Countless amounts of people have probably been either uninformed or misinformed of the still-developing musicogenic epilepsy. One may think: what is this ‘musicogenic,’ and what does it have to do with poverty and world issues?
Musicogenic epilepsy is defined as a rare neurological disorder retaining seizures that are triggered by the onsets of different sounds layered in musical pieces.
Initially considered “reflex epilepsy” that stemmed from the right temporal lobe according to a 1989 study, it would be later proven in further research that the disorder stemmed from multiple temporal lobe foci, alongside holding ties with certain emotional reactions and additionally breaking loose from categorization as a “reflex” disorder.
As early as 1937, researcher MacDonald Critchley recorded three cases that attained a then unknown phenomenon that would become the ‘musicogenic’ disorder. Critchley noted that the disorder was “too rare,” but did assure that the seizures could not occur without the inclusion of music, also adding that certain types of music contributed to the cause.
Take note of Mariah Carey’s 1993 up-tempo classic, “Dreamlover,” for example.
The angelic recording would live up to its critical title as an “infectious tune,” when in 1998, a Japanese native woman alleged that three minutes into the piece triggered a seizure episode, resulting in a lengthy hospital visit accompanied by a series of medical tests. It would then be found that certain elements—allegedly the sound of the production’s bells—would play a role in the attack.
What soon followed was not only an alleged lawsuit launched against Ms. Carey’s recording label, but also a more redefined look into the mysteries concerning the neurological disorder.
In 2003, during infantile epileptic testing, the 6-month-old subject’s right-sided focal seizures were triggered by loud music performed by The Beatles. Researchers formulated that personal musicality and sensory response served as potential results for the causes of the attacks.
However, in a recent study conducted in 2014, it was reinstated that emotion served as a driving response when testing the playback of Russian music to a 32-year-old epileptic-sufferer. Further findings indicated that the dysregulation process of “musically-induced emotions” played a role in musicogenic seizures, rather than the musical stimulus itself.
More results from the testing theorized that the newfound discovery of cognitive dysregulation could hold potential links to other forms of epilepsy, such as reading epilepsy.
Though it is still a developing mystery, several forms of epilepsy still account as a large suffering and mortality rate in impoverished settings; two-times the amount when compared to high-income settings.
In lower-income regions, where high mortality rates are often associated with the lack of treatment in epilepsy, medical supplies to aid epileptic-sufferers have been scarce. This results in the growth of risk factors.
As developments continue to be designated, inexpensive interventions are at the forefront of ultimate factors in minimizing epileptic rates. Other solutions presented include risk factor prevention, improved access to biomedical treatment and continuous supply of high-quality antiepileptic drugs.
Medical analysts are determined and confident that progressive testing and newly discovered results will yield the musicogenic disorder into the right direction for the betterment of studying, and moreover, for the potential solution to accompanying epilepsy cases in poverty-stricken areas.
– Jeff Varner
Sources: NCBI 1, The Lancet, NCBI 2, Editors Choice Archive, NCBI 3, Brain, NCBI 4, NCBI 5
Photo: Wikipedia
What’s ‘Musicogenic’ Got to Do with It?
Musicogenic epilepsy is defined as a rare neurological disorder retaining seizures that are triggered by the onsets of different sounds layered in musical pieces.
Initially considered “reflex epilepsy” that stemmed from the right temporal lobe according to a 1989 study, it would be later proven in further research that the disorder stemmed from multiple temporal lobe foci, alongside holding ties with certain emotional reactions and additionally breaking loose from categorization as a “reflex” disorder.
As early as 1937, researcher MacDonald Critchley recorded three cases that attained a then unknown phenomenon that would become the ‘musicogenic’ disorder. Critchley noted that the disorder was “too rare,” but did assure that the seizures could not occur without the inclusion of music, also adding that certain types of music contributed to the cause.
Take note of Mariah Carey’s 1993 up-tempo classic, “Dreamlover,” for example.
The angelic recording would live up to its critical title as an “infectious tune,” when in 1998, a Japanese native woman alleged that three minutes into the piece triggered a seizure episode, resulting in a lengthy hospital visit accompanied by a series of medical tests. It would then be found that certain elements—allegedly the sound of the production’s bells—would play a role in the attack.
What soon followed was not only an alleged lawsuit launched against Ms. Carey’s recording label, but also a more redefined look into the mysteries concerning the neurological disorder.
In 2003, during infantile epileptic testing, the 6-month-old subject’s right-sided focal seizures were triggered by loud music performed by The Beatles. Researchers formulated that personal musicality and sensory response served as potential results for the causes of the attacks.
However, in a recent study conducted in 2014, it was reinstated that emotion served as a driving response when testing the playback of Russian music to a 32-year-old epileptic-sufferer. Further findings indicated that the dysregulation process of “musically-induced emotions” played a role in musicogenic seizures, rather than the musical stimulus itself.
More results from the testing theorized that the newfound discovery of cognitive dysregulation could hold potential links to other forms of epilepsy, such as reading epilepsy.
Though it is still a developing mystery, several forms of epilepsy still account as a large suffering and mortality rate in impoverished settings; two-times the amount when compared to high-income settings.
In lower-income regions, where high mortality rates are often associated with the lack of treatment in epilepsy, medical supplies to aid epileptic-sufferers have been scarce. This results in the growth of risk factors.
As developments continue to be designated, inexpensive interventions are at the forefront of ultimate factors in minimizing epileptic rates. Other solutions presented include risk factor prevention, improved access to biomedical treatment and continuous supply of high-quality antiepileptic drugs.
Medical analysts are determined and confident that progressive testing and newly discovered results will yield the musicogenic disorder into the right direction for the betterment of studying, and moreover, for the potential solution to accompanying epilepsy cases in poverty-stricken areas.
– Jeff Varner
Sources: NCBI 1, The Lancet, NCBI 2, Editors Choice Archive, NCBI 3, Brain, NCBI 4, NCBI 5
Photo: Wikipedia
Afghanistan’s Rule of Law and Future Can Flourish
Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous and impoverished nations in the world. What can be done to help to turn it around?
One of the biggest problems Afghanistan faces is its history of a weak rule of law. The rule of law has to do with the strength of legal institutions, as well as laws themselves. It also applies to how laws are carried out—equally or unequally.
When the rule of law is strong, it provides a basis for a society’s economic development, security, infrastructure and an accountable government. A strong rule of law also improves public health, alleviates poverty and improves education.
Weak rule of law leads to crime, corruption and the unequal application of laws across a society. Afghanistan has struggled with all these things, and improving and solidifying the rule of law is important to secure its future. For a country to flourish, a strong rule of law is needed.
It is a generally accepted idea, that for some, education is a pathway out of poverty. However, without a strong rule of law, which limits the Taliban preventing girls from going to school or corruption from impacting learner’s education, this pathway is fraught with difficulties. Corruption is a massive problem in Afghanistan—the country ranked last for the absence of corruption in the World Justice Project’s 2014 Rule of Law Index.
Sadly, the problem runs deeper than merely educating Afghan girls and boys with hopes that they will escape poverty. For Afghanistan to improve its rule of law and therefore it’s future, it’s legal education system must continue to be developed.
Because of Afghanistan’s five constitutions since 1964 along with Soviet occupation and the Taliban government, the country’s legal system been decimated and fallen behind the rest of the world. The legal education system has failed to produce a capable body of legal experts, instead a group of jurists who have made their best effort in recent times but are woefully unprepared.
Since U.S. military intervention and the fall of the Taliban in 2001, much has been done to try and improve both the university and legal education systems in the county. Strengthening these institutions can lead to fewer instances of land disputes—the main cause of conflict in Afghanistan. They are common because both informal and formal devices used to resolve the conflicts are fragile and weak.
Land disputes are also a perfect example of a weak rule of law because they illustrate an instance where a law says one thing, but in practice, it is not relevant, enforced or practical. The current land ownership law states the need for documents proving ownership of land, however, only 20 percent of land actually has these documents.
The U.S. State Department has played a role in developing the legal system in Afghanistan by bringing young lawyers to the U.S. to study, who have then gone back to their home country to set up legal practices. This is a good step, but improvement in the rule of law via more development of the legal education system in Afghanistan itself could go even further to improve its future as a safer, less impoverished country.
– Greg Baker
Sources: The Hague Institute for Global Justice, The New York Times, United States Institute for Peace, The World Justice Project, U.S. Department of State
Photo: Clarksville Online
Malaria on its Way Out; Good News to Come
Malaria is spread through mosquitoes that carry the disease. In the United States, the swamps and marshes that housed malaria-carrying mosquitoes were destroyed to eradicate the disease, a trick that worked well. However, this is not a tactic that will work worldwide, especially in hot and humid places where the majority of the landscape is marshland.
In places like these, a promising solution has been created: long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets (LLINs). An insecticide-treated net is a bed net that has been treated with safe, residual insecticide to kill and repel the infected mosquitoes while also physically blocking them out. LLINs are designed to remain effective for multiple years without needing to retreat.
Malaria kills about 660,000 people a year, most being children. LLINs are cost-effective in production and distribution and are considered to be one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives. The process of distribution is simple and thorough: survey the people to determine the need for the nets, deliver the LLINs, and then promote their use.
In the 2012 World Malaria Report that looked at 17 sub-Saharan African countries determined that 68-84 percent of people that owned the nets were using them, an increase since 2010. Along with this increase came fewer malaria-related deaths; however, the exact figures collected were fairly unreliable.
However, with a long-term solution at hand, scientists can focus on eradicating the disease entirely. In the Southern U.S. and Europe, where malaria has been eradicated, a big factor in defeating the disease was a change in human behavior, a shift in land use, and in housing. Scientists believe that more research is needed to understand the factors affecting transmission before the disease will be fully eradicated.
There is a long way to go before malaria is gone for good, but the long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets have proven to be successful in the lives of individuals. They are cost-effective and well-used. Eradication of malaria is within the foreseeable future.
– Hannah Resnick
Sources: Give Well, TDR
Photo: Fast Coexist
Five Companies Dedicated to Helping the World’s Poor
TOMS Shoes has a wonderful business plan: for every one pair of shoes that is purchased, one pair of shoes is given to a person in need. But they are not the only company that is dedicated to helping people out of poverty through their business plan.
The five businesses listed below are not a comprehensive list of dedicated companies by any means, but they are committed to using their products and platform to help those in poverty around the world with the most basic needs, specifically water, health and education.
Three Avocados
Three Avocados donates their profits to help provide clean water in Uganda and education initiatives in Nicaragua. The organization grows coffee bean in both countries. The Three Avocados website reports over 20,000 people in Uganda have been impacted by the company’s involvement in providing clean water. Consumers are able to buy sustainable coffee beans while helping people who need clean water and better education.
World Crafts
World Crafts operates in several countries around the globe empowering the artisans through fair trade initiatives. A number of the artisans are women who produce their goods as a means to raise their family out of poverty, such as the Miao women of China. Through embroidering beautiful designs onto various bags and such, the women are given the chance to raise their economic status and send their children to secondary school.
Hand in Hand
Hand in Hand creates artisan soaps that have a one to one donation ratio, which means that buying one bar of soap allows the company to donate one bar of soap and a month of clean water to people in Haiti. Clean water and proper hygiene through the use of the soap will, in part, help cut down on diseases in the area. The company is also committed to sustainable and environmentally safe ingredients for their soaps.
Ornaments 4 Orphans
Ornaments 4 Orphans operates on several levels. First, ornaments are created in areas stricken with poverty to boost the economy, and second, the proceeds from selling the ornaments are used to help children in need. Orphans in areas of poverty are prone to illness, sexual exploitation and lack of education. By using the proceeds to help orphans, the children are given a chance to create a brighter future than they might have had otherwise.
Starbucks and Oprah Chai
Starbucks offers a drink called the Oprah Chai. A portion of the money earned whenever a drink is purchased will go directly to Oprah Winfrey’s charity, the Leadership Academy Foundation. The foundation pledges to bring education opportunities, especially opportunities for higher education, to girls in South Africa.
While buying from these companies will directly help individuals in need, more can and should be done. Purchasing these products, as well as items from other responsible companies, will help raise awareness for the efforts needed to help people out of poverty. Consider using birthdays, graduations and other holiday events to make an impact in someone else’s life.
The list above barely touches the scope of companies that are doing good on the global scale. For even more ideas, check out Shop With Meaning to find other companies dedicated to helping those in poverty around the world.
– Megan Ivy
Sources: Three Avocados, WorldCrafts, Hand in Hand Soap, Ornaments 4 Orphans, Starbucks, ShopWithMeaning
Photo: Style Quotidien
Malnutrition in Burundi
Burundi was rated the world’s leading nation affected by hunger, according to the 2014 Global Hunger Index (GHI), a score calculated annually by the International Food Policy Research Institute. Plagued with political turmoil and prone to natural disasters, Burundi has seen rates of malnutrition increase in recent years. Despite global strides in combating malnutrition in recent history, Burundi is one of only four nations that has seen an increase in GHI from 1990 to 2014, indicating a worsening situation in the country. With 67.3 percent of the overall population undernourished, it is one of two countries with a hunger situation labeled “extremely alarming” in the study.
As the vast majority of Burundi’s population relies on agriculture, many of the country’s inhabitants combat food insecurity and malnutrition due to climate hazards, limited land access and limited crop diversity. Despite a constantly growing population, food production has stagnated at pre-1993 levels, according to the World Food Programme. Additionally, due to the rising costs of food — the price of beans increased by nearly 50 percent in recent years — the average household now spends over 70 percent of its income on food. While the nation’s government has programs in place to assist in the fight against malnutrition, it is growing increasingly costly for the country to deal with the worsening problem.
Common causes of malnutrition in the country include kwashiorkor and marasmus, both of which can stunt development and can be life-threatening if not treated. Although women and young children are most at risk for diseases caused by malnutrition, many men are also affected.
Additionally, many children and women suffer from a lack of micronutrients in their diets. In the first two years of life, it is especially crucial for children to get sufficient amounts of micronutrients such as iron, Vitamin A, iodine and zinc. Such nutrients are critical for physical growth and intellectual development.
Anemia is one of the biggest deficiency problems currently faced in Burundi, with 56 percent of children under the age of 5, and 47 percent of pregnant women anemic, according to the World Bank. Additionally, nearly half of the population as a whole is at risk for insufficient zinc intake, and a quarter of the country’s children under 5 and 12 percent of women are Vitamin A deficient. Although the effects of these deficiencies are less dire in the short term, they contribute to life-threatening illnesses and issues.
In order to address the problems of malnutrition in Burundi, the World Bank recommends extensive vitamin A supplementation and deworming in children under 5-years-old and increased iron supplementation for pregnant women. While about 96 percent of households are already consuming iodized salt, the World Bank recommends “universal salt iodization” in order to control iodine deficiency and avoid IQ loss in young children. Working to increase market and infrastructure development to promote dietary diversity can also combat issues with malnourishment.
Education and counseling services can also serve to improve feeding habits for children under five years old. While Burundi sees a lack of gender equality in most sects of life, women are still seen to have a strong maternal role in the family. UNICEF found that children of mothers with at least a primary level of education have 94 percent of fewer risks of growth stunting from malnutrition than children of mothers with no education. The study showed that mothers with some level of education had been proactive in managing malnutrition than other mothers, recognizing the importance of good breastfeeding habits, clean living and staggering pregnancies.
Since 2005, the Ministry of Health has emphasized building community-based infrastructure to screen for and treat acute malnutrition. Many organizations are also working with the Burundi government to increase education programs for mothers in order to deal with the country’s chronic malnutrition. In 2012, Burundi signed on to the Scaling up Nutrition initiative, which works with the United Nations, civil society, donors, businesses and researchers to work with communities on this issue. The initiative involves an interdisciplinary approach to combating malnutrition. Burundi’s approach, as established through the initiative, involves working to protect maternity leave, create legislation on the marketing of breast milk substitute, establish national directives on food, diversify and increase its food production, and increase nutrition education. The established goal in 2012 was to reduce malnutrition rates by 10 percent by 2016. No information has been released by Scaling up Nutrition or by the Burundian government on the progress of this goal.
– Arin Kerstein
Sources: International Food Policy Research Institute, International Food Policy Research Institute, Iwacu-Burundi, Scaling Up Nutrition, World Bank, Wolrd Food Programme, UNICEF
Photo: The Guardian
Solar-Powered iShack Lights Up South Africa
In 2012, South Africa’s subsidized housing program had built about 2.8 million houses since 1994. As impressive as that is, the country still faced a backlog of nearly 2 million homes. Facing these numbers, the government decided to shift its focus from providing new-made homes for every household to improving current living conditions. Approximately 1.2 million households, or 3 million people, are still living in informal homes today. These shacks have no electricity or running water. Many are uninsulated and poorly ventilated, creating unhealthy environments for those inside.
Mark Swilling decided to address this problem back in 2011. Swilling, the academic head of the Sustainability Institute in Stellenbosch, asked his students, “‘What can be done while people are waiting?’ We wanted to orientate [our research] towards what the average shack dweller could do while they are waiting for the state.”
His question led to the solar-powered iShack. The shiny metal walls of these ‘improved shacks’ stand out in shantytowns where wooden pallets and corroded sheets of zinc are the building norm. The shacks also feature insulation made of recycled plastic products, a layer of insulating bricks around the bases of the walls, windows designed to improve airflow, and a coat of fire-retardant paint.
The most popular feature by far, however, is the solar electricity. The shacks are equipped with a photovoltaic panel on the roof that powers a porch light and interior lights, as well as an electrical outlet that makes it possible for residents to charge their cell phones.
Damian Conway, manager and director of the Sustainability Institute Innovation Lab, the main team behind the implantation of the iShack, says that part of their research methodology was paying close attention to what they community really wanted. “Electricity is the number one thing that most people in Enkanini say they need,” Conway says. “The needs are all there: sanitation, water … but the main thing is energy.”
The iShack has been warmly received. Nosango Plaatjie, a mother of three living in one of the iShack prototypes, commented that the ability to keep her phone charged and her lights on has made a huge difference to her family.
“The solar [lights] are better,” Plaatije said. “Now we don’t need to go to sleep early anymore because now we have lights. My daughter must do her homework now, she doesn’t have any more excuses. And I like the light outside because we can see what is going on, I feel safer.”
The iShack model of incremental improvements to already-existing settlements has a lot of people excited. In 2013, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supplied the organization with a grant that would allow the project to roll out across the informal settlement of Enkanini.
With much success and steadily rising support from the local community, other groups are beginning to take notice. Slum Dwellers International, a global nonprofit that serves the urban poor, is watching iShack with an eye toward implementing the project across many countries in Africa.
The secretariat-coordinator Joel Bolnick gave the impression of hopeful patience when he said, “Our intention is to give the institute some time to develop the model. They’re almost there now.”
– Marina Middleton
Sources: Mashable, The Guardian iShack Project CNN Live Science Mail & Guardian
Photo: Street News Service
How a Decline in Bees Affects the Developing World
This week, President Obama revealed a solution to a problem not many Americans knew existed: declining bee populations.
The plan, appropriately titled the “National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators,” was drafted by the Pollinator Health Task Force and runs for a solid 58 pages. It’s the sort of thing that prompts endless jokes and puns (“Plan B” is a popular one), but for farmers around the world, the decline in bees is serious business.
That’s because bees play an important role in our ecosystem. As pollinators, bees help plants reproduce by spreading pollen around, enabling the creation of seeds and fruit. Many crops rely on bee pollination, including coffee and apples. Larger farms rely on beekeepers who drive from farm to farm, leasing their bees for short bouts of pollination. All in all, 30 percent of the world’s crops rely on insect pollination, most often from bees.
If these pollinators were to suddenly disappear, the world would be in a lot of trouble. Yet that is exactly what is happening, in a mysterious phenomenon known to scientists as “colony collapse disorder.” Worker bees are vanishing and their hives are slowly dying off.
That’s leaving some farmers in the developing world scrambling to find new ways of pollinating their crops. In southeast China, for instance, bee populations have been diminished by habitat destruction and heavy doses of pesticides. Apple farmers in the region are now forced to pollinate their crops by hand. Armed with utensils resembling feather dusters, the workers climb along branches and pollinate the trees themselves.
It’s a painstaking and process that leaves Tang Ya, a researcher at Sichuan University, concerned about sustainability. “For fruit growers, artificial pollination can guarantee profits,” the scientist told China Daily. “But as more young people leave their homes to seek jobs in cities, I’m afraid that artificial pollination will be very difficult to achieve in less than two decades.”
But the problem goes beyond economics; it threatens to worsen global malnutrition as well.
A study published this year by Harvard University and the University of Vermont demonstrated how declining pollinator populations would disrupt human diets in the developing world. Vitamin A, for instance, comes from crops which mostly rely on insect pollinators. According to the World Health Organization, Vitamin A deficiency can have devastating consequences for children, including blindness and a much higher risk of illness and death from common childhood infections.
Though aware of the dangers involved, scientists aren’t entirely sure what causes colony collapse disorder. A wide range of explanations have been offered, including pesticide use, climate change, malnutrition and disease. Neonicotinoid, a type of pesticide, has attracted scrutiny recently and European countries have placed restrictions on its further use.
In the United States, President Obama’s plan calls for setting aside land for pollinators, further restricting pesticide use and increasing funding for research. How the developing world will cope, however, is less clear.
– Kevin Mclaughlin
Sources: Berkeley News, China Daily, Whitehouse.gov, University of Vermont, World Health Organization
Photo: Flickr
After the White House: How Past Presidents Continue to Make a Difference
Although President Obama has only 20 months left of his presidency, he can still do a lot of good once outside the Oval Office. Here are four ways former presidents made a difference for the world’s poor:
George Bush: The former Republican president is well known for his AIDs relief work in Africa. While in office, President Bush signed the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The program significantly increased access to antiretroviral drugs on the African continent, saving millions of lives. That effort set the stage for his post-presidential humanitarian work with First Lady Laura Bush through the George W. Bush Institute. Located at the Bush Center in Dallas, the organization promotes global health and human rights through a variety of programs. Through the Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon initiative, for instance, the president and first lady are working to reduce deaths associated with cervical and breast cancer in the developing world.
Bill Clinton: Following his presidency, Mr. Clinton sought to address humanitarian issues worldwide. The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation has quickly become a cornerstone in the fight for improved global health, economic development, gender equality and environmental protection. Founded in 2001, the Foundation includes a wide range of humanitarian endeavors. The Clinton Health Access Initiative, for example, works to improve healthcare infrastructure, while the Clinton Development Initiative stimulates economic growth by increasing access to financial services for entrepreneurs in the developing world. The Foundation also has a strong track record in promoting the well being of women and girls across the globe.
George H. W. Bush: At 90-years-old, George Bush Sr. is the oldest president on this list, besting fellow nonagenarian Jimmy Carter by a few months. The elder Bush shows no signs of slowing down though; he’s gone skydiving on his 80th, 85th and 90th birthdays, and leads an active life. The president has been just as active in promoting public service through his Points of Light organization, which encourages volunteerism worldwide. The network boasts 250,000 service projects every year across 30 countries. That adds up to 30 million hours of volunteer service each year.
Jimmy Carter: President Carter has had many roles in his life: peanut farmer, Governor of Georgia, President of the United States—but he has perhaps found his great success as an international humanitarian. He is one of four presidents to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, but the only one to do so after leaving office. Most of his efforts have involved The Carter Center, which was founded in 1982 and takes “Waging Peace, Eradicating Disease, Building Hope” as its motto. The Center has targeted a wide range of diseases, including guinea worm, river blindness, trachoma and lymphatic filariasis. Thanks to the president’s efforts, the prevalence of guinea worm disease has been reduced by 99.99 percent since 1986.
– Kevin McLaughlin
Sources: The Clinton Foundation, The George W. Bush Institute, Points of Light
Photo: Flickr
World Bank Encourages Overseas Hiring Online
A recent effort by the World Bank has helped make overseas hiring feasible for many interested parties – and has driven a surge of employment in Africa.
Unemployment has always been a boogeyman of modern culture. Whether a fully-developed or an emerging market, no economy thrives when it has a high rate of unemployment. According to the U.N., the challenge of unemployment is growing by the year. In 2014, the number of unemployed passed 201 million people worldwide. A disproportionate number of these were women and young people just entering the workforce.
The internet could change that. Like almost everything else the internet has affected, the job market is a very different place now than it was only three or four years ago. Digital entrepreneurs are increasingly common, and small businesses have access to better tools and faster communication than was ever possible before.
Entrepreneurship is not always an option, however. Being a digital entrepreneur requires social networking, strong skill development and a market to work with. On the other hand, companies are often looking for new talent pools of employees.
A study supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and done in partnership with Dahlberg Consulting has recently resulted in a new service. The World Bank is now helping interested individuals and companies find global employees through a new online toolkit. Companies seeking new talent can look abroad for the perfect fit for their employees. Meanwhile, people with technology skills in developing countries can now find jobs that allow them to use their full capacities.
This new business model, called “online outsourcing,” has the power to catalyze new economic growth. It also has the potential to drive a new wave of economic inclusion and equality, as typically underrepresented groups can join the workforce.
The collaboration between the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation is part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Digital Jobs Africa Initiative. The mission of the initiative is to create new, sustainable employment opportunities for youth in Africa and the skills training to match. This is all working toward the ultimate goal of positively impacting 1 million lives in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.
So far, the collaborations have been a success. The partnership has enhanced digital job creation in Africa in a number of ways, including the development of an information technology park and capacity building for the digitization of public records in Ghana.
Africa’s economy and population are both growing at an unprecedented rate. By 2050, 400 million people under the age of 25 will need to be gainfully employed in order for the continent’s economic growth to be sustained. Initiatives like the partnership between the Rockefeller Foundation and the World Bank could be the key to success – both of Africa’s economy and of Africa’s youth. The job market is becoming truly global, and everyone will reap the benefits.
– Marina Middleton
Sources: The World Bank, The Rockefeller Foundation
Photo: Flickr
Malnutrition in Taiwan
Since the end of the Second World War, the face of malnutrition in Taiwan has changed dramatically. Once among the ranks of third world nations, Taiwan has enjoyed meteoric economic growth over the past seventy years. This growth has raised living standards, reduced poverty and eliminated undernutrition as a development issue. But despite this newfound prosperity, Taiwan continues to face malnutrition in the form of obesity and poor diets.
Between 1895 and 1945, Japan ruled over Taiwan as an imperial master. Over these five decades, Japan structured the island as a satellite granary. Taiwan’s principal crops became sugar and rice, and by the 1930s, Taiwan exported more than half of its agricultural output to the Japanese home islands. In fact, according to researcher Samuel Ho, the amount of rice available for consumption in Taiwan had fallen 24 percent by the 1940s. Although Japanese administrators modernized Taiwanese agriculture and invested in transportation infrastructure, they did little to improve the lot of the poorest Taiwanese: real wages remained low and malnutrition prevalent.
Soon after the end of Japanese rule, Taiwan found itself in a position to tackle malnutrition. No longer Japan’s offshore breadbasket, Taiwanese farmers saw export markets for their crops collapse. They thus began putting significantly less of their rice crop on the market and retaining more for home consumption. In addition, the Taiwanese government implemented land reforms that broke up large agricultural estates and turned tenant farmers into landowners. Combined with other “pro-farmer” policies and a growing industrial export sector, Taiwan had effectively eliminated malnutrition by the early 1970s.
But with the development of an advanced economy in Taiwan, malnutrition has resurfaced as a public health concern. According to University of Washington sources, dietary risks are the second-greatest contributor to Taiwan’s disease burden. Whereas most Taiwanese were once unable to afford a varied, nutritious diet, many now eschew healthy eating electively. To add to this concern, contemporary Taiwanese suffer from increasing rates of obesity: 31 percent of females and 41 percent of males were overweight in 2013, and obesity in people under 20 has increased by more than 50 percent since 1980. This “double burden” of malnutrition — undernutrition paired with obesity — among Taiwan’s youth may foretell the resurgence of malnutrition in Taiwan as a public health issue.
Recent research also suggests that cultural norms may perpetuate patterns of malnutrition in Taiwan. Researchers Lin and Tsai find that girls born to “marital immigrant” parents (in which one spouse — usually the wife — hails from abroad, typically Southeast Asia in the case of Taiwan) are significantly shorter and lighter than Han Chinese girls. Lin and Tsai note that Taiwanese men who marry immigrant women are disproportionately disadvantaged economically and physically. These men face immense pressure to preserve the family line, leading them to spoil their sons at the expense of their daughters. Given such ongoing changes in Taiwanese society, malnutrition in Taiwan may prove more intractable than previously thought.
– Leo Zucker
Sources: Malnutrition in Taiwan, Nutrilite Economic History Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Nutritional Research
Photo: World Vision International