The fight against one of the major hindrances of Malaria prevention, Insecticide Resistance (IR), has recently gained a major asset, the IR Mapper. As an interactive online mapping tool, it tracks IR in malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
The IR Mapper “consolidates reports of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors onto filterable maps to inform vector control strategies.” Collected through the cooperative efforts of Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the information was brought together by Vestergaard Frandsen, a Swiss company. Lastly, the design for the interactive map came from ESRI Eastern Africa.
Today, insecticide plays a valuable role in the prevention of malaria. Spraying a house with insecticide ensures mosquito prevention within homes lasting from 3-6 months. Similarly, insecticide-treated bed nets are extremely valuable and, as the CDC found, these bed nets reduced deaths of children under 5 from all causes by roughly 20 percent.
Yet, the successes of insecticide are in danger if insecticide resistance is not combated. IR has been found in two-thirds of malaria prevalent countries. This large percentage of countries hindered by IR displays the importance of the IR Mapper.
Estimated that 26 million more new malaria cases might occur if the action doesn’t occur against IR, this interactive map will provide the needed knowledge to health-care workers on the ground.
These IR Maps provide a new means of knowing where insecticide is facing confrontation with IR strains of malaria. This new map of information allows users to “guide the deployment of insecticidal tools to ensure the right tool is used in the right place at the right time,” according to IR Mapper’s homepage.
With maps that are armed with data spanning 1954 to present with detailed information on the current susceptibility situation with the mapped pinpoint.
To gain the information necessary to fill the maps the team acquired data from scientific articles and reports and from the IR focused database IRBase.
With this information public, more policies will be constructed with better knowledge and more research will be widespread to excel the deterrence of malaria.
Planet Aid refuses to accept having a single, ambitious goal as its limit. Rather, this organization takes a dual-pronged approach to save the world by addressing environmental issues and global poverty under one mission statement.
The nonprofit organization collects and recycles used clothing and shoes in the U.S. as a way to reduce environmental impact while supporting sustainable development in impoverished communities worldwide.
Planet Aid started out as a small idea in 1997 near Boston, Massachusetts. The original setup included a mere few drop-off boxes alongside a small, rented storage unit where community members could donate clothing and shoes. Soon, however, the group’s scope began to outgrow the tiny rented space, and the organization’s creators set their sights on bigger, global aspirations.
Though its influence expanded quickly, its clear-cut aim to expand global environmental sustainability and mobilize resources to alleviate poverty remained the same. Planet Aid now owns over 18,000 clothes collection boxes throughout the United States, all featuring the same signature yellow exterior.
How does Planet Aid accomplish these goals? Firstly, by collecting and recycling used goods, Planet Aid saves valuable resources that help reduce CO2 emissions and thus alleviate global warming. Recycling clothing also saves precious landfill space.
Furthermore, Planet Aid supports development projects that help to strengthen and organize communities by promoting small enterprise development and increasing access to quality training and education. In addition, Planet Aid’s support programs meet health and nutrition needs as well, extending from HIV/AIDS care and prevention to Farmers’ Clubs to teach sustainable agriculture and work towards a more stable food source.
Today, Planet Aid recycles millions of pounds of used clothing nationwide each year. Since 1997, the group has given more than $90 million in support of more than 60 projects in 15 projects throughout the developing world.
In its “afterlife”, recycled clothing can be and important tool for solving global poverty and meeting environmental needs. If there was ever a need for proof that fashion could save the world, Planet Aid provides the evidence.
https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/logo.jpg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/logo.jpgBorgen Project2013-07-22 06:00:562020-07-16 19:04:59Planet Aid: Saving the World One Shirt at a Time
Many think of them as a fun salty snack for baseball games or a key ingredient in the classic PB&J, but for a large group of women in the eastern province of Zambia where nearly 85 percent of the labor force works in agriculture, peanuts are a way of survival and the means to a better life. Peanuts are the number one crop grown in this area by women. To improve the efficiency of the production and sale of this crop would mean a huge increase in their quality of life.
One project by President Obama’s Feed the Future initiative is working to teach female peanut farmers how to double their yield of peanuts, and increase their product market by producing a variety of different peanut products, like peanut oil and peanut butter. The initiative is partnering with the Zambian Government Agricultural Research Institute to train the women to become certified to grow higher quality hybrid seed varieties. Selling these seeds will bring in a much higher profit than the seeds the women were originally producing.
In order to help the women create different peanut products, Feed the Future provided a grant to the Katete Women’s Development Association, an organization that empowers women to grow crops like peanuts, for peanut oil expeller, which will help the women enter into the market of peanut processing. The new presser will help the women’s work to remain sustainable even after their donors have left. As long as they have the expeller, they can work themselves to turn their peanuts into profitable peanut products.
Not only will the higher quality peanut crop and new processing technologies help the women increase their quality of life, but they will be working in a business usually reserved for men. In most other countries, men are primarily in charge of producing and marketing the product, giving them all of the opportunities for further success. Feed the Future’s work is giving women the same opportunities and breaking the social boundaries of agricultural work in Africa.
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Colm Tóibín and Diarmaid Ferriter are Irish writers and historians. The first part of their 2004 book The Irish Famine written by Tóibín, is an essay outlining the historiography of the Great Famine, which plagued Ireland for seven years between 1845 and 1852. According to Tóibín, the famine is a historical event that has been manipulated by Irish and American historians for political ends from the late 19th century to the present. Tóibín speaks for both himself and Ferriter when he states: “Our own prejudices, mine and Diarmaid Ferriter’s, should be very clear: we both recognize that no narrative now seems capable of combining the sheer scale of the tragedy in all its emotion and catastrophe, the complex society which surrounded it and the high politics which governed it.”
Tóibín begins his history of historical writing on the famine by stating “two things happened in its (the famine’s) aftermath. One, people blamed the English and the Ascendancy. Two, there began a great silence about the class division in Catholic Ireland.” What Tóibín describes is a hurting Ireland that could not afford to face the reality of the massive pain she had suffered. In the wake of famine, Ireland required a “nationalist fervor” to rise from the ashes. In 1854, the historian John Mitchel called the famine a “genocide”, insinuating that the British deliberately exterminated those who died in the tragedy. This extreme sentiment became milder in the 20th century but still survived in a veiled form. In the 1990s, Governor George Pataki of New York expressed the view that Great Britain purposely refrained from assisting the Irish during the famine. Views such as this serve politicians well because they incite feelings of nationalism in prospective voters.
The authors’ understanding of famine and its capacity as a political tool is outstanding. Over the last half-century or so, one can see a similar phenomenon taking place in Ethiopia, where political oppositions capitalize on government inefficiency in the face of famine. In 1973, the communist junta under rebel leader Mengistu Haile Mariam accused the reigning monarch of failing to deal with the problem, resulting in the overthrow of the government. After a war with Eritrea in the later 1990s, Ethiopia is once again reeling from economic impoverishment augmented by famine.
When there is famine, a political platform is raised that is conducive to a dangerous breed of nationalism. As the Irish famine illustrates, extreme situations of hunger cause people to question their government. This can be seen in the historiography of the Irish famine, which indicates a hatred toward the British monarchy that was so potent it survived into the late 20th century. These are only a few examples of how the tragedy of famine can be used as a political tool.
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Charitable nonprofit organizations have a lot going on. With concerns related to making the operation sustainable, fundraising and securing donations, and advocacy efforts to legislators, the entire mission behind the message may become compromised. Sometimes groups forget who they are trying to reach and look over the fact that the best solutions often come from the communities in question. Here is where positive deviance comes into play.
“Positive Deviance is based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges.
The Positive Deviance approach is an asset-based, problem-solving, and community-driven approach that enables the community to discover these successful behaviors and strategies and develop a plan of action to promote their adoption by all concerned.”
The term first was used by Marian Zeitlin, a Tufts University professor, who observed well-nourished children living in contrast to their peers who were malnourished. Jerry Sternin and his wife, visiting scholars at Tufts in the 1990s, utilized Zeitlin’s ideas in other campaigns they participated in around the world. Positive deviance is now a social change approach used by various organizations like USAID and UNICEF in myriad applications.
Pact is a nonprofit group employing that approach. Their priorities lie in ensuring better resource management and health in impoverished communities. Actualizing that focus depends on building communal capacity, good governance and the business marketplace. This of course is contingent upon not introducing a solution but aiding the community in finding their own and helping to educate others around that example.
Working with local organizations that already have a great presentation where they are, Pact has been able to change lives. They’ve become de-facto consultants of sorts to these local groups and have tangible proof of success. The area of capacity development is especially essential because it solidifies local leadership and gives them the tools to lead effectively. But more than simple grants and consultations, Pact has provided workshops, coaching, peer learning and resource referrals with great results.
One example of Pact’s outreach can be found in the nation of Tanzania. Concerned about child health, the organization assembled small groups of women who pooled some of their money into communal funds meant for, according to Pact, “income-producing activities.” Pact-run meetings were informative sessions where, “…the groups learned…parenting skills, nutrition, hygiene, HIV prevention and household management.” With access to funds to help generate income, people were able to increase their standard of living and in turn ensure healthy children and a connected community.
The project, dubbed WORTH, spread from one small region in 2008 across Tanzania. Pact reports that in “…2011, 1,061 groups representing 20,166 caregivers caring for 52,262 vulnerable children were operating, with notable household improvements in food security, shelter and care.” A nationwide effort, undertaken and capitalized by those living there was special not just because it was successful, but because it was initiated and realized by Tanzanians.
Empowering communities to find examples within of what works is a testament to organizations like Pact and the innovative, solution-centered positive deviance approach.
“On Being a Woman and a Diplomat” – Madeleine Albright
Highlight Quote: “From some people, I think they thought [women’s rights] was a soft issue. The bottom line is I decided women’s issues are the hardest issues, because they are the ones that have to do with life and death in so many aspects.”
Madeline Albright was the first woman to hold the post of Secretary of State. Both amusing and straightforward, she uses this Q&A session to address the need to place women’s rights in the States’ top priorities in foreign policy, as well as increase the role of women in the political sphere as a whole.
Albright’s draws from her vast experience to illustrate her points. She explains how women leaders are better at communicating across ideological barriers, from weapons debates with Finland to reconciling Hutu and Tutsi leaders after the Rwandan genocide. Finally, Albright speaks of women’s tendency to hinder their own progress by criticizing powerful women in the workplace.
“The Global Power Shift” – Paddy Ashdown
Highlight Quotes: “Suddenly and for the very first time, collective defense, the thing that has dominated us as the concept of securing our nations, is no longer enough. It used to be the case that if my tribe was more powerful than their tribe, I was safe; if my country was more powerful than their country, I was safe; my alliance, like NATO, was more powerful than their alliance, I was safe. It is no longer the case. The advent of the interconnectedness and of the weapons of mass destruction means that, increasingly, I share a destiny with my enemy.”
Ashdown has had a long and illustrious international career, serving in MI6, then as a member of Parliament and after as the Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 20 minutes, Ashdown delivers us more food for thought than we can chew on at once.
Ashdown discusses the global shift in power, a phenomenon we are witnessing as it becomes ever more globalized and shared. Unlike the past, where a single superpower has risen, Ashdown projects a globe with multiple powers. Thus, co-existing will depend less on dominance and more on cooperation.
He points out that the interconnectivity of the world has a far deeper effect than what we imagine. Our future, our safety, our resources increasingly depend on each other, and with the world evolving the way it is, the idea of a nation no longer being able to bully its way to dominance is a novel one. This is an idea that sounds encouraging, but will take much getting used to. For global powers, the implications of a world where willingness trumps will is going to take adjustment.
“Time to End the War in Afghanistan” – Rory Stewart
Highlight Quote: “Because the worst thing we have done in Afghanistan is this idea that failure is not an option. It makes failure invisible, inconceivable and inevitable. And if we can resist this crazy slogan, we shall discover – in Egypt, in Syria, in Libya, and anywhere else we go in the world – that if we can often do much less than we pretend, we can do much more than we fear.”
Rory Stewart, a British MP, offers a refreshingly honest talk about the reality of the war in Afghanistan. A war that was so well sold to the public – wrapping philanthropy, revenge, idealism, and power into one – has ended up being a bloody, costly disaster, leaving both America’s psyche and Afghanistan itself irreparably wounded. Stewart compares intervention in Afghanistan to intervention in other countries asks the question: why didn’t it work here?
In answering, Stewart says the unsayable – that America’s arrogance and self-interest ultimately undermined any possible chance it had of improving the situation of the Afghan population at the cost of the lives of American soldiers. Stewart focuses not on pumping money or destroying dictators, but working with those who fully understand and comprehend the complexities of foreign intervention, and can deal with the challenges and frustrations it may bring.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates nearly 870 million people are suffering from chronic malnourishment despite the world producing more than enough food to feed everyone. Nearly all of these people, 852 million, live in developing countries. What can be done to solve world hunger?
1. Prevent Land Grabbing: The ugly truth of the future food supply scarcity issue is that wealthy, land-poor countries, including those in the Gulf and South Korea, are obtaining tracts of land in developing countries to use as allotments. Many African countries, including Ethiopia, Sudan, and Madagascar, have already been targeted. A reported estimate totaling an area the size of Spain has been taken from these countries leaving many families unable to feed their children. The push to end land grabbing is the main campaigning focus of the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign.
2. Reform and Regulate: Large amounts of investment funds have flooded into the commodities markets since the 2008 financial crisis. The automated trading systems, which exploit the tiniest of flaws in the market, encourage volatility. This makes it extremely difficult for traditional traders to keep prices stable and capable of hedging against spikes in the market. Though this was a topic much discussed in the G20 and G8, an international agreement to reform and regulate the commodities markets has not yet been reached.
3. Produce Less Biofuel: With the pressure to reduce carbon emission from fossil fuels, wealthy countries have been turning sugar, corn, and other crops into ethanol and biodiesel. Burning large amounts of food in our cars reduces the amount available to eat and results in much higher food prices. If that does not sound catastrophic enough, evidence shows that many biofuels actually release more greenhouse gasses than fossil fuels. More greenhouse gasses means hotter, drier seasons, dying crops, and even more hungry people.
4. Support Small Farms: Many African farmers are less productive today than US farmers were 100 years ago. There is an agreement between NGOs and governments that supporting small farmers is the smartest solution for future food security. With a combination of aid, education in better farming methods, and the introduction of better seeds and fertilizer, a green revolution could soon be within Africa’s reach.
5. Target Infant Nutrition: Many companies and wealthy nations are backing an African government-led plan to eliminate malnutrition, and large improvements have already been made. The solution is education on good feeding techniques and getting the proper nutrients to the mother and child at the beginning of pregnancy. This aid is key because malnutrition is responsible for an 11% decrease in GDP in affected areas.
6. Reduce Poverty: No surprise here; economic growth is the key to reducing hunger. More trade, financial liberalization, and open markets will aid in the flow of food. Successful poverty-reducing methods in China have led many economists to believe that hunger in the country will be eradicated by 2020. As for the rest of the world, the UN’s Millennium Development Goals aim to end extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. If each UN-member state does its part, these goals can be achieved.
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TED Talks have become a breeding ground for ingenuity, passion, ideas and intelligence. A meeting place of the world’s best, bravest and most forward-thinking minds, TED talks offer the entire world the ability to listen and participate in the global conversation on how we better the world. Here, for those who have little time, are 5 Ted talks that offer a powerful punch of inspiration in less than 5 minutes.
Asher Hassan’s Message of Peace from Afghanistan – Asher Hassan
In this short but potent TED talk, Asher Hassan manages to obliterate our image of the now ravaged Pakistan as a place of poverty, misery and Islamic fundamentalism to show a hopeful, resilient and entirely human face to the country. Through a series of striking photographs, showing vendors selling bags, a displaced internal refugee child, spools of brightly colored rainbow spools of thread. Hassan’s subjects are the individuals who get lost in Pakistan sold to us by the media, and the ones who are most affected by our action or inaction in their country.
Selling Condoms in the Congo – Amy Lockwood
Amy Lockwood needs four minutes and seventeen seconds to illustrate an all-too-important phenomenon that causes aid programs to fail: not targeting efforts towards the group, but focusing on the feelings on the donor. In the Congo, sex workers use very few of the free condoms that aid agencies provide but would use the generic, priced ones sold. Lockwood, as a marketing professional, asked herself why. Her talk offers a simple but powerful tweak in the way we approach aid that could make a world of difference.
Photos That Changed the World – Jonathan Klein
The man at the head of Getty Images, the industry’s largest and most quality bank of photography and imagery, gives a short talk on the power of photographs in provoking action. Using iconic images from history like the Hindenburg explosion, ‘Kissing the War Goodbye’ and mass graves of the Holocaust to today’s most controversial photographs, such as torture in Abu Ghraib, military war injuries and slaughtered gorillas lying crucified on bamboo poles, Klein illustrated how a picture can be worth more than a thousand words in an age full of discourse and short on action.
Escaping the Khmer Rouge – Sophal Ear
Not a big ideas talk, but a heartfelt personal story, Sophal Ear speaks of his escape from Cambodia during the country’s horrific political turmoil. Today, Ear leads research on post-conflict countries and assists in the development, reinforcing the fact that refugees are more than statistics, but brave, resilient lives worth saving.
How I Built a Windmill – William Kamkwamba
One of the most inspiring talks on TED, this talk is a Q&A session with William Kamkwamba, from a small village in Malawi. At 14, he saw how to build a windmill in a library book. In his words, “I tried it, and I made it.” Prompted along by TED speaker, William’s unassuming ingenuity in attempting to improve his village’s access to electricity and water is heartwarming and incredible.
Though the eldest members of society are believed to be the wisest, they have also been revealed as the poorest and most neglected age group in the world. HelpAge USA formed in response to this travesty as a way to help the elderly claim their rights, challenge discrimination and overcome poverty.
Though many aid organizations set their sights on helping young, vulnerable children, HelpAge USA recognizes that the elderly are often just as vulnerable as the youngest members of society. HelpAge USA, therefore, works with partnering organizations to spread awareness about elderly people’s roles and value in communities.
HelpAge USA is an affiliate of the broader HelpAge international movement that builds awareness of global aging issues around the world. As a branch of this successful parent group, HelpAge USA spreads awareness of elderly rights among U.S. audiences while simultaneously urging them to advocate for the empowerment of the elderly in the developing world.
At the infrastructural level, HelpAge USA has outlined specific goals for improving communities’’ ability to help its older members, such as enabling older men and women to have secure incomes, quality health care, and support in emergency situations.
In addition to building up infrastructure, HelpAge USA works directly with the elderly to build a global and local movements that teach older men and women how to stand up for themselves in the face of discrimination. This is an important tool for the young and old alike, especially in impoverished regions with lower access to widespread employment, resources, and education.
The most innovative part of HelpAge USA is that it involves older men and women in “program design, implementation, and review.” That is, HelpAge USA relies on the input of the elderly themselves to drive the movement’s goals and ambitions. What better way to empower and properly gauge the needs of a deprived group of citizens than to place them at the heart of the movement itself?
For all they have done for their neighbors and communities, HelpAge USA believes that society owes the elderly their share of healthcare, social services, and economic and physical security in return.
In the fight against global poverty and affronts to human rights standards, one cannot forget to fight for the rights of the older men and women that have contributed so much to their communities’ social, economic and cultural development during their lives.
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During his visit to the University of Cape Town last month, President Obama said there was no question that Africa’s economy was on the move—but it is just not moving quickly enough for children still living in poverty. With more than 60% of Africans under the age of 35, Obama emphasized the importance of the decisions Africa’s youth face that will determine the fate of their country and continent.
In his welcome address to President Obama, the University of Cape Town Vice-chancellor, Dr. Max Price, stated that African universities are lacking the expertise and resources to build advanced research universities that could contribute to improving economies. Over the past 15 years, education in Africa has made tremendous progress in expanding access to higher education, however, student numbers have increased three times more than funding often resulting in a lower quality education due to lack of resources.
Price called on institutions to consider research as a priority in developing low or middle-income countries. He said that Africa should view itself as a potential contributor to global knowledge with the capacity to develop local, relevant solutions. Unless Africans wish to remain, consumers of others’ knowledge and innovation, they should not avoid advancing their research capacity. “That capacity resides first and foremost in research universities,” stated Price.
In the Times Higher Education top 400 global universities—which focuses heavily on research as the basis for ranking—only four are located in Africa, and all four are in South Africa. Research universities in developing countries could play a critical role in educating the next generation of academics whose contributions could ultimately impact the entire continent. Like the partnership that forms the basis of Obama’s commitment to economic development in Africa, Price added that a possible key contribution of additional international partnerships could be to build research universities across the continent.
The University of Cape Town enrolls 30% of its graduate students from outside South Africa. The university hopes to advance research capacity throughout the continent with its education of Africa’s future academic leaders.
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Malaria Tool Tracks Insecticide Resistance
The IR Mapper “consolidates reports of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors onto filterable maps to inform vector control strategies.” Collected through the cooperative efforts of Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the information was brought together by Vestergaard Frandsen, a Swiss company. Lastly, the design for the interactive map came from ESRI Eastern Africa.
Today, insecticide plays a valuable role in the prevention of malaria. Spraying a house with insecticide ensures mosquito prevention within homes lasting from 3-6 months. Similarly, insecticide-treated bed nets are extremely valuable and, as the CDC found, these bed nets reduced deaths of children under 5 from all causes by roughly 20 percent.
Yet, the successes of insecticide are in danger if insecticide resistance is not combated. IR has been found in two-thirds of malaria prevalent countries. This large percentage of countries hindered by IR displays the importance of the IR Mapper.
Estimated that 26 million more new malaria cases might occur if the action doesn’t occur against IR, this interactive map will provide the needed knowledge to health-care workers on the ground.
These IR Maps provide a new means of knowing where insecticide is facing confrontation with IR strains of malaria. This new map of information allows users to “guide the deployment of insecticidal tools to ensure the right tool is used in the right place at the right time,” according to IR Mapper’s homepage.
With maps that are armed with data spanning 1954 to present with detailed information on the current susceptibility situation with the mapped pinpoint.
To gain the information necessary to fill the maps the team acquired data from scientific articles and reports and from the IR focused database IRBase.
With this information public, more policies will be constructed with better knowledge and more research will be widespread to excel the deterrence of malaria.
– Michael Carney
Sources: CDC, IR Mapper, IRIN
Photo: Flickr
Planet Aid: Saving the World One Shirt at a Time
The nonprofit organization collects and recycles used clothing and shoes in the U.S. as a way to reduce environmental impact while supporting sustainable development in impoverished communities worldwide.
Planet Aid started out as a small idea in 1997 near Boston, Massachusetts. The original setup included a mere few drop-off boxes alongside a small, rented storage unit where community members could donate clothing and shoes. Soon, however, the group’s scope began to outgrow the tiny rented space, and the organization’s creators set their sights on bigger, global aspirations.
Though its influence expanded quickly, its clear-cut aim to expand global environmental sustainability and mobilize resources to alleviate poverty remained the same. Planet Aid now owns over 18,000 clothes collection boxes throughout the United States, all featuring the same signature yellow exterior.
How does Planet Aid accomplish these goals? Firstly, by collecting and recycling used goods, Planet Aid saves valuable resources that help reduce CO2 emissions and thus alleviate global warming. Recycling clothing also saves precious landfill space.
Furthermore, Planet Aid supports development projects that help to strengthen and organize communities by promoting small enterprise development and increasing access to quality training and education. In addition, Planet Aid’s support programs meet health and nutrition needs as well, extending from HIV/AIDS care and prevention to Farmers’ Clubs to teach sustainable agriculture and work towards a more stable food source.
Today, Planet Aid recycles millions of pounds of used clothing nationwide each year. Since 1997, the group has given more than $90 million in support of more than 60 projects in 15 projects throughout the developing world.
In its “afterlife”, recycled clothing can be and important tool for solving global poverty and meeting environmental needs. If there was ever a need for proof that fashion could save the world, Planet Aid provides the evidence.
– Alexandra Bruschi
Sources: Planet Aid, Aid For Africa
Photo: Flickr
Peanuts and Feed the Future Empower Women in Zambia
One project by President Obama’s Feed the Future initiative is working to teach female peanut farmers how to double their yield of peanuts, and increase their product market by producing a variety of different peanut products, like peanut oil and peanut butter. The initiative is partnering with the Zambian Government Agricultural Research Institute to train the women to become certified to grow higher quality hybrid seed varieties. Selling these seeds will bring in a much higher profit than the seeds the women were originally producing.
In order to help the women create different peanut products, Feed the Future provided a grant to the Katete Women’s Development Association, an organization that empowers women to grow crops like peanuts, for peanut oil expeller, which will help the women enter into the market of peanut processing. The new presser will help the women’s work to remain sustainable even after their donors have left. As long as they have the expeller, they can work themselves to turn their peanuts into profitable peanut products.
Not only will the higher quality peanut crop and new processing technologies help the women increase their quality of life, but they will be working in a business usually reserved for men. In most other countries, men are primarily in charge of producing and marketing the product, giving them all of the opportunities for further success. Feed the Future’s work is giving women the same opportunities and breaking the social boundaries of agricultural work in Africa.
– Emma McKay
Sources: USAID, CIA World Factbook
Photo: Flickr
Famine for Political Ends
Tóibín begins his history of historical writing on the famine by stating “two things happened in its (the famine’s) aftermath. One, people blamed the English and the Ascendancy. Two, there began a great silence about the class division in Catholic Ireland.” What Tóibín describes is a hurting Ireland that could not afford to face the reality of the massive pain she had suffered. In the wake of famine, Ireland required a “nationalist fervor” to rise from the ashes. In 1854, the historian John Mitchel called the famine a “genocide”, insinuating that the British deliberately exterminated those who died in the tragedy. This extreme sentiment became milder in the 20th century but still survived in a veiled form. In the 1990s, Governor George Pataki of New York expressed the view that Great Britain purposely refrained from assisting the Irish during the famine. Views such as this serve politicians well because they incite feelings of nationalism in prospective voters.
The authors’ understanding of famine and its capacity as a political tool is outstanding. Over the last half-century or so, one can see a similar phenomenon taking place in Ethiopia, where political oppositions capitalize on government inefficiency in the face of famine. In 1973, the communist junta under rebel leader Mengistu Haile Mariam accused the reigning monarch of failing to deal with the problem, resulting in the overthrow of the government. After a war with Eritrea in the later 1990s, Ethiopia is once again reeling from economic impoverishment augmented by famine.
When there is famine, a political platform is raised that is conducive to a dangerous breed of nationalism. As the Irish famine illustrates, extreme situations of hunger cause people to question their government. This can be seen in the historiography of the Irish famine, which indicates a hatred toward the British monarchy that was so potent it survived into the late 20th century. These are only a few examples of how the tragedy of famine can be used as a political tool.
– Josh Forgét
Sources: The Irish Famine, BBC
Photo: Flickr
The 3 Approaches of “Positive Deviance”
“Positive Deviance is based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges.
The Positive Deviance approach is an asset-based, problem-solving, and community-driven approach that enables the community to discover these successful behaviors and strategies and develop a plan of action to promote their adoption by all concerned.”
The term first was used by Marian Zeitlin, a Tufts University professor, who observed well-nourished children living in contrast to their peers who were malnourished. Jerry Sternin and his wife, visiting scholars at Tufts in the 1990s, utilized Zeitlin’s ideas in other campaigns they participated in around the world. Positive deviance is now a social change approach used by various organizations like USAID and UNICEF in myriad applications.
Pact is a nonprofit group employing that approach. Their priorities lie in ensuring better resource management and health in impoverished communities. Actualizing that focus depends on building communal capacity, good governance and the business marketplace. This of course is contingent upon not introducing a solution but aiding the community in finding their own and helping to educate others around that example.
Working with local organizations that already have a great presentation where they are, Pact has been able to change lives. They’ve become de-facto consultants of sorts to these local groups and have tangible proof of success. The area of capacity development is especially essential because it solidifies local leadership and gives them the tools to lead effectively. But more than simple grants and consultations, Pact has provided workshops, coaching, peer learning and resource referrals with great results.
One example of Pact’s outreach can be found in the nation of Tanzania. Concerned about child health, the organization assembled small groups of women who pooled some of their money into communal funds meant for, according to Pact, “income-producing activities.” Pact-run meetings were informative sessions where, “…the groups learned…parenting skills, nutrition, hygiene, HIV prevention and household management.” With access to funds to help generate income, people were able to increase their standard of living and in turn ensure healthy children and a connected community.
The project, dubbed WORTH, spread from one small region in 2008 across Tanzania. Pact reports that in “…2011, 1,061 groups representing 20,166 caregivers caring for 52,262 vulnerable children were operating, with notable household improvements in food security, shelter and care.” A nationwide effort, undertaken and capitalized by those living there was special not just because it was successful, but because it was initiated and realized by Tanzanians.
Empowering communities to find examples within of what works is a testament to organizations like Pact and the innovative, solution-centered positive deviance approach.
– David Smith
Source: Positive Deviance, PactWorld, Pact in Tanzania
Photo: Flickr
3 Foreign Policy TED Talks Worth Watching
“On Being a Woman and a Diplomat” – Madeleine Albright
Highlight Quote: “From some people, I think they thought [women’s rights] was a soft issue. The bottom line is I decided women’s issues are the hardest issues, because they are the ones that have to do with life and death in so many aspects.”
Madeline Albright was the first woman to hold the post of Secretary of State. Both amusing and straightforward, she uses this Q&A session to address the need to place women’s rights in the States’ top priorities in foreign policy, as well as increase the role of women in the political sphere as a whole.
Albright’s draws from her vast experience to illustrate her points. She explains how women leaders are better at communicating across ideological barriers, from weapons debates with Finland to reconciling Hutu and Tutsi leaders after the Rwandan genocide. Finally, Albright speaks of women’s tendency to hinder their own progress by criticizing powerful women in the workplace.
“The Global Power Shift” – Paddy Ashdown
Highlight Quotes: “Suddenly and for the very first time, collective defense, the thing that has dominated us as the concept of securing our nations, is no longer enough. It used to be the case that if my tribe was more powerful than their tribe, I was safe; if my country was more powerful than their country, I was safe; my alliance, like NATO, was more powerful than their alliance, I was safe. It is no longer the case. The advent of the interconnectedness and of the weapons of mass destruction means that, increasingly, I share a destiny with my enemy.”
Ashdown has had a long and illustrious international career, serving in MI6, then as a member of Parliament and after as the Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 20 minutes, Ashdown delivers us more food for thought than we can chew on at once.
Ashdown discusses the global shift in power, a phenomenon we are witnessing as it becomes ever more globalized and shared. Unlike the past, where a single superpower has risen, Ashdown projects a globe with multiple powers. Thus, co-existing will depend less on dominance and more on cooperation.
He points out that the interconnectivity of the world has a far deeper effect than what we imagine. Our future, our safety, our resources increasingly depend on each other, and with the world evolving the way it is, the idea of a nation no longer being able to bully its way to dominance is a novel one. This is an idea that sounds encouraging, but will take much getting used to. For global powers, the implications of a world where willingness trumps will is going to take adjustment.
“Time to End the War in Afghanistan” – Rory Stewart
Highlight Quote: “Because the worst thing we have done in Afghanistan is this idea that failure is not an option. It makes failure invisible, inconceivable and inevitable. And if we can resist this crazy slogan, we shall discover – in Egypt, in Syria, in Libya, and anywhere else we go in the world – that if we can often do much less than we pretend, we can do much more than we fear.”
Rory Stewart, a British MP, offers a refreshingly honest talk about the reality of the war in Afghanistan. A war that was so well sold to the public – wrapping philanthropy, revenge, idealism, and power into one – has ended up being a bloody, costly disaster, leaving both America’s psyche and Afghanistan itself irreparably wounded. Stewart compares intervention in Afghanistan to intervention in other countries asks the question: why didn’t it work here?
In answering, Stewart says the unsayable – that America’s arrogance and self-interest ultimately undermined any possible chance it had of improving the situation of the Afghan population at the cost of the lives of American soldiers. Stewart focuses not on pumping money or destroying dictators, but working with those who fully understand and comprehend the complexities of foreign intervention, and can deal with the challenges and frustrations it may bring.
– Farahnaz Mohammed
Source: TED Paddy Ashdown, TED Madeline Albright, TED Rory Stewart
Source: The Self Employed
6 Ways to Bring an End to World Hunger
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates nearly 870 million people are suffering from chronic malnourishment despite the world producing more than enough food to feed everyone. Nearly all of these people, 852 million, live in developing countries. What can be done to solve world hunger?
1. Prevent Land Grabbing: The ugly truth of the future food supply scarcity issue is that wealthy, land-poor countries, including those in the Gulf and South Korea, are obtaining tracts of land in developing countries to use as allotments. Many African countries, including Ethiopia, Sudan, and Madagascar, have already been targeted. A reported estimate totaling an area the size of Spain has been taken from these countries leaving many families unable to feed their children. The push to end land grabbing is the main campaigning focus of the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign.
2. Reform and Regulate: Large amounts of investment funds have flooded into the commodities markets since the 2008 financial crisis. The automated trading systems, which exploit the tiniest of flaws in the market, encourage volatility. This makes it extremely difficult for traditional traders to keep prices stable and capable of hedging against spikes in the market. Though this was a topic much discussed in the G20 and G8, an international agreement to reform and regulate the commodities markets has not yet been reached.
3. Produce Less Biofuel: With the pressure to reduce carbon emission from fossil fuels, wealthy countries have been turning sugar, corn, and other crops into ethanol and biodiesel. Burning large amounts of food in our cars reduces the amount available to eat and results in much higher food prices. If that does not sound catastrophic enough, evidence shows that many biofuels actually release more greenhouse gasses than fossil fuels. More greenhouse gasses means hotter, drier seasons, dying crops, and even more hungry people.
4. Support Small Farms: Many African farmers are less productive today than US farmers were 100 years ago. There is an agreement between NGOs and governments that supporting small farmers is the smartest solution for future food security. With a combination of aid, education in better farming methods, and the introduction of better seeds and fertilizer, a green revolution could soon be within Africa’s reach.
5. Target Infant Nutrition: Many companies and wealthy nations are backing an African government-led plan to eliminate malnutrition, and large improvements have already been made. The solution is education on good feeding techniques and getting the proper nutrients to the mother and child at the beginning of pregnancy. This aid is key because malnutrition is responsible for an 11% decrease in GDP in affected areas.
6. Reduce Poverty: No surprise here; economic growth is the key to reducing hunger. More trade, financial liberalization, and open markets will aid in the flow of food. Successful poverty-reducing methods in China have led many economists to believe that hunger in the country will be eradicated by 2020. As for the rest of the world, the UN’s Millennium Development Goals aim to end extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. If each UN-member state does its part, these goals can be achieved.
– Scarlet Shelton
Sources: The Guardian, World Hunger
5 TED Talks in 5 Minutes
Asher Hassan’s Message of Peace from Afghanistan – Asher Hassan
In this short but potent TED talk, Asher Hassan manages to obliterate our image of the now ravaged Pakistan as a place of poverty, misery and Islamic fundamentalism to show a hopeful, resilient and entirely human face to the country. Through a series of striking photographs, showing vendors selling bags, a displaced internal refugee child, spools of brightly colored rainbow spools of thread. Hassan’s subjects are the individuals who get lost in Pakistan sold to us by the media, and the ones who are most affected by our action or inaction in their country.
Selling Condoms in the Congo – Amy Lockwood
Amy Lockwood needs four minutes and seventeen seconds to illustrate an all-too-important phenomenon that causes aid programs to fail: not targeting efforts towards the group, but focusing on the feelings on the donor. In the Congo, sex workers use very few of the free condoms that aid agencies provide but would use the generic, priced ones sold. Lockwood, as a marketing professional, asked herself why. Her talk offers a simple but powerful tweak in the way we approach aid that could make a world of difference.
Photos That Changed the World – Jonathan Klein
The man at the head of Getty Images, the industry’s largest and most quality bank of photography and imagery, gives a short talk on the power of photographs in provoking action. Using iconic images from history like the Hindenburg explosion, ‘Kissing the War Goodbye’ and mass graves of the Holocaust to today’s most controversial photographs, such as torture in Abu Ghraib, military war injuries and slaughtered gorillas lying crucified on bamboo poles, Klein illustrated how a picture can be worth more than a thousand words in an age full of discourse and short on action.
Escaping the Khmer Rouge – Sophal Ear
Not a big ideas talk, but a heartfelt personal story, Sophal Ear speaks of his escape from Cambodia during the country’s horrific political turmoil. Today, Ear leads research on post-conflict countries and assists in the development, reinforcing the fact that refugees are more than statistics, but brave, resilient lives worth saving.
How I Built a Windmill – William Kamkwamba
One of the most inspiring talks on TED, this talk is a Q&A session with William Kamkwamba, from a small village in Malawi. At 14, he saw how to build a windmill in a library book. In his words, “I tried it, and I made it.” Prompted along by TED speaker, William’s unassuming ingenuity in attempting to improve his village’s access to electricity and water is heartwarming and incredible.
– Farahnaz Mohammed
Sources: TED
HelpAge USA Fights for Elderly Rights
Though many aid organizations set their sights on helping young, vulnerable children, HelpAge USA recognizes that the elderly are often just as vulnerable as the youngest members of society. HelpAge USA, therefore, works with partnering organizations to spread awareness about elderly people’s roles and value in communities.
HelpAge USA is an affiliate of the broader HelpAge international movement that builds awareness of global aging issues around the world. As a branch of this successful parent group, HelpAge USA spreads awareness of elderly rights among U.S. audiences while simultaneously urging them to advocate for the empowerment of the elderly in the developing world.
At the infrastructural level, HelpAge USA has outlined specific goals for improving communities’’ ability to help its older members, such as enabling older men and women to have secure incomes, quality health care, and support in emergency situations.
In addition to building up infrastructure, HelpAge USA works directly with the elderly to build a global and local movements that teach older men and women how to stand up for themselves in the face of discrimination. This is an important tool for the young and old alike, especially in impoverished regions with lower access to widespread employment, resources, and education.
The most innovative part of HelpAge USA is that it involves older men and women in “program design, implementation, and review.” That is, HelpAge USA relies on the input of the elderly themselves to drive the movement’s goals and ambitions. What better way to empower and properly gauge the needs of a deprived group of citizens than to place them at the heart of the movement itself?
For all they have done for their neighbors and communities, HelpAge USA believes that society owes the elderly their share of healthcare, social services, and economic and physical security in return.
In the fight against global poverty and affronts to human rights standards, one cannot forget to fight for the rights of the older men and women that have contributed so much to their communities’ social, economic and cultural development during their lives.
– Alexandra Bruschi
Sources: HelpAge USA, Idealist
Photo: Flickr
Obama’s Advice for Improving Education in Africa
In his welcome address to President Obama, the University of Cape Town Vice-chancellor, Dr. Max Price, stated that African universities are lacking the expertise and resources to build advanced research universities that could contribute to improving economies. Over the past 15 years, education in Africa has made tremendous progress in expanding access to higher education, however, student numbers have increased three times more than funding often resulting in a lower quality education due to lack of resources.
Price called on institutions to consider research as a priority in developing low or middle-income countries. He said that Africa should view itself as a potential contributor to global knowledge with the capacity to develop local, relevant solutions. Unless Africans wish to remain, consumers of others’ knowledge and innovation, they should not avoid advancing their research capacity. “That capacity resides first and foremost in research universities,” stated Price.
In the Times Higher Education top 400 global universities—which focuses heavily on research as the basis for ranking—only four are located in Africa, and all four are in South Africa. Research universities in developing countries could play a critical role in educating the next generation of academics whose contributions could ultimately impact the entire continent. Like the partnership that forms the basis of Obama’s commitment to economic development in Africa, Price added that a possible key contribution of additional international partnerships could be to build research universities across the continent.
The University of Cape Town enrolls 30% of its graduate students from outside South Africa. The university hopes to advance research capacity throughout the continent with its education of Africa’s future academic leaders.
– Scarlet Shelton
Source: University World News, University of Cape Town Daily News
Photo: Flickr