Zubale’s Economic Aid to Latin America

Zubale's Economic Aid
E-commerce is a growing market worldwide and Latin America is no exception. Zubale, a company working in the e-commerce trade, connects workers, part- or full-time employees, with contractors and companies desperate for work. In its first major round of funding, a Series A round, Zubale earned $40 million in its first round of receiving significant venture capital. Zubale’s economic aid should expand operations throughout Latin America, beyond the boundaries of Mexico, where it started.

Zubale’s Foundation

The founders of Zubale, Allison Campbell and Sebastian Monroy created the company and began operations specifically in Mexico to serve as a testing ground and to allow people to find work and seek reliable income for those who have flexible schedules with the assistance of a smartphone. When the company first started, it connected workers with employers and the connected workers could earn rewards from certain corporations. Zubale, in its earliest days, worked out a system of credit that helped in the short-term for its contractors and part-time employees. However, as the company has grown, the workers who use Zubale’s app now earn reliable money.

Zubale’s economic aid in the very first stages of the company’s development was minimal. As the connected workers only earned digital rewards, the economic aid was less than desirable in Mexico. Initially, the company opened its business to the public with only 10 full-time employees. Now, it has quadrupled in the size of its full-time base of workers who work in Zubale’s headquarters. Furthermore, Zubale has countless part-time workers both in-office and find work for themselves through their phones. Campbell and Monroy founded the company in Mexico and have met with great success. They now expect to expand operations into Chile and Brazil, Grit Daily reports.

Impact in Mexico

When measuring their number of workers using the term “gig-workers,” whether full or part-time, Zubale has tens of thousands of workers who use the company’s app to find fieldwork. Campbell and Monroy learned that the Latin American retail and e-commerce markets generate $2 trillion. However, companies spend about $40 billion funding unreliable work and tasks. Zubale’s economic aid in Mexico saves companies money by finding them reliable, flexible work to fulfill the unfinished duties efficiently and effectively.

Mexico’s poverty rate is 43.9%, which means that numerous individuals can benefit from the work Zubale connects them to. Zubale’s setup helps the app’s workers set up checking and saving bank accounts and credit cards with major corporations that work and garner trust internationally. The impact Zubale can have in Mexico is even more impressive considering that more than half of the population does not have a secure bank account. Credit card ownership dropped from 15% to 9% from 2014 to 2017. The number of credit cards in Mexico has already increased by two million, with more than 28 million credit cards in circulation.

Zubale’s economic aid has gained a reputation and investors were eager to jump on board and get the work of Zubale to other Latin American nations. QED Investors was one of Zubale’s investors, and Lauren Morton, a partner at QED Investors, said, “We were immediately impressed by the vision and execution of the Zubale team. Their approach to growing opportunities for independent workers in the region is a major step forward in financial inclusion and we’re inspired by the ways to grow this impact over time.”

What Can Zubale Do for Latin America?

Zubale’s economic aid can mirror the impact it has had in Mexico. The company can lower the poverty rates and increase the number of people who have credit cards or secure checking or savings accounts with respected banking institutions. Zubale intends to start by expanding in Brazil and Chile. Sebastien Monroy moved to Brazil to begin Zubale’s operations slowly and implement the company into the local economy, with positive receptions.

Respectively, Brazil’s poverty rate, the last figure is from 2019, was 19.6% and Chile’s poverty rate, from 2020, was 10.8%. Some 30% of Chileans own a credit card and 27% of Brazilians own at least one credit card. Almost 70% of Chile’s adult population has a bank account with a secure and reputable bank, with Brazilians matching Chile’s rate of bank account ownership.

As long as Zubale promises the same assistance with setting up credit cards or bank accounts, the opportunities for economic advancements are significant. Setting up a credit card for someone allows the person to build a credit score and financial history, making them eligible for more economic advances. Credit scores and credit histories are building grounds for trustworthiness and international acceptance. Credit scores also have benefits outside of the individual impacts.

It is a bit of a domino effect because individuals with higher credit ratings are more likely to invest in stock. Areas with more citizens who have higher credit ratings overall are more likely to open more investment opportunities, creating a circle of prosperity, not poverty. With Zubale’s economic aid, this change in cyclical economics is becoming a greater possibility for all the countries in which they operate.

– Clara Mulvihill
Photo: Flickr

Housing Crisis in Puerto Rico 

Housing Crisis in Puerto Rico 
The housing crisis in Puerto Rico worsens with the increase of natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes that have destroyed housing around the island. According to the United States Interagency Council on homelessness, 2,451 Puerto Ricans have faced homelessness on the island since January 2021. The U.S. Department of Education reported that around 4,717 students met chronic homelessness in the 2018-19 academic year, with 439 students completely unsheltered. The Puerto Rican housing market has faced a prolonged crisis since the 2006 economic crisis that depreciated values within the market; the island lost around 45,880 households due to increased migration to the mainland. The housing crisis in Puerto Rico led to an increase in bank repossessions, leaving 45%-55% of houses abandoned according to the American Bar Association.

The Hurricane

Hurricane Maria struck the island on October 2, 2017, significantly damaging causing around 250,000 houses. It completely destroyed 70,000 of those homes. At the time, now-ousted Governor Ricardo Rossello stated that Puerto Rico would allocate around $31 billion in funds to recover most of the properties.

Many of the properties that the hurricane destroyed were illegally erected buildings that violate building codes around the ocean side. That is because some of these houses are located in flooding zones and unstable hillsides, which prevent them from being rebuilt.

Five Years Later

Five years after Hurricane Maria struck the island, the housing crisis in Puerto Rico has barely seen improvement.  Tax breaks have attracted investors from the mainland. This has spurred skyrocketing housing costs around the island.  In turn, those rising housing prices have led to unaffordable housing for Puerto Rican citizens. This has also displaced many Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans around the island are troubled by the growing gentrification around the island as they fear permanent displacement. The growing sense of unease has increased tension around the island.

A Nonprofit Against Homelessness

Nonprofit organization Casa del Peregrino helps identify and assist the homeless population in Puerto Rico while operating with the goal of improving the quality of life and health on the island. Founded in 1997 after the local university surveyed that 67% of the population in Aguadilla were homeless, the organization began to distribute used clothing, meals and personal hygiene items. In recent years, the organization has expanded its services to include rehabilitation programs with drug and alcohol specialists and an emergency shelter with 20 sleeping spaces.

As the housing crisis continues to develop, the organization struggles to expand its outreach through the 78 towns that compose the island; currently, only 15% of the clients have been able to fully rehabilitate through its rehabilitation center. The organization’s lack of government funding or support portrays an overarching problem with homelessness left to grow without any governmental measure to meet ensure citizens’ needs.

The island continues to face many challenges that increase homelessness within the population while organizations similar to Casa del Peregrino stand to provide the necessary resources for the island’s citizens until they await a solution from the government.

– Nuria Munoz
Photo: Flickr

Cold War Bombs and Agent Orange in Southeast Asia

Agent Orange Affect Southeast Asia
During the Cold War, the policy of containment dominated U.S. foreign policy. The policy of containment is the concept that one can most effectively combat communism by fighting it whenever and wherever it appears. Vietnam came into the crosshairs of the U.S. because the U.S. feared the Soviet influence that was taking hold of the country. Evidently, this policy barely distinguished between neutrality and open hostility and led to the use of agent orange and the U.S. bombings of officially neutral Cambodia and Laos.

Cold War Bombs in Southeast Asia

From 1961 to 1975, beginning with the secret war in Laos and closing with the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. dropped 2.7 million tons of ordnance, including 26 million cluster bomblets in Cambodia. The U.S. dropped more than 2.1 million tons of ordnance on Laos and 8 million tons of ordnance in Vietnam.

As of 2021, injuries and fatalities because of the campaigns number nearly 64,931 people in Cambodia, 25,000 people in Laos and more than 100,000 people in Vietnam. The crisis at hand is that the legacy of these wars is still severely impacting people living in Southeast Asia. A notable amount of bombs did not detonate on impact, UXOs (Unexploded Ordnances), and these UXOs are still taking lives in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam today. The estimated percentage of ordnance that did not explode that remain are respectively 25% for Cambodia, 33% for Laos and 10% for Vietnam.

Agent Orange in Southeast Asia

Agent Orange was a mixture of herbicides created to eliminate vegetation that the U.S. military sprayed in Vietnam and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a trail that spills over into Cambodia and Laos, with the intent of killing vegetation that guerilla fighters were using for cover. By the end of the Vietnam war, the U.S. had sprayed more than 11 million gallons of Agent Orange on Vietnam, with spray drifting into Cambodia and Laos.

The agent resulted in generations of birth defects and chronic health issues including cancer, heart disease, shortened or missing limbs and developmental disabilities that affect both those who had exposure to Agent Orange and their descendants. The damage from the usage of Agent Orange is extensive, for it still deteriorates the health of hundreds of thousands of people and their children in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the U.S. in the case of veterans who served.

Ameliorating this situation has an added difficulty, the State Department has a split stance. The VA publicly concedes that Agent Orange spray did drift into Cambodia and Laos. Upon being asked about dioxin [Agent Orange], a State Department spokesperson responded that “The legacy of dioxin is a complex issue; and one that the U.S. and Vietnamese governments have collaborated on since 2000,” exclusively referring to Vietnam when Laos and Cambodia have also experienced the effect of how U.S. usage of Agent Orange complicates global efforts to right the wrongs.

UXO Removal: Cambodia and Laos

One State Department partner making a difference in Cambodia and Laos is the HALO Trust, a notable humanitarian landmine and UXO removal organization. Thanks in part to the advocacy efforts of the HALO Trust, there was an increase in Congressional funding for demining efforts in Vietnam and the region, $7 million for Vietnam and $25 million for the region. The combined efforts of the HALO Trust and their local community partners led to the remarkable achievement of dismantling over 575,000 landmines and UXOs in Cambodia and Laos.

Fighting Agent Orange: Vietnam

Dr. Charles R. Bailey, head of the Ford Foundation and agricultural economist, funded a study that led to a monumental breakthrough in fighting Agent Orange. Until this study, there was widespread fear and uncertainty pertaining to how to deal with Agent Orange. However, this study led to the discovery that dioxin [Agent Orange] was no longer a danger in the general landscape of Vietnam, rather it was concentrated only in a few hotspots. This discovery is what made it possible to clean up Agent Orange contaminations so the people of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia can finally begin to heal from this wretched legacy of war.

Additionally, this discovery got the legacy of the Cold War in Southeast Asia into American policy circles, executive and Congressional. As Dr. Bailey recalled his time in Vietnam in the late 1990s, he found U.S. diplomats in the embassy were under the direction of the State Department to not even utter the words “Agent Orange.”

The nature of the debate has surpassed this point in the past 20 years, hence the bipartisan support that has come to the floor for funding UXO removals and Agent Orange clean-ups. As of 2022, the U.S. government has spent $400 million to address environmental cleanup and health effects of Agent Orange with the money going towards clean up and persons with disabilities in Vietnam since 1991. This development presents a promising shift in U.S. foreign policy, taking greater responsibility for the legacy of its war in Vietnam. A hopeful start towards extending not only UXO removals to Laos and Cambodia, but also a recognition of the need to fight Agent Orange in the countries as well.

– Chester Lankford
Photo: Flickr

How Higher Literacy Rates Can Fight Poverty

Literacy Rates
Literacy is fundamental when investing in the future and working toward greater health, economic prosperity and gender equality and is a fair indicator of a nation’s relationship with education. Former UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova summarized this perfectly when she said “the future starts with the alphabet.” As a proven pathway out of poverty, education leads to higher literacy rates, which can ease economic burdens in developing nations.

Global Literacy Rates

According to the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), in 2016, the global literacy rate stood at 86% for individuals 15 and older in comparison to 91% for youth aged 15-24. These high percentages are indicative of increased access to basic education. Across the past 65 years, “the global literacy rate increased by 4% every five years from 42% in 1960 to 86% in 2015.”

However, there is a large disparity among developing countries, specifically those in sub-Saharan Africa. For example, in 2019, Niger’s youth illiteracy rate for ages 15-24 stood at 60.3%, which is a constraint for economic and social development in the nation.

From an economic perspective, any effort toward increased literacy marks a returned investment in the nation’s growth. High illiteracy rates place a financial burden on nations. The World Literacy Foundation found in 2018 that the economic cost of illiteracy in the U.S. alone is more than $300 billion, and in terms of the global economy, illiteracy costs the world $1.2 trillion.

Literacy for Poverty Reduction

Established research highlights the correlation between high literacy rates and a high GDP. Friedrich Huebler, the head of the Education Standards and Methodology Section of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, conducted a study in 2005 where he plotted the school net enrollment ratios (NER) against GDP per capita of 120 different countries. His findings showed that “the higher the income levels of a country, the higher the levels of school enrollment.”

When it comes to cost per student in regard to literacy rates, there is a stark global trend: “In high-income countries, for instance, households shoulder a larger share of education expenditures at higher education levels than at lower levels – but in low-income countries, this is not the case.” The amount a household spends on education directly correlates to higher education rates. Because of this, low-income countries are falling behind in education levels because of the low private spending on education in comparison to their higher-income counterparts.

Books For Africa Works to Increase Literacy Rates

Books For Africa is working to “end the book famine in Africa” by collecting and distributing books, tablets and computers across the African continent. Tom Warth founded BfA in 1988 when he visited a Ugandan library with an extreme scarcity of books. He went back to the U.S. and spoke with “publishers, booksellers and librarians” at the Minnesota Book Publishers’ Roundtable, prompting the start of the organization.

Through a simple idea, Books For Africa has made a profound impact on the access to knowledge in Africa. According to its website, “last year alone, Books For Africa shipped 3.1 million books, and 224 computers and e-readers containing more than 885,000 digital books to 28 African countries.”

The organization’s methodology has been proven to increase education and literacy rates. According to USAID’s research, “children and youth who learn to read are healthier, more self-sufficient, can earn a better living and have more opportunities to become productive members of their societies.” Not only does the increased access to books promote literacy but it also contributes to the development of children and communities at large.

Room to Read

Room to Read is an international nonprofit that is fighting specifically for increased access to girls’ education alongside children’s literacy. This mission is important as more than two-thirds of the 796 million illiterate people in the world are women.

John Wood founded the nonprofit in 1998 when he visited a school in Nepal with 450 students and very few resources. Wood began with 3,000 book donations from family and friends. Wood soon left his job at Microsoft as director of business development to pursue his passion for education with co-founders Erin Ganju and Dinesh Shrestha.

Since its founding, the nonprofit has reached more than 32 million children across 15 developing nations. About 20 million children have enrolled in Room to Read’s literacy initiative and the organization has provided training to more than “200,000 teachers and librarians.” Specifically, in the arena of girls’ education, 2.8 million girls have enrolled in the organization’s girls’ education program.

Room to Read prioritizes working directly with “local governments, schools, communities and families” to highlight the importance of education “and how [these groups] can play a role in enabling students to achieve their full potential.” Additionally, 87% of the organization’s staff work in their countries of origin, ensuring that the efforts are more grassroots and built from the community.

High literacy rates are paramount for economic development, and with a continued commitment to further this at the grassroots level and beyond, global poverty rates can reduce.

– Imaan Chaudhry
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Renewable Energy in Greece

Renewable Energy in Greece
Greece has significant potential when it comes to sustainable energy, with plenty of wind, water and sun to go around. The Greek government is implementing creative solutions to rapidly propel the advancement of renewable energy in Greece.

Green Energy in Greece

For years, Greece has lagged behind other European countries in terms of renewable energy, sticking with coal as a primary source of power. While other nations installed wind and solar farms, Greece’s primary energy producer, the Public Power Corporation (PPC) insisted on burning coal for decades, causing carbon emissions to skyrocket past what they otherwise could have been. Fortunately, in the past few years, Greece and the PPC are taking steps toward renewable energy.

Overcoming Socioeconomic Obstacles

When switching to renewable energy, many nations struggle to balance the tightrope that is the free market, as dramatic sanctions on companies can have very serious economic consequences that personally affect citizens. Generally speaking, the people of Greece have supported the switch to renewable energy, but the issue is not without nuance. There is often a battle between what is affordable and what is environmentally friendly and the stakes are high for low-income families who cannot afford a higher cost of living.

As such, there are obstacles to the implementation of renewable energy in Greece. The coal industry is an enormous employer and shutting down coal energy means thousands of job losses and bankrupt businesses. Residents of the Mesohora village opposed the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the area as the dam would inevitably cause the area to flood, requiring residents to move elsewhere.

Combating Aftereffects

These foreseeable issues are not impossible to overcome and Greece is prepared to deal with them in creative ways that ensure the best outcomes for the citizens, the economy and the climate, giving hope to other nations struggling to strike a similar balance.

Perhaps the best example of this is the auction program that the European Union approved in November 2021. Greece is allotting roughly €2.27 billion to offer as incentives to help renewable energy producers. This idea is not new and often faces criticism because of the way it disrupts market competition.

However, this program solves that issue by awarding money through an auction system. Companies must compete against each other to receive this subsidy and receive judgment based on how efficient and affordable their results are. Therefore, the only companies that receive aid will be the companies that present the best and most well-balanced ideas regarding renewable energy.

At the beginning of the partnerships, the winning companies receive a set “reference price” that is a rough reflection of what the country can afford to pay. If the newly selected companies can keep their costs below that reference price, the government will pay them the difference. If their prices rise above the reference price, the company must compensate the government with the difference between prices.

This way, the government always pays the same price for renewable energy, but the companies have the motivation to keep costs as low as possible, while simultaneously having a stable market to work with.

Additionally, the Greek government has introduced subsidies for low-income families that allow them to receive free electricity from solar power plants. It is also investing money toward minimizing the effects that energy switching will have on citizens’ livelihoods.

Current Energy Situation

The transition to renewable energy in Greece is seeing success. In early April 2022, Greece opened the “largest double-sided solar farm” in all of Europe.

Interestingly, the farm construction stems from the company Hellenic Petroleum, the largest oil refinery corporation in the country, now headed for greener pastures. The solar farm will provide power to about 75,000 households, representing a significant move toward renewable energy.

For years, the PPC was adamant about using coal, but this is no longer the case. The PPC is well on its way toward clean energy. Important to note is the fact that fossil fuels are unequal — different fuels produce different amounts of carbon dioxide. For every megajoule of energy produced, high-caliber coal generates roughly 2.6 times more carbon dioxide than natural gas generates.

Low-quality coal, such as the lignite coal Greece uses, produces at least four times more carbon dioxide than natural gas does. Even though switching from one fossil fuel to another may not sound like an exceptional solution, for Greece, it could significantly reduce carbon emissions.

Therefore, the PPC is using gas as a stepping stone on its path to neutralizing emissions — the corporation plans to primarily use gas by 2025 and completely eliminate its use of coal by 2028.

Looking Ahead

Greece met its 2020 goal of renewable energy use with renewables accounting for around 22% of its total energy use. According to the country’s National Energy and Climate Plan, the nation expects to generate 61% of its energy through renewable sources by 2030. By 2050, Europe has a plan to be carbon-neutral with net-zero emissions. Renewable energy in Greece is certainly on its way to success. Despite the seemingly insurmountable economic challenges that are commonly tangled up in the renewable energy issue, the message is clear: it is possible to implement renewable energy so that everyone can have access to it.

– Mia Sharpe
Photo: Piqsels

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Macron’s Re-election and Poverty in France

Poverty in France
After a two-week campaign against Marine Le Pen, the French people re-elected Emmanuel Macron as their president on April 24, 2022, for another five-year mandate. The man who many often call the “president of the rich” has to deal with a country that is experiencing more and more inequalities today. After a first mandate in which Macron had to deal with the yellow vests or “Gilets Jaunes” movements requesting economic and social justice, France experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Poverty in France has become central to its people, whose main concern is their purchasing power amidst rising inflation. In fact, France’s inflation rate was 4.5% in March 2022.

Poverty in France

Although many know France for how it funds education, health care services and retirement pensions, the pandemic has had an impact on the French people. COVID hit parttime workers and workers in the informal economy especially hard. Additionally, many students were ineligible for state support during the pandemic, and many migrants and clandestine workers were only able to obtain support from NGOs.

The Fight Against Poverty in France Over the Last Five Years

In order to answer the needs and requests of the French people, the French government took different measures to adapt to each crisis the country was going through. Back in 2018, Macron first began with a $9.3 billion plan to fight the poverty in which nine million people in France are living.

Macron’s philosophy has always been to allow people to get out of poverty through work. Hence, Macron’s government decreased income tax and distributed a €100 bonus to low-income workers. The government adopted the “no matter the cost policy” to support businesses that the pandemic affected, thus protecting as many jobs as possible starting with the medical professionals who benefited from a €9 billion salary increase.

What About the Next Five Years?

Despite the fact that the populist class voted for Marine Le Pen, Macron has plans to continue his fight against poverty in France. The first measure Macron promised upon re-election was to provide “food cheques” to the people who cannot afford high-quality, local food.

With the ongoing war in Ukraine and the rise in prices of gas, Macron authorized subsidies for energy bills. However, the main measure of his program is to provide work and employment for people so they can get out of poverty. For that to happen, Macron is encouraging employers to recruit employees by adopting “pro-businesses reforms.”

After efforts to alleviate poverty over the last five years, the country is more in need of more reforms to fight poverty. The recently re-elected president has already started to implement some reforms and has work to do to please the important part of France’s population that is against his policies and is seeing its purchasing power diminish every day.

– Youssef Yazbek
Photo: Flickr

An Overview of the Three Seas Initiative

Three Seas Initiative
The Three Seas Initiative, which Polish President Andrzej Duda and former Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitrovic founded in 2015, is an economic forum of 12 Eastern and Central European nations created as a means for Eastern Europe to boost economic development, expand infrastructure and promote cooperation in the energy sector. The Three Seas Initiative works by securing investment for infrastructure, energy and digitization projects to rectify the gap between East-West and North-South infrastructure in Europe. As more investments continue to support digital infrastructure, energy and transportation projects, people in poverty in Eastern Europe are likely to experience greater economic prosperity through the increasing trade opportunities and greater access to markets through economic investment.

Three Seas Initiative Projects

As of July 2021, the Three Seas Initiative has 90 interconnection projects with a total estimated investment value of €180.9 billion. Registered in 2018, the Rail-2-Sea project is a Three Seas Initiative plan to build a railway connecting the port of Gdansk and the port of Constanta across Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. This plan will further link the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea over four different branches of a railway, each with its local plans for modernization.

Another Three Seas Initiative infrastructure plan is the Rail Baltica plan. This plan aims to increase infrastructural integration between Baltic Sea nations. More specifically, in a partnership with Finland, Rail Baltica is creating infrastructure to construct “missing cross-border connections” and “integrate the Baltic States in the European rail network” while dissolving “transport infrastructure bottlenecks.”

These plans are all, in one way or another, increasing economic interconnection and mobility between Eastern European nations. These infrastructural developments will provide more opportunities for people living in Eastern Europe by providing greater access to European markets and more efficient supply chains. The cheapening of consumer goods through trade is especially beneficial to low-income Eastern European citizens who could potentially afford better and more daily necessities.

Impact of the Three Seas Initiative

Nations within the Three Seas Initiative saw greater economic growth and faced less economic shock from the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other European Union (EU) nations. According to a July 2021 speech by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, “During 2015-2019 they [Three Seas Initiative nations] averaged 3.8% GDP growth a year, nearly double the rate of EU-15.” Furthermore, the economies of Three Seas nations only contracted by approximately 4% whereas Western European economies shrunk by approximately double that.

Throughout the initiative, the poverty rates of many nations, especially in Southeast Europe, have declined. For example, Romania had a poverty rate of 25.4% in 2015, the founding year of the Three Seas Initiative. Right before the pandemic in 2019, Romania’s poverty rate declined to 23.8%.

The Three Seas Initiative similarly oversaw a decrease in the risk of poverty in Hungary with 28.2% of people facing the risk of poverty in 2015 in comparison to 17.8% in 2019. Slovenia saw a decrease in poverty as well, albeit relatively minor from 13.9% in 2015 to 12% in 2018, and it only rose .4% in 2019.

The Three Seas Initiative has vast potential to deepen economic ties within Europe, foster sustainable European energy and reduce poverty. As it carries out more projects, the U.S. and the EU can continue to encourage economic investment and development of the Three Seas Initiative countries. Such economic investment and capital inflow have the potential to make Eastern Europe more prosperous while lifting people out of poverty.

– Alexander Richter
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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The Impact of USAID Programs in Timor-Leste

USAID Programs in Timor-Leste
In 1975, Timor-Leste declared independence from Portugal. In the same year, Indonesia launched a military invasion and annexed the fledgling state. In 1999, 78% of Timor-Leste’s population voted for independence from Indonesia, and in 2002, Timor-Leste finally gained full independence. The nation’s road to independence was anything but smooth, especially considering that anti-independence Indonesian militias conducted a scorched earth campaign in 1999, which led to the deaths of 2,600 civilians and the displacement of 30,000 locals. Despite these setbacks, Timor-Leste has grown into a strong democracy with multiple peaceful transfers of power.

While Timor-Leste has consolidated its political institutions, the Global Hunger Index describes the hunger level in Timor-Leste as “serious” in 2021, ranking the nation 108th out of 116 countries in terms of hunger severity. In addition, Timor-Leste ranks 121st out of 190 countries in nominal GDP per capita at $2,377 as of 2017. USAID programs in Timor-Leste continue to support Timor-Leste’s democratic institutions while also working to address Timor-Leste’s economic and infrastructural setbacks.

USAID’s Tourism for All

Launched in 2018, USAID’s Tourism for All initiative aims to promote Timor-Leste as an internationally competitive tourism destination. The project goal is to “diversify [Timor-Leste’s] economy by promoting eco-friendly tourism based on the country’s rich heritage” and promote sustainable investments from the private sector by locals, international institutions and NGOs.

One accomplishment of the Tourism for All initiative in promoting sustainability and independence from assistance is training local Timor-Leste citizens. USAID gave 611 participants in the private and public sector more than 11,000 hours of job training in hospitality, tourism and food safety. This training aims to foster a new generation of Timor-Leste locals to continue sustaining Timor-Leste’s tourism industry independent of external assistance.

In 2019 and 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to Timor-Leste’s tourism industry. However, the local Timor-Leste “Ha’u Nia Timor-Leste” campaign and USAID’s Tourism for All initiative helped pivot Timor-Leste’s tourism industry from focusing on foreign tourism to placing a greater emphasis on domestic tourism.

This partnership is based on the idea of national love for Timor-Leste and solidarity with the struggling tourism industry in the face of the pandemic. USAID describes one of the objectives of this campaign as “inspiring Timorese people to engage in recreational travel on a more regular basis and to consider taking up leisure activities such as scuba diving.”

USAID Customs Reform Project

To address Timor-Leste’s financial issues, the USAID Customs Reform Project, which began in 2017, seeks to make trade easier with Timor-Leste by implementing standard customs clearance and transit procedures. This initiative has provided Timor-Leste with technical assistance and reformed Timor-Leste’s customs process to better facilitate trade and increase domestic revenues. One way the USAID Customs Reform Project is making transit into Timor-Leste more efficient is through the development of the Inter-Ministerial Despacho in 2019 to standardize and integrate the operating hours between customs authority and other government agencies.

To further facilitate transit into Timor-Leste, the Customs Reform Project has been implementing anti-corruption measures. In 2019, the USAID team began to develop training material for a Code of Conduct. Furthermore, during the same year, the USAID Customs Reform Project developed an Interests, Assets and Liabilities Declaration form that any customs authority staff must complete. These employees must declare their own and their direct family’s financial interests, assets, liabilities and any potential conflicts of interest. These drafted reforms intend to stifle corruption while ensuring the more efficient transit of goods in Timor-Leste.

Looking Ahead

USAID programs in Timor-Leste promote economic investment, anti-corruption measures and the elimination of unnecessary trade barriers. While Timor-Leste has come a long way since its independence from Portugal and Indonesia, economic issues and oil dependency still plague Timor-Leste. USAID programs in Timor-Leste continue to play an important role in addressing and mitigating these issues.

– Alexander Richter
Photo: Flickr

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Women’s Rights in Japan

Women’s Rights in Japan
The World Economic Forum ranks countries’ progress toward gender equality by assessing gender gaps across four categories: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival and Political Empowerment. According to its 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, Japan ranks 120th out of the 156 included countries. This lower-end ranking highlights the struggle for the progression of women’s rights in Japan. For example, despite Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s intention to implement gender equality reforms, particularly in the workplace, Japan scores very poorly in the Economic Participation and Opportunity index, with only 60.4% of this gap closed as of 2021. A closer look at women’s rights in Japan within the political and workplace environments provides insight into the country’s progress.

Japan’s Political Arena

Women endure significant underrepresentation in Japan’s political environment, with only 45 women elected to the 465-member House of Representatives in 2021. As such, the Inter-Parliamentary Union ranked Japan 165th on its index of women in national parliaments. The 2003 prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, set the missed target of having 30% females in leadership positions by 2020. Since then, Japan has set several other goals for gender equity with little to no action. Yuriko Koike, the governor of Tokyo, referred to the gender inequality barrier for women as an “iron plate” rather than simply a “glass ceiling.” With such underrepresentation in government, women’s rights in Japan remain an issue with limited advocates for aggressive policy changes.

Women in the Workplace

According to the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, 72% of Japanese women participate in the workforce, however, “the share of women working part-time roles is almost twice that of men.” Although Shinzo Abe, serving from 2012 to 2020, urged companies to bring more women into management positions, his efforts effectively stopped there. While there are laws that ensure equality between men and women and there are courts to hear cases of discrimination, litigation is a long (averaging five years), expensive and inconsistent process. There also remains the cultural shame of pursuing such a case.

Overwhelmingly, parenting in Japan falls on the women to ensure children succeed in a highly competitive educational system. Certain policies have emerged to alleviate some burdens, such as 12 months of parental leave at 50% income. There are also programs in place for the provision of childcare services. However, these changes have proven to be largely ineffective as the demand for childcare services grows significantly faster than the supply and there is a lack of legally binding authority for parental leave policies. Many employers, especially in small organizations, do not have specific policies around parental leave. The societal view of a woman’s place within the household is still visible in the workplace, which shows in the policies surrounding women’s rights.

Women’s Rights Progress

One success for Japanese women is that there is no gender gap in educational opportunity in terms of primary education. In addition, Japan has closed “95.3% of its secondary enrolment education gender gap and 95.2% of its tertiary enrolment education gender gap.”

For other areas of improvement, there are organizations advocating for more women in leadership positions. For example, the Japanese Women’s Leadership Initiative “empowers Japanese women to become leaders and to make positive social change and innovation in Japan.” The initiative started in 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts, with three women, Atsuko Toko Fish, Mary Lassen and Catherine Crone Coburn. The program invited emerging women leaders in Japan to participate in a four-week training during which they would develop action plans to create social change after returning to Japan. After receiving more funding, JWLI expanded to hold public forums in Japan, reaching hundreds of Japanese citizens.

Politically, the new Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, reinforces his predecessor’s commitment to promote gender equality and “become one of U.N. Women’s top contributors.”

The advancement of women’s rights in Japan may entail a long journey of fundamental reform within Japanese society, but with the pressing need for women’s economic contributions to end poverty and the rise of more women wishing to join the workplace, Japan will need to prioritize changes to women’s rights in the workplace. Although slowly, the Japanese government is taking steps toward transforming the nation into a more equitable society. Often, change does not happen linearly, but rather, exponentially. Perhaps it is Japan’s time for exponential change.

– Rachael So
Photo: Unsplash

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Ukraine’s Invasion and the Food Crisis in Egypt

Food Crisis in Egypt
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 unleashed numerous consequences on the global economy, the domino effect of some of them still playing out. The increase in fuel prices in the wake of the invasion has received much media attention. However, a more overlooked consequence of the disruption of exports from both Russia and Ukraine is the detrimental effect on global food security, causing a global wheat shortage. The food crisis in Egypt has been a particular challenge.

Invasion and Wheat Exports

In 2019, Russia was the largest exporter of wheat in the world. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, Russia and Ukraine together produced 25.4% of global wheat exports. In addition to wheat, the Russian and Ukrainian markets are vital global sources for other essential food items such as corn, sugar and oil. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, the invasion could reduce wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine by 12%.

“Exports are lowered for Ukraine by four million tonnes to 20 million, as the conflict in that country is expected to disrupt exports from the Black Sea region,” according to the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.

Food Prices Inflation

Global food prices had been already steadily inflating since the beginning of the pandemic due to disruptions to supply chains. The sudden blacklisting of Russian exports and the disruption of the Ukrainian economy have spiked this inflation in recent months, with the stock market value of global agricultural commodities sharply increasing. This sudden wheat shortage in an already inflated economy is beginning to detrimentally affect food security in many developing countries reliant on Russian and Ukraine exports, such as Egypt, Sudan and Kenya.

The Egyptian Wheat Shortage

Egypt, where bread is a staple food with almost every meal, is the world’s largest importer of wheat, spending $5.2 billion in 2020. In 2021, 80% of Egyptian wheat imports came from Russia and Ukraine. The war between the two countries has therefore had a massive effect on the Egyptian economy and food security. The price of wheat has increased by 44%, compounding the price hike to the subsidized cost of bread the government had announced only weeks prior to the start of the conflict.

Subsidizing Dilemma

The subsidizing of bread costs has long been an economic staple of successive Egyptian governments, and its price increase represents an existential shift for Egyptians, resulting in a food crisis in Egypt.

“Keeping bread affordable to the poor has for 60 years been something of an informal social contract between citizens and the political authority,” said Egyptian sociologist Ammar Ali Hassan. “The symbolism associated with the loaf of bread goes well beyond it being just a consumer item. In reality, it defines the bond between people and the state.” Indeed, many analysts point to the rising cost of food, particularly bread, as the breaking factor that sparked the Egyptian revolution of 2011. Therefore, the question of food security is also one of political security for both the Egyptian people and the government – and the global wheat shortage is pushing it into the forefront of Egyptian policy in 2022.

In the aftermath of the invasion, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly stated that the government will go ahead with the price raise despite the global wheat shortage’s impact on imports. Madbouly pointed to the five-month worth of strategic wheat reserves as a stopgap measure. However, with the conflict not deescalating since it began, the Egyptian government is beginning to explore new alternatives to, in the short term, brave this global wheat shortage, and in the long term, lessen this dependence on food imports.

The Path to Self Sufficiency

On March 28, the Minister of Agriculture Ali Moselhi announced that the Egyptian government will seek to procure 6 million tonnes of wheat from local farmers during the upcoming wheat season between April and June, offering incentives to sell to the government rather than to the private sector. However, resolving challenges to wheat self-sufficiency in Egypt is not possible overnight.

The main challenge for the domestic agricultural industry to meet Egyptian demand and counter the current global wheat shortage is water scarcity. According to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, 97% of Egypt’s water is sourced from the Nile at 54 billion cubic meters, well below the 114 billion annual demand of the country’s fast-growing population of 100 million.

Therefore, for Egypt to be able to develop the means to domestically produce wheat for its population, it must address its long-standing water scarcity issue – and it is here where international efforts and expertise can aid Egypt in its endeavor to combat food insecurity and poverty. “The water issue is a pivotal issue in the field of achieving sustainable development, which requires increased cooperation and exchange of experiences between different countries of the world in the field of water,” said Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Atti.

The World Food Program (WFP) and the Food Crisis in Egypt

One existing avenue to aid in alleviating the food crisis in Egypt is through the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Operating in Egypt since 1968, “the U.N. agency’s operations in Egypt are designed to respond to the country’s long-term food and nutrition insecurity.” In recent years, it has been collaborating with the Sisi government in achieving Egypt Vision 2030, a 10-pillar strategy toward sustainable political, economic and social development. Food security is to be a crucial factor to achieve in this 2030 vision and the WFP in Egypt currently collaborates with the Egyptian government to strengthen these public institutions.

The Future

First, the COVID-19 pandemic and now the sudden events in Ukraine have shown that developing countries cannot rely on supply chains for crucial commodities such as basic foodstuffs. In fact, this has long been an issue exacerbating world poverty and food insecurity even before the pandemic. While the Russian invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated food shortages around the world, it also presents an opportunity for countries long reliant on food imports to develop sustainable domestic resources to build new self-sufficient agricultural infrastructure and economic systems.

The United States and other global leaders in the international community must also seize this opportunity, providing financial aid and expertise to nation-building projects such as Egypt Vision 2030. In the short term, the immediate expansion of WFP operations in Egypt and other countries it operates in detrimentally by the Ukrainian conflict can allow these countries to set off on the path of food security while also mitigating the short term poverty and hunger the global wheat shortage could cause in 2022.

– Majeed Malhas
Photo: Flickr