSR), an outdoor gear manufacturer, collaborated with an NGO to release an innovative solution to the problem.
Their device, Smart Electrochlorinator or SE200, uses saltwater and a car battery to produce a carefully-calculated amount of chlorine gas. It consists of a canister that attaches to a battery through jumper cables. The canister is filled with salt solution, and the dissolved salt is dissociated into ionic chloride ions.
The ions are then converted into bleach electrochemically. The hydrogen gas produced from the battery reacts with the chloride ions to form perchlorate, or bleach. The added advantage of the device is in its specificity – it is designed to calculate and produce specific amounts of chlorine per gallon of water. This maintains the concentration of chlorine in water at a constant level and within safe ranges.
The chlorinator is lightweight and portable, which is important in smaller remote areas. It can purify up to 20 liters in a meager 5 minute interval. The device is also notably energy efficient: a 12 volt battery can be used to generate enough chlorine to purify 400,000 liters of water.
The device has so far been tested successfully in field operations in Kenya, Mali, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Thailand. It is especially noted for its feasibility in small population communities, where large-scale sanitation does not reach and household purification is a hassle. The chlorination is relatively inexpensive as well: at around US$200, it can provide a clean supply of water for 200 people for a period of five years.
As with any new technology, there are issues with this device as well. As it is designed for use in remote areas, it is questionable as to how technical issues might be dealt with. Any of the maintenance issues needing to be fixed can seriously jeopardize a steady supply of clean water. Moreover, in spite of pictorial instructions, there is always the danger for misuse. These are some of the issues that need to be fine-tuned for the chlorinator’s effective usage.
Despite the issues that need to be resolved, the chlorinator is undoubtedly an innovative initiative in the provision of clean drinking water to each and every human being in the world.
– Atifah Safi
Sources: CDC 1, NPR, Cascade Designs, CDC 2
Photo: Flickr
Medellín, Colombia’s Urban Transformation
In the 1990s, Medellín, Colombia had the highest murder rate in the world. The city set out to transform itself and lift its poorest sectors out of extreme poverty through architecture, the revitalization of public spaces, education and improved transportation.
Medellín’s new transportation systems are a major component of the city’s transformative project. The Metro Cable, a cable car that travels above the city, connects informal settlements in the upper regions of Medellín to the metro system in the lower regions, enabling much faster access to transportation. The metro system is clean, modern, and efficient. It reduces travel time from an hour to around ten minutes. The cable car system moves tens of thousands of citizens each day.
Medellín’s urban landscape sits upon steep hillsides. Residents used to have to climb hundreds and hundreds of stairs up these hills to commute to work and back. Today, the city has installed an escalator on this hill. It ascends 1,300 feet. For 12,000 residents, what was once a dreaded 30 story climb is now a quick 5 minute ride.
Another fundamental aspect of this urban transformation is the creation of public squares in the poorest areas of Medellín. Architects Horacio Valencia, head of Sustainable Urban Interventions at EPM (Empresas Públicas de Medellín), Carlos Pardo and Nicolás Hermelin, as well as the CEO of EPM (explain), Juan Esteban Calle, looked at images of the city from the air, and saw some unused, wooded areas. These, they thought, would be excellent ways to create public realms and bring a sense of community to impoverished, dangerous sections of the city.
Each public space is specifically adapted to the context and needs of the neighborhood it is situated in. One square, entitled Los Sueños, or The Dreams, “surrounds the solid concrete tank with jets of water, slides, plays of light and a designated area for events. Enclosed rooms are built into the topography to free up the largest possible area of open space, and house two multi-purpose classrooms, an internet café, public toilets and a launderette – a novelty in a city where it is not uncommon to rent a washing machine for half a day, and home-deliver it on a motorbike – describes The Architectural Review. The fresh public spaces have drawn residents out of their homes to interact with the urban fabric of their city.
Other initiatives involved in Medellín’s transformation involve education and the creation of libraries throughout the city. Residents voted to direct government funds towards funding new schools and college scholarships. In 2002, under 20 percent of public school students used to test at the national average. In 2009, over 80 percent do. Futuristic looking libraries enable all classes of citizens access to computers and the infinite information that comes with them.
EPM’s chief of operations, Federico Restrepo, now Medellín’s city planner, said “We took a view that everything is interconnected — education, culture, libraries, safety, public spaces. Obviously it is not just that we built and renovated schools. You have to work on the quality of teaching and nutrition in conjunction with architecture. But the larger point is that the goal of government should be providing rich and poor with the same quality education, transportation and public architecture. In that way you increase the sense of ownership.”
The Empresas Públicas de Medellín supplies the city with water, gas, sanitation, telecommunications and electricity. In Bogotá, the most impoverished slums lack basic needs like water and electricity, but in Medellín the EPM, mandated by the constitution, provides the most remote slums with these basics. The EPM has helped fund many of Medellín’s transformative projects such as schools, public plazas, metros and parks.
– Aaron Andree
Sources: Architecture in Development, Architectural Review, The Guardian, The New York Times, Planetizen
Photo: Flickr
Why Inequality is Bad for Business
What do poverty, inequality and economic flexibility have to do with each other? Well, according to a recent report co-authored by consulting firm KPMG and economic think-tank Oxford Economics, these three things are intimately intertwined. The report, called the Change Readiness Index (CRI), ranks 127 countries in order of their ability to resist economic shocks, natural disasters and social unrest. The report measures several indicators such as macroeconomic stability, ease of doing business and rule of law, which reveal the effects that inequality tends to have on each country’s society.
Inequality has traditionally been seen as a by-product of developmental challenges which would disappear with increased growth and poverty reduction efforts. However, inequality is increasingly seen as a problem unto itself which needs to be the focus of international initiatives as the Millennium Development Goals expire. This is because increased economic growth isn’t necessarily evenly dispersed, leaving those at the bottom of the economic ladder behind. Thus, poverty reduction needs to be combined with a more equitable distribution of resources to be effective.
There are certainly ethical and social reasons to favor a more economically equal development model. Societies that have lesser income disparities tend to be more socially and politically stable, and have much lower rates of poverty. However, there are also significant economic reasons why inequality reduction is a pathway to poverty reduction. Simply put, economic inequality and poverty are bad for business.
The big-picture macroeconomics of inequality warrants an explanation.
Plainly put, extreme income inequality, such as the kind found in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, cause economic inefficiency. The relatively wealthy tend to save a much higher proportion of their income than the poor. In order to grow economically, a society must have robust rates of consumption. However, if most of the wealth of a country is owned by a very small percentage of its population, that wealth is saved, not spent. These savings are then invested by individuals and financial institutions.
In recent history, excess savings have fueled speculative investments, exacerbating asset price collapses like real estate bubbles, such as the ones that occurred in Spain, Ireland and the U.S. during the 2008 economic crisis. Furthermore, if consumption rates are low due to excess savings, the central bank of a country may lower interest rates to increase the availability of credit, which can further fuel speculative investment. Inequality peaked just prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the 2008 financial crisis, contributing to the underlying economic instability which caused those events.
Instead, if the wealth is more evenly distributed among the lower income earners of a society, who spend much more of their income, consumption goes way up. Thus, the poorest individuals, if they are empowered through greater income equality, may drive consumption, opening up new markets and creating increased economic growth.
So, how would income equality be implemented as a pathway to poverty reduction? According to ActionAid, a U.K.-based poverty-reduction organization, one way would be to empower women in the developing world. Up to 60 percent of the world’s poor are women, and only about half of them participate actively in the labor force. If developing societies became more inclusive of women in the labor market, they would represent a huge capacity to work, earn and spend, driving economic growth. This economic growth would act as a positive feedback mechanism, further increasing economic opportunity and pulling people out of poverty.
Something that the Change Readiness Index reveals is that the countries which have the highest levels of inequality also tend to have more persistent levels of poverty despite growth, and tend to have far less spending on public goods like healthcare and education, which are instrumental in reducing poverty. One example is Nigeria, where incredible oil wealth has reached only a tiny portion of the population, and social, political and economic instability abounds. Oil revenues tend to elude taxation, which limits funds available for public spending. Furthermore, Nigeria ranked 90 out of 127 on the CRI and 79 out of 86 countries in the OECD Social Institutions and Gender Index, which measures gender inequality, revealing the link between disparities in income and the participation of women in economic and political life.
As the Millennium Development Goals expire this year, policy makers are increasingly sensitive to the importance of reducing inequality as a pathway to reducing poverty. In 2013, the U.N. published a comprehensive report on global inequality acknowledging it as the greatest barrier to poverty reduction, emphasizing solutions such as the economic and political inclusion of marginalized groups such as women.
Furthermore, 90 economists, academics and development experts recently submitted a letter to Dr. Homi Kharas, leader of the panel on the post-2015 development agenda for the United Nations. The letter urged increased emphasis on reducing inequality as a set of Sustainable Development Goals are being crafted to replace the Millennium Development Goals.
Prominent economist Joseph Stiglitz suggests a Sustainable Development Goal on inequality which follows the style and spirit of the original eight Millennium Development Goals. The goal consists of two targets; by 2030, reducing “extreme income inequalities in all countries such that the post-tax income of the top 10 percent is no more than the post-transfer income of the bottom 40 percent.” And by 2020, establishing a commission in each country which will track and report the effects of inequality.
It’s clear that inequality needs to be a top priority to achieve effective poverty reduction in the next 30 years. Not only could income equality pull millions out of poverty, it could also open up new markets and be the new driver of global economic growth.
– Derek Marion
Sources: The Guardian 1, KPMG, The Guardian 2, ActionAid, Ethics and International Affairs, Save the Children, UN
Photo: Arts.Mic
India Pushes to Eliminate Elephantiasis Epidemic
Lymphatic Filariasis (LF), better known as Elephantiasis, is a painful and profoundly disfiguring disease and yet is a fairly common occurrence in poverty-stricken India. In fact, nearly half of India’s population, about 553 million people, is at risk of contracting LF.
In recent years there has been a mass drug administration (MDA) to people living in the poorest communities of the country. This initiative has been created to stop not only LF, but also many other preventable, chronic and debilitating infections known as neglected tropical diseases (NTD).
However, LF is still one of the most particularly challenging NTDs India has yet to face. Although almost half of India’s population is at risk of becoming infected, LF is one of the easiest NTDs to prevent. This could potentially lead to India eliminating LF within the next few years, and the government has increased efforts by launching the largest MDA in the world.
Yet, there has been little change, for most of the members of the poor Indian communities have been unwilling to take the free medicine. This unwillingness is due to little education, lack of disease awareness and risk perceptions, coupled with general public suspicion of the government distribution program.
Over the last 10 years, advances have led to new diagnostic and treatment tools, along with control strategies for dealing with LF. In October 2014, the Indian Ministry of Heath and Family Welfare (MOHFW) launched a communications campaign known as “Hathipaon Mukt Bharat” or “Filiaria Free India” to create and spread awareness about LF and the new tools to diagnose, treat and prevent the spread of the disease.
The initial campaign was a success, leading to a significant spike in people taking the medicine. With nearly 200,000 health workers in 14 of India’s states providing the information and medicine, the MOHFW was able to reach out to over 300 million people.
Today, India has revitalized its efforts with MOHFW’s Hathipaon Mukt Bharat campaign and has continued to work toward eliminating the LF issue. Recently, the Hathipaon Mukt Bharat initiative won a Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, earning it national praise for the work it has achieved and will continue to achieve within India.
– Alysha Biemolt
Sources: Impatient Optimists, WHO, JPGM Online, MedInd
Photo: Imagekb
Could Mobile Phones End Global Poverty?
One of the greatest challenges facing developing nations in Africa is connectivity, connectivity to reliable sources of electricity, infrastructure and the world around them. But on the other hand, there are more people in Africa with cell phones than there are with toilets in their homes. And this fact, say some creative individuals, is the key to tackling poverty in Africa.
In 2009, the Grameen Foundation, an organization working to connect the world’s poor with vital knowledge resources, launched a program called the Community Knowledge Worker initiative. The initiative was designed to create a bridge between rural farmers and agricultural experts via a mobile phone connection. Oftentimes, these experts were other members of the local community who shared their knowledge with their peers.
Access to a mobile phone grants a rural farmer access to information resources beyond what they could find without. Not only can local farmers share tips and tricks, but even the most rural farmer can quickly Google pest treatments or look up the current market value of their crops.
Other people are utilizing programs like Mobile Midwife, a mobile-based program that helps connect midwives and patients. The program allows midwives to track appointments, access patient records and even schedule voicemail messages to be send out to patients each week.
Zoona, a social enterprise mobile banking company in Zambia, specializes in managing transactions for Africans without a bank account. In a country where roughly 85 percent of the population has never entered a bank, companies like Zoona stimulate greater money flow in a community by encouraging individuals to carry out transactions and by encouraging savings investments.
However, the boons of the smartphone revolution aren’t just material or economic. With more and more Africans utilizing smartphones, social networking sites are gaining ground quickly, connecting people from all across the continent. The growth in social media activity has been so rapid that social media giant Facebook has recently announced plans to open a headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Mobile phones open up a world of possibilities, even in the most rural and impoverished areas. Access to vast amounts of information, secure banking and social connectedness are changing the face of Africa and are giving poor nations a strong platform for growth.
– Gina Lehner
Sources: The Huffington Post, Grameen Foundation, AFK Insider
Photo: Flickr
Foreign Aid Investments Saved Over 30 Million Children’s Lives
The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the top international agency for global health data collection and analysis, has provided a new report which scores the impact of foreign aid investments made over the past fifteen years.
The study, recently published in the Lancet Medical Journal, determined that between 2000 and 2014, low and middle-income nations invested $133 billion US into child health initiatives. These investments are estimated to have saved the lives of 20 million infants and children.
An additional $73.6 billion US of foreign aid investments provided by donors, both governmental and privatized, accounted for the saving of an additional 14 million infant and child lives, the IHME estimates.
In total, an estimated 34 million children’s lives have been saved in the past 15 years. The report estimates that US foreign aid investments saved the largest number of children under-five, with 3.3 million lives saved. The UK was also noted as a significant factor in this progress and is estimated to have saved 1.7 million lives through their own development funding. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation proved to be the largest privatized donor, having saved an estimated 1.5 million lives.
Ray Chambers, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals and Malaria, collaborated with the IHME to produce this report and hopes to use this form of analysis in the future to track the success of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Chambers said in an interview about the new score, “We know that despite the efforts of governments and donors to improve health in low-income and middle-income countries, too many children die before the age of five. Without a way to monitor and publicly share progress regularly, we will miss the opportunity to build on the momentum we have seen since the millennium declaration.”
The IHME estimates that within the most impoverished nations, the cost to save a child’s life is about $4,000 US. The organization stated in its report that within countries such as Tanzania and Haiti, the costs are $4,205. They estimate within nations such as Botswana and Thailand, where economies are more developed, that the costs to save a child’s life are above $10,000 US due to high health care costs.
The Director of the IHME, Dr. Christopher Murray, said in a recent interview, “You can spend $4,000 on many different things, but there are very few places where the money would deliver the kind of impact you get by investing it in child health.” He continued in reasoning, “If you invest in the poorest countries, you will see the biggest impact in child health because the costs of things like nutrition programmes, vaccines and primary care are lower.”
The report analyzed both governmental and privatized donors and included internationally renowned agencies such the Global Fund, World Bank, UNICEF, USAid and Gavi. The study concluded that the efforts and financial support of Gavi, a global non-profit organization focused on vaccination, has saved over 2.2 million lives.
Looking towards future development initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals, Dr. Murray said, “We have seen such incredible success in saving children’s lives over the past 15 years. We need to take what we have learned from that experience and push for more progress and more accountability as we enter the era of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.”
The Sustainable Development Goals were developed at the UN Rio+20 Conference in 2012 and are designed to build upon the progress of the Millennium Development Goals in the coming years.
– James Thornton
Sources: The Guardian, News-Medical
Photo: The Guardian
UC Irvine’s ‘Solutions for Poverty Challenge’
New technology and modern innovations have played an ever-increasing role in the fight against global poverty in the 21st century, but where do these new tools and practices come from? Most come from established technology and manufacturing firms like GE, IBM and Apple. Major universities are also hotbeds for invention. However, in the last five years there has been a surge in innovation coming from grassroots and non-traditional organizations with the help of social media and other sites, such as Kickstarter. Keeping with the changing tides, the University of California at Irvine launched a contest in May of this year encouraging students to propose original solutions for poverty relief.
The contest took development out of its traditional setting and encouraged all to participate. Undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and UCI alumni were all invited to come together and take part. The Blum Center for Global Engagement hosted the challenge. The goal of the challenge, as Blum Center Director Richard Mathew states, was “to bring the vast stock of ingenuity, creativity, knowledge and passion that exists across the campus to bear on alleviating poverty at home and abroad.” The Solutions Challenge presented an unorthodox approach to relief development as it aimed to bring minds of all backgrounds together in the hopes of producing greater results.
Participants were only required to submit a “feasible idea.” That is to say that the participants did not need to be engineers. All submissions had to meet three criteria, however. First, the proposals had to elaborate on the specific impact on poverty that the device or technology would address. Second, the proposal had to be reasonably realistic and achievable given limited time and resources. Finally, participants had to enumerate the scope their proposal would cover as long as their long-term goals. Three finalists were chosen and met with potential investors in a private venue.
First place was given to PhD student Katya Cherukumilli. Her proposal was to use certain minerals to remove toxic fluoride from drinking water in rural India. Erik Peterson, a resident of Irvine, won second place with his proposal for Lifesign, which would be a device given to homeless citizens as a register that would include data such as health information, hometown and needed services. Replacing handwritten signs, the device would show a code to be entered on the Lifesign website to donate to certain causes and services. Irene Beltran, an undergrad at UCI, took home third place with her “Lab on a Chip” proposal. The chip is tiny and only requires a drop of blood to test for tuberculosis. All three finalists are now consulting with industry leaders and investors.
UC Irvine’s challenge was inspired in part by another school in the University of California system. UC Berkeley’s Development Impact Lab runs a similar contest every year, encouraging engineers, computer scientists and IT specialists to develop technology-based ideas for global aid. UC Irvine’s contest encourages a more theoretical approach, prioritizing creativity in ideas ahead of a physical prototype.
– Joe Kitaj
Sources: Govtech, Blumcenter, Berkeley
Photo: UCI
Preservation Technology Allows Vaccinations for All
For people in America and Europe, getting vaccines is easy. Schedule an appointment, go to the doctor, and get a quick prick in the arm before heading home as if nothing happened. But in the developing world, it is not as simple.
Immunization in the developing world “is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions to date, saving millions of lives and protecting countless children from illness and disability.” Because of vaccinations polio is on the verge of irradiation. The prevalence of measles, one of the biggest killers of children, has gone down 71% globally. Immunization coverage around the globe has never been higher than it is today.
Vaccinations have not yet fulfilled their full potential, though: 21.8 million children under the age of one had not received the recommended doses against tetanus or diphtheria. Furthermore, 21.6 million children did not get a single dose of measles vaccines in 2013.
Because of this, 29% of deaths in children between the ages of one and 59 months old in the developing world are caused by diseases that are vaccine-preventable. This breaks down to 1.5 million deaths a year, or one death every 20 seconds. A major reason this happens is the difficulty in delivering vaccines to many parts of the developing world.
Much of the Global South’s environment is a combination of heat and humidity. This environment is not good for vaccines, which must be kept at low temperatures—usually between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit. That is not a lot of room for error, and the difficulties associated with transporting such delicate immunizations over such long distances are numerous.
Not only must they be kept at that temperature range during transit, but also once they arrive at their destination and until they are used. This becomes troublesome since many experience black-outs, or do not have power at all.
What is the answer to this temperature conundrum? Silk. More specifically, proteins in silk. Researchers at Tufts University have discovered a new vaccination preservation technology through the use of certain proteins contained in silk. They can eliminate the need for refrigeration by essentially curing vaccines, much like food was pickled or salted before refrigeration even existed. But this time it works even better.
The proteins in silk keep vaccines “folded.” In other words, when a vaccine becomes too warm the shape unfolds, rendering the vaccine useless. That sounds pretty complicated, but what is important is that the silk can essentially “pin the structure in place,” keeping immunizations effective in hostile environments.
Silk protein-stabilized vaccines can withstand a temperature of 100 degrees for two or more weeks. Immunizations include those against mumps, measles and rubella. Without the silk proteins, these vaccinations would go bad in under a day.
Silk is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for some medical uses, but the protein-stabilization for vaccines is not yet a pharmaceutical reality. While the potential for usefulness is high, it remains merely a concept in labs and not a medical reality. The upside is high, however. Getting rid of the need for electrical cooling would enable for vaccines to be spread to areas of the globe which they have yet to reach, bringing the unvaccinated closer to life-saving immunizations.
– Gregory Baker
Sources: Vaxess, NPR, UNICEF, GHSPJournal
Photo: Flickr
Kat Johnson Discusses the Institute of Global Homelessness
Homelessness is a problem waiting to be solved everywhere around the globe. The Institute of Global Homelessness was launched in 2014 to be a resource to solve this problem and believes that the cause is not hopeless. DePaul University and Depaul International partnered to establish the IGH.
It is located at DePaul University in Chicago and is the brainchild of Depaul International, a charity based in London. The university is the largest Catholic University in the U.S. The charity is the parent organization of a group of charities that supports the homeless and marginalized people around the world. Both organizations were founded by the Vincentians, a congregation of priests and brothers, who follow the values of St. Vincent de Paul, a 17th century French priest. Throughout his life, St. Vincent dedicated himself to serving the poor.
IGH focuses its efforts to solve global homelessness on research, leadership and responding to need. On June 1-2, 2015, less than a year after its opening, IGH hosted its first bi-annual research conference, Homelessness in a Global Landscape, at DePaul. Kat Johnson, the Director of IGH, has previously worked for nine years around the globe on issues related to housing and homelessness in various support and leadership roles.
What were the reasons for establishing the Institute of Global Homelessness at DePaul University?
The idea for IGH came from the realization that there was nothing operating at the international level that could act as a resource and consulting hub for leaders around the world who are working to end homelessness.
Mark McGreevy, group chief executive of Depaul International in the U.K., often fielded requests for advice and expertise about ending homelessness by policymakers, service providers and nonprofits and realized there was nowhere to refer them. McGreevy contacted DePaul University in Chicago knowing that aiding the poor is central to the university’s Vincentian mission. DePaul University’s belief in coordinated, effective public service informed the institute’s aim to provide research, leadership, consultancy and shared resources to those working to end homelessness.
Why is DePaul interested in global homelessness instead of focusing on homelessness in Chicago (since it is one of the top 25 cities in the country with a large homeless issue)?
The idea behind IGH is that by connecting effective practice and tenacious leaders across regions, we can accelerate an end to homelessness everywhere. It is DePaul University’s hope that the institute’s work will directly contribute to ending homelessness here in the city. In fact, the day following the conference, we worked with five Chicago-based homelessness organizations to host tours and exchanges with the international attendees.
Since assuming the director role for the institute, I’ve met many professors and students who work closely with the Steans Center for Community-Based Learning, University Ministry and academic programs at DePaul University that look at homelessness from various angles or volunteer with programs addressing homelessness around the city. The decision to lead the IGH has only strengthened DePaul’s drive to contribute to and support the efforts of Chicago’s homelessness advocacy organizations.
How did DePaul come to host the Homelessness in a Global Landscape Conference?
We wanted to gather the best and brightest minds working in the homelessness field in a room and to begin building a global movement to end homelessness. We also used the opportunity to get feedback on our global framework on homelessness, which attempts to set out a common vocabulary and broad definition of homelessness to enable collaboration.
What is your overall reaction to the conference?
The conference convinced me that a global movement to end homelessness is possible. Although we had a back-to-back schedule, people approached us between sessions with the desire to discuss concrete steps toward building a global movement. As a result of those informal conversations, we rearranged the second day’s agenda to include facilitated discussions.
It was one of the most heartening things I’ve seen—delegates from places as varied as India, Canada, Chile and Kenya raising their hands, saying, “I’m ready to see an end to this problem. What will we do to make sure that happens?”
Did the conference fulfill its purpose?
The conference was a success. We saw a robust exchange of ideas, knowledge and sharing of best practices among leaders from almost 30 countries. Our proposed definition and framework of homelessness was largely accepted by attendees, and a willingness to join a global movement emerged.
Could you give some examples of what homelessness means across the globe including an example from a developed country and a developing country?
Soon, we will be sharing widely the final framework, which captures variations of what homelessness can mean. We break homelessness into categories and sub-categories. Any given country will see some of these categories as homeless and others not. Our first category identifies people without accommodation. If you went to Delhi you might hear people talking about “pavement dwellers,” who stay on the pavement in a consistent location. In the U.S., you would more likely hear the term “street homelessness” or “unsheltered homelessness” to describe pavement dwellers. In a third category, there is considerable variation across countries for people defined as living in severely inadequate housing. Some places might consider someone staying on a relative’s couch homeless, others not. I was recently in Pretoria, South Africa, where we saw an informal settlement with structures that consisted of a few boards of wood as walls and a piece of corrugated metal along the top. The structure provided very little protection from weather and no sanitation services. Some people you ask would absolutely consider that homelessness; others would say it isn’t.
When we set out to write a framework of homelessness that would resonate globally, it was important for us to capture all the complexities in naming and defining homelessness in order to offer common language to discuss the various circumstances that can be described as homelessness. So it’s not that any one country would consider everything in our framework as homelessness, and we aren’t pushing anyone to do that. But for the first time, we have a menu with language that will make it possible to compare apples to apples.
Finally, I’d like to note that within this broader set of categories, IGH drew a very clear line around our own focus populations, which are people without accommodation as well as some forms of people living in crisis or temporary accommodation (for example, homelessness shelters or women and children living in refuges for those fleeing domestic violence).
Did you come any closer to a universal definition of homelessness?
We presented our proposal for a global framework of homelessness and received feedback during and following the conference. We are now in the process of refining the definition and expect to publish the final version soon.
Measuring homelessness was a goal of the conference. Is homelessness measured by the reasons people are homeless? Is there any way to tell the numbers of homeless based on the reason for homelessness, such as extreme poverty, natural disasters, runaway youth or LGBT issues?
We begin by looking at a person’s living situation. For example, “people sleeping in the streets or LBGT in other open spaces” will measure exactly that. In most of the world this basic level of measurement is not happening; getting those basic numbers will be paramount at a high level in assessing trends and determining how policy affects the issue. But, of course, to solve the problem we need to know why people experience homelessness and, ideally, also know the individual people experiencing homelessness in a particular place by name and housing need. We see basic measurement as necessary but not sufficient to end homelessness outright. So we will be working on causes—and even more importantly, solutions—alongside the measurement work.
What are your plans for future conferences?
We plan to hold a conference every other year, so look for the next one in 2017. We anticipate narrowing the focus to a specific topic within homelessness. Of course, between now and the next conference, we will continue to run small convenings to support and connect regional networks and gather people.
– Janet Quinn
Sources: Institute of Global Homelessness, DePaul University
Photo: DePaul University