Shea butter, known as “women’s gold,” supports female empowerment, backs many U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), enhances the global supply chain and promotes self-sufficient development in Southeastern Ghana. To make the most of this versatile nut, Bunge Loders Croklaan (BLC), “the specialty oils and fats business of [U.S.-based] Bunge Limited,” opened Africa’s first and largest shea butter plant in Ghana, in 2019. Bunge’s example portrays how capitalizing on a burgeoning international market is mutually beneficial for the United States and the world’s impoverished, especially women.
Bunge’s Global Partnerships
As an international industry headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Bunge’s purpose is to “connect farmers to consumers to deliver essential food, feed and fuel to the world.” Bunge serves more than 70,000 farmers and consumers by “sourcing, processing and supplying oilseed and grain products and ingredients.”
The BLC sector specializes in delivering oils and fats to farmers and industries within and across borders. Reaping benefits since the opening of the shea plant in Tema, Ghana, Aaron Buettner, a president of BLC, said that the “latest investment in Ghana plays a critical role in strengthening BLC’s global infrastructure for processing and supplying high-quality shea products to our customers around the world, while also bolstering the entire ecosystem of regional crushers and local shea collectors in the West African region.”
BLC’s Shea Butter Plant opens Financial Opportunities in Ghana
Bunge’s global network increases employment and enhances the self-sustainable development of the local shea community in Ghana. About 16 million families in Africa rely on the shea industry to financially sustain their households. In late 2020, Tema’s shea butter plant provided jobs for 73 people, mostly residents and individuals around the community. Currently, in 2022, Ghana has met the unemployment rate indicator under the SDG “decent work and economic growth” at a value of 4.52.
Celebrating Ghanaian Women’s Empowerment
Women represent most of the shea butter plant industry in Ghana. With “skills passed on from mother to daughter,” women pick, process and sell shea nuts and their components. Women leave their homes at dawn and travel to the shea parklands to generate income for their families.
Autonomy in labor helps to raise the status of women. The gender equality goal of the Sustainable Development Report displays a value of 89.68 in 2020 for the ratio of female-to-male labor participation rate, indicating that Ghana is maintaining an egalitarian workforce.
Shortcomings to Women’s Rights in Ghana
Still, gender inequality remains a prevalent issue. Despite employment data that often only captures the world from its surface, women in Ghana generally have fewer assets and are more impoverished than men. In fact, according to Oxfam, about 94% of the wealthiest people in Ghana are men.
Women are even disadvantaged in the shea business due to their absence in key stages of the supply chain. Illiteracy and lack of skills prevent many women from maximizing their wealth and industries’ production. In fact, “significant challenges remain” in the ratio of female-to-male mean years of education received.
How BLC Helps Females in Ghana
The Where Life Grows campaign, connected with BLC, committed itself to “empower shea collecting women, create socio-economic value in their communities and conserve and regenerate the shea landscape.” The campaign builds the capacity of women through training and by providing innovative resources. For example, during the off-season, women working with the Where Life Goes program organize, plan and discuss their needs with colleagues and receive loans. The women use the borrowed money to rent land, buy fertilizer, hire tractors to plow the soil and more.
Furthermore, BLC and the campaign implement solutions to alleviate stagnated access to sustainable clean energy in Ghana that impedes on shea production. BLC’s management designs efforts that provide energy-efficient pots and stoves that “use 60% less wood,” emit less smoke and decrease nut boiling time. These newly improved tools improve working conditions, sanitation and efficiency. By investing in local skills development overseas, the Missouri-based company attains a more efficient and sustainable production process while accounting for humanitarian needs.
Bunge’s partnerships supply training, tools, farming activities and direct sourcing to women in Tema, ultimately strengthening both ends of the value chain. Global businesses, namely BLC, operate with a multitude of incentives, such as strengthening the independence of women in Ghana and creating jobs in the United States. The international shea business improves Ghanaian individual and economic wealth and works to close the gender gap.
– Anna Zawistowski
Photo: WikiCommons
New Insights into Oceania’s Health Challenges
Convenience-food diets, obesity, lack of resources and the health challenges that result from these conditions are escalating in many island nations in the Pacific. Worse, the resulting non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are leading to an increase in preventable deaths. Activists from many nations are working to better protect many Pacific Island populations from Oceania’s health challenges.
Oceania
Oceania is a group of countries and territories that share a border with the Pacific Ocean. These 14 countries and territories are diverse culturally, economically, geographically and demographically. Oceania includes the large and wealthy countries of Australia and New Zealand and smaller and less affluent countries including Figi, Tonga and Palau.
Vulnerability
Indigenous people in Oceania are more genetically prone to gut issues and certain NCDs that evolved during colonization. While traditionally, Oceania diets were low-energy-density, the introduction of processed foods and more modern snacks brought obesity and linking issues. Before colonization, there was little to no obesity in the Pacific Islands. According to a 2019 study published in Frontiers in Immunology, “During the period of nutritional transition, the people came to consume energy-dense foods imported from Australia and New Zealand.”
The study reports that certain health conditions disproportionately affect specific indigenous populations including the Polynesians in Hawaii, the Maoris in New Zealand, and the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders in Australia compared to non-indigenous people in the same places. Mortality rates, NCDs and fertility decline are all issues that disproportionately affect these populations. Studying Pacific Islanders’ health data more closely, as this study did, may lead to sustainable solutions.
Environmental factors such as urbanization, sanitation and pathogen exposure also have the potential to increase disease susceptibility. Genetic vulnerability in the form of microbiome genetic mutations and immune function justifies population-specific medical studies and consideration in regards to nutrition. Accessibility and food insecurity have also driven people to foods that are low in nutrition.
Solutions
There are several specific solutions to combat the sharp rise in NCDs in the Pacific Islands. One strategy is better health monitoring. Current medical data surrounding nutrition is almost nonexistent and therefore Pacific Islander nutrition lacks proper evaluation. Increasing data and enhancing research in this area can better inform people about their eating habits.
The George Institute for Global Health, Fiji National University, Sydney University and Deakin University have created the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases project. This effort hopes to collect data on preventable deaths and possible food policy initiatives for the future. The researchers already found that decreasing salt intake by one gram a day for a year would prevent heart attacks and strokes and save 131 lives a year.
A second strategy is creating a sustainable interest and consumer demand for fresh and healthy foods. Since COVID-19, Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture has distributed seeds for people to grow their own food at home. Additional countries could benefit from a program like this as well.
Other strategies include projects and policies that focus on building a stronger market for healthy foods. Finally, the study suggests applying a gender lens to improve Oceania’s health challenges. While more women are joining the workforce, they continue to play the primary role in caring for and feeding their families. They do not have the time to prepare complicated meals so they are turning to convenience foods.
World Bank Showcases Oceania Women Leaders
The 2019 genetic study, others like it and the projects mentioned above are setting a trend of focus on the nutritional health of Pacific Islanders. Sustainable change and progress are occurring throughout Oceania. This progress prompted the World Bank to showcase some inspiring women who are starting to implement solutions to Oceania’s health challenges. In Samoa, Lenara Tupa’i-Fui is the assistant CEO of Health Information Technology and Communications at the Somoa Ministry of Health. She is helping lead the Samoan eHealth system that will better track medical records and provide accessible health monitoring and data. As program director of the Partnership of Human Development in Timor-Leste, Armandian Gusmão Amaral advocates for better health care, especially for women and children. She also focuses on mentoring women to pursue careers in the medical profession.
Looking Ahead
Advocating for better data tracking and health communication, increasing the understanding of and demand for healthy foods and applying a gender lens to improving eating habits are all steps that are helping the vulnerable in Oceania take action on their health.
– Karen Krosky
Photo: Flickr
How Google is Helping Africa’s Small Businesses
Loyalty to Small Businesses
This loyalty to small businesses has continued despite the insurgence of corporate supermarkets and retail chain stores. Transitioning this loyalty to e-commerce holds incredible promise for economic development throughout the continent. South Africa posted online sales of $1.8 billion in 2020 and countries like Nigeria and Kenya where the retail sector is a major component of GDP posted 30% and 40% growth rates respectively in 2021.
The framework for e-commerce in Africa has been laid out. Internet coverage, access to credit cards and bank accounts and mobile phone usage have all increased substantially in Africa in the last decade. Google has noted this opportunity for growth in Africa, with Google’s country director for West Africa Juliet Ehimuan noting that “E-commerce presents an opportunity for small businesses in Africa to reach new customers and grow.”
However, the online market has remained untapped for many small and medium businesses in Africa. Technical know-how, as well as concerns over cybercrime, has impeded online market penetration by small and medium businesses in Africa, according to a report by World Trade Organization (WTO). Fortunately, Google’s new initiative is helping build online retail presences for Africa’s small businesses, aiming to “…assist small businesses in Africa to gain the expertise to connect online, expand their customer base and scale-up,” according to Ehimuan.
Google is accomplishing this strategy through a three-pronged plan. It includes the Shopping Small Business Summit, an online career certificate course, and the Local Opportunity Finder.
Shopping Small Business Summit
In late June 2022, Google hosted a Shopping Small Business Summit. According to The Guardian, this event was a one-hour virtual training session to help small and medium business owners develop the skills they need to compete in the online marketplace. This training session covered both e-commerce trends as well as digital marketing tools and skills.
Online Career Certificate Course
The second portion of Google’s plan to help build online retail presences for Africa’s small businesses is an online career certificate course, as The Guardian reported. Unlike the Shopping Small Business Summit, this course has limited availability and is not free. However, Google has offered 1,000 scholarships to Africans who wish to participate in the course. This course will cover digital marketing and e-commerce trends in a deeper capacity than the Small Business Summit, and it aims to prepare Africans for entry level-jobs in e-commerce.
Local Opportunity Finder
Google also launched the Local Opportunity Finder in June 2022. The Local Opportunity Finder is a free online tool for small and medium business owners that aims to improve their online presences. This new tool can analyze a Google Business Profile and then give personalized recommendations for improvement. These improvements are geared towards making e-commerce sites more appealing to consumers and overall more consumer-friendly.
Google’s commitment to growing small businesses is helping build online retail presences for Africa’s small businesses. The large African retail sector is dependent on small businesses. However, the continent has lagged behind in terms of digital market space until now. If African businesses can take advantage of Google’s initiatives and work through the impediments holding back e-commerce in the continent, they could scale their businesses up and expand their consumer bases.
– Benjamin Brown
Photo: Flickr
Solar Energy in Lebanon
The Electricity Situation in Lebanon
For decades now, electricity has been a major issue in Lebanon. State-owned Electricité du Liban provides only two hours of electricity per day. However, some areas experience complete shut-off. Until today, the Lebanese people’s main alternative to state-provided electricity is resorting to private generators that work on diesel. Two problems emerge from this situation, the first one being the price of petroleum-related products.
With the ongoing economic crisis and the devaluation of the Lebanese Pounds, the Lebanese government does not have enough funds to purchase fuel and make the electricity factories functional. On the other hand, people are also not able to afford fuel for their own private generators. The second problem is related to over-exploited private generators that are forced to shut off a few hours a day, leaving most people living with long power outages.
Why Does Solar Energy in Lebanon Make Sense?
Given all the challenges Lebanon is facing to have proper access to electricity, renewable energy becomes an interesting option to consider. Lebanon has a lot of natural and biological advantages, such as wind, water, etc. However, the most interesting and important natural asset is the abundant sunshine the country enjoys for the majority of the year, making solar energy in Lebanon the ideal alternative to consider for Lebanon to get out of the electricity crisis.
Using solar energy in Lebanon saves money for the Lebanese people whose private generators’ cost keeps on increasing. In fact, for 12 hours of electricity a day, the fuel cost for private generators can be as high as $550 per day. Although the installation of solar panels is also expensive, it saves a lot for the consumer. If someone pays $550 per day on fuel, installing solar panels will reduce his cost to $140 per day, according to Beirut Today.
Solutions
Despite being essential and economic in the long term, installing solar energy in Lebanon is still very expensive for the average Lebanese household or business. Prices of solar installation range between $2,000 and $5,000, which is a substantial amount for Lebanese workers who usually earn around $550 on average. However, the Lebanese people are not alone and different actors are bringing new initiatives to allow the spread of solar energy in Lebanon. The Housing Bank is conducting one of these initiatives, which is proposing loans from 75 million to 200 million Lebanese Pounds over a period of 5 years, according to Arab News.
Other international and local NGOs are also helping the government as well as the people to have access to solar energy. For example, the UNDP, in collaboration with the Lebanese Ministry of Health has provided 10 hospitals with solar panels. While NGOs, such as Meghterbin Mejtemiin are looking for funds from the Lebanese Diaspora to help those in need in their home country.
As always, the Lebanese people are showing how resilient they are in times of crisis and how innovative they become to adapt to the different situations they are living in. Thankfully, people can also count on Lebanese solidarity, especially with the diaspora that is always ready to help, the most recent example being their support for solar energy implementation in Lebanon.
–Youssef Yazbek
Photo: Flickr
G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment
G7 Promises Relief for Global Economy and Low-Income Countries
In 2021, at the G7 summit, President Biden announced a plan to enhance the economic and infrastructure needs of developing nations, as well as support the economies of the United States and its allies. This initiative was part of Biden’s Build Back Better plan.
In June 2022, after a year of collaboration between the leaders of the G7 nations, President Biden announced the partnership for global infrastructure and investment, a $600 billion initiative of global infrastructure investments between the seven countries by 2027, according to The White House.
The collaboration will officially launch the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). This should strengthen and diversify the supply chain, as well as improve the quality of life for millions of people in developing countries. The United States will contribute $200 billion over the course of five years, The White House reported. This makes it one of the most extensive contributions to low-income and developing countries in recent years, especially after facing global economic setbacks from the pandemic.
Some of the projects cited in the initiative are an industrial mRNA vaccine plant in Senegal, solar projects in Angola, a sub-sea cable linking South Asia and Europe, a linking port from Christmas Island and a modular nuclear reactor plant in Romania.
G7 Funding Program Demonstrates Effective International Cooperation
The G7 partnership for global infrastructure and investment is in part motivated by the United States and other economic powerhouses’ desire to compete with China’s Belt and Road initiative. China’s infrastructure initiative focuses on road transportation, bridges and mining, which economists estimate to cost $1 trillion.
In the G7 funding program, Biden references a wider range of goals including clean energy, gender equality, health care and communication technology. President Biden and the other G7 leaders are hopeful that the new G7 funding program will have a more direct positive impact on the lives of the impoverished, the global economy and the climate, The Guardian reports. Prior to the G7 summit, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Japan had each announced their individual global infrastructure investment plans.
In November 2021, President Biden met with multiple world leaders to ensure their plans could cooperate to create a more powerful global investment plan that would have a greater impact, according to The Guardian.
G7’s Commitment to Poverty Reduction
The G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment marks one of the most cohesive and extensive international investment plans in recent years. The PGII will support the clean energy initiative, U.S. national security and digital infrastructure. This initiative could offer relief to the 689 million people living in extreme poverty.
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the poverty rate up to 9.1% in 2022 from 7.8% in 2019, signaling a dire need to support people in developing nations by offering them improved digital communication, access to medical supplies and health care, emergency COVID-19 relief and economic support. President Biden asserts that the United States’ partnership with G7 could change millions of lives across the world and the global economy could experience some relief after the pandemic.
– Ella DeVries
Photo: Flickr
Impact of COVID-19 on Poverty in Samoa
ADRA Samoa Gives Shelter
As it relates to addressing homelessness, the Samoan Government and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) partnered to provide accommodation for families who lost their homes during the pandemic.
As of August 4, 2022, the Samoan Government distributed about 1 million Samoan tala ($369,659) in relief aid while 120 families were given brand new homes by ADRA. The Shelter and Hygiene Program provided ADRA with a grant of 2 million tala ($739,318) and an additional 1.5 million tala ($554,488) to construct specially-adapted homes for 88 households where a family member has a disability. All of the support the government and ADRA provide helps improve the lives of vulnerable families and inspires others.
“It has been a very exciting period for ADRA in Samoa, especially when we have been able, through the shelter interventions, to make a significant difference to people’s lives, and to help them strengthen their resilience to pandemics and natural disasters,” Su’a Julia Wallwork, director of the ADRA told Adventist Records in a statement. In collaboration with New Zealand Habitat for Humanity, ADRA will resume its work on a project called Maluapapa Safe Haven Project.
Samoa Receives Lifesaving COVID-19 Supplies
The impact of COVID-19 on poverty in Samoa has also been far-reaching in terms of the country’s health care systems. To ensure that all residents have access to necessary resources, the World Health Organization (WHO), carried out by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and in partnership with the European Union (EU) shipped medical supplies to Samoa in May 2022.
The Minister of Health commented on the assistance the WHO, WFP and the EU provided stating “This equipment and medical supplies will be used by Samoan health workers around the country as they continue to test and treat patients and to remain safe themselves as they save lives.”
The supplies included 280,000 face masks, 248,300 hand gloves, 72,000 hospital garments, 30,000 N95 masks, 10,300 face covering, 6,000 COVID-19 testing kits, 3,000 pulse measuring devices and 50 oxygen gas generators which is a sufficient amount for the hospitals that may not have enough resources, the WFP reports.
Dr. Kim Eva Dickson, a WHO Representative to Samoa is grateful for the assistance from the EU due to the barriers they face during the pandemic, stating “We knew we needed to get this equipment and supplies into health workers’ hands here in Samoa, but getting it here was going to be a challenge, due to limited flights and inflated shipping costs. Thankfully, we spoke with our colleagues at WFP and, with support from the EU, they made this flight possible. ”
ARROWS Supplies Clean Water
The impact of COVID-19 on poverty in Samoa can also be seen in terms of water scarcity. Caritas Australia and Caritas Samoa started the Advancing Resilience through Resources for Outreach and Water Security (ARROWS) program to provide service to families living in residential homes or villages who have no access to clean water.
The program built a water system for 32 families in the mainland of Upolu and Savai’i. Tului is from a family of 13 who had to live with polluted water for 10 years. Since the ARROWS program began, Tului and her family now have access to water, measured in a 3,000L tank to bathe, wash dishes and consume water safely without falling ill.
Many families experience hardships like lack of water, medical supplies, or losing their homes due to the pandemic. However, organizations like the ADRA and ARROWS made it possible for families not to endure the hard struggles but to strive for a future full of possibilities for their community.
– Jacara Watkins
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Shea Butter Plant in Ghana
Bunge’s Global Partnerships
As an international industry headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Bunge’s purpose is to “connect farmers to consumers to deliver essential food, feed and fuel to the world.” Bunge serves more than 70,000 farmers and consumers by “sourcing, processing and supplying oilseed and grain products and ingredients.”
The BLC sector specializes in delivering oils and fats to farmers and industries within and across borders. Reaping benefits since the opening of the shea plant in Tema, Ghana, Aaron Buettner, a president of BLC, said that the “latest investment in Ghana plays a critical role in strengthening BLC’s global infrastructure for processing and supplying high-quality shea products to our customers around the world, while also bolstering the entire ecosystem of regional crushers and local shea collectors in the West African region.”
BLC’s Shea Butter Plant opens Financial Opportunities in Ghana
Bunge’s global network increases employment and enhances the self-sustainable development of the local shea community in Ghana. About 16 million families in Africa rely on the shea industry to financially sustain their households. In late 2020, Tema’s shea butter plant provided jobs for 73 people, mostly residents and individuals around the community. Currently, in 2022, Ghana has met the unemployment rate indicator under the SDG “decent work and economic growth” at a value of 4.52.
Celebrating Ghanaian Women’s Empowerment
Women represent most of the shea butter plant industry in Ghana. With “skills passed on from mother to daughter,” women pick, process and sell shea nuts and their components. Women leave their homes at dawn and travel to the shea parklands to generate income for their families.
Autonomy in labor helps to raise the status of women. The gender equality goal of the Sustainable Development Report displays a value of 89.68 in 2020 for the ratio of female-to-male labor participation rate, indicating that Ghana is maintaining an egalitarian workforce.
Shortcomings to Women’s Rights in Ghana
Still, gender inequality remains a prevalent issue. Despite employment data that often only captures the world from its surface, women in Ghana generally have fewer assets and are more impoverished than men. In fact, according to Oxfam, about 94% of the wealthiest people in Ghana are men.
Women are even disadvantaged in the shea business due to their absence in key stages of the supply chain. Illiteracy and lack of skills prevent many women from maximizing their wealth and industries’ production. In fact, “significant challenges remain” in the ratio of female-to-male mean years of education received.
How BLC Helps Females in Ghana
The Where Life Grows campaign, connected with BLC, committed itself to “empower shea collecting women, create socio-economic value in their communities and conserve and regenerate the shea landscape.” The campaign builds the capacity of women through training and by providing innovative resources. For example, during the off-season, women working with the Where Life Goes program organize, plan and discuss their needs with colleagues and receive loans. The women use the borrowed money to rent land, buy fertilizer, hire tractors to plow the soil and more.
Furthermore, BLC and the campaign implement solutions to alleviate stagnated access to sustainable clean energy in Ghana that impedes on shea production. BLC’s management designs efforts that provide energy-efficient pots and stoves that “use 60% less wood,” emit less smoke and decrease nut boiling time. These newly improved tools improve working conditions, sanitation and efficiency. By investing in local skills development overseas, the Missouri-based company attains a more efficient and sustainable production process while accounting for humanitarian needs.
Bunge’s partnerships supply training, tools, farming activities and direct sourcing to women in Tema, ultimately strengthening both ends of the value chain. Global businesses, namely BLC, operate with a multitude of incentives, such as strengthening the independence of women in Ghana and creating jobs in the United States. The international shea business improves Ghanaian individual and economic wealth and works to close the gender gap.
– Anna Zawistowski
Photo: WikiCommons
Accessible Water in Morocco
The Blueprints
The National Program for the Supply of Drinking water and Irrigation 2020-2027 aims to “accelerate investments in order to strengthen the supply of drinking water and irrigation,” and thus, increase the nation’s resilience when facing droughts. The plan includes the construction of dams, with a special focus on providing water relief to rural areas.
As of June 2022, ONEE is overseeing the construction of a pipeline that will efficiently allocate water in Morocco’s most populous city, Casablanca. The project is separated into two stages. The first stage involves installing a pipeline that is roughly 4.5 miles long and goes from North Casablanca to the Médiouna distribution reservoir in Southern Casablanca. The goal of the pipeline is to “ensure optimal management of the available water resources at the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah dam and the Oum Er Rbiaa basin.”
The second phase of the project intends to use a booster station to expand the pipeline velocity to 2,500 liters per second from the current velocity of 1,550 liters per second. Expansions of the pipeline plans to extend an additional 4.4 miles to Casablanca’s Bouskoura reservoir in the southern region. The cost of the pipeline for phase one is around €18 million and the second phase will cost the city an additional €12 million. ONEE foresees the completion of the second phase by July 2023.
ONEE received approval from the government to build multiple dams in the country’s Marrakech region back in 2020 and began construction in March 2022. This project has cost the country roughly $256 million and is receiving funding from the African Development Bank under the African Finance Corporation.
The goal of the project is to raise the number of major dams in Morocco from 145 to 179. The current focal point of the project is the Al Massira Dam “where a settling station, a treatment station, three pumping stations and several reservoirs with a total capacity of 93,000 cubic meters will be installed.”
The Importance of Change
The Moroccan economy tends to falter during times of droughts. Due to drought, agricultural output in Morocco reduced by 17.3% since 2021. It is expected that in 2022 Morocco’s poverty rate will remain stagnant at its current rate of 2.5% due to inflation in food and goods and the drought’s toll on agricultural production.
Due to the powerful effects that the current drought has on the country, efforts toward making water in Morocco more accessible are imperative.
– Luke Sherrill
Photo: Flickr
Migration to Portugal
The Benefits that Migrants Bring to Portugal
Portuguese citizens, as EU members, have the legal right to both live and work in other European Union countries. This includes countries like Germany and France, which have higher wages and better living conditions than Portugal. As a result, Portugal has a high rate of citizens that emigrate outside of the country, leaving the economy with a need for a replacement labor force.
Not only do migrants remedy the country’s labor shortage but they also bring in tax revenue and contribute to Portugal’s Social Security. Migrants even create jobs by starting businesses of their own, opening grocery stores foreign cuisine restaurants, hair salons and more. This enriches the diversity and vibrancy of the country while stimulating the economy.
What Brings Migrants to Portugal?
To fulfill that basic economic need for labor, Portugal has constructed a legal framework for immigration that is highly beneficial to incoming migrants. In June 2022, Portugal’s minister of foreign and parliamentary affairs announced that the nation would dissolve the quota regime and provide for a six-month work-seeking visa.
Even those without a visa, undocumented migrants, are permitted to apply for work. Once they have secured a job, they can apply for residency. Even “proof of legal entry” requirements in applying for residency status within the country are typically informally lax. Once a resident, migrants can have their families join them and enjoy the same legal status of residency. After five years, a resident can “qualify for a Portuguese passport of their own.” This ease on the path to a passport is a primary perk of migration to Portugal, alluring enough to make up for the relatively low wages offered in the country.
The largest group of migrants in the country are Brazilians, followed by another Portuguese-speaking country, Cape Verde. Both are steeped in poverty, with the most recent estimates of Cabo Verde’s national poverty rate standing at 35% as of 2015. In Brazil, about 27 million people lived under the national poverty line in 2021. With a national poverty rate of 16.2% as of 2019, Portugal offers a gateway out of deeply impoverished communities.
Once a migrant secures a European Union passport, they are free to move toward the wealthy economic core of Europe that draws Portuguese nationals as well, with the promise of higher wages. This allows migrants and their families to pursue opportunities to move toward the higher quality of life they imagined when they chose to leave their homelands.
– Grace Ramsey
Photo: Flickr
The First Malaria Vaccine
Devastating Impact
Malaria has a devastating impact on countries where the disease is common. In 2020, there were 241 million malaria cases and 627,000 malaria deaths. In Africa, where 82% of malaria cases occur, 80% of malaria deaths consist of children under 5. In addition to the high death toll, malaria causes an estimated loss of $12 billion every year in lost productivity.
Over the past several decades, improved preventative measures including mosquito nets, antimalarial medications and efforts to reduce mosquito habitats have helped to contribute to a decline in the prevalence of malaria. Since 2015, however, progress in efforts to combat malaria has slowed, according to WHO. Some countries with especially high malaria transmission rates have even experienced an increase in malaria cases. After a slump in progress in recent years, though, the success of the RTS,S vaccine offers a ray of hope.
The Vaccine
Due to the complexity of the parasite that causes malaria, this vaccine took more than 30 years to develop. Research on the RTS,S vaccine began in the 1990s with the first clinical trial on it published in 1997. However, several more decades of trials would pass before researchers proved the vaccine to be safe and effective against malaria in children.
Trials completed in 2015, which followed a schedule of three or four vaccines for children between 5 and 17 months of age, found the RTS,S vaccine to reduce malaria-related hospitalization by 37% in the first four years of vaccination.
Over the course of three years, the pilot program, which included trials in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi vaccinated more than 900,000 children. The pilot program confirmed that the vaccine, while not perfect, reduces the frequency of severe malaria infection and demonstrated that large-scale vaccine distribution is feasible, according to WHO.
Based on the findings of the trials, the WHO expects that vaccinating one child could save the lives of 200 of them, according to its report. The WHO estimates that, if widespread vaccination is achieved, the RTS,S vaccine could save the lives of 40,000 to 80,000 children every year. Following the success of the pilot program, the WHO officially recommended the use of the vaccine for areas with high to moderate malaria transmission in October 2021.
In April 2022, the WHO reached the milestone of having 1 million children in Malawi, Kenya and Ghana who have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
A Historic Breakthrough
After several years of stagnation, this malaria vaccine represents what Dr. Mary Hamel, a medical epidemiologist who works on malaria prevention, called “a historic breakthrough.” In addition to being the first vaccine to provide protection against malaria, the RTS,S vaccine is the first vaccine for the parasitic disease, meaning the development of this vaccine represents not only a breakthrough in malaria research but a breakthrough in the world of vaccine development.
Though the vaccine’s efficacy is modest, its success is a major breakthrough in a decades-long fight against a disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people every year. As the first WHO-recommended malaria vaccine, this vaccine has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives every year and serve as a stepping stone toward future innovations in the realm of malaria prevention.
– Anna Inghram
Photo: Flickr
WHO and Kenya Launch Emergency Health Hub
The Government of Kenya and the WHO hosted the ground-breaking ceremony for the Emergency Hub and Center for Excellence on July 9. While the emergency health hub in Kenya does not have an estimated date of completion yet; it is part of WHO Africa’s flagship program for ensuring health security, whose goal is the better protection of 1 billion Africans from health emergencies by 2025.
Kenya is providing $31 million in funding specifically for the emergency hub, while the WHO is contributing $47 million for the flagship initiative in its entirety. In addition, $5 million of the government’s contribution will go toward construction costs for the hub. The hub will be located near Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral & Research Hospital in Nairobi.
Why the Hub is Needed
According to the WHO, Africa experiences a disproportionate number of health emergencies compared to the rest of the world with more than 1,000 per year although the continuent lacks the health infrastructure and manpower necessary to deal with current and future crises.
Notably, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed gaps within the region’s health system. While initiatives such as COVAX have made progress, only 20.3% of the continent is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of August 2022, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Alongside COVID-19, the WHO is also monitoring cases of the Marburg virus in Ghana and monkeypox outbreaks in Central and West Africa, among other diseases in the continent.
Health Emergencies and Extreme Weather Patterns
A major concern for the future is that the number of public health emergencies is expected to go up due to extreme weather patterns. Research shows that there is an increased risk of transmission of climate-sensitive diseases as weather patterns change. In addition, as wildlife begin moving out of their habitats due to the weather shifts and increasingly interact with other foreign species and humans, there are more opportunities for new viruses and pandemics to emerge.
Kenya is already feeling the impact of droughts for multiple consecutive rainfall seasons. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network estimates that 3.5 million people face severe food insecurity in Kenya alone as of May 2022, alongside almost 80 million people in the Horn of Africa and East Africa regions.
The drought has brought on a malnutrition crisis in Kenya. As of July 2022, around 950,000 children under 5 years old and 135,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women are malnourished and require treatment, according to the World Food Programme. In its press release, the WHO recognized that malnutrition and food insecurity are one of the emergencies that the hub aims to tackle.
The Future of Africa’s Public Health Systems
The Emergency Hub and Center for Excellence aim to train responders in Kenya and help create an crisis response team for every country in Africa. The teams will comprise professionals across a range of disciplines, from epidemiology to mental health services.
Kenya’s hub is the first of the WHO Africa’s centers planned under its flagship program, which will prove crucial in the continents’ responses to potential health crises. Senegal and South Africa are the next countries in line to set up similar emergency hubs and training centers.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu stated that “the Hub will improve the capacity of African countries to prepare, detect and respond to health emergencies, support resilient health systems, and strengthen the regional and global health architecture,” at the ground-breaking ceremony.
– Ramona Mukherji
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