The Atlantic hurricane season is entering what has historically been its period of peak intensity, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), year in and year out, have been caught in the middle of it. More than 300 storms swept through the region between 2000 and 2019 at an average of 17 per year, and the cumulative human and economic cost of this almost 20-year onslaught is staggering, with 29 million people in Haiti, Cuba and Mexico absorbing the impact of 110 storms that killed 5,000 of them and destroyed $39 billion worth of homes and infrastructure.
Many of the nations in this region are still developing, and the continual reset required after multiple disasters has severely impacted their growth, with some storms engulfing entire economies. Developing island nations often suffer the worst. Hurricane Maria took 225% of Dominica’s GDP in 2017. Hurricane Ivan took over 200% of Grenada’s in 2004. As for Latin America, disaster risk management expert Joaquin Toro, speaking with The World Bank in 2017, cites 30 years of decreased development in Honduras and Nicaragua since Hurricane Mitch struck in 1998. Here are five ways to help Latin America and the Caribbean not only survive but thrive during hurricane season.
Sovereign Parametric Insurance
In 2007, 19 Caribbean and three Central American nations formed the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRF SPC), a network of mutual relief based on an innovative form of disaster insurance known as sovereign parametric insurance. Financial payouts from this sort of insurance are much quicker because they are based not on damage assessments once a disaster has already occurred, but as soon as people experience certain weather conditions (rainfall, modeled damage, wind speed). While not adequate by itself to protect vulnerable countries during hurricane season, the World Resources Institute sees them as a valuable tool when combined with other forms of financial assistance.
For instance, when Hurricane Irma struck the Caribbean in 2017, CCRF SPC automatically paid roughly $15.6 million in relief to the nations of Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla and St. Kitts & Nevis.
Advanced Weather Forecasting
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) not only collaborates with weather experts in vulnerable countries to help predict disasters using advanced prediction models like the Flash Flood Guidance System but also helps those nations develop their own methods for advanced warning, allowing them to rally the necessary resources and evacuate people in time. In collaboration with NOAA, it is currently helping Barbados, Curacao and the Dominican Republic develop their own automated weather systems using low-cost methods like 3-D printing.
Emergency Stockpiles and Effective Donations
When disaster strikes, USAID can quickly airlift essential supplies like blankets and hygiene kits to affected nations, drawing upon emergency stockpiles in Miami and the Caribbean. 17,000 Central Americans were provided with shelter in the aftermath of Hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020, thanks to heavy-duty plastic sheeting provided from these stockpiles. The agency’s Center for International Disaster Information also helps the public make donations through the proper channels so that affected countries do not turn supplies away and so that no one prevents them from leaving the U.S. entirely because of the high cost of transporting them.
Resilient Systems of Infrastructure
Building an infrastructure that is resilient in the face of disaster is as much a problem of information as it is of materials. When Hurricane Katrina flooded nearly all of New Orleans in 2005, it was able to recover largely because of a robust system of public knowledge (cadaster maps, identity documents, urban plans) that allowed the city, its financial institutions and utility companies to properly assess the damage and rebuild successfully.
Luis Trevino and Klaus Deininger, in a 2016 piece for the World Bank blog, stressed the importance of this “knowledge infrastructure” for the developing world, where official records often only represent a small minority of property owners, and many buildings are informally constructed. They put it in no uncertain terms: “Improving the management of public assets could yield returns greater than the world’s combined investment in housing, transport, power, water, and communications.”
Education
Disaster education provided to children in the Philippines helped save lives during the flooding that devastated Liloan and San Francisco villages in 2006. In 2007, 7-year-old Bangladeshi student Lamia Aktar, after being educated in disaster preparedness, alerted her neighbors about approaching Cyclone Sidr, advising them to seek shelter and store food, saving many of their lives as well as her family’s.
Education is an essential, life-saving resource for any developing nation, and Latin America and the Caribbean need it desperately during hurricane season. Thankfully, USAID currently operates the Youth Emergency Action Committees program in these regions, starting in Jamaica and eventually expanding to The Dominican Republic, Grenada and Santa Lucia. It provides young people with the skills they need to guide themselves and their communities through hurricane season, giving classes on emergency shelter building, first aid and mapping evacuation routes.
None of these strategies alone is a panacea for hurricane season, but, in combination, they might be able to break the cycle of destruction and underdevelopment that it fuels, enabling these regions to thrive and grow instead of just recover.
– John Merino
Photo: Flickr
Access to Electricity in Bangladesh Now at 100%
Sharing a border with eastern India, Bangladesh is a fraction of its size but highly populous nonetheless. Thanks to recent initiatives by its government and the World Bank, access to electricity in Bangladesh is now available to all of its citizens.
Electricity in Bangladesh: Where it Comes From
Gas is the predominant source of electrical energy in Bangladesh. A 2020 report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) adds that “wind, hydropower and solar PV shares are growing.”
Shares of alternative electricity sources are not the only things growing in Bangladesh. A 2020 issue brief by the Atlantic Council shows that Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP) has steadily increased since 2010, increasing the demand for electricity and pressuring gas resources in the country.
Energy Poverty and Access to Electricity in Bangladesh
Given that poverty is a broad term, a narrow dimension of poverty must be defined here. Energy poverty, according to a 2015 World Bank Blog entry, means that poor people are least likely to be able to access energy.
Historically, Bangladesh has struggled to provide electricity for its residents. A 2011 study by Barnes et al. found that energy poverty is found in more than half of rural Bangladeshi households, a higher number than those that are income-poor.
Energizing News
Thanks to recent initiatives, the numbers above are set to decrease. In 2022, a bill was signed that would not only expand access to electricity in Bangladesh; it would also aid the environment.
A World Bank press release from 2022 explains that the financing agreement that it signed along with the Bangladeshi government will bring electricity within reach for 9 million citizens of the country and help Bangladesh transition to clean energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 41,400 tons per year.
The initiative called the Electricity Distribution Modernization Program seeks to achieve results in three areas, according to an overview by the World Bank. First, the program looks to deliver electricity to more citizens, reduce the country’s carbon footprint, and digitalize Bangladesh’s electricity supply.
Second, the program looks to prepare Bangladesh to integrate distributed energy resources. Lastly, the program looks to expand the “institutional and regulatory capacity” of Bangladesh’s electricity sector.
Encouraging results have already been shown. A 2023 article by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) states that Bangladesh has achieved electricity access for 100% of its population. Bangladesh has reached its goal of power security.
Future Development
The IEEFA’s article, while providing encouraging news, also points to work that can be done to ensure secure access to electricity in Bangladesh going forward. Proposed solutions include providing more funding to the energy sector, repurposing the country’s older, less efficient power plants and providing incentives for Bangladeshis to switch to rooftop solar power.
The sustainability and future success of the Electricity Distribution Modernization Program remain in question. However, 100% access to electricity in Bangladesh, just over a decade removed from findings that more than half of the nation’s rural households were energy-poor, inspires hope.
– Noel Teter
Photo: Flickr
How Edhi Foundation’s Innovative Baby Cradles Are Saving Babies
The Edhi Foundation, Pakistan’s largest social welfare organization, runs an unconventional service that has saved more than 25,000 unwanted babies since its inception — baby cradles. Inspired by humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi’s compassion for helpless infants, these baby cradles offer desperate parents a haven to leave babies they cannot care for.
The Cradle System to Save Unwanted Babies
The first cradle was set up in Karachi in the 1970s by Bilquis Edhi, wife of humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi, who founded the Edhi Foundation. Bilquis aimed to tackle the alarming rate of infanticide and baby dumping in Pakistan. Today, around 300 Edhi cradles operate in cities across Pakistan, providing desperate mothers with a safe way to give up unwanted infants anonymously. The cradles have signs urging, “Don’t kill your baby; leave them here.”
Once someone gently lays an infant in the cot lined with soft fabric, the parent can close the door and walk away. It triggers an alarm to alert Edhi staff, who swiftly come to collect the baby and provide care. The anonymity saves mothers from stigma and prosecution while ensuring their babies get saved instead of killed or abandoned unsafely. Edhi Cradles receives an estimated 20 abandoned infants every month. Though the project initially faced backlash, it has saved many precious lives.
Inspirational Stories of Babies That Edhi Saved
Over the decades, the Edhi Foundation has raised thousands of abandoned babies in their orphanages. Many heartwarming stories have emerged, like that of Rabia Bano Osman. As an orphaned newborn, she was left in a cradle outside an Edhi center in Karachi 29 years ago. An American couple adopted Rabia at six months old. She recently paid tribute to Bilquis Edhi, crediting her for the opportunities that allowed Rabia to become an accomplished lawyer in the U.S.
Stories of Life-Changing Bonds
Other inspirational stories include Geeta, a deaf and mute Indian girl who accidentally crossed into Pakistan around age 10. Bilquis Edhi raised her as her daughter at an Edhi center, even setting up a small Hindu temple for her. DNA tests in 2015 helped reunite Geeta with her birth mother in India, though she maintained her bond with Bilquis.
Each child saved represents a life profoundly impacted thanks to the Edhis’ dedication. These stories showcase the deep human connections and family ties that transcend borders, disabilities and circumstances.
Providing Care and Hope for Society’s Most Vulnerable
At Edhi orphanages, abandoned babies receive dedicated care often until adoption. The Foundation’s orphanages have cared for many, like Geeta — the Indian girl Bilquis raised despite her disability. The Edhi Foundation’s work even helped babies born out of wedlock, countering stigma in conservative Pakistan. Its humanitarian work has received praise for providing an essential social service.
Today, Abdul Sattar Edhi’s son Faisal heads the organization, continuing his parents’ legacy. By providing care for infants given up due to poverty, the Edhi Foundation helps reduce the cycle of poverty passing to the next generation.
The Edhi cradle offers hope for the innocent lives of society’s voiceless and unwanted. Through a simple box with a silent alarm, these baby cradles saved more than 25,000 babies and counting.
– Asia Jamil
Photo: Flickr
How Technology is Reducing Poverty in Mozambique
The southern African nation Mozambique stretches across the Indian Ocean coastline, hosting picturesque beaches and crystal-clear waters. Yet, despite the beautiful nature of this country, the extreme poverty rate is prevalent in Mozambique. Roughly 62% of the population is multidimensionally poor, about 21 million people. However, there is hope, with the extreme poverty rate projected to decrease to 57% by 2025. The assistance of technology is making reducing poverty in Mozambique a reality.
The Situation
Over the past five years, there has been an obvious increase in poverty rates in Mozambique. With a crisis generated by decreasing foreign direct investment, military attacks and natural disasters, it is not hard to see why Mozambique is struggling. The discovery of hidden debts incurred by the government in 2013 led to a retraction of foreign aid, food price spikes and a reduction in household consumption. This multiplier effect has led to the number of Mozambicans living in extreme poverty increasing by 55% to 60%.
How Mozambique’s Digital Transformation Has Helped
Mozambique’s digital transformation has developed hugely since 2020, yet still only 21.7% of the population are internet users as of 2021. However, the percentage of people who have internet access has more than doubled from 15 to 32% between 2015 and 2021. COVID-19 aided companies to move to these online platforms and remain sustainable, being further supported by the World Bank, which offered Mozambique a $150 million grant to support the Digital Governance and Economy Project. The project intends to improve digital business opportunities and public services to provide job opportunities and increase the quality of life for Mozambicans. This is just one of the examples of the many initiatives using technology to reduce poverty in Mozambique.
Another impressive initiative using technology to aid poverty in Mozambique is the Mozambique Digital Acceleration Project. The project is a collaboration between the Government of Mozambique and the World Bank Group to ensure Mozambicans are able to access the internet and increase their earning potential. The goals include the expansion of mobile broadband networks to cover more than 2 million people in deeply rural areas, free public Wi-Fi access points, policy reforms in the telecom sector and investments in the core digital infrastructure.
Barriers to Reducing Poverty in Mozambique
However, there are major barriers to technology reducing poverty in Mozambique. The high cost of devices, unfamiliarity with the Internet and a low (48%) literacy rate obstruct Mozambicans from achieving technological advancement. Limited access to electricity and financial services alongside the emerging mining projects that continue to drive ICT infrastructure investments disadvantage many rural areas.
Ultimately, these technological improvements will be life-changing for many Mozambicans. Increased digitization of the economy will pave the way for a more empowered and resilient country. The International Telecommunications Union estimates that every 10% increase in mobile broadband penetration in Africa leads to an additional 2.5% growth in GDP per capita. The positive multiplier effects of implementing technology will be endless, helping to move the economy away from natural resource extraction, expanding opportunities for business development and even providing better warnings of natural disasters.
– Gracie Gobat
Photo: Flickr
Innovations in Agriculture in Tanzania
Over the past several decades, the United Republic of Tanzania, founded in 1964 following full independence from the United Kingdom, has undergone various economic reforms and agreements to seek international aid in order to improve opportunity and reduce widespread poverty. The East African nation, which remains substantially diverse and faces uneven poverty rates across disparate regions, promulgated a new constitution in 1992 and has since sought to enhance social and economic opportunity following decades of marginal gains. As a component of these reforms and initiatives, agriculture has assumed a prominent role in the development of strategies to reduce poverty and increase food security. Agriculture, which employs about 40% of the nation’s workforce, is largely composed of cereal plants, such as millet and barley as well as cash crops such as coffee plants. Here is more information about agriculture in Tanzania.
Farming in Tanzania
Tanzania’s farms, largely composed of individually operated small and medium-sized farms and smallholders, are a resource to the Tanzanian economy through export and domestic food security.
However, though agriculture has become progressively more important to the economy, productivity has not substantially increased. As a result, the country has experienced an increase in the amount of land used and uneven mechanization, such as the use of tractors, to increase productivity. Through the first 20 years of independence, challenges in establishing essential services such as supplies delivery, resources and market regulations kept productivity and revenue from farming low.
Reforms in Agriculture in Tanzania
Beginning in the 1980s, various reforms reversed the decline in agriculture, though the sector still proved unable to improve the overall poverty and food security situation. Over the past decade, the Tanzanian Government has developed a series of new strategies to overcome this relative stagnation. The new approach places agriculture, farming and the local sale of food at the core of the poverty reduction strategy. This strategy also provides state funding for investment in new farming practices, the development of essential infrastructure and education. This entrepreneurship approach has recently assumed a larger role in successful strategies in sub-Saharan Africa to counter strife in access to food and limited economic opportunity.
Agriculture investments that improve prospects as a means of advancing food security and socioeconomic opportunity for disadvantaged populations have attracted international attention, with various multinational organizations engaging in such initiatives as efforts to expand upon initial success.
The United Nations Initiative to Help Women Farmers
Beginning in 2022, the United Nations began a joint initiative targeting women farmers to improve education in water management, crop storage and enhancing resilience to extreme weather conditions. Only 8% of women, who face historic social and economic disadvantages and prejudice, own land independently and represent among the most vulnerable demographics in rural Tanzania. The scheme has proven effective with those who participated, with income often doubling for those participating, thereabouts 300 female farmers.
Global EverGreening
Similarly, Global EverGreening, an international coalition of aid organizations overseen by Oxfam and several other aid organizations, will provide technical assistance and job opportunities to farmers in several East African nations, including Tanzania, in order to revitalize land depleted by inefficient land management. These plans will also emphasize enhancing opportunities for women in agriculture.
The World Bank is also investing in improving resilience and resources for East Africa, with substantial investments taking place in Tanzania. As part of an array of financial aid, the World Bank pledged support for programs aimed at improving farming productivity by investing in improved infrastructure to ensure the delivery of seeds and locally-grown food to local markets and providing fiscal guidance and aid to allow reinvestment.
Such expanding programs aim to permit farmers in Tanzania to invest in resources and agricultural technologies that work to ensure more consistent food supplies. Additional investments in novel ways of developing means of supplying domestic markets, such as cooperative markets, are also intended to reduce local deprivation.
Looking Ahead
In brief, while agriculture has taken on increasing importance in the United Republic of Tanzania’s work against continued poverty and food insecurity, other structural challenges, such as limited resources for female farmers, mixed infrastructure and inefficient farming practices remain hurdles.
The cohesive approach of recent aid programs and the Tanzanian Government’s interest in improving agriculture in Tanzania offers an expanding entrepreneurial approach that may offer a means to both correct longstanding barriers to those most in need of opportunity and improve food security in unstable times. Efforts involve facilitating investments in novel farming techniques, such as new technologies to detect water levels and supply chains for rural food delivery.
– Cormac Sullivan
Photo: Flickr
Helping LAC During Hurricane Season
The Atlantic hurricane season is entering what has historically been its period of peak intensity, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), year in and year out, have been caught in the middle of it. More than 300 storms swept through the region between 2000 and 2019 at an average of 17 per year, and the cumulative human and economic cost of this almost 20-year onslaught is staggering, with 29 million people in Haiti, Cuba and Mexico absorbing the impact of 110 storms that killed 5,000 of them and destroyed $39 billion worth of homes and infrastructure.
Many of the nations in this region are still developing, and the continual reset required after multiple disasters has severely impacted their growth, with some storms engulfing entire economies. Developing island nations often suffer the worst. Hurricane Maria took 225% of Dominica’s GDP in 2017. Hurricane Ivan took over 200% of Grenada’s in 2004. As for Latin America, disaster risk management expert Joaquin Toro, speaking with The World Bank in 2017, cites 30 years of decreased development in Honduras and Nicaragua since Hurricane Mitch struck in 1998. Here are five ways to help Latin America and the Caribbean not only survive but thrive during hurricane season.
Sovereign Parametric Insurance
In 2007, 19 Caribbean and three Central American nations formed the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRF SPC), a network of mutual relief based on an innovative form of disaster insurance known as sovereign parametric insurance. Financial payouts from this sort of insurance are much quicker because they are based not on damage assessments once a disaster has already occurred, but as soon as people experience certain weather conditions (rainfall, modeled damage, wind speed). While not adequate by itself to protect vulnerable countries during hurricane season, the World Resources Institute sees them as a valuable tool when combined with other forms of financial assistance.
For instance, when Hurricane Irma struck the Caribbean in 2017, CCRF SPC automatically paid roughly $15.6 million in relief to the nations of Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla and St. Kitts & Nevis.
Advanced Weather Forecasting
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) not only collaborates with weather experts in vulnerable countries to help predict disasters using advanced prediction models like the Flash Flood Guidance System but also helps those nations develop their own methods for advanced warning, allowing them to rally the necessary resources and evacuate people in time. In collaboration with NOAA, it is currently helping Barbados, Curacao and the Dominican Republic develop their own automated weather systems using low-cost methods like 3-D printing.
Emergency Stockpiles and Effective Donations
When disaster strikes, USAID can quickly airlift essential supplies like blankets and hygiene kits to affected nations, drawing upon emergency stockpiles in Miami and the Caribbean. 17,000 Central Americans were provided with shelter in the aftermath of Hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020, thanks to heavy-duty plastic sheeting provided from these stockpiles. The agency’s Center for International Disaster Information also helps the public make donations through the proper channels so that affected countries do not turn supplies away and so that no one prevents them from leaving the U.S. entirely because of the high cost of transporting them.
Resilient Systems of Infrastructure
Building an infrastructure that is resilient in the face of disaster is as much a problem of information as it is of materials. When Hurricane Katrina flooded nearly all of New Orleans in 2005, it was able to recover largely because of a robust system of public knowledge (cadaster maps, identity documents, urban plans) that allowed the city, its financial institutions and utility companies to properly assess the damage and rebuild successfully.
Luis Trevino and Klaus Deininger, in a 2016 piece for the World Bank blog, stressed the importance of this “knowledge infrastructure” for the developing world, where official records often only represent a small minority of property owners, and many buildings are informally constructed. They put it in no uncertain terms: “Improving the management of public assets could yield returns greater than the world’s combined investment in housing, transport, power, water, and communications.”
Education
Disaster education provided to children in the Philippines helped save lives during the flooding that devastated Liloan and San Francisco villages in 2006. In 2007, 7-year-old Bangladeshi student Lamia Aktar, after being educated in disaster preparedness, alerted her neighbors about approaching Cyclone Sidr, advising them to seek shelter and store food, saving many of their lives as well as her family’s.
Education is an essential, life-saving resource for any developing nation, and Latin America and the Caribbean need it desperately during hurricane season. Thankfully, USAID currently operates the Youth Emergency Action Committees program in these regions, starting in Jamaica and eventually expanding to The Dominican Republic, Grenada and Santa Lucia. It provides young people with the skills they need to guide themselves and their communities through hurricane season, giving classes on emergency shelter building, first aid and mapping evacuation routes.
None of these strategies alone is a panacea for hurricane season, but, in combination, they might be able to break the cycle of destruction and underdevelopment that it fuels, enabling these regions to thrive and grow instead of just recover.
– John Merino
Photo: Flickr
Fighting Poverty and Mother Nature with Solutions to Flooding
Flooding — it is one of the ways nature humbles humanity with its destructive prowess. Roaring water and rushing waves seem universal in their destruction, but underneath the surface, there lies a high-risk population: those in poverty. According to a study investigating floods and poverty in 188 countries, “170 million people [are] facing flood risk and extreme poverty (living on under $1.90 a day).” Solutions to flooding are necessary to combat global poverty.
In efforts to further understand the link between flooding and poverty, The Disaster Poverty House Survey, founded in 2017, examined five countries to explore the impacts of flooding. It found that people with low incomes experienced far more flood episodes than people with high incomes, and areas much more prone to floods had lower rents by margins of up to 56%, attracting low-income residents. This data conveys a close relationship between flooding and poverty, worsened by developing countries’ poor infrastructure, leading to issues with water drainage and water damage. More so, floods’ ability to wreak havoc in dwellings, roads and other structures in areas without disposable income reveals a startling connection: Flooding intensifies poverty. Thankfully, innovators are pioneering solutions to fight Mother Nature and help those struggling by mitigating the impacts of flooding. Below are three of them.
Nature Based Solutions
There is an age-old saying, “Fight fire with fire,” and that is what the Philippines is working towards as a solution to flooding. It aims to tackle this natural issue with natural responses. The United Nations Environment Assembly defines nature-based solutions as actions to “protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage” natural resources and ecosystems. The Philippines, with funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), has been implementing green structures to manage flood risk; these include growing and maintaining mangroves, creating connections between rivers, promoting and restoring natural river meandering and reducing erosion with vegetation strips. These green concentrated works reduce erosion by increasing riverbed stability- reducing the risk and severity of floods.
An added benefit of natural solutions is the effect on the economy and population. Green solutions create green jobs, which provide steady salaries to many. Additionally, the implementation of native flora as solutions to flooding bolsters the national food supply. Added stability to food sources is massive, considering one in 10 households in the Philippines suffers from food insecurity. The approach to tackling flooding is sustainable long-term and fights poverty — uplifting the 18.1% of the Philippine population who live below the national poverty line.
Hydroseeding
Hydroseeding is a process of planting that sprays a flurry of seeds across large areas. Hydroseeding is used with vetiver grass to secure riverbeds; vetiver is a long, thin type of grass that can improve soil quality with its long roots, typically 2-4 meters. Large quantities of vetiver grass can reduce soil erosion by 90% and reduce run-off by 70%, stabilizing riverbeds and mitigating flooding damage. While introducing a new species en masse brings up concerns of competition and invasive species, ecologists state the plant is not invasive and does not outcompete for resources, adding to its utility. Vetiver and hydroseeding present themselves as valuable solutions to flooding.
Water Filters
A staggering 91 million people in India do not have access to clean water. Frequent floods combine with animal waste, dirt and other pollutants to contaminate the water, inhibiting access to clean water. Poor drainage infrastructure also leaves this hazardous water roaming on the streets, which causes further damage. In response, Harjeet Nath, a scientist and assistant professor at Tripura University, invented a water purifier. The filter is around the size of a suitcase and can produce water at a rate of less than half an Indian rupee (around seven cents) per liter. This invention provides more affordable access to water compared to bottled water, which has risen 500% to 100 Indian rupees per liter. Moreover, using the filter reduces the quantity of contaminated water pooling in the streets, which can harbor pathogens and diseases. Nath’s innovative solutions to flooding will no doubt improve the infrastructure and water security of those struggling in India.
Flooding is an issue that is not disappearing anytime soon. Due to a changing climate, flood-related disasters have risen 134% since 2000. While flooding is a pressing issue with roots in larger systemic problems such as climate change and global poverty, the efforts of many resilient people have provided many solutions to flooding and improved the lives of countless people across the globe.
– Aditya Arora
Photo: Flickr
E-commerce in West Africa
The Council of Ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) approved a regional e-commerce strategy for all 15 members on July 7, 2023. This does not come as a surprise — pre-COVID-19, national and regional institutions in West Africa expressed their interest in a regional strategy that focuses on the development of e-commerce and a digital economy.
Benefits of E-Commerce
The increase of e-commerce in West Africa will help to bridge the poverty gap between urban and rural areas. It is a tool that can provide the people of West Africa with a better quality of life.
The first benefit of e-commerce is that it is electronic, which means it can reach the global market. It is open 24/7, 365 days a year, and it allows people to work from any location as long as electricity and an internet connection are provided. This gives potential customers the flexibility to purchase whenever they want to, without being restricted by a store’s hours.
In comparison to physical stores, e-commerce reduces costs and requires a lower investment. Physical stores require costs, such as rent, repairs, store design, etc., that are not incurred in e-commerce. E-commerce allows for affordable advertising and marketing. Websites like Amazon have interfaces to help users add videos, infographics and photos. Good reviews will also help customers see products and services from developing countries.
E-commerce can be used to deepen trade and boost productivity, creating jobs for the growing young population. Many researchers regard it as a critical means for alleviating poverty. ICT as a whole has the potential to reduce poverty by allowing easy access to education, health, government and financial services as well as other relevant information.
Lastly, the introduction of e-commerce in West Africa can be used to help bridge the poverty gap between those living in rural and urban areas. By providing the right infrastructure in rural areas, e-commerce can allow people like low-income farmers to earn much more by cutting their costs.
The Progression to E-Commerce
E-commerce in West Africa will prove to provide many benefits, though it requires a certain environment in order for it to survive and thrive. Important requirements include electricity, a stable internet connection, credit card ownership, good road infrastructure and adequate literacy rates.
West Africa has been planning ahead to ensure that requirements are met to allow e-commerce to flourish. Without meeting these requirements, e-commerce will only be available to the rich, rather than becoming accessible to everyone.
The ECOWAS region has seen a significant rise in internet usage over the last decade. The Internet is now being used mostly for commercial purposes, and this can be seen in the increase in online retail. This increase is influenced by a rise in internet penetration, the adoption of phones, the development of cashless payments and the young growing population.
More people in West Africa are starting to pay for goods and services with credit cards, mobile money and online, rather than cash. West Africa is leading the continent in terms of the number of registered mobile money accounts, and it has the world’s largest number of mobile services to date.
Road infrastructure is important for the delivery of goods, both imports and exports. The 2023 West Africa Road Infrastructure and Investment Forum is set to be the most important road infrastructure event in West Africa. It will address how road development, investment and technology synergize and how to fund and finish infrastructure projects on time and within budget.
Literacy is important for e-commerce and West African countries have made progress towards increasing literacy rates; some countries mention literacy in their national development plans, while others have adopted non-formal education policies.
Education is important to e-commerce, as people need skills to start selling and buying online. Education and average primary school enrollment in Western and Central Africa is close to the universal average. It has risen from 50% in the 1990s to almost 90% today. Secondary enrollment in the last decade has more than doubled to the current average of 55%.
Conclusion
With a boost to e-commerce in West Africa and the correct infrastructure in place, the lives of West Africans will surely become easier. Low-income farmers and others can use the tool to increase their revenue. E-commerce is a tool used on a global scale. With West Africa adopting more technology and providing the right infrastructure, e-commerce will help to alleviate poverty.
– Lewis Butcher
Photo: Pexels
Globalization and Trade In Vietnam: A Success Story
At the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnam had one of the poorest economies in the world. But this began to change after 1986 when economic reforms triggered the reconstruction of the country. Now it has become a strong manufacturing player engaged in global trade and displaying impressive domestic and globalization improvements.
What Has Happened?
Similar to China, Vietnam’s growth came from economic reforms which opened its economy to foreign investors and opportunities for global trade. Globalization and trade in Vietnam saw exponential growth and made their economy the fastest-growing economy in Asia last year at a rate of 8%.
There are three key factors contributing to this rise. First is its embrace of trade liberalization. Second, they have supported this with domestic reforms. Finally, an increase in public investments in human and physical capital. The impact has been incredible. Vietnam’s trade in 2017 accounted for 190% of its GDP compared to 70% in 2007, progress which has had knock-on benefits for all of its economy. Between 2014 and 2016, for example, 1.5 million new manufacturing jobs were created. It has also been estimated that these open borders have allowed for more than 10,000 companies to move and operate within Vietnam.
In particular, electronics manufacturing has expanded, creating high-value goods and better-paid jobs. Companies like Samsung, Google and Microsoft have moved their production into Vietnam and therefore created economic development in the country.
What Does This Mean for Poverty in Vietnam?
Not surprisingly, globalization and trade in Vietnam have had many positive impacts on the Vietnamese people and poverty. In fact, between 2010 and 2020 poverty in Vietnam decreased from 16.8% to 5%.
A 2014 survey saw that 95% of Vietnamese say “trade is good.” As part of the steps to open and maintain their economy, Vietnam invested in human capital, and this was focused on primary education.
In 2015, the OECD Program for International Student Assessment ranked Vietnam at 8 out of 72 countries, an important figure when thinking about how education is so important in helping people raise their income and move out of poverty.
In the workplace, Vietnam continues to prove itself to be a progressive model where women’s employment has stayed within 10% of men’s and, according to the World Economic Forum’s Inclusive Development Index, it has done a good job at creating inclusive and sustainable growth.
Looking Ahead
Globalization and trade in Vietnam and how it has been conducted is a model for healthy growth and has shown how a country can develop without leaving people behind. Due to a young working demographic and a growing middle class, Vietnam is likely to see this growth continue and the Vietnamese people will reap these benefits.
– Daisy How
Photo: Flickr
5 Health Care-Focused Organizations in Africa
5 Health Care-Focused Organizations in Africa
Health Care, Poverty and the Future
Despite their varying methods and purposes, all of these health care-focused organizations in Africa are working towards one goal: providing an efficient, widely available and active health care network to some of the most impoverished areas in the world. They represent real-world investments in the developing world. Health care provision is one of the many avenues through which people can be lifted out of poverty.
– Marc Federici
Photo: Unsplash
Addressing Child Marriage in Chad
“I was given in marriage at 17, my husband was 35. I didn’t love him, he was mean to me. He was beating me, forcing me to sleep with him. He was hurting me a lot until I said to myself, enough is enough. I couldn’t go on with him. That’s why I decided to leave. If I stayed with him, he would’ve killed me.”
This is the story of Titi, one of many who have suffered the experience of child marriage in Chad. Her words are a testament to the harsh realities that Chad is facing. The African nation is grappling with the grim challenge of having one of the highest child marriage rates in the world. The extent of the issue is staggering — while poverty, displacement, regional and ethnic disparities and cultural complexities play their part in forming this burden.
The Scale of Child Marriage in Chad
UNICEF’s 2014 report puts the rate of child marriage in Chad as the third highest in the world, only behind Bangladesh and Niger. Chadian girls are suffering staggering marriage rates as 29% of girls under 15 are married, and a staggering 70% are married before their 18th birthday. Taking into account that Chad has 1.8 million girls between the ages of 10 and 19, a very conservative estimate shows that more than half a million girls are married while still being children.
Regional Inequalities
Ethnic diversity defines the threads of Chad’s identity. Nevertheless, within the complex tapestry of tradition, poverty and gender norms, certain regions and ethnic groups bear a disproportionate burden in the nation’s child marriage crisis. The rate of female child marriage in the Chari Baguirmi region is at a disheartening 70%, while the Mayo Kebbi Est, Guera, Kanem and Salamat regions range from low to mid 60%. Child marriage in Chad, however, is not exclusive to girls, as 23% of boys in the Logone Oriental region suffer from this reality, followed by the Logone Occidental, Mandoul and Mayo Kebbi Ouest regions, with rates between 12% and 17%. There are also disparities by ethnicity, as the Peul/Foulbe group grapples with a devastating 67% prevalence of child marriage, trailed by Massa/Mousseye, Baguirmi/Barma and Kanembou/Bomou from low to mid 60%.
Roots of Child Marriage in Chad
In Chad, poverty, insecurity and limited access to vital services like education fuel the distressing prevalence of child marriage. At its core, gender norms and economic and humanitarian turmoil are the main drivers of child marriage in Chad. Very conservative gender perspectives paired with 5.5 million individuals in need of humanitarian aid, 406,000 people displaced and over 528,000 refugees from neighboring lands create a context for desperation.
Views of women’s purity and honor cut across religious lines. Child marriage practices permeate households nationwide, encompassing Catholic, Protestant, Animist and Muslim families alike. Moreover, poverty within these communities significantly drives child marriage in Chad. With 54% of young brides originating from the poorest households, impoverished families see early marriage for their daughters as a means of alleviating perceived financial burdens. Harsh expectations, skewed perceptions, and destitute material conditions create a context for child marriage to thrive.
World Vision’s Efforts
While child marriage in Chad is a dire situation that affects countless people, World Vision is an NGO playing its part in helping prevent and alleviate the burdens of this reality. World Vision works to fight inequality, poverty and injustices and explicitly intends to combat child marriage in Chad through its child protection and participation program. This program focuses on improving children’s quality of life through protection from abusive behaviors. More than 59 child protection clubs have been created, which provide children with the tools necessary to promote their protection and development as well as provide a safe space for expressing their points of view.
In 2019, World Vision was able to annul 37 child marriage cases, allowing girls to return to school, while also aiding in reporting more than 50 child protection incidents that received appropriate responses. Furthermore, World Vision educated 310 religious and community leaders, along with 3,000 individuals, about the implications of child marriage and the detrimental impact of violence against children. World Vision’s work stands as a testament to the power of efforts to alleviate the burdens that countless Chadian children face.
Final Thoughts
The well-being and promotion of youth form the foundation for the future of any nation. The scope of child marriage in Chad is disheartening. The situation is indeed dire, with an urgent need for comprehensive interventions to safeguard the livelihoods of these children as well as the future prosperity of the nation.
– Agustín Pino
Photo: Flickr