Curious about this “MDG” phrase that keeps coming up in the global health and development world? MDG stands for Millennium Development Goals, eight poverty-addressing goals set by the United Nations in 2000. Delineating eight specific goals, 189 member states and 23 International Organizations, the MDGs should be met by 2015. Below is a summary of each of the goals.
1. Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger
Of all the goals put forth by the MGD, the prospect of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger has seen the most progress. In fact, the target of halving the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day was met an impressive five years ahead of schedule. While this is a laudable achievement, the fact that globally, 384 million workers lived below this threshold in 2011 keeps our feet rooted in reality. Moreover, it is estimated that to this day 870 million people are undernourished. While there is work to do, it is important to point out successes where they are due.
2. Achieving Universal Primary Education
Arguably, the number one feature of a developed nation is an educated population. To be sure, equal opportunity to education does not solely benefit the recipient. In order for a state to develop on a technological and social level, it is of ample importance to maintain a strong education network. To date, more children than ever are receiving primary education. The UN reports that enrollment in primary education in developing regions reached 90 per cent in 2010, up from 82 percent in 1999. While progress occurs, estimates show that in 2011, 57 million children were out of school and globally, 123 million youth between the ages of 15 to 24 lacked basic reading and writing skills.
3. Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women
Regrettably, in many nations women are viewed as second to men. What is more, this is not a feature exclusive to underdeveloped nations; Australia’s new prime minister, Tony Abbot, has stated men are genetically programmed to rule over women. While this type of antiquated thinking is laughable and likely a result of poor education, it cannot go ignored. To this day, in many countries women do not receive the same opportunities as men. The UN reports that while “the world has achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys, only two out of 130 countries have achieved the target at all levels of education.” There is a lot more work to do in this sector.
4. Reducing Child Mortality Rates
For underdeveloped and developing nations, the child mortality rate is a strong indicator of development. In fact, children born into poverty are twice as likely to die by the age of five than their wealthier counterparts. According to the UN fact sheet, “despite population growth, the number of deaths in children under five worldwide declined from 12.4 million in 1990 to 6.6 in 2012, which translates into about 17,000 fewer children dying each day. This is principally due to greater access to medication, especially vaccines for infectious diseases such as measles.”
5. Improving Maternal Health
Similar to the child mortality rate, maternal health is another powerful indicator of a state’s development. With the goal of ameliorating the staggering rate of maternal mortality, the UN and NGOs focused resources toward antenatal care in developing regions. With an increase of 63 percent of this care, maternal mortality has been halved since 1990. While much progress has been made, the UN reports “the maternal mortality ratio in developing regions is still 15 times higher than in developed regions.”
6. Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other Diseases
Of the infectious diseases humanity has faced, the two most visible are HIV/AIDS and, to a much greater degree, malaria. Prima facie, it seems that HIV/AIDS rates are going up because more people are living with the disease. However, these are people that wouldn’t be alive were it not for greater access to treatment. With greater education and more comprehensive knowledge, however, transmission rates among young people have decreased dramatically.
Globally, malaria remains the number one killer of humans. With greater access to treatment, however, the estimated incidence of malaria has decreased by 17 percent since 2000. Along with strides in malarial treatment, the UN estimates that treatment for tuberculosis has saved up to 20 million lives between 1995 and 2011.
7. Ensuring Environmental Sustainability
While good news can be reported on each of the other MDGs, the environment is worse off now that it has ever been. According to UN estimates, global emissions of carbon dioxide have increased by more than 46 percent since 1990. Deforestation continues to spread like a cancer, polar ice caps continue to melt, and yet, politicians continue to deny the likelihood of climate change. Despite environmentalist detractors, initiatives have been launched to protect the environment. Since 1990, the rate of protected areas has increased by 58 percent.
For many, this area will be the most important aspect of policy-making moving forward. As far as the environment goes, once damage is done, the prospect of reversing it is fiction.
8. Developing a Global Partnership for Development
The number one goal of this area is to “develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system.” Specifically, this means free trade at a global level. Yet, despite promising rhetoric, protectionist measures continue to effect global trade.
Yet while many aspects of this area remain obscured, there has been cooperation in ensuring the prospect of meeting each of the preceding goals. It is important to realize that this final goal is the least well defined of the goals and, thus, will be most difficult to measure. There is ample work to do, but there has been progress.
– Thomas Van Der List
Sources: United Nations, UNDP, World Health Organization
Photo: Photopin
Solar Energy in Africa
One of the most important indicators of development is access to electricity. Electricity is considered a fundamental and basic element of developed society. There is a huge movement to provide communities without electricity with the means to obtain it.
In many underdeveloped countries, the easiest way to obtain electricity is by solar energy. Many of these areas do not have the infrastructure nor the resources to create mass electrical plants like those in Europe or the United States. Solar panels are a cost effective way to produce electricity anywhere.
Azuri Technologies is providing many families in Africa with a cheap way to obtain electricity. There is a one time installation fee and then a weekly charge of little over $1. This is important because these families currently have to use kerosene which costs much more than the expenses of the solar panel.
Another reason that solar panels are important is that they provide a wide range of uses. The kerosene is only used for light. However, access to mobile phones is becoming more and more common. The solar panels are all equipped to charge mobile phones, which are becoming fundamental to the communities.
The phone situation is one example of how access to electricity leads to development. If communities do not have phone access, they have to refer back to traditional means of communication or using phones that are long distances away. The access to electricity is giving them the tools to advance.
One large impetus to use solar panels is that there is a lot of sun! Fossil fuels are extremely expensive, especially in underdeveloped countries. The sun is a resource that does not cost money and does not run out. Sunlight does not need to be transported and it cannot be stolen, which is a problem with fossil fuels.
The use of solar panels is one way that underdeveloped areas can be brought into the developed world. It is not the only solution to development or poverty, but it is a piece to the puzzle that can put everything in motion.
– Zachary Patterson
Sources: The Eco Experts, Bloomberg Business Week
Photo: PhysOrg
State Street Foundation: Providing Sustainability in Poor Communities
The State Street Foundation is a unique organization that focuses on providing grants to deserving groups that offer services to the poor. By “actively engaging in our global communities,” State Street is able to empower impoverished people through education, affordable housing and small business programs. The company also assists businesses by offering financial guidance in investment, research and trading.
State Street mainly operates 25 countries; most of its programs are in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The organization’s vast number of volunteers and supporters work in low-income communities to create sustainable poverty alleviation projects. These volunteers worked 78,000 hours and completed 4,900 projects in 2010. Since its formation in 2001, State Street employees and alumni have contributed 430,000 hours and 15,600 service projects.
These projects vary based on the needs of local communities, but all have the goal of improving quality of life in these areas. State Street’s Supplier Diversity Program works with businesses owned by minorities and women to ensure that these small businesses have the same opportunities as other larger companies. Providing grants to these businesses helps them financially thrive, thus creating jobs and increasing economic growth for the entire community.
In addition to distributing local grants, State Street Foundation sponsors community fundraising events for charities the organization supports. In 2010, State Street donated $3.2 million to these charities. For these reasons, the company has won copious awards for its philanthropy, including the Custody Risk’s Mutual Fund Administrator of the Year and Transfer Agent of the Year (2013), Best Securities Financing House in Asia Asset Management’s Best of the Best Awards (2013), European Transfer Agent of the Year (with IFDS) in the 2012 Funds Europe Awards (November 2012) and numerous other awards since its founding.
State Street is a foundation devoted to helping impoverished businesses and communities and hopes to contribute to poverty alleviation, one region at a time.
– Mary Penn
Sources: State Street, AVPN
Photo: Time
Why Female Education Fights Poverty
While providing equal education to girls is necessary from a moral standpoint, it is also essential for a more peaceful and poverty-free world.
Education affects the age at which women marry and have children. Therefore, until girls have equal access to quality education, maternal mortality, overpopulation, and other factors contributing to poverty will continue to terrorize our world.
In sub-Saharan Africa, and South and West Asia, child marriage affects 1 in 8 girls. By the age of 17, 1 in 7 females will have their first child. Since girls in these areas are not given access to education or job opportunities, they are often locked into these marriages, and forced to become mothers far before they are ready.
In the long run, these women can’t afford to take care of their children or even attain proper health services during labor. The line of poverty continues as children are born into impoverished families that are unable to help their offspring escape this cycle.
Providing women with a secondary education brings enormous benefits to both women and to the world. Educated women are empowered women. They can make their own choices and follow their own dreams. If girls receive a secondary education, 64 percent of them won’t get married while still attending school. By giving girls a chance to pursue their own future and making them aware of the risks associated with consecutive childbearing, the vicious cycle will finally reach its end.
The advantages in investing in female education are endless – for individuals, for the fight against poverty, and for lowering child mortality rates. The rise in female education between 1970 and 2009 prevented more than 4 million child deaths. With the Millennium Development Goals still met, perhaps this is an essential place for the U.N. to make a change.
– Sonia Aviv
Sources: Global Post, TIME, Huffington Post
Photo: The Guardian
Failure to Meet Millennium Goals for Women Will Have Lasting Echoes
Of all the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the UN, those pertaining to the reproductive health of women seem most likely to be unmet when the 2015 deadline hits. Whatever the other MDG successes, the failure to meet the reasonable objectives set for women should be remembered as a defining symbol of the UN’s ability to get things done in 2015. The issue of reproductive health in and of itself is insufficient to merit that reaction, but it does stand as a weather-vane to all kinds of gender-related issues; it points to a future of injustice.
The Millennium Development Goals in question were meant to achieve universal reproductive health and reduce maternal mortality rates by 75 percent of their 1990 levels. Currently, the rates remain double their intended 2015 targets. As Eva Joly, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Development, observed, “It is a failure of the fight against poverty…but it is also linked to other questions.”
The “questions” which have stymied progress on the issue are mainly cultural in nature. Throughout the world, for many hundreds or even thousands of years, women have been viewed as an inferior sex, in some times and places ranking below valued animals such as horses. From the spatial organization of public and private spaces and places, the norms of social interaction, and the ratio of economic independence, to acceptable activities, clothing, and even mentality, women have long been the second sex.
In failing to keep its MDGs, the UN is not only harming today and tomorrow’s women biologically, it fails to make any headway in provoking a cultural revolution which will allow women to be recognized as equally valuable human beings.
Such sentiments may be senseless to men living in particularly sexist cultures. Indeed, there is a strong argument to make for abstaining from building a homogenous global culture which, conveniently enough, is predicated on modern, Western values, and sees all deviation from that standard as unhealthy, unjust, and immoral. Cultural diversity makes humanity strong, and those who pine for days of a culturally unified humanity may wish to second-guess some of their assumptions.
But the UN has made it clear that it does not intend to allow some cultures to continue to exist according to their traditional ways if those traditions conflict with what the UN perceives to be universal rights. And in that light, the UN has failed to convince these disparate cultures that the lives of their women are worth the cost to be saved from death or trauma in childbirth.
When 2015 comes around, the UN will doubtlessly celebrate their many achievements, as well they should. The effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals has been well spent, and many of the results from it are incontrovertibly good. But the UN should not forget that in this major arena, it has failed.
– Alex Pusateri
Sources: Euractiv, The Atlantic, AWID
Photo: The Gaurdian
New Study Links Hygiene and Height
According to a new study linking hygiene and height, soap and clean water for hand washing can help increase growth in young children. Previous medical studies have proven that better hygiene can reduce outbreaks of diarrhea among children less than five years, but the studies failed to measure its impact on a child’s height.
The most recent study showed a slight improvement in average growth by half a centimeter among children who used proper hand-washing techniques as opposed to those who did not. Researchers concluded that clean water and soap decreased stunting—when a child is too short for his/her age— by as much as 15 percent.
Further scientific evidence is also showing a connection between instances of diarrhea and a child’s development. The evidence shows that repeated bouts of diarrhea can reduce the gut’s ability to absorb nutrients that allow children to develop a healthy mind and body.
Alan Dangour, a public health nutritionist from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and one of the study’s lead authors, said that “WASH”—water, sanitation, and hygiene—fits all the characteristics of a underlying cause of malnutrition.
Dangour and his colleagues found 14 studies conducted in low- to middle income countries that provided data on the effects of the WASH program on the growth of nearly 9,500 children. Five of the studies included control groups of children who did not receive soap and clean water, but who were similar in most other ways to the children who did.
Chronic malnutrition, which causes stunting, is a foremost cause of preventable mental disabilities in children under five-years old. It claims the lives of nearly three million young children per year.
Until now there has been no research conducted on the direct impact of WASH interventions on nutrition. Researchers believe that further, more “robust” evidence is needed. Nevertheless, these findings are significant, and they remain hopeful that WASH could be the simple ‘cure for stunting.’
– Scarlet Shelton
Sources: IRIN, The Lancet, Wiley Online Library
Photo: Examiner
How Poverty Impacts the Environment
How poverty impacts the environment: Natural resources are being depleted, clean air is growing scarce, climates are shifting, and entire ecosystems are being affected. It doesn’t take long to look around the world and see the ways in which the environment is changing. While mankind, in general, places stress on the environment, poverty in particular has played a major role in environmental degradation across the world.
Poverty Impacts the Environment: Effects and Solutions
One of the biggest ways that the environment is affected by poverty is through deforestation. Forests provide the world with clean air, in addition to working as “sink holes” that help reduce the drastic climate changes seen in the world today. With the increasing level of deforestation taking place, the environment is taking a heavy blow and finding it difficult to recover. Impoverished communities, unaware of the errant, harmful ways in which they use natural resources, such as forest wood and soil, are continuing the destructive cycle that spirals the environment further downward.
Air pollution is another way in which poverty contributes to environmental degradation. As mentioned above, poor communities lack the proper knowledge when it comes to production techniques. Thus, the ways in which they use resources to help them survive are harmful to the resources around them, and ultimately the world at large. Air pollution is one of the major consequences of poor production techniques while water pollution is a result of poor water management, once again due to lack of knowledge. Water pollution affects so many things beyond the poor community itself. Water pollution deprives soil of nourishing elements, kills off fish, and is extremely harmful to human health.
Because extreme poverty doesn’t always lend to widespread birth education, many poor women lack the resources necessary to engage in birth control. Therefore, it is common for poor women to continue having children well after they would have liked because of little to no access to resources and education.
The more the global population grows, the more weight is placed on the environment. Every human being consumes their share of resources from the environment, and with so many births originating from poor communities, the burdens placed on the environment grow heavier and heavier each day.
In order to help the state of the environment, we must first help the state of the poor and education is key.
Poor regions need to know what the proper and harmless methods are in which they can dispose of their waste. They must learn how to tend a healthy and sound agricultural system without the reliance on degraded soil, and other unfit resources. There must be more importance placed on water management and protecting fisheries, as those are essential for the livelihood of many people. Re-forestation projects are crucial in replenishing the supply of environmental “goods” that deforestation has destroyed.
In addition, taking action to stop the rampage of deforestation is even more important in order to begin to nourish the environment back to good health.
– Chante Owens
Sources: Teams To End Poverty, Global Issues
Photo: Science Daily
What are MDGs?
Curious about this “MDG” phrase that keeps coming up in the global health and development world? MDG stands for Millennium Development Goals, eight poverty-addressing goals set by the United Nations in 2000. Delineating eight specific goals, 189 member states and 23 International Organizations, the MDGs should be met by 2015. Below is a summary of each of the goals.
1. Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger
Of all the goals put forth by the MGD, the prospect of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger has seen the most progress. In fact, the target of halving the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day was met an impressive five years ahead of schedule. While this is a laudable achievement, the fact that globally, 384 million workers lived below this threshold in 2011 keeps our feet rooted in reality. Moreover, it is estimated that to this day 870 million people are undernourished. While there is work to do, it is important to point out successes where they are due.
2. Achieving Universal Primary Education
Arguably, the number one feature of a developed nation is an educated population. To be sure, equal opportunity to education does not solely benefit the recipient. In order for a state to develop on a technological and social level, it is of ample importance to maintain a strong education network. To date, more children than ever are receiving primary education. The UN reports that enrollment in primary education in developing regions reached 90 per cent in 2010, up from 82 percent in 1999. While progress occurs, estimates show that in 2011, 57 million children were out of school and globally, 123 million youth between the ages of 15 to 24 lacked basic reading and writing skills.
3. Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women
Regrettably, in many nations women are viewed as second to men. What is more, this is not a feature exclusive to underdeveloped nations; Australia’s new prime minister, Tony Abbot, has stated men are genetically programmed to rule over women. While this type of antiquated thinking is laughable and likely a result of poor education, it cannot go ignored. To this day, in many countries women do not receive the same opportunities as men. The UN reports that while “the world has achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys, only two out of 130 countries have achieved the target at all levels of education.” There is a lot more work to do in this sector.
4. Reducing Child Mortality Rates
For underdeveloped and developing nations, the child mortality rate is a strong indicator of development. In fact, children born into poverty are twice as likely to die by the age of five than their wealthier counterparts. According to the UN fact sheet, “despite population growth, the number of deaths in children under five worldwide declined from 12.4 million in 1990 to 6.6 in 2012, which translates into about 17,000 fewer children dying each day. This is principally due to greater access to medication, especially vaccines for infectious diseases such as measles.”
5. Improving Maternal Health
Similar to the child mortality rate, maternal health is another powerful indicator of a state’s development. With the goal of ameliorating the staggering rate of maternal mortality, the UN and NGOs focused resources toward antenatal care in developing regions. With an increase of 63 percent of this care, maternal mortality has been halved since 1990. While much progress has been made, the UN reports “the maternal mortality ratio in developing regions is still 15 times higher than in developed regions.”
6. Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other Diseases
Of the infectious diseases humanity has faced, the two most visible are HIV/AIDS and, to a much greater degree, malaria. Prima facie, it seems that HIV/AIDS rates are going up because more people are living with the disease. However, these are people that wouldn’t be alive were it not for greater access to treatment. With greater education and more comprehensive knowledge, however, transmission rates among young people have decreased dramatically.
Globally, malaria remains the number one killer of humans. With greater access to treatment, however, the estimated incidence of malaria has decreased by 17 percent since 2000. Along with strides in malarial treatment, the UN estimates that treatment for tuberculosis has saved up to 20 million lives between 1995 and 2011.
7. Ensuring Environmental Sustainability
While good news can be reported on each of the other MDGs, the environment is worse off now that it has ever been. According to UN estimates, global emissions of carbon dioxide have increased by more than 46 percent since 1990. Deforestation continues to spread like a cancer, polar ice caps continue to melt, and yet, politicians continue to deny the likelihood of climate change. Despite environmentalist detractors, initiatives have been launched to protect the environment. Since 1990, the rate of protected areas has increased by 58 percent.
For many, this area will be the most important aspect of policy-making moving forward. As far as the environment goes, once damage is done, the prospect of reversing it is fiction.
8. Developing a Global Partnership for Development
The number one goal of this area is to “develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system.” Specifically, this means free trade at a global level. Yet, despite promising rhetoric, protectionist measures continue to effect global trade.
Yet while many aspects of this area remain obscured, there has been cooperation in ensuring the prospect of meeting each of the preceding goals. It is important to realize that this final goal is the least well defined of the goals and, thus, will be most difficult to measure. There is ample work to do, but there has been progress.
– Thomas Van Der List
Sources: United Nations, UNDP, World Health Organization
Photo: Photopin
Why Technology Won’t Solve World Hunger
Ideas for ending world hunger are the subject of deep contention and intrigue. Conversations about how best to go about ending hunger are held among regular people far removed from the international, sociopolitical arena or non-profit sector, as well as among leaders in national governments and conferring minds within the United Nations.
Duncan Green in The Guardian recently reminded the world of the stark contrasts between those who can afford to eat and the nearly 900 million who sleep on empty stomachs. Progressive efforts underway in Ghana and Brazil have seen initiatives such as cash transfers to the impoverished and an increase in minimum wage. These programs have made strides, but in nations like India that are growing exponentially, the government must address the issue.
Of the myriad of ways to eradicate hunger, is technology perhaps a truly viable option at this point? If so, are the contributions made by technology being overlooked as a way to finally solve world hunger, or is technology simply a tool in this case?
Josette Sheeran, blogging for The Huffington Post, seems to think that technology is something of a cure-all for world hunger. She talks of the electronic vouchers used in Palestinian territories that give people greater access to food. The World Food Programme (WFP) is responsible for that, and other projects, such as the one in the Philippines that uses texting to feed workers. People participate in work projects and can collect their payment at participating food shops.
The WFP also uses social media with their WeFeedBack initiative that lets the user online select a favorite food and using a special calculator, can see based on its cost how many children would be fed with it. The calculated amount is what WFP encourages the user to donate.
Not long ago, a lab-grown burger patty was cooked and eaten in view of the public, touted as a way to help save both planet and people. A report from The Atlantic posits that the world already produces enough food to feed a growing global population and that new technology won’t necessarily solve the hunger crisis. Three-dimensional food printers are also a new tech tool being developed, but the report makes the case that in-house food printers won’t be an appliance in every kitchen because regular people cannot figure out the technology.
Why, then, would these technologies work in the emergent world? And, even if labs in emergent nations were capable of mass producing meat, consumption would be limited to the middle class and upper classes.
Sarah Sloat for Pacific Standard cites a 2012 paper by CUNY law student Rebecca Bratspies that says food production has grown inversely proportional to the hungry. Better food distribution will help solve hunger more than technological developments. The feeling, then, is that even with the massive amount of resources available to solve the world hunger crisis, the solutions are not dependent upon increased production.
Technology in food production has proven to increase production, but access is still contingent upon how food is distributed and how easily available it is to those who need it. Getting there may not be an issue of widespread production, but rather individual nations doing what they can to feed citizens.
– David Smith
Sources: The Guardian, The Atlantic
Photo: Huffington Post
The Elma Foundation
The foundation of ending global poverty begins with building a future for the coming generations. The ELMA Group of Foundations, founded in 2005, has seen the potential in youth and grown into one of the world’s largest private foundations focused exclusively on the children of Africa and selected groups in the United States and the United Kingdom.
ELMA’s mission is to improve lives through sustainable efforts to relieve poverty, advance education and promote health. They achieve this by utilizing grant making and investment, and supporting grassroots, community-based and large scale regional, national and international initiatives as catalysts for systematic change for people around the globe.
The group of foundations is made up of four major services arms: the ELMA Foundation, ELMA Relief, ELMA South Africa and ELMA Music. They are located in New York, Cape Town, and Dar es Salaam.
The ELMA Relief Foundation provides humanitarian relief to help people affected by disasters in any region of the world. They pay special attention to the needs of children, who often suffer more in the aftermath of environmental tragedies. They support successful disaster risk reduction activities and work to strengthen the strategic development behind it.
Some of their active grants include Global Fund for Children, Medecins Sans Frontieres UK and Oxfam America. These and other grants have provided support for disaster victims in countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Haiti, Mozambique and Ethiopia.
The ELMA Foundation has a particular focus in South Africa where they provide assistance to both children and adults. These include a Legal Resources Centre which aims to renew ongoing social justice programs with focus on children’s rights and the University of Pretoria, a community-orientated nursing education program for women and child health.
The ELMA Music foundation works mainly in the U.S. and UK. They offer financial assistance to musicians and musical performs, and to established programs seeking to assist the problem of substance abuse and addiction in the music industry. ELMA also supports opportunities for underprivileged children and youth to study and create music.
All in all, ELMA has a large and diverse outreach that tackles social injustice and pushes for relief and education all around the world.
– Janki Kaswala
Sources: Elma, Idealist
Photo: Berkeley
Literate Women Improve Development
One in every six adults worldwide is illiterate. Most of the world’s illiterate are women, meaning that they are 15 or older and unable to read or write. Literate women add to their country’s development. This is accomplished through their participation in business, government and culture. Moreover, they are more likely to ensure that their children, especially the girls, attend school, guaranteeing a subsequent generation of literate women.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated, “Every literate woman marks a victory over poverty.” Literate women strengthen the development of their country by reducing mortality rates, increasing child and maternal health and ensuring ongoing literacy for girls.
Therefore, governments, donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been encouraged to increase the funding and advocacy to improve literacy rates among the world’s women.
Africa is the only continent where most adults are not able to read or write. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the adult literacy rates are below 50 percent in Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. Due to gender inequality, the literacy rates in these countries are even lower for women.
Below are the literacy rates for the women in some of these countries:
With a poverty rate of 43 percent, Mali is one of the world’s poorest countries. Life expectancy is 54 years and girls’ education rate is only up to 7 years old. For these women and girls living in poverty, gaining an education is essential for survival. Through educating women and girls in Mali, HIV infection rates will decrease, incidents of human trafficking will diminish and women will marry and have children later in life. Women will also instill a value for education in their children and will gain more input in their family functioning.
Through increased funding and advocacy to educate the women of the world, global poverty will be diminished.
– Caressa Kruth
Sources: UN News Centre, UNICEF, UNESCO, CIA, The World Bank, World Education
Photo: The Blessing Basket