USAID has just launched a five year $88 million project dubbed “Feed the Future North” that is anticipated to increase the incomes of over 40,000 farming households in northern Haiti.
In a country where over 80 percent of the population is living under the poverty line, and 60 percent are farmers, the agricultural sector is key to developing the Haitian economy. Agricultural production makes up 25 percent of the country’s GDP, but especially after the tragic earthquake in 2010, farmers are having trouble maintaining sustainable farming practices.
Over the last three decades, flooding of farmlands in Haiti has increased, and water supplies have become scarcer, making it harder to produce crops. Even with the majority of people working in agriculture, Haiti still has to import more than 50 percent of its food.
USAID specifically plans for the project to increase the production of beans, rice, corn, cocoa and plantains, which are all key agricultural products for Haiti. It will help farmers do this by providing support in erosion protection and agricultural infrastructure, expanding financial services to local farming companies, stabilizing watersheds that support farmland, and improving roads that lead to quality farmlands that are difficult to maintain due to their inaccessibility.
Feed the Future North also plans to use new innovative approaches to increase agricultural production and incomes. These include plans for cellphones to make it easier for farmers to receive new information on farming practices, and to implement mobile money, which makes it easier for farmers to manage their transactions through a mobile device instead of with cash or credit cards.
But even with these innovative plans, it is still difficult to create long term, sustainable change in just 5 years. That’s why the project is projected to fund an additional $40 million beyond the original $88 million budget for contracts with local partner companies to continue the project’s work in the years following the project’s completion.
This is not the first of USAID’s “Feed the Future” projects in Haiti. The Feed the Future West project began in 2009, and has helped more than 30,000 farmers improve their seeds and fertilizer, and implement new agricultural technologies. As a result, participating farmers were able to increase their gross incomes from $200 per hectare to more than $1,100 per hectare.
– Emma McKay
Source: CIA World Factbook, USAID, USAID Feed the Future West
Photo: Save the Children
Cashew Smuggling and the Funding Gap
For arable countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the money made on agricultural exports is often invaluable. It can strengthen a government’s budget, benefit farmers who harvest the crops, and improve the overall the standard of living. When this source of money is removed, however, development can slow down for lack of funds.
In Cote d’Ivoire, the increasing importance of cashew exports is undermined by rampant smuggling. A United Nations panel estimated that in 2011, 150,000 tons of cashews were smuggled from Côte d’Ivoire, a trend that is unlikely to change unless foreign purchasers of the nuts crack down on smuggling practices.
Why do Ivorian cashew farmers smuggle cashews? Farmers are often unable to find desirable export prices on raw, unprocessed cashews, and instead sell to neighboring Ghana. Cashews are usually smuggled alongside cocoa, cotton, and coffee on an elaborate smuggling route through the northern and southern borders.
The export loss is staggering. The U.N. estimated that in 2011 alone Côte d’Ivoire lost US $130 million from its national economy and $3 million in fiscal revenue. The U.N. Panel asserted that the money gained from smuggling practices may be used by groups to purchase weaponry illegally, and stated that it was aware that the smuggling of cocoa to Ghana was in a number of cases escorted directly by Ivorian military forces.
Economists pinpoint the reason for low export prices as the low processing capacity for the six main nut processing factories. Less than one percent of the country’s cashews are processed, meaning shelled and sometimes roasted, in-country. Raw cashews net a lower market price. When farmers are unable to legally export their crop for the price they want, they turn to buyers in Ghana. Ultimately, this practice widens the funding gap for Ivorian infrastructure and development projects, growing obstacles to a more stable economy. Ultimately, for this country plagued with political instability and an unstable economy, the revenue created by legal cashew exports could help the country address its biggest challenges.
– Naomi Doraisamy
Source: African Development Bank Group, IRIN News, IRIN News
Photo: Jerry’s Nut House
Varkey GEMS Fights for Global Education
Despite the importance of global education, donor agencies and major developed countries have decreased their federal budgets and funding. Developing countries like India are working hard to get children into school and are increasing enrollment rates, but the fact remains that attendance rates and general accessibility to education in developing countries are lower than they should be.
Vikas Pota, CEO of Varkey GEMS Foundation, interprets this as “a major setback for children all over the world”, and states that “we need innovative solutions to make sure children have the opportunity to attend school”. The Varkey GEMS Foundation attempts to imrove the standards of education for underprivileged children, with one of their major goals being to impact 100 underprivileged children for every child enrolled in a GEMS school. In order to ensure that “every child has a chance to prosper”, the foundation provides scholarships and leadership development, as well as builds schools throughout the developing world. Another core goal of the foundation is to promote gender equality and provide for girl’s and women’s education as well.
At the launch of the foundation in December 2010, Bill Clinton had this to say, “There will rarely be people who launch something with so much potential to lift the hopes and spirits and dreams of children as this Foundation has done tonight. The benefits from an educated child will affect not only the child itself, but his or her family and the wider community… the world is depending on it”. By focusing on education of underprivileged children, it is the hope of Pota and of the foundation that those children will be able to lift themselves from poverty into a life of better opportunities and independence.
Pota believes that the biggest crisis we face in education “is that of not investing enough in our teachers”. Over the next ten years, the foundation hopes to train over 250,000 teachers globally, with the help of government aid. Another problem is that the majority of aid to basic education is not allocated to the lowest income countries where the most aid is needed. Pota calls for collective responsibility and action, which starts with the citizens. Calls to congress people and legislators are the most effective way to show support, and will increase the likelihood that budgets for education-based aid will increase.
– Sarah Rybak
Source: Huffington Post, Gems Education
Photo: A Celebration of Women
Poverty and Overpopulation
Early this year the 7 billionth baby was born on Earth, thereby sparking a new round of discussion about the need to implement measures to control population growth.
Developing countries have the highest fertility rates worldwide, with women often having 6-7 children. Bill Gates noted that areas with the highest reproductive rates also have the worst health conditions. Thus, he explains, in order to guarantee that they have 2 children survive into adulthood, women in areas with poor health conditions have more children since only 80-90% of their babies will make it to school age.
The answer to the population problem, Gates says, is to improve global health. If health demographics improve because of better access to vaccines, healthcare, affordable drugs, and hospitals, more children will reach school age. Thus, families will not need to have as many children in order to ensure that some of them survive and, with the institution of family planning programs, fertility rates will drop.
However, in between the improvement in global health and the reduction in fertility rates there is a “demographic transition” in the population. With better health, more children will survive and live longer. However, before women start utilizing family planning programs, there is a sort of ‘lag time’ where both birth and survival rates are high. Thus there forms a bulge in the population that does not decrease until women stop having as many children. This means that even after there are improvements in global health, population may increase before it begins to steadily decline as a result direct result of lower fertility rates.
Hans Rosling says that in order to create a sustainable population for the future, there must be improvements in global health today that ensure that 90% of children everywhere in the world make it to their 5th birthday. Not implementing these measures today could mean the difference between 8.3 billion people and 9.3 billion people living on Earth in the near future.
– KC Harris
Source: The Borgen Project Slate TED
Source: A Matter of Instinct
Japan’s Foreign Aid Efforts in Africa
In the past, Japan has mostly focused its foreign aid budget on areas in East Asia and Southeast Asia. However, this trend is changing as the country has turned its attention to Africa. Japan altered its foreign assistance policies after creating the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in 1993 and slowly began to increase aid to the region.
Japan’s foreign assistance to Africa has now reached an annual contribution of $400 million in “technical cooperation” and $800 million in “concessionary loans,” an amount that accounts for 40% of Japan’s total aid budget.
The concessionary loans are given for African countries to improve their infrastructure by building new ports, railways and other power stations. Japan also emphasizes health and education. The recipient countries must build schools, vocational school and teacher training programs as well as new hospitals with the grant money.
These grants and loan vary between countries. Many South African countries are ineligible, but those that do meet Japan’s criteria are giving aid based on individual needs and circumstances. Some countries struggle more agriculturally, while others may need advanced assistance in infrastructure, health or education sectors.
The recipient African countries are given concessionary loans at interest rates as low as 0.1% and have a ten year grace period followed by a 40-year time frame to re-pay the loans. The concessionary loans are mainly offered for large, high budget projects while the grants are given for smaller development projects.
So far, Japan’s foreign aid money has trained 800,000 math and science teachers as well as 220,000 healthcare workers in Africa. Japanese companies located in Africa have created about 150,000 jobs for local people. These numbers will continue to increase as Japan sends more money to the region. Japan’s foreign aid budget for Africa has doubled in the past five years, reaching $1.8 billion annually. By focusing on “development, energy production, good governance and human security,” Japan hopes to turn Africa into a flourishing trade partner while improving the lives of thousands of people.
– Mary Penn
Source: Engineering News
Photo: Bloomberg
Drilling for Change: Water for South Sudan
The accessibility of clean, safe water sources across the world varies greatly. Americans are afforded the luxury and don’t have to think twice about how they are going to collect water daily. It is so easy and natural to walk into a kitchen and fill up a glass of water or hop in the shower and bathe. For others, it is not that simple.
345 million people in Africa live without local water access, being forced to walk miles on end to collect where it can be found. The water is often dirty and contaminated with dangerous parasites, posing health risks to those who drink it. This may contribute to the extremely high mortality rates in Sudan.
Water for South Sudan has decided to address this issue. WSS has drilled over 168 borehole wells, providing remote villages in South Sudan with the basic human need of clean, safe water.
WSS has a deeply rooted belief that clean, accessible water is the framework for entrepreneurship and the growth of markets. Removing the huge issue of water from the equation opens up room to address other issues such as the economy and growth.
There are ways to help the people of Sudan through the Water for South Sudan organization. The H2O Project Challenge takes all of the money spent on beverages for two weeks and donates it to the charity. This means that for two weeks, the only drink a person can have is water. A little commitment such as this can have a profound impact on the lives of those in South Sudan.
– William Norris
Source: Water for South Sudan, Water.org, Save the Children
Photo: ICRC
Launch of “Feed the Future North” Project in Haiti
USAID has just launched a five year $88 million project dubbed “Feed the Future North” that is anticipated to increase the incomes of over 40,000 farming households in northern Haiti.
In a country where over 80 percent of the population is living under the poverty line, and 60 percent are farmers, the agricultural sector is key to developing the Haitian economy. Agricultural production makes up 25 percent of the country’s GDP, but especially after the tragic earthquake in 2010, farmers are having trouble maintaining sustainable farming practices.
Over the last three decades, flooding of farmlands in Haiti has increased, and water supplies have become scarcer, making it harder to produce crops. Even with the majority of people working in agriculture, Haiti still has to import more than 50 percent of its food.
USAID specifically plans for the project to increase the production of beans, rice, corn, cocoa and plantains, which are all key agricultural products for Haiti. It will help farmers do this by providing support in erosion protection and agricultural infrastructure, expanding financial services to local farming companies, stabilizing watersheds that support farmland, and improving roads that lead to quality farmlands that are difficult to maintain due to their inaccessibility.
Feed the Future North also plans to use new innovative approaches to increase agricultural production and incomes. These include plans for cellphones to make it easier for farmers to receive new information on farming practices, and to implement mobile money, which makes it easier for farmers to manage their transactions through a mobile device instead of with cash or credit cards.
But even with these innovative plans, it is still difficult to create long term, sustainable change in just 5 years. That’s why the project is projected to fund an additional $40 million beyond the original $88 million budget for contracts with local partner companies to continue the project’s work in the years following the project’s completion.
This is not the first of USAID’s “Feed the Future” projects in Haiti. The Feed the Future West project began in 2009, and has helped more than 30,000 farmers improve their seeds and fertilizer, and implement new agricultural technologies. As a result, participating farmers were able to increase their gross incomes from $200 per hectare to more than $1,100 per hectare.
– Emma McKay
Source: CIA World Factbook, USAID, USAID Feed the Future West
Photo: Save the Children
Syrian Refugee Camp Grows in Jordan
The Zaatari refugee camp near the border of Jordan and Syria has become Jordan’s fourth largest city as people flee from the violence of Syria’s ongoing civil war. The war, which has killed more than 70,000 people, is entering its third year and has displaced more than 3 million Syrians. Zaatari refugee camp is now the second biggest refugee camp in the world and is home to roughly 200,000 people. The camp has taken in about 1,500 people each day, but Jordanian officials worry that a continuous influx of people will put even more of a strain on their already shaky economy. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry estimates that one million Syrians have taken refuge in Jordan over the course of the war, and Jordan’s population hovers at only 6 million people.
Though Zaatari provides refuge from the violence in Syria, it is hardly a safe location for its residents. 75 percent of them are women and children, and United Nations workers admit that women are frequently attacked at night. The camp does offer medical care and schooling to its occupants, but its resources are scarce and most go without these services. Zaatari is only equipped to school 5,000 children, so most go without an education.
The U.N. has less than 30 percent of the funding it needs to keep Zaatari and other nearby camps running, and Jordan may soon be forced to close its borders if the number of refugees reaches the U.N.’s projection of three million refugees in 2013 alone.
According to U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees Antonio Guterres, the Syrian war is a severe threat to national security in the Middle East that could have profound international implications. While the U.S. has contributed $385 million to help Syrian refugees, offering more financial support than any other country, Guterres stresses that the U.S. and other powerful countries must contribute more if they wish to avoid one of the biggest humanitarian and national security crises of our time.
– Katie Bandera
Source: CBS News, Yahoo! News
Photo: Pulitzer Center
5 Facts about Child Soldiers
The subject of many a documentary, news report, and even novel, the figure of the child soldier emerged onto the global stage in the late 20th century, largely the result of publicized conflicts in places like Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The heartbreaking and sometimes frightening images of children—almost all of them African boys—turned into violent killers captured the attention of many in the west. Like most images, these tell only a part of the story. Here are five important and sobering facts about child soldiers.
1. Not all child soldiers are African. The organization Child Soldiers International reports that “since 2000, the participation of these soldiers has been reported in most armed conflicts and in almost every region of the world.” No exact figures have been compiled, but some estimates put the number at 250,000 child soldiers currently fighting in conflicts around the world. Countries, where child soldiers can be found, include Afghanistan, Burma, Iraq, the Philippines, Colombia, Thailand, India, Somalia, and Yemen.
2. They do more than just fight. Child soldiers not only fight on the front lines, but they also serve as runners, spies, and in some cases human shields. Many of them are also sexually abused and exploited.
3. Not all child soldiers are boys. Girls under 18 are often recruited or captured during conflicts, and most of the time they suffer sexual abuse and exploitation. An estimated 40% of them are girls.
4. They are both recruited and forced into serving. Many soldiers are violently kidnapped and forced to serve in armies or in opposition groups. Some, however, are drawn in because poverty and deprivation leave them vulnerable to the promise of money, food, and clothing if they take up arms. Desperation proves to be a powerful motivating force for some children.
5. They can be and have been rehabilitated. Despite the horrors they have suffered and in many cases committed, these soldiers are children forced or lured into war. Many organizations around the globe work to provide the therapy, medical attention, and education that these children need. Hundreds of former soldiers have benefited from this kind of care and been reunited with family members and loved ones.
– Délice Williams
Sources: Child Soldiers.org, Peace Direct USA
Photo: MW
Climate Change in Ethiopia
Ali Hamandu, a pastoralist in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, knows all too well the destruction a drought can bring. In the past five years of incredible drought in Ethiopia he has lost all of his livestock.
“I was previously a respected figure in my community for my wealth, having nearly a hundred heads of animals, including sheep, goats and cattle. All of a sudden I have nothing,” he explains. He now relies on food aid to support himself and his family.
Almost 14% of Ethiopia is made up of pastoralist communities. However, over the past five years of drought there has been a decline in the number of those who live as pastoralists due to climate change in Ethiopia. Many pastoralists have moved to urban life hoping to find jobs to provide food and water. Because pastoral life is so dependent on weather it is important to find solutions so pastoralists can continue their livelihood even with a changing climate.
The U.N. has been addressing this problem in Ethiopia by using money from the MDG-Fund to promote climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies into the government’s development plans, and policies. The “Enabling Pastoral Communities to Adapt to Climate Change and Restoring Rangeland Environments” is a UN joint program between the UNDP, FAO, and UNEP, has developed water facilities and activities that have helped 32,000 pastoralists in different regions of Ethiopia.
One of these activities is a program called “Jeldi Livestock Marketing Cooperative”, which Ali is now a member of. The Jeldi Cooperative is made up of 172 heads of households, many of whom are women. One of the main activities of the Jeldi Cooperative is buying sheep at low costs and fattening them up to be resold at a better price. Even though the Jeldi Cooperative is only a year old, it is making a profit for its members. It is one of three cooperatives in the area, and one of many in the entire country. Programs like this are what will help Ethiopians overcome climate change.
– Catherine Ulrich
Sources: AllAfrica, UNDP
Photo: UNDP
Poverty in Botswana
Botswana is a landlocked nation in the southern part of Africa. The economy of this country is defined by a single luxury export: diamonds. Beginning in the mid 1960’s, the economy of Botswana expanded exponentially. Due to her dependence on the success of one export, however, Botswana suffered from an economic contraction in 2009. This contraction occurred as the result of a shrinking global demand for Botswana diamonds. An already significant portion of the population in Botswana was living in extreme poverty prior to 2009. The economic downturn only perpetuated and strengthened a trend toward more abject conditions.
HIV/AIDS, however, is the largest contributor to poverty in Botswana. According to the CIA World Factbook, the prevalence of HIV/Aids is “second highest in the world and threatens Botswana’s impressive economic gains”. In 2012, 25% of the adult population was infected with the deadly virus. A health problem of this magnitude is detrimental to a nation’s economic well-being because it reduces human capital.
The good news is that the government of Botswana has begun to address HIV/AIDS with great success. President Festus Mogae who led the nation from 1998-2008 instituted a program to distribute AIDS medication to his people in 2002. This resulted in the medication of 95% of infected adults in Botswana.
In addition to Mogae’s initiative, the United States contributed vast amounts of aid money to the beleaguered country since the enacting of George W. Bush’s PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) from 2003-2008. With this boost from the U.S. government, Botswana has begun to rise from the ashes of economic recession and improve the health of its citizens.
– Josh Forgét
Source: The World Bank, PBS, CIA World Factbook
Photo: Chobe Safari