Participating in sports has long been seen as a way to increase self-confidence and resilience in aspects of life that go well beyond physical exercise. This belief is evident at Girls Gotta Run, a women-led organization, working to empower girls in Ethiopia through running.
Running Culture
In Ethiopia, long-distance running has been a part of the culture for more than six decades. Since Abebe Bekila won Africa’s first Olympic gold medal in the running marathon at the 1960 Olympics Games in Rome, East Africans have dominated the international distance running scene. The top five finishers in the 2023 London Marathon in both male and female categories were from Kenya or Ethiopia.
Just as many in the U.K. aspire to become soccer stars, children in Ethiopia dream of making it to the Olympics, following in the footsteps of athletes like Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele, who are considered idols and have won 10 Olympic medals combined.
For many, running offers a potential escape from poverty. This is because of the value of winning medals and the financial rewards that come from securing a contract with a major sports brand like Adidas or Nike. Such opportunities enable athletes to support their extended families and enjoy better living conditions or lifestyles in the city.
The Challenging Path to Sporting Success
While there might be fairy tale endings for the very few who succeed at the highest level of the sport, the path to Olympic glory is far from certain and often fraught with difficulties for many others. A documentary titled Town of Runners released in 2012 and filmed over the previous four years shed light on these very difficulties, focusing particularly on the challenging circumstances that ambitious young female athletes from a rural town in the Arsi Highlands had to endure in their bid to become successful athletes. These young women had both the belief and determination to succeed, but lacked equipment or facilities and encountered opposition from the biased traditional beliefs around womanhood.
Gender Inequality in Ethiopia
As of February 2021, women occupied about two out of five seats in the Ethiopian parliament, highlighting Ethiopia’s progress on the road toward gender equality. Nonetheless, there appears to be room for more progress, as there is a need to change harmful long-held beliefs and traditions about the role of women.
Girls Gotta Run strives to reduce the school dropout rate and empower girls in Ethiopia. If girls are able to finish their education, they are less likely to be forced into early marriage and early pregnancy. The World Bank revealed that universal secondary education for girls could virtually eliminate child marriage.
A few reasons why girls drop out of school as they enter adolescence include:
- early marriage and/or pregnancy
- increased responsibilities at home
- increased costs of schooling
- food insecurity
- limited access to hygiene facilities
- sexual harassment and assault
- gender bias
The mission of organizations like Girls Gotta Run is to highlight and work to break down these barriers to becoming a successful athlete and in doing so, provide girls and young women with the life skills that will help them find their way in life beyond the world of running. Even those who never make it to the realms of success as professional athletes will have still gained skills that empower them to thrive as adults.
How Girls Gotta Run is Empowering Girls in Ethiopia Through Running
The organization’s work takes place in the local community, with girls taking part in four distinct programs that focus on education, running, life skills and savings and entrepreneurship. Currently, this work happens in two localities: one in Soddo, a city in south-central Ethiopia, and another in the small town of Bekoji in the Arsi region. The Arsi region is famous for its runners who over the past 30 years, have won more than 16 Olympic middle-distance and long-distance titles. So far, Girls Gotta Run has served over 275 women and girls, while also impacting at least 1,100 people through both the Soddo and Bekoji programs.
Girls who attend these projects train together three times a week. They also receive sports kits, as well as healthy snacks to help with their training. However, running activities serve more as a tool for empowering Ethiopian girls in a way that helps them think about what they might achieve beyond running.
Looking Ahead
Girls Gotta Run is empowering girls through running, providing them with education, life skills and entrepreneurship training. The organization’s work goes beyond athletics, equipping young women with the tools to thrive in life beyond the running track. By addressing barriers such as gender inequality and the risk of early marriage, Girls Gotta Run is helping girls in Ethiopia build self-confidence, resilience and brighter futures.
– Almaz Nerurkar
Photo: Flickr
Treating Clubfoot Changes Lives
Clubfoot is a congenital condition found in babies, where one or both feet turn inwards, making it difficult to walk if left untreated. In economically thriving countries, clubfoot is an easily treatable condition, but the same is not true in developing nations where it can impact and determine a child’s entire life. On the bright side, some organizations are treating clubfoot and making a difference.
About Clubfoot
Roughly 200,000 babies are born with clubfoot every year, with only 20% being in high-income countries where treatment commences quickly after birth. Article 26 in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that all people with physical conditions should be able to attend rehabilitation centers for treatment. However, many citizens in low-income nations do not get this opportunity. Sadly, numerous cases are neglected and turn into debilitating life-long conditions.
When treating clubfoot, surgery is often unnecessary. Doctors can straighten the foot using the Ponseti Method, a treatment that works in roughly 95% of instances. It incorporates massage of the affected foot and placement in a plaster cast, allowing the muscles to loosen so the bones can grow properly. Once the position is assumed, children will wear tailored boots for five years to keep their feet in place. It is the most favored method of clubfoot treatment, with proven success for more than 50 years. Though the procedure is uncomplicated, the lack of health care centers is often an obstacle for those seeking treatment in Africa. For this reason, many cases of clubfoot remain undiagnosed.
Clubfoot Affects Mental Health
People with untreated clubfoot bear weight unevenly as they begin walking, developing wounds on the weight-bearing side. Furthermore, uneven weight-bearing often means shoes wear down more quickly.
However, those with clubfoot in the developing world do not just suffer from physical challenges. Often due to archaic cultural mentalities, those bearing a disability may endure stigmatization. Many citizens in remote parts of Africa believe spirits cause disabilities as a punishment for alleged misconduct. When these children grow into disabled adults, society shuns and neglects them, making it almost impossible to find employment or form relationships. Those who have become immobile do not have much independence. They often rely on family members who may hold grudges for their lack of participation in housework. Mothers can often face blame for their child’s disability, sometimes leading to marriage breakdown and divorce. This can cause financial insecurity for many women who rely on their husband’s wages to feed their children.
It is due to the work of the following charities that children born with clubfoot or who have developed “neglected clubfoot” as a result of lack of treatment in impoverished countries can access the medical care available and begin to look forward to better living conditions in the future.
Hope Walks
Hope Walks is a Christian charity dealing with clubfoot treatment. It also educates parents and trains health care professionals to deliver the best care possible to patients. Its mission is to remove the burdens plaguing those affected by clubfoot and their families and give people hope as they look toward the future. Since commencing its clubfoot program in 2006, the charity has changed the lives of 150,000 children in 15 countries suffering from the condition.
The program encourages donors to commit to monthly amounts by joining the Clubfoot Crew. Each month, donors receive emails sharing inspirational stories of children now walking unaided following treatment, so they can see exactly where their donations go. Small donations to the nonprofit have life-changing impacts. Just $15 a month can provide a child with a brace that they will use until they are 5 years old. A monthly donation of $40 for one year provides a child with all hospital appointments and necessary treatment. As the charity’s president Scott Reichenbach explains, donations are “the difference between a life of begging on the streets and a life of hope.”
MiracleFeet
Founded in 2010, MiracleFeet brings the knowledge and quality of care present in high-income countries to developing nations. Now functioning in 36 countries and spanning four continents, MiracleFeet has provided more than 70,000 children with the help necessary to combat clubfoot. Last year, the charity helped 12,000 people, more people in one year than ever before. This was a remarkable achievement considering the COVID-19 pandemic erased four years of progress in alleviating global poverty.
MiracleFeet is part of the Global Clubfoot Initiative, a partnership dedicated to treating clubfoot and eradicating the condition through effective treatment plans by 2030. The scheme raises awareness of clubfoot, ensures communities understand it is a curable disability and provides health care workers with training to guarantee all children receive a diagnosis.
Looking Forward
Organizations like Hope Walks and MiracleFeet are making a significant impact in treating clubfoot and improving the lives of affected children. Through ongoing initiatives and partnerships, these organizations provide accessible and effective treatment, educate parents and health care professionals and combat the stigma associated with disabilities. These efforts offer hope to children and families, ensuring a brighter future and the opportunity for better living conditions.
– Yasmin Hailes
Photo: Flickr
The War On Hunger – The World is Winning It
What Is Famine?
Famines are classified through the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The IPC helps determine when a crisis becomes a famine. There are three conditions to meet this classification:
There are also means to classify “great” (100,000 deaths) and “catastrophic” famines (1 million deaths). Unfortunately, this target used to be constantly met throughout time, until the 1990s (when everything changed). Between 1870 and 1880, the death toll from famines stood at 15 million. This would rise and fall but would remain around the 10 million mark until the 1930s when the figure reached 20 million. During the mid-century, this figure remained persistently high.
From the 1940s right up to the 1980s, the figure flatlined at just below 15 million. By the 1980s, there was a shear drop, despite the shocking famine in Ethiopia that claimed more than 1 million lives alone. The 1990s had a similar toll. While these figures are far from positive, the entire world has been making progress in winning the war on hunger in recent times
The Causes of Famine
Professor Alex De Waal specializes in the study of famines. As the Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation (WPF), De Waal has an intimate relationship with its various causes and solutions. The WPF makes the case that the reason famines have receded is mainly due to democracy and political freedoms.
When famines have taken place, many argue that the forces behind such events were man-made and deliberate, rather than environmental and uncontrolled. The WPF claims that the connective tissue between famines in Yemen, Cambodia and Ethiopia, is the existence of dictators and conflict. Armed conflict and dictators disrupt food systems and uproot communities and livelihoods through arbitrary seizure and forced removal. When this happens, infrastructure left behind is of no use and communities become reliant on effective aid.
Foreign Aid and Famine
Famine continues to affect many communities, including Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan, and when it does strike, the swiftness of aid delivery becomes crucial. The World Food Programme (WFP) is one of the known organizations that make efforts to deliver aid during famines. The WFP is the world’s largest NGO catering to the needs of those in desperate need of food. It has had great success in preventing the maturity of food scarcity problems into famine in Afghanistan, helping 15 million people access nourishment and safety.
Oxfam is another organization involved in preventative and reactive measures. Distributing food, providing clean water and encouraging proper sanitation are all part of the organization’s efforts in the war against hunger. The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) shares optimism about lower death rates and the humanitarian efforts involved in securing such results.
Famines have adverse long-term health effects. Studies have shown that survivors are “hungrier, sicker and less well” off for longer than the period of famine, according to Global Hunger Index. Malnutrition trends have not been as positive as famine trends, and global levels of acute malnutrition have been rising since 2008.
Signs of Hope
Efforts to combat famine and improve global food security have shown progress in recent years, with organizations like the World Food Programme and Oxfam playing a vital role in delivering aid to those in need. So far, the aforementioned “catastrophic” famines have been eliminated and “great” famines have near vanished. If projections are correct, then the world could be free of all famines by 2030. However, challenges remain in addressing malnutrition trends and ensuring long-term health and well-being for affected populations. Continued support and collaborative actions are crucial to sustaining positive advancements in the fight against hunger.
– James Durbin
Photo: Flickr
The Organization Empowering Girls in Ethiopia
Running Culture
In Ethiopia, long-distance running has been a part of the culture for more than six decades. Since Abebe Bekila won Africa’s first Olympic gold medal in the running marathon at the 1960 Olympics Games in Rome, East Africans have dominated the international distance running scene. The top five finishers in the 2023 London Marathon in both male and female categories were from Kenya or Ethiopia.
Just as many in the U.K. aspire to become soccer stars, children in Ethiopia dream of making it to the Olympics, following in the footsteps of athletes like Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele, who are considered idols and have won 10 Olympic medals combined.
For many, running offers a potential escape from poverty. This is because of the value of winning medals and the financial rewards that come from securing a contract with a major sports brand like Adidas or Nike. Such opportunities enable athletes to support their extended families and enjoy better living conditions or lifestyles in the city.
The Challenging Path to Sporting Success
While there might be fairy tale endings for the very few who succeed at the highest level of the sport, the path to Olympic glory is far from certain and often fraught with difficulties for many others. A documentary titled Town of Runners released in 2012 and filmed over the previous four years shed light on these very difficulties, focusing particularly on the challenging circumstances that ambitious young female athletes from a rural town in the Arsi Highlands had to endure in their bid to become successful athletes. These young women had both the belief and determination to succeed, but lacked equipment or facilities and encountered opposition from the biased traditional beliefs around womanhood.
Gender Inequality in Ethiopia
As of February 2021, women occupied about two out of five seats in the Ethiopian parliament, highlighting Ethiopia’s progress on the road toward gender equality. Nonetheless, there appears to be room for more progress, as there is a need to change harmful long-held beliefs and traditions about the role of women.
Girls Gotta Run strives to reduce the school dropout rate and empower girls in Ethiopia. If girls are able to finish their education, they are less likely to be forced into early marriage and early pregnancy. The World Bank revealed that universal secondary education for girls could virtually eliminate child marriage.
A few reasons why girls drop out of school as they enter adolescence include:
The mission of organizations like Girls Gotta Run is to highlight and work to break down these barriers to becoming a successful athlete and in doing so, provide girls and young women with the life skills that will help them find their way in life beyond the world of running. Even those who never make it to the realms of success as professional athletes will have still gained skills that empower them to thrive as adults.
How Girls Gotta Run is Empowering Girls in Ethiopia Through Running
The organization’s work takes place in the local community, with girls taking part in four distinct programs that focus on education, running, life skills and savings and entrepreneurship. Currently, this work happens in two localities: one in Soddo, a city in south-central Ethiopia, and another in the small town of Bekoji in the Arsi region. The Arsi region is famous for its runners who over the past 30 years, have won more than 16 Olympic middle-distance and long-distance titles. So far, Girls Gotta Run has served over 275 women and girls, while also impacting at least 1,100 people through both the Soddo and Bekoji programs.
Girls who attend these projects train together three times a week. They also receive sports kits, as well as healthy snacks to help with their training. However, running activities serve more as a tool for empowering Ethiopian girls in a way that helps them think about what they might achieve beyond running.
Looking Ahead
Girls Gotta Run is empowering girls through running, providing them with education, life skills and entrepreneurship training. The organization’s work goes beyond athletics, equipping young women with the tools to thrive in life beyond the running track. By addressing barriers such as gender inequality and the risk of early marriage, Girls Gotta Run is helping girls in Ethiopia build self-confidence, resilience and brighter futures.
– Almaz Nerurkar
Photo: Flickr
How Financial and Cryptocurrency Services Can Fight Human Trafficking
One of the world’s most lucrative and abhorrent criminal activities is human trafficking, an industry valued at $150 billion, making it the highest profit-making crime after drug trafficking. Human traffickers make their dirty money off of the targeting and exploitation of people (mainly women and girls) who suffer from socio-economic poverty. Human trafficking is a crime that is notoriously difficult to prosecute since it can operate across multiple jurisdictions on an international scale, hiding victims from public view. The mass majority of the crime takes place online and the exploiters of the industry can adapt to the latest forms of technology that enable their criminal activity. On the bright side, there are trends that suggest that financial and cryptocurrency services can fight human trafficking in several ways.
About Human Trafficking Online
Human traffickers adapt to new forms of technology at much faster rates than law enforcement due to having no ethical obligations toward regulations and policymakers. They also possess the capital to employ experts, and they do this by taking advantage of virtual currency transactions. Using virtual currencies like crypto is beneficial to criminals because it has anonymizing features that help them to obfuscate themselves from law enforcement. Cryptocurrencies also help them to purchase online advertisements to target vulnerable searching for opportunities. It is not all dark, though, as financial and cryptocurrency services can also facilitate the fight against human trafficking.
Follow Money Fight Slavery
Founded in 2019, the Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative (ATII) operates globally to combat the human trafficking markets by promoting finance and cryptocurrency industries’ corporate social responsibility through increasing awareness and education toward “data-driven measures.” The aim of this is to detect and counter illicit transactions that traffickers make. It is in this way that financial and crypto-currency services can fight human trafficking.
According to ATII, 75% of financial institutions admit that it is challenging to identify instances of human trafficking through customer transactions.
To address these gaps in corporations’ ability to increase priority toward detecting human trafficking financial transactions, the ATII hosts an annual summit “Follow Money Fight Slavery.” The theme for 2023 centers on the fact that human trafficking is a financial crime.
Identifying Red Flags
Representatives from Verafin and Senzing, companies using artificial intelligence and multi-channel link analysis to fight human trafficking, discussed instances of identifying red flags in transactional data. This can vary from how to recognize a potential victim of human trafficking or the perpetrator and their front companies.
Niki Pryor from Verafin explained at the Financial Typologies conference that “we know what a person who’s free to walk through their life transactions look like” and that “a potential trafficking victim isn’t transacting in the same way.” They tend to not pay rent or bills and tend to make small payments in hotels, drug stores and fast-food establishments for instance. Pryor adds that a banking professional can continue to layer on the certainty of human trafficking risk by analyzing the person’s transactional data relating to whether they are linked to companies that post adult advertising online and contain contact information relevant to the customer base. Furthermore, GPS technology can help map out where all of these transactions are taking place, essentially building a visual story of the movement of such transactional activity.
Detecting Potential Perpetrators
Boris Kusovski from Senzing echoed Pryor’s statements as well. He explained there are two to three kinds of profiles that financial actors can detect for potential perpetrators of human trafficking. This can include the onboarding of a business customer whose company has no stated owner and the customer stays below a certain revenue level for tax purposes. The perpetrator may also have a front company like a chiropractor or physiotherapy ‘practice’ where the review sites and social media activity are rating the mostly female staff.
Robert Griffin from Siren, a leading investigative intelligence site for national security and sponsor of ATII emphasized the importance of using open-source intelligence to leverage cyber security efforts in tackling human trafficking. Open-source intelligence is data gathered from public information that is analyzed in an automatic format instead of manual handling. Such a tool can separate and categorize raw data to analyze and identify data points connecting suspicious parties that are potentially involved in criminal activities related to human trafficking.
Crypto-currency companies like Coinflip and CipherTrace explain that with technology like blockchain analysis, traffickers using crypto-currency to facilitate their criminal activity are not operating as anonymously as they may think. Blockchain forensic analysis allows investigators to trace crypto transactions (both online and in ATMs) with real-world bodies and organizations. When a person transacts on crypto platforms, they have to use a public register. This means that they can tie the transaction to a wallet address and later link it to a real bank account and possibly link it to a person’s identity.
Looking Ahead
The ATII successfully continues to raise awareness around how to employ corporate social responsibility in the fight against human trafficking, excluding any possibility that deplorable actors can criminally benefit from using financial and cryptocurrency services. By exposing the ‘anonymous’ financial transactions in the human trafficking enterprise, the efforts of ATII offer hope for a better and safer world for potential victims.
Photo: Wikipedia Commons
The Fight Against Human Trafficking in Mauritius
Mauritius, an archipelago on the southeastern coast of Africa, is a nation with a large migrant population. In recent years, it has become a hub of human trafficking. The U.S. Department of State’s 2022 Trafficking Persons Report (TPR) gave Mauritius a Tier 2 ranking. This means that the country’s government while having made some effort, has yet to meet the global standard for minimizing trafficking. Here are six ways to alleviate human trafficking in Mauritius.
Criminalizing and Tracking Foreign Trafficking Recruiters
Mauritius has begun reforming its judicial system with the Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act of 2009. This led to the imprisonment of a handful of national traffickers annually. In 2021, the government identified six potential victims. This act, however, does not criminalize recruiters who conduct trafficking abroad before reentering Mauritius.
It is currently legal to be a citizen of Mauritius, traffic in another country and return. The U.S. Department of State suggests broadening and making adjustments to the Mauritius trafficking laws to outlaw trafficking abroad. Human trafficking activities on foreign soil present a hurdle for solving trafficking issues in Mauritius. Mauritian police told Migration EU Expertise (MIEUX+) that it is quite difficult to prosecute transnational cases of human trafficking due to poor international cooperation and insufficient evidence for convictions.
Prosecution of Complicit Officials
The Mauritian government has yet to investigate or prosecute any government official complicit in trafficking. The 2022 Mauritius Human Rights Watch noted that “impunity was a significant problem for police and investigations involving officers often continued for years.” Officials known for human rights violations were disciplined but rarely fired, let alone prosecuted.
Inefficient Justice System
The lack of prosecution is in part due to the inefficiency of the justice system. According to the World Prison Brief, as of July 19, 2022, prisoners who waited for trial comprised “51.4 percent of the total prison population due to a backlogged court system.” The Mauritius prison system prevents fair punishment for traffickers. In addition, the Trafficking Persons Report notes that “though a Mauritian law prohibits the practice, employers routinely retain migrant workers’ passports to prevent them from changing jobs,” enhancing vulnerability to forced labor.
The State of Protection Services
The Ministry of Gender and Family Welfare in Mauritius systemically provides referral procedures for child victims. Currently, there are no programs in place for adult victims. The government spends nearly $1 million on shelters for children, yet only one shelter is designed to protect human trafficking victims in Mauritius. There are also no streamlined procedures for adult trafficking victims, which leads to uneven assistance and potential re-traumatization of victims. The TPR urges the opening of more shelters and streamlining the method of assistance. NGOs from the EU and the Mauritian government are beginning to work together to solve this issue. Governmental collaboration with MIEUX+ in the ongoing action plan Mauritius III aims to refine “the capacities of public officials to identify and refer” victims of human trafficking in Mauritius.
Better Monitor Migrants
According to the Trafficking Persons Report of 2022, instead of checking into migrants’ histories, Mauritian police regularly send back Malagasy women attempting to enter Mauritius alone with little money. Since July 2021, the Ministry of Labor’s Special Migrant Works Unit has worked to inform migrants of their rights. However, border workers were not informed on how to profile potential trafficking victims, did not refer any migrants for future investigation and they also did not report any violations of incomplete contracts.
Looking Ahead
There are ongoing efforts to combat human trafficking in Mauritius. Halley Movement, founded in 1989, is the lead organization of a coalition serving Mauritius and other African-Indian Ocean island states. It addresses child abuse by holding conventions, counseling parents and testifying in court. Via its program Helpline Mauritius, this organization provides vulnerable children with guidance and support.
Halley Movement empowers youth by connecting them to jobs within the private sector and funding educational programs such as Basic Education to Adolescents (BETA) which services elementary school dropouts. The Mauritian government has also held awareness campaigns on signs of trafficking that target frontline workers and local committees. These programs help combat trafficking by helping children escape abuse and rejoin society as normal people.
– Caroline Crider
Photo: Flickr
The Impact of Water Quality in Nepal
Nepal is one of the least developed countries in the world with more than one-quarter of the population living below the poverty line. Poor water quality in Nepal has also prevailed for the past 30 years. For example, residents of the Kathmandu Valley encounter significant challenges concerning water quality as they rely on tube wells, dug wells and stone spouts for their drinking water. A recent survey conducted within the valley revealed that approximately 51% of all water sources had a pH level lower than 6.5. The supply of water remains inadequate, unreliable and of substandard quality, even within Nepal’s capital city. The compromised quality of drinking water presents numerous health risks, particularly in conjunction with the impact of climate change, which contributes to the prevalence of water- and vector-borne diseases, thus affecting human well-being.
How Water Quality in Nepal Impacted Poverty
Those who are poor in the rural areas of Nepal have little to no access to water. Some even have to depend on streams of water from nearby mountains, and they have to travel long distances to retrieve the water.
Despite this access to mountain water, it is not always a safe bet. For example, domestic waste and untreated sewage discharge from nearby neighborhoods and villages pollute the surface water from the Kathmandu Valley. Due to the increasing population of Kathmandu, it produces 150 tons of waste per day and dumps about 75 tons of this waste into rivers. This is a problem because households induce more than 80% of this wastewater.
The high levels of poverty in Nepal have heavily impacted the farmers in which many farmers are unable to invest in better farming techniques. Farmers also lack access to formal finance and food security.
How Water Quality in Nepal Impacted Nepalese Livelihood
The lack of access to clean and healthy water directly impacts the health and sanitation conditions of many Nepalese people. For example, Ranjana Adhikari, a Nepalese assistant in a community health post, discussed in 2016 how Nepal’s poor water quality specifically affects women. She reported that the women who have to go long distances to retrieve water for their families normally have poorer health than those who do not need to travel long distances.
Additionally, in 2016, doctors reported that there were water-borne diseases that stemmed from contaminated waters and poor hygiene. Unfortunately, the number of cases of Nepalese people suffering from diarrhea, typhoid and fever due to Kathmandu’s poor water quality increased between 25% and 30% that same year.
Ongoing Efforts
In November of 2022, the Global Center on Adaptation reported that the Community Development and Advocacy Forum Nepal implemented measures to recover lands, preserve waters and manage river systems. Some of these measures include “taking an ecosystem approach,” where it made improvements to prevent soil erosion, improve access to water and turn dry riverbanks into green areas with various fruits and vegetables.
Moreover, the Ministry of Water Supply instituted the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund’s (UNICEF) WASH program. This program aims to help create better access to safe water, improve health care facilities and sanitation, raise hygiene awareness and much more.
Also, in July 2022, the government of Nepal and the World Bank collaborated with $80 million to promote water resources management and to implement the Water Sector Governance and Infrastructure Support Project.
According to Mr. Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the Water Sector Governance and Infrastructure Support Project aims to improve the delivery of water and sanitation services while also discussing the significant gaps in Nepal’s water and sanitation infrastructure and economic progress.
Looking Ahead
Nepal is taking action to tackle its water quality challenges head-on. Collaborative projects between the government, organizations like the Global Center on Adaptation and UNICEF and the World Bank are already making a difference. Measures to recover lands, preserve waters and manage river systems are being implemented, while initiatives are underway to improve access to safe water, enhance sanitation facilities and raise hygiene awareness. These efforts are transforming the lives of Nepalese communities, safeguarding their health and contributing to sustainable development.
– Merlis Burgos-Ramos
Photo: Flickr
The Success of M Auto’s Electric Motorbikes
Described as a “bold and ambitious” start-up, West African company M Auto aims to offer “mobility as a service” with its innovative e-bikes. Since its launch in 2022, M Auto has taken the nations of Togo and Benin by storm with its electric motorbikes and mission for affordable and sustainable transport solutions.
How Did it Begin?
According to its website, M Auto began its mission in 2019, but first launched with music concerts in Benin and Togo in May 2022. That same month, an article reported that 500 e-bikes were already operational and an additional 3,000 were ready for purchase, according to RealWire. With support from the Africa Transformation and Industrialization Fund (ATIF), M Auto was able to sell more than 2,000 bikes and register more than 2,500 pre-orders by September 2022.
The inspiration for, and success of, M Auto is largely in line with regional needs and systems. Co-founder Yasmeen Jawaharali told RealWire that “Benin and Togo have the biggest demand for commercial two-wheelers and progressive government policy for domestic manufacturing in the energy transition” and the March 2022 decision from the Togolese government to relieve import duties on electric vehicles has provided further incentive and opportunity for these developments. M Auto’s chief executive Shegun Bakari observed the high demand in Benin, with approximately “100,000 new bike registrations” annually.
Benefits of M Auto Vehicles
Affordable and Sustainable Solution
M Auto promises not just material benefits of affordable and sustainable transportation, but also a shift toward a future of innovation. The company promises that its vehicles will allow Africans to “be their own bosses.” Even more, its success will “boost home-grown innovation and sustainable development in the long term.” Bakari highlights M Auto’s contribution to the continent’s “industrial transformation and ecological transition while creating jobs and lifting people out of poverty.”
Looking to the Future
So far, M Auto has seen remarkable success: as of August 2022, the company was Africa’s largest provider of electric motorbikes. It has already expanded to operate in Rwanda and Uganda as well as Togo and Benin. Although still most commonly found under the name M Auto, the company rebranded in 2022 to become Spiro and has ambitions to become the leading electric vehicle company on the continent.
Photo: Unsplash
Poverty in Rwanda: The Impact of COVID-19
The Disruptive Impact of COVID
When the pandemic hit, Rwanda experienced a sharp decline in GDP, with a 39.1% drop during a six-week lockdown. Simultaneously, the national poverty rate increased by 10.9%. As a result, around 1.3 million people out of a population of approximately 13.4 million temporarily fell into poverty due to the effects of COVID-19. The pandemic disrupted the U.N’s Vision 2020 objectives in poverty reduction strategies, which had shown promising results in the past.
Previously, Rwanda had experienced an economic boom, including a real economic growth of 9.4% in 2019. It had also benefited from large foreign investment in industries such as hospitality and travel.
Rwanda, similar to many other countries, faced significant economic challenges due to the pandemic. A study conducted by Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries revealed that 80% of businesses were closed from March to April 2020. By January 2021, the average business had laid off 25% of its workforce.
The pandemic also affected education in Rwanda, with approximately 3.5 million students being unable to attend school as usual. The impact of COVID-19 on poverty in Rwanda has been especially harsh on women, who are often only able to secure employment in seasonal jobs.
The Government’s Response
The Rwandan government responded swiftly to the crisis, implementing various measures in March 2020, including a lockdown, border closure, curfew and social distancing requirements. In March 2021, an Economic Recovery Plan was introduced, featuring an Economic Recovery Fund worth $100 million to support severely affected businesses. The plan specifically targeted the once-thriving travel sector, providing financial assistance to 138 hotels. Additionally, the government allocated funds to educational institutions and factories, aiming to facilitate the return to school and work.
Recovery and Investment Abroad
Rwanda has attracted foreign investors and regained economic confidence. For instance, it received $200 million from the Asian Infrastructure Bank and raised $650 million through a Eurobond. These investments stimulated the Economic Recovery Fund, allowing the country to diversify its economy and foster innovation. The World Bank reported a 1.2% reduction in poverty by the end of 2020 as a result of these initiatives. And the government’s rapid response also ensured continued access to education, health care and nutrition.
NGO Findings
Innovations for Poverty Action surveyed Rwandan people as part of its Research for Effective COVID-19 Responses, which informed government policy in responding to the pandemic. Collecting information on health, food security, finance resilience, education and employment, it recommended policies in line with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizing an opportunity to boost Rwanda’s economy with these in mind. In the case of addressing the impact of COVID-19 on poverty, local charitable organizations continue to make efforts. The Dufatanye Organisation, for example, has fundraised for food support for those living with type 1 diabetes during the pandemic due to poverty’s impact on access to medication. Other organizations like the Centre Marembo Organization have also tried to address the impact of COVID-19 on the homeless by fundraising and mobilizing communities.
Moving Forward
The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped global perspectives on community, economics and society, once again highlighting the issue of poverty. Despite the disruptive impact of COVID-19 on poverty in Rwanda, the government’s swift response has set the country on a path to strong economic recovery in 2021. Industrial production, exports and agricultural output have shown significant increases, leading to more employment opportunities and helping people escape poverty caused by the pandemic.
In conclusion, while the pandemic’s effects on poverty have been substantial, Rwanda’s proactive measures and collaborative efforts have laid the foundation for recovery and progress.
– Rosie Lyons
Photo: Wikimedia
Reducing Cancer-Related Deaths in Infants
Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases
Due to an increase in awareness of diseases, especially in infants, there have been significant strides in the development of vaccinations against childhood infections. Other initiatives have helped provide antibiotics to fight bacterial infections in LMCs, and with heightened awareness, the general cleanliness of places of residence has also improved in many areas. All these factors have lowered the infant mortality rate from infectious childhood diseases, but in turn, have increased the mortality rate for cancer and cardiovascular-related deaths in infants.
LMCs Lead in Cancer-Related Deaths
According to The Cancer Atlas, “The childhood cancer burden is strongly related to the level of development.” Better-developed countries have lower cancer-related deaths in infants. According to a dataset that measured the frequency by which infants undergo cancer tests, North America ranked highest at 97.2%, while Asia and Africa scored 6.3% and 5.3% respectively. Unfortunately, this factor contributes greatly to the growing threat of cancer in Africa.
The Lancet Global Health conducted a study on cancer mortality in LMCs and found that sub-Saharan African countries are the most vulnerable to cancer-related deaths in infants. The study also revealed the following:
“Significant associations between childhood cancer mortality and numbers of hospital beds per capita, external beam radiotherapy units, nuclear medicine physicians, pathology services and transplantation services.” Most of these resources and facilities were not sufficient in most places.
An increase in resources and money led to an increase in diagnosis and treatment as well.
Other factors such as maternal education and lowered health care costs also boosted the frequency of cancer diagnosis and treatment in infants.
Poverty and a lack of education and some of the leading factors that contribute to the increasing ‘cancer burden’ in LMCs. Focusing on educating individuals and alleviating poverty, along with providing access to medical facilities is a crucial step toward increasing successful diagnosis and treatment of cancer in infants.
Cancer Preventions
Between 30% and 50% of cancers are preventable by avoiding risk factors such as tobacco, ultraviolet radiation and pollution, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Additionally, 1 million cases of cancer are preventable through vaccination against HPV and Hepatitis B. Early diagnosis, before the cancer spreads, is essential to the treatment process according to WHO. “In [the] absence of early diagnosis, patients get their diagnoses at late stages when curative treatment may no longer be an option.”
Advanced Initiatives
Among initiatives that aim to improve the frequency of testing in LMCs and for the overall benefit of patients, are the following:
Specialized medical training: Providing specialized medical training and increased resources can improve patient outlook, as cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma in children have a high cure rate with effective treatment.
Palliative care: This is a treatment that focuses on relieving symptoms of cancer. It is an imperative aspect of cancer-related treatments. Palliative care serves to reduce the suffering of cancer patients and improve their quality of life. Due to the low diagnosis rate in sub-Saharan Africa, many individuals get their cancer diagnosis when curative treatments are no longer viable, and have to rely solely on palliative care.
These advanced initiatives are carried out by WHO, along with the Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and other U.N. Organizations under the banner of ‘the U.N. Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases.’
This task force aims to reduce premature mortality from cancer and other non-communicable diseases by 25%. It was established in 2013 by the U.N. Secretary-General and over 40 U.N. agencies, encompassing developmental banks and intergovernmental agencies, are a part of it. The task force provides direct medical aid to LMCs by mobilizing resources to inaccessible areas. It also advocates for the necessary global governmental aid required to fight cancer and other non-communicable diseases.
Looking Ahead
Through various avenues such as monitoring the global “cancer burden,” conducting detailed research on causes of cancer and providing technical assistance in LMCs, WHO and the U.N. hopes to significantly reduce cancer-related deaths in infants. Success in this endeavor will help many more children enjoy good health and long life.
– Vahisté Sinor
Photo: Flickr
Male Singlehood and Poverty in Rural China
Over the past few decades, China has experienced an increase in unmarried young males aged 30 years and older. And this is especially the case in rural China. In the cultural context of China, marriage is a highly valued social norm, so there is a stigma that people attach to male singlehood. Rural men in China, who stay single in their late 30s, face the risk of being on the receiving end of mockery from their relatives. Although many young men in rural China are willing to marry, they are likely to suffer the experience of life-long singlehood, according to an exploratory survey. Here is some information about the link between male singlehood and poverty in rural China.
Harmful Customs in Rural China
The high cost of marriage is one of the leading causes behind the low rate of marriage. Low-income people in rural areas in China cannot afford to marry. As per the Chinese pre-wedding customs, the groom has to give betrothal gifts, including cash, jewelry and even motor vehicles to the bride and her family before the marriage. Most rural families make their livelihoods from agriculture and their recorded annual income was only 20,133 yuan (or 2,930 U.S. dollars) in 2022. However, the betrothal gift also called the “bride price” can cost tens of thousands of dollars which is 10 times higher than a rural family’s annual income. Therefore, low-income families cannot afford the cost of marriage.
In rural China, many believe that after daughters marry, they should transfer economic loyalties to their husbands. Therefore, many regard the tradition of “bride price” as the groom’s financial compensation to the bride’s family for raising their daughter. Old parents in rural China, especially those who live in extreme poverty, rely heavily on their sons to support them through old age. Considering these conditions, many rural couples have exercised gender selection by aborting female fetuses or even killing female newborns. As a result, the sex ratio in rural China increased to approximately 108 males to 100 females in 2021. The lack of women in rural China’s marriage market has increased the “bride price,” thereby imposing a significant financial burden on poor men who want to get married.
Women’s Education in Rural China
To solve the problem of male singlehood, suggestions point toward eradicating harmful traditional customs. The possible first step could involve elevating rural women’s socio-economic status. Women’s education could also be impactful. Since 1989, with the support of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) has launched the “Women’s Literacy Action” and the “Learning and Competition” campaign. According to a report by UNESCO, these programs have encouraged 200 million rural women to receive agricultural training and helped 1.5 million rural women to obtain agricultural qualifications and certificates.
These programs have enabled many rural women to receive education and skills training, increasing their workforce participation. Furthermore, these programs have helped women to realize that harmful traditions such as gender selection and betrothal gifts deprive women’s rights, and therefore, should have no place in society.
China’s New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS)
In rural China, low-income childless single men have high financial risks. Over the past few decades, the Chinese government has been improving the elderly care and medical insurance system in rural areas. In 2003, the government launched the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS), an insurance scheme designed specifically for rural residents with the goal of “providing equal financial protection for all enrollees.” Its coverage rose from 11.63% in 2005 to 80.34% in 2014. Since 2003, it has helped hundreds of millions of rural residents reduce the risk of catastrophic health expenditure.
Looking Ahead
There are around 30 million unmarried men in China, mostly from poor rural communities. To solve this problem, China made great efforts in rural education and poverty reduction, with the support of international organizations such as UNESCO. While there is still a long way to go due to the scale of the issue, the progress so far offers a glimmer of hope.
– Chengyan Zhu
Photo: Flickr