In Kenya’s arid north, where raising livestock in a drought-ravaged landscape has long defined economic survival, Acacia EPZ Limited is transforming reality. The gum arabic processor, based in the Athi River Export Processing Zone (EPZ), provides a stable, climate-resilient income for more than 7,000 collectors, most of them women, turning a scattered forest product into a source of household earnings.
This micro-level success highlights a national dilemma. Kenya is a major agricultural producer, yet a net importer of processed foods. Reliance on raw commodity exports has kept manufacturing’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) stagnant at around 10% for decades, limiting the formal job creation essential for poverty reduction. Kenya’s strategy is a focused industrial policy centered on Export Processing Zones (EPZs), a structural mechanism designed to reinvent the economy and alleviate poverty en masse by creating better urban manufacturing jobs while providing stable, higher-value markets for rural farmers.
The Economic Imperative Driving Kenya’s EPZ Strategy
Kenya’s push for agro-processing tackles economic vulnerabilities resulting from its trade deficit. The country remains stuck exporting “primary commodities with low value addition,” like tea and coffee, capturing a fraction of its final value while leaving the economy exposed to global price swings.
This reliance on raw exports fails to create quality jobs, even as agriculture employs more than 40% of the population in often informal, low-wage work with a proportionally low contribution to GDP. With nearly 16% of Kenyans living in hardcore poverty, the need for transformative economic strategies is acute. Simultaneously, Kenya spends billions annually importing the very processed goods for which it possesses the raw materials to make itself. In 2023 alone, Kenya imported $3.81 billion in agricultural and related products, including $583 million worth of consumer-oriented foods like soups, processed fruits and baked goods.
This “primary commodity” trap also limits Kenya’s share of the lucrative and rapidly expanding regional market to a mere 7% of the estimated $11 billion East African consumer base. Kenya, now at this critical crossroad, must move beyond the cycle of exporting low-value raw materials and importing high-value necessities, which has for so long perpetuated reliance on volatile global markets while forgoing the jobs and enterprise growth that processing creates.
EPZs as the Engine of Industrial Upgrading
To bridge this gap, Kenya has deployed EPZs as its primary vehicle for industrial upgrading. Operating under the legal framework of the EPZ Act, these zones offer firms incentives like tax holidays and duty-free imports to attract investment toward export-oriented manufacturing. The government’s intent, as stated in its Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), is for EPZs to play a “critical role in achieving… employment creation, investment attraction, value addition of local products, especially the agro-based and foreign exchange earnings.”
The latest data on Kenya’s EPZ strategy reveals a sector of significant scale, yet one exposed to volatility. In 2023, capital investment in EPZs grew 10.9% to KSh 112.2 billion ($840 million), while exports generated KSh 105.5 billion ($790 million). However, direct employment fell to 75,598 jobs from 82,771 the year before. The official EPZ Annual Performance Report attributes this drop to reduced United States (U.S.) apparel orders and, crucially for agro-processing, a “disruption of the global macadamia market.” While the evolution of EPZs has come a long way, it is apparent that even within these protected zones, Kenyan manufacturers are not comfortably insulated from global commodity shocks and shifting trade winds.
The Double Dividend: Direct Poverty Alleviation Outcomes
The impact of Kenya’s EPZ strategy delivers on two fronts: its double dividend, tackling poverty at both ends of the supply chain.
The first dividend is urban and peri-urban job creation. EPZ employment is a crucial step into the formal economy, offering wage-based predictability that contrasts with the precarious informal sector, where more than 17 million Kenyans work. While apparel dominates, agro-processing niches are growing. In 2023, food manufacturing saw a significant 16.4% expansion in dairy processing and and 11.6% increase in preserved fruits and vegetables. Each new plant adds jobs in production, quality control, logistics and management, creating a ladder to higher-skilled, better-paid work.
The second, even more transformative dividend is the strengthening of rural livelihoods, establishing a direct linkage between national industrial policy and smallholder farmers. Acacia EPZ is an exemplary demonstration of this connection, as it provides a stable market for more than 7,000 gum arabic collectors, turning a scattered, low-value product into a reliable household income in drought-prone regions. This model, where an EPZ firm anchors a local supply chain, is a blueprint for poverty reduction in rural Kenya. Agro-processing factories act as high-volume off-takers for agricultural produce that raises and stabilizes farm-gate prices, moving farmers from subsistence into a predictable commercial relationship with stable, increasing incomes. The government’s BETA agenda explicitly targets this link, aiming to improve livelihoods through “increased employment” and “more equitable distribution of income” by developing agro-value chains.
A Test Case for Structural Transformation
Kenya’s EPZ strategy is a measured and ambitious attempt to use industrial policy for structural poverty alleviation. It targets the economy’s architecture, aiming to transform low-value agricultural work into higher-wage manufacturing jobs and connect subsistence farmers to commercial value chains. The path is fraught with obstacles and undoubtedly troubled by all the growing pains of a developing economy.
Yet, the simple logic is compelling: capture more value domestically to create a cycle of formal jobs and rising rural incomes. The progress of firms like Acacia EPZ has already demonstrated the micro-level potential. Scaling this model successfully, while sure to be a formidable test, appears to be a promising and worthwhile venture that could offer vital lessons on how developing nations can industrialize their way to shared prosperity through inclusive economic upgrading.
– Georgio Moussa
Georgio is based in London, UK and focuses on Business and Politics for The Borgen Project.
Photo: Flickr
Artisans Fighting Poverty in Peru
In fact, rural poverty is higher than the national average, at a whopping 39.3%. Ending poverty in rural areas is vital to ending poverty nationwide. Still, it is tough, as many rural areas speak distinct languages and specialize in different forms of cultural art.
However, it is this cultural art that many programs have chosen to focus on in one of the many attempts to alleviate financial difficulty in rural areas.
The MGD Achievement Fund
The MGD Achievement Fund’s joint program in Peru focused on reducing poverty across four of the country’s most disadvantaged regions. It did this by building inclusive creative industries in tourism, handicrafts, organic agriculture and gastronomy. The program enriched the poorest parts of Peru by using traditional heritage to stimulate tourism through handicrafts and foods, as well as promoting organic agriculture.
Much of its work was done with the help of the United Nations (U.N.), specifically the Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.N. World Tourism Organization and the country’s Ministerio de la Producción (Ministry of Production). Focusing on the regions of Ayacucho, Cusco, Lambayeque and Puno, the program distributed official certificates to 126 artisans, 26 entrepreneurs in rural tourism and 49 regional cooks. The program was a huge success and more than 2,500 families across Peru increased their incomes, maintained their traditional practices and cared for the environment around them.
The program also documented many traditional arts and ensured they could continue for seasons to come.
The Awamaki Program
Awamaki uplifts Peruvian artists. It is a nonprofit that operates in Peru’s Sacred Valley, also known as the Urubamba Valley. It is based in the town of Ollantaytambo and focuses on addressing the widespread poverty throughout the valley.
The heart of the program is a cooperative of five women-led groups across the valley and it allows these women to receive skills-based training for their art. Their art is sold throughout the valley and beyond and all profits go back into their communities. The organization also helps facilitate tours in the region, bringing money into small towns.
It offers tours in both Spanish and Quechua, the native language of many regions in South America. The group also teaches computer classes to residents and offers English classes to help bolster international relations in the future.
Conclusion
Overall, Peru is a beautiful country with a wonderful heritage that is close to the hearts of many. Some have spent their entire lives doing their traditional art, making their own traditional food and speaking their traditional languages. Documentation and appreciation of heritage can be a huge stepping stone, especially when that heritage is so closely intertwined with the area’s finances. Honoring culture while promoting growth is the most effective tool for alleviating poverty.
– Eddie Hofmann
Photo: Flickr
Floating Micro-Clinics for Riverine Communities in Guyana
Across the dense river networks of Guyana’s interior, many Indigenous and hinterland communities face challenges accessing basic health care due to geographic isolation, limited transportation and poor road infrastructure. Residents often travel days by boat or on foot to reach the nearest clinic for vaccinations, prenatal care, emergency treatment or chronic disease management. Floating micro-clinics for riverine communities in Guyana offer a culturally sensitive, practical solution by delivering essential health services directly along rivers, which serve as the main transportation routes for these communities.
The Government of Guyana has expanded river transportation for health access by providing purpose-built boats and engines to remote villages. This has enabled patients and medical staff to reach health facilities more efficiently.
What Are Floating Micro-Clinics?
Floating micro-clinics are rapid-response medical units, often boats outfitted with consultation space and solar-powered equipment, that travel on regular circuits between riverine villages. By ferrying nurses, health educators and medical supplies directly to residents, these services reduce travel time, lower costs and improve preventative health care.
The Guyanese Ministry of Health has invested in river transport infrastructure to improve access to health care for residents of Regions One, Three and Five. It has delivered boats equipped to support patient care and outreach. In addition to government investment, UNICEF-supported programs have helped expand maternal health outreach.
They do this by providing boats equipped with solar-powered vaccine refrigerators and cots to serve communities in Regions One and Eight. These vessels enhance access to immunization and maternal care in villages such as Kamwatta, Sandhill and Orinduik.
Bringing Health Services Closer to Communities
Floating micro-clinics for riverine communities in Guyana enable nurses, community health workers and other providers to offer vaccinations, prenatal checkups and treatment for common illnesses on the spot. By reducing the distance families must travel for routine care, these mobile units help prevent illness and support early detection of health issues. Telemedicine has also expanded across remote regions, complementing floating clinic outreach by allowing health workers to consult specialists and manage patient care more effectively.
Many of the communities served through these initiatives are Indigenous and deeply rooted along river systems. Floating micro-clinics serving riverine communities in Guyana align medical outreach with traditional travel routes and cultural practices, ensuring services are delivered in ways that respect community life. Families no longer need to undertake long and costly journeys through difficult terrain to reach basic health services.
River transport investments and floating clinic models demonstrate how integrated health and transportation strategies can reduce geographic disparities. These programs coordinate regular river routes and supply essential health equipment directly to remote villages. This strengthens health surveillance, expands vaccination coverage and supports maternal and child health across Guyana’s hinterland.
Conclusion
Floating micro-clinics serving riverine communities in Guyana bring essential health care to populations that traditional infrastructure has historically underserved. By leveraging river transport and mobile medical units, these programs improve access to vaccinations, maternal and child care, diagnostics and routine treatment. With continued investment and community involvement, floating micro-clinics can significantly strengthen rural health outcomes and reduce inequality across Guyana’s vast river systems.
– Shahzeb Khan
Photo: Flickr
Interventions Boosting Adoption of Digital Agriculture in Uganda
Agriculture is a vital source of economic output and employment in Uganda, as 73% of the country’s workforce is employed by the agriculture sector. The country consists of a predominantly rural population, with more than 70% living in rural areas. About four million households rely on smallholder farming for survival and approximately 30% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Digital Agriculture in Uganda
Digital innovations for agricultural markets and productivity can enhance the country’s agricultural sector. However, low levels of digital literacy and financial constraints limiting digital technology adoption result in low participation from the general population. Rural communities mainly suffer from gaps in access to digital infrastructure.
This contributes to lower adoption of digital technologies in the agriculture sector than in other sectors. Currently, several projects and interventions are bridging these gaps and increasing smallholder farmers’ participation in digital agriculture in Uganda.
Kilimo Farmers Call Center
In 2018, 81% of smallholder farmers in Uganda lacked access to agricultural extension and advisory services, resulting in weak market and supplier connectivity. Consequently, in 2018, smallholder farmers received an estimated 28% of the expected yields for their crops, leading to poverty and malnutrition. The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) identified the lack of access to quality extension services as a main constraint in the nation’s agricultural sector, especially in the West Nile region.
In this region, only one agriculture extension worker serves 2,000 farmers. In response, the UNCDF built the Kilimo Farmers Call Center in northern Uganda to reach farmers located in the most remote areas. The Center uses both technology and a network of community influencers, called digital extension agents.
The hybrid model makes it easier to reach more farmers by combining instant digital services with the connections and rapport built by extension agents. After farmers complete their farming profile on the Kilimo Farmer Call Center app, they are geo-mapped to receive relevant weather and market price updates. Farmers also receive agronomic tips based on their location and access to advisory and extension services.
The CABI Crop Sprayer App
The CABI crop sprayer app minimizes waste production and the environmental impact of pesticides by helping farmers determine precise application for their crops. In 2024, the app aided coverage for more than 600 acres in Uganda with optimized pesticides, reducing costs for farmers by up to 30%. In the Nakasongola District, the app reduced crop loss from pests by 35%.
Plantwiseplus Digital Tools
Farmers optimize crop production and their resource investments using digital tools developed by PlantwisePlus. Anthony Ssenyonga is a crop scientist and ambassador for PlantwisePlus in Uganda. He established a digital advisory hub, serving more than 500, where farmers can send in a picture of diseased crops and receive a diagnosis and treatment advice.
Ssenyonga trained 50 people to use the digital tools and share what they learned with farmers in their communities, which resulted in a 20% increase in tomato yields in 2024.
Digital Literacy for Farmers
EzyAgric, a mobile platform digitizing the agricultural market in Uganda, designed a digital literacy intervention to increase farmers’ engagement with its platform. The need for digital literacy training was identified after the company discovered that only 20% of the 300,000 farmers registered on its digital platform actively engaged with it. EzyAgric provided training for 253 farming households across three districts, for both male- and female-headed households.
Subsequently, these households experienced a fivefold increase in e-seed purchases and farmer engagement with the platform increased significantly. EzyAgric continues its expansion into new regions of Uganda, using the initial intervention as a guide, to improve smallholder farmer engagement with the digital agricultural market.
Conclusion
Digital solutions to Uganda’s inadequate extension services infrastructure, poor marketing systems and climate instability susceptibility can revitalize the country’s agricultural sector. Indeed, by increasing the accessibility of digital services and educating smallholder farmers in digital literacy will increase rural participation in digital markets and the widespread adoption of digital agriculture in Uganda.
– Sarah Merrill
Photo: Flickr
From Farm to Factory: Kenya’s EPZ Strategy for Better Jobs
This micro-level success highlights a national dilemma. Kenya is a major agricultural producer, yet a net importer of processed foods. Reliance on raw commodity exports has kept manufacturing’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) stagnant at around 10% for decades, limiting the formal job creation essential for poverty reduction. Kenya’s strategy is a focused industrial policy centered on Export Processing Zones (EPZs), a structural mechanism designed to reinvent the economy and alleviate poverty en masse by creating better urban manufacturing jobs while providing stable, higher-value markets for rural farmers.
The Economic Imperative Driving Kenya’s EPZ Strategy
Kenya’s push for agro-processing tackles economic vulnerabilities resulting from its trade deficit. The country remains stuck exporting “primary commodities with low value addition,” like tea and coffee, capturing a fraction of its final value while leaving the economy exposed to global price swings.
This reliance on raw exports fails to create quality jobs, even as agriculture employs more than 40% of the population in often informal, low-wage work with a proportionally low contribution to GDP. With nearly 16% of Kenyans living in hardcore poverty, the need for transformative economic strategies is acute. Simultaneously, Kenya spends billions annually importing the very processed goods for which it possesses the raw materials to make itself. In 2023 alone, Kenya imported $3.81 billion in agricultural and related products, including $583 million worth of consumer-oriented foods like soups, processed fruits and baked goods.
This “primary commodity” trap also limits Kenya’s share of the lucrative and rapidly expanding regional market to a mere 7% of the estimated $11 billion East African consumer base. Kenya, now at this critical crossroad, must move beyond the cycle of exporting low-value raw materials and importing high-value necessities, which has for so long perpetuated reliance on volatile global markets while forgoing the jobs and enterprise growth that processing creates.
EPZs as the Engine of Industrial Upgrading
To bridge this gap, Kenya has deployed EPZs as its primary vehicle for industrial upgrading. Operating under the legal framework of the EPZ Act, these zones offer firms incentives like tax holidays and duty-free imports to attract investment toward export-oriented manufacturing. The government’s intent, as stated in its Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), is for EPZs to play a “critical role in achieving… employment creation, investment attraction, value addition of local products, especially the agro-based and foreign exchange earnings.”
The latest data on Kenya’s EPZ strategy reveals a sector of significant scale, yet one exposed to volatility. In 2023, capital investment in EPZs grew 10.9% to KSh 112.2 billion ($840 million), while exports generated KSh 105.5 billion ($790 million). However, direct employment fell to 75,598 jobs from 82,771 the year before. The official EPZ Annual Performance Report attributes this drop to reduced United States (U.S.) apparel orders and, crucially for agro-processing, a “disruption of the global macadamia market.” While the evolution of EPZs has come a long way, it is apparent that even within these protected zones, Kenyan manufacturers are not comfortably insulated from global commodity shocks and shifting trade winds.
The Double Dividend: Direct Poverty Alleviation Outcomes
The impact of Kenya’s EPZ strategy delivers on two fronts: its double dividend, tackling poverty at both ends of the supply chain.
The first dividend is urban and peri-urban job creation. EPZ employment is a crucial step into the formal economy, offering wage-based predictability that contrasts with the precarious informal sector, where more than 17 million Kenyans work. While apparel dominates, agro-processing niches are growing. In 2023, food manufacturing saw a significant 16.4% expansion in dairy processing and and 11.6% increase in preserved fruits and vegetables. Each new plant adds jobs in production, quality control, logistics and management, creating a ladder to higher-skilled, better-paid work.
The second, even more transformative dividend is the strengthening of rural livelihoods, establishing a direct linkage between national industrial policy and smallholder farmers. Acacia EPZ is an exemplary demonstration of this connection, as it provides a stable market for more than 7,000 gum arabic collectors, turning a scattered, low-value product into a reliable household income in drought-prone regions. This model, where an EPZ firm anchors a local supply chain, is a blueprint for poverty reduction in rural Kenya. Agro-processing factories act as high-volume off-takers for agricultural produce that raises and stabilizes farm-gate prices, moving farmers from subsistence into a predictable commercial relationship with stable, increasing incomes. The government’s BETA agenda explicitly targets this link, aiming to improve livelihoods through “increased employment” and “more equitable distribution of income” by developing agro-value chains.
A Test Case for Structural Transformation
Kenya’s EPZ strategy is a measured and ambitious attempt to use industrial policy for structural poverty alleviation. It targets the economy’s architecture, aiming to transform low-value agricultural work into higher-wage manufacturing jobs and connect subsistence farmers to commercial value chains. The path is fraught with obstacles and undoubtedly troubled by all the growing pains of a developing economy.
Yet, the simple logic is compelling: capture more value domestically to create a cycle of formal jobs and rising rural incomes. The progress of firms like Acacia EPZ has already demonstrated the micro-level potential. Scaling this model successfully, while sure to be a formidable test, appears to be a promising and worthwhile venture that could offer vital lessons on how developing nations can industrialize their way to shared prosperity through inclusive economic upgrading.
– Georgio Moussa
Photo: Flickr
The Gender Wage Gap in Liberia and Its Impact on Poverty
Vulnerable Employment and Low Wages
The prevalence of vulnerable employment, which includes informal, low-paying jobs without job security or social protections, is significantly higher among women in Liberia than among men. More than 90% of employed women are in vulnerable employment, compared to roughly two-thirds of men, according to the World Bank. These positions often lack minimum wage standards or stable income, making it difficult for women to save money or escape poverty.
Education Gaps, Informal Work and Social Barriers
Educational inequality is another major driver of the gender wage gap in Liberia. According to national data, women are less likely than men to have completed formal education and have lower literacy rates. More than 40% of Liberian women have never attended school, compared to approximately one-third of men. Limited access to education increases the likelihood that women remain in low-wage, informal work and reduces opportunities to enter higher-paying sectors.
Women are overrepresented in Liberia’s informal economy, which accounts for the majority of the labor market. Small-scale farming, street vending and domestic work, which are typically excluded from labor protections, serve as the main sources of income for many women. This concentration in informal work restricts access to credit, legal protections and fair wages, exacerbating income inequality and economic instability, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Social norms and unpaid care responsibilities further widen the gender wage gap. Unpaid domestic work, such as childcare, cooking and water collection, is more frequently carried out by women than men. Even when legal frameworks promote gender equality, these responsibilities reduce the time women can spend in paid employment and limit their ability to pursue higher-paying opportunities.
Health Impacts of the Gender Wage Gap
Income inequality and health outcomes are closely linked, and women’s well-being is directly affected by the gender wage gap. Research published by the National Institutes of Health indicates that limited access to income, education and employment opportunities adversely affects women’s health and increases household vulnerability to poverty. Lower wages reduce women’s ability to afford adequate nutrition and medical care, worsening existing disparities.
Policies and Programs Addressing the Wage Gap
International development programs and policy reforms aimed at expanding women’s access to education, credit and formal employment form part of Liberia’s efforts to reduce the gender wage gap. According to the World Bank and the United Nations (U.N.) Women, reducing gender income disparities could significantly improve household incomes and national economic growth. Long-term poverty reduction depends on stronger enforcement of labor laws and the expansion of economic programs targeted at women.
A Case for Closing the Gender Wage Gap
Closing the gender wage gap in Liberia is critical to breaking cycles of poverty and advancing sustainable development. Investing in women’s education, expanding access to formal employment and supporting income-generating initiatives can help reduce economic inequality and improve outcomes for families and communities. Strengthening women’s economic participation would also enhance resilience and support broader poverty reduction efforts across the country.
– Honey Regev
Photo: Flickr
How Agriculture in Afghanistan Helps Fight Poverty
In 2019, only 52.9% of the population lived above the national poverty line. In 2023, 31% of the population faced severe food insecurity. In 2024, 13.7% of the labor force was unemployed, and nearly 70% of the population lacked access to safely managed drinking water services. Organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Afghanaid aim to improve agriculture in Afghanistan. Through these efforts, they seek to expand employment opportunities, improve food access and help empower local communities.
Agriculture as a Livelihood for Most Afghans
Climate change and natural disasters continue to harm food security and increase poverty in Afghanistan due to the country’s heavy reliance on agriculture. The sector serves as the main source of income for nearly 80% of the population. As a result, climate-related challenges such as drought can have significant economic consequences.
The ICRC and Afghanaid aim to mitigate these impacts by constructing and repairing irrigation systems. Irrigation, defined as the artificial application of water to land, is essential for agriculture in Afghanistan due to low rainfall and recurring drought conditions.
Irrigation Projects Improve Food Security and Employment
The work carried out by these organizations supports both crops and communities. In 2024, the ICRC supported more than 27,000 people through community-based initiatives focused on repairing irrigation systems. These efforts spanned 11 provinces and, while temporary, improved water supply for thousands of residents and made crops more viable, increasing food availability. A joint effort between the ICRC and the Afghan Red Crescent Society helped improve yields for up to 1,400 farmers. Increased production allowed farmers to sell crops beyond their immediate communities, generating broader economic benefits.
Afghanaid also worked to improve agriculture by supporting the construction of a 113-meter (approximately 370-foot) irrigation canal built by local residents. These canals help distribute water more effectively and reduce water loss through ground absorption. More than 2,000 people benefited from improved water access, which increased crop yields and household income. The project also created employment for 13 people during the construction phase.
Ensuring Long-Term Agricultural Sustainability
For these initiatives to have a lasting impact, agricultural practices in Afghanistan must be sustainable. The ICRC provides training to farmers on sustainable techniques. For example, 200 farmers in Kapisa province received training on reducing post-harvest crop loss and were provided with silos for improved storage. In Paryan district, 80 farmers were trained to promote good agronomic practices and raise awareness about climate and environmental risks.
Before these interventions, irrigation systems in Afghanistan often suffered damage due to ongoing conflict. As a result, Afghanaid also focuses on conflict resolution to help protect newly built canals. The organization established a Community Conflict Mitigation Committee made up of eight local residents trained in de-escalation and conflict prevention techniques. When disputes arise, committee members work to diffuse tensions and promote dialogue and cooperation.
– Ryan Cowen
Photo: Flickr
How Power Outage in Ukraine Affects Mothers and Children
As of January 2026, about 80% of Ukraine is experiencing emergency power cuts. These outages have left roughly 15% of residential buildings in Kyiv without heating. The power cuts are caused by damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, worsening the country’s energy crisis throughout the winter. The severity of Ukraine’s winter, coupled with continued attacks on energy infrastructure, has increased the challenges families face in staying warm, particularly mothers and children.
Health Impacts of Power Outages
Ukraine’s winter conditions are difficult for most people, but for children and newborns, they can be especially dangerous. Without reliable power and heating due to outages, newborns and children face increased risks of hypothermia and respiratory distress.
For mothers and pregnant people, power outages create additional barriers to accessing adequate health care. Much medical equipment, including incubators and neonatal devices, has become unusable, resulting in a higher proportion of high-risk pregnancies and deliveries.
Power outages during winter also affect the mental health of children and mothers. Extended darkness, lack of heating and limited sunlight contribute to psychological strain. Social isolation caused by reliance on remote learning has further affected the mental health of children in Ukraine.
Man-Made Warmth
There are ways to mitigate extreme cold and address power outages in Ukraine. One approach is shifting aid efforts toward generating warmth. Providing emergency generators has helped offset energy shortages. For example, UNICEF has prevented complete shutdowns of essential services by supplying generators and solar power infrastructure, helping keep hospitals operational.
Man-made warmth also includes efforts to foster community and social interaction despite the cold. This is done through “warming tents,” which serve as community hubs where Ukraine’s State Emergency Service provides food and charging ports. These spaces also allow children to play with games and toys, offering psychological and social support.
While giving birth during power outages can be dangerous, donations that support emergency birth kits help reduce these risks.
Organizations such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) also provide mobile clinics to strengthen health care access in hard-to-reach communities. These emergency birth and sexual health kits, combined with mobile clinics, have helped reduce preventable maternal deaths.
Looking Ahead
Europe is known for harsh winters, but modern heating and electricity usually allow mothers to give birth safely and children to remain healthy. In Ukraine, widespread power outages have increased risks for mothers, newborns and children. However, with continued support from organizations such as the UNFPA, reproductive and sexual health services are expected to help reduce pregnancy-related deaths in 2026. Community spaces such as warming tents also help children experience a sense of normalcy during a difficult winter.
– Bernice Attawia
Photo: Flickr
New Boreholes: Hope for Women in the Central African Republic
Far Reaching Impacts
Access to clean water in the CAR has a far-reaching impact, particularly for women and children. In fact, World Vision donors in Canada funded this project with the intention of improving community health, increasing incomes and reducing gender-based violence in the CAR. Reports show that 97% of women experienced gender-based violence.
Other impacts of access to clean water in the CAR include a drastic reduction in typhoid fever and diarrhea, the leading causes of child and infant mortality in the western part of the CAR. For context, only 36% of people in the area had access to clean water and just 14% had access to sanitation before these projects began. Madeleine, a 56-year-old mother of eight, lost two of her children due to waterborne illnesses.
Before these new boreholes, they used river water contaminated with farm waste and soil runoff. “Dirty water has been the cause of too many of our children’s deaths and miscarriages in many pregnant women,” she said.
Government and Agency Collaboration
The World Vision project, now in its sixth year, has built or renovated 15 boreholes near Bozoum. It also marked the first time any NGO or governmental organization made improvements in the local villages. Residents are grateful that their long wait for safe water is over.
With more than one million people served by these boreholes, Jean-Marc Dewerpe, head of Cooperation and Trust Fund Manager of the Bêkou Fund at the European Union Delegation, referred to this partnership as “an alliance serving the people.” Because only 37% of the CAR’s total population has access to clean water, the European Union funded a UNICEF project. The project aims to increase the operational capacity of the National Agency for Water and Sanitation, a government agency in the CAR, to enable the creation of new sources of clean drinking water.
Not Just Equipment
To this end, a donor provided the agency with a high-capacity drilling rig, which will significantly increase its ability to drill boreholes and develop other clean water sources. Felix Ackebo, UNICEF’s representative to the CAR, commented on the rig’s importance and impact: “It’s not just a piece of technical equipment. It is a beacon of hope for rural communities, a tool for dignity, health and lasting peace for every child and every family,” he said.
The task of water collection no longer governs the lives of women like Rosalie and Madeline. Access to clean, safe drinking water increases village autonomy and empowers women and young people. The current projects are expected to continue and expand to other villages.
– Caleb Dueck
Photo: Flickr
How Cash Transfers to Women in India are Changing Lives
Across India, unconditional cash transfers to women are becoming increasingly common, with transfers ranging from 1,000 to 2,500 rupees ($12 to $30) a month. These payments account for roughly 5% to 12% of household income. The money typically goes toward household and family needs such as children’s education, groceries and cooking gas.
Impacts on Women and Households
Research indicates that these small, regular transfers are having a positive effect on the lives of women, with the majority of the money being spent on their own immediate needs and those of their households. Additionally, the transfers have given women a sense of financial security and a newfound confidence, allowed them to become more financially independent from their husbands and reduced marital conflict.
Prabha Kotiwswaran, a professor of law and social justice at King’s College London, told the BBC in December that: “The unconditional cash transfers signal a significant expansion of Indian states’ welfare regimes in favor of women.”
The idea of cash transfers for women was first introduced in 2013 in the state of Goa but only gained momentum before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the northern state of Assam implemented a scheme for vulnerable women. As of 2025, nearly 15 states run such programs.
Politics and Public Debate
Since then, cash transfers have gained political power, with both government and opposition parties introducing them as a strategy to mobilize female voters. The result of this can be seen in the 2025 Delhi assembly election, where the female voter turnout reached 60.92%, exceeding the male turnout for the first time in the country’s history. Critics have called this “blatant vote-buying,” highlighting how financial support can easily be used as political leverage.
Women can become eligible for this financial support simply due to the fact that they do not have a paying job but instead stay at home, keep households running and bear the burden of unpaid care work. Although the amount received can vary due to several factors — such as age thresholds, income caps and exclusions for families with government employees or owners of large plots of land — the government has not put in place conditions similar to those enforced by other countries with large cash transfer schemes. For example, Bolsa Familia, the world’s largest cash transfer scheme in Brazil, requires school attendance for teenagers, immunization of children and prenatal monitoring for pregnant women, among others.
Limits of Cash Transfers
Although these cash transfers to women in India have allowed steps forward, cash transfers cannot substitute for employment opportunities, with many women stating they would still prefer work that pays and respect that endures. It is important that the fight for women’s rights and equal rights is neither forgotten nor lost, and that unconditional cash transfers are a means of raising awareness of the equality that is yet to be achieved.
As cash transfer programs continue across India, they are providing women with greater financial stability and decision-making power within their households. Together with broader social and economic efforts, these initiatives highlight continued progress toward improving the lives of women and families.
– Jenna O’Flynn
Photo: Flickr
From Scholar to Baker: Gaza’s Education System
Gaza’s Education System Disrupted by Conflict
Before the current war, Bader Slaih earned master’s and doctoral degrees in education while studying in Egypt. He returned to Gaza, intending to teach at local universities, according to an Al Jazeera report published in January 2026. Fighting interrupted those plans.
Airstrikes and ground operations forced Slaih and his family to flee their home in the Bureij refugee camp multiple times, the report said. The destruction of Gaza’s education system has been extensive. According to Save the Children, nearly 90% of school buildings in Gaza have sustained damage, leaving hundreds of thousands of children without access to formal education.
UNICEF also reported that all universities in Gaza suffered damage during the conflict, halting higher education for students and faculty. Despite these conditions, Slaih has continued to express a commitment to education. He told Al Jazeera that he intends to teach whenever possible, even in informal or temporary learning spaces.
Turning to Bread for Survival
As food supplies declined, Slaih and his relatives built a small brick oven using salvaged materials to bake bread for their children and nearby families, Al Jazeera reported. Food insecurity across Gaza has intensified as fuel shortages and access restrictions disrupt production and distribution. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported repeated interruptions to food supply routes throughout 2025.
During periods when flour and cooking gas ran out, all subsidized bakeries in Gaza closed temporarily, OCHA reported. The World Food Program (WFP) previously supported dozens of bakeries producing hundreds of thousands of loaves daily. However, those operations depended on consistent fuel deliveries, according to U.N. humanitarian updates.
As bakery closures increased, families turned to community kitchens and shared ovens. OCHA reported that community kitchens provided close to one million cooked meals per day during periods of severe aid disruption. Slaih’s oven became part of that informal food network, supplying bread when commercial options disappeared.
Feeding the Present While Preserving the Future
Although baking bread now occupies his daily routine, Bader Slaih continues to view education as central to recovery. He told Al Jazeera that meeting children’s nutritional needs supports their ability to learn when schooling resumes. UNICEF has linked hunger directly to learning outcomes, reporting that malnutrition undermines concentration, memory and school attendance.
Across Gaza, professionals from various fields have taken on emergency roles as institutions collapse. The U.N. has noted that community-driven responses often provide the most immediate relief during prolonged crises. Slaih’s experience reflects that shift.
Baking bread does not replace humanitarian assistance or rebuild schools, but it helps sustain families while broader recovery remains uncertain. In Gaza, survival increasingly depends on adaptation. For one academic turned baker, feeding his community now remains closely tied to the goal of returning to education when conditions allow.
– Angela ‘Phoenix’ Garrett
Photo: Unsplash