Scholars have discovered that the issue with world hunger is not a food shortage, but the logistics behind food distribution. We need to improve access to food by looking at production strategies, trade agreements and food aid. Here are 10 quotes on world hunger.
“We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry.” – Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States.
“Close to a billion people – one-eighth of the world’s population – still live in hunger. Each year 2 million children die through malnutrition. This is happening at a time when doctors in Britain are warning of the spread of obesity. We are eating too much while others starve.” – Jonathan Sacks, jewish scholar.
“We are a country that prides itself on power and wealth, yet there are millions of children who go hungry every day. It is our responsibility, not only as a nation, but also as individuals, to get involved. So, next time you pass someone on the street who is in need, remember how lucky you are, and don’t turn away.” – Lesley Boone, actress and social activist.
“When you share your last crust of bread with a beggar, you mustn’t behave as if you were throwing a bone to a dog. You must give humbly, and thank him for allowing you to have a part in his hunger.” – Giovanni Guareschi, Italian journalist.
“When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, “Now is that political, or social?” He said, “I feed you.” Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.” – Bishop Desmond Tutu, Anglican bishop and social activist.
“It is important for people to realize that we can make progress against world hunger, that world hunger is not hopeless. The worst enemy is apathy.” – Reverend David Beckmann, president of Alliance to End Hunger.
“There are genuinely sufficient resources in the world to ensure that no one, nowhere, at no time, should go hungry.” – Ed Asner, actor and social activist.
“The fact is that there is enough food in the world for everyone. But tragically, much of the world’s food and land resources are tied up in producing beef and other livestock–food for the well off–while millions of children and adults suffer from malnutrition and starvation.” – Dr.Walden Bello, 2003 Right Livelihood Award winner.
“The war against hunger is truly mankind’s war of liberation.” – John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States.
“The first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind. Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world.” – Norman Borlaug, biologist and humanitarian.
– Stephanie Lamm
Sources: Bits of Positivity, Do One Thing, Second Harvest Food Bank
Africa’s Sahel Region in Need
In February 2014, the UN pleaded with aid organizations to meet a $2 billion challenge in order to face a food crisis in Africa’s Sahel region that could affect over 20 million people.
Africa’s Sahel region divides the Sahara Desert from the Sudanian Savanna, spanning the width of the African continent, and has, in recent years, been damaged by a process known as desertification. Desertification is caused by poor agricultural practices and natural soil erosion. Additionally, a combination of population growth, drought, and conflict has put the already vulnerable region at risk.
Of the 20 million food insecure inhabitants, 5 million are children at risk of acute malnutrition. Already, nearly 577,000 children die each year of malnutrition in the Sahel.
UN officials are especially concerned about the Sahel because, in 2013, donors only offered about 60% of the requested $1.7 billion. They argue that another shortfall would prove catastrophic for many of the region’s most vulnerable.
The requested $2 billion would fund a three-year development plan that includes the countries of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. The UN seeks to work with the governments of the Sahel in conjunction with international aid organizations to address the root causes of conflict and famine in the region in order to make the Sahel more food secure.
This is the first multi-year plan for the Sahel, and it represents a shift in the way the UN deals with food security issues.
In September of 2013, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, Robert Piper, said of the situation, “Business as usual doesn’t cut it . . . One of the problems we have today is that governments tend to want to fund food and nutrition . . .They are much more reluctant to fund, say, agriculture or water and sanitation inputs.”
Piper argued for the development of long-term solutions as the only option for the people of the Sahel.
Many of the food insecure are those who have been displaced by conflict. Violence in the Central African Republic, Sudan and Nigeria has lead to more than 730,000 refugees spilling into the region and some 495,000 displaced internally.
Without a plan to resolve these conflicts and care for the refugees, the continuing costs and caseload will become too great for the UN, Piper claimed.
– Chase Colton
Sources: UN News Centre, New York Times, BBC, UNOCHA Sahel, UNOCHA Piper
Photo: Reuters
Bill Nye, the “Science (Poverty) Guy”
The media’s coverage of the February 4 debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham overshadowed another important issue Nye highlighted on January 30: global poverty. The 2 minute video features Bill Nye discussing commonly believed myths about poverty.
MYTH #1: The United States spends 25 percent of its budget each year on foreign aid.
Bill Nye compares the federal budget to a dollar bill. Though some people assume that the budget is a quarter, it is actually less than a penny. “You can’t even cut a coin small enough to represent how much money is spent on foreign aid. It’s not that much,” said Nye.
REALITY= The US spends 0.8 percent of its budget each year on foreign aid.
MYTH #2: Wars & natural disasters kill more people than anything else.
“This idea that wars or natural disasters, tsunamis, earthquakes, kill most of the people – that’s wrong. It pales, it’s dwarfed by the number of people killed by preventable diseases,” Bill Nye said.
Children are dying every day. Though progress has been made in global health, there are still deaths all over the world. Those in poverty are at an even higher risk of dying.
Health and economic advancements have allowed people to combat this risk. However, preventable diseases continue to represent 7 out of the 10 leading causes for child mortality. It accounts for 83 percent of child deaths, with non-communicable diseases at 11 percent and injuries at 6 percent. “This is where we can change the world,” said Bill Nye.
REALITY= The leading cause of death for children under the age of 5 is preventable disease (communicable diseases, birth problems, nutrition.)
MYTH #3: U.S. citizens give money to Africa and nothing changes.
“People think that we’ve been sending money to Africa for decades and nothing’s improved; things are as bad as they ever were.” Approximately 10.5 million children under the age of five die every year. In 1970, that number was 17 million.
The most impressive declines occurred in countries that showed considerable economic improvement, making our monetary contributions a positive piece of the puzzle. Foreign aid has helped these people.
REALITY= That money has been making positive changes, like cutting child mortality in half within the past few decades.
“We have a real opportunity to leave the world better than we found it, to dispel these myths and move on to improve the quality of life of people everywhere,” said Bill Nye. “So let’s prevent the diseases. Let’s address a preventable disaster.”
– Samantha Davis
Sources: NPR, YouTube, World Health Organization
Photo: Brandon Hill Photos
Maternal, Newborn & Child Health 101
Maternal and Child Health Definitions
Maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and post partum. Neonatal or newborn health refers to the health of infants in their first six months of life child health in this context usually refers to young children in their first six years of life.
Maternal mortality
In the developing world pregnancy and childbirth can often cause severe complications including hemorrhage, infection, unsafe abortions, high blood pressure and obstructed labor. Unfortunately, if untreated maternal complications can lead to death. Every day approximately 800 women die from preventable conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth with 99% of these deaths occurring in the developing world; while this figure is still far too high, maternal mortality has decreased by 50% between 1990 and 2010. In 2010 287,000 women died in pregnancy or childbirth. Eighty percent of deaths are caused by infection or bleeding after childbirth, high blood pressure during pregnancy, or unsafe abortions.
Which Mothers are at Risk?
Adolescents and young women are at a greater risk than older women. The risk of pregnancy increases greatly if the girl is under 15; complications related to childbirth and pregnancy are the leading cause of death among adolescent girls in the developing world. Poor women, rural women, and women with low access to healthcare are the most at risk. Maternal mortality is strongly related to poverty and is a major health inequity. About half of all maternal deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and one-third occur in South Asia. In the developing world, the probability that a woman will die from causes related to pregnancy is 1 in 150; in the developed world it is 1 in 3800.
Infant Mortality
Each year 2.3 million babies are stillborn and 2.9 million die in their first year of life; the vast majority of these infants are born in developing countries. Deaths are caused by preterm birth, infections such as sepsis, pneumonia, meningitis and asphyxia during birth (when the baby does not get enough oxygen).
How Can Mothers be Saved?
These conditions are highly preventable and many of these deaths could be prevented if women had access to good and reliable healthcare. Women in poor countries lack access to trained health professionals such as midwifes, doctors or nurses, and this is why complications lead to death. There are low cost, effective treatments for mothers and infants but many women do not receive any medical care, or the healthcare providers do not have access to the tools needed to treat the women and children. With improved access to maternal health care in poor countries many women and children could be saved.
The Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation is working to bring low cost interventions such as antibiotics, sterile blades to cut umbilical cords, and drugs to treat hemorrhaging in mothers and asphyxia in infants to poor communities around the globe.
– Elizabeth Brown
Sources: WHO, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, Gates Foundation
Photo: #Y4CARMMA
Refugee Population Down, Worrying Up
The updated 2013 population figures for refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border show a decrease of 7.1 percent, according to The Border Consortium (TBC), an NGO that works with refugees and displaced people from Burma.
A majority of the departures from the camps, 7,649, consist of refugees leaving for a third country under the UNHCR’s resettlement program, according to the Democratic Voice of Burma.
Sally Thompson, executive director of TBC states, “It is important to note that while there was a net population decrease, new refugees are continuing to arrive in the camps; there were 3,300 new asylum seekers arriving in 2013. In addition, 3,137 children were born in camps…”
Despite the decrease, it does not mean that any less food, shelter, services, health care and protection are needed. There are still 120,000 people living throughout these refugee camps that need protection and humanitarian assistance.
Data from TBC shows that out of the 4,389 people who left the camps to return to Burma, 70 percent of those departures only included one or two people from a household, while the rest of their household stayed in the camps.
In addition to worrying about what is going to happen to their families that are left in the camps, Myanmar refugees located in Fort Wayne, Indiana are worried that a change in U.S. policy will hurt efforts to reunite them with relatives living in the city. The Post-Tribune explains that Fort Wayne is home to more than 4,000 refugees from the area formerly known as Burma.
The major concern according to Minn Myint Nan Tin, the Burmese Advocacy Center leader, is that the State Department has decided to stop accepting resettlement applications from Myanmar refugees living in the nine camps across Thailand. Refugees from Myanmar have been coming to Fort Wayne since 1993 to escape military rule in their homelands.
January 24 marked the end of applications since the State Department began issuing deadlines a year ago for refugees to decide whether or not they wanted to leave the Thai camps for the United States.
Christine Getzler Vaughn, State Department spokeswoman, explains that “The resettlement program will continue until we have completed the processing of every application received by the deadline for each camp, and we expect that to happen over the next two years.”
170 refugees will be relocated to Fort Wayne with approval of the State Department during the 2014 fiscal year.
– Lindsey Lerner
Sources: Post-Tribune, DVB
Photo: South China Morning Post
ECLAC Report of Latin America and the Caribbean
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) presented a report on the economic and social panorama of the community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Havana at the 2nd Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit.
The ECLAC report stated that roughly 28.2% of the total population in Latin America and the Caribbean were living in poverty, with 11.3% living in extreme poverty. In numerical terms, this means 164 million people remain in poverty, while 66 million people are still living in conditions of indigence.
The poverty rate in Latin America and the Caribbean fell 1.4% on last year, and 40.5% of children and adolescents in Latin America can be classified as either poor or extremely poor.
Countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Peru have the highest level of child poverty, averaging around 72%. In contrast, countries with the least amount of child poverty such as Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Ecuador, Costa Rica, only 19.5% of children lived in poverty.
The poorest 5% received 5% of the total income, while the wealthiest quintile averaged 47% of total income. The regional average for unemployment fell by .1% on last year to 6.3% in 2013.
The report also highlights the record level of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the region, which hit an all-time high of $174.546 billion. This is a 5.7% increase over 2011 FDI levels and is the third year in a row in which FDI levels have increased.
The greatest increases in FDI over last year occurred in Peru (49%) and Chile (32%). Brazil received the largest absolute FDI inflow, with 38% of the total for the Latin America and Caribbean region. The biggest sector for FDI investment was in services (44%), then manufacturing (30%), and finally natural resource sectors (26%).
The forecast for GDP growth across the entire Latin America region in 2014 is 2.8%, slightly down from the previous estimate of 2.9% and mainly due to sluggish growth and downward revisions in the economic forecasts for Brazil, Paraguay and Venezuela.
Emerging markets continue to brace for the negative impact on growth to come from the tapering of the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program, which began in January and is expected to hit emerging economies used to the high liquidity available in the global financial system.
– Jeff Meyer
Sources: CEPAL, Independent European Daily Express
Photo: Fox News
Obama Addresses Decline of Opportunity in America
President Barack Obama’s 2014 State of the Union Address highlighted the growing imbalances throughout the world. In recent decades, the U.S. has depended on its military strength as a substitute for diplomacy, but the President specified the need to shift the focus to fighting extreme poverty within Africa, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific.
The President’s agenda is taking on the issue of poverty head-on.
He recognizes that to address the large inequalities we must reverse the decline of social and economic mobility. Currently, 65 percent of Americans born in the bottom fifth of incomes stay in the bottom two-fifths income class while 65 percent of top fifth stay in the top two-fifths.
A major factor that maintains this mobility gap is poverty.
Families from poor backgrounds and low economic status are at a disadvantage right from the start. Just 36 percent of kids born in the poorest households get a strong start in life compared to 70 percent for middle-income kids and 87 percent for the upper class.
With federal programs like Head Start and Race to the Top are putting an emphasis on early child development, it is critical that we create social policy that supports individuals throughout all stages of life. The Brookings Institute has identified five major life stages that we can consciously cultivate in order to increase mobility and opportunity in America.
– Sunny Bhatt
Sources: Brookings Institute, New York Times
Photo: Prague Post
10 Quotes on World Hunger
Scholars have discovered that the issue with world hunger is not a food shortage, but the logistics behind food distribution. We need to improve access to food by looking at production strategies, trade agreements and food aid. Here are 10 quotes on world hunger.
“We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry.” – Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States.
“Close to a billion people – one-eighth of the world’s population – still live in hunger. Each year 2 million children die through malnutrition. This is happening at a time when doctors in Britain are warning of the spread of obesity. We are eating too much while others starve.” – Jonathan Sacks, jewish scholar.
“We are a country that prides itself on power and wealth, yet there are millions of children who go hungry every day. It is our responsibility, not only as a nation, but also as individuals, to get involved. So, next time you pass someone on the street who is in need, remember how lucky you are, and don’t turn away.” – Lesley Boone, actress and social activist.
“When you share your last crust of bread with a beggar, you mustn’t behave as if you were throwing a bone to a dog. You must give humbly, and thank him for allowing you to have a part in his hunger.” – Giovanni Guareschi, Italian journalist.
“When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, “Now is that political, or social?” He said, “I feed you.” Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.” – Bishop Desmond Tutu, Anglican bishop and social activist.
“It is important for people to realize that we can make progress against world hunger, that world hunger is not hopeless. The worst enemy is apathy.” – Reverend David Beckmann, president of Alliance to End Hunger.
“There are genuinely sufficient resources in the world to ensure that no one, nowhere, at no time, should go hungry.” – Ed Asner, actor and social activist.
“The fact is that there is enough food in the world for everyone. But tragically, much of the world’s food and land resources are tied up in producing beef and other livestock–food for the well off–while millions of children and adults suffer from malnutrition and starvation.” – Dr.Walden Bello, 2003 Right Livelihood Award winner.
“The war against hunger is truly mankind’s war of liberation.” – John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States.
“The first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind. Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world.” – Norman Borlaug, biologist and humanitarian.
– Stephanie Lamm
Sources: Bits of Positivity, Do One Thing, Second Harvest Food Bank
3 Initiatives Empowering Middle Eastern Women
General Electric has partnered with Ashoka Changemakers to find initiatives across the Middle East and North Africa who are providing more ecomonic opportunities for women. In the Arab world, women only represent a quarter of the workforce and less than 1 in 7 businesses are owned by women.
Here are 3 initiatives in the Middle East that were recognized by General Electric and Ashoka Changemakers for their efforts to improve working conditions for Middle Eastern women:
1. Roudha Center
Roudha Center is a resource center for women looking for information to help them start their own businesses in Qatar. The center offers business, legal, and financial advice for entrepreneurial women, as well as training and programming services. Roudha focuses on young Middle Eastern women who hope to become entreupeners and encouraging them from a younger age.
On their website they are quoted, “In Qatar the arena is still fresh for women entrepreneurs, especially those who do not have existing family business setups to rely on. In general, the struggle to setup and grow a business is harder for women at this stage. Therefore, Roudha Center saw the niche and potential in helping women in Qatar in fostering their passion to open a business.”
2. Women’s Digital League
The Women’s Digital League is an organization in Pakistan that is owned and operated by women. This organization provides digital services to people who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to work away from home. WDL helps set up the infrastructure and also provides assistance with programs such as wordpress and graphic designing so women can improve marketable skills.
3. Glowork
Based in Saudi Arabia, Glowork is an organization that finds jobs for Middle Eastern women. Nearly 1/3 of Saudi women are unemployed while 75% of those women have college educations. Glowork operates by making jobs that were previously harder for women to find or apply to more accessible.
– Colleen Eckvahl
Sources: Huffington Post, Women’s Digital League, CSR Wire, Roudha.org
Photo: Patheos
Carbon Emissions Outsourced to Developing Countries
Currently, carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are sought to be decreased on an international scale. Nations have been working together to combat the dilemma of climate change by seeking zero emissions technologies and by addressing carbon emissions within their own borders.
However, what makes it more difficult to calculate carbon emissions by country is that many institutions of wealthy, developed nations have been able to outsource their carbon emissions to developing countries. Apparently, studies show that, “the United States, Japan and many Western European nations have managed to ‘outsource’ more than half of their carbon dioxide emissions and evade responsibility for their share of the climate-altering pollution.”
There is already a prevalence of goods manufactured in developing countries such as India or China and consumed in developed countries in the United States and Europe. Accordingly, the carbon emissions produced by businesses or corporations are often unconsidered in regards to their total impact on the world.
After all, climate change is a global issue rather than regional or domestic. When carbon emissions are outsourced, the only winner is the public image of the institution that outsources the pollution—that is unless it is uncovered.
With prior calculations of carbon emissions categorized by country, analysts say that they will apparently have to be redone to account for all of the outsourcing. The implications are substantial for European countries who—in comparison to the rest of the world—seem to have low carbon emissons. However, with European nations accounting for a large amount of carbon emission outsourcing, the numbers may reflect their status differently.
Additionally, nations such as China and India—who attain international status as some of the highest ranking carbon polluters—see that many of their emissions actually ought to be attributed to institutions of other developed nations, such as the United States.
China and India in particular serve as examples that reflect the problems that may arise from outsourcing outdated and polluting technologies to developing countries in order to boost their economies. While their rapid industrialization has been able to increase their economic status to an extent, it has done much harm to the environment with their heavy reliance on fossil fuels.
Therefore, the issues presented require much more in-depth analysis on the true extent of carbon emissions. Thus it seems as though categorizing emissions by nation are essentially misleading.
– Jugal Patel
Sources: Carnegie Science, The Guardian, Stanford
Photo: Lemonde
Bolivia: Inequality Of Wealth
The South-American country of Bolivia has struggled as on the poorest countries in South America. Wealth inequality is a critical issue for the country of 10 million. 65 percent of the population resides in poverty, with “nearly 40 percent” of the population in extreme poverty.
Bolivia boasts a elevated population of indigenous South Americans, who are the most dangerously affected by poverty. Bolivians of Spanish descent dominate the political and economic life of the nation, depriving the indigenous population of many economic opportunities. Many of the impoverished residents of Bolivia subside on “subsistence” farming, and working as “miners, small traders or artisans.”
Bolivia is home to a well-built informal economy, which has distressed the primary economy of Bolivia. The indigenous population which is perilously unemployed, survive through their own means, not effectively participating in the national economic structure.
The nation is habitat to countless natural resources, chiefly natural gas. Despite the abundance of natural resources, the nation is more often than not exploited by foreign corporations and by it’s own political elites. The profits from such ventures rarely make it back to the poorer residents, allowing for a widening gap in income inequality.
The rural population which are primarily American Indians are critically malnourished, unable to access adequate health-care, less enrolled in education, and suffer from a lack of infrastructure. Urban areas suffer less from poverty, while rural areas such as Pando and Chuquisaca have the highest rates of poverty. Urban areas are not free of poverty though.
Urban populations suffer from “low quality employment” and the downward spiral of income levels. People are finding it complicated to find work, and those who work, are making less capital. Bolivia has struggled with employing its population.
The country remains primarily invested in “natural resource-based” exports as its economic crutch. This has led to many people unemployed as this economic base does not require many people to function properly.
Few educational opportunities for poorer residents have prevented many citizens from escaping extreme poverty. The country has not taken advantage of it’s ‘human capital.” With many residents not gaining proper higher education, or even primary education, has resulted in a poorly trained populace who can not work in many sectors besides the labor sector.
With many jobs not available in that sector, employment opportunities remain few and far in-between.
The country remains stifled by not adjusting it’s infrastructure to improve the amount of job opportunities. Bolivia has not made many attempts to modernize much of the nation, allowing unemployment to persist. Many observers argue Bolivia modernizing its economic approach is the only “necessary condition to reduce poverty and inequality” in the nation, and supporting new economic policies will help “improve labor productivity” and help curb unemployment.
– Joseph Abay
Sources: BBC, UNICEF, World Bank, BBC , World Bank
Photo: The Guardian