Ethiopia, Africa’s oldest independent country, with roots stretching back to the 2nd century C.E., is also one of the modern world’s poorest countries. Home to Africa’s second largest population, with over 90 million individuals, Ethiopia suffers from widespread food insecurity.
Suffering from devastating droughts and famines in the 1970s and 1980s and a vicious war with Eritrea in the late 1990s, Ethiopia remains largely impoverished today. Two programs created by the Ethiopian government have been coordinated in an attempt to address this issue. The Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) was created in 2005, and the Household Asset Building Program (HABP) was set up in 2010.
Ethiopia’s troubles with food security are strongly related to its high poverty rates. In 2011, the national poverty rate was at 29.6 percent. This, while a drastic improvement from the country’s 38.9 percent poverty rate in 2004, still shows the high level of financial insecurity that over one-fourth of Ethiopians live with.
Furthermore, in 2013 the World Food Programme reported that, “over 7.1 million people were estimated to live in conditions of crisis and emergency” in Ethiopia. While this figure is partially attributed to the conflict in South Sudan, it shows the necessity of promoting food security in a nation where poverty is so rampant.
Food insecurity in Ethiopia is often related to the over-reliance on rainfall-dependent agriculture. The World Bank reports that agriculture in this nation accounts for roughly 45 percent of its GDP and ensures the livelihoods of 80 to 85 percent of the nation.
Due to this, the World Bank reports that, “Any small variation in rainfall…affects the incomes of 30 to 40 million people and can mean hunger for 10 to 15 million people.” Clearly this over-reliance on factors outside the country’s control demonstrates the need for a safety net for the population.
A safety net is exactly what the PSNP provides. It gives out food or cash to roughly seven or eight million Ethiopians chronically suffering from food shortages. PSNP gives out the food or cash for six months a year as wages for work on small local public works projects. These public works projects are decided by the community and are aimed at strengthening economic development in the area.
Along with this, the program gives out food or money to Ethiopians who can’t work due to age, disability or pregnancy. PSNP, initially made available in the regions of Tigray, Amhara, Oromiya and the Southern Nations and Nationalities People’s Region, soon spread to Afar in 2006 and the Somali Region in 2007.
Due to the limited success of PSNP in providing actual food stability and security to the Ethiopians who have access to it, the government also created HABP in 2010. This program is a companion to PSNP and offers agricultural and entrepreneurial advice. It is designed to educate people in hopes that they can learn to create and maintain their own assets, without remaining perpetually reliant on wages from the PSNP.
Both PSNP and HABP receive 1.1 percent of Ethiopia’s GDP for funding. However, a large amount of their finances come from international donors. Notable donors include the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), UK Department for International Development and the World Food Programme.
So far, working together, these programs have shown success in combating the food insecurity that plagues much of Ethiopia. An evaluation by both the Institute of Development Studies and Dadias Consulting Ethiopia show significant improvements in food security in the regions involved from 2010 to 2012. Furthermore, they showed that, in 2010, PSNP and HABP together created food security 2.5 times more than PSNP alone.
Together, these two innovative and interrelated projects, designed to help promote food security and lower Ethiopia’s reliance on foreign aid, are doing just that. Gradually, Ethiopia’s survival is becoming less contingent on foreign food aid and favorable rainfall.
– Albert Cavallero
Sources: The World Bank 1, World Food Programme, Food Security Portal, IFPRI e-Brary, Institute of Development Studies 1, BBC News – Africa, The World Bank 2, Institute of Development Studies 2, IRIN
Photo: FAO
How Privilege Affects Decision Making
People of low socioeconomic status are often considered responsible for their impoverishment. This mentality—“the poor are poor because they don’t work hard”—is seen so often in those looking from a point of privilege. Even when disregarding hereditary disadvantages, poor individuals are blamed for bad choices that perpetuate poverty, such as smoking and failing to save money for long-term plans.
These judgments, however, are misguided in the way they criticize individuals so severely. Many psychologists, including University of Pennsylvania neuroscientists Joseph W. Kable and Joseph T. McGuire, now believe that poverty influences the way humans—all humans—make decisions. In other words, individuals cannot be blamed before interpreting the psychological wear of poverty.
Complementing their findings, a poignant post on killermartinis.kinja.com, an online forum, acts as a window into the thought process of someone at the bottom end of the socioeconomic totem pole. Here’s an excerpt:
“I make a lot of poor financial decisions. None of them matter, in the long term. I will never not be poor, so what does it matter if I don’t pay a thing and a half this week instead of just one thing? It’s not like the sacrifice will result in improved circumstances; the thing holding me back isn’t that I blow five bucks at Wendy’s. It’s that now that I have proven that I am a Poor Person that is all that I am or ever will be.
“Poverty is bleak and cuts off your long-term brain. It’s why you see people with four different baby-daddies instead of one. You grab a bit of connection wherever you can to survive. You have no idea how strong the pull to feel worthwhile is. It’s more basic than food. You go to these people who make you feel lovely for an hour that one time, and that’s all you get. You’re probably not compatible with them for anything long-term, but right this minute they can make you feel powerful and valuable. It does not matter what will happen in a month. Whatever happens in a month is probably going to be just about as indifferent as whatever happened today or last week. None of it matters. We don’t plan long-term because if we do we’ll just get our hearts broken. It’s best not to hope. You just take what you can get as you spot it.”
This woman’s writing illustrates exactly what Kable and McGuire showed in their experiments. It seems that, contrary to common thought, patience is not always adaptive. Impatience and giving up can be the appropriate action if, for example, the future is unpredictable and may not hold the rewards one is waiting for.
“There are lots of situations, probably the majority of situations, in the real world,” Kable says, “where waiting longer is actually a valid cue that the reward is getting further and further away.”
Patience, which is linked to both intelligence and success later in life, may be a construct of privilege. When one comes from a place of privilege the rewards one waits for are, more often than not, granted. The same cannot be said of the poor, so naturally it is harder to wait when the reward of patience is usually not granted. It is especially hard to plan ahead when one does not have money and giving up is so simple and so instantaneously rewarding—when smoking a cigarette, like the woman on killermartinis.kinja.com continues to say, is the only relief.
“Our environment trains us about the value of persistence. Sometimes, it makes sense to wait,” said Maria Konnikova in an opinion piece for the New York Times featuring Kable and McGuire’s study. “At other times, the adage about the bird in hand begins to make sense.”
The adage goes, aptly, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” For people of low socioeconomic status this may be not only true, but also adaptive.
– Adam Kaminski
Sources: New York Times, Killermartinis
Photo: Salon
Addressing Food Security In Ethiopia
Ethiopia, Africa’s oldest independent country, with roots stretching back to the 2nd century C.E., is also one of the modern world’s poorest countries. Home to Africa’s second largest population, with over 90 million individuals, Ethiopia suffers from widespread food insecurity.
Suffering from devastating droughts and famines in the 1970s and 1980s and a vicious war with Eritrea in the late 1990s, Ethiopia remains largely impoverished today. Two programs created by the Ethiopian government have been coordinated in an attempt to address this issue. The Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) was created in 2005, and the Household Asset Building Program (HABP) was set up in 2010.
Ethiopia’s troubles with food security are strongly related to its high poverty rates. In 2011, the national poverty rate was at 29.6 percent. This, while a drastic improvement from the country’s 38.9 percent poverty rate in 2004, still shows the high level of financial insecurity that over one-fourth of Ethiopians live with.
Furthermore, in 2013 the World Food Programme reported that, “over 7.1 million people were estimated to live in conditions of crisis and emergency” in Ethiopia. While this figure is partially attributed to the conflict in South Sudan, it shows the necessity of promoting food security in a nation where poverty is so rampant.
Food insecurity in Ethiopia is often related to the over-reliance on rainfall-dependent agriculture. The World Bank reports that agriculture in this nation accounts for roughly 45 percent of its GDP and ensures the livelihoods of 80 to 85 percent of the nation.
Due to this, the World Bank reports that, “Any small variation in rainfall…affects the incomes of 30 to 40 million people and can mean hunger for 10 to 15 million people.” Clearly this over-reliance on factors outside the country’s control demonstrates the need for a safety net for the population.
A safety net is exactly what the PSNP provides. It gives out food or cash to roughly seven or eight million Ethiopians chronically suffering from food shortages. PSNP gives out the food or cash for six months a year as wages for work on small local public works projects. These public works projects are decided by the community and are aimed at strengthening economic development in the area.
Along with this, the program gives out food or money to Ethiopians who can’t work due to age, disability or pregnancy. PSNP, initially made available in the regions of Tigray, Amhara, Oromiya and the Southern Nations and Nationalities People’s Region, soon spread to Afar in 2006 and the Somali Region in 2007.
Due to the limited success of PSNP in providing actual food stability and security to the Ethiopians who have access to it, the government also created HABP in 2010. This program is a companion to PSNP and offers agricultural and entrepreneurial advice. It is designed to educate people in hopes that they can learn to create and maintain their own assets, without remaining perpetually reliant on wages from the PSNP.
Both PSNP and HABP receive 1.1 percent of Ethiopia’s GDP for funding. However, a large amount of their finances come from international donors. Notable donors include the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), UK Department for International Development and the World Food Programme.
So far, working together, these programs have shown success in combating the food insecurity that plagues much of Ethiopia. An evaluation by both the Institute of Development Studies and Dadias Consulting Ethiopia show significant improvements in food security in the regions involved from 2010 to 2012. Furthermore, they showed that, in 2010, PSNP and HABP together created food security 2.5 times more than PSNP alone.
Together, these two innovative and interrelated projects, designed to help promote food security and lower Ethiopia’s reliance on foreign aid, are doing just that. Gradually, Ethiopia’s survival is becoming less contingent on foreign food aid and favorable rainfall.
– Albert Cavallero
Sources: The World Bank 1, World Food Programme, Food Security Portal, IFPRI e-Brary, Institute of Development Studies 1, BBC News – Africa, The World Bank 2, Institute of Development Studies 2, IRIN
Photo: FAO
Finding Beauty Between Poverty and Tourism
In Western countries, traveling is a privilege. Travel softens people’s psyche, allowing even the simplest of sights and gestures to hit travelers with an overwhelming sense of humility. Travel is a means of escape and rejuvenation, but sometimes it comes at the cost of the destination’s native population.
In her guest post on Kelsey Timmerman’s website, Callan Gaines attributed her experience in Guatemala to the beauty that was brought forth by the country’s poverty. She remarked how Americans lacked the villagers’ selflessness and gratitude, traits which stem from the villagers’ modest lifestyle. She was in awe at the ease with which she was moved by a smile or a hug. She reveled in community’s cozy atmosphere.
It is all too easy to romanticize poverty. However, sometimes it can inspire people to lend a hand and make a difference. Trips abroad humble and awaken visitors, especially when both travelers and host communities are respectful, creating a friendly environment.
Not all travel stories share Callan Gaines’ positive perspective, especially when that perspective comes from behind the curtain. Haiti’s Jalousie, a hillside slum in one of the capital’s districts, is going up in colors. Jalousie en Colors is a government project aiming to liven up the area by painting 1,000 houses in bright colors.
The underlying philosophy is that life will take a better turn when beauty is introduced. However, the money should not be going towards painting when there are more pressing issues facing Jalousie.
With a secondary fault line running underneath the hillside slum, Jalousie is at risk of enduring earthquakes and mudslides. In addition to these environmental hazards, residents need schools, electricity and a water supply. Instead of heeding these concerns, the Haitian government is changing Jalousie from an eye sore to a tourist backdrop. Despite claims that beautifying Jalousie is to lift the spirit of residents, only the houses facing the nearby hotels are painted.
Phase 2 of the project is underway, with an agenda to have 3,000 more houses painted and the reparation of a local soccer field. Concerns regarding the safety and infrastructure of Jalousie have been promptly dismissed.
In South America, preparation for the World Cup in Brazil has sparked distress across many of Brazil’s favelas. Residents face eviction threats as the government gathers momentum through their plans of urbanization. The government uses geological hazards as an excuse to justify their eviction intentions when the past few decades are a testament to the contrary. Residents cannot bear to leave behind the rich culture, history and diversity that has taken so long to come together, nor do they want to separate from families and neighbors.
The campaign to empty out favelas is still at full speed with the 2016 Olympics ahead. The government denies services to residents like garbage collection and lighting. There are rent increases and demolitions, and the evicted are dropped off in public housing. The gentrification of favelas crushes education, sanitation and infrastructure in order to sell an idealistic and exotic image of Brazil to the world.
Tourism is a large source of revenue. However, if poorly managed, tourism can severely damage a country. India and Nigeria are countries with failed tourism development strategies. Social injustice carves rifts between classes and weak policies can lead to irreparable destruction for the environment. The influx of foreigners and the government’s need to impress create a wave of low paying and exploitative jobs, used to keep up a welcoming illusion.
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Report on Tourism in the Developing World asserts that the host community, host government and foreign stakeholder must take responsible and respectful action in order to implement healthy tourism. Tourism should elicit positive feelings from both host and guest. The idea is that tourism promotes pride, peace, understanding and acceptance. It goes without saying that the idea needs to be a reality.
– Carmen Tu
Sources: ReliefWeb, USIP, The Guardian, Where Am I Wearing
Photo: UN
Indian Leaders Order Minor’s Revenge Rape
When a man in India was accused of assaulting a neighbor’s wife, the village leaders ordered a horrendous punishment: the rape of that man’s 14-year-old sister. The neighbor was instructed to carry out the rape, which occurred sometime after midnight on Sunday and daytime on Monday. The punishment–called revenge rape–is not uncommon in rural India.
In January, another council of village elders ordered the gang rape of a 20-year-old in West Bengal for being involved with a man from another community. She was beaten, raped and later died from injuries, as they had also raped her with a metal pole. And a year ago, a 24-year-old woman in northern India was forced to marry a man and was then gang raped as punishment for her brother’s elopement.
In most of rural India, women are still viewed as the property of their families and even their communities. Though rape outside of marriage is illegal in India, eye-for-an-eye revenge rape is still part of the tradition.
“If you want to hurt the husband, hurt the father or hurt the community, then you rape the woman to say, ‘All right, I’m soiling your goods,'” explains secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association Kavita Krishnan.
The rapist’s wife defends his actions. Her father was reportedly one of the village elders that ordered the revenge rape.
The mother of the 14-year-old victim told CNN that she had begged the council members and fellow villagers to stop the rape of her child, but no one did anything.
“We begged with folded hands but they would not listen. They dragged her away to the forest,” the mother recalled.
The young teen’s parents found their daughter bleeding an hour after the violent rape and took her to the police station. According to the police spokesperson, her clothes were smeared with blood. Later, she was admitted to the hospital because of renewed bleeding and difficulty walking.
The Indian police have arrested the rapist, his father-in-law and the attempted rapist from the week prior. However, securing a conviction and then keeping that conviction from being overturned is difficult in India. Only 1 out of 635 rape cases reported in India in 2011 have resulted in conviction. Though the Delhi attack has begun a reformation of women’s rights, the laws are not well enforced in rural India, and marital rape is still legal.
– Kimmi Ligh
Sources: NPR, Daily Mail, The Wall Street Journal 1, The Wall Street Journal 2, RYOT, NY Daily News, USA Today, National Post
Photo: NY Daily News
Report Seeks End to AIDS Epidemic
Recent statistics released in a new report by UNAIDS show that the number of new HIV/AIDS cases have been decreasing steadily. This new data shows that for every 10 percent increase in treatment coverage, there is a one percent decline in new infections among those living with HIV. However, the report also noted that far more international effort was needed because this current pace is insufficient to completely end the AIDS epidemic.
In 2013, 2.1 million new HIV/AIDS cases were recorded, down from 3.4 million new cases in 2001. 2013 also saw an additional 2.3 million people gain access to the life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART), which is a drug that substantially suppresses many of the symptoms of AIDS and increases life spans. This means that a grand total of 13 million people have previously had or currently have access to ART. AIDS-related deaths have fallen by one-fifth in the past three years.
The most headline-grabbing piece from the report came from Michael Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, who said, “If we accelerate all HIV scale-up by 2020, we will be on track to end the epidemic by 2030.”
However it is important to know that while there has been significant improvement, considerable work still needs to be done. Sidibé went on to say that if we don’t continue to scale up efforts, then we would “[add] a decade, if not more” to the 2030 goal.
Only 15 countries account for more than 75 percent of the 2.1 million new HIV infections in 2013. In Sub-Saharan Africa the countries of Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda account for 48 percent of all new HIV infections in the region. Fewer than four in 10 people currently with HIV lack the ART necessary to survive. HIV prevalence is estimated to be 12 times higher in sex workers, 19 times higher among gay men, 28 times higher in drug injectors and up to 49 times higher among transgender women. Sub-Saharan adolescent girls and young women account for one in four new HIV infections.
While there are a tremendous amount of fascinating statistics on the matter, it’s important to not get lost in them. This new report from UNAIDS shows that progress is being made, but an even stronger effort is needed in order to end the AIDS epidemic in a timely fashion and save millions more lives.
– Andre Gobbo
Sources: BBC, UNAIDS 1, UNAIDS 2
Photo: New America Media
Kurdistan: A Beacon of Hope in Iraq
Kurdistan is an autonomous region in northern Iraq. Eleven years ago, its capital Irbil was a quaint and frightened town, scarred from years of attacks by the Iraqi government. Today, it shines as an unexpected symbol of peace, tolerance and hope in Iraq in a region torn apart by sectarian violence.
Despite the recent sudden advances of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the city of Irbil has managed to avoid falling into the pit of chaos that has overwhelmed the rest of the country. As Iraqi military forces flee and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki bombs ISIS-controlled areas, Kurdistan has opened its doors to refugees and remained comparatively immune to the turmoil.
The region exercises remarkable religious tolerance, containing a large Christian community with nuns and a church in one of Irbil’s suburbs. Kurds and Arabs intermingle in Irbil’s cafes and beer gardens. But Kurdistan did not always look this way.
Reporter Luke Harding travelled to Kurdistan in 2003 to document the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He went to visit the region again recently, and found the town of Irbil “unrecognizable.”
“Shopping malls, five-star hotels and a strange tower with a flying saucer-shaped restaurant on the top have transformed the once-low skyline. On a gleaming three-lane boulevard, workers plant purple flowers. A Jaguar and Range Rover dealership stands on the waste ground from where I made my forlorn calls home,” he observes.
He recalls his first trip in 2003, when he had to be smuggled across the Iran border in order to get into the country. Eleven years later, he flies out of Irbil on Austrian Airlines.
The region has undergone a massive transformation, which Harding attributes to oil. After the ousting of Saddam Hussein, Kurdistan was freed from years of exclusion from the oil markets. Natural resources minister of Kurdistan Ashti Hawrami has worked hard to break into the market. He has managed to make deals with large oil companies, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
“For the past 80 years, the Iraqi state has been stealing Kurdish oil,” says Hemin Hawram, head of the Kurdish Democratic Party foreign relations committee. “[Baghdad] used it to buy weapons to bomb the Kurds.”
While Kurdistan has emerged as a leader in religious tolerance and a haven for displaced Iraqis after ISIS’s recent advances, the Iraqi government has taken issue with the manner in which Kurdistan has achieved economic success. Maliki has stopped funding Kurdistan because of claims that it is illegally exporting oil and that the region is profiting off oil that should belong to the Iraqi government.
The rescindment of funding from the government has added more weight to the burden that Kurdistan already shoulders with the influx of displaced Iraqis. Antonio Guterres, head of the U.N.’s refugee agency, has stressed the region’s need for support, imploring the international community “to provide massive support for the Iraqis displaced, for the Iraqi victims of this conflict, but also to provide massive support to the government and the people in Kurdistan,” especially in the wake of the loss of funding from Baghdad.
Guterres, while visiting a displaced Iraqi camp in Kurdistan, stated he was “humbled by the generosity and the solidarity of the government and of the people in Kurdistan in this very difficult moment.”
– Julianne O’Connor
Sources: The Guardian, Mail & Guardian, The Daily Star
Photo: The Guardian
Girl Summit 2014
Co-hosted by UNICEF and the UK government, Girl Summit 2014, held on July 22 marked the first international conference dedicated to eradicating forced child marriage and forced genital mutilation.
Speakers at the Girl Summit 2014 included Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development and Theresa May, the Home Secretary.
A statistic released by the U.N. claims, according to The Telegraph, that around “125 million women and girls worldwide have been cut—and that at least 30 million more will be at risk over the next decade.” This mutilation is used as a means to make sure young girls remain “controlled and disempowered.” The consequences of this process include increased risk for illness and increased pain and mortality rates for mothers during childbirth.
Moreover, approximately one-third of female children in developing countries are married by the time they are 18. The Girl Summit Pledge website asserts that some girls who are forced into marriage “are as young as eight. Girls who marry young have babies while still children, putting them at risk of death or suffering for the rest of their lives. They are more likely to be poor and stay poor.” The ultimate goal of the Girl Summit 2014, therefore, is to more actively publicize and strengthen the worldwide community against these horrendous types of child abuse.
David Cameron, Prime Minister of the UK, declared that efforts to eradicate forced female genital mutilation and forced child marriage would be, according to The Telegraph, “at the top of Britain’s aid agenda” and he will endeavor to ensure these changes will take place “within a generation.”
The Girl Summit 2014 is also seeking to continue the movement beyond the conference through generating a large and sustained social media following. The Girl Summit is looking for people to pledge their support through their Facebook page and through twitter by using #GirlSummit.
– Jordyn Horowitz
Sources: The Telegraph, GOV.UK, Girl Summit 2014
Photo: GOV.UK
Spotlight on Team Tassy
On Saturday, July 26 in Denver and Saturday, September 6 in Pittsburgh, the third annual Great American Water Balloon Fight will take place. The profit from ticket sales go to Team Tassy, an organization passionate about ending global poverty. Team Tassy focuses on helping with the health, education, housing and jobs of those in poverty. Its ideology is that everyone can help, no matter how much or how little.
The story of Team Tassy goes back to Ian Rosenberger’s trip Haiti shortly after the 2010 earthquake. Rosenberger met a Haitian boy named Tassy. Tassy, though surviving the earthquake that stripped 300,000 people of their lives and destroyed the homes of 1.5 million, carried a tennis ball sized tumor on the side of his face.
It was ironic to have survived unlikely catastrophes and yet have a future threatened by something that can be treated. However, Rosenberger realized that the removal of the tumor would not guarantee Tassy a future either. Tassy would still face the hardships that come with an impoverished life. Rosenberger understood that to help Tassy and others like him, people must collaborate to eliminate poverty.
Virginia Montanez of the Pittsburgh Magazine conducted an interview of Rosenberger and Tassy in 2011 regarding the journey together that saved Tassy’s life. Within months, Rosenberger raised $50,000 for the surgery in Pittsburgh required to remove Tassy’s tumor. With the help of friends and donors donations poured in. Rosenberger notes that over 500 people had a hand in helping Tassy jump this hurdle.
In the interview, Rosenberger admitted that there were some worrisome periods when they were unsure of the possibility of meeting their goal and their chances of saving Tassy. However, the ultimate success of Tassy’s story proved the immeasurable power of advocacy.
Rosenberger knows that Tassy’s story is not the only one of its kind. Rosenberger kept going and started Team Tassy in order to help others in need. Rosenberger’s vision and efforts have helped Tassy kick-start a future full of possibilities. Tassy attends college in Pittsburgh and now envisions a hopeful future. He wants to eventually help others, just as others have helped him.
The water balloon fight was one of the events Rosenberger and his team organized to help fundraise for Haitians. The first water balloon fight in Pittsburgh amassed $22,000. Since then, Team Tassy has continued to host the event.
Besides the colorful sight of nearly 100,000 water balloons sailing through the air over a stadium field, participants can spend their day joining in on other activities. There’s music, yoga, carnival games and food. It’s a very festive, family oriented event. People are encouraged to indulge in some childhood fun in honor of a good cause.
– Carmen Tu
Sources: The Great American Water Balloon Fight, Pittsburgh Magazine, Team Tassy, YouTube – Ted Talks, TribLive
Photo: Team Tassy
Restricted Labor Force in India
While stories of India’s gender gap have been in the media spotlight in past years, a recent census shows the depth of the inequality. India is rated 101 out of a 136 country survey for gender disparity, with lower economic opportunities and a lower literacy rate. With a population of over a billion, nearly 160 million women are estimated to be restricted to domestic work, many of whom are of working age.
With a restricted labor force in India, the capacity for growth and development is hindered. Additionally, the options women do have are limited by unequal access to education and training. While this problem has been acknowledged, its scope was underestimated. Sociologists hope that governmental encouragement of women in the workforce can help reduce illiteracy and poverty among women.
However, even women who are employed are more likely to be “vulnerably employed” than their male counterparts. This term, used by an ILO study to describe nearly 84 percent of South Asian women, refers to the risk these workers face: seasonal employment and more easily terminated services leaves them with little job security. Additionally, these workers perform mostly domestic services, a trend which consistently reinforces the patriarchal hierarchy in India.
With job security being a problem for women, the government is hoping that opening up more opportunities in the public sector, now dominated by men, can have an equalizing effect for the women of India. With women and girls being among the most disadvantaged in the world, employing them and fostering growth in education and literacy is in the best interest for 21st century India.
For as large of a nation as it is, the hindrances on the labor force have not allowed India to realize its potential. For the generations of women now and those in the future, women must have the opportunity to come out of the domestic sphere and into the working world.
– Kristin Ronzi
Sources: Silicon India, ISP News
Photo: Worldbank
China’s Rising Economy
China’s April-to-June quarter results have proved that the country is growing economically. China’s rising economy has expanded 7.5 percent in the past year, on target with the government’s goal, and retail sales and factory output has risen even just in the month of June.
This change is positive, but was somewhat expected, as China’s government has created a plan to boost economic growth. These quarterly results simply reaffirmed that they are on the right track.
Dariusz Kowalczyk, a senior economist in Hong Kong, said regarding the results, “The Result is very good and shows the economy has recovered very well in the second quarter.” He also confirmed that the improvements were the result of the “targeted stimulus measures undertaken by the Chinese authorities.”
This boost has come after a recent decline in China’s economy due to lowered demands of exports. The economic lull inspired the government to increase consumption domestically and rebalance their growth model.
One of the changes made to boost the economy was to lower the Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR,) the cash amount required by banks to keep in reserve in order to have money to lend to agriculture related businesses and smaller companies. Smaller companies also received cuts on their taxes.
While the growth is something to celebrate, China still needs to practice caution. The growing economy may be completely dependent on the stimulus changes, and the momentum could easily fade. Chang Jian, an analysist with Barclays, stated that, “…the recovery is quite dependent on government support”.
There is also the question as to how genuine the rising economy is. The property sector, making up about 16 percent of China’s GDP, is going through a downturn. The government is working on taking out “shadow banking,” where alternative lending and finances are given outside of the government. House sales have fallen 9.2 percent. While these facts should be lending to a shrinking economy, the economy continues to grow, putting it under speculation by some.
Some believe that the numbers are inflated, and that the GDP has truly only expanded by 6 percent rather than 7.5 percent. Some economists worry that the growth will plateau, or that the government’s stimulus work will not be enough to sustain the momentum.
One thing to hope for is that the economy’s growth will continue because of these changes, even without the government continually tending to it.
Banks have been encouraged to lend more willingly to companies that export goods, which should increase exports over time.
China also plans to build railways, roads and airports along the Yangtze river, which would enable the country’s less developed areas to more easily reach Shanghai, giving economic opportunity to a larger variety of citizens.
Only time will tell if the rising economy of China is genuine and long lasting. This growth, or lack of growth, will surely affect the global economy as well.
– Courtney Prentice
Sources: BBC, Time, The Asashi Shimbun
Photo: Opinion-Maker