Malaysia has developed steadily over the last 60 years, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now classifies it as an “upper-middle-income” country. However, this development has been uneven as it has favored the western half of the peninsula while leaving the east struggling to keep up. Part of the reason for this uneven development is the lack of high-tech transportation infrastructure to connect the underdeveloped east with the developed west efficiently. The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) is a high-speed railway that the Malaysian government proposed to satisfy this need.
Malaysian Development
The peninsular Southeast Asian nation, Malaysia, was a British colony until it gained independence in 1957. Naturally, as a newly independent nation, it lacked development. In 1961, its GDP per capita was a measly $235 with a -3.83% growth and its debt as a percentage of GDP was 79.54%.
Nonetheless, since achieving its independence, Malaysia has developed steadily. Between 1970 and 2010, the GDP per capita grew by an average of 2.8% per year. Likewise, on the human development index, Malaysia jumped from 0.643 in 1990 to 0.802 in 2017 and its poverty rate decreased from 32.2% in 1984 to 2.7% in 2015.
Malaysia has achieved these astounding numbers through diversifying its economy beyond commodities and agriculture towards a manufacturing and service-based economy. Malaysia is now a leading exporter in electrical appliances, electronic parts and components and one of the world’s most open economies. As a result, Malaysia is now an upper-middle-income country.
Uneven Development: West V.S. East
Nevertheless, with all of its developmental success, it has been geographically uneven with the western portion of the peninsula receiving the lion’s share of economic development. On the other hand, the eastern region lacks development.
The data illustrates the discrepancies between the west and the east. For instance, the eastern states of peninsular Malaysia, namely Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu, contribute a combined total of 8.4% to Malaysian economic growth. In contrast, Malaysia’s western financial hub, Kuala Lumpur, contributes 16.1% by itself. Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur has a GDP per capita of 121,293 RM, which is in stark contrast to Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang, 30,216 RM, 13,668 RM and 35,554 RM, respectively.
This spatial inequality has its roots in Malaysia’s colonial past and its topographical distinctions. The British first exploited areas on the west coast for raw resources. However, over time, the West Coast developed into trading centers with key regional ports leaving the east without the benefits of British industrial experience.
What further complicated righting this historical discrepancy is an extensive mountain range running through the middle of the nation, preventing connectivity between the developed states in the west and the underdeveloped states in the east. Therefore, economic centers and the opportunities they present, such as the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, have experienced a disconnect from the economically embryonic areas of Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu.
The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL)
To the credit of the government, it has embarked on an ambitious initiative to correct these iniquities: The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project. The ECRL is an $11 billion Chinese-backed High-Speed-Rail project that sets out to connect the East Coast and the West Coast by connecting Kuala Lumpur to the three eastern states Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang. The ECRL project will have 20 stations (14 of those passengers, five combined freight and passenger and one with a dedication to freight trains only) and will have 40 tunnels from Kota Bahura to Port Klang. The government expects the ECRL to reach completion by 2026, assuming that neither the COVID-19 pandemic nor Malaysia’s tumultuous politics delay it too much.
The Benefits of ECRL
The ECRL is critical for eastern development because it gives inhabitants access to better economic opportunities like jobs or services such as healthcare and education by connecting it with the more developed Kuala Lumpur region. This connectedness will give workers the flexibility to pursue economic and socioeconomic opportunities outside their home region and create growth centers closer to home.
However, what is innovative about the project is that it will connect the two regions very efficiently. It will achieve this efficiency mainly by reducing the time and cost of travel significantly. For example, Prime Minister Najib promised that the journey from the important ITT in Gombak, Selangor, to Kota Baru, Kelantan, will reduce from its current eight to 12 hours down to around four.
In effect, this more efficient transportation network reduces the cost of traveling and gives rural area inhabitants better flexibility in working outside of their home towns and more significant economic opportunities previously reserved for those nearer to the western financial centers. The economic benefits of this are illustrated by the government’s prediction that in Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang, the GDP would grow by 1.5% the current growth rate.
Granted, the ECRL does little to effect change in the states off of the peninsula, namely Sarawak and Sabah, which desperately need it. Yet, for the severely underdeveloped East Coast, the ECRL project will reduce both poverty and economic cost through the influx of jobs that come with these projects, the newfound flexibility of workers to maneuver outside their rural areas and the reduction of travel costs, both financially and regarding time. As Lingzi writes, for the “less developed states on the east coast…the ECRL looks like an economic lifeline.”
– Vincenzo Caporale
Photo: Flickr
Equine Therapy for Refugees
Refugees go through a lot on their way to a new country. Their conflict-ridden home countries uproot them and thrust them into a whole new culture. Before, during and after migration, this trauma can have a lasting effect. Equine therapy for refugees is an innovative but highly effective new approach to mental health that is worth considering for any country with a high refugee population.
The Impact of War
Before would-be refugees even have the chance to flee their home countries, they often experience trauma. Seeing war and violence firsthand puts them at a higher risk than the general population for developing anxiety disorders, mood disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Resettlement in a new country can spur attachment disorders, and worsen anxiety and depression.
It can be hard to measure the prevalence of PTSD and similar disorders in refugees. This is largely because of communication barriers, which may prevent complete understanding or development of trust between refugees and mental health professionals. Estimates have determined that the percentage of refugees experiencing PTSD is anywhere between 4% and 86%.
Symptoms of PTSD can vary. But in general, the diagnostic criteria includes:
Many more symptoms exist and each person experiencing trauma will present differently. However, no matter what, it is clear that many, if not most, refugees leave their home countries with severe emotional damage.
The Healing Powers of Horses
Horses have been tools in therapy since the days of the Ancient Greeks. Hippocrates himself noted the therapeutic effects of interacting with horses. To this day, the goal of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) is to foster a bond between humans and horses that is soothing and teaches skills such as emotional regulation and self-confidence.
Horses can perceive human emotion in a way other humans cannot. A horse can tell if its rider is anxious or sad and respond a certain way. This is not only a measurable occurrence, it can teach one how to regulate and control strong emotions. Increased self-confidence, improved emotional regulation, improved sense of trust and feelings of connection are all among the benefits of EAP.
How Equine Therapy Can Help Refugees
Equine therapy for refugees can help with the wide range of mental health issues that a refugee may face. Refugee populations struggle with trauma and mental anguish; self-harm, suicide attempts, aggression and issues with anxiety and depression are common.
EAP’s benefits show how horses can be an effective treatment for this trauma. Equine therapy for refugees is not just a sound idea in theory though, evidence has shown that it works. The United Pony Caravan provided weekly equine therapy to refugees in Greece and saw the effects right away. The horses act as a link between the refugee and the therapist; through the horse, the refugee experiences love, respect and confidence.
Equine therapy for refugees is a shelter in the storm of trauma. It provides an outlet for a myriad of emotions and fosters self-confidence and respect. Through equine therapy, refugees experiencing trauma can learn to self-regulate their emotions, and, bit by bit, begin to heal.
– Maddey Bussmann
Photo: Flickr
Malaysia’s East Coast Rail Link
Malaysia has developed steadily over the last 60 years, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now classifies it as an “upper-middle-income” country. However, this development has been uneven as it has favored the western half of the peninsula while leaving the east struggling to keep up. Part of the reason for this uneven development is the lack of high-tech transportation infrastructure to connect the underdeveloped east with the developed west efficiently. The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) is a high-speed railway that the Malaysian government proposed to satisfy this need.
Malaysian Development
The peninsular Southeast Asian nation, Malaysia, was a British colony until it gained independence in 1957. Naturally, as a newly independent nation, it lacked development. In 1961, its GDP per capita was a measly $235 with a -3.83% growth and its debt as a percentage of GDP was 79.54%.
Nonetheless, since achieving its independence, Malaysia has developed steadily. Between 1970 and 2010, the GDP per capita grew by an average of 2.8% per year. Likewise, on the human development index, Malaysia jumped from 0.643 in 1990 to 0.802 in 2017 and its poverty rate decreased from 32.2% in 1984 to 2.7% in 2015.
Malaysia has achieved these astounding numbers through diversifying its economy beyond commodities and agriculture towards a manufacturing and service-based economy. Malaysia is now a leading exporter in electrical appliances, electronic parts and components and one of the world’s most open economies. As a result, Malaysia is now an upper-middle-income country.
Uneven Development: West V.S. East
Nevertheless, with all of its developmental success, it has been geographically uneven with the western portion of the peninsula receiving the lion’s share of economic development. On the other hand, the eastern region lacks development.
The data illustrates the discrepancies between the west and the east. For instance, the eastern states of peninsular Malaysia, namely Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu, contribute a combined total of 8.4% to Malaysian economic growth. In contrast, Malaysia’s western financial hub, Kuala Lumpur, contributes 16.1% by itself. Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur has a GDP per capita of 121,293 RM, which is in stark contrast to Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang, 30,216 RM, 13,668 RM and 35,554 RM, respectively.
This spatial inequality has its roots in Malaysia’s colonial past and its topographical distinctions. The British first exploited areas on the west coast for raw resources. However, over time, the West Coast developed into trading centers with key regional ports leaving the east without the benefits of British industrial experience.
What further complicated righting this historical discrepancy is an extensive mountain range running through the middle of the nation, preventing connectivity between the developed states in the west and the underdeveloped states in the east. Therefore, economic centers and the opportunities they present, such as the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, have experienced a disconnect from the economically embryonic areas of Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu.
The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL)
To the credit of the government, it has embarked on an ambitious initiative to correct these iniquities: The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project. The ECRL is an $11 billion Chinese-backed High-Speed-Rail project that sets out to connect the East Coast and the West Coast by connecting Kuala Lumpur to the three eastern states Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang. The ECRL project will have 20 stations (14 of those passengers, five combined freight and passenger and one with a dedication to freight trains only) and will have 40 tunnels from Kota Bahura to Port Klang. The government expects the ECRL to reach completion by 2026, assuming that neither the COVID-19 pandemic nor Malaysia’s tumultuous politics delay it too much.
The Benefits of ECRL
The ECRL is critical for eastern development because it gives inhabitants access to better economic opportunities like jobs or services such as healthcare and education by connecting it with the more developed Kuala Lumpur region. This connectedness will give workers the flexibility to pursue economic and socioeconomic opportunities outside their home region and create growth centers closer to home.
However, what is innovative about the project is that it will connect the two regions very efficiently. It will achieve this efficiency mainly by reducing the time and cost of travel significantly. For example, Prime Minister Najib promised that the journey from the important ITT in Gombak, Selangor, to Kota Baru, Kelantan, will reduce from its current eight to 12 hours down to around four.
In effect, this more efficient transportation network reduces the cost of traveling and gives rural area inhabitants better flexibility in working outside of their home towns and more significant economic opportunities previously reserved for those nearer to the western financial centers. The economic benefits of this are illustrated by the government’s prediction that in Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang, the GDP would grow by 1.5% the current growth rate.
Granted, the ECRL does little to effect change in the states off of the peninsula, namely Sarawak and Sabah, which desperately need it. Yet, for the severely underdeveloped East Coast, the ECRL project will reduce both poverty and economic cost through the influx of jobs that come with these projects, the newfound flexibility of workers to maneuver outside their rural areas and the reduction of travel costs, both financially and regarding time. As Lingzi writes, for the “less developed states on the east coast…the ECRL looks like an economic lifeline.”
– Vincenzo Caporale
Photo: Flickr
The Prevalence of Refugee Poverty in Jordan
Palestinian Refugees
Slightly less than 20% of Palestinians live in refugee camps. Mass immigration of Palestinian refugees first began during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, with another large spike after the 1967 war. While most refugees from 1948 have full citizenship rights in Jordan, many who came after the 1967 war do not, and a large percentage of refugees in general lack access to reliable education and health care and live below the national poverty line. Legal restrictions worsen refugee poverty in Jordan, as the situation in the Jerash camp shows.
In the Jerash Camp, 30,000 refugees are from the 1967 war. As many as 97% do not have a social security number, which severely limits access to employment opportunities and many do not qualify for health care. Slightly less than 50% of the people in camps live under the poverty line, and for those in the Jerash Camp, unemployment stands at almost 40%.
These same Palestinian refugees see college expenses double that of Jordanians, and with few scholarship opportunities, no reliable job market and no student loans, many must forego a college education. The living conditions in these camps can reflect the lack of support for refugee poverty in Jordan. In 2018, the workforce responsible for cleaning the streets declined by more than 75% due to pay cuts, leaving the camp caked with rotting trash, rats and flies.
Syrian Refugees
Approximately 83% of Syrian refugees live in poverty in Jordanian cities. According to UNICEF, 85% of Syrian refugee children live below the poverty line, with 94% of these children under the age of 5 dealing with “multidimensional poverty,” meaning that they are unable to gain access to basic needs like education or health services. Moreover, 40% of Syrian refugee families are food insecure, 45% of children up to age 5 do not have access to proper health services and 38% of Syrian children are not in school.
Similar to many Palestinian refugees, relatively few Syrian refugees have full legal rights, and even though they have access to public services, the actual availability of those services is severely hampered due to unsustainable demand. As mentioned above, only about 17% of Syrian refugees in Jordan live in camps and it is only in these camps that they see some of their essential needs met thanks to funding by the international community.
Supporting Anera
Since 2004, Anera, a small humanitarian organization based in the Hashemite Kingdom, has been devoted to fighting Palestinian and Syrian refugee poverty in Jordan by providing education, health, community and emergency aid. In the Jerash Palestinian and Za’atari Syrian refugee camps, Anera delivers medicines, antibiotics and treatments for asthma and parasites to refugees. Other efforts include providing materials for school and hygiene and funding for early childhood development and women’s economic empowerment programs.
UNRWA
UNRWA, or United Nations Relief and Works Agency, works to provide services in the 10 Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. It supports 171 schools, and by extension, more than 120,000 students, 25 health care centers, 10 rehabilitation centers and 14 women’s centers. It also provides social safety nets to almost 60,000 refugees and has awarded more than $125 million in loans. UNRWA also protects vulnerable women and children by improving access to assistance and case management as well as monitoring and advocating for the rights of Palestinian refugees in Jordan.
The Youth Base
In 2013, 27-year-old Obay Barakat started The Youth Base, a recycling initiative in the Baqa’a Palestinian refugee camp. Barakat, who lives in the camp, spoke with The Borgen Project about his motivations, saying, “The Baqa’a camp has more than 100,000 people in it and they live in just two kilometers of space with no services. The situation is so bad that I started to work with schools to teach the new generation to save the environment in Baqa’a camp. The camp is not a good place when talking about population density or infrastructure, but the people here are family and everyone helps each other.”
According to Barakat, until recently, few cared about this issue. He explains, “The hardest thing was people didn’t accept the idea, so I spent one year working only on awareness, teaching people about how recycling can solve environmental problems.” The Youth Base, which consists of Barakat and nine volunteers, works in the camp to recycle around a half-ton of metal, 10 tons of paper and eight tons of plastic every month. Barakat has used 30% of the money from recycling these materials to start a development project called Camp Theater, where they work with 120 children from the camp, making short films about societal problems like bullying, higher education, violence and harassment.
Looking Ahead
Jordan has become a center of hope for refugees forced to leave their homes in Palestine and Syria, but refugees often find themselves struggling as the scope of refugee immigration has overwhelmed the country and its resources. Refugee poverty in Jordan has become a serious humanitarian concern in the Middle East over the past decades. The international community, led by bodies like UNRWA, has stepped in to provide aid, but it is smaller organizations like Anera, and even individuals like Obay Barakat, who find themselves resolving issues on the ground. These organizations and people provide much-needed hope for those who have lost everything due to conflict and continue to struggle to find opportunities in their new homes.
– Connor Bradbury
Photo: Flickr
Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy
Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy
With regard to foreign policy, minority groups and underrepresented populations are often unintentionally overlooked. Sweden’s foreign policy, on the other hand, takes a modern approach, with Sweden becoming the first country in the world to launch a feminist foreign policy in 2014. Sweden has a feminist government and years of efforts to promote gender equality and take heed of the female voices rarely heard in the distant wars and conflicts inspire the feminist approach.
Sweden’s feminist foreign policy is based on the justification that lasting peace, security and development cannot be achieved if half the world’s population is excluded. The policy is a response to the discrimination and systematic subordination that endless women and girls face daily, all over the world. By taking this approach, the Swedish government hopes to change the way the world perceives the structure of international relations in today’s globalized world.
Sweden’s International Aid
Sweden is one of the only nations that has surpassed the goal of giving 0.7% of its GNI to foreign aid and has been providing around 1% consistently since 2008. Prior to COVID-19, the developmental aid from Sweden had been mainly directed to Afghanistan, Somalia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.
What is Sida?
Sweden’s foreign policy aims to help nations worldwide accomplish the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The type of aid Sweden provides and how a nation will utilize this aid depends on the needs of each nation and the nation’s SDG standing. Sida is a Swedish government agency that works globally to fight for the improvement of SDGs in every nation and creates long-term projects that aim to do so. Sweden selects strategies and policies for each country that it gives aid to in accordance with each country’s needs, ensuring to personalize foreign aid to achieve the maximum impact.
A Leader in Foreign Policy
For more than a decade, Sweden has been acting as a leader in humanitarian international relations and is now one of three nations running a feminist foreign policy. The country ensures in every step that its actions on foreign grounds and the aid provided have positive long-term influences, rather than acting as a momentary band-aid. This type of foreign policy is an inspiring example of what is necessary to achieve the SDGs by 2030 while fighting global poverty, hunger and inequality worldwide.
– Anna Synakh
Photo: Flickr
BRAC: Improving Maternal Care in Bangladesh
BRAC’s Strategies for Poverty Reduction
BRAC engages several strategies to combat poverty, such as social enterprises. Social enterprises are self-sustaining cause-driven business entities that create social impact by offering solutions to social challenges and reinvesting surplus to sustain and generate greater impact. Some social enterprises include those seeking to promote access to fisheries, give people access to jobs in the silk industry and businesses that give seed access to farmers.
BRAC also prioritizes social development. These initiatives refer to BRAC’s on-the-ground programs. Social development efforts aim to build communities up by attempting to foster long-term development through the promotion of microfinance and gender equality and by eradicating extreme poverty.
The third focus of BRAC is investments. BRAC seeks to invest in local companies in order to create as much social impact as possible. This includes initiatives to expand affordable internet access for all and a range of other financial support services.
Finally, the organization founded a tertiary education institution called Brac University. The University, located in Bangladesh, aims to use its liberal arts curriculum in order to try and advance human capital development and help students develop solutions to local problems.
The BRAC Manoshi Maternal Care Initiative
Founded in 2007, the Manoshi program is specifically tailored to serve mothers and newborns by providing accessible care. There are a couple of unique methods that make this maternal healthcare initiative especially effective in reaching its goals of improving maternal care in Bangladesh.
One-third of people in Bangladesh live under the poverty line and a greater part of this group live in slums, making it difficult to access and afford necessary healthcare. Manoshi focuses primarily on empowering communities, particularly women, in order to develop a system of essential healthcare interventions for mothers and babies.
Manoshi’s Focal Areas for Community Development
The main methods used in the Manoshi project to achieve desired outcomes are social mapping, census taking and community engagement.
Manoshi’s Impact on Maternal Care in Bangladesh
BRAC projected that improvement in healthcare access would cause neonatal mortality to decline by 40-50% and the most recent data from the Manoshi program shows just that. Manoshi’s data shows that from 2008 to 2013, both the maternal and neonatal death rates dropped by more than half. From 2007 to 2011, the percentage of births at health facilities increased from 15% to 59%, while national averages only increased from 25% to 28%, suggesting that mothers served by Manoshi have more access to resources and facilities for safe deliveries. Prenatal care also increased from 27% to 52% in the same years.
With the substantial impact of organizational programs like Manoshi prioritizing the wellbeing of women and children, advancements with regard to maternal care in Bangladesh will hopefully only continue upward.
– Thomas Gill
Photo: Flickr
Ending Child Labor in Cocoa Production
Child Labor in Cocoa Farms
According to a recent study done by NORC, the number of children working in cocoa farms has not been improving and could possibly have increased in the past few years. It found that nearly 45% of children living in agricultural homes of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire work in cocoa production. This adds up to about 1.5 million children. The same study found that in the last decade, the proportion of child labor in cocoa production has increased from 31% to 45%. As the cocoa industry continues to rapidly grow, there are no signs that child labor will decrease unless there is immediate and substantial intervention.
Past attempts to eradicate child labor in cocoa production have been poorly implemented. In 2001, a number of the largest producers of African cocoa agreed to end 70% of child labor by 2020. Significant progress toward this goal has not been achieved. A similar pledge was made in 2010 but has seen the same shortcomings. When asked of past failures in these areas, the president of the World Cocoa Foundation, Richard Scobey, said that targets were set “without fully understanding the complexity and scale” of issues of poverty and child labor in these African countries. With studies by the NORC and other groups, it seems as though the issues are better understood now than they were in past decades.
Response by the World Cocoa Foundation
In October 2020, the World Cocoa Foundation responded to the situation of child labor in cocoa farming. The Foundation came out strongly against the practice of child labor in cocoa production and set new goals to deal with the issue. Focused on Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, the first goal set is an increase in the availability of anti-child labor monitoring to 100% of locations and farms by 2025.
The World Cocoa Foundation has also announced other efforts to combat child labor that include efforts from companies, the governments of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and other stakeholders. Firstly, the Living Income Differential pricing policy is expected to provide $1.2 billion in additional revenue for cocoa farmers. For children specifically, the government of Côte d’Ivoire will launch a $120 million pooled funding facility for primary education that aims to reach five million children, with $25 million expected from the cocoa industry. Additionally, to boost household incomes and yields, leading companies will supply training, coaching or farm development plans to local farmers.
The Road Ahead
Past attempts to end child labor show that the situation in the cocoa industry is severe and complicated and therefore must be prioritized. As the World Cocoa Foundation recommits to ending child labor in cocoa production, collaboration and commitment will serve as important factors for the success of the endeavor.
– Matthew McKee
Photo: Flickr
STEM Education Can Reduce Poverty in Rural China
STEM Education
STEM refers to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Because of the shifting focus toward STEM in the job market, millions of STEM jobs are opening up in developing countries. However, many go unfilled because of gaps in the STEM education pipeline. These jobs could be the key to helping the poor to improve their standards of living, but those in poverty often lack the education necessary for these jobs, such as in rural China.
Education Disparities in China
Education in China is becoming more accessible and comprehensive. Since the 1980s, the adult literacy rate has risen from 65% to 96% and the rate of high school graduates seeking higher education has risen from 20% to 60%. However, these gains are not equal across the country. Rural students in China have often been left behind in the education reform movement. More than 70% of urban students attend college while less than 5% of rural students do, partly because urban residents make about three times more than rural residents. Another reason has to do with parental support; a researcher at the University of Oslo found that over 95% of urban parents wanted their children to attend college, while under 60% of rural parents wanted the same.
Rural students also receive lower-quality education than urban students. Despite China’s Compulsory Education Law in 1986, rural schools often lack the ability to put the proposed reforms in place because they do not have the educational resources. Teachers are scarcer in village schools as most qualified professionals flock to the urban areas where there is a higher standard of living and higher pay. As a result, fewer rural students get into top colleges and therefore lose out on opportunities for advancement.
Generational Poverty and the Effect of STEM
Generational poverty refers to families that have spent two or more generations in poverty. This is especially common in rural areas where parents have a harder time generating the necessary income for their children’s education, which perpetuates the cycle of poverty when the children grow up. In rural China, about 5.1 million people live in the throes of generational poverty. This is due to a number of factors but a major one is lack of educational opportunities in the rural provinces.
STEM education can reduce poverty by helping children in rural provinces break the cycle of generational poverty. Since 2016, 248 high schools in poor areas have tuned into live lessons hosted by one of the top high schools in China, giving poor students the ability to receive the same education as their upper-middle-class peers. As a result, 88 of the participating rural students were admitted into China’s top two universities — universities that are estimated to have a rural population of only 1%.
Organizations for STEM Education
Some groups are working to bring STEM education to even younger students. In 2019, Lenovo, a technology company started in China, donated 652 sets of scientific toolboxes to primary schools in Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province, an area that is over 90% agrarian. The toolboxes contained materials that helped children perform science experiments and solved the problem of the lack of equipment in rural schools. Each toolbox, spread over 122 schools, helped 12 children at once and was reusable. In total, it enabled about 43,903 primary and secondary school students to become more scientifically literate and will prepare them better for future education and employment.
The Green & Shine Foundation is also helping teachers better instruct their students. It trains rural teachers in teaching necessary STEM skills to help lay the foundation for more STEM education later in their students’ lives. It also helps to develop curriculums and hold exchange programs with STEM schools so that rural teachers can observe and discuss new teaching methods. These efforts have helped 1,411,292 rural teachers and students across China.
STEM for Ending Generational Poverty
China has made strides in alleviating poverty, reducing its poverty rate every year since implementing major reforms. The Chinese government needs to prioritize investment in STEM education in rural provinces to close the education gap between rural and urban students and help bring an end to generational poverty. STEM education can reduce poverty globally.
– Brooklyn Quallen
Photo: Flickr
How Agroforestry Can Reduce Global Poverty
Ownership of Forests
Approximately 77% of the world’s forests are owned and administered by governments that do not recognize the claims of indigenous peoples and local communities to the land. Since government priorities do not always align with community needs, the locals who need the forests to survive do not receive the benefits that they should. For example, the timber and ecotourism industries in Africa are skyrocketing but the locals do not share in the profits.
Agroforestry
Agroforestry, the agricultural practice of growing trees and shrubs around crops or pastureland, can ameliorate this problem. Agroforestry builds on existing agricultural land already owned by communities to create new forests not owned by the government, thereby circumventing the ownership problem and guaranteeing that profits remain in the community. Agroforestry systems are smaller in scale than typical forests but they still deliver many of the same positive results: they diversify production, restore soil fertility and increase biodiversity.
The benefits of agroforestry extend beyond environmental issues. Agroforestry can reduce global poverty by increasing food resources and security, improving nutrition and increasing profits for farmers.
3 Countries Using Agroforestry
Bolivia uses agroforestry to reduce food insecurity. Bolivia is one of the biggest producers of organic cacao, which despite being edible, is not a major food crop. Cacao is grown mostly wild or in monocultures, though there is a growing shift to agroforestry systems where cacao trees are intercropped with shade trees and other by-crops like bananas and avocados. Over 75% of Bolivian households lack regular access to basic foods. Thanks to agroforestry, 40% of the population who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods can both produce more food and earn more money to buy what they do not grow. The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) found that the return on labor was double for agroforestry systems compared to monocultures even though the cacao yields were 40% higher in the monocultures. The revenue difference came from the sale of the by-crops, which offset the lower cacao yield. The by-crops helped farmers earn a profit but also represented a food source for the communities.
Burkina Faso uses agroforestry as a means of women’s empowerment. The U.N. Development Program estimates that an average of three million African women work directly or indirectly with shea butter. Women have historically played an important role in the extraction of shea butter but they have not always been compensated for their work, even as the industry and profits grew. Agroforestry allows for more community involvement in farming, which in turn opens up opportunities for women. NGOs like CECI and WUSC help to train women in shea harvesting as part of the Uniterra project, which aims to get women involved in entrepreneurial ventures such as developing their own shea butter businesses for international exports. As a result of agroforestry, more women are empowered to take themselves out of poverty.
India is a global leader in agroforestry policy. India was the first country to create a national agroforestry policy in 2014 despite existing policies that were unfavorable to agriculture, weak markets and a lack of institutional finance. The country set the ambitious goal of increasing national tree cover to 33% as a way to make agriculture more sustainable while optimizing its productivity. Agroforestry is currently in use on 13.5 million hectares in India but the government hopes to expand it to increase benefits like reducing poverty and malnutrition by tripling crop yields. Already, agroforestry provides 65% of the country’s timber and almost half of its fuelwood. Timber production on tree farms generates 450 employment days per hectare per year, which can reduce rural unemployment, and in turn, rural poverty.
The Potential of Agroforestry in Poverty Reduction
Many other rural communities in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia have relied on agroforestry throughout history, with and without government backing. As a whole, agroforestry is underused in the fight against global poverty. Nations with large agricultural sectors need to adopt agroforestry policies and promote the training needed to help farmers implement agroforestry on a large scale. These agroforestry efforts have the potential to significantly contribute to global poverty reduction.
– Brooklyn Quallen
Photo: Flickr
World AIDS Day: The Global Response
The Origins
World AIDS Day was first observed in 1988. Each year on December 1, communities around the world come together to remember those who have lost their lives to AIDS. The day is in commemoration of those fighting the disease in their daily lives. The theme for World AIDS Day 2020 was “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Resilience and Impact.”
The first cases of HIV/AIDS originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the 1920s. Since then, the autoimmune disease spread to every corner of the world, with a major focus in South Africa. In 2019, approximately 38 million people globally, were living with HIV/AIDS, including 1.5 million children under the age of 15. Roughly 7.7 million of all HIV/AIDS infections were documented in South Africa, and about 20.4% of all South Africans are currently living with the disease. About 70% of all South Africans infected with HIV/AIDS are on treatment. However, only 67% of those infected around the world had access to medication needed to slow its spread.
South Africa: A Hotspot for the Epidemic
After 100 years of research on HIV/AIDS, South Africa is still a hotspot for the epidemic since it first originated. The South African government made a toolkit available to its citizens. The toolkit includes extensive knowledge of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, ads, logos, and merchandise, and ways to get involved with World AIDS Day 2020. They also came up with a theme, specific to South Africa: “We’re in this together, Cheka Impilo!” The toolkit provides basic information on ways to slow the spread of AIDS, including having protected sex and avoiding drugs. The toolkit encourages South African citizens to hold sessions dedicated to educating their communities. Furthermore, the toolkit encourages citizens to learn the dangers of the transmission of AIDS, submit letters to local newspapers, or encourage radio stations to make public service announcements.
What is Being Done to Help?
The World Health Organization (WHO) took World AIDS Day 2020 to call on leaders around the world to renew the fight against HIV/AIDS; to protect those working on the front lines of the HIV/AIDS epidemic; to ensure that when distributing care, we prioritize the most vulnerable communities, including the impoverished and children. They are also ensuring the use of new technology and services to ensure the best care is being provided around the world.
In the United States, individuals looking to get involved can use resources from the Let’s Stop HIV Together campaign. Previously known as the Act Against AIDS, the campaign primarily works to educate North Americans on the prevention, testing, and treatment of HIV, and to destigmatize HIV through these means. The website provides educational videos on the prevention and testing of HIV. In addition, they give plentiful resources to help individuals find their closest testing location.
On December 1, the world paused in observance of World AIDS Day 2020. They stopped to remember the 33 million lives lost, and 78 million lives impacted by the autoimmune disease. The World Health Organization took time to call on leaders from all countries to step up in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
– Jessica Lyn
Photo: Public Domain Pictures
Poverty Eradication in Tanzania
Poverty eradication in Tanzania has seen success with the country’s poverty rate falling from 34.4% in 2007 to 26.4% in 2018. The country requires more renewable energies including solar, biomass, hydro and wind in order to create jobs and lower unemployment. Agriculture is the main part of Tanzania’s economy today and is a significant consideration when thinking about renewable energies. Here is some information about poverty eradication in Tanzania.
Poverty in Tanzania
The 2019 Tanzania Mainland Poverty Assessment of overall poverty eradication efforts in Tanzania shows that the country has made steady gains in lowering the overall poverty rates between 2011 and the present. In fact, poverty decreased by 8% in 10 years, down from 34.4% in 2007 to 26.4% in 2018. Most of the reduction in poverty was in rural areas and outside urban Dar es Salaam. However, the eradication of poverty in Tanzania has slowed down since 2012. For example, the economic growth on poverty reduction went from a 1% decline annually to 0.3% yearly since 2012-18. As a result, for every four Tanzanians who rose above poverty levels, three more Tanzanians fell into poverty. One reason for this is that families have a large number of dependents and less access to resources that would assist with basic needs, limiting their ability to access employment.
Poverty eradication in Tanzania has been successful based on the measures to eradicate poverty. For example, many in the country are using solar power now. While poverty and living conditions, in general, have experienced steady improvement, only 29% of Tanzania has access to electricity with 10% going to rural Tanzania and only 7% going to poorer families.
Facts About Energy and Energy Poverty in Tanzania
Amplifying Employment Through Agriculture
A World Bank article looked at how Tanzania has reduced poverty and improved its economy over the last decade. However, it also uncovered that a large number of the population is still at risk of falling into poverty. Without sufficient job growth, the Tanzanian population, which is only growing larger, could experience trouble. The unemployment rate went down to 9.7% in 2020, showing considerable improvement in comparison to the unemployment rate of 10.3% in 2014. Urban areas show less stability regarding consumption inequality and inequality opportunities than rural areas. The need for increased education and general awareness to the entire population is why it is prudent to understand the renewable energy options available and get the population of Tanzania up to speed on the technology available to them, along with real resources.
The Tanzanian government’s Tanzania Development Vision 2025 and the Five-Year Development Plan (FYDP II) aim to eliminate poverty and sustainably industrialize with the goal of Tanzania becoming a middle-income country by 2025. As a result, the Tanzanian government is turning its attention to agriculture in order to increase the country’s socio-economic development, as outlined in the Second Agriculture Sector Development Program (ASDP II). Some of ASDP II’s goals are to increase commercialization, prioritize commodity value chains and mobilize capital by giving the formal private sector a growing role in agriculture. Agriculture drives about two-thirds of jobs in Tanzania and three-quarters for those in poverty meaning that the improvement of the sector is necessary to the creation of more and higher-quality jobs in order to reduce poverty.
Agriculture is and has been one of the mainstays economically. It also accounts for about a quarter of Tanzania’s GDP and makes up two-thirds of the jobs. It is prudent that Tanzania takes enhanced measures to improve the strategy and ensure the creation of more jobs according to The World Bank. Plenty of room exists for innovation and increased job creation to meet the acceleration of population growth. The focus goes back to the need to help Tanzanians understand and gain awareness of how to implement “commercialization, prioritizing high-potential commodity value chains, and mobilizing capital by giving the formal private sector a growing role in agriculture.”
Looking Ahead
As the world progresses globally in technology and trade, the question becomes, will the Tanzania population keep up? Many in rural areas still have employment in agriculture. Agriculture employment opportunities will continue to exist, but with more advanced equipment, thereby, creating more production opportunities to increase employment opportunities.
– Kathleen M. Hellem
Photo: Pixabay