The Migratory Birds is a newspaper that 15 Afghan refugees founded while working with the Network for Children’s Rights Center in Athens, Greece. The paper’s mission is to report the situations and the lives of refugees within the youth center. Refugees have always lacked a voice in the media, which led to Migratory Birds’ goal of providing them with one. Operating out a youth center in Athens, many journalists spanning many different countries and origins are coming together to share the stories of those whose hasn’t been shared before.
Refugee-Led Initiative in Greece
Migratory Birds, a bi-product of the Young Journalists program, which, “boasts a bi-monthly circulation of 13,000″ is the only still standing initiative in Greece that refugees are reading, according to The World.
Each issue of Migratory Birds has articles that consist of first-hand accounts about life as a refugee. This, among others, includes love poems refugees write and recipes for traditional dishes from the author’s home country. The local distribution route of Migratory Birds goes to refugee camps and various humanitarian organizations all throughout Greece.
Founding Voices
Mahdia Hosseini, 28 and Fatima Sedaghat, 16, are the founders of Migratory Birds and work at the Network for Children’s Rights Youth Center in Athens, Greece. These two met in a refugee camp called Schisto, which is also located in Athens. They, along with 13 other refugees, founded the newspaper because they wanted to change the way the mainstream media represents refugees and migrants, The World reports.
The main motivator behind the project was the fear that refugees felt when talking to journalists. A fear that came from not having their stories shown to the world in a proper manner. The goal of the publication is to “empower the social integration of adolescent and young refugees and fight xenophobia.” The publication dedicates itself to the principles of journalism, promoting conversations across a variety of cultures and helping young people express themselves.
Operating from a youth center based in Kolonos, a neighborhood within Athens, the mission of Migratory Birds is to share the truth regarding the lives of refugees in the Schisto camp, “their fears and frustrations and hopes and dreams,” according to The World.
First-Hand Accounts
Hosseini has a desire to show the world who refugees truly are because she feels that most people don’t possess a true understanding of refugees. “I think we needed to be heard and for people to understand us, I mean refugees and migrants,” she said to The World.
The freedom of speech, an essential right to all but especially to these aspiring journalists was an opportunity provided by Migratory Birds. The newspaper gave these refugees something that wasn’t available in their home countries. Abdul Rashid, a 16-year-old refugee from Afghanistan and a member of Migratory Birds said that he’s happy that he gets to write about what he experienced during migration without fear, The World reports.
Morteza, who is a member of the Young Journalists team, described the way that mainstream media often covers refugee stories. “Eventually what comes out is often the story of the ‘miserable refugee.’ I think this is unfair. That is why I participate in the Newspaper ‘Migratory Birds.’ We write our own stories, we get to know the world and we give people the opportunity to get to know us better,” he said.
The Problem
Exactly how does the media represent refugees? Social psychology defines the “identifiable victim effect,” as people interacting differently with words and images that depict the struggles of a single person rather than groups of people.
Western media commonly represents refugees as “anonymous, faceless masses.” The result of this depiction is the audience feeling detached from the hardships the subject has to face. According to The Conversation, a recent study showed pictures of refugees to almost 4,000 Europeans. After showing them images of large groups or images where they cannot identify the individual, viewers showed increased desensitization of the refugees at that point. Some of the responses from the test subjects revealed that they felt refugees are a crisis in the countries that they journey to.
Migratory Birds seeks to share the whole truth regarding the lives of the refugees living within camps in Athens, Greece. Due to a lack of a proper voice in mainstream media, Migratory Birds took the mission of providing them with one onto themselves. By bringing together journalists that come from various backgrounds and cultures, the publication desires to give refugees proper and genuine representation, so the world can know what life as a refugee is truly like.
– Henry Hyman
Photo: Flickr
Australia’s New Points-Based Welfare System
Australia’s new points-based welfare system will come into effect beginning July 1, 2022. The program, which seeks to modify the existing welfare system to make receiving government help accessible to those who need it, is controversial. According to the Department of Education, the program counts various tasks and activities for points.
New Points-Based Welfare System to Alleviate Poverty
Attending a job interview, for example, counts for 20 points while completing a job application counts for five, according to The Guardian. Australia, despite having one of the highest GDPs worldwide—ranks 13 out of 195— reports one in eight individuals live in poverty. Australia’s new points-based welfare system seeks to alleviate poverty by encouraging people to enter or reenter the workforce so that they do not require as much welfare.
Proponents of the policy argue that the program will expedite aid to those in need and will make restrictions less rigid. Critics suggest that the program’s reliance on technology to decide which applicants are in need is subject to bias and error, The Guardian reported.
Under the new welfare system, job seekers will not have to satisfy the current requirement of applying to 20 jobs to qualify for welfare payments, which many consider rigid.
Instead, the government will implement a points-based system where jobseekers will need to accumulate a certain number of points over the course of the month to be eligible for the welfare payment for that month. The new system is controversial, as proponents think it will solve some of Australia’s existing welfare issues, while critics suggest that it will limit welfare to those in need.
Unemployment Inequalities
Though the country’s unemployment rate as of 2022 is 3.5%, which is relatively low, many still find themselves in need of work. In 2020, 13.6% of Australians lived below the poverty line. Scholars and academics in Australia often hold that the country’s political and social structure is much to blame for entrenched inequality.
A 2010 Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) report explains that some of the existing inequalities are because Australians are not able to take advantage of their existing opportunities. Other inequalities exist because the system is not able to support the number of people who require aid. Moreover, that report also notes that the number of people living in poverty in 2006 was 11%.
Socio-Economic Problems
The main problem that Australia faces is that its low unemployment rate masks many of the socio-economic problems that the country faces. Many individuals work part-time or reduced hours, so though they have employment, they are not making the same that a full-time salaried person would make, the ACOSS report shows.
The same report explains that the percentage of Australians living in poverty while working, known as the working poor, has grown by 9.4% from 2003 to 2006. However, the issue remains that although many individuals struggle to make ends meet, they do not qualify for most of the government support that exists in Australia as they have formal employment but are not making enough to live comfortably.
Though most Australians remain in the workforce at least to some extent, the necessary income does not flow to those in need. Therefore, the welfare system is under strain, as people are still in need, though they may find help difficult to come by. Australia’s new points-based welfare system is attempting to redirect aid directly to those most in need.
As of 2020, one in six children in Australia was living in poverty, which leads to significant socio-economic inequality later in life. For example, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to complete secondary education than children from higher socio-economic backgrounds. This disparity exacerbates as people age, as those who complete more school often have more job opportunities later in life.
Looking Ahead
The poverty rate appears to have slowed during the last decade, as it sits at about 13%. Though 13% is still high, Australians look to the slower rate as a sign that policy-alleviating efforts, such as Australia’s new points-based welfare system, across the country are effective. The new welfare system has not had enough time to go into effect, but those tracking poverty in Australia are hopeful that the new system will curb the poverty rate, as it targets Australians most in need.
– Lara Drinan
Photo: Flickr
Low Unemployment in Japan During COVID-19
Reports at the end of May 2022 showed that unemployment in Japan had been on a decreasing trend for three consecutive months, with the job-to-applicant ratio rising for four months in a row to 1.23. Noting that, this country’s unemployment rate is also significantly lower than in many other wealthy states.
Experience of Japan’s Job Market During COVID-19
It is reasonable to imagine a harsh hit on job seekers everywhere as COVID-19 spreads globally. By July 2021, the pandemic had taken 22 million working positions away from people in advanced countries. However, many have figured out how to cope with the impact of COVID-19. Japan is a country that has done so.
On the one hand, Japan could not entirely escape the adverse effects on employment during the pandemic. In April 2020, approximately three months after China experienced the first significant breakout of COVID-19, the Japanese government ordered emergency acts that postponed many paid employment. Within a month, the unemployment rate in Japan rose by 0.1%, reaching 2.6%.
On the other hand, the Japanese job market started to revive and the unemployment rate in Japan has generally been decreasing since then, despite some ups and downs. According to MENAFN, by April 2022, Japan’s unemployment rate was 2.5%, even lower than it had been two years earlier.
Among all the members of the OECD, the unemployment rate in Japan is low and steady even in the pandemic era. The U.S. youth unemployment rate reached 15.1% in 2020 and the Euro area’s rate has never gone below 7% since the COVID-19 breakout. However, Japan’s unemployment has never exceeded 4% during that same period.
What Has Given the Japanese Job Market Relative Stability?
Japanese enterprises do not easily place the need of shareholders over employees’ welfare as they prioritize the long-term sustainability of the business instead of maximizing growth. Therefore, this resulted in fewer people losing their jobs as a result of the pandemic.
The social context of Japan is very different from that of Western countries. The Japanese working environment is very high-pressure. Twenty-two percent of Japanese workers had to work more than 50 hours a week despite the fact that the official working hour is 40 hours per week.
The Japanese government implemented effective measures to ensure its citizens’ job security. The government provided subsidies for employers. Subsidies paid for part of the compensation to the workers who had to go on leave, so the companies would not have to fire them. Additionally, the application process for the subsidies was easy.
One should note that people who are still holding occupations but are not practically working do not count as unemployed. For example, if an employer postponed some of his workers’ work (i.e. force them to take on leave), these people would not be unemployed. Thus, the employment rate indicator does not address many families with difficulties, according to Nippon.com
Overall, the pandemic affected the unemployment rate in Japan to a much smaller extent due to both Japan’s unique social background and the governmental effort. This rate is still steadily declining.
– Ella Li
Photo: Flickr
Helping Afghanistan Recover from Earthquakes
On June 22, 2022, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake devastated eastern Afghanistan. An aftershock struck the same area, temporarily stopping all aid and recovery efforts on June 24. The earthquakes took the lives of approximately 1,000 people and destroyed nearly 10,000 houses, a number that poor rural infrastructure in Afghanistan exacerbated. The immediate danger stemming from the earthquake has now subsided and hundreds of thousands of Afghans still desperately need medical attention, shelter and aid. Fortunately, the international community has met the call to action. Here are four ways the international community is helping Afghanistan recover from its deadly earthquakes.
Temporary Shelters
Several countries and organizations have sent temporary shelters to Afghanistan. Poor rural infrastructure, with many people living in mud homes, characterizes much of the affected portion of Afghanistan. On June 23, the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) delivered 600 tents, 4,200 blankets and 1,200 plastic sheets to the country alongside other household supplies such as buckets and solar lamps. The U.S. announced on June 28 that it will be delivering temporary shelters to the country, though it has not disclosed the quantity. In all, the U.S. will send temporary shelters alongside water collection vessels, blankets, lamps, pots and clothes.
Medical Supplies
Now that the immediate danger of the earthquake has passed and rescue efforts have concluded, the difficult task of treating survivors and dealing with the medical fallout associated with temporary shelters and natural disaster aftermath begins. The already overburdened medical system in Afghanistan, with many hospitals being understaffed or outright closed due to a lack of supplies and personnel, has made the situation worse. Neighboring countries, the United States, UNHCR and the World Health Organization (WHO) are helping Afghanistan by delivering medical supplies.
On June 22, hours after the initial earthquake, WHO sent 10 tonnes of medical equipment to the region, enough to perform 5,400 surgeries and treat an estimated 36,000 people. In addition to treating survivors, much of the medical equipment will go towards preventative measures. The population of East Afghanistan is in severe danger of waterborne illness in the coming weeks and months. To counter this, much of the supplies that UNHCR and the United States sent come in the form of sanitation, hygiene and water supplies.
Workers on the Ground
UNHCR deployed several exports to Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. The workers helped set up shelters and supply food and household goods to some 4,200 survivors. Further, additional teams from UNHCR have worked to set up supply hubs in three separate districts in east Afghanistan to facilitate rapid aid delivery. The World Health Organization sent eight ambulances and 20 medical teams alongside medical supplies on June 22.
Financial Support
The government of Afghanistan may have some difficulties in receiving financial aid from citizens of the world as well as some countries due to the heavy sanctions that the United States imposed on them. Donations to crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe cannot transfer to Afghanistan banks for that very reason. The U.S. announced on June 28, that it will provide $55 million in aid, some of which is purely financial. However, there have been several calls for the United States to unfreeze some Afghan assets in order to facilitate humanitarian relief. The government of South Korea pledged on June 23, financial support totaling $1 million to help Afghanistan recover from its deadly earthquake.
Looking Ahead
Efforts in helping Afghanistan recover from its deadly earthquakes are well underway. Delivery of medical supplies, temporary shelters, household goods and financial aid have been plentiful and will continue to ease the suffering of thousands of Afghans. Additional help on the ground from UNHCR and other agencies has also sped up the recovery process while keeping victims of the earthquakes safe. Despite this, the recovery will remain a long and arduous task. Fortunately, the international community has thus far been sufficient in providing aid and shows no signs of stopping.
– Benjamin Brown
Photo: Flickr
4 Countries Supporting Women’s Education and Careers
Discrepancies in pay for women are nothing new. However, the ongoing inequality has led to overwhelming financial losses across the globe. In 2018, the World Bank estimated that a lack of equal pay and opportunity for women globally accounts for a striking $160 trillion global deficit. Countries like Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and Vietnam–which are responsible for large exports of apparel globally–are seeking to correct outdated practices by supporting women’s education and careers in hopes of building a greater future.
Egypt
U.N. Women’s gender-focused education project aims to promote economic growth within the country. By focusing on young women and girls, the initiatives encourage formal education and business communities. Educational policymakers are in connection as well to formally improve the connection of education of women to employment. As a result, there have been 205 completed infrastructure improvements, the building and funding of four new community schools and interactive learning techniques and methods with 3,990 students. Additionally, the project has helped mothers to better understand financial literacy and the importance of their daughters’ education.
Turkey
Turkey has the second-highest rate of young unemployed people. While only 34.5% of women have entered the workforce in Turkey, the country is working hard to initiate a movement toward women’s career and education growth. The Young Women Building Their Future program focuses on the nearly 3.5 million women in Turkey who have not had access to formal schooling or vocational training.
Governmental developmental goals focused on supporting women’s education and careers seek to “leave no one behind” and provide opportunities specifically to young women designed to help them enter, navigate and succeed in the workforce.
Pakistan
Pakistan has set inclusive gender growth participation targets to rise from 26% to 45%. In the last 22 years, the participation rate has almost doubled but the World Bank and other programs, are seeking to increase educational and career rates at an even faster pace.
Because work for pay increases with formal education, the country seeks to move beyond the only 10% of college-educated women in the coming years. With pay increasing three-fold for women with formal secondary education, this goal could contribute to decreasing poverty rates as well as inequality.
Vietnam
Vietnam has developed the National Strategy on Gender Equality with female-focused entrepreneurship goals set for the 2021-2030 period. Among those goals, promoting gender equality and employment opportunities for women–who make up approximately 50% of the overall population–is at the forefront of goals.
With goals such as focusing on reducing unpaid work by women, promoting women to director and ownership positions of business, as well as reducing domestic and gender-based violence also at the forefront, the country hopes to combat poverty rates with opportunities for women.
As these countries come together with goals of reducing poverty through supporting women’s education and careers, the future is bright for the current and future generations.
– Michelle Collingridge
Photo: Flickr
Pharmaceutical Companies are Changing Global Health Care
Prior to the last decade, getting medicinal aid to poor countries in Africa was a challenge due to the high prices of disease-fighting drugs and the negligence of the pharmaceutical companies of the world, but there are some pharmaceutical companies changing global health care. Some drugs that helped combat deadly diseases like HIV, malaria and tuberculosis could have cost up to nearly $15,000 a year. The pharmaceutical companies in the past were more concerned with making a profit rather than saving the world’s poor. However, an incredible turnaround has occurred during the last decade and now as many as 20 million Africans have access to drugs and medicines to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria for as little as $100 per year.
The Change
Pharmaceutical companies began changing global health care about a decade ago when they experienced international backlash for their disregard for the struggling healthcare systems of the world’s poorest countries and their inability to combat diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. This led to countries similar to South Africa legally suspending drug patents which allowed for small national companies in South Africa to begin producing cheaper alternatives to the highly expensive mainstream HIV drugs. Pharmaceutical companies dropped their lawsuits after the international backlash and instead decided to compete in these poor countries.
Competition Bred Change
The best way for many pharmaceutical companies to remain competitive in the global health care market is to cut their prices and sub-license their patents to generic drug makers. Price cuts have allowed for more than 400 drugs to sell cheaper than ever in Africa. Sub-licensing allows generic drug makers to temporarily have access to patents that pharmaceutical companies created, allowing them to cheaply and effectively create about 30 HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C drugs over the last decade.
Newest Improvements
The most recent way that pharmaceutical companies are changing global health care is with the creation of Sanofi Global Health and their new brand Impact. Sanofi launched its nonprofit branch Sanofi Global Health in 2021 and dedicated its efforts to providing drug distribution and better healthcare implementation in the world’s poorest countries.
One of the most significant elements of Sanofi Global Health is Foundation S, which can fight childhood cancer in the poorest nations in the world, as well as increase health care access to populations that changing weather patterns most affect. The grandest aspect of Foundation S is the dedication to providing 100,000 free vials of treatment for patients with lysosomal storage disorders (LSD) every year.
The Most Significant Impacts
Sanofi Global Health just announced its new brand Impact on July 4, which promises to be one of the most influential announcements of the decade in terms of pharmaceutical companies changing global health care. Sanofi and Impact will target the poorest and most vulnerable regions of the world, providing 40 of the lowest-income countries with 30 Sanofi drugs and medicines. Among the medicines include insulin and treatment for tuberculosis, malaria and even cancer.
The Impact project also includes a fund for aiding startup companies in these poor countries so that the companies can one day provide sustainable health care within their own nation. This fund supports technical and financial applications of healthcare company innovation while working closely with other nonprofits to train healthcare professionals and increase investment in the healthcare industry.
Looking Ahead
The world’s poorest countries are certainly experiencing a never-before-seen increase in the quality of health care thanks to pharmaceutical companies and their commitment to changing global health care. With more than 40 countries receiving life-changing drugs and investments in their own health care systems, it is possible that this new age of global health care will change the lives of millions of the world’s poor.
– Declan Harkness
Photo: Flickr
Migratory Birds: Representing The Un-Represented
Refugee-Led Initiative in Greece
Migratory Birds, a bi-product of the Young Journalists program, which, “boasts a bi-monthly circulation of 13,000″ is the only still standing initiative in Greece that refugees are reading, according to The World.
Each issue of Migratory Birds has articles that consist of first-hand accounts about life as a refugee. This, among others, includes love poems refugees write and recipes for traditional dishes from the author’s home country. The local distribution route of Migratory Birds goes to refugee camps and various humanitarian organizations all throughout Greece.
Founding Voices
Mahdia Hosseini, 28 and Fatima Sedaghat, 16, are the founders of Migratory Birds and work at the Network for Children’s Rights Youth Center in Athens, Greece. These two met in a refugee camp called Schisto, which is also located in Athens. They, along with 13 other refugees, founded the newspaper because they wanted to change the way the mainstream media represents refugees and migrants, The World reports.
The main motivator behind the project was the fear that refugees felt when talking to journalists. A fear that came from not having their stories shown to the world in a proper manner. The goal of the publication is to “empower the social integration of adolescent and young refugees and fight xenophobia.” The publication dedicates itself to the principles of journalism, promoting conversations across a variety of cultures and helping young people express themselves.
Operating from a youth center based in Kolonos, a neighborhood within Athens, the mission of Migratory Birds is to share the truth regarding the lives of refugees in the Schisto camp, “their fears and frustrations and hopes and dreams,” according to The World.
First-Hand Accounts
Hosseini has a desire to show the world who refugees truly are because she feels that most people don’t possess a true understanding of refugees. “I think we needed to be heard and for people to understand us, I mean refugees and migrants,” she said to The World.
The freedom of speech, an essential right to all but especially to these aspiring journalists was an opportunity provided by Migratory Birds. The newspaper gave these refugees something that wasn’t available in their home countries. Abdul Rashid, a 16-year-old refugee from Afghanistan and a member of Migratory Birds said that he’s happy that he gets to write about what he experienced during migration without fear, The World reports.
Morteza, who is a member of the Young Journalists team, described the way that mainstream media often covers refugee stories. “Eventually what comes out is often the story of the ‘miserable refugee.’ I think this is unfair. That is why I participate in the Newspaper ‘Migratory Birds.’ We write our own stories, we get to know the world and we give people the opportunity to get to know us better,” he said.
The Problem
Exactly how does the media represent refugees? Social psychology defines the “identifiable victim effect,” as people interacting differently with words and images that depict the struggles of a single person rather than groups of people.
Western media commonly represents refugees as “anonymous, faceless masses.” The result of this depiction is the audience feeling detached from the hardships the subject has to face. According to The Conversation, a recent study showed pictures of refugees to almost 4,000 Europeans. After showing them images of large groups or images where they cannot identify the individual, viewers showed increased desensitization of the refugees at that point. Some of the responses from the test subjects revealed that they felt refugees are a crisis in the countries that they journey to.
Migratory Birds seeks to share the whole truth regarding the lives of the refugees living within camps in Athens, Greece. Due to a lack of a proper voice in mainstream media, Migratory Birds took the mission of providing them with one onto themselves. By bringing together journalists that come from various backgrounds and cultures, the publication desires to give refugees proper and genuine representation, so the world can know what life as a refugee is truly like.
– Henry Hyman
Photo: Flickr
Women Entrepreneurs in South Asia
The COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed significant growth in global e-commerce sales. As a result of pandemic regulations, such as lockdown, social distancing and the enclosure of in-person workspaces, people are becoming increasingly reliant on digital technologies and businesses. In fact, retail e-commerce sales surged to approximately $4.9 trillion in 2021 worldwide. Projections have stated that this figure could increase to $7.4 trillion by 2025. The boom in e-commerce has been particularly salient in South Asia, where the e-commerce sector saw nearly 600% growth. Such conditions gave many entrepreneurs unprecedented opportunities. Most notably, women entrepreneurs in South Asia have used these opportunities to not only realize their own visions but also to educate and inspire others to create tangible change. The following are three women entrepreneurs in South Asia proactively giving back to their communities:
Maheen Adamjee
Maheen Adamjee is the founder of Dot & Line, an education startup originally set to provide at-home tutoring to Pakistani students. As the pandemic hit, however, Adamjee saw the opportunity in e-learning and rewrote the startup’s business plan to offer online tutoring sessions. Dot & Line is now a successful international online learning platform that matches students with certified tutors.
Adamjee exemplifies entrepreneurial creativity and resilience, turning the COVID-19 pandemic from a risk factor into a business opportunity. She has since participated in #OneSouthAsia Conversation, a series of online events that offer a platform for discussing ideas for regional cooperation in business, and reached more than 5,000 women through this medium. During these conferences, Adamjee shared many practical tips she extrapolated from her own experience, including specificities on transitioning from in-person services to online services.
She further noted the cultural and financial barriers that prevent Pakistani women from starting a business. In addition to telling her story as a source of empowerment for other women entrepreneurs, Adamjee pointed out that the digital economy allows women to overcome tariffs and trade barriers to exploit new consumer groups across national boundaries.
Ayanthi Gurusinghe
Ayanthi Gurusinghe is the founder of Cord360.com, a B2B platform enabling small buyers and sellers of a variety of products to connect with each other, according to the World Bank. Gurusinghe, like Adamjee, identified the rapid growth of e-commerce as an unparalleled opportunity for trading across borders.
Hoping to help other women take advantage of this opportunity, Gurusinghe launched training courses on Cord360.com to educate enterprising women business owners about international markets. This way, she is encouraging more women to trade products across Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.
Sairee Chahal
Sairee Chahal is the founder of SHEROES, an online community for women that offers career advice, job leads, training, legal advice and a free counseling hotline based in Bangladesh and India. The community operates in Bangladesh and India, among other countries. The site experienced enormous success during the pandemic, with its membership increasing from 16 million to 22 million.
Chahal also participated in the #OneSouthAsia Conversation series. During the conference, she noted the policy changes that needed to occur to support and empower women entrepreneurs. Not only would this be beneficial for the women business owners, but this would also offer enormous economic growth for the countries in question. In particular, Chahal noted that the government ought to reform discriminatory laws and policies, provide funding targeted toward women-owned businesses and create school textbooks that show women in a variety of careers.
In addition to using these women’s stories as inspiration for more women to tap into the world of e-commerce, the above-mentioned women entrepreneurs in South Asia are acting to create tangible change in their communities, whether by advocating for policy change in regional conferences or providing free guidance through their business platforms. Through their efforts, as well as the efforts of many other similar-minded businesswomen, the pandemic-induced boom in the digital economy could significantly increase women’s access to the business sector in South Asia.
– Emily Xin
Photo: Flickr
Ending Malaria and NTDs by 2030
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020, there were approximately 241 million malaria cases globally. The African region accounted for 95% of the cases and 96% of the deaths. However, governments and other organizations, and companies have recently pledged to end malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by 2030.
Historic Kigali Summit
On June 23, global leaders led by Rwanda President Paul Kagame convened at the Kigali Summit on malaria and neglected tropical diseases. This historic summit was the first to discuss these diseases in Africa. Members of the summit convened to discuss and introduce solutions and strategies to end malaria and neglected tropical diseases by 2030. The summit caused governments, companies, organizations, philanthropists and others in the private sector to commit more than $4 billion. Countries that these diseases affected donated more than $2.2 billion. Supporters similar to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Pfizer pledged a combined donation of more than one billion dollars to the cause. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies donated 18 billion medicine tablets to prevent and treat neglected tropical diseases.
The attendees highlighted specific goals to achieve to follow WHO’s global malaria strategy for 2016 to 2030. Some of the goals to reach completion by 2030 include:
Past Progress in Ending Malaria and NTDs
In the past, governments and other organizations have been working hard to end malaria and neglected tropical diseases. With the increase in government funding and access to treatment, malaria and neglected tropical diseases cases have decreased.
Here are a few achievements:
Impact of Kigali Summit
While malaria and NTD cases have decreased since 2020, there is still a long way to go. The 2022 Global Malaria Action Plan by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, a group of more than 500 organizations dedicated to ending malaria, emphasizes that 3.3 billion people in 109 countries are at risk of malaria. Each year, 185,000 people die because of an NTD. However, the Kigali Summit provides greater opportunities for treatment and preventative measures to fight these two deadly diseases for people worldwide, impacting billions of people.
The summit also demonstrates the cooperation of countries, organizations, and others and their dedication toward one goal. Because of the African leaders’ persistence through the COVID-19 crisis, they were able to secure high-level commitments of billions of dollars. The world is one step closer to the goal to end malaria and neglected tropical diseases by 2030.
Looking Ahead
Malaria and NTDs have affected billions of people across many countries worldwide. The dedication from governments, organizations and members of the private sector indicates a different future, one free of these deadly diseases. At the Kigali Summit, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that “…we have the tools and the strategy to prevent that – and, with new tools, to start to dream of a malaria-free-world.”
– Janae O’Connell
Photo: Wikipedia Commons
Effects of Water Pollution in Egypt
Since the days of the pharaoh, the Nile River has long served as the heart of the Egyptian community and provided 97% of the country’s water. However, currently, the Nile River is in a dire state due to massive strain from pollution and changing weather patterns. Being the lifeline of the nation, the state of the Nile River is not only symbolic of the current state of Egypt but all the water supply that runs through the city. The effects of water pollution in Egypt are now impacting the entire country and making it harder to access clean water.
Water Pollution in Egypt
To call the effects of water pollution in Egypt pernicious is an understatement, as the country has continued its struggle to access clean water. Being that most of Egypt depends on the Nile as its source of water, the fact that the river is being continuously contaminated with overwhelming amounts of items such as discharge, toxic chemicals, fertilizer residue, radioactive waste and oil pollution is truly horrific and dangerously deadly.
Another large cause of pollution in the water of Egypt can relate to certain Egyptian traditions. These customs include ridding their waste by casting it into the river while bathing and cleaning their animals in this same river water. These effects lead to mass breakouts of diseases, such as schistosomes, according to Save The Water.
In northern parts of Egypt, many citizens gain their water access from the Mediterranean Sea. However, according to Dr. Abu Alaa Abdel Moneim in his studies on the Mediterranean Sea, “720,000,000 tons of sewage, 142,000 tons of mineral oil, 66,000 tons of mercury, 4,200 tons of lead and 40,000 tons of phosphates” all end up in the sea, Save The Water reported. People then use this water for drinking and other daily activities, which can lead to illness, diseases and even death.
Facing Water Deficit
Another issue that plagues Egypt is its lack of rainfall. On average, Egypt receives less than 80 mm of rainfall a year and only 6% of the country is arable and agricultural land, with the rest being desert. The effect of this is large water wastage such as an outdated method of irrigation where farmers pump gallons of water over the crops.
The largest effect of water pollution in Egypt is the scarcity of water that it leads to. According to the 2021 UNICEF report, “Egypt is facing an annual water deficit of around 7 billion cubic meters to the mass pollution of Egypt’s water sources.” Later in the analysis, UNICEF stated that according to its projections, it is highly possible that the country could run out of clean water entirely by 2025. This would affect 1.8 billion people worldwide, who will be living in complete water scarcity.
Reaching a Stage of Water Poverty
In January 2022, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared that his beloved nation “has reached a stage of water poverty.” According to Mohamed Nasr al-Din Allam, who is a former Egyptian irrigation minister, “Water poverty, as defined by the World Bank, is when a country’s renewable internal freshwater resources per capita are less than 1,000 cubic meters annually.” This is the bare minimum to successfully meet the people’s needs for water and food. It has not been since 1991 that Egypt reported living with less than the minimum water share.
Although the current effects of water pollution in Egypt are dier, there are possible solutions that the government is implementing and are in place to assist the citizens. In August 2021, the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation revealed a four-step plan, which could assist in reducing the water crisis. The four-pronged strategy extends until 2050, with promises made to solve all water-related problems and effects of water pollution in Egypt, Al-Monitor reported.
With this plan in place, the water which flows through the Nile River appears a little clearer and the citizens of Egypt could soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief as well as drink a clean glass of water.
– Austin Hughes
Photo: Flickr
How Japan Became Impoverished
As the world’s third-largest economy, many have long viewed Japan as an economic and global powerhouse. However, Japan has faced an increasing poverty level for the better part of the last two decades. According to the latest study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Japan’s poverty rate currently stands at 15.7%. Here is some information about how Japan become impoverished.
Japan’s Lifetime Employment System
The determining factor of income distribution has long been Japan’s lifetime employment system. This system has been around for decades; Japan implemented it during the large growth periods the country experienced during the 1950s and 1960s. Established companies for regular or seishain employees mostly practice the lifetime employment system. The system’s focus is on three primary pillars. The pillars include an “implicit guarantee” to take care of regular employees until retirement, wages that seniority dictates and company-based labor unions for regular employees.
However, 37% of the country’s labor force are nonregular employees and the employees have revolted against this system in recent years. Non-regular employees receive less pay and do not receive the same level of benefits that their regularly employed colleagues receive. Another key aspect of this argument is that increased flexibility to hire and fire employees will increase economic efficiency.
The Outlook and Shift of Japan’s Lifetime Employment System
The fact that numerous companies have converted regular workers to non-regular, part-time employment has also affected the outlook of the lifetime employment system. At the same time, a large portion of available jobs remains non-regular. Within the last few decades, companies that routinely hired 20 to 30-lifetime employees a year, now only hire two or three new employees each year. This new process has contributed significantly to how Japan became impoverished.
One can largely attribute this shift to two major occurrences. The first occurrence involves emerging-market economies such as China, where labor costs are lower. The second is the increase in part-time workers, especially women who need work and may not be able to commit full-time due to childcare duties and seniors who aren’t able to enjoy retirement due to their pension benefits not covering living expenses.
The Lack of Bankruptcy Procedures in Japan
Oxford Head of Japanese Economics, Shigeto Nagai stated how Japan also lacks Chapter 11 or a similar bankruptcy procedure that could possibly give those who fail another chance. This leads to an overwhelming fear in citizens of Japan, which prevents the citizens from seeking change due to the absence of the program. The addition of this program could significantly help those in need and eliminate the underlying fear that exists.
Although no current implications are in place, certain companies are taking action into their own hands to possibly eradicate the issue. A number of companies have started adopting a variety of incentive plans including performance bonuses, share options, profit-sharing schemes and employee stock ownership plans. While this is not the end-all-be-all solution, it is a start toward reaching the proper employee benefit programs that are at the center of the cause of how Japan became impoverished.
Similar factors and the revolution of such a large part of the labor force against Japan’s long-established system have led to the disappearance of the middle class. Nagai also stated that “Income has declined across the income percentiles, and the share of low-income households has risen as those of middle- and high-income groups shrink.” The Economics Head further stated his concerns, stating that Japan’s middle class is gradually disappearing.
Nagai feels that the only way to save the Japanese economy is to create a more dynamic human resource allocation. The static allocation of human resources has greatly affected how Japan has become impoverished and the country’s best efforts to eliminate the deflationary equilibrium or the lifetime labor force.
Looking Ahead
Despite recent trends, there are a lot of changes underway to relieve Japan of its impoverished struggle. Labor shortages have led to employers raising salaries, which has attracted many younger, potential employees. Numerous Chinese startup companies have created employment opportunities which a substantial amount of young talent and many regular employees of larger corporations are quitting jobs early in their careers to seek opportunities elsewhere.
With the recent developments, the nation of Japan is closer to being the economic powerhouse that it has historically been for decades and its citizens once again have a fair chance at earning a living.
– Austin Hughes
Photo: Flickr
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