TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a global set of conferences owned by the private nonprofit organization Sapling Foundation. Under the slogan “ideas worth spreading,” TED events are held throughout the world, addressing a variety of topics, from science and culture to health, medicine, and global development. Here are some of the most memorable quotes made by TED speakers on the topic of poverty and development.
1. “You don’t wake up one day no longer a racist. It takes generations to tear that intuition, that DNA, out of a soul of a people.”
–Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim
2. “I’d grown up thinking that a [sanitary toilet] was my right, when in fact it’s a privilege — 2.5 billion people worldwide have no adequate toilet.”
–Rose George: Let’s talk crap. Seriously.
3. “Child mortality [since 2000 is] down by 2.65 million a year. That’s a rate of 7,256 children’s lives saved each day. … It drives me nuts that most people don’t seem to know this news.”
–Bono: The good news on poverty (Yes, there’s good news)
4. “What you do [to provide better aid is] you shut up. You never arrive in a community with any ideas.”
–Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!
5. “The challenge of development: abject poverty surrounded by corruption.”
–Sanjay Pradhan: How open data is changing international aid
6. “I have never met a villager who does not want a vote.”
–Rory Stewart: Why democracy matters
7. “You don’t have to get rich to have [fewer] children. It has happened across the world.”
–Hans Rosling: Religions and babies
8. “We get so little news about the developing world that we often forget that there are literally millions of people out there struggling to change things to be fairer, freer, more democratic, less corrupt.”
–Alex Steffen: The route to a sustainable future
9. “Connectivity is productivity — whether it’s in a modern office or an underdeveloped village.”
–Iqbal Quadir: How mobile phones can fight poverty
10. “We’ve seen how distributed networks, big data and information can transform society. I think it’s time for us to apply them to water.”
–Sonaar Luthra: Meet the Water Canary
11. “Birth control has almost completely and totally disappeared from the global health agenda, and the victims of this paralysis are the people of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.”
–Melinda Gates: Let’s put birth control back on the agenda
12. “Human development, not secularization, is what’s key to women’s empowerment in the transforming Middle East.”
–Dalia Mogahed: The attitudes that sparked Arab Spring
13. “The United Street Sellers Republic — the USSR — [would be] the second-largest economy in the world after the United States.”
–Robert Neuwirth: The power of the informal economy
14. “We need to deliver [mental] health care using whoever is available and affordable in our local communities.”
–Vikram Patel: Mental health for all by involving all
15. “It was the buildings [in Haiti], not the earthquake, that killed 220,000 people, that injured 330,000, that displaced 1.3 million people, that cut off food and water and supplies for an entire nation.”
–Peter Haas: Haiti’s disaster of engineering
– Nayomi Chibana
Feature Writer
Read global poverty quotes.
Sources: TED, Reddit
Photo: Lingholic
Ethnic Tension Stirs Violence in China’s Far West
Xinjiang, China’s far-western region recently witnessed its first new case of violence since the riots that sprung up in June 2013. In the town of Selibuya, a mob bearing axes attacked a police station on Saturday, November 16. In total, 11 people were killed, nine of whom were a part of the mob, and two who were assisting the police.
Xinjiang is home to great ethnic tension, which has led to unpredictable bursts of violence throughout the year. Ethnic conflict exists between Muslim Uighur and Han Chinese communities. The ethnic conflict has created a great sense of instability and posed a major security threat to Chinese leaders.
Many Chinese are blaming the region’s unrest on the Uighur community–ethnic Uighur separatists who make up the minority in an otherwise Han Chinese region. Uighurs are widely known to practice Islam in China, something that is highly monitored by the authorities.
Some of the Uighurs who have carried out violent attacks in Xinjiang are believed to be tied to terrorist operations overseas. When interviewed, Uighurs deny such claims and instead argue against the growing disparities in class between their community and the dominant Han Chinese community.
The Uighur minority argue that the Mandarin-speaking Han Chinese receive many more jobs than them because they must face Mandarin language barriers, which often disqualifies them in the running for jobs. Uighur communities continue to grow upset, as economic development has led huge numbers of Han Chinese to areas traditionally occupied by Uighurs. The socioeconomic discrimination that the Uighur community feels, coupled with increasing ethnic tension between themselves and Han Chinese have created many violent uprisings over the years.
The first outbreak of violence this year occurred in June in Xinjiang’s city of Turpan when a mob wielding knives stormed police stations and a government building. The riot resulted in the death of 27 people, after rioters who stabbed civilians and lit police cars on fire were shot down by the police force. Although the origin of this riot was never confirmed, it is believed to have stemmed from the oppression and aggravation of the Uighur community by the Chinese government.
As an Islamic minority, Uighurs face pressure from many sides to conform to the dominant culture and give up certain practices like men growing beards and women wearing the veil. Ethnic division and violent turmoil will continue in Xinjiang as long as the tension between Uighur communities and the Han Chinese exist.
– Chante Owens
Sources: BBC News, The Wall Street Journal
The Worldwide Pop-Up Newsroom
On November 16, global poverty had a unique light shed on it thanks to journalism students from around the globe. As part of a “pop-up newsroom,” students in the UK, U.S., Taiwan and India hit their local streets armed with their journalism training and social media outlets to report on those who experience poverty directly.
Politicians usually hold the platform for discussing poverty but they are rarely the ones who actually experience it. Instead, the journalism students went through locally-based organizations and interviewed both victims and combatants to gather on-the-ground experiences of poverty and the policies meant to address it. David Baines, who led the UK side of the project, stated one of the goals was, “to make the complexities transparent rather than trying to simplify things,” as is often done by politicians.
The pop-up newsroom idea began at California State University Northridge (located in Northern Los Angeles). As technology changes the way we can access information, Dr. Melissa Wall (a journalism professor at CSUN) wanted to find a way to utilize the immediacy of social media to inspire positive changes. By appealing to a younger population, the pop-up newsroom allows important issues, like global poverty, to reach people of all ages and of all interests.
November 16 marked the first time the experimental pop-up news reporting went international. The universities that participated have a number of international students and the fact that they were reporting from different countries made this a truly global event.
Not only are the students participating in an innovative journalism experience, they are adequately trained to do so. The Asian College of Journalism in Chennai, India is one of the most prestigious in the region and covering inequality is a requirement for all students. At Newcastle University, UK, the students prepared for this project by studying the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s guidelines for good reporting on poverty.
Reported topics ranged from art, health, feminist issues and economic inequality. Using the hashtag #livepoverty, students reported their stories on Twitter while in the field, as it was happening. By encouraging students to post immediately, the project emphasized that global poverty is a constant force that doesn’t go to sleep at night, but rather hangs over its victims 24 hours a day. With participants like the UK and U.S., the pop-up news stories proved that poverty is experienced even in the wealthiest countries in the world.
– Alessandra Luppi
Sources: Pop Up News, Rebel Mouse
Photo: WNYC
Ivorian Refugees in Liberia
An election crisis, a civil war and numerous human rights violations have sent thousands of Ivorians fleeing into Liberia. Since 2010, thousands of refugees have left the embattled Ivory Coast for other countries to escape political violence and abuse. These refugees have found reception in Liberia since they were displaced by the political crisis and those still displaced are eager to return home and begin reconciliation and the rebuilding of lives.
The Ivorian crisis began at the end of 2010 following the contested presidential election which was supposed to occur in 2005, but had been postponed for nearly five years. The election caused months of instability, abuse and outbreaks of violence in the country. The chaos that emerged from the election meltdown left hundreds dead and thousands displaced from their homes.
By the end of July 2011, the numbers of refugees fleeing the Ivory Coast exceeded more than 400,000 people who remained displaced from their home. This figure accounts for those displaced either within the Ivory Coast or within neighboring countries. Most who fled went to Liberia where about 171,000 refugees were housed within hosting communities and in camps. As of November, the Republic of Liberia had 57,724 registered refugees coupled with a national statistic of 19,964 households for perspective.
As of July, more than 10,000 Ivorians have returned home from Liberia with help from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); this figure is almost double the figure for the whole of 2012. The limited resources of the Liberian government and the needs of Liberian citizens only one reason is why remaining a refugee in Liberia is unsustainable. Those who are displaced deserve the right to return home and return to their lives.
The road home for many Ivorian refugees had begun with the assistance of the United Nations.
The U.N. refugee agency working in collaboration with the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission and other partners, has been organizing road convoys for those seeking to return home. More than two years after fleeing post-election violence in Côte d’Ivoire means much has changed and much has been lost. The progression out of war into peace begins with a redress of rights and the return of those displaced.
This year has seen success in repatriation of Ivorian refugees. “Last year, we facilitated the repatriation of more than 6,000 refugees. For this year, our planning figure is to facilitate the repatriation of 16,000 refugees,” said UNHCR Officer-in-Charge Andrew Mbogori while thanking donors for their support of the repatriation efforts.
“With 10,000 refugees repatriated over the past seven months, notwithstanding border security concerns a few months ago, we are definitely on track to attain our target,” he added.
The repatriation process has been interrupted by violent attacks on villages on the Ivorian side of the border. Border security has been a high U.N. concern as physically crossing borders safely back home is the goal of repatriation. Improvements in security have encouraged more people to return home and more security is still needed.
Besides the physical barriers of dangerous border crossings, refugees are also at the whim of nature and seasonal rains. These challenges have brought together aid agencies to enact road rehabilitation services which can guarantee passage and be maintained by security forces.
Once they have successfully returned to Côte d’Ivoire, former refugees will receive a cash grant, food and essential non-food items.
There are still remaining refugees waiting to return. There is still much to be done, and further security required providing the necessary platform for successful peace building endeavors. Security can only truly be reached when all parties participate and when aid organizations are able to freely operate within the application of restorative justice.
– Nina Verfaillie
Feature Writer
Sources: Oxfam International, UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency
Photo: National Geographic
15 Memorable TED Quotes
TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a global set of conferences owned by the private nonprofit organization Sapling Foundation. Under the slogan “ideas worth spreading,” TED events are held throughout the world, addressing a variety of topics, from science and culture to health, medicine, and global development. Here are some of the most memorable quotes made by TED speakers on the topic of poverty and development.
1. “You don’t wake up one day no longer a racist. It takes generations to tear that intuition, that DNA, out of a soul of a people.”
–Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim
2. “I’d grown up thinking that a [sanitary toilet] was my right, when in fact it’s a privilege — 2.5 billion people worldwide have no adequate toilet.”
–Rose George: Let’s talk crap. Seriously.
3. “Child mortality [since 2000 is] down by 2.65 million a year. That’s a rate of 7,256 children’s lives saved each day. … It drives me nuts that most people don’t seem to know this news.”
–Bono: The good news on poverty (Yes, there’s good news)
4. “What you do [to provide better aid is] you shut up. You never arrive in a community with any ideas.”
–Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!
5. “The challenge of development: abject poverty surrounded by corruption.”
–Sanjay Pradhan: How open data is changing international aid
6. “I have never met a villager who does not want a vote.”
–Rory Stewart: Why democracy matters
7. “You don’t have to get rich to have [fewer] children. It has happened across the world.”
–Hans Rosling: Religions and babies
8. “We get so little news about the developing world that we often forget that there are literally millions of people out there struggling to change things to be fairer, freer, more democratic, less corrupt.”
–Alex Steffen: The route to a sustainable future
9. “Connectivity is productivity — whether it’s in a modern office or an underdeveloped village.”
–Iqbal Quadir: How mobile phones can fight poverty
10. “We’ve seen how distributed networks, big data and information can transform society. I think it’s time for us to apply them to water.”
–Sonaar Luthra: Meet the Water Canary
11. “Birth control has almost completely and totally disappeared from the global health agenda, and the victims of this paralysis are the people of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.”
–Melinda Gates: Let’s put birth control back on the agenda
12. “Human development, not secularization, is what’s key to women’s empowerment in the transforming Middle East.”
–Dalia Mogahed: The attitudes that sparked Arab Spring
13. “The United Street Sellers Republic — the USSR — [would be] the second-largest economy in the world after the United States.”
–Robert Neuwirth: The power of the informal economy
14. “We need to deliver [mental] health care using whoever is available and affordable in our local communities.”
–Vikram Patel: Mental health for all by involving all
15. “It was the buildings [in Haiti], not the earthquake, that killed 220,000 people, that injured 330,000, that displaced 1.3 million people, that cut off food and water and supplies for an entire nation.”
–Peter Haas: Haiti’s disaster of engineering
– Nayomi Chibana
Feature Writer
Read global poverty quotes.
Sources: TED, Reddit
Photo: Lingholic
10 Innovations That Are Changing the Face of Africa
Although Africa has long been seen as the forgotten continent, it is more important now to the United States and the rest of the world than ever before. Home to 6 of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world, the continent is increasingly in the eye of foreign investors from London, New York, Shanghai and Dubai. Here are some of the innovations that are changing the face of Africa in this rapid transformation from an allegedly “lost” continent to a new growth engine.
1. Start-ups and incubators
Innovation hubs like iHub in Nairobi, Co-Creation Hub in Lagos and the Silicon Cape Initiative in South Africa are now competing with the already well-established initiatives in the start-up capitals of San Francisco, London and Berlin. These communities are giving African start-ups access to capital and the advice they need to take new products to the market.
2. Afro-entrepreneurs
Omidyar Network has highlighted the growing number of “afro-entrepreneurs” that are emerging all across the continent with innovations that are uniquely African. One such example is Bridge International Academies, with over 46,000 students enrolled in their schools across Kenya. This is an initiative that commoditizes schools; pupils pay just $5 dollars a month to study at one of their “Academies-in-a-Box.”
3. Local technology producers
Several African technology firms have begun to design and produce mobile and computing hardware tailored to local needs. In the Republic of Congo, for example, there is VMK’s Way-C, an affordable Android tablet, and in Kenya, the Nairobi-based company Ushahidi developed BRCK, a black box designed to address unreliable power and data connections that has been dubbed the “backup generator for the Internet.”
4. Smartphones built for Africa
Major firms are starting to produce smartphones made specifically for African consumers. The Chinese company Huawei, for example, recently introduced its new product, 4Afrika, an affordable smartphone which will let users benefit from the growing data connectivity across the continent.
5. The maker movement
This trend from the developed world, which has seen millions of people creating and selling self-made products, has officially made it to Africa. The movement’s trademark event, the Maker Faire, took place last year in Lagos. The most notable locally produced product that resulted from this event was a generator designed and built by four teenage girls that uses 1 liter of urine to produce 6 hours of electricity.
6. Greater connectivity
Africa is leading the way when it comes to developing innovative solutions for limited connectivity. By taking advantage of unused radio and TV frequencies, providers are able to widen data coverage to include countless rural areas through white space technology. Microsoft has already partnered with Kenyan regulators and Google with South Africa’s ICASA to show that broadband can be offered over white spaces.
7. Mobile money
Africa is frequently seen as leading the world in mobile money solutions. In December 2012, Visa launched mVisa in Rwanda to serve the unbanked, improve ATM services across Rwanda and promote electronic payments which will contribute to formalizing the economy.
8. mHealth
Health organizations have started to use mobile technology to address critical medical needs. SMS, in particular, is being used for countless needs, such as sharing vital information with expectant mothers or sending reminders to HIV/AIDS patients about taking their anitretrovirals. In Malawi, Baobab Health is developing solutions to replace traditional paper-based systems.
9. eLearning
Initiatives like One Laptop Per Child, Samsung’s e-learning technology platform, and solar-powered schools are innovative ways to ensure that students across the continent have access to up-to-date information and online resources, and are able to interact with teachers even when geographical obstacles stand in the way. Other organizations such as Wikipedia have teamed up with Orange to provide free access to the online encyclopedia to anyone with a mobile phone in Africa.
10. Social media
The use of social media is rising at astronomical rates in Africa. Besides Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Africans are also creating and using local social media platforms, such as MXit, which has over 50 million users who can use the platform to chat and play games at low data costs.
– Nayomi Chibana
Feature Writer
Sources: Portland, Center for Global Development
Photo: Education Innovations
African Natural Resources Make the World Go Round
Countless everyday appliances and gadgets would not exist if it were not for the minerals that come from Africa. From cars to cell phones, laptops, airplanes and batteries, much of what makes the world go round depends on resource-rich African nations that are being fueled by a global commodities boom.
Although much can be said of whether the rising demand for these minerals is actually benefiting those at the bottom of the pyramid, it is certain that emergent African economies are growing thanks to these raw materials. If well-managed, Africa’s mineral resources can lift the continent out of poverty and catapult it toward growth and prosperity for all.
Here are some of the everyday objects that are created with African natural resources.
1. Cars
The catalytic converters in cars that are made to reduce pollution are made with platinum and rhodium. South Africa alone produces 72% of the world’s platinum and 83% of the world’s rhodium.
2. Electronics
Devices such as cell phones, laptops, and other electronic gadgets are made from tantalum. Africa provides 71% of the world’s tantalum, with Mozambique leading the region as the source of 24% of the global production of the mineral, followed by Rwanda with 20% of the production.
3. Jewelry
In 2011, more than 57% of the world’s diamonds, nearly 75% of the world’s platinum and 20% of the world’s gold was found in Africa. Botswana is the world’s second largest producer of gem diamonds, and in 2011, the diamond industry accounted for half of the government revenue.
4. Batteries
The cobalt used in the electrodes of rechargeable batteries is growing rapidly in demand due to the use of portable electronic devices. In 2011, Africa accounted for 58% of the global production of cobalt, while the Democratic Republic of Congo alone represented 48% of this supply. Mineral mining, however, has been implicated in funding conflict in the country.
5. Airplanes
Many aircraft parts are made with aluminum alloys, which can account for up to 80% of the jet’s weight. Jet engines also use superalloys that contain cobalt and chromium. South Africa represents 47% of the global production of chromite – used to produce chromium -, while Guinea represents 8% of the world’s production of bauxite, used to make aluminum. Guinea has almost half of the world’s bauxite reserves and is predicted to become a world-leading producer of iron ore in the next decade.
6. Electricity
Besides coal and gas, Africa produces 16% of the world’s uranium, which is the source of the nuclear fuel that provides 14% of the world’s electricity.
7. Oil
Last year, Africa produced 10% of all the world’s oil – nearly 9.4 million barrels per day. Leading this production is Nigeria, with 37 billion barrels of proven reserves of oil – enough to keep supplying oil at 2011 levels for the next 40 years.
– Nayomi Chibana
Feature Writer
Sources: African Minerals Development Centre, CNN
Photo: CSMonitor
Nodding Syndrome Disease
Nodding Syndrome first appeared in the 1960’s in South Sudan. It attacks healthy children between the ages of 5 – 15. The disease gained its name from its most notable symptoms. Children tend to “nod off,” or temporarily lose consciousness or fall asleep although they do not report feeling tired. The nodding is often triggered by cold temperatures or eating and is accompanied by cognitive impairment. The incidence of the disease has increased over the past 10 years in Uganda, South Sudan and Tanzania. The CDC published a report on Nodding Syndrome in September 2013. It explains that the nodding episodes are actually atonic seizures of unknown origin, “Nodding Syndrome is an unexplained endemic epilepsy.”
The symptoms worsen over time and children begin to experience worsening seizures; they stop eating and eventually lose their physical and mental capacity. The disease is not fatal but children often die by falling into cooking fires, drowning during a seizure, or succumbing to malnutrition related illnesses. Parents also lose patience caring for their disabled children and often abandon them.
Other parents resort to extreme measures in order to keep their children from falling and hurting or killing themselves while nodding. Other bizarre symptoms include the disorientation and confusion; children often wander off and get lost in the woods. Global Health Front Line News spoke with one woman who has tied her 15-year-old son to the house for years in order to keep him safe. The boy is confused, angry and frustrated.
It is unclear why the disease only strikes children. Many experience severely stunted growth due to malnutrition and some do not survive to adulthood. Epilepsy drugs have been used to treat the syndrome and while they sometimes help with symptoms they do not cure the child completely. Recent studies have confirmed that Nodding Syndrome is a disease of the brain. Children have abnormal EEGs and their MRIs show atrophy.
A possible theory is that the disease develops from onchocerciasis, a parasitic condition that can cause blindness. Dr. Tenywa from the World Health Organization reports that all children he has studied with Nodding Syndrome also have this condition. However onchocerciasis occurs all over Africa and Nodding Syndrome is isolated to Uganda, Sudan and Tanzania.
In Pander, a rural community in Northern Uganda, more than 3,000 children have been stuck with the debilitating disease. It has devastated the community; almost every family has at least one child affected. In Pander there has been a makeshift ward created for the children. However, it is really just a place where parents dump their children when they can no longer care for them. The Ministry of Health developed five of these wards in Northern Uganda over the past few years.
The World Health Organization and the CDC are still looking for answers to what is causing this disease but they will continue conducting research until more concrete information on the cause of this peculiar disease and ultimately a treatment or cure can be found.
– Lisa Toole
Sources: Global Health Front Line, CDC, CNN, NPR
Photo: Gizmodo
Leading Women in Abu Dhabi
1. Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak
Also given the honorable title of “Mother of the Nation,” Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak is known as a “champion of women’s rights,” who has played a pioneering and leading role for women both locally and internationally. She is the third wife of the late founder and first president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan.
Sheikha Fatima started her work in the 1970s by launching a nation-wide campaign against illiteracy, with a particular emphasis on the need to educate girls, and establishing the first women’s society in the country, the Abu Dhabi Women Development Association. Since then, she has worked tirelessly by establishing over thirty associations, chairing tens of organizations, launching scores of initiatives and campaigns, and hosting and patronizing countless conferences and forums. She is currently the Supreme Chairperson of the Family Development Foundation, Chairperson of the UAE Women’s General Union, and Chairwoman of the Supreme Council for Motherhood & Childhood.
In recognition of her work on women’s issues, she was granted the Marie Curie Medal by UNESCO. She has also been awarded for her humanitarian and refugee work, for which she has been presented with a shield written in gold from the UN High Commission for Refugees, as well presented with the Global Humanitarian Personality Award, from the World Heart Group, for her efforts to help the sick.
2. Sheikha Fatema Bint Mohammed Bin Zayed
Following in her grandmother’s footsteps, Sheikha Fatema put her compassion into practice as a young university student. She is the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi (and the granddaughter of Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak).
In June 2010, while studying in university, she found herself deeply moved by the poverty still afflicting Afghanistan. She decided to take action and partnered with a local Afghan firm, Tanweer Investments, to create the Fatima bint Mohammed Initiative (FBMI). The organization is dedicated to addressing the 42% poverty rate in the country “by providing resources, compassion and the opportunity for impoverished women to free themselves from economic hardship and take a leading role in Afghanistan’s future.”
FBMI is unique because it embraced skills Afghan women already possessed, carpet weaving and spinning, and provided them with further vocational training and the resources they needed to become key industry players. Indigenous wool is used in order to enhance the value of the product and guarantee 100% Afghan origin. In addition to employing 3,000 low income Afghans (70% of whom are women), FBMI also offers the families healthcare and education services.
Since its inception, over 10,000 carpets have been produced and sold worldwide, providing sustainable economic development for more than 18,000 individuals. FBMI has received numerous awards in recognition of its achievements, including the DOMOTEX Middle East Special Recognition Award and Sustainable Interior Design Initiative of the Year in 2011.
– Rifk Ebeid
Sources: FBMI, The National, Arab Youth Awards, Alowaisnet
Africa Hopeful To Be Hunger-Free by 2025
On Friday, Jose Graziano da Silva, head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agency, stated that hunger in Africa can be eradicated by the year 2025. He then added that this can be achieved through the political commitment of all African political leaders and utilization of currently available resources. “We are not talking about sending a man to the moon or something that complicated”, he explained “We have the technology. We have the expertise. We have the things that we need to do it.”
Graziano believes that this goal can be achieved by examining worldwide efforts to alleviate poverty and reach the first United Nations Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty by half by 2015. Based on these efforts, Graziano listed three factors that are vital in targeting world hunger.
The first requirement is political will and leadership by leaders of the countries as this effort requires improvement in various aspects including health, nutrition, water supply, etc.
Secondly, Graziano highlighted the importance of agricultural performance and access to food. Statistics show that the world has more than enough food produced to feed the hungry; however, this food isn’t easily accessible and is often wasted. Between one-third and one-half of food produced today is lost or wasted due to improper storage methods, poor transportation and unnecessarily large portions.
The third factor that Graziano cited was the poor nutritional value of much of the food provided to the hungry. He stated that, “you see in families with the lowest income a proportion of obese and malnourished (youngsters) similar to the families that have high level income.”
Graziano and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization hope to see all of the aforementioned factors addressed and innovative solutions invented at the African Union Summit in January of 2014.
– Lienna Feleke-Eshete
Sources: Huffington Post, Food and Agriculture Organization
Photo: Ebru News
India’s ‘Hackathon for Humanity’
A three-day conference designed to bring the interests of women in technology to the forefront of the tech world, the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing is the only of its kind in India. The Conference is composed of keynote sessions, presentations on technology and professional development, a career fair, the Women Entrepreneur Quest, and Grace Hopper Celebration’s crowning glory – the Hackathon.
This year’s Hackathon, held last week in Bangalore, India, brought in around 120 women to code on open-source platforms for three humanitarian causes. In its fourth year of operation, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India was themed “Together We Rise,” to symbolize the collaboration of women from various sectors of the technology industry and their power to create a large network of technology-minded women.
The developers at this year’s Hackathon participated in projects in the fields of financial inclusion, mapping and health. Within the subject of financial inclusion, the women coded for Mifos, a free and open-source platform that enables financial service providers to more effectively deliver their services to the world’s poor. Mifos services microfinance institutions in managing funds, loans, installments, savings, deposits and other accounting reports. By coding at the Hackathon, the women helped to develop the platform and more efficiently manage Mifos’ data.
The second project built onto the framework of the Bachchao Project, an organization aimed at creating open technology tools to ensure user safety. The first of a larger set of technologies to keep women safe, the Bachchao app was first prototyped at the 2012 GHC Hackathon to transform mobile phones into personal security systems. This year, the women at the Hackathon helped to develop a custom crowdsourced map that alerts the user of safe and unsafe areas and displays local locations such as police stations, hotels and NGOs.
The final project worked on by GHC’s developers was a clinical reminder system that allows people to receive alerts about medications, medical tests, immunizations and examinations. This was designed to give people, especially women, greater control of and awareness about their own health.
In the shadow of the male-dominated technology industry, women are working against all odds to establish themselves as strong contenders in the growing field of IT.
– Tara Young
Sources: Mashable, Grace Hopper, The Hindu, The Bachchao Project