In a recent interview, The Borgen Project spoke to social and economic historian Dr. Richard Sheldon and Tessa Munt, former MP and current Liberal Democrat counselor, about foreign aid and development.
Foreign Aid
The British public is divided on foreign aid and development. There are those who celebrate the humanitarian achievements of foreign aid packages, there are some who decry foreign aid as “neo-colonial extraction” and there are others who consider it a waste on outsiders. Generally, the support trumps the critique. In fact, support is strengthened when one considers and reviews critique.
Tessa Munt and the Public Debate
ODA, or Official Developmental Assistance, is the vehicle for aid delivery in the U.K. ODA typically takes the form of all-in-one packages — funds, manpower and organizational assistance. The U.K. government is not currently meeting the U.N. target of 0.7% of GDP allocated for foreign aid. Set at 0.5%, the British government says it has no intention to restore foreign aid spending to the pre-pandemic levels of 0.7% until at least 2027/28. Tessa Munt and the Liberal Democrats are strong supporters of foreign aid and overseas development. Munt says, “the Liberal Democrats are the government of foreign aid” and the foreign aid target will return to 0.7% when the Liberal Democrats are in power.
Although public support of foreign aid is strong and sustained, public concerns over immigration and notions of free-riding may draw funds away from positive ODA programs toward initiatives designed to keep migration low. The Bibby Stockholm barge is one such example. Using foreign aid budgets, the U.K. has procured the engineless barge from the Netherlands at the cost of an estimated £18 million. The Bibby Stockholm is one of a number of sites the U.K. government is trying to set up to provide an alternative to housing migrants in hotels. The barge will house asylum seekers who are awaiting the outcome of their asylum applications. Its use has been criticized as inhumane and its ultimate purpose serves to deter asylum seekers from seeking illegal migration routes to safety in the U.K.
Stories like this and the recent attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers in Knowsley, Merseyside, dominate the headlines. As a result, foreign aid can be appropriated and its aims misunderstood. Munt offered a solution, arguing that the positive deployment of ODA programs weakens “the push factor that brings asylum-seekers to our shores.” Munt succinctly finishes the discussion on the xenophobic pushback to foreign aid with this: “Foreign aid is, or should be, at 0.7% – that leaves us with 99.3% to spend however we wish.”
Critique with Dr. Richard Sheldon
Dr. Sheldon explains to The Borgen Project his thoughts on whether or not foreign aid is beneficial and effective. “‘Generally, yes… I think it does work.” Not only does foreign aid work, according to Dr. Sheldon, but it is “very much in our interests to do it.” ODA and foreign aid hope to slow asylum channels by creating stability and reducing poverty in troubled regions and enabling opportunities for investment and trade. Dr. Sheldon goes further, by arguing that”‘we have an obligation and a duty” toward the poor across the globe and that there are “all sorts of places where advancement isn’t possible without some kind of external aid.”
The numbers appear to support Dr. Sheldon’s case. According to a Global Citizen article published in 2018, foreign aid and development financing has saved 700 million lives over the last 25 years. U.K. foreign aid, in particular, saved more than 990,000 lives between January 2015 and December 2017 by immunizing more than 56 million children across the world, according to Results.org.
In Syria, for example, the U.K. has provided a total of £3.8 billion worth of official development assistance from 2011 to 2022. Food aid and emergency assistance in Syria through U.K. aid “alleviated suffering and allowed recipients to use their own resources on housing and health care. It had enabled some families to send their children back to school. There was also evidence of positive outcomes at the community level, in the form of reduced incidence of local crime, fewer disputes and families having a more optimistic outlook about the future,” according to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Through foreign aid, the U.K. has saved the lives of thousands and averted much greater burdens of asylum.
Foreign Aid Issues
Foreign aid is not without its issues, however. Charges laid at the sector surround questions of power and wealth extraction. According to research in 2017 by a coalition of U.K. and African social justice campaigners, more than $40 billion leaves Africa each year through multinational corporations “repatriating profits and illegally moving money into tax havens.” Further still, countries have faced accusations of using foreign aid “as a weapon to boost trade and further political aims.”
Take the series of structural adjustments implemented in the 1980s by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for example. During this period, the IMF placed conditions on aid packages that required the restructuring of a nation’s economic life. These conditions directed a reduction in state expenditure, and, state assets, like water gas and coal repositories, were to be privatized and bought by multinationals in the West. As a result, millions of people suffered unemployment and impoverishment at the same time social security systems weakened due to requirements to reduce state expenditure.
But, as Dr. Sheldon argues, the situation was complex. The IMF required governments to reduce state expenditures because of eye-watering levels of debt in the Global South and the risk of widespread defaulting.
Dr. Sheldon comments, “Yes, I think there were a lot of very harsh ideologically driven set of conditions [that] very much reflects the [late] Cold War and the triumphalism [of] the Reagan and Thatcher years.” Dr. Sheldon goes on to say that these issues “do matter – more rather than less,” but they need not diminish aid in its entirety. Foreign aid also “pushe[s] for political reform, accountability, democracy and human rights… [I’ve] been studying this for quite some time, and the time scale (for the 700 million lives saved) isn’t in the most generous time period,” Dr. Sheldon highlights.
Looking Ahead
If one looks at the reduction in extreme poverty from the 20th century, progress is remarkable. The percentage of those living in extreme poverty stood at 53% in the 1950s — this percentage reduced to 9% in 2018. Dr. Sheldon argues that “capitalism, international aid, transport and humanitarianism have all [contributed] toward this.”
Ultimately, the emotive nature of this topic means that when individuals hear stories of misuse and misinformation about refugees and asylum seekers, they’re inclined to negatively perceive foreign aid as a whole. Dr. Sheldon argues that this is not correct; foreign aid is “part of the positive picture.” Despite the world population growing at a “rapid rate,” by most measures, poverty and extreme poverty have declined. As a result of this, the threat of global instability and concurrent issues of asylum have decreased. And, because of foreign aid, the U.K. has benefited from increased trade and increased stability.
– James Durbin
Photo: Flickr
Human Trafficking in ST. MAARTEN
Trafficking in Persons Report
Estimates show that Human Trafficking affects more than 24.9 million people around the world today. States with ineffective political structures, weak government and amplified poverty and crime levels typically show the most noticeable effects of the Human Trafficking trade. As a means of evaluation, the Department of State for the U.S. designed the Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report), a report used internationally to measure the efficiency of practice and response to Human Trafficking in different countries around the world. The report assigns countries to a Tier Ranking according to their capacity to meet the minimum standards for addressing the Human Trafficking trade for the previous year, operating on a hierarchical system.
The ranking system consists of three tiers:
Human Trafficking in St. Maarten – Under Review
In 2022 the TIP Report downgraded St. Maarten to Tier 3, labeled as “failing to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and making no significant effort to do so,” and has maintained this verdict in the 2023 report. This gives for bleak reading when considering St. Maarten’s ongoing battle with Human Trafficking in terms of protection, prosecution and prevention measures.
The government maintained the decreased minimal prosecution charges for trafficking in 2022, where incidents involving persons aged 16 or older could face up to nine years imprisonment or a fine, while those affecting children aged under 16 can be penalized for up to 12 years imprisonment or a fine. For the fifth consecutive year, St. Maarten failed to submit any reports of providing protection services to victims. For the third consecutive year, authorities identified no trafficking victims. No reported efforts have been made to screen regions and industries particularly exposed to the effects of trafficking. Government funding for protective measures such as care services, shelters and financial support is considerably lacking, with an NGO-run shelter for victims of domestic violence carrying much of the burden. (U.S. Department of State, 2023).
Trapped and Exploited
In St. Maarten, human traffickers use a host of tactics to manipulate their victims, with local accounts suggesting migrants seeking passage to the United States or Canada are most vulnerable. One common tool for manipulating victims is selling the idea of the “American Dream” under false pretenses. Typically migrants coming from poverty-stricken conditions in places such as Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti and the Dominican Republic are seeking a better life. Desperate, uneducated and undernourished, they are especially susceptible to the false promises of human traffickers. Human traffickers then employ intricate debt coercion schemes to pressure victims into sex work, forced labor and domestic servitude.
Captors maintain their control over victims by invoking themes of fear, violence, shame, isolation and debt. Traffickers frequently employ tactics to subdue victim rebellion, such as indoctrinating captives to believe government authorities are corrupt, confiscating means of travel vis a vis documentation, physical torture and rape. These conditions are applied mercilessly until the notion of escape becomes incomprehensible to the victim.
The Effort for Change
Human Trafficking in St. Maarten looked set to improve in 2022. They instigated a poster campaign focused on raising public awareness of trafficking and those who are vulnerable. They drafted a new National Action Plan (NAP) which set out important guidelines, including establishing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for victim identification and referral and creating a national anti-trafficking hotline. However, St. Maarten did not implement this plan, and measures for change continue to fall short of national expectations.
The more local government proves lackluster, the greater the reliance on international aid. NGOs have become imperative to the country’s preservation from further collapse. Organizations like Lifeline Network International, the West Indee Committee and the Society of Mediators are playing an indispensable role in protecting even the most basic of human rights, establishing the platform for social, economic and agrarian education and facilitating the means for long-term sustainability.
The U.S. Department of State has articulated basic actions St. Maarten can take to revive this effort. These efforts include the re-adopting and implementing of the 2022 NAP, appropriate funding for protective and preventive services, educating authorities to be proactive in trafficking identification and informing the public, migrants and potential victims of their rights. Applying these basic actions sets the precedent for change and the foundations for a better future.
– Ruairi Greene
Photo: Flickr
How 3D Printing is Transforming Sub-Saharan Africa
3D Printing
Though it is a relatively new technology, 3D printing has made a difference. Beginning with designing a model on a computer, designers begin “printing” the materials, usually using concrete, to place over a built foundation. Often referred to as additive manufacturing, the whole process essentially starts from scratch laying down thin layers of various materials in liquid/powder form to fuse together. In this case with house building, the 3D printers used are much larger than regular printers as they extrude concrete and/or other materials to build up the 3D model.
Africa’s Urbanization
Because of the lack of development in the house-building industry, the country has been forced to figure out other streamlined methods for these housing structures. The company 14Trees began these operations in Kenya Kalaw, with construction finished at about 12 hours and just under $10,000.
Aside from the lower costs, 3D printing has reduced carbon emissions by 70% compared to traditional building techniques. This is a plus because, in recent years, Africa has suffered tremendously from rapid urbanization. The peak began in 2015 when an estimated 50% of Africa’s population was living in one of 7,627 urban agglomerations. Though this will not reverse all the damage that has already been caused by these agglomerations, 3D printing will help to plan wider access to transportation and more importantly an increase in housing density.
14Trees’ Work in Africa
This group has helped to build more than just residential homes — 14Trees provided a school building for the capital city of Malawi. The managing director of the CDC in Africa, Tenbite Ermiasa, described 14Trees as “cutting-edge technology is going to have a tremendous developmental impact on Malawi and the wider region.” Given the housing crisis, remaining as cost-effective as possible was one of the main draws to incorporating 3D printing. It promises to cut down costs and time by around 15%. With 100 million homeless people today, 14Trees’ project is mostly centered around the construction of single-family housing.
Hope for the People of Africa
3D printing, though it is an advanced technology, is not enough on its own to solve the crisis — it needs workers to help operate it. In addition to helping house millions of citizens in Africa, the 14Trees project also comes with thousands of positions available for full-time employment. Losing jobs is a common fear when integrating new technology, especially with so many bricklayers who rely on their work to survive. However, 14Trees believes it can create more jobs than it might eliminate. Additionally, 14Trees has given the CDC their word that, for employment, they will only be working with skilled job creation for hiring and upskilling locals in job titles such as 3D machine operator to material specialists.
As with any innovative idea, there are benefits and doubts, yet the goal remains the same. In the midst of the housing crisis, countries may benefit from taking a chance on the emerging technologies of the future.
– Isabella Polo
Photo: Flickr
How Poverty Shapes Schooling in Zimbabwe
Poverty shapes schooling in Zimbabwe, determining aspects ranging from the quality of education to the duration of study. In essence, students with greater wealth are more likely to attain secondary education and experience transformative outcomes compared to their less affluent peers.
Wealth Inequality Between Urban and Rural Children
Urban Zimbabwean households typically possess more wealth than their rural counterparts. In 2021, according to the World Bank, 55.5% of rural Zimbabweans lived below the national food poverty line in contrast to only 15.5% of urban Zimbabweans. This stark 40% contrast underscores significant wealth inequality, a gap evident in the disparity between urban and rural education.
How Wealth Inequality Affects Schooling in Zimbabwe
Poor communities do not have the infrastructure, staff or resources to maintain quality learning facilities. Families within these communities grapple with daily hardships stemming from living below the poverty line, rendering tasks like funding teacher salaries, constructing safe schools and providing essential amenities such as water and electricity difficult. Put simply, the quality of rural Zimbabwe’s education pales in comparison to its urban counterpart due to the extreme poverty prevalent in rural areas.
Educational Inequalities
Given that rural regions hold the highest poverty rates, rural Zimbabweans disproportionately bear the brunt of educational disadvantages.
For instance, urban children are more likely to successfully complete all educational levels compared to their rural counterparts. In Zimbabwe, urban children achieve a primary school completion rate of 97% whereas rural children achieve a rate of only 86%, falling below the national average, according to UNICEF’s MICS-EAGLE (Education Analysis for Global Learning and Equity) Zimbabwe Fact Sheet of 2021.
Throughout secondary school, rural students consistently lag nearly 10% or more behind the national average in terms of completion rates while urban students consistently surpass the national average.
Completion rates for each individual school level remain consistently low for rural students. Of all students failing to complete a specific educational level, two-thirds are from rural backgrounds, the 2021 MICS-EAGLE Zimbabwe Education Fact Sheet notes.
According to Teach for Zimbabwe, unfortunately, even the rural children who do complete school typically achieve lower academic results compared to children in urban areas. More than two-thirds of Zimbabwean children lack access to quality and comprehensive education, and as a result, there are “tens of thousands of students who cannot even read, write, or speak English after seven years of primary education,” Teach for Zimbabwe says on its website. A lack of trained educators, unideal learning environments and insufficient resources and funding impact the quality of education.
Teach for Zimbabwe’s Role in Schooling in Zimbabwe
Founded in 2018, Teach for Zimbabwe is a branch of the global nonprofit, Teach for All, that focuses on bringing diverse, innovative education to disadvantaged children in Zimbabwe. The organization accomplishes this mission through educators: qualified teachers from diverse backgrounds are trained, compensated and stationed in needy local districts. These educators commit to a two-year term at the school, a period during which both teachers and students become better equipped to navigate Zimbabwe’s education system.
Given that many rural, impoverished regions lack the means to hire and sustain teachers, numerous rural school districts lack educators in general or lack qualified educators. In June 2022, Zimbabwe faced a shortage of more than 25,000 teachers. Having highly qualified teachers in rural schools will elevate the quality of education for rural students, potentially impacting their academic outcomes and education completion rates.
Looking Ahead
The educational inequalities stemming from poverty significantly influence Zimbabwe’s schooling landscape. Two students who both complete primary school may experience vastly different outcomes as a result of the urban-rural divide. Organizations like Teach for Zimbabwe are paving the way for transformative change in rural Zimbabwean schools to allow for quality education that will enable students to reach their highest academic potential.
– Suzanne Ackley
Photo: Flickr
Everything you need to know about the Marburg Virus Outbreak in Tanzania
History of the Marburg Virus
The first documented cases of the Marburg virus were in 1967 when laboratory workers in Germany and Yugoslavia (now Serbia) were exposed to African green monkeys imported from Uganda. The disease is also found in cave-dwelling Egyptian rousette bats, often infecting miners. Marburg is in a group of diseases called viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHF) and can also be passed from person to person.
Effect and Response
According to the International Trade Association, Tanzania has some of the lowest rates of access to health personnel in the world, and over 60% of its health care facilities are government-run. According to a journal by the National Library of Medicine, the Marburg virus outbreak has been a wake-up call to some things that Tanzania needs to improve regarding its health care system.
Improvements such as a more thorough screening process and stricter quarantine strategies are necessary to stop the spread of the virus. The journal also states that educational campaigns and programs must be implemented in Tanzania as a preventative measure.
Tanzania has initiated quarantines in the one district reporting Marburg cases. They need to obtain more protective gear for the safety of health care workers, who are the first exposed to such outbreaks.
In a Gavi article, Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, states that re-emerging infectious diseases are a signal to improve the health care industry and strengthen their coping mechanisms. The MOH has detected a few weak links in the national response to the virus: The financial resources to combat the Marburg virus outbreak are insufficient, the health care industry is understaffed and inadequate tools to aid those affected.
Although efforts are being made to improve the health of those affected by Marburg virus, Tanzania is struggling to combat the repercussions because of its struggling health care system and largely impoverished population.
In 2019, 14 million people in Tanzania were living in poverty, up from 13 million in 2007. According to an Abbott article, around half the population is below the poverty line, making $1.90 a day. They have limited health care resources and only around three doctors for every 100,000 people.
Treatment
Although there is not yet a vaccine to treat Marburg, it is important to receive hospital therapy. Temporary remedies include rehydration and blood cell replacement. Replenishing electrolytes and making sure that oxygen and blood pressure levels are at a normal and stable level are also fundamental to the healing process.
The virus is contained for now, and there are a few medications that can be used to mediate pain and nausea such as acetaminophen and ondansetron.
– Alex Hasenkamp
Photo: Flickr
Facts About HIV/AIDS in North Korea
However, a team of researchers from North Korea and the United States did not believe the rhetoric of North Korea’s health authorities and conducted an independent study. Their findings show that there are currently about 8,400 HIV/AIDS in North Korea, with the first case having been detected in 1999. And the number of HIV/AIDS infections has been increasing dramatically over the past few years.
Unusual Trust
Science Magazine exclusively reports that this unusual collaborative investigation between North Korea and the United States began back in 2013. Taehoon Kim, one of the organization’s founders, said that starting in 2015, North Korea’s Center for Infectious Disease Control began documenting the spread of HIV and found that the number of people infected in the country had been climbing over the past decade. In September 2018, North Korea’s National AIDS Committee completed a questionnaire survey involving the entire country, a move that also illustrates the severity of the spread of HIV in the country. According to the North Korea National AIDS Committee, the main routes of HIV transmission in the country are blood donation and injection drug use.
“The Yellow Tide of Capitalism”
According to CNnews Chosun, as the North Korean regime’s ruling power continues to weaken and economic difficulties persist — the sex trade, drug abuse and human trafficking are spreading within the country. The North Korean regime calls these phenomena the “yellow tide of capitalism” and strictly controls them. However, according to the information available to South Korean intelligence agencies, the phenomenon has spread, centering on the border area between the two Koreas.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, drugs have spread throughout the country. The circulation is growing rapidly as drug factories have appeared in the Soonan area of Pyongyang and the city of Moonchon in Gangwon Province to earn foreign currency, and some residents are secretly involved in drug manufacturing.
A former resident of North Korea who is currently residing in South Korea said, “There is a ‘drug craze’ in North Korean society, including party cadres. Some wealthy people use drugs to lose weight, and residents use drugs when they have a stomach ache, catch a cold or are tired from work, making drugs a ‘cure-all’ in the country. This is often accompanied by the frequent emergence of the local sex trade, which has even been organized since around 2005. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of university students engaging in the sex trade, and high-ranking officials are receiving ‘services’ from those students.”
A Growing Problem
North Korean officials initially asked the U.S.-based DoDaum organization to keep the spread of HIV in the country a secret. But as the situation worsened, the partnership’s liaison, Taehoon Kim, the director for foreign relations at the North Korean Ministry of Health and a physician by training, finally broke his silence. He said, “Although reports that North Korea has a problem with HIV transmission may cause a backlash from the central government because they are all afraid of infectious diseases. But a cover-up and silence will only make the lack of treatment worse.”
Nonetheless, some reports suggest that the disease may be more prevalent than officially acknowledged, particularly among high-risk groups such as injection drug users and commercial sex workers. It is important to note that poverty and economic hardships have been significant challenges for the country’s population. The limited access to health care, lack of resources and overall economic difficulties could potentially hinder effective prevention, treatment and support for individuals living with HIV/AIDS in North Korea.
External Assistance
Since the mid-1990s, a number of non-profit and charitable NGOs have been active in North Korea. Although relatively limited in scope, their work has attracted the interest of U.S. policymakers because of the extreme isolation of the regime in Pyongyang. A number of US and international NGOs have provided assistance to the DPRK in areas such as humanitarian aid, development, health, informal diplomacy, science, communication and education. A relatively new trend is the growing number of NGOs, particularly in North Korea, which are run by or operate in conjunction with North Korean defectors.
In 2013, North Korean researchers approached DoDaum, a US-based non-profit organization that conducts health and education projects in the country and has agreed to help study the spread of HIV/AIDS in North Korea. However, according to Kim Tae-Hoon, co-founder of DoDaum, only 30-40% of the drugs used to treat the virus cross the border between China and North Korea due to strict international sanctions. Researchers are now calling on the international community to provide further assistance to North Korea to fight AIDS, including the provision of antiretroviral drugs to treat those infected and support for the rebuilding of the country’s health system.
– Jiayi Liu
Photo: Unsplash
Progress in Addressing Poverty in Myanmar
In order to improve the struggling economy and humanitarian crisis, many global organizations and international partners have developed plans and initiatives to provide support for addressing poverty in Myanmar.
Difficulties in providing aid
In May 2023, Myanmar was hit by the powerful storm Cyclone Mocha, exacerbating the plight of the country’s most vulnerable populations. Unfortunately, restrictions imposed by the military have hindered the delivery of support to these affected groups. By June 2023, the U.N. had already sounded the alarm, suggesting that the military’s actions might be in violation of international human rights and humanitarian laws, as they seem to intentionally obstruct aid efforts.
As the country remains mired in conflict and devastation, recent estimates from the U.N. reveal that the military has been responsible for the destruction of around 60,000 civilian structures since the onset of the military takeover. Adding to the tragedy, the military’s actions have resulted in the deaths of at least 3,452 people and the imprisonment of over 20,000 individuals between the start of the takeover and April 2023.
Disturbingly, the U.N. issues a stern warning that if the impediments to humanitarian aid persist—blocking essentials like food, water and shelter—it could give rise to further war crimes, including instances of starvation and collective punishment.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
Despite the challenges, the United Nations Refugee Agency increased its presence throughout Myanmar in 2022. During the year, the UNHCR helped 325,200 internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return back to their place of origin in the Rakhine region of the country.
Additionally, the UNHCR provided in-kind support to 500,000 IDPs, shelter support to 100,000 and cash assistance to 51,500. The organization worked to bring this much-needed assistance with the help of partnerships with NGOs, civil societies and faith-based organizations.
The UNHCR also collaborated with other nearby nations such as Indonesia, to provide a safe place for refugees leaving Myanmar to find aid. In 2022, Indonesia accepted more than 700 refugees into the Aceh province.
In 2022, Bangladesh collaborated extensively with the UNHCR to modify refugee education programs to suit refugees from Myanmar. These educational initiatives have benefited more than 40,000 children who relocated to Bangladesh following the military takeover in Myanmar. Given that education is a well-established route out of poverty, ensuring the continuity of education for displaced individuals becomes paramount.
In 2023, UNHCR continued to work closely alongside Bangladesh to continue supporting more than 900,000 Myanmar refugees living in the country. UNHCR will provide production kits to support livelihood creation and skills building for 72,000 households and will continue increasing Myanmar education to an additional 12,280 pre-primary children.
Looking Ahead
Myanmar’s humanitarian crisis continues to persist. Thousands in the country remain displaced and live below the poverty line. However, organizations like the UN Refugee Agency have paired with partners to continue addressing poverty in Myanmar.
– Tristan Weisenbach
Photo: Flickr
Liter of Light
Why This Project Was Needed
In the Philippines, almost 20 million people live below the poverty line and work low-paying jobs without basic amenities like adequate housing. Many homes are small and lack windows, which limits natural light. The cost of electricity is also high, at $0.181 per KWH, making it difficult for those below the poverty line to afford it. Additionally, natural disasters such as typhoons, landslides, cyclones and floods are common, which can leave people without power for months. Given these challenges, people are seeking affordable solutions to help them manage power outages.
How It Works
Liter of Light is a DIY project that involves using recycled plastic water bottles filled with a mixture of distilled water and bleach. It’s a climate-friendly project that doesn’t emit any carbon emissions, making it a completely green option. The bottles are installed on steel roofs and can reflect up to 55 watts of brightness with direct sunlight. To maximize the project’s benefits at night, it can be upgraded with solar panels, which can store approximately 10 hours of energy and power LED lights.
The organization encourages the women cooperatives to create this project from scratch, to generate job opportunities by selling the final product in local markets at reasonable prices. The purchasing kits include all the necessary installation details and instructions and these are also available on social media platforms such as YouTube.
Impact on the World
This initiative is active in 15 countries, including Columbia, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Italy, among others. In the Philippines alone, the project has brought light to 145,200 households, benefiting a total of 353,600 globally. Thanks to this innovation, people no longer need to use hazardous kerosene lamps that pose a risk of fire and respiratory problems. Additionally, these cost-effective lamps help households save money on their electricity bills. The project has also installed streetlights that are affordable and visually appealing within communities. The government encourages women and individuals with disabilities to participate in training programs, empowering them to produce products for public use and earn a living.
In 2014, following the devastating typhoon Haiyan, two companies, Roche and Pepsi, generously provided a grant of $57,000 to fund training and equipment for this project. Roche continued to donate funding for equipment in subsequent years, which enabled the Liter of Light to generate sales of $15,230 by selling kits to other organizations.
In December 2018, the organization collaborated with Peace Boat to embark on a world journey from Japan to various parts of Asia, South America and Africa. This initiative, named Voyage of Light, aimed to spread awareness of effective projects to indigenous island communities in Madagascar, Samoa, Brazil, Tahiti and beyond. To achieve this, they organized educational training programs, community visits and practical training camps to help people understand the project’s significance. This journey concluded in March 2019. With all these initiatives, this project is spreading the light in millions of people’s lives.
– Gurjot Kaur
Photo: Flickr
Amazon’s Investment in India
India Unplugged
With India becoming one of, if not the, largest countries in the world by population, the new technology world is a crucial development. However, 67% of India’s population resides in rural areas of India that are labeled as underdeveloped. Due to this, only 35% of India’s population has a connection to the internet.
Amazon’s Relationship with India
India is full of local street vendors. These vendors could benefit greatly from the e-commerce world as it would create the possibility for their goods to reach a variety of buyers. However, most vendors in India are very small and were steered away from e-commerce as it seemed too complex. In response to these obstacles, in 2013, Amazon’s investment in India produced Amazon India. Within its initial set-up, Bezos invested 5 billion dollars into Amazon India.
Regardless of the creation of Amazon India, many Indians were hesitant to trust the new site. To gain the locals’ trust, Amazon created a program called “Amazon Chai Cart.” Amazon Chai Cart is a mobile tea cart that goes around cities serving tea while teaching small business owners about the e-commerce world. The Chai Cart is reported to have engaged with over 10,000 vendors.
Amazon’s investment in India continued by creating Amazon Tatkal. Amazon advertises this program as “a superfast solution to selling online.” The Amazon Tatkal vans patrol North and South India aiming to engage local vendors and simplify the process of selling online. Specifically, providing tips on registration, advertising, imaging and more skills.
Shipping and Warehouses
Not only has Amazon impacted small businesses by investing in India’s online world, but Amazon adapted its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to India as well. FBA is a centralized shipping platform that Amazon uses to distribute its products. Companies send their product to fulfillment centers and pay a price for the centers to store, pack and ship their product. There are now over 70 fulfillment centers in India.
Keeping Small Businesses Alive
While there are many legitimate concerns about Amazon overpowering small shops, Amazon India has listed many of the “mom-and-pop businesses” in their delivery system to promote their business and simultaneously the small shops as well. This system encourages buyers to go into their local small vendor shop and use the store’s internet connection to peruse through products on Amazon. While this method is not ideal as it does not promote the shop’s products, shops have reported that their sales have gone up regardless. This is likely because by wanting to use the internet, the buyers are forced to go to physical shops where this is the internet and hopefully buy something within the store, too.
Looking Ahead
On June 24, 2023, Amazon announced that they will increase their investment in India’s online world to $26 billion by 2030. This was decided after Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy met with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two agreed that Amazon’s investment in India will increase job opportunities in India, support local start-up businesses, enable exports and empower small businesses to compete in the global market. Considering this, there is hope for India’s small businesses to flourish and thus its economy as a whole.
– Samsara Shrivastava
Photo: Flickr
A Conversation on Foreign Aid and Development
Foreign Aid
The British public is divided on foreign aid and development. There are those who celebrate the humanitarian achievements of foreign aid packages, there are some who decry foreign aid as “neo-colonial extraction” and there are others who consider it a waste on outsiders. Generally, the support trumps the critique. In fact, support is strengthened when one considers and reviews critique.
Tessa Munt and the Public Debate
ODA, or Official Developmental Assistance, is the vehicle for aid delivery in the U.K. ODA typically takes the form of all-in-one packages — funds, manpower and organizational assistance. The U.K. government is not currently meeting the U.N. target of 0.7% of GDP allocated for foreign aid. Set at 0.5%, the British government says it has no intention to restore foreign aid spending to the pre-pandemic levels of 0.7% until at least 2027/28. Tessa Munt and the Liberal Democrats are strong supporters of foreign aid and overseas development. Munt says, “the Liberal Democrats are the government of foreign aid” and the foreign aid target will return to 0.7% when the Liberal Democrats are in power.
Although public support of foreign aid is strong and sustained, public concerns over immigration and notions of free-riding may draw funds away from positive ODA programs toward initiatives designed to keep migration low. The Bibby Stockholm barge is one such example. Using foreign aid budgets, the U.K. has procured the engineless barge from the Netherlands at the cost of an estimated £18 million. The Bibby Stockholm is one of a number of sites the U.K. government is trying to set up to provide an alternative to housing migrants in hotels. The barge will house asylum seekers who are awaiting the outcome of their asylum applications. Its use has been criticized as inhumane and its ultimate purpose serves to deter asylum seekers from seeking illegal migration routes to safety in the U.K.
Stories like this and the recent attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers in Knowsley, Merseyside, dominate the headlines. As a result, foreign aid can be appropriated and its aims misunderstood. Munt offered a solution, arguing that the positive deployment of ODA programs weakens “the push factor that brings asylum-seekers to our shores.” Munt succinctly finishes the discussion on the xenophobic pushback to foreign aid with this: “Foreign aid is, or should be, at 0.7% – that leaves us with 99.3% to spend however we wish.”
Critique with Dr. Richard Sheldon
Dr. Sheldon explains to The Borgen Project his thoughts on whether or not foreign aid is beneficial and effective. “‘Generally, yes… I think it does work.” Not only does foreign aid work, according to Dr. Sheldon, but it is “very much in our interests to do it.” ODA and foreign aid hope to slow asylum channels by creating stability and reducing poverty in troubled regions and enabling opportunities for investment and trade. Dr. Sheldon goes further, by arguing that”‘we have an obligation and a duty” toward the poor across the globe and that there are “all sorts of places where advancement isn’t possible without some kind of external aid.”
The numbers appear to support Dr. Sheldon’s case. According to a Global Citizen article published in 2018, foreign aid and development financing has saved 700 million lives over the last 25 years. U.K. foreign aid, in particular, saved more than 990,000 lives between January 2015 and December 2017 by immunizing more than 56 million children across the world, according to Results.org.
In Syria, for example, the U.K. has provided a total of £3.8 billion worth of official development assistance from 2011 to 2022. Food aid and emergency assistance in Syria through U.K. aid “alleviated suffering and allowed recipients to use their own resources on housing and health care. It had enabled some families to send their children back to school. There was also evidence of positive outcomes at the community level, in the form of reduced incidence of local crime, fewer disputes and families having a more optimistic outlook about the future,” according to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Through foreign aid, the U.K. has saved the lives of thousands and averted much greater burdens of asylum.
Foreign Aid Issues
Foreign aid is not without its issues, however. Charges laid at the sector surround questions of power and wealth extraction. According to research in 2017 by a coalition of U.K. and African social justice campaigners, more than $40 billion leaves Africa each year through multinational corporations “repatriating profits and illegally moving money into tax havens.” Further still, countries have faced accusations of using foreign aid “as a weapon to boost trade and further political aims.”
Take the series of structural adjustments implemented in the 1980s by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for example. During this period, the IMF placed conditions on aid packages that required the restructuring of a nation’s economic life. These conditions directed a reduction in state expenditure, and, state assets, like water gas and coal repositories, were to be privatized and bought by multinationals in the West. As a result, millions of people suffered unemployment and impoverishment at the same time social security systems weakened due to requirements to reduce state expenditure.
But, as Dr. Sheldon argues, the situation was complex. The IMF required governments to reduce state expenditures because of eye-watering levels of debt in the Global South and the risk of widespread defaulting.
Dr. Sheldon comments, “Yes, I think there were a lot of very harsh ideologically driven set of conditions [that] very much reflects the [late] Cold War and the triumphalism [of] the Reagan and Thatcher years.” Dr. Sheldon goes on to say that these issues “do matter – more rather than less,” but they need not diminish aid in its entirety. Foreign aid also “pushe[s] for political reform, accountability, democracy and human rights… [I’ve] been studying this for quite some time, and the time scale (for the 700 million lives saved) isn’t in the most generous time period,” Dr. Sheldon highlights.
Looking Ahead
If one looks at the reduction in extreme poverty from the 20th century, progress is remarkable. The percentage of those living in extreme poverty stood at 53% in the 1950s — this percentage reduced to 9% in 2018. Dr. Sheldon argues that “capitalism, international aid, transport and humanitarianism have all [contributed] toward this.”
Ultimately, the emotive nature of this topic means that when individuals hear stories of misuse and misinformation about refugees and asylum seekers, they’re inclined to negatively perceive foreign aid as a whole. Dr. Sheldon argues that this is not correct; foreign aid is “part of the positive picture.” Despite the world population growing at a “rapid rate,” by most measures, poverty and extreme poverty have declined. As a result of this, the threat of global instability and concurrent issues of asylum have decreased. And, because of foreign aid, the U.K. has benefited from increased trade and increased stability.
– James Durbin
Photo: Flickr
5 Military Humanitarian Missions
South Korea
Recently, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yoel announced he would be increasing aid to the war-stricken country of Ukraine through the military. South Korea had been hesitant to sell arms to Ukraine. Foreign aid, as well as demining equipment and ambulances, make up the help that the nation is giving. For a more direct example of missions, the South Korean military delivered disaster relief supplies to Turkey by their planes. This came after the recent earthquake. The military also planned to help Syria.
Germany
Since the German reunification in the 1990s, their military has been doing its share of humanitarian work. The German army works with both government and non-government organizations. The most frequent aid is disaster relief, which is used both in Europe and across the world. Examples include their efforts after the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the 2017 Caribbean hurricanes. The military was also used during the Mediterranean refugee crisis.
Singapore
As an island nation, the primary branch of Singapore’s military is its navy. Due to Singapore’s smaller size, the country partners with international organizations to conduct humanitarian work. The nation gives back through its various military humanitarian missions. The Singapore Armed Forces worked in Iraq after the wars in 1991 and 2003. Further engagements were completed in Texas after Hurricane Harvey and in Taiwan after the 2018 Hualien earthquake.
Sweden
As a member of many global organizations such as the United Nations, the Swedish military focuses on international aid. One example is Iraq, which has been helped by the Swedish military through its changes. Sweden has also helped Yemen in its war through aid. The military has delivered aid not only to Ukraine but to nearby Moldova. The war has hurt Moldova’s economy, necessitating assistance.
Brazil
The Brazilian army is known and well-regarded for its humanitarian work. It was recognized in 2018 for its resettling of Venezuelan refugees. Also in Brazil, the Yanomani people, who live in the Amazon, have faced poverty and difficulties which come from illegal mining. Some members of the military will protect the indigenous people. Others will deliver aid and food baskets.
Conclusion
Humanitarian work is, as it should be, an important part of our militaries. As we can see, military humanitarian missions help people across the globe. These soldiers hope for peace. An end to poverty is a major milestone in achieving this goal.
– Josh Sobchak
Photo: Flickr