Human Rights Watch (HRW) has recently released a report titled “We are still here: Women on the front lines of Syria’s conflict,” which details the increasingly significant role women in Syria have been playing over the past three years during the vicious war as well as the additional obstacles that women must face.
Protests against the Syrian government began in 2011, and they quickly erupted into a deadly civil war, pitting antigovernment militias against government forces. According to the United Nations, the war has killed 150,000 people and displaced over nine million. As of June, half of the entire population of the country is currently in need of humanitarian aid.
The report released by HRW includes the stories of 17 different women who fled this destruction in Syria and are now refugees in the neighboring country of Turkey. “Their experiences reflect the various roles that women, particularly those opposed to the government or living in areas that came under government attack, have taken on as political activists, caregivers, humanitarians, and providers, as well as the particular ways in which conflict impacts women.”
Because many men have had to leave their homes due to “indiscriminate attacks, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, or engagement in military operations,” women have become especially vulnerable, having less support in the case of an emergency, and having the additional responsibility of sole breadwinner.
Raids by armed forces and abductions, in which women are more highly targeted, become larger threats without this support. When women are abducted or arbitrarily detained, they are also disproportionately prone to receive abuse, including sexual assault and torture.
Some armed groups have explicitly targeted women in Syria, putting in place discriminatory policies that limit “women’s engagement in public life and ability to move freely” and “their access to education and employment.” In addition to fear of conflict, these types of overt restrictions severely limit women’s mobility.
However, many women are fighting back. Maha, a Syrian woman and founder of a peaceful activism organization, is continuing her organization’s civic work in Syria even though she fled the country after losing her husband to a government attack.
Maha is worried, however, that the work her organization and others like it are doing is being covered by the images of violence, saying, “On the news, you only see blood and destruction. You don’t see that behind it, there are civilian groups doing things peacefully.”
This HRW report has helped to shed light on the experiences Syrian women have had during this troubling conflict. They are at a disproportionately high risk to experience abuse and many have had to assume challenging and dangerous leadership roles.
“Recognizing women’s multiple and significant roles in the conflict,” the report noted, “and their experiences as both actors and victims, is critical to developing appropriate responses to women’s needs inside Syria and in refugee communities and to ensuring their ongoing and meaningful participation in determining Syria’s future.”
– Emily Jablonski
Sources: Al Jazeera America, Human Rights Watch
Photo: CTV News
Trickle Up Program Empowers People in Poverty
The Trickle Up Program empowers people living on less than $1.25 a day to take the first steps out of poverty.
Trickle Up does this by providing those less fortunate with the resources to build sustainable livelihoods for a better quality of life. They use their partnerships with local agencies in order to provide training and use capital grants to launch or expand microenterprises to support and build assets.
There are an estimated 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty, which means there is an immense need for economic development programs that can produce sustainable change in the lives of the poorest people.
The Trickle Up Program was founded in 1979 to ensure that the poorest people in any nation could have a chance to build a better life for themselves. In three decades, the program has successfully increased income levels of extremely poor households around the world.
Three years ago, Trickle Up served nearly 8,000 participants with an average of five people benefiting from each Trickle Up-supported enterprise. This means over 41,000 people will improve their quality of life as a result of the program’s work this year alone.
Trickle Up aims to serve people at the very bottom of the socioeconomic scale. The program’s unique approach is designed for households whose per capita income is less than $1.25 a day. Households living at this level of poverty lack the security to qualify for formal credit services and are not in a position to benefit from any strategy that carries a risk to plunge them further into debt.
This is where the Trickle Up Program comes into play. Their poverty reduction strategy includes a one-time capital grant, called a Trickle Up Spark Grant. This provides the participants with the necessary startup capital to launch or expand microenterprises.
This, in conjunction with highly structured business and livelihood training can facilitate the formation of community-based savings and effectively boost household incomes to make continued progress out of poverty.
Their end goal is to empower the world’s poorest people so that they can develop their potential and strengthen their communities from within. Trickle Up pursues this goal in a way that encourages innovation and leadership while promoting communication and cooperation among all their communities.
– Cara Morgan
Sources: Ford Foundation, Trickle Up
Photo: Trickle Up
How Mobile Banking is Changing Africa
More often than not, adopting a pre-existing idea is easier than creating a brand new one. The mobile phone is an example of this. In recent years, there has been an explosion in the adoption of mobile phones among people living throughout Africa. The impact of mobile phones includes paving a more secure form of mobile banking, and ultimately creating a shift in African culture.
Over the past decade, the use of mobile phones has increased in both developed and developing countries. According to the World Bank, mobile subscriptions have been increasing around the world every year – and African countries have made the biggest gains. In 2009, the US had 89 cellphones per 100 people, and 96 in 2013. Nigeria had 48 per 100 people in 2009, with 73 in 2013. South Africa had 91 cellphones per 100 people in 2009, and 147 in 2013. The greatest strides were made by African states.
According to The Economist, three phones exist for every four people, which describes the accessibility of these products. While mobile devices were initially created to function as telephones, Africans do not use them solely for communication. Just like people with iPhone’s in developed nation, Africans have access to a whole range of activities via their phones, including secure banking and e-payments.
According to Paul Edwards, the CEO of Emerging Markets Payments (EMP), only 15 to 20 percent of Africans have bank accounts. This number contrasts sharply with developed countries, where almost everyone has or is expected to manage a bank account as an adult.
Mobile banking has created a shift. Africa has a different banking culture than that of developed nations.
Furthermore, making e-payments and using mobile banking allows for less corruption. As all money transfers are electrically handled, transactions are instant and, therefore, significantly reduce the number of delays in payments.
Many Africans have used cash to fuel their informal sector jobs, but using less cash and more e-payments allows governments to track tax-able profits. Ultimately this creates a more regulated, tax-paying economy that will generate revenues for the state and further establish self-sufficiency.
The growing popularity of mobile phones displays a tangible shift in Africa’s culture. A public relations company named Portland conducted a survey of Twitter in Africa. They used devices that allowed for geo-location; by examining the hashtags in Tweets, they were able to look into the interests of Africans. Subjects ranged from Nelson Mandela’s death to football to public dissatisfaction with the government.
As Africans continue to use mobile phones for various purposes, the rest of the world will watch to see what this will mean for the development of Africa.
– Christina Cho
Sources: Foreign Policy, The Economist 1, The Economist 2, World Bank, Foreign Policy 2
Photo: CNN
Harmful Impact: Children Living in Poverty
Children living in poverty often have negative long-term emotional, educational, health and mental issues.
There are billions of children living in poverty throughout the world. Living in poverty directly impacts a child’s education. A child living in poverty is most likely to perform poorly in school and drop out of school at an early age.
Living in poverty also has a social and emotional impact on children. Children develop behavioral and emotional problems often acting on impulse. They are more prone to disobey rules and their elders and may develop problems getting along with their peers. Living in poverty also makes it hard for children to develop normal emotions and creates low self-esteem, making them feel powerless and voiceless. Living in poverty often creates stressful situations for children, which children often do not know how to deal with. Since they do not know how to deal with these situations, children often are led to be more physically violent in stressful situations.
Children living in poverty often carry an antisocial character that is psychologically described as a protection mechanism against their hostile environment.
Children living in poverty are also more likely to have health issues. Newborns are more likely to be underweight which most of the time leads to them be malnourished. They often suffer from poor nutrition because their families and communities do not have the proper resources to get nutritional foods. A lot of times children in developing countries also do not have correct medical care. Children with poor health often end up missing school or drop out of school because they are too sick. There are higher death rates in children living in poverty because of health issues that are curable, which is not okay. One of the most common curable diseases that children die from each year is diarrhea.
It is important to address child poverty at its early stages to stop the poverty cycle and the negative impacts it has on children.
— Priscilla Rodarte
Sources: Poverties.org, CPAG, U.S. News, Livestrong
Photo: Pixabay
5 Myths about Global Poverty
1. Poor Countries Will Always Stay Poor
Once a country is deemed “poor,” it’s almost impossible for it to turn around, right? Wrong! Take Mexico City, for example. In 1987, when Bill Gates first visited, the conditions “reminded him of rural Africa,” proliferated with incredible smog and a lack of running water. Yet, 27 years later, the city gleams with high-rise buildings, cleaner air and new roads and bridges. Today the mostly middle class Mexico City is a prime example of a country’s ability to turn around from even the most drastic conditions.
2. The Eastern World is Mostly Impoverished
Per-person income in Turkey and Chile are where the US was in 1960. Malaysia and Gabon are almost there. China’s per-person income has gone up eightfold since 1960. India’s has quadrupled, Brazil’s has quintupled. Even tiny Botswana has seen a 30-fold increase due to its shrewd management of mineral resources.
3. All of Africa is Poor
While there are pockets of poverty in all areas of the world, our vision of Africa is incredibly tainted. Today, per-person income in Africa has climbed by two-thirds, and seven of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the past five years are in Africa.
4. If it weren’t for all the foreign aid we give, developing countries wouldn’t have access to AIDS treatments.
Foreign aid, while incredibly important, only funds less than half of global AIDS programs. In 2012, for the second year, low and middle income countries were responsible for funding more than half of these programs. South Africa, home to more HIV-positive people than anywhere else in the world, funds 80 percent of its AIDS treatments and is on track to take over full funding and management of the problem by 2017.
5. We Already Spend Way Too Much on Foreign Aid
On average, Americans believe we spend 20 percent of our federal budget on foreign aid. In reality, only .2 percent of the U.S. Gross National Income goes toward improving living conditions for the world’s poor. Compared to other wealthy countries, the United States ranks one of the lowest in foreign aid spending. Spending money on foreign aid is an investment. Alleviating poverty doesn’t just save lives, it lays the groundwork for long-term economic progress.
– Nick Magnanti
Sources: Real Clear World, Huffington Post,
Photo: Big Think
New Direction for Global Partnership for Education
The Global Partnership for Education met recently in Brussels hoping to not only raise $3.5 billion for education, but implement a new strategy in order to attract funding where it is needed most.
Funding raised at the meeting benefits the world’s children who are the least able to access a proper education.
The Global Partnership for Education’s mission is to “galvanize and coordinate a global effort to deliver a good, quality education to all girls and boys, prioritizing the poorest and most vulnerable.” Established in 2002, the Global Partnership for Education is comprised of close to 60 developing countries, donor governments, international organizations, the private sector, teachers and NGO groups.
Countries furthest from the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals are also places with fragile political stability. This is a problem, as Overseas Development Assistance is channeled primarily toward “good performers” who have records of effective governance. This logic comes in the assumption that investment in education is only wise once good governance has been established.
The Global Partnership for Education has adjusted its philosophy, however, emphasizing that investing in education now can strengthen governance in a country in the future.
This relationship is more than a theory. Brookings Institute has found evidence of the connection between universal education and good governance, finding an unmistakable relationship between the two. Brookings has gathered that education allows for improvement in three elements of governing: voice and accountability, control of corruption and political instability and violence.
Education promotes the development of an increasingly informed population, promoting citizens to hold their governments accountable. Education is necessary for citizens to both access and act on information. These skills come through not only literacy, but math and reasoning skills—all necessary ingredients to influence policy and reform.
Apart from raw skills, education socializes people, opening more opportunities for community conversation. Increasing levels of socialization may lead to a greater attachment between the culture and its nation state. With greater attachment to the homeland comes a greater expectation from citizens for honest governance. Strong government institutions are less likely to experience corruption and will hopefully give back to the education system with increasing levels of stability.
Education is also positive for levels of individual productivity, which in turn can create conditions for economic equality. Economic equality is associated with political stability and low levels of violence.
Because “education” is a broad term, it is imperative that the education provided to these marginalized children is the right kind of education, the kind that will have a positive effect on governance. In this way, the content must be quality rather than propaganda.
The Global Partnership for Education’s new strategy will ensure that children are getting the resources they need to be educated, without waiting on their governments to get their act together first. After all, children have the potential to grow up into positive influences with the potential to change the world.
– Caroline Logan
Sources: Brookings, Global Partnership
Sources: UNESCO
Women in Syria
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has recently released a report titled “We are still here: Women on the front lines of Syria’s conflict,” which details the increasingly significant role women in Syria have been playing over the past three years during the vicious war as well as the additional obstacles that women must face.
Protests against the Syrian government began in 2011, and they quickly erupted into a deadly civil war, pitting antigovernment militias against government forces. According to the United Nations, the war has killed 150,000 people and displaced over nine million. As of June, half of the entire population of the country is currently in need of humanitarian aid.
The report released by HRW includes the stories of 17 different women who fled this destruction in Syria and are now refugees in the neighboring country of Turkey. “Their experiences reflect the various roles that women, particularly those opposed to the government or living in areas that came under government attack, have taken on as political activists, caregivers, humanitarians, and providers, as well as the particular ways in which conflict impacts women.”
Because many men have had to leave their homes due to “indiscriminate attacks, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, or engagement in military operations,” women have become especially vulnerable, having less support in the case of an emergency, and having the additional responsibility of sole breadwinner.
Raids by armed forces and abductions, in which women are more highly targeted, become larger threats without this support. When women are abducted or arbitrarily detained, they are also disproportionately prone to receive abuse, including sexual assault and torture.
Some armed groups have explicitly targeted women in Syria, putting in place discriminatory policies that limit “women’s engagement in public life and ability to move freely” and “their access to education and employment.” In addition to fear of conflict, these types of overt restrictions severely limit women’s mobility.
However, many women are fighting back. Maha, a Syrian woman and founder of a peaceful activism organization, is continuing her organization’s civic work in Syria even though she fled the country after losing her husband to a government attack.
Maha is worried, however, that the work her organization and others like it are doing is being covered by the images of violence, saying, “On the news, you only see blood and destruction. You don’t see that behind it, there are civilian groups doing things peacefully.”
This HRW report has helped to shed light on the experiences Syrian women have had during this troubling conflict. They are at a disproportionately high risk to experience abuse and many have had to assume challenging and dangerous leadership roles.
“Recognizing women’s multiple and significant roles in the conflict,” the report noted, “and their experiences as both actors and victims, is critical to developing appropriate responses to women’s needs inside Syria and in refugee communities and to ensuring their ongoing and meaningful participation in determining Syria’s future.”
– Emily Jablonski
Sources: Al Jazeera America, Human Rights Watch
Photo: CTV News
Refugees in Lebanon Increase with Renewed Conflict
While the current international focus in the Middle East has centered around Syria and the recent violence in Iraq, the impact of increased civil strife across the region will have serious implications for Lebanon.
The Syrian civil war has been going on for four years now, bleeding out into other areas as millions have been displaced from their homes. A huge influx of Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring Lebanon over the past several years, contributing to rising tension within Lebanon’s borders.
In order to escape the violence in their country, nearly 2.5 million Syrians have fled. There are currently over one million refugees in Lebanon alone; nearly half of the total number.
Lebanon’s current political system will not have a high tolerance for conflict as the country has just recently come out of a 15-year civil war.
The problem with Syrian refugees in Lebanon will come with challenges beyond the normal problems associated with displaced people. Refugees from Syria have the potential to increase sectarian violence among Sunni and Shiite communities. The Shiite militant organization Hezbollah supports Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime. This provokes violence in Lebanon from an outraged Sunni community. The Sunni faction ISIS has been taking advantage of a weak government in both Syria and Iraq in order to take control of areas in hopes of creating their own Islamic state.
When leaders of Lebanon’s religious factions lose control over their territories, historically, chaos breaks out. Attacks occur in the form of kidnappings, assassinations and bombings.
Apart from violence, the refugee overflow overwhelms Lebanon’s already fragile infrastructure. Water, electricity and waste management systems have the potential to break down. This could lead to a disastrous shortage of water and electricity which in turn would allow for the spread of disease and contamination.
The United States knows that preventing escalating conflict in Lebanon is necessary to avoid further violence across the region, and to decrease the likelihood of extremists groups expanding. Renewed conflict in Lebanon could also threaten Israel, a U.S. ally, if religious extremists groups continue to grow.
There is no easy solution to growing tension in Lebanon due to the increasing number of refugees. In order to avoid a renewed conflict in Lebanon, state institutions must be effective in calming the growing violence and tension between religious groups. Additionally, public healthcare and sanitation services must be enhanced.
According to Council of Foreign Relations Senior Advisor Monica Yaccoubiana, avoiding a conflict in Lebanon will take a huge effort to mitigate spillover effects of the Syrian conflict. These efforts must include ensuring humanitarian access to civilians inside Syria, working with the United Nations to improve access for aid groups, increase funding for assistance and initiating high level meetings between global political leaders and Lebanese officials in order to encourage consensus building and implement solutions.
– Caroline Logan
Sources: CFR, BBC, UNHCR
Photo: Al Jazeera
Conflicting Results on Microcredit Alleviating Poverty
A new experimental study, out June 10th of this year, examines how microcredit, or the lending of small amounts of money at low interest to new businesses in the developing world, may not help jump start poor populations’ financial growth as much as some may think.
The authors of the study, Bruno Crepon, Florencia Devoto, Esther Duflo, and William Pariente, randomly assigned 162 villages in rural Morocco to either receive microcredit (these villages would serve as the treatment group) or not to receive it (and these would serve as the control group).
The researchers, who are affiliated with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (or J-PAL), found that microcredit does not lead to families and businesses exiting poverty in the long-run.
This is in opposition to a similar study conducted by Shahidur Khandker and Hussain Samad of the World Bank in March 2014 which found that microcredit increased personal expenditure, labour supply, household assets and schooling of children in impoverished communities of Bangladesh.
Furthermore, Bono, whose humanitarian work in developing nations is highly documented, has lauded microcredit as an effective means of alleviating poverty, stating, “Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Give a woman microcredit, she, her husband, her children and her extended family will eat for a lifetime.”
However, the researchers at J-PAL found that microcredit decreased the amount of time Moroccan laborers spent on work. The effect on investment was greatly offset by a reduction in income from wages. The researchers concluded that access to microcredit, at least in Morocco, did not result in income gains, personal consumption or education of the youth.
Writers at the Economist are attempting to analyze the conflicting results of these two studies, and learn why they produced such significant differences. One theory is that microcredit may only reduce poverty and increase income in the long run, making short term studies irrelevant and ineffective at gleaning a meaningful answer.
The two studies also took place in two very different countries on separate continents. One can reasonably conclude that there may be social, environmental, or political factors at play, as well. Economists refer to this issue as “external validity,” meaning the extent to which a study’s results are generalizable outside of its given context. The effects of microcredit may not be clear until researchers readily take place, setting, and social and political structures into account.
Further research is needed to know whether lending sums of money to businesses in poor areas of the developing world may actually be a beneficial policy. Crepon and his co-authors are currently planning a follow-up experiment to study the long term implications of microcredit. All involved hope to find some answers to these questionable methods of alleviating global poverty.
-Paige Frazier
Sources: The Economist, The World Bank, MIT Economics, Look to the Stars
Photo: African Microfinance Network
The Need for Education in Malawi
This week marks Malawi’s 50-year anniversary of independence from Britain. While this is quite a milestone, the country is still in desperate need of improvements, including education.
Malawi is considered to be one of the least developed countries in the world. Up to 40 percent of the country’s budget is funded by donors and outside sources. The United Kingdom is their main sponsor, funding programs for social development, health, education and agriculture.
According to UNICEF, 61 percent of Malawi’s population lives below the poverty line of less than $1.25 per day. Malawi has fallen behind its neighboring countries, as many of them have moved from the low-income bracket to middle-income.
However, Malawi has seen some improvements over the past few years. In 2008, Malawi had the second-fastest growing economy in the world. In 2009, the economy recorded a 9 percent annual growth. Despite these few victories, the country as a whole is still declining.
The largest barrier for Malawi in continuing its growth and development is the country’s lack of education. Only in recent years has education become a focus for the government. During the 2012-2013 fiscal year, 24 percent of Malawi’s budget was allocated specifically for education. Within this percentage, over half of it was set aside for progress in primary education.
A lack of resources, however, makes it difficult for the money to go toward a good use. Schools are lacking in qualified teachers, and classrooms are filling up with 100 students at a time. Education standards are impossible to keep high when there are no sufficient resources.
Increasing education in Malawi will be a huge step toward improving the country’s development. Having an education can increase a person’s income significantly, thus allowing families to help bring themselves out of poverty.
Additionally, education can change major life outcomes, especially for women. UNESCO reports that if all women in sub-Saharan Africa completed primary education, the maternal mortality rate could drop by up to 70 percent. Education also encourages women to wait until a later age to be married, which increases their potential for success.
Malawi would benefit immensely from increasing its education system. It is the key to reducing poverty and spurring developmental growth for the country. Without education, Malawi will be at the same state when the country celebrates its 100-year anniversary of independence.
– Hannah Cleveland
Sources: The Guardian, Al Jazeera
Photo: GOAL Malawi Education
The Reemergence of Tourism in Cuba
Before the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro’s rise to power in 1959, Cuba was a popular tourist destination for Americans. Now, only those over the age of 60 can remember a time when the governments of the United States and Cuba were on speaking terms.
In recent years, the Obama Administration has made efforts to improve relations with the neighboring country, including easing the economic embargo—though not lifting it—and allowing Cuban Americans to visit and send money to their families. This has been progressed in part by Raúl Castro taking over as president of Cuba. He has expressed interest in working with the U.S., something his brother never did.
In the wake of these changes, it is also much easier for the average American citizen to travel to Cuba. In the past, it was nearly impossible to reach Cuba without going through another country first. However, it was not the Cubans attempting to keep out American tourists, but rather the American government trying to keep American tourists out of Cuba in order to prevent the spread of communism.
Even now, with the Cold War long over, tourists must travel with a tour group, which will keep them busy with a multitude of activities every day, leaving barely any time for individual exploration. Despite this restricted travel, it has been reported that a half million Americans now legally travel to Cuba every year. This number is expected to grow in the coming years. The nation’s best year for tourism to date was 2013. Tourism is once again becoming an integral part of the Cuban economy.
A typical job in Cuba pays $16 a month. Someone with a well-paying career, like a doctor, will make $30 a month. Now, with an increase in tourism, working at a hotel is a coveted position. One waitress who serves in a hotel restaurant said that on a good night she will make roughly $15 in tips, which is enough to eat three meals a day, pay the electricity bill and purchase a new pair of shoes.
While some believe that the money coming in through tourism in Cuba will trickle down and benefit all Cubans, there is concern among many that it will only serve to create an economic divide between the “haves and the have nots” similar to pre-revolution Cuba. Though the Castros have been promising for years to create a socialist society that still allows for a somewhat capitalist economy with privately owned businesses and competition, changes have been slow to come about. The typical Cuban town is a mix of old, dilapidated buildings with propaganda posters of Fidel Castro in the windows and new, nicer businesses that attract tourists and Cubans who possess more money to spend than the average citizen.
Despite the fact that change may be slow, there is no denying that it is coming. The majority of Cubans are optimistic about the future of their country and their own livelihoods. Even simple sugarcane farmers express excitement that the world is paying more attention to Cuba, citing recent investments from Canada into Cuban sugarcane. The country’s hope and optimism lies in the possible end to the Castro era and the U.S. embargo, which they feel would create the new, prosperous Cuba that is just out of reach.
– Taylor Lovett
Sources: NPR, WABE, Time
Photo: Vintage Ad Browser