For many young Pakistanis, moving from education to employment can be difficult. Nearly 67% of Pakistan’s population is under age 30, creating both an opportunity for economic growth and a need for more education, skills and employment pathways.
An estimated 32 million young people in Pakistan are not in education, employment or training, according to UNICEF Pakistan. The organization has emphasized the need to expand pathways from learning to earning, particularly for girls and young people from underserved communities.
The World Bank has also highlighted the need for Pakistan to expand jobs and economic opportunities, particularly for women and young people, as the country works to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods.
A Digital Solution for Young Job Seekers
The Digital Youth Hub (DYH) is Pakistan’s national digital youth platform developed under the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme. The platform brings together opportunities related to education, employment, engagement and the environment.
Young people can use the platform to explore jobs, scholarships, internships, training programs, career guidance and entrepreneurship opportunities. The government describes it as a centralized digital platform designed to connect young people with opportunities based on their skills and interests.
The Digital Youth Hub also supports initiatives under PMYP, including the Prime Minister’s Youth Business and Agriculture Loans, Youth Skill Development Programme and Youth Laptop Scheme.
A Growing Network of Opportunities
The Digital Youth Hub has expanded its reach since its launch. As of June 23, 2026, the platform reported 800,240 registered users, partnerships with 3,163 organizations and 114,783 listed opportunities.
Of those opportunities, 114,374 were employment opportunities, 292 were related to education, 38 to engagement and 79 to the environment.
These figures demonstrate the scale of the platform and the number of opportunities available through it. However, registrations and listings do not mean that users have secured jobs or that the listed positions have been filled.
The platform also uses AI-powered tools to provide personalized recommendations for jobs, scholarships, internships, skills development programs, volunteer initiatives and climate-related projects, according to Pakistan’s Press Information Department. The government presents these tools as a way to help users find opportunities that correspond with their profiles.
Connecting Young People With Employers
The Digital Youth Hub aims to connect young people with organizations offering employment, internships, training and other opportunities. Users can create profiles containing information about their qualifications, skills and interests.
Officials have also described the platform as a way to connect Pakistani workers with international opportunities. When the platform was introduced, officials said it was intended to provide access to opportunities in countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, South Korea, Canada and the United States.
These international opportunities are an intended function of the platform, rather than evidence of overseas employment placements. No current figures in the cited sources establish how many users have obtained jobs through the platform internationally.
Partnerships Can Expand Access
A digital employment platform depends on organizations providing genuine opportunities. The government has encouraged educational institutions, private-sector organizations, development partners and other stakeholders to participate in the Digital Youth Hub.
The wider youth-employment effort also includes Pur Azm Pakistan, a separate initiative launched in June 2026 by the Government of Pakistan through the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme in partnership with UNICEF and Generation Unlimited.
Pur Azm Pakistan focuses on expanding access to skills, employment, entrepreneurship and economic opportunities. Its Friends of GenU Pakistan initiative brings businesses together to support skills development, entrepreneurship, innovation and work-based learning.
Keeping these initiatives connected but distinct can help strengthen pathways from education and training to employment.
Access is Only the First Step
The Digital Youth Hub may make it easier for young people to find information about jobs, education and training, particularly for those who have limited professional networks.
However, digital access itself can be a barrier. An online platform can only help people who have the internet access, digital skills and ability to use the available services. In addition, having access to a job listing does not guarantee employment.
Pakistan’s National Youth Employment Policy, which the government discussed in August 2026, identifies 32.4 million young people who are not in employment, education or training and seeks to align young people’s skills with labor-market needs.
Making Employment Opportunities Easier to Find
The Digital Youth Hub addresses one part of Pakistan’s youth-employment challenge: access to information about opportunities.
With more than 800,000 registered users, more than 3,000 partner organizations and more than 114,000 listed opportunities reported in June 2026, the platform has established a significant digital network. However, these figures measure platform use and available opportunities, not employment outcomes.
Its longer-term contribution will depend on the availability of genuine jobs and training opportunities, participation from employers, digital accessibility and whether young people can successfully move from finding opportunities to securing employment.
The Digital Youth Hub could therefore improve access to employment pathways for young Pakistanis, but its contribution to employment and poverty reduction will need to be measured through outcomes beyond registrations and job listings.
– Afia Atif
Afia is based in Chenab Nagar, Pakistan and focuses on Technology and Solutions for The Borgen Project.
Photo: Flickr
Beekeeping in Uganda: Poverty Reduction and Conservation
Agriculture and Poverty in Uganda
Historically, Uganda’s fertile soils made it one of East Africa’s most agriculturally productive nations. However, 60% of households rely on subsistence farming, reflecting persistent rural poverty that often leaves farmers unable to afford fertilizers, crop rotation or fallow periods needed to maintain soil health.
According to the World Bank, 16.1% of Uganda’s population lived below the national poverty line as of the 2023 to 2024 survey, down from 20.3% in 2019 to 2020, with poverty particularly concentrated in the country’s Northern and Eastern regions. National poverty reduction had largely stagnated in the years prior, making alternative sources of rural income increasingly important.
As crop yields deplete due to unsustainable practices, farmers expand crop access through the forest and wetlands. Mass subsistence farming causes ecological and economic challenges. Both the Ugandan government and local nonprofits have recognized beekeeping (apiculture) as a low-impact and highly effective solution.
Beekeeping and Conservation
Beekeeping in Uganda has helped reduce deforestation by creating an economic incentive to preserve trees rather than clear them for farming. According to Uganda’s National Forestry Authority, the country’s forest cover fell from 24.1% of its land area in 1990 to 9.5% by 2015, largely due to agricultural expansion and fuelwood demand. Because apiculture depends on healthy tree cover for hive placement, shade and nectar sources, it gives rural households a way to generate income without clearing additional land. By shifting some economic dependence away from land-intensive farming, beekeeping has become a practical conservation tool that supports both forest preservation and household livelihoods.
Attracting and Protecting Pollinators
Not only does beekeeping in Uganda provide an alternative to subsistence farming, but it reduces the need to clear more land for increased crop yields. Research by the Food and Agriculture Organization finds that 75% of global food crops at least partly depend on pollination, while pollinators contribute to 35% of global crop production by volume.
Further, research that the United Nations highlighted found that stronger pollination practices could increase crop yields on underperforming farms by a median of 24%. By attracting more pollinators to their land, Ugandan farmers can improve harvests on existing plots, reducing the need to clear additional forest for farmland.
The country occupies only 2% of the world’s land mass but is ranked among the top 10 most biodiverse in the world. Beekeeping in Uganda has strengthened conservation that other species rely on, as the country is home to 322 species listed as threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List (2024).
As agricultural expansion continues to reduce forest cover, threatened species such as mountain gorillas face increasing pressure from habitat loss and fragmentation. Beekeeping in Uganda plays a critical role in pollinating wild plants and supporting forest regeneration. It also helps maintain the habitats these endangered species rely on. By protecting pollinator populations and encouraging tree preservation, apiculture helps sustain the fragile ecosystems that support some of the world’s most vulnerable wildlife.
Beekeeping and Poverty Reduction
Beekeeping in Uganda supports an estimated 1.2 million beekeepers, creating market access and additional income opportunities for rural households across the country through the production and sale of honey, beeswax and other bee products. Because beekeeping requires low start-up costs and minimal resources, it remains accessible to many low-income households. Research shows apiculture allows farmers to diversify their income through honey and wax sales without interrupting primary food production. These products can be sold in local and regional markets, creating an additional source of income that can help families pay for necessities such as school fees, medical expenses and farming supplies. The Uganda National Apiculture Development Organization (TUNADO) notes that Uganda’s honey sector continues to grow as both domestic and export demand increase.
TUNADO reports reaching more than 100,000 beekeepers across Uganda and training and involving 45,000 women throughout the apiculture value chain. Its 2020 annual report recorded 91,213 subscribing beekeepers, including 36,485 women, and found that beekeeping provided 100% of household income for 52% of participating beekeepers and between 35% and 70% for the remainder.
The Results
Because beekeeping requires relatively little land, labor and capital, it has created opportunities for women and young people in Uganda, groups that often face greater barriers to land ownership and formal employment. Beekeeping can strengthen livelihoods by expanding income opportunities for marginalized groups, particularly in rural communities where economic opportunities remain limited. In Uganda, organizations like TUNADO promote beekeeping among women and youth to encourage entrepreneurship and strengthen household resilience. This allows them to take part in local economies while also supporting food production and environmental conservation.
One can see the results at the individual level. One beekeeper that TUNADO featured increased honey production from 35 kilograms to 292 kilograms within two years after receiving training and support, earning 2,482,000 Ugandan shillings (UGX) in a single season and expanding her apiary to 45 colonies.
TUNADO has also expanded apiculture opportunities to groups traditionally excluded from rural economic development. A beekeeping project for people with disabilities initially targeted 30 participants in Gulu and Jinja. All 30 received training and established apiaries, while another 10 people adopted beekeeping after learning from participants in the program. About half of the original beneficiaries had begun harvesting and selling honey during the project.
Global Demand
Uganda is one of the few African countries authorized to export honey and other bee products to the European Union, giving local beekeepers access to one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing markets. Uganda’s apiculture sector continues to see growing demand both internationally and domestically, with products such as honey, beeswax, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom becoming increasingly valuable. This expanding trade gives rural households another reliable source of income while strengthening Uganda’s economy and increasing market opportunities for beekeepers across the country.
TUNADO’s Bee A Champion 2 Initiative
Programs continue to build on these gains. TUNADO’s Bee A Champion 2 initiative targeted 3,300 direct beneficiaries, including 300 “bee champions” and 3,000 auxiliary beekeepers, with 1,000 participants drawn from refugee and host communities. The program focuses on improving livelihoods, expanding market access and increasing access to financing, demonstrating how Uganda’s growing apiculture sector is being used deliberately as a poverty-reduction strategy.
By creating income opportunities, opening access to export markets and supporting women and young farmers, apiculture is helping strengthen rural livelihoods across the country. At the same time, its role in protecting forests and supporting biodiversity shows how economic growth and conservation can work together, making beekeeping an increasingly important tool in Uganda’s fight against poverty.
The growing reach of organizations such as TUNADO shows that this approach is already producing measurable results. By helping Ugandans turn healthy ecosystems into sustainable sources of income, beekeeping offers a solution in which reducing poverty does not have to come at the expense of Uganda’s forests and biodiversity.
– Kale Overton
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Rural Senses: AI-Driven Humanitarian Aid
Impact Measurement
Rural Senses is working to address the aid data sufficiency gap. Its advanced language processing algorithms improve traditional methods of gathering and analyzing qualitative feedback from vulnerable communities. According to the company, its modern impact analysis platform for AI-driven humanitarian aid, Visual Senses, can cut the time it takes to gather and process community data from months to just days, allowing for faster, more insightful and more impactful development responses.
Impact measurement refers to the process of evaluating long-term changes caused by a specific activity. In the context of humanitarian development, it means assessing how an aid program has affected a targeted group of people.
Traditionally, this involves gathering quantifiable statistics and interviewing local populations. The process can be time-consuming and expensive, often requiring skilled experts. Rural Senses claims that its approach to AI-driven humanitarian aid offers a fast-track option that even non-experts can use while reducing costs and speeding up planning and analysis.
A Human-led AI Solution
The company was founded in 2019, emerging from a research project at the University of Cambridge. The aim was to devise a platform that would improve the flow of information between development practitioners and the vulnerable communities with which they work. Over the past few years, the team developed not only a new methodology but also an end-to-end automated process for social and environmental impact measurement and management.
The company describes it as a “human-led” AI platform and emphasizes that the human always remains in control. The AI assists with identifying stakeholders, analyzing and presenting data, gathering related research, translating and transcribing conversations, etc.
Overcoming Bias
The platform is designed specifically for organizations carrying out work in remote, developing communities. Historically, many of these organizations would bring over American researchers and place them in a village with an interpreter to ask questions of local residents. “But there is a lot of bias there,” cautions Chief Executive and Co-Founder Yau Levy, speaking in a company-sponsored webinar.
To overcome this bias, Rural Senses’ AI-driven humanitarian aid platform adopts the User Perceived Value (UPV) methodology. Similar to a traditional needs assessment, which looks at what a community needs, the UPV approach targets what a community values. This gives the local community a more direct voice in expressing their underlying values and should translate into more effective development projects.
A Typical Project
All projects start with human input, usually when a researcher enters into the software platform the basic mission of the project, the targeted stakeholders and activities. After this, AI can begin helping with foundational background research. The system can suggest a list of similar studies and highlight the ways in which they resemble or differ from the current project proposal.
It can also transform obscure local languages into actionable data. One real-world project in 2022 saw the Rural Senses’ AI-driven humanitarian aid platform deployed in a project in Siaya County, Kenya, where most residents speak Dholuo. The AI translated and transcribed questions and responses in Dholuo and English.
The aim of this particular project was to better understand the resilience of local communities to changing weather patterns and gather views on off-grid appliances. According to study details published by The National Center for Biotechnology Information, Rural Senses was commissioned to gather feedback from 300 people across 11 villages. The project used open-ended questions designed to reduce researcher assumptions.
For example, one such question was “In your own words how would you describe climate change?” Wording it in this manner put the power of choice into the hands of the respondents. AI then analyzed recorded interviews and extracted from the comments exactly what it was that people saw as climate change. It also analyzed whether the respondent spoke about this issue negatively or positively. Results were shown in real time as responses were processed. The expectation was that project findings would help Kenyan policymakers to make more informed energy and development programs.
Pivotally, the platform is flexible. As it receives more data, it will suggest changes to strategy or outcomes based on its learnings so far.
Building Trust
Whether it is water security or health care, accurately understanding the values and needs of local communities is pivotal to delivering effective humanitarian aid. Bringing in the power of AI could accelerate efforts on this front, provided it is done in a way that builds trust. While AI has been around for decades, applications remain in their infancy and many organizations remain resistant to adoption.
Levy is confident that keeping the human at the center of AI-driven humanitarian aid is the key. “A system that works with the practitioner and brings out the best of their knowledge will help build trust,” he asserts.
A Growing Reach
Rural Senses’ reach has been growing steadily. It joined the Pears Challenge 2019, a start-up incubator looking at technology solutions for water, sanitation, hygiene and education challenges that refugees and vulnerable populations face. It also participated in the 2020 Microsoft for Startups – Tech for Good “AI for Good” Accelerator program. The client list includes a wide range of players, including the U.K. Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, IKEA Foundation, Amref Health Africa, The Halo Trust, and the Centre for Global Equality. As of September 2026, it has worked in 18 countries, spoken to more than 93,000 people and collected 1.48 million data points.
AI-driven humanitarian aid plays at the intersection of smart technology and vulnerable communities. It promises to dramatically reshape the way aid projects are formulated, conducted and assessed. In theory, optimized development programs increase the impact of any given amount of funding. In practice, more independent assessments of platforms like that from Rural Senses could indeed make that happen.
– Megan Sansom
Photo: Flickr
Pakistan’s Digital Youth Hub: Connecting Young People to Jobs
An estimated 32 million young people in Pakistan are not in education, employment or training, according to UNICEF Pakistan. The organization has emphasized the need to expand pathways from learning to earning, particularly for girls and young people from underserved communities.
The World Bank has also highlighted the need for Pakistan to expand jobs and economic opportunities, particularly for women and young people, as the country works to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods.
A Digital Solution for Young Job Seekers
The Digital Youth Hub (DYH) is Pakistan’s national digital youth platform developed under the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme. The platform brings together opportunities related to education, employment, engagement and the environment.
Young people can use the platform to explore jobs, scholarships, internships, training programs, career guidance and entrepreneurship opportunities. The government describes it as a centralized digital platform designed to connect young people with opportunities based on their skills and interests.
The Digital Youth Hub also supports initiatives under PMYP, including the Prime Minister’s Youth Business and Agriculture Loans, Youth Skill Development Programme and Youth Laptop Scheme.
A Growing Network of Opportunities
The Digital Youth Hub has expanded its reach since its launch. As of June 23, 2026, the platform reported 800,240 registered users, partnerships with 3,163 organizations and 114,783 listed opportunities.
Of those opportunities, 114,374 were employment opportunities, 292 were related to education, 38 to engagement and 79 to the environment.
These figures demonstrate the scale of the platform and the number of opportunities available through it. However, registrations and listings do not mean that users have secured jobs or that the listed positions have been filled.
The platform also uses AI-powered tools to provide personalized recommendations for jobs, scholarships, internships, skills development programs, volunteer initiatives and climate-related projects, according to Pakistan’s Press Information Department. The government presents these tools as a way to help users find opportunities that correspond with their profiles.
Connecting Young People With Employers
The Digital Youth Hub aims to connect young people with organizations offering employment, internships, training and other opportunities. Users can create profiles containing information about their qualifications, skills and interests.
Officials have also described the platform as a way to connect Pakistani workers with international opportunities. When the platform was introduced, officials said it was intended to provide access to opportunities in countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, South Korea, Canada and the United States.
These international opportunities are an intended function of the platform, rather than evidence of overseas employment placements. No current figures in the cited sources establish how many users have obtained jobs through the platform internationally.
Partnerships Can Expand Access
A digital employment platform depends on organizations providing genuine opportunities. The government has encouraged educational institutions, private-sector organizations, development partners and other stakeholders to participate in the Digital Youth Hub.
The wider youth-employment effort also includes Pur Azm Pakistan, a separate initiative launched in June 2026 by the Government of Pakistan through the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme in partnership with UNICEF and Generation Unlimited.
Pur Azm Pakistan focuses on expanding access to skills, employment, entrepreneurship and economic opportunities. Its Friends of GenU Pakistan initiative brings businesses together to support skills development, entrepreneurship, innovation and work-based learning.
Keeping these initiatives connected but distinct can help strengthen pathways from education and training to employment.
Access is Only the First Step
The Digital Youth Hub may make it easier for young people to find information about jobs, education and training, particularly for those who have limited professional networks.
However, digital access itself can be a barrier. An online platform can only help people who have the internet access, digital skills and ability to use the available services. In addition, having access to a job listing does not guarantee employment.
Pakistan’s National Youth Employment Policy, which the government discussed in August 2026, identifies 32.4 million young people who are not in employment, education or training and seeks to align young people’s skills with labor-market needs.
Making Employment Opportunities Easier to Find
The Digital Youth Hub addresses one part of Pakistan’s youth-employment challenge: access to information about opportunities.
With more than 800,000 registered users, more than 3,000 partner organizations and more than 114,000 listed opportunities reported in June 2026, the platform has established a significant digital network. However, these figures measure platform use and available opportunities, not employment outcomes.
Its longer-term contribution will depend on the availability of genuine jobs and training opportunities, participation from employers, digital accessibility and whether young people can successfully move from finding opportunities to securing employment.
The Digital Youth Hub could therefore improve access to employment pathways for young Pakistanis, but its contribution to employment and poverty reduction will need to be measured through outcomes beyond registrations and job listings.
– Afia Atif
Photo: Flickr
AI in Agriculture: Reducing Undernourishment in India
India has fought this crisis since the early 2000s, and the effort shows results: undernourishment fell from 21.1% in 2004-2006 to 9.8% in 2023-2025. Affordability tells a harder story: 520.1 million people, 35.5% of the country, could not afford a healthy diet in 2025, and that diet now costs nearly 48% more than it did in 2017. Better crops, fewer losses and stronger food programs will all be needed to keep that progress going.
Farming and Undernourishment in India
More than half of India’s farmland still depends entirely on rainfall, so a single erratic monsoon, heatwave or drought can devastate a season’s harvest. Decades of policy have rewarded rice and wheat above all else, and that focus has pushed pulses, oilseeds and nutrient-rich millets to the margins while draining groundwater in the northwest. Farmers also lose substantial amounts of food after harvest: a 2022 government-commissioned study estimated losses of 3.89% to 5.92% for cereals, 6.02% to 15.05% for fruits and 4.87% to 11.61% for vegetables. Programs like NFSA, PM-POSHAN, ICDS and Rice Fortification secure calories and micronutrients well, but they still struggle to put protein, dairy and fresh greens on every table.
AI in agriculture is emerging as one answer to these gaps. The World Bank Group’s AgriConnect initiative, which aims to transform farming for 300 million smallholders worldwide, equips farmers with digital tools that work even on basic smartphones and in areas with weak connectivity, and those tools deliver fast, practical advice for managing crops day to day. Farmers who use them can head off pest outbreaks before they spread, time their harvests more precisely and reach government aid programs more easily.
Kerala’s KATHIR Platform
Kerala’s state government built KATHIR together with the World Bank Group, and the platform already holds data on more than 3 million farmers while mapping over 1.1 million hectares of cropland.
The platform packs in a wide range of tools: a 10-day weather forecast, sowing and irrigation advice, fertilizer recommendations, and early alerts for pests, crop stress and extreme weather.
KATHIR operates on two levels at once. Farmers get quick, usable guidance for their own fields, while the state government gains satellite crop tracking, harvest mapping, farmer identification and land enumeration, tools that let officials see exactly where support is needed and act on it.
Maharashtra’s MahaVISTAAR-AI
Maharashtra took a different route with MahaVISTAAR-AI, a generative-AI chatbot that answers farmers through voice or simple text, no typing skills or app literacy required. Farmers have downloaded the tool more than 3 million times, and the Korea World Bank Partnership Facility helped fund its development.
Looking Ahead
The World Bank Group plans to push these platforms well past crop advice. Future versions will help farmers complete official paperwork and connect them directly with banks and other institutions willing to design financial products built around their needs, cutting through bureaucracy that keeps many smallholders locked out of credit.
India’s experiment sits inside a much larger regional push. Google DeepMind built its Agricultural Landscape Understanding (ALU) and Agricultural Monitoring and Event Detection (AMED) models to map field boundaries and track farm activity, and those models played an early role in shaping India’s approach. DeepMind now extends that same support to countries across Asia-Pacific and Africa, work that matters given estimates that global food production must grow by as much as 50% by 2050 to feed 9.7 billion people.
AI in agriculture gives farmers who have long gone without expert support a direct, low-cost line to exactly that. If platforms like KATHIR and MahaVISTAAR-AI keep growing, and if banks and governments build the financial tools the World Bank Group has planned, AI could become an important tool for supporting rural livelihoods and reducing poverty India.
– Juan Guillermo Rueda Castrillón
Photo: Flickr
Poverty Reduction in Italy
Poverty Remains Uneven Across the Country
The national picture does not reflect the substantial regional differences in Italy. In 2025, the South and Islands had the highest rate of risk of poverty or social exclusion at 38.4%, compared with 11.3% in the Northeast. This gap reflects wider differences in household incomes and employment conditions across the country. ISTAT reported a median household income of €37,086 in the Northeast in 2024, compared with the South, where the figure was 29% lower (est. €26,331 per household).
Household structure also matters. In 2025, the risk of poverty or social exclusion was 31.6% for single-parent households and 30.6% for couples with three or more children. In comparison, 16% of couples without children whose reference person was under 65 were at risk—nearly half of the other two groups. Households relying mainly on pensions or public transfers also faced a relatively high risk, at 32.6%, while the figure was 14.3% for households whose main source of income was dependent employment.
These differences help explain why poverty cannot be understood only as a national average: family responsibilities, access to work and the main source of household income all shape exposure to economic hardship. For this reason, poverty reduction in Italy focuses attention to the different circumstances of households and regions rather than relying only on national figures.
The pattern is also visible in ISTAT’s measure of absolute poverty. In 2024, more than 5.7 million people, or 9.8% of Italy’s population, were living in absolute poverty. ISTAT measures absolute poverty by comparing household consumption with a threshold based on the cost of a basket of essential goods and services. This threshold varies according to household size, composition, region and municipality size. ISTAT results indicated that absolute poverty was particularly high among larger households: 21.2% of households with five or more members were affected, rising to 19.4% among couples with three or more minor children. Single-parent households recorded 11.8%.
How Italy Has Expanded Social Support
Italy has introduced several measures to support households facing financial hardship in recent years. One of the main ones is the introduction of the Assegno di Inclusione (ADI) in 2024, a national income support scheme for low-income households that include a person with:
ADI provides financial support to eligible families and can also include help with rent. In simple terms, it is designed to give extra financial support to households that are most vulnerable to poverty.
Changes to the Equivalent Economic Situation Indicator (ISEE) were introduced on Jan. 1, 2026. These changes have altered how some households are assessed for welfare benefits. The new rules allow families to exclude a larger portion from their owner-occupied home when their economic situation is assessed, with a higher allowance in metropolitan areas. They also provide an additional adjustment for families with children. This means that some lower-income and vulnerable households may have a better chance of qualifying for support, even if they own their home.
These measures cannot solve Italy’s wider regional and household inequalities on their own, but they are an important part of poverty reduction in Italy. They help reduce financial pressure on vulnerable families while other factors, such as employment, housing, childcare and access to services, continue to shape people’s economic security.
Looking Ahead
Italy’s recent poverty data show an improvement in the overall share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, but the national figure does not highlight differences based on region, household or personal circumstances. The South and Islands continue to record much higher levels than northern regions, while single-parent families, larger families and households relying mainly on pensions or public transfers remain more exposed to poverty or social exclusion.
For Italy, reducing poverty involves more than increasing household income. The challenge is also to improve access to stable employment and services and to ensure that social support measures reach households whose needs are greatest. The future of poverty reduction in Italy will therefore depend not only on reducing the national poverty rate, but also on addressing the regional and household inequalities behind it. Measures such as ADI and the revised ISEE rules are part of this wider effort to improve economic security for the groups and regions that remain most vulnerable.
– James Moretti
Photo: Flickr
The Innovative Fight Against Poverty in Papua New Guinea
Poverty in Papua New Guinea
Poverty remains a major challenge in Papua New Guinea, especially for people living in rural communities. The World Bank identifies the most recent national household survey, conducted in 2009-10, found that 39.9% of the population lived below the country’s basic-needs poverty line. Papua New Guinea does not have a more recent official national poverty estimate. The World Bank identifies the country’s large rural population, poor connectivity and low levels of human capital as factors that contribute to continued poverty. These challenges are closely connected to employment. The World Bank reports that economic growth has not produced enough secure jobs for Papua New Guinea’s growing workforce. Most new workers have entered subsistence farming and low-productivity informal work rather than secure formal employment.
Agriculture and Poverty Reduction
Agriculture plays a major role in the lives of Papua New Guineans. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, agriculture employs between 6 million and 7 million people in rural Papua New Guinea, with the majority involved in semi-subsistence agriculture. Smallholder farmers also produce between 80% and 90% of the country’s export crops other than oil palm. However, rural farmers have trouble reaching markets, accessing financing and receiving agricultural information. Improving these areas can help farmers increase production and turn agriculture into a more dependable source of income. Investments in infrastructure, technology and agricultural services therefore have the potential to improve livelihoods in communities where farming remains a primary source of income.
Farming and the Digital Age
Digital technology is one of the innovations in poverty eradication in Papua New Guinea helping rural farmers overcome these barriers. In 2023, the EU-funded STREIT PNG Programme provided digital training to 74 lead farmers and agrifood business participants in East Sepik and West Sepik. The training taught participants how to use smartphones, apps, social media marketing and mobile payments. Farmers also learned to access weather and climate information that could help them make decisions about their crops. These skills can help farmers communicate with customers and participate more effectively in agricultural markets. Papua New Guinea expanded its use of agricultural technology again in October 2025 with the launch of its Agriculture Management Information System. The International Telecommunication Union and FAO developed the system through the EU-STREIT PNG Programme. It provides agricultural information that can help farmers and other organizations make decisions based on current data.
Renewable Energy Expands Opportunity
Access to electricity is another major challenge for communities across Papua New Guinea. According to the Asian Development Bank, about 20% of the country’s population has access to electricity. Expanding renewable energy offers one way to provide power to communities that remain difficult to connect to traditional electrical grids. One example is taking place in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. The United Nations Development Programme reports that more than 80% of the region’s population lacks reliable access to energy. The Pacific Green Transformation Project led to the installation of solar panels at the Innovation Hub in Buka. The project, funded by Japan and implemented with UNDP, provides renewable electricity to the Hub, which supports innovation and economic opportunities, particularly for women and young people.
Creating Jobs Through Innovation
Creating employment is an important part of innovations in poverty eradication in Papua New Guinea. In July 2026, the World Bank reported that strengthening major agricultural value chains could generate about 330,000 additional formal jobs during the next decade. The World Bank estimates that this scenario could also reduce poverty by around 5 percentage points, potentially lifting about 500,000 Papua New Guineans out of poverty. Agricultural development could be especially important because it connects economic growth with people living in rural communities. Better infrastructure, technology and market access can help farmers move beyond subsistence farming and earn more reliable incomes.
What Is Ahead
No single project can eliminate poverty, but recent developments show how technology can address several barriers at once. Digital agricultural services can give farmers better information, renewable energy projects can support communities with limited electricity and investment in agriculture could create jobs. These innovations in poverty eradication in Papua New Guinea demonstrate how new technology can support practical improvements in everyday life. Continued investment in agriculture, digital connectivity and renewable energy could give more Papua New Guineans the tools needed to build sustainable livelihoods and strengthen their communities.
– Griffin Blanco
Photo: Flickr
Read@Home Program Improves Child Literacy in Eswatini
Child Literacy in Eswatini
In Eswatini, third graders can read only about three English words per minute and about eight words per minute in SiSwati, the primary language of Eswatini.
This literacy gap exists alongside broader economic challenges in Eswatini. The country struggles with poverty, with 54% of the population surviving on only $4.20 per day. Limited employment and economic opportunities are among the challenges facing households. In fact, about 56% of young adults (15-24) remain unemployed.
Improving child literacy can strengthen children’s future educational and economic opportunities. Foundational reading and mathematics skills can help students progress through education and build skills relevant to future employment. Child illiteracy is partly driven by parents’ illiteracy, perpetuating a continuous cycle of poverty. However, by giving children the resources needed to stay in school, they gain the abilities needed to positively contribute to the economy.
The Read@Home Program
The Read@Home program is a World Bank initiative focused on improving child literacy in regions where resources are limited. Already, the World Bank has established partnerships in 18 countries. In Senegal, for example, books in both English and Senegalese languages have reached more than 2 million children. By partnering with governments and targeting families who do not have access to books and other learning materials, the program aims to improve child literacy at the source.
The Read@Home pilot has now worked to improve the literacy gap in Eswatini. The Ministry of Education in Eswatini has partnered with the World Bank to launch the Read@Home program in households across four tinkhundlas (constituencies in Eswatini’s government structure). Launched in 2025, the program primarily focused on rural, low-resource communities. The program provided 8,730 books in SiSwati and English to 546 caregivers, ultimately reaching more than 737 children.
Caregivers received home visits and coaching on how to read with their children. Teachers at early-childhood centers were similarly trained to create environments intended to promote child literacy.
Results
Expanding resource distribution beyond traditional books to include newspapers, magazines, and even church bulletins has produced promising results: nearly 78% of caregivers of children aged 3-5 reported reading more frequently with their children after receiving the resources and support. Additionally, numerous families reported seeing improvements in their child’s vocabulary and early literacy skills. Parents have also expressed more confidence in teaching their children.
Future Impact
Improving foundational reading skills improves future educational aspirations. These skills help children develop the knowledge and adaptability needed for future jobs and changing economies. By preventing learning gaps from widening, this program could potentially reduce the effects of poverty and increase economic opportunities in resource-limited settings. The Eswatini Read@Home pilot suggests that approaches such as book sharing and community-based support can help extend access to reading resources. Additionally, by providing books containing local and cultural stories, Read@Home can also strengthen children’s connection to their communities and instill a lasting love of reading.
Together, these efforts can give every child in Eswatini the foundational literacy skills and support they need to be successful both in school and beyond.
– Diya Rajkumar
Photo: Flickr
5 Charities Operating in Madagascar
Amid these challenges, a number of organizations are stepping in to close the gaps in education, nutrition and child protection. Below are five charities operating in Madagascar that aim to fight poverty and enhance the quality of life for youths.
Charities Operating in Madagascar
Final Thoughts
Madagascar continues to face poverty-related challenges, with many children still facing a lack of education and limited access to food and water. However, these five charities operating in Madagascar provide hope for the future of the island nation, particularly given the strong focus on upholding the rights of all children. Together, these organizations demonstrate how community-driven programs can drive meaningful change for Malagasy youth.
– Xavier Stephens
Photo: Flickr
3 Diseases Impacting Kenya
HIV/AIDS
As of 2026, roughly 1.5 million people in Kenya are living with HIV, making it one of the world’s largest HIV epidemics. However, HIV testing has improved significantly in recent years, largely due to community-based approaches and the use of new technology. In collaboration with the CDC, Kenya’s Ministry of Health has decentralized HIV testing by moving laboratories closer to their patients. This shift has resulted in faster delivery of test results. While it used to take two weeks for viral load test results, it now only takes a few days.
The Sustainable East Africa Research in Community Health (SEARCH) study, led by a group of Kenyan, American and Ugandan researchers, used a similar method to reduce new infections. Instead of having patients travel to a clinic, SEARCH employed a team of health workers to deliver tests and preventative medications directly to patients’ homes. From there, the workers used a smartphone app to keep track and inform clinics.
The SEARCH trial involved 16 rural communities, with eight in Kenya and eight in Uganda. In these areas, it led to a 70% decline in new cases. Out of its 80,000 participants, 95% were put on treatment and nearly 95% achieved undetectable levels of HIV.
Tuberculosis
HIV and TB in Kenya are directly connected. Dr. Gabriel Chamie, one of SEARCH’s co-investigators, notes that “the immune suppression caused by HIV dramatically increases the risk of tuberculosis.”
In October 2025, Kenya’s government announced the deployment of 80 portable X-ray machines to help fight TB. Battery-powered and weighing only 11 pounds, the machines use computer-aided detection software to flag early signs of TB. In remote areas where medical professionals are scarce, this offers a vital tool for fighting TB.
More recently, Kenya became part of an early-adopter initiative to improve TB testing. Following WHO recommendations, the country has introduced rapid, swab-based tests as the first line in TB diagnostics. Like the X-ray machines, they are battery-powered, allowing them to operate in places without consistent electricity. The swab tests will complement traditional sputum tests, which remain important for identifying drug-resistant TB.
Despite social stigma, logistics and other challenges, Kenya continues to fight against TB. Since 2015, the country has seen a 45% decline in TB incidence, as well as a 58% decline in TB-related deaths.
Malaria
The CDC estimates that every year there are more than 3 million malaria cases in Kenya, resulting in more than 11,000 deaths. Young children are at especially high risk.
In 2019, Kenya was one of several countries that the WHO selected to receive doses of RTS,S, the world’s first malaria vaccine. The rollout began in western counties along Lake Victoria, where transmission rates are highest. In Homa Bay County, on Lake Victoria, malaria infection rates fell from 27% to just 3.6% in the span of five years.
Nationwide, 400,000 children have received at least one dose of the four-dose vaccine. The vaccines, along with existing measures like mosquito nets and insecticides, have helped reduce Kenya’s malaria incidence. Between 2004 and 2024, the cases per 1,000 population fell from 184 to 74.
These diseases are closely linked to poverty in Kenya. For example, a 2024 study found that food insecurity made access to care more difficult for people living with HIV. Furthermore, Kenyans still pay about a quarter of their health expenses out of pocket, and for those already near the poverty line, this can be disastrous. In 2018, around one million people were pushed into poverty by out-of-pocket payments.
HIV, tuberculosis and malaria are only a handful of the diseases impacting Kenya. Yet by meeting these challenges head-on, and continually testing new strategies and technologies, the country is working toward a healthier and more prosperous future.
– Harland Pusey-Nazzaro
Photo: Flickr
Women’s Employment and the Gender Wage Gap in Djibouti
The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law data gave Djibouti a score of 87.5 out of 100 in 2025 for its legal framework on pay. This score measures whether certain laws supporting equal pay are in place. It does not measure how much women and men actually earn or whether employers consistently enforce equal-pay laws. Therefore, the score shows the country’s legal framework but cannot be used as a measurement of Djibouti’s actual gender wage gap.
Unemployment
One challenge facing women in Djibouti is unemployment. According to the UN Women Data Hub, the unemployment rate for women ages 15 and older was 35.9% in 2017, compared with 22.1% for men. These figures are from 2017, so they should not be treated as current 2026 unemployment rates. However, they show that women faced higher unemployment than men in the available data.
Women also had a higher rate of informal employment. In 2017, 64.9% of women’s non-agricultural employment was informal, compared with 45.3% for men. Informal employment can make it harder for workers to access protections and stable employment conditions. More recent information is needed to determine how these differences have changed.
The lack of current gender data is another challenge. UN Women reports that Djibouti has gaps in important gender-related data, including information about the gender pay gap. Without reliable and updated information about wages and employment, it is difficult to measure the size of the pay gap or track changes over time.
What the Data Can Tell Us
The available information does not provide a reliable current percentage for the gender wage gap in Djibouti. However, the differences in unemployment and informal employment show that women and men do not have the same experiences in the labor market.
The World Bank’s 2026 Djibouti Economic Monitor also reports that unemployment is particularly high among women and young people and that informal employment remains widespread. The report uses evidence from Djibouti’s first nationally representative Labor Force Survey, providing newer information about the country’s labor market.
Collecting more information about women’s and men’s wages, occupations, working hours and access to different types of employment could make it easier to understand pay differences in Djibouti. Better data could also help policymakers identify areas where women face the greatest barriers.
A Program Supporting Women’s Economic Opportunities
One example of an initiative addressing women’s economic opportunities in Djibouti is the World Bank-supported Djibouti Support for Women and Youth Entrepreneurship Project. The project was approved in 2018 with $15 million in financing. It aimed to improve economic opportunities for women and young entrepreneurs by supporting new businesses, entrepreneurship training and access to financing.
The project worked with entrepreneurs through training, business-development services, grants and business-plan competitions. By the time of its completion, 2,359 beneficiaries had received grants, with women making up 60% of grant recipients. The project also provided 4,938 training-completion certificates and supported the registration of 740 new businesses. Women accounted for 55% of the entrepreneurs accessing project-supported services who registered new businesses.
These results show how programs can address some of the barriers that limit women’s participation in the economy. The project focused on helping women gain business skills and access to financial resources rather than directly measuring or closing a gender wage gap. Since Djibouti still lacks reliable direct pay-gap data, programs like this provide one way to expand women’s economic opportunities while better employment data is collected.
Looking Ahead
The gender wage gap in Djibouti cannot currently be measured reliably because important wage data are missing. However, available employment data show differences between women and men in unemployment and informal employment.
Improving gender-related labor data would make it easier to identify pay differences and track progress. At the same time, programs that provide women with business training, financing and employment opportunities can help address some of the barriers they face in the labor market.
Djibouti’s legal framework also provides a starting point. The country received an 87.5 out of 100 score for its legal framework on pay in the World Bank’s 2025 data, but that score does not show whether women and men actually receive equal wages. Combining legal protections, programs that expand women’s economic opportunities and better data collection could provide a clearer picture of women’s employment and pay equality in Djibouti.
– Neha Veerepalli
Photo: Flickr