Over the last decade, Saharan Africa has been cemented as an equally troublesome region as the Middle East itself. Last year’s attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya may have come as a shock to American citizens aware only of conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Palestine, but this is certainly not a new trend.
Terrorist groups in Africa have expanded their reach in the last decade under the umbrella of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM). These groups across the Sahel pose a “large and existential threat,” according to UK Prime Minister David Cameron.
On paper these Islamist groups differ in religious motivation from separatist factions that fight for recognition of and rights for specific people groups, but in practice these radical groups often provide an outlet for discontent. Members of both kinds of groups, however, share similar characteristics: those who hold reactive ideologies, those who are financially influenced into working with militant groups, and those who take advantage of security vacuums to spread these groups cross-continent.
Security Vacuums
One of the biggest contributors to terrorist groups gaining influence in Africa is security vacuums – lack of a secure state authority capable of enforcing rule of law. In the Central African Republic last year, for example, a Chadian armed group stood almost completely unchallenged by national defense forces, instead facing much of its opposition from CAR militant groups.
Many governments in the region are unwilling or unable to fight these transnational terrorist groups. Resentment against Western influence exists, especially due to what the Economist calls “a reflexive revulsion at intervention by former colonial powers.”
To make matters worse, the landscape of the Sahel does not make enforcing borders easy. Furthermore, even when the host country has a military force to combat these militant groups, the landscape in much of the Sahel proves prohibitive. For example, Nigerian forces that are “big and well-equipped” have “little idea how to fight in the desert,” according to the Economist.
Income Disparity and Corruption
Former UN diplomat and security expert Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah argues that networked militancy flourishes in northern Africa in significant part due to “the perceived arrogance and corruption of urban elites.” Income disparity — the difference between the incomes of the rich and the poor — causes unrest and alienation of lower classes.
Minority communities — made minority either by class or by ethnic grouping — are often marginalised. According to researchers Tim Krieger and Daniel Meierrieks, empirical findings suggest “a positive and highly significant relationship” between income inequality and terrorism. “This suggests,” Krieger and Meierrieks write, “that economic grievances related to income inequality are conducive to the product of violent terrorism.”
Unemployment also drives many to violence by pushing them toward “any economic opportunity that they have,” Malian think-tank director Mohamed Coulibaly said. This includes joining the ranks of paid militancy or, as some suspect is a partial source of revenue for terrorist groups, drug trafficking. Sometimes these militants kidnap for ransom. “It’s nothing to do with an ideology — we’re just here to make money,” conflict resolution specialist Kalie Sillah quotes Mali militants as saying.
Infrastructure Void
The economic disadvantage experienced by would-be militants in the Sahel is significantly contributed to by the lack of – or unequal – development in the region, both foreign and domestic. Richard Joseph, nonresident senior fellow at the Africa Growth Initiative, writes that while African economies may exhibit successful economic growth, they do not exhibit the same amount of unity and political progress; in the Foresight Africa Report 2013, he gives the example of Ghana and Mali, two countries that share similar GDP growth but vastly different levels of sustainable development.
As rapid economic growth pads the pockets of politicians — in many cases due to high-return extraction industries — in some countries this profit never reaches the people in the form of infrastructure: local governments, road and irrigation improvements, rural education, and health system reform. Instead, the money is often spent on pet projects that yield political but not economic returns. John Mbaku of the Africa Growth Initiative writes, “Today African countries have a serious deficit in the type of essential infrastructure that usually forms the foundation for significant improvements in agricultural productivity.”
In the Africa Competitiveness Report 2013, the World Economic Forum proposed that increased infrastructure would also improve intra-continent trade, thus providing more economic opportunity for adjacent nations to export and import goods and services. Though economic opportunities do not resolve ethnic or sectarian conflicts, they can provide sorely needed jobs to unemployed individuals who would otherwise be lured into drug trafficking or militancy.
The lack of physical infrastructure also can contribute to the ease of foreign groups crossing international borders. The isolated villages and rural regions that militant groups thrive in are not just difficult to get to; they are difficult to find in the first place.
Development and Poverty Eradication as a Solution
The United Nations recognizes that part of combating global terrorism is addressing potential causes. For this reason, the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy — adopted by member states in 2005 and reaffirmed a number of times — contains as its first pillar the resolution “to address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism.” The advancement of the Millennium Development Goals is a cornerstone of anti-terrorism strategy.
Yonah Alexander of the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies writes that addressing terrorism in Africa requires investment in security “by accelerating national and regional economic development.” These investments include expansion of foreign aid, workforce development programs, and streamlining support from foreign assistance-providing countries. Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Masood Khan spoke to the UN Security Council last month, insisting that addressing terrorism requires addressing common factors of poverty, ethno-sectarian disputes, and marginalization.
The UN Counter-Terrorism Strategy recognizes that none of the conditions of unemployment, marginalization, security vacuums, or lack of infrastructure “can excuse or justify acts of terrorism.” The contributing factors to terrorist recruitment, however, remain a grave concern. Advancing the Millennium Development Goals — whether through direct economic assistance or through development programs that equip host countries to help themselves — can reduce the marginalization and victimization that propel many towards violent terrorism.
– Naomi Doraisamy
Source: BBC,Foresight Africa 2013,Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies,Social Science Research Network,The Economist,The Nation
Photo: Moon of the south
Break a Bad Habit for a Good Cause
While there are some habits that should be broken, there are a few habits that may be worth making in the name of ending global poverty. For example, if the bad habit in question is spending money on a large, frivolous coffee every day, then a good habit that could replace it would be using the money spent to fund a program that fights global poverty.
Jeremy Dean, author and founder of PsyBlog, offers years of experience in how to break a bad habit, and in one particular post entitled How to Help Other People Change Their Habits. According to Dean, there are three simple steps to helping someone break a habit. Following the steps below can help break a habit and make room for good habits that could change the world.
Step 1: Acknowledge that the person in question wants to change a habit and is open to help in doing so. As long as they are open to change, then they are ready for step two.
Step 2: Avoid a judgmental attitude. Find a balance between a voice of support and encouragement and a tone of judgment. It is a habit in and of its self to remain non-judgmental, but when assisting another in achieving a difficult goal, even footing is a must.
Step 3: Increase self-awareness and identify the situation that encourages the bad habit. Many habits are performed unconsciously, repeatedly and in recurring situations. Identifying the situation or emotions that trigger the behavior help to break a habit and the reversal can begin.
Remember to work together when breaking a bad habit, and try not force someone to change if there is no desire to do so. Through his research, Dean says that it could take up to two months to break a habit, but with support and perseverance, it can be done. Try channeling bad habit energy into good causes like blogging for the Borgen Project, taking the Pledge, or trading in the cost of your daily coffee for a vaccination sponsored by UNICEF.
– Kira Maixner
Source: PsyBlog
Photo: Precision Nutrition
10 Facts About Poverty in Ethiopia
Poverty in Ethiopia remains a major concern, but the country has also seen great progress. Ethiopia has the second largest population of all African countries and has only once, for a brief period of time, been colonized. One of Africa’s oldest independent countries, Ethiopia has a rich culture and long history. However, it is currently considered one of Africa’s poorest countries despite a rapid population boom in recent decades. Read how Ethiopia reduced poverty.
10 Key Facts on Poverty in Ethiopia
– Kira Maixner
Source: The World Bank , Merlin USA , BBC
Photo: World Vision
1. Donate
2. Email Congress
3. Volunteer
Global Hunger v. Global Malnutrition
All the talk these days is about global hunger. Under-nourishment. But in focusing solely on that, we completely miss the issue of mal-nourishment. An issue that is becoming all the more relevant as more people are raised out of extreme poverty. Getting enough to eat is one thing, but with nutrition, quality counts nearly as much as quantity.
This facet of global malnutrition is further reaching than that of global hunger. Malnutrition is present in all societies, in developed and undeveloped regions. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), two billion people worldwide are deficient in essential vitamins and minerals.
The consequences of malnourishment are severe and irreversible. For children who aren’t getting enough nutrients, stunting can do permanent damage to the brain’s ability to develop. Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF emphasizes the difference between lacking food versus lacking nutrition: “The fact is that India, with 48 percent (childhood) stunting, is considered food secure – but that doesn’t mean food is distributed equitably within India.”
Conversely, 1.2 billion are obese. Many of those people live in developed countries where the issue isn’t getting enough to eat, it’s eating healthily. It’s an unfortunate thing that a by-product of readily available cheap foods is that they tend to be unhealthy. Meaning that those who do climb out of extreme poverty and the constant struggle with hunger, end up instead in a situation where the food available to them is cheap and processed and can lead to obesity.
In order to truly break out of a cycle of malnutrition, people need to not only escape extreme poverty, but to reach a point where they can afford to buy more than just the basics. Education also plays a role in this. Understanding and awareness of what’s available and what’s beneficial can go a long way towards improving quality of life. And the knock-on effects of that can be huge. A report by the FAO claims that the combined effects of malnutrition cuts global income by 5% annually due to lost wages, amounting to some $3.5 trillion.
Perhaps a report highlighting this figure will garner some attention for the complex issue of malnourishment. It’s not enough to simply reduce global hunger. The fight doesn’t stop there. That’s only the first step towards a healthier world.
– David Wilson
Sources: Voice of America, FAO, Reuters
Photo: World Barrios
Tickets-For-Charity
Tickets-For-Charity has a simple business model: they sell tickets to fans and a portion of the proceeds go to charity. Jay Whitehead, CEO of the for-profit company, explains that the company sells tickets for sports games and concerts, and they sell two types of tickets. One type is when a sports team, for example, tells the company how much money per ticket they want back, Tickets-For-Charity keeps a $17 service charge, and the remaining money goes to charity. Another type is when a corporation gets 100% of the ticket value as a tax deduction, Tickets-For-Charity takes the ticket and deducts the $17 charge, and then the rest goes to a nonprofit organization.
Whitehead also explains that the charities that benefit from Tickets-For-Charity’s work depends on who is donating the tickets. Many sports teams have their own foundation, and 75% of the funds raised from the ticket sales go to these types of foundations and charities. The remaining 25% of money from the tickets goes to charities chosen by the buyers, as long as the charity is one that is part of Tickets-For-Charity’s platform.
Ticket buyers also receive a special receipt when they choose to buy a ticket through Tickets-For-Charity that shows the amount donated and the name of the charity. This gives the buyer the ability to write off the donation on their tax returns. The tickets are also normally for good seats instead of the bottom of the barrel, nosebleed section seats. Sometimes tickets are donated by companies when their employees can’t make it to a sports game, so those lucky ticket buyers could get front row or suite seats.
Tickets-For-Charity is also excited about their recent deal with Major League Baseball. Whitehead states that other sports typically follow baseball’s lead, so by earning MLB as a customer for their business, they are hoping for increased business with other big names in sports.
– Katie Brockman
Source: Boston Globe
Photo: Tickets-For-Charity
Childhood Malnutrition Affects Literacy
A recent study by the organization Save the Children indicates that there is a direct link between childhood malnutrition and literacy. The Food for Thought study followed 3,000 children in Ethiopia, India, Vietnam and Peru throughout their lives and interviewed them at key points to determine their educational abilities, confidence, hopes and aspirations. The results indicated that children malnourished from an early age are severely hindered in their ability to learn. In comparison to their healthy counterparts, malnourished children score 7% lower on math tests, are 19% less likely to be able to read a simple sentence at eight years old, are 12% less likely to be able to write a simple sentence, and are 13% less likely to be in the appropriate grade for their age at school.
The adverse effects of malnutrition carry over into later life, affecting a person’s chances for success. The Save the Children study showed that malnourished children are 20% less successful in later life, which could prove to be a barrier to ending global poverty, and a hindrance to economic growth.
A quarter of the world’s children are estimated to be malnourished, and that number is not expected to improve if more funding is not delegated to the cause. Currently, just 0.3% of global development spending funds nutrition programs. On June 8 the G8 global nutrition summit in London will give attending leaders and leading authors a chance to address the issue of childhood malnutrition. Julia Donaldson, a bestselling author of children’s books, is urging world leaders to give attention to childhood malnutrition and its effects on literacy: “The devastating impact of malnutrition shouldn’t be underestimated,” Donaldson says. “It stunts a child’s development, sapping the strength of their minds as well of their body, depriving them of the chance to be able to read or write a simple sentence. Leaders attending this summit have a golden opportunity to stop this. They must invest more funding to tackle malnutrition if we are to stop a global literacy famine.”
– Kira Maixner
Source BBC , Save the Children
Photo VOA News
Four Downsides of Big Data
It is easy to get excited about all the new information we now have about the world’s development projects. Maps and tables, charts and graphs flood our inboxes with ‘big data.’ Most recently, AidData published a huge dataset on Tracking Chinese Aid to Africa. All the hype has caused some backlash, and rightfully so. Big data is still data and requires the same careful handling as any other dataset. This is not meant to dull enthusiasm or lessen the use of data. This is a precaution against the misuse and overgeneralization of big data. One size does not fit all, and overgeneralizations from large or small datasets can be dangerous. Here are Big Data’s 4 downsides found by practitioners and academics.
1) Big data is not a panacea. One size does not fit all. The dynamic nature of development projects means that many are time-place specific. While sweeping data collection projects can lead to better practices at high-level institutions, implementing policies based on improperly generalized data is bad policy and poor use of data.
2) Difficulties in filtering relevant information. Data from developing countries regarding health systems, political upheaval, natural disasters, etc. are most often reported by vulnerable people experiencing the event first hand. The sourcing of the data is often social media. Aside from possible problems with the validity of the data, the sheer amount of potential data is enormous. Key word searches across selected media yield thousands of data points which have to be carefully reviewed to filter for relevancy. The computer programs are simply not nuanced enough to pull out the differences between hate speech, for example, and slang (as shown in a study on mapping hate speech in twitter recently). Additionally, a parallel problem is availability of reliable and secure statistical processing. Unlike data processing for pharmaceutical companies, aid data processing is not backed by billions of dollars in profit.
3) Data exhaustion on the ground. By the time social scientists are through cleaning, manipulating, and making sense of the data, the situation on the ground has often changed. This is called “data exhaustion.” The big data collectors (UN, World Bank, USAID, AidData) are constantly playing catch up. This means that the people on the ground are not able to use the most up-to-date information. The use of social media has mitigated the delay; however, data extraction and implementation of policies based on data is a top-down approach that may not accord with the culture of the project or practical feasibility. For example, the best way to empower women according to big data analyses might be to get women into the work place allowing them independent incomes. The on-the-ground reality might be that they are already responsible for non-paid work, such as childcare or maintaining subsistence crops, which already takes up their whole day.
4) Validity of data is questionable. As indicated by the debates over the validity of AidData’s Tracking Chinese Aid to Africa, socially sourced data cannot be the only source of data to influence policy. Self-reporting has inherent “barriers, blindspots and biases.” For example, the information collected from the Arab Spring was based on self-reporting of goings-on. The outside world used information from texts, Tweets, Facebook and blog posts to analyze the situation.
These four potential downsides of big data all suggest the need for caution in using data to inform development policy.
– Katherine Zobre
Source: Relief Web
Photo: AidData
Why Do Terrorist Groups Gain Influence in Africa?
Over the last decade, Saharan Africa has been cemented as an equally troublesome region as the Middle East itself. Last year’s attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya may have come as a shock to American citizens aware only of conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Palestine, but this is certainly not a new trend.
Terrorist groups in Africa have expanded their reach in the last decade under the umbrella of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM). These groups across the Sahel pose a “large and existential threat,” according to UK Prime Minister David Cameron.
On paper these Islamist groups differ in religious motivation from separatist factions that fight for recognition of and rights for specific people groups, but in practice these radical groups often provide an outlet for discontent. Members of both kinds of groups, however, share similar characteristics: those who hold reactive ideologies, those who are financially influenced into working with militant groups, and those who take advantage of security vacuums to spread these groups cross-continent.
Security Vacuums
One of the biggest contributors to terrorist groups gaining influence in Africa is security vacuums – lack of a secure state authority capable of enforcing rule of law. In the Central African Republic last year, for example, a Chadian armed group stood almost completely unchallenged by national defense forces, instead facing much of its opposition from CAR militant groups.
Many governments in the region are unwilling or unable to fight these transnational terrorist groups. Resentment against Western influence exists, especially due to what the Economist calls “a reflexive revulsion at intervention by former colonial powers.”
To make matters worse, the landscape of the Sahel does not make enforcing borders easy. Furthermore, even when the host country has a military force to combat these militant groups, the landscape in much of the Sahel proves prohibitive. For example, Nigerian forces that are “big and well-equipped” have “little idea how to fight in the desert,” according to the Economist.
Income Disparity and Corruption
Former UN diplomat and security expert Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah argues that networked militancy flourishes in northern Africa in significant part due to “the perceived arrogance and corruption of urban elites.” Income disparity — the difference between the incomes of the rich and the poor — causes unrest and alienation of lower classes.
Minority communities — made minority either by class or by ethnic grouping — are often marginalised. According to researchers Tim Krieger and Daniel Meierrieks, empirical findings suggest “a positive and highly significant relationship” between income inequality and terrorism. “This suggests,” Krieger and Meierrieks write, “that economic grievances related to income inequality are conducive to the product of violent terrorism.”
Unemployment also drives many to violence by pushing them toward “any economic opportunity that they have,” Malian think-tank director Mohamed Coulibaly said. This includes joining the ranks of paid militancy or, as some suspect is a partial source of revenue for terrorist groups, drug trafficking. Sometimes these militants kidnap for ransom. “It’s nothing to do with an ideology — we’re just here to make money,” conflict resolution specialist Kalie Sillah quotes Mali militants as saying.
Infrastructure Void
The economic disadvantage experienced by would-be militants in the Sahel is significantly contributed to by the lack of – or unequal – development in the region, both foreign and domestic. Richard Joseph, nonresident senior fellow at the Africa Growth Initiative, writes that while African economies may exhibit successful economic growth, they do not exhibit the same amount of unity and political progress; in the Foresight Africa Report 2013, he gives the example of Ghana and Mali, two countries that share similar GDP growth but vastly different levels of sustainable development.
As rapid economic growth pads the pockets of politicians — in many cases due to high-return extraction industries — in some countries this profit never reaches the people in the form of infrastructure: local governments, road and irrigation improvements, rural education, and health system reform. Instead, the money is often spent on pet projects that yield political but not economic returns. John Mbaku of the Africa Growth Initiative writes, “Today African countries have a serious deficit in the type of essential infrastructure that usually forms the foundation for significant improvements in agricultural productivity.”
In the Africa Competitiveness Report 2013, the World Economic Forum proposed that increased infrastructure would also improve intra-continent trade, thus providing more economic opportunity for adjacent nations to export and import goods and services. Though economic opportunities do not resolve ethnic or sectarian conflicts, they can provide sorely needed jobs to unemployed individuals who would otherwise be lured into drug trafficking or militancy.
The lack of physical infrastructure also can contribute to the ease of foreign groups crossing international borders. The isolated villages and rural regions that militant groups thrive in are not just difficult to get to; they are difficult to find in the first place.
Development and Poverty Eradication as a Solution
The United Nations recognizes that part of combating global terrorism is addressing potential causes. For this reason, the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy — adopted by member states in 2005 and reaffirmed a number of times — contains as its first pillar the resolution “to address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism.” The advancement of the Millennium Development Goals is a cornerstone of anti-terrorism strategy.
Yonah Alexander of the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies writes that addressing terrorism in Africa requires investment in security “by accelerating national and regional economic development.” These investments include expansion of foreign aid, workforce development programs, and streamlining support from foreign assistance-providing countries. Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Masood Khan spoke to the UN Security Council last month, insisting that addressing terrorism requires addressing common factors of poverty, ethno-sectarian disputes, and marginalization.
The UN Counter-Terrorism Strategy recognizes that none of the conditions of unemployment, marginalization, security vacuums, or lack of infrastructure “can excuse or justify acts of terrorism.” The contributing factors to terrorist recruitment, however, remain a grave concern. Advancing the Millennium Development Goals — whether through direct economic assistance or through development programs that equip host countries to help themselves — can reduce the marginalization and victimization that propel many towards violent terrorism.
– Naomi Doraisamy
Source: BBC,Foresight Africa 2013,Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies,Social Science Research Network,The Economist,The Nation
Photo: Moon of the south
Boko Haram: Poverty and Terrorism in Nigeria
Boko Haram is a militant terrorist organization whose goal is to overthrow the government of Nigeria and institute Sharia law. Nigeria is characterized by two areas defined by wealth: the poor north and the rich south. It is no surprise that Boko Haram operates in northern Nigeria, where it can capitalize on poor economic conditions to recruit new members.
Translating to “western education is forbidden” in English, Boko Haram rejects western ideals and forbids the use of modern technology, considering it to be a western invention. Since the group’s emergence in 2009, they have claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks against the administration of President Goodluck Jonathon. A recent attack involved the suicide bombings of three churches in northern Nigeria in which 50 people perished.
Jonathon’s method of dealing with the conflict has been brutal, to say the least. The Nigerian President declared a state of emergency in the country in April, beginning a new offensive against Boko Haram. Unfortunately, the army has been unnecessarily brutal with civilians, causing a significant contingent of poor Nigerians to ally themselves with Boko Haram. A writer from The Economist has pointed out that “More Nigerians are killed by the police every year than by Boko Haram.”
The founder of the group was Muhammad Yusuf, a disenfranchised Nigerian youth who dropped out of secondary school to study the Qur’an in North Africa. Yusuf was one of the thousands of al-majiri who grew up in northern Nigeria. These children are extremely poor students of Islam who pay for their own education through begging. When Yusuf returned to his native town of Maiduguri in the early 2000s, his fervent sermons appealed to the al-majiri. Yusuf’s Boko Haram allowed youngsters to earn a living while fighting against the government that perpetuated their poverty.
African Studies scholar Aliyu Odamah Musa recognized the persuasive power of radicalism to the poor in a 2012 article featured in the Journal of African Media Studies, stating: “Acute poverty, as is experienced by people in the area (Northern Nigeria), is highly likely to encourage people to allow groups like Boko Haram to manipulate them.” Musa goes on to suggest that development efforts need to be made in northern Nigeria in order to prevent young people from falling in with Boko Haram. As ties between Boko Haram and al-Qaeda are discovered, it would be in the best interest of the United States to adhere to the logic of Musa and invest in the economic development of northern Nigeria.
– Josh Forgét
Sources: The Economist, BBC, The Christian Science Monitor
Photo: GlobalPost
Deciphering the Human Development Index
s The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite measure of health, education, and income which was introduced by the United Nations Development Programme in 1990 as an alternative to purely economic assessments of national progress, such as Gross Domestic Product growth. In the field of international development, the HDI soon became the most widely accepted and cited measure of its kind.
Many developing countries in the 1980s faced strict structural adjustment conditions imposed by financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. To avoid a financial crisis and get the loans they needed, these countries had to undergo massive economic restructuring that involved currency devaluation, government spending cuts, business deregulation, and reducing taxes for the wealthy. Not surprisingly, the social impact was harsh for the average citizen and the human condition worsened. Do you remember the images of people burning money to keep warm? It was in light of this situation that the United Nations advocated for a human development approach, as opposed to a business development approach.
1990 was the beginning of a campaign by the UNDP for a people-focused strategy towards development, and hence the birth of the Human Development Index. The HDI emphasized that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. The HDI was designed to reflect average achievements in three basic aspects of human development – leading a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and enjoying a decent standard of living.
The main components used to calculate a country’s HDI are Life Expectancy at Birth, Gross National Income per Capita, Mean Years of Schooling and Expected Years of Schooling. From these, a number between 0 and 1 is produced – with 1 being the best possible HDI and 0 being the worst possible HDI. As of 2012, Norway ranked number 1 out of 187 countries with an HDI of 0.955. Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo tied for last place with an HDI of 0.304.
The HDI can be revealing in other ways as well. For example, how is it that two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with such different human development outcomes? The Bahamas’ GNI per capita is higher than New Zealand’s (by 17%) but because life expectancy at birth is about 5 years shorter, mean years of schooling is 4 years shorter and expected years of schooling differ greatly between the two countries; New Zealand has a much higher HDI value than the Bahamas.
Although the Human Development Index is a more holistic measure of human development in a country when compared to GDP per capita, the HDI is still not all-inclusive. The HDI, for example, does not reflect political participation or gender inequalities. The Inequality-adjusted HDI, Gender Inequality Index and Multidimensional Poverty Index offer other insights into a country’s development status.
According to the 2012 HDI, the top ten countries with the best human development are:
1. Norway
2. Australia
3. USA
4. Netherlands
5. Germany
6. New Zealand
7. Ireland (tied for 7/8 spot)
8. Sweden (tied for 7/8 spot)
9. Switzerland
10. Japan
Out of the 187 countries counted in the 2012 HDI, the bottom ten countries with the least human development are:
177. Sierra Leone
178. Burundi
179. Guinea
180. Central African Republic
181. Eritrea
182. Mali
183. Burkina Faso
184. Chad
185. Mozambique
186. Democratic Republic of the Congo (tied for last place)
186. Niger (tied for last place)
– Maria Caluag
Source: UNDP
Photo: Guardian
Angola Blood Diamonds
Aside from the popularity afforded by a Leonardo DiCaprio movie, the world has largely forgotten about blood diamonds. A romantic name for an entirely unromantic subject, blood diamonds refer to the gemstones that are mined in conflict zones, often exploiting the miners and putting them at great risk, and benefiting warlords instead of governments.
In 2000, attempts were made to stem the flow of diamonds through the Kimberley Process, which required all diamonds to be certified by governments as legitimate (i.e. mined in non-conflict zones) before exportation. The program was initially successful but quickly fell apart after corruption saw most governments bribed to allow the sale of blood diamonds.
Through ongoing, the issue faded from public awareness until 2011 when Angolan journalist and human rights activist Rafael Marques published “Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola”.
The book documented the human rights abuses and killings in Angola at the hands of the military. Marques describes events of shocking brutality in the military’s effort to maintain control over the diamond trade. Among them, 15 miners were forced to jump to their deaths from a speeding truck at different times so that their bodies would be scattered and more difficult to locate, a mine was purposefully destroyed to bury and kill 45 workers, and there were routine stripping and beating of workers and villagers with the flat sides of machetes.
The book has garnered attention not only for its graphic content but for the struggles Marques has had to face as a result of writing it. He was subsequently sued by eight generals for libel, in an attempt to intimidate or bankrupt him, but recently the courts found his writings protected under free speech.
Yet Marques’ fight seems as though it will be fruitless without international intervention. Angola’s Attorney General is not pursuing the case. Also, the generals accused in the book remain free as Angola’s leader, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, cannot afford to turn against them.
The responsibility now lies with consumers; the flow of diamonds responds entirely to demand in consumer countries. Human rights movements are urging consumers to demand ethically-sourced products or seek alternatives. Though Africa seems unable to stop the production of blood diamonds, global consumers wield the power to deny them a market.
– Farahnaz Mohammed
Sources: Brilliant Earth, All Africa
Photo: Mickeyboston