Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated and financially significant regions on Earth, but it also has a massive issue with income inequality. Roughly one-fifth of Hong Kong’s residents are living in poverty as of November 2018, with monthly income for those people falling below the poverty line equaling $700 a month. The average cost of living for a 900 square foot apartment plus utilities in a normal area for two equals $3,885 a month. In the text below, the top 10 facts about poverty in Hong Kong are presented.

Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Hong Kong

1. The population is aging. With 7.4 million residents, Hong Kong is home to many people of older generations. The combination of changing technologies and markets has impacted those who served in more blue-collar jobs in years past. This has a dramatic effect on how they are able to pay for housing, food and basic necessities when white collar jobs are taking over the city. The government has provided handouts that have helped many in poverty, but what truly needs to be done is proper job reeducation and reassignment.
2. Cohabitating with elderly parents is becoming necessary. As many young adults seek to explore their career paths and the vast megalopolis of the Pearl River Delta, they realize they don’t have the means to expand. In order to keep parents from falling below the poverty line and to give their future children exceptional opportunities, many young couples are forced to stay with their parents. However, this is only a temporary solution to the long-term issue of how to deal with economic struggles. Thankfully, the local and national governments are considering how to reengage the elderly through the use of their accumulated knowledge.
3. Monthly rent is 70 percent of the median household income for half of Hong Kong. With the average monthly income of those below the poverty line not reaching the 70 percent statistic to pay for livable housing, a dark housing market has appeared. Illegal housing has entered roughly one in four structures in Hong Kong. In order to combat the rise of illegal housing and unlivable structures, the government of China must provide affordable and government subsidized housing rather than solely catering to the wealthy.
4. Wages have not risen to meet the rise in housing cost. The average unskilled worker has to work 12-hours per day to afford a 100 square foot coffin home. In order to meet the needs of its citizens, Hong Kong must increase welfare payments in the form of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA). CSSA must become more than just a safety net for basic needs and should fully encompass the needs of those in poverty in Hong Kong through food assistance and other means.
5. Women are disproportionately affected by poverty. China has historically undervalued women. The one-child policy preferred boys and illegal sex-selective abortions were utilized. Hong Kong’s 2017 census stated that roughly 451,700 women fell below the poverty line, where only 80,800 men did. In order to fully engage society and bring skilled workers into the workforce, education and protections must be put in place for women and young girls.
6. The poor are unfairly stigmatized. Those in poverty in Hong Kong are seen as being lazy for the position they’ve fallen into. This attitude speaks to a larger ambivalent attitude towards meaning and wealth in Hong Kong, as status and titles have unfortunately taken over humility and humanity. In order to combat this harsh attitude, people of Hong Kong must embrace the people in their society that make them uncomfortable.
7. Cyber cafes have become havens for the poor. Hong Kongers who fall below the poverty line and cannot afford to house have taken to spending their days and nights at cyber cafes. For a low cost of entry, cyber cafes provide shelter and internet access between jobs for the poor.
8. Hong Kong’s bureaucracy is one of the causes of the problem. The issues the homeless face could be solved, but government division has slowed progress. Separate departments cover similar issues but have no central governing body. Experts suggest that examples from New York’s consolidated Department of Homeless Services should be followed.
9. Nongovernmental organizations could help Hong Kong. Government leasing of properties occurs in Hong Kong but leasing from nongovernmental organizations could greatly assist those in need. Government support of organizations who control these properties would allow for the poor and homeless to be taken care of effectively by trained professionals.
10. The wealth distribution is uneven. The top 10 percent in Hong Kong earn roughly 44 times more than the lowest 10 percent who fall far below the top monthly earnings. This income divide is further pushed by wealthy business interests who influence politicians. This directly damages the ability of the poor and homeless to receive any assistance.

While poverty is a massive issue in Hong Kong, individuals and governing bodies can no longer turn a blind eye. For the sake of those in need, the country and its politicians must take notice of the damaged parts of their society, as it is shown in these top 10 facts about poverty in Hong Kong.

– Zach Margolis

Photo: Flickr

Importance of Microfinance & Social Entrepreneurship in Guyana

Guyana is a small South American nation with a population just over 700,000. The country is sparsely populated, with the majority of the population identifying as East-Indian or Afro-Guyanese. According to the World Bank, Guyana is an upper/middle-income country, with a GDP of around $3.6 billion. Guyana’s economy is primarily agricultural, with over 60 percent being comprised of six main exports: sugar, shrimp, gold, bauxite, rice and timber. One way to improve the economy, though, could be through increased levels of entrepreneurship in Guyana.

Guyanese Economic Growth Status

Recently, the fractured Guyanese government fell in a no-confidence vote, endangering already fragile race relations. Economic growth has slowed in the past five years, one-third of the population lives below the poverty line and youth unemployment stands at a staggering 21.6 percent. Many Guyanese agricultural enterprises lack credit history and find it difficult to use livestock as collateral on secured loans, making for higher credit risk.

In addition, over 80 percent of Guyanese citizens with tertiary education reside abroad. The emigration of highly educated citizens may pose another threat, as economic growth is often predicated on national education levels. These underlying issues have contributed to distressingly high youth poverty levels. How can the English-speaking South American country alleviate poverty and unemployment? The answer may lie in microfinance and social entrepreneurship.

Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship in Guyana

In Guyana, there are several privatized financial institutions focused on micro-loans and credit access for the nation’s underbanked. These institutions are characterized as microfinance institutions, and help to provide banking and financial literacy instruction to people and small businesses who would otherwise not receive such support. The main source of income for these institutions comes from interest payments on loans. This financial support is critical for diminishing poverty and improving social mobility.

Microfinance can be significantly expanded among the young people of Guyana. The Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) and the Small Business Development Finance Trust (SBDFT) are two main microfinance organizations and the primary contributors to Guyana’s microfinance sector. As of 2016, the IPED dispersed micro-loans to over 4,500 small businesses — of which only 12 percent of these borrowers were young adults.

This low proportion of youth borrowing could be significantly expanded, as roughly 46 percent of the population in Guyana is under 24 years old. Microfinance efforts have been largely successful in other parts of the world. India’s Range De has successfully reached over 18 Indian states with a 93 percent repayment rate, collateral-free.

Potential for Social Entrepreneurship

Another key element to alleviating poverty in Guyana is expanding social entrepreneurship. According to a Duke University newsletter, social entrepreneurs are defined as business innovators that “play the role of change agents in the social sector.” Focusing loan and microfinance efforts on young entrepreneurs with a social focus will help to decrease youth unemployment rates while simultaneously lowering overall poverty.

Not only would educated citizens choose to remain in Guyana, but lucrative business prospects may attract non-natives to the country. Incubators and credit advisory services are two financial inclusion tactics that have taken root in Africa and South Asia. Tiwale, a Malawi-based startup focused on empowering female education, serve as an excellent role-model for similar enterprises in Guyana. These market-based solutions would help to alleviate poverty and simultaneously stimulate the economy.

Spurring Progress

Credit access and social enterprise efforts have already begun to transpire within the nation. IPED’s recent expansion will help to spur financial access for Guyana’s underbanked. Technological growth and introduction in Guyana will also augment social enterprises and allow for increased scalability. If the microfinance and social entrepreneurship sectors are able to flourish in Guyana, there is a bright future for the nation’s youth. 

– Alexander Aguilera
Photo: Flickr

John Coonrod Empowers Poor People to Lift Themselves Out of Poverty

John Coonrod is the Executive Vice President of The Hunger Project — a non-profit organization that helps give poor people the means to lift themselves out of poverty. As part of this organization’s leadership, John Coonrod empowers poor people to lift themselves out of poverty by placing special emphasis on female farmers, who are among the poorest people in the world.

Origins

Coonrod has been advocating for social justice for a very long time. While he was training as a physicist at Stanford and the University of California-Berkeley, he was an active member of local civil rights and anti-war movements. When The Hunger Project was first founded in March of 1977, John Coonrod was its first volunteer and he continued to volunteer while he worked at Princeton University from 1978 to 1984.

In 1985, he became an official member of The Hunger Project’s staff. In addition to meeting his future wife while working at The Hunger Project, Coonrod used — and still uses — his expertise to help poor people in developing countries. To this day, John Coonrod empowers poor people to lift themselves out of poverty.

The Hunger Project

The Hunger Project is a non-profit organization that seeks to end poverty and world hunger by pioneering grassroots movements. While it believes that everyone should be free of poverty and hunger, they place a special focus on women and gender equality. The reason for this is that women are typically in charge of meeting a family’s needs, but are often denied the means and resources to do so by their society.

The Hunger Project currently works with organizations in 11 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Bangladesh, India and Mexico. Between these countries, they have helped more than 85 organizations start 2,900 projects. In addition, they have chapters and investors in Australia, the U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Peru, Switzerland and the U.K.

In all of the countries where they work, The Hunger Project seeks to empower women, mobilize communities and engage local governments. In India, for example, their main focus is on helping women get elected into local governments. The organization has done this in nearly 2,000 panchayants (clusters of villages) across 6 states, and the women they have helped now lead 9 million people.

In Africa, The Hunger Project helps turn clusters of villages into epicenters where up to 15,000 people can band together to help their communities thrive. These epicenters, in turn, create their own development programs, which reach more than 1.6 million people across the continent. In Bangladesh, local volunteers, especially women and children, are mobilized to reach 185 sustainable development goals in their communities, reaching 5 million people. Finally, in Mexico, community development focuses on indigenous women and children, helping to improve childhood and maternal nutrition; this admirable work reaches 21,000 people.

Partners A-Plenty

The Hunger Project has numerous partners in the countries where they work. One of these partners is Rotary International, a global organization in which 1.2 million people work in sustainable projects to improve life in general across the globe. This includes fighting diseases, providing water, supporting educations, saving mothers and children, growing local economies and promoting peace. The Hunger Project mainly works with Rotary International in Ethiopia, where Rotary International uses vocational training to teach doctors how to resuscitate newborns.

In India, SKL International is a major partner of The Hunger Project. SKL International is a Swedish organization that uses the model of Sweden’s extensive local governments as a baseline to help developing countries achieve democracy. Like The Hunger Project, SKL International’s main goal in India is getting local women elected.

In Mexico, The Hunger Project works with Water For Humans — a non-profit organization that uses sustainable technology to bring clean water to those who need it, especially in Mexico. The organization is currently working on helping indigenous people build eco-cookstoves which require less wood than traditional stoves, need only one fire to work in multiple burners at once, and keeps coffee warm every day — as is culturally preferred.

Local Empowerment

All in all, John Coonrod empowers poor people to lift themselves out of poverty by helping to create and promote local movements, especially women-centric movements, that promote community welfare and engage with local governments. By working with several partners in various countries around the world, John Coonrod and The Hunger Project make lives better for women and other people across the globe.

– Cassie Parvaz
Photo: Flickr

Purchasing Power Parity: The Russian Ruble vs. The American Dollar

There is a commonly understood equation that all world travelers parse out during their adventures to foreign countries: “How much will (x) of my currency buy (y) of their currency?” If an American travels to any of the 27 European nations, they will need to exchange a large portion of U.S. dollars into the EU’s respective currency, the Euro (€). Similarly, if Russians travel to the United States, they will need to buy American dollars ($) with their Russian Rubles (₽).

Purchasing Power Parity

The relative worth of one holder’s currency pegged to another’s in consideration of the purchase of the same basket of goods and services is referred to among economists as the purchasing power parity (PPP). The parity is a theory that suggests “exchange rates between currencies are in equilibrium when their purchasing power is the same in each of the two countries” (University of British Colombia School of Business).

The basis of PPP is the law of one price across nations; however, in the world of global economies and integrated wealth and trade, $10 spent in Russia gets one more goods and services than $10 spent in the United States. This is the economic disparity that leaves Russian consumers worse off in both their own country and the U.S.A.

Experimental Practicality

In order to better understand the purchasing power parity and how it adversely affects the Russian middle class, the following example will better illustrate its practicality:

Consider the two experimental countries, Russia and the U.S. A tall-sized latte from Starbucks costs approximately 255 ₽ or an American equivalent of $4.50; however, in the U.S., an identical product costs $2.95. The PPP between Russian and the U.S.A. for a tall-sized latte from Starbucks is the price paid in Russia in U.S. dollars ($4.50) divided by the price paid in the United States in U.S. dollars ($2.95).

Simple arithmetic leads to the conclusion that for this item, the PPP between Russia and the U.S. is approximately 1.52, which means the consumers pay $1.52 to make a purchase in Russia that would cost $1.00 in the United States. Alternatively, Russian consumers are using their weaker national currency to pay a 50 percent premium on a tall-sized latte from Starbucks. Apply this to the purchase of a flat, college education or vehicle, and the numbers and basic economic principle alone illustrates how worse-off the Russian middle class is than that of its western counterpart.

Poverty in Russia

The PPP between Russia and the U.S. and any other first-world country is relevant to the overarching issue of poverty in Russia because of relative wealth distribution and purchasing power. Russia’s geography necessitates a strong import business relationship with the world’s leading trading partners, including and especially the United States where embargoes do not apply. For Russian consumers, this means higher prices for finished goods and services that are not justifiably priced in the Russian Ruble (₽).

When Russian consumers want to spend on big-ticket items, they have to work harder and longer, save more and manage their money better than consumers in the U.S. Economics and the PPP explain why Russians often work abroad and repatriate foreign currencies with higher PPP than the Ruble so to afford goods and services in Russia. This consumption strategy tightens the labor market for Russians; however, in the long run, this is not an economically viable alternative to internal market corrections.

Creating Middle-Class Improvement

How can the rest of the world equal the playing field for Russia? The answer is difficult. First, the law of incentives must be prioritized in Russia’s labor environment to keep skilled and unskilled labor in Russia and reduce currency repatriation. Secondly, Russia needs to begin to play by the rules set by developing countries if the country wants to reduce its PPP relative to trade nations. Last but not least, these prior measures will work to benefit Russian importers, businesses, and most importantly, Russian consumers. It is time to bring more power back to the Russian Ruble for the middle class of Russia.

– Nicholas Maldarelli
Photo: Flickr

Living Problems in West Bank and Gaza

The West Bank and Gaza are considered Palestinian territories that have struggled with political power since the Six-Day War in 1967. This dispute has been between Israel and Palestine and the end result of the war has left the country in political turmoil. This devastated economic opportunities, local livelihood, sanitation conditions and household food consumption. In 2017, the 50th anniversary of Israeli occupation and the 10th anniversary of the Gaza blockade were marked. This has been affecting all job opportunities and proper food aid from entering the region. All of these factors have only made it more difficult to live in already precarious conditions and more risk for the already struggling population.

Work of USAID

The U.S. government works closely with the authorities in Palestine to address the economic and humanitarian needs of the country. To improve economic growth, USAID has donated roughly $400 billion to improve in-house situations for companies and impoverished families in West Bank and Gaza. Providing basic needs like clean sanitation systems and safe work environments is essential to maximize productivity within the company and keep the workers healthy. Many companies suffer from a lack of resources and expertise for their products, so the project Compete will help business owners learn more about their product, how to maximize value for those products and increase employment within the surrounding areas. The goal is to increase competitiveness and revitalize the private sector, bringing to the table full-time jobs, part-time jobs, seasonal jobs and paid internships.

Food Sovereignty of West Bank and Gaza

Food insecurity is a huge issue in the West Bank and Gaza territory as over 70 percent of people in this area suffer from lack of food and proper nourishment. Some of the causes for this are also a global phenomenon, environmental degradation, rising food prices and Palestinian food sovereignty. With food sovereignty, a state can control its own food resources, though that state has to have a self-sufficient food source with the help of government-controlled policies.

Since the occupation in 1967, Israel has confiscated thousands of acres of farming land and then separated it with the West Bank wall. With the separation of land, farmers are struggling to keep up the health with crops due to vandalism and destruction from settlers and the military. In Gaza, 25 percent of fertile land has been destroyed by the buffer zone, a zone that borders Israel. Patrol boats in the area only allow fishermen 15 percent of their territorial waters, further reducing the areas self-sufficient food sources. With the limitations on trade, environmental issues, confiscation of land and destruction of land, food sovereignty is unachievable. This has hindered economic growth and social conditions to reduce the levels of food insecurity.

Clean Water Access

Access to clean, potable water is limited by the wall between the West Bank and Gaza. Beaches, rivers and lakes are polluted and overcrowded refugee camps create health hazards for the sanitation systems. About 26 percent of diseases in West Bank and Gaza are related to filthy water. During the winter months, household septic tanks overflow and mix with rainwater, flooding homes and streets in the area. During the summer, the heat dries the streets from the flood and the smell coming off the streets is so bad that families keep their windows shut. Mothers refuse to let their children out to play because of the rancid smell and infected water.

Diseases continue to spread as garbage continues to pile up in refugee camps. The Anera organization is working on building proper waste management systems across Palestine, improving sanitation systems in the process. In 2014, Anera reconstructed sewage lines damaged by bombs. In refugee camps, they are taking an approach where the youth take the lead. Through campaigns designed to clean and recycle, they have developed a staff to train on proper waste management and a new sorting facility. They are creating a cleaner environment for 13,000 members of their community so far and will continue to reach out and help their people.

Health System in West Bank and Gaza

The health system in West Bank and Gaza has been shaped by years of occupation, political stalemate, violence and human rights violations. The barrier placed between the two territories limits access to East Jerusalem, the closest area that has specialized hospitals. The placement of these hospitals is scattered due to the many health care providers in the country. With the blockade in place, Gaza’s health care locations are experiencing unstable power supply and recurring power cuts.

The medical equipment has been deteriorating because of inadequate maintenance and spare parts cannot reach them. The barrier has also made it difficult to transport proper medicines to treat patients. All of these factors are crushing the health care system in West Bank and Gaza, making people seek treatment elsewhere though traveling in and out of Gaza is heavily restricted. Even with these limitations, health care in these areas still thrives. With the help of the World Health Organization, technical support will be provided to health technicians and fund projects created for diseases affecting the population.

Even with all of these issues, West Bank and Gaza still work out solutions to everyday and past problems. If these areas can continue to receive the funding from developed countries and nongovernmental organizations, they can grow back into the self-sufficient economy they once had.
– Kayla Cammarota
Photo: Flickr