According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, ranking behind paper, food is the second largest source of waste.
Twenty-five-year-old Komal Ahmad, who graduated from the University of California at Berkley in 2012, is solving this problem by feeding millions of people with her phone app, Feeding Forward.
In 2011, Ahmad was approached by a homeless man who asked her for money. Instead of cash, Ahmad offered to take him to lunch. As they ate, she discovered he was a returned soldier who, after some bad luck, now made his living begging on the streets.
Ahmad was overwhelmed by his situation. Determined to help others like him, she started a program at UC Berkley where cafeterias donated excess food to homeless shelters. Soon after, the program expanded to 140 colleges across the United States.
But Ahmad didn’t stop with the food recovery program.
“Imagine a football stadium filled to its brim,” Ahmad says. “That’s how much food goes wasted every single day in America.”
In 2012, Ahmad collaborated with a developer and they launched the Feeding Forward mobile app in 2013. The app originally targeted restaurant owners and event planners in San Francisco who could use the app to donate leftover food to homeless shelters. By entering their location into the app, a Feeding Forward driver picks up the leftover food and delivers it to shelters in the area.
In addition to the app, Feeding Forward has its own website.
Since Feeding Forward launched, Ahmad has recovered more than 691,896 pounds of food, which fed more than 570,000 people.
Now the CEO of her nonprofit organization, Feeding Forward, Ahmad says, “We need to figure out how to establish sustainable solutions that can distribute the food we already have faster and get it to people who need it faster and safely.”
Ahmad’s mobile app is proof that quick and successful distribution can feed the hungry.
In early June 2015, Feeding Forward partnered with the Bite Silicon Food Valley food-tech conference in Santa Clara, California. Over the course of three days, celebrity chefs prepared a wide range of meals. After the event, Feeding Forward collected 5,135 pounds of food which fed more than 4,279 people in eight different homeless shelters.
Around the world, the Feeding Forward app is praised and desired.
“I didn’t expect it to blow up,” Ahmad says. “People as far as Nairobi, Bangalore and Hong Kong have wrote us asking us to expand Feeding Forward to their cities and countries. They’re like, ‘Tell me what I can do to get it here.’”
The mobile app is currently being revamped. It will be available again in August 2015. The website, however, is still up and running.
Feeding Forward offers hope for other countries struggling with hunger and food distribution.
Ahmad says, “These are huge cities that have absurd amounts of food thrown away every day. We are trying to make the Bay Area a case study to say ‘Hey, if it works here, it can work anywhere.’”
– Kelsey Parrotte
Sources: CNET, Daily News, Feeding Forward, News Everyday
Photo: Architect Africa
Millions of Births Have Never Been Registered
What if you did not have a birth certificate, driver’s license, passport or health insurance card? There is no way of proving who you are. This is the reality for some children in developing countries.
Millions of people, mostly in the developing world, were not officially registered when they were born. In wealthy countries like the U.S., almost every birth is registered upon arrival with a government agency and documented with a birth certificate.
But in much of Africa and Asia, documentation only happened for a fraction of newborns. And living as an undocumented person is a lifelong problem. You cannot obtain a driver’s license, passport or a health insurance card.
Kerry Neal, a child protection specialist with UNICEF, explains, “A birth certificate is the document from which all others spring. Without one, it can be hard to get into school, get exam certificates, get a passport or even a SIM card for your phone in some countries. You often need to show proof of identity and citizenship to get medical and social services.”
Without proper documentation, children cannot prove their age. This causes children more likely to be trafficked, conscripted or forced to work or marry while underage.
Births should also be registered because governments need to know how many people are being born where in order to plan for services such as schools, hospitals and roads. Birth registrations are the best way to track demographics.
This information piqued the interest of President Obama.
“Earlier in June, President Obama signed the Girls Count Act, which authorizes the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development to promote birth registration systems around the world.”
The issue of birth registrations has also been getting increasing attention from UNICEF. In December 2013, UNICEF published groundbreaking reports.
The reports estimated that some 230 million children under the age of five, one out of three children worldwide, never had their birth registered.
The reasons for the million of births never registered are unknown. Some parents in the developing world may not have known about the process, found it too difficult, too expensive or a combination of all these reasons.
Often, registration offices are only found in cities. Many rural families cannot afford to take time off of work, and to spend the money required for the trip. Statistically, children in urban areas have higher registration rates than those living in rural areas.
Parents may also hold religious views that do not support government registration of children. In some areas of the developing world, there may not even be a government system available for registering the births.
For example, the UNICEF report found that in war ravaged Somalia and Liberia, fewer than five percent of births are registered.
Without proper documentation, some children do not exist. This leads to a life full of problems, including lack of schooling, underage trafficking and inability to apply for a job.
Lack of documentation is negatively affecting the developing world. With the help of the Girls Count Act, future generations of children hold a chance to be registered, and to live their life with proper documentation.
– Kerri Szulak
Sources: Take Part, UNICEF
Photo: Save the Children
How One Woman and Her Phone App Fed the Hungry
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, ranking behind paper, food is the second largest source of waste.
Twenty-five-year-old Komal Ahmad, who graduated from the University of California at Berkley in 2012, is solving this problem by feeding millions of people with her phone app, Feeding Forward.
In 2011, Ahmad was approached by a homeless man who asked her for money. Instead of cash, Ahmad offered to take him to lunch. As they ate, she discovered he was a returned soldier who, after some bad luck, now made his living begging on the streets.
Ahmad was overwhelmed by his situation. Determined to help others like him, she started a program at UC Berkley where cafeterias donated excess food to homeless shelters. Soon after, the program expanded to 140 colleges across the United States.
But Ahmad didn’t stop with the food recovery program.
“Imagine a football stadium filled to its brim,” Ahmad says. “That’s how much food goes wasted every single day in America.”
In 2012, Ahmad collaborated with a developer and they launched the Feeding Forward mobile app in 2013. The app originally targeted restaurant owners and event planners in San Francisco who could use the app to donate leftover food to homeless shelters. By entering their location into the app, a Feeding Forward driver picks up the leftover food and delivers it to shelters in the area.
In addition to the app, Feeding Forward has its own website.
Since Feeding Forward launched, Ahmad has recovered more than 691,896 pounds of food, which fed more than 570,000 people.
Now the CEO of her nonprofit organization, Feeding Forward, Ahmad says, “We need to figure out how to establish sustainable solutions that can distribute the food we already have faster and get it to people who need it faster and safely.”
Ahmad’s mobile app is proof that quick and successful distribution can feed the hungry.
In early June 2015, Feeding Forward partnered with the Bite Silicon Food Valley food-tech conference in Santa Clara, California. Over the course of three days, celebrity chefs prepared a wide range of meals. After the event, Feeding Forward collected 5,135 pounds of food which fed more than 4,279 people in eight different homeless shelters.
Around the world, the Feeding Forward app is praised and desired.
“I didn’t expect it to blow up,” Ahmad says. “People as far as Nairobi, Bangalore and Hong Kong have wrote us asking us to expand Feeding Forward to their cities and countries. They’re like, ‘Tell me what I can do to get it here.’”
The mobile app is currently being revamped. It will be available again in August 2015. The website, however, is still up and running.
Feeding Forward offers hope for other countries struggling with hunger and food distribution.
Ahmad says, “These are huge cities that have absurd amounts of food thrown away every day. We are trying to make the Bay Area a case study to say ‘Hey, if it works here, it can work anywhere.’”
– Kelsey Parrotte
Sources: CNET, Daily News, Feeding Forward, News Everyday
Photo: Architect Africa
Micronutrient-Hungry Children
Hunger and malnutrition often result from a person not eating enough calories. But there are some children who may eat enough calories per day, yet not receive adequate nutrients and are still, therefore, malnourished. These are children who are micronutrient-hungry, or have “hidden hunger.” Their bodies are deteriorating, stunted and/or underperforming because their food in not nutritious enough.
Hidden hunger can affect anyone, but growing children and pregnant mothers are at the most risk since the developing children desperately need micronutrients to grow into healthy adults.
Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals that are present in a healthy diet. There are many micronutrients that are needed for optimal living, but UNICEF considers four to be the most vital: iron, Vitamin A, iodine and folate.
Vitamin A helps a person’s vision and keeps a body strong enough to combat diseases that can often take a child’s life such as measles, diarrhea, malaria and pneumonia.
Iodine helps the thyroid function properly. A healthy thyroid “regulates growth and metabolism.” Iodine deficiency is also a leading cause of preventable mental disabilities that often start in utero if the mother does not get enough iodine.
Iron and folate are both vital in the formation of red blood cells.
Often children are at risk to become malnourished after disasters or wars occur since access to food is one of the major issues for those in refugee camps.
But even in areas that are more stable, if poverty is rampant, then access to proper food is still compromised.
People who live in countries that are considered middle class have micronutrient-hungry children because the cheapest, most filling food is often processed or carbohydrate/energy dense food that have the least amount of the necessary micronutrients.
Much good is being done to ensure that the poverty cycle that is perpetuated by poor nutrition is stopped.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has a plan in place to help specifically with vitamin A deficiency. They are taking a multifaceted approach: “The arsenal of nutritional ‘well-being weapons’ includes a combination of breastfeeding and vitamin A supplementation, coupled with enduring solutions, such as promotion of vitamin A-rich diets and food fortification.”
Part of their plan includes helping those in poverty by “planting seeds,” both in the sense of promoting breastfeeding and of planting a physical garden. Helping rural families plant a garden with fruits and vegetables that are naturally micronutrient dense is a great way to help reduce vitamin A deficiency.
UNICEF is working on the problem of iodine deficiency in the Dominican Republic. Most Americans consume iodized salt on a regular basis, but that commodity is not a part of every culture. Since iodized salt is an easy solution to the devastating issue of iodine deficiency, UNICEF has created an educational initiative in the Dominican Republic to raise public awareness about iodized salt consumption.
The Micronutrient Initiative (MI) in a nonprofit organization based out of Ottawa, Canada and works with the Canadian government, private businesses, global partnerships and individuals to end micronutrient hunger. They are a large scale operation that has an impact around the globe providing education and direct resources to those who are suffering from hidden hunger.
Malnutrition is multifaceted. It cannot be solved through feeding hungry people cheap, calorie dense yet micronutrient-deficient food. Thankfully, many great organizations also stand on this principle and the issue of micronutrient-hungry children is making great strides.
– Megan Ivy
Sources: Micronutrient Initiative , UNICEF 1, UNICEF 2, World Health Organization 1, World Health Organization 2
Photo: Zomppa
Fighting Maternal Mortality in Nepal with Misoprostol
The earthquakes that shook Nepal in late April and early May were declared the country’s worst natural disaster on record. The quakes claimed the lives of 8,800 people and injured 22,000 others. The mass destruction and death toll continue to have devastating effects on all aspects of the country’s well-being. The Nepalese people are trying to rebuild and reclaim the sense of normalcy that existed before the quakes, but the earthquakes’ effects have presented new challenges.
Before the storm, increasing amounts of Nepalese women were choosing to have their babies in health facilities — a choice that helped Nepal meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goal in the reduction of maternal mortality rates by three-quarters. Another major factor in the massive reduction of such rates is a decade-old decision to distribute misoprostol to women who need it. Misoprostol is a drug designed to treat stomach ulcers, but is also capable of terminating a pregnancy when taken early on, and preventing postpartum hemorrhage — the leading cause of maternal death — when taken after giving birth.
The decision to distribute the powerful drug as a means to decrease maternal mortality lacked international support largely because the hegemonic ideology is that the best way to improve maternal mortality rates is to invest in making health facilities more accessible. While the idea of creating hundreds of well-stocked and adequately staffed health centers that are available to all mothers is a good one and would certainly reduce maternal mortality rates, overall it is unrealistic for many developing countries. The reality is that in developing countries where there have been large government expenditures on improving facilities, maternal mortality rates have not improved as significantly as they have in Nepal.
Since the massive earthquake struck, expectant mothers face additional challenges and there is concern that the mortality rates could increase again. With the destruction of roads and many healthcare facilities, giving expectant mothers misoprostol makes even more sense.
Currently, distributing the misoprostol amidst the widespread destruction is a major issue in Nepal. Aid groups, such as Direct Relief, have been working with the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and the Midwifery Society of Nepal (MIDSON), to deliver midwife kits, tents and funds. The intervention program focuses on providing midwives and the tools that they require, including misoprostol, to give Nepalese mothers the best chance at having a healthy delivery.
When access to midwives and trained professionals is as severely limited as it is in Nepal, there needs to be a backup plan. Few countries have followed in Nepal’s footsteps but if Nepal’s success has been any indication, misoprostol could be an intermittent solution that could work for many developing countries. In time, we will see how Nepalese maternal mortality rates fare in the aftermath of the horrific disaster. If the low rates are upheld, perhaps the international community will reconsider responsible use of misoprostol to get countries maternal mortality rates down, until the large scale investments in facilities and infrastructure can be made.
– Emma Dowd
Sources: Economist, Foreign Policy, Military Technologies, Reuters
Photo: Women News Network
Taking Steps to Eliminate River Blindness
The Carter Center in Atlanta is working to make the eradication of river blindness a worldwide goal for the World Health Organization (WHO), as the WHO determines which diseases will appear on the world health agendas.
River blindness is caused by a parasite that is spread through the bites of black flies. The flies breed in and near fast flowing rivers, which is where the disease gets its name. The larvae of the parasite causes skin irritation, itching and a range of eye diseases, including blindness in the worst cases.
People in 36 countries are at risk for contracting river blindness. About 99% of the 17.7 million cases of larvae infection are from Africa. Nigeria is the most endemic country in Africa, with reportedly half of the world’s cases.
That is why Nigerian businessman Sir Emeka Offor gave the Carter Center $10 million to aid to eliminate river blindness in his home country. This is on top of the quarter million he donated several years back. This is a huge turning point in dealing with the disease.
The Carter Center has been working with the Nigerian Health Ministry for twenty years. The program uses community-based health education and administers the only drug that can treat river blindness, Mectizan. In fact, the company that makes Mectizan made a commitment to donate the drug until every case of river blindness is solved. The donation from Sir Offor means that the Carter Center can reach more people, especially those in difficult areas to reach. Coverage will increase, meaning that the Carter Center will be closer to reaching their goal of eliminating river blindness by 2020. In 2014, 7 million Nigerians were treated.
The Carter Center has already been successful in Latin America. Colombia was the first country to be declared free of river blindness in 2013, with Ecuador following in 2014. Both Guatemala and Mexico are currently going through the verification process to be declared river blindness-free by the WHO. The only areas left to treat are hard-to-reach areas of the Amazon in Venezuela and Brazil.
If the Carter Center can prove with this latest donation that their program is successful in the most plagued country, Nigeria, on top of their success in Latin America, then the WHO will be more likely to join the movement and target river blindness as a disease to fight.
– Katherine Hewitt
Sources: AP News, Carter Center 1, Carter Center 2, Inside Philanthropy
Photo: GHIF
Tackling Energy Poverty in Rural Pakistan
Each day, more of the world’s population gains access to electricity. Economic development, urbanization and aid programs have all helped increase global energy access. But 1.3 billion people still have no access to electricity, meaning that 18 percent of the world’s population is living in “energy poverty.” 97% of those living without electricity are located in either Sub-Saharan Africa or developing areas of Asia.
Electricity is vital for maintaining a clean water supply, sanitation systems and effective healthcare. It is also necessary for reliable lighting and heating, mechanical power, transportation and communication. It is crucial to a country’s economic development and its peoples’ well-being.
In Pakistan, only 67% of the population has access to electricity. In rural areas, this percentage dips even lower. However, the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) is working to bring electricity to those living in rural Pakistan.
SRSP, a nonprofit founded in 1989, operates in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA. The organization aims to empower communities, support economic and livelihood development, and provide humanitarian aid when necessary. Their overall goals are to reduce poverty levels and improve the quality of life in these regions. They have assisted in many areas, from providing relief after natural disasters to improving drinking water quality to building roads.
SRSP is making great strides in helping those in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa access electricity. They have been primarily working in the remote villages of the Hindu Kush mountains. Life in these villages is difficult — the area is prone to earthquakes and flooding and has been the site of many violent conflicts. However, the very mountains that isolate these villages have provided a source of energy for the people.
SRSP uses micro-hydro schemes powered by the glacier meltwater rivers that flow down the mountains to provide a sustainable source of energy. Micro-hydro schemes are able to provide electricity to whole communities while making very little impact on the environment. Since 2004, SRSP has built 189 micro-hydro schemes, bringing electricity to approximately 365,000 people. Over the next two years, the organization aims to reach 300,000 more people.
Having electricity has dramatically improved the quality of life for these villagers. Businesses can expand, communication is much easier, and students are able to study after dark and attain a better education. SRSP earned the 2015 Ashden International Award for Increasing Energy Access for their work in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In today’s world, electricity is necessary for any nation to develop, and SRSP’s sustainable practices can help Pakistan to do so without harming the environment. Other regions in need of energy access, such as parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, could benefit from such systems. The model of using a region’s natural resources, from water to sunlight to wind, to provide power could work in other “energy poor” areas of the world. The methods used by SRSP prove that sustainable sources of energy can be hugely beneficial for expanding energy access while preserving a region’s natural ecosystems.
– Jane Harkness
Sources: Ashden, The Express Tribune, The Guardian, International Energy Agency, International Energy Agency 2, Sarhad Rural Support Programme, Sarhad Rural Support Programme 2
Photo: Sarhad Rural Support Programme
Lingering Health Issues in the BRICS
In the coming years, the global economy is predicted to change on a scale not seen since the Industrial Revolution over 200 years ago. For the first time in history, the global middle class will soon enough outnumber the impoverished. By many estimates, humanity will reach this milestone within the next two decades, as the middle class expands from 2 billion to nearly 5 billion by 2030.
The 21st century’s economic revolution no longer springs from Europe and North America as it once did in the 19th and 20th centuries. This time around, the major players in this new game are Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, and China, also known as the BRICS. All four have experienced rapid growth in recent years — the highest of which is China, which has experienced a 10% annual growth in GDP from 1990 to 2009. Among them, they produce approximately a quarter of the world’s GDP while also hosting a quarter of the world’s population.
Yet these countries still have progress to make, especially in regards to health issues. The BRICS contain a majority of the world’s medical-drug-resistant tuberculosis cases and a significant portion of the world’s tuberculosis instances. They also bear the burden of high rates of neglected tropical diseases such as trachoma, lymphatic filariasis and soil-transmitted helminths.
In fact, according to a World Health Organization report, “BRICS account for more than 30 percent of the world’s children at risk with soil-transmitted helminths,” while India “alone accounts for nearly half the world’s population at risk of lymphatic filariasis.” Debilitating diseases such as these heavily contribute to poverty as they keep children out of school and parents out of work.
Where there is big growth, there is also ample capacity for innovative solutions. While afflicted by these illnesses, the BRICS have also made effective progress in treating and eradicating them. In 2012, Brazil initiated a tropical disease program tied to its anti-poverty program after finding strong links between occurrences of tropical diseases and poverty among its population.
India, which bears the burden for 35% of the global incidents of neglected tropical diseases, has also made important strides. Recently, it launched the world’s largest initiative aimed at researching lymphatic filariasis.
China has joined the fight against tuberculosis, which plagues its rural and migrant populations. In the past, China struggled to obtain sufficient data on this disease, often due to the domestic migrations of male workers and the inadequacy of rural health resources. To confront these issues, China recently reformed their health care system in order to reduce the costs of tuberculosis treatments. They also have established a network that helps to identify tuberculosis victims early on in an attempt to provide timely treatment.
Progress on health issues in the BRICs has happened on more than just the domestic scale. As they share similar problems, the BRICs have often cooperated in joint efforts to research, treat and eradicate similar diseases. In fact, the BRICS gather annually at conferences to pool their resources and research in order to meet their 2020 objectives for fighting neglected diseases.
One such example of these recent collaborations is the Delhi Communiqué, which was designed as a joint effort to combat tuberculosis. The communiqué uses each country’s expertise — drug manufacturing in Brazil, pharmaceutical research and development in China, and medical technologies in Russia — to combine their overall efforts.
While bound for economic prosperity, the BRICS have other less desirable commonalities, such as high incidences of tropical diseases and tuberculosis. Yet these flaws have also united them and spurred innovation. With hope, their ambitions in the world of public health will be as successful as their economic achievements.
– Andrew Logan
Sources: Christian Science Monitor,Global Sherpa,NCBI,PRB,Reuters,UNESCO,WHO
Photo: Al Jazeera
Street Children in Costa Rica
Costa Rica is known worldwide for its rich rainforests and beautiful beaches. As a result of this scenic beauty, there is an inherent marketability from which Costa Rica benefits, especially in regards to the tourism industry. Education, health and social security are other areas in which Costa Rica has seen positive development. While regionally Costa Rica is viewed as a fairly stable and successful country, it is not without its own set of serious economic and social issues.
Economically speaking, the top 20 percent of the country’s population account for about half of the total national income. The GDP per capita of Costa Rica is just over $10,000. However, about 10 percent of Costa Ricans are living on approximately $1.25 per day. It is clear that there is a significant disparity in terms of wealth distribution. Costa Rica is also a very young country, with roughly 26% of its 4.3 million people under the age of 14.
According to UNICEF estimates, there are upwards of 280,000 children not regularly attending school or enrolled in classes. 93% of children under 12 attend school, compared to only 86% and 78% for 14- and 16-year-olds, respectively. The older a child gets, the likelihood that they will graduate from school decreases by a few percentage points. The combination of these factors indicates why approximately 9% of all children between the ages of 5-14 are working to contribute to their families’ income. The majority of these children are either working in the fields, selling wares on the streets or working from home with family members.
UNICEF estimates that there are 36,000 children living on the streets of Costa Rica. One of the reasons for this high number is because children have either been orphaned or they have left home. In 2010, the National Children’s Hospital treated 2,555 cases of violence and assault toward children. Social attitudes toward corporal punishment in Costa Rica are severely outdated, and it would appear that many children run away from home to escape this abuse. These children in particular are often distressed, hungry and afraid. Because of their desperation, they also are susceptible to being abducted into drug cartels in the local barrios. Being on the streets places children in danger of gang violence, drug trade and sexual abuse.
The child sex industry in particular is a major issue in Costa Rica, as there is a rampant sex tourism industry. The Protection Project estimates that over 5,000 people visit Costa Rica for the sex tourism annually. The majority of these tourists are coming from the United States and Western Europe. Orphaned girls living on the street are the most vulnerable to being lured into underground businesses.
The abuse comes in the form of prostitution, trafficking, and pornography. Child prostitutes can potentially earn hundreds of dollars per day, and trafficking a single child can bring in a profit of $10,000. Costa Rica also has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Central America with 0.3% of the population affected, or approximately 10,000 cases. Costa Rican street children are at particular risk.
In 2004, World Vision, an international humanitarian group, received funding from the United States to help end child sex trafficking worldwide. The organization’s strategies included using deterrent messages, law enforcement assistance, and prevention programs. In 2008, UNICEF partnered with the Law on the Right of Children and Adolescents to Discipline Free of Corporal Punishment or Humiliating Treatment. This program seeks to reform social attitudes and provide families with advocacy resources on safe child rearing practices.
Additionally, in 2009 UNICEF partnered with the Costa Rican government’s National Council for Children and Adolescents to enact the Public Policy for Children and Adolescents.The purpose of this initiative was to implement a series of educational standards and regulations for children’s rights by 2021, Costa Rica’s 200th anniversary. The government has been heralded internationally for their compliance with international standards on children’s rights.
– The Borgen Project
Sources: SOS Children’s Village International, UNICEF 1, Protection Project 1, UNICEF 2, ABC News, Protection Project 2
Photo: Latest News Link
Foreign Aid Successes and the Millennium Development Goals
Tracking foreign aid successes is essential to understanding how state actions affect the world’s poorest places, as well as dispelling myths about the ineffectiveness of aid. Aid works, and there have been dramatic improvements in education, health and the basic quality of life in the developing world because of it.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were established and adopted by all members of the United Nations in 2000. Some of these goals include reducing child mortality, combating HIV/AIDS rates and severely curbing extreme poverty by 2015. While not all of these goals have been met, there has been remarkable progress in others. Tracking progress toward these goals thus far can help fill in knowledge gaps about which aspects of global poverty need to be addressed the most.
For example, the rate of extreme poverty since 2000 has been cut in half (extreme poverty being defined as living on less than $1.25 per day). In about a decade, nearly half a billion people were pulled out of extreme poverty, especially in China and India. Poverty rates in Africa are also expected to fall below 40% this year. A Brookings Institute report estimates that this halving of extreme poverty rates took place as early as 2008, a full seven years before the deadline, and continued despite the global recession.
Foreign aid has also had a huge impact on global health. Another one of the MDGs was to reduce under-five child mortality by two-thirds by 2015. This goal was met in Rwanda, a country which only two decades ago was engulfed in a violent civil war; additionally, child mortality was reduced by one- to two-thirds in the last decade in some of the top U.S. aid recipients, such as Ethiopia. Globally, this amounts to a 10% reduction in infant mortality between 2005 and 2013.
Another oft-overlooked example of foreign aid successes are the health services and products that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provides to millions of people in the developing world. These products and services, among other things, have led to a total eradication of smallpox. One specific example of the effectiveness of USAID health programs is that U.S. foreign aid saves 3 million lives annually in the developing world through immunizations. USAID was also instrumental in providing 1.3 billion people with safe drinking water, and 750 million others with sanitation by supporting the United Nations Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade.
Millennium Development Goal 6 calls to combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases. The U.S. leads the way in HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, having established the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Since its inception, this program has, according to the National Academies Institute of Medicine, saved millions of lives by providing antiretroviral drugs to affected regions. Additionally, the program has served as a proof-of-concept that HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services can be effectively implemented on a large scale, something that was thought to be impossible only a few decades ago.
USAID has also helped affect change in education in the developing world. Since 1950, the rate of enrollment for children in primary school has gone from less than half to about 90% globally. Consequently, literacy rates have increased by a third in the last 25 years. Two of the Millennium Development Goals were to achieve universal primary education as well as promote gender equality. USAID is pursuing these two goals by promoting robust programs that expand access to education for women in countries like Liberia and Mali.
There are many reasons to be optimistic about the efficacy of foreign aid. Aid programs should be subject to scrutiny and review so that they may be made more efficient and target the populations that most need them. However, it is also important to take into account the many foreign aid successes that USAID and other donors have had in the developing world. Acknowledging that aid works is the first step in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
– Derek Marion
Sources: Washington Post, Brookings Institute USAID, World Bank Foreign Affairs, IOM
Photo: International Institute for Sustainable Development
Ethiopia’s Population Dynamic: What the World Can Learn
In the past decade, Ethiopia has opened its doors to foreign investment. Fashion retailer H&M and Walmart already have factories there, or plan to build them. There are also proposals to build the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which will be a source of hydropower and accelerate agriculture development.
For Africa’s second most populous country, this will spur an economy that has traditionally been state-led and isolated.
These investments have already had positive impacts beyond their monetary value. Due to financial and economic stability, women are now having fewer children than before. Literacy rates are on the rise, and infant mortality rates have fallen by half.
Just over three years ago, the world’s population crossed the 7 billion mark. By 2100, the United Nations projects that the world population will be roughly 9.1 billion. With distress over resources and a changing climate, overpopulation is a growing concern among world leaders.
While the populations of Europe and North America are beginning to stabilize, Africa is still experiencing accelerated growth. The United Nations cites economic development and the education of woman as solutions to slowing fertility rates.
It has already worked in Ethiopia.
The average number of children women have has fallen from 6.5 to 4.8 in just a decade. In the capital, Addis Ababa, one of the most developed regions in the country, women are now having the replacement level number of children — two.
Although Ethiopia’s fertility rate ensures population growth for the foreseeable future, there remains some hope. Over 64% of Ethiopia’s population is 25-years-old or younger. As this demographic enters an economy catalyzed by foreign investment, continued development will lift many out of poverty, thus slowing the fertility rate even further.
With continued investment, the fertility rate could plummet to 2.5 by 2030.
Ethiopia’s population is well on its way to being sustainable by 2050. International investment works and it is essential if poverty-ridden regions want to experience the success Ethiopia is currently having.
– Kevin Meyers
Sources: CIA, CNBC Africa PRB UN
Photo: U of T Magazine