Sweden is known for its generous welfare state; however, homelessness in Sweden is a rising concern. Swedes spend a larger proportion of their disposable income on housing compared to other European countries, and that figure is rising rapidly. The lack of affordable housing and the growing population has led to a housing crisis and an increase in homelessness.
The definition of homelessness in Sweden is divided into four categories:
-
acute homelessness
-
institutional care and category housing
-
long-term housing solutions
-
short-term insecure housing solutions
The Swedish government conducts a national survey every six years to analyze trends in homelessness. The survey reported that 33,269 people were homeless in 2017. Since the last report in 2011, acute homelessness increased from 4,500 to 5,935 people, and those in long-term housing solutions increased from 13,900 to 15,838.
Who Are The Most Vulnerable to Homelessness?
Women are increasingly more susceptible to homelessness, compared to men. More than one-third of the homeless in Sweden have children younger than 18, resulting in at least 24,000 children with parents who are homeless.
The majority of parents struggling with homelessness stated the main cause as having an income too low for them to qualify as tenants in the ordinary housing market. This factor forces them to enter the secondary market and into long-term, but insecure, housing situations.
In recent years, a large influx of migrants including refugees has contributed to rising homelessness in Sweden. Around 43% of people that are homeless were born in a country other than Sweden. Sweden has the highest rate of homelessness per 1,000 inhabitants in Scandanavia.
More people are becoming homeless due to evictions, sudden unemployment, or relationship breakups than due to mental health or substance abuse issues. Since more than 20% of the homeless do not need additional social services besides housing, they do not get support at all. The largest contributor to homelessness in Sweden is the housing crisis.
The Housing Crisis
There is a lack of available and affordable housing in Sweden, especially in cities. In 2017, 88% of municipalities reported a housing shortage. The wait time for an apartment is significantly increasing over time, making it nearly impossible to secure a rental apartment.
A reason for the shortage is that new construction is not keeping up with the growing population. There is low production of new public housing or rental apartments due to the cost of land, workers and materials; the cost is high due to the extremely high demand. There is little space left to build, and architects and city planners are reluctant to build taller to adhere to Swedish building customs. The rentals that are built are directed to upper-class markets with an average rental rate substantially higher than what social services will pay. Rising costs have made it even more difficult for marginalized groups to enter the conventional housing market.
What is the Solution?
To deal with the lack of housing, some have turned to co-housing. Companies such as Colive are remodeling large houses where tenants would pay for a bedroom and shared common spaces. The plan is to create tens of thousands of units within the decade.
Homelessness in Sweden is more of a structural issue than a social one, although the social aspects should not be ignored. While there is no explicit national strategy to address homelessness, there have been calls for an integrated housing provision strategy in which the state, region and municipality are all jointly responsible for providing adequate housing. Policies need to be more proactive to tackle the large proportion of people stuck in the secondary housing market. Measures need to be put in place to incentivize affordable housing builds with specific goals for low-income housing, according to the Stadmissionen report.
Having one’s own home is a fundamental need that also offers safety and security. Housing First, a method for dealing with homelessness in New York City, was implemented in Stockholm and Helsingborg in 2010. This approach eliminates conditions for housing and treats housing as a fundamental human right. Now, 94 municipalities in the country have Housing First strategies; these programs are local and not national.
Overall, the solution to homelessness in Sweden requires solving the housing crisis. The government needs to enact policies that spur affordable constructions while simultaneously moving the responsibility of homelessness prevention to municipalities and the state rather than social services.
– Katie Gagnon
Photo: Pixabay
10 Facts About Sanitation in Jordan
10 Facts About Sanitation in Jordan
Jordan faces severe water scarcity. According to UNICEF, “Jordan’s annual renewable water resources are less than 100m3 [meters cubed] per person.” This is 400 meters cubed below the threshold of 500 meters cubed, which defines water scarcity.
As a result of an increase in population and industrial and agricultural capacity, Jordan is dealing with severe aquifer depletion. All 12 of Jordan’s main aquifers are declining at rates exceeding 20 meters per year, well beyond their rechargeable volumes. This is especially alarming as 60% of Jordan’s water comes from the ground.
Those in vulnerable and rural areas lack sanitation resources. Proper hygiene norms, such as handwashing and showering, are taught and practiced in households. However, those in more vulnerable and rural areas often lack soap and body wash to stay clean and healthy.
A large percentage of the population in Jordan don’t have access to water. Only 58% of households have direct access to a sewer connection. In comparison to the nearly half of the population in Jordan, only 0.46% of the United States population does not have access to proper plumbing services. This is an especially prevalent issue in rural areas in Jordan, where only 6% of households have a sewer connection.
The Syrian refugee crisis has greatly increased the population in Jordan. As Jordan borders Syria, it has become a safe haven for more than 670,000 refugees of the Syrian civil war. Having accepted the second-highest amount of refugees in the world compared to its population in 2018, this sudden increase in population means added pressure on resources and infrastructure, as well as an increase in air pollution and waste production.
The increase in population, agriculture and industry in Jordan has led to an increase in pollution and toxicity in Jordan’s water supply. Upstream abstractions of groundwater have led to an increase in salinity. Unregulated pesticides and fertilizers used for farming have exposed the water supply to dangerous nitrates and phosphorus through runoff. In addition, it is reported that about 70% of Jordan’s spring water is biologically contaminated.
Foreign aid plays a positive role in improving sanitation in Jordan. To mitigate the aforementioned effects threatening Jordan’s water supply and working towards achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 6, USAID works in conjunction with the government of Jordan to build sustainable water and wastewater infrastructure, train hundreds of water experts in Jordan, promote water conservation and strengthen water governance.
Profound progress is seen in the increase in access to water, hygiene services and sanitation in Jordan. From 2000 to 2015, 2,595,670 people gained access to safely managed water services and 2,212,419 people gained access to safely managed sanitation services. In addition, homelessness in Jordan is very rare, meaning open defecation and the illnesses associated with homelessness are less prevalent.
Despite Jordan’s desert climate, clean water and efficient sanitation are achievable and make up the groundwork of global prosperity. Sanitation in Jordan is of the utmost priority in ensuring that Jordan can become a durable consumer and competitor of leading nations.
– Sharon Shenderovskiy
Photo: Flickr
5 NGOs Fighting COVID-19 in Argentina’s Slums
Argentina is the fifth-highest country with the most COVID-19 cases in South America, with 111,000 recorded cases by mid-July. Moreover, Argentina’s COVID-19 related death toll has nearly doubled since June, surpassing 5,000 cases. Confirmed illnesses continue to be on the rise, with more than half concentrated in the urban hotspot of Buenos Aires City. Approximately 88% of all cases in Argentina are reported from within Buenos Aires, its impoverished slums or its surrounding regions.
COVID-19 in Argentina
While the federal government acted early to contain the virus, including imposing a strict nightly curfew since March, Argentina’s most impoverished remain extremely susceptible to COVID-19 and its dire economic consequences. For example, within Buenos Aires’ slums, families often have to sell their homes to afford meals for their families.
Nearly half of all Buenos Aires cases were estimated to be in its slums in late May. In some instances, outbreaks became so alarming that the government would enforce security and fences around these neighborhoods to ensure residents do not spread the virus—at the expense of residents’ increased impoverishment.
Regional non-governmental organizations (NGOs) within Argentina recognized these hardships faced by low-income Argentinians and are currently working to mitigate the health and economic consequences. Here are five NGOs battling COVID-19 in Argentina’s slums.
5 NGOs Fighting COVID-19 in Argentina’s Slums
Looking Ahead
While COVID-19 cases in Argentina have overwhelmingly affected the country’s impoverished populations, diverse civil society organizations are working to combat the effects of COVID-19 in Argentina’s slums. Whether through economic empowerment or preventing misinformation on COVID-19, these five NGOs aim to stabilize Argentina’s most marginalized’s living conditions during the pandemic.
—Breana Stanski
Photo: Flickr
3 Things to Know About Poverty Reduction in Chile
Like many other countries, Chile has struggled to ensure its citizens remain out of poverty. Luckily, the country has experienced economic growth over the past few years, now one of the fastest-growing economies in Latin America. This success can be seen by looking at how much of the population was impoverished in 2000 compared to 2017. In 2000, 30% of the population was impoverished. By 2017, the country was able to cut that number all the way down to 3.7%. As a result, Chile has grown its economy, helped those in poverty and reduced the poverty rate.
3 Things to Know About Poverty Reduction in Chile
Due to the Chilean government’s actions, Chile has reduced poverty and provided a better standard of living for its people. Moving forward, it is essential that the country and other humanitarian organizations continue to focus on poverty reduction and improving livelihoods. If they do, poverty in Chile will hopefully continue to decrease.
– Jacob E. Lee
Photo: Flickr
6 Facts About Healthcare in Ethiopia
Located in the horn of Africa, Ethiopia is a developing country that has struggled to obtain structured and stable healthcare in the past. However, in recent years, the country has made several attempts to provide healthcare improvements. Here are six facts about the efforts to improve healthcare in Ethiopia.
6 Facts About Healthcare in Ethiopia
These six facts about healthcare in Ethiopia exemplify a few of the effective actions that the Ethiopian government took through the use of development plans and organizations. While there is still plenty of work for the country to do, several actions have taken place in attempts to improve Ethiopia’s overall healthcare.
– Elisabeth Balicanta
Photo: Wikimedia
Healthcare in Costa Rica
Public Healthcare
Costa Rica’s government-run public healthcare system, Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), often called “Caja,” has 30 hospitals and over 250 clinics throughout the country. Though the public sector can have waiting lists, like any other healthcare system, it offers citizens and permanent residents full coverage for all medical procedures and prescription drugs. A small percentage of one’s income funds Caja. It is relatively inexpensive, especially in comparison to the costs of treatments in the United States.
Private Healthcare
Private healthcare in Costa Rica is more expensive than public healthcare, but it is of considerable quality. Doctors in private healthcare facilities generally speak English and have received professional training in the United States, Europe or Canada. CIMA hospital in Escazu, Clínica Bíblica in San Jose and Hospital La Católica in Guadalupe (San Jose) are the three most well-known private hospitals in Costa Rica and they are also internationally accredited.
Medical Tourism
The beautiful scenery and relatively low costs of healthcare in Costa Rica have turned the country into a popular spot for “medical tourism.” Medical tourism is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as “traveling to another country for medical care.” Each year, more than 40,000 Americans travel to Costa Rica annually to seek healthcare. In 2016, Costa Rica welcomed 70,000 medical tourists according to the Costa Rican Health Chamber, PROMED. The primary procedures for medical tourists in Costa Rica are dentistry and cosmetic surgery.
Both citizens and medical tourists can attest that healthcare in Costa Rica is of great quality and is low-cost in comparison to other systems. With the constant improvements to the universal and private health sectors, Costa Rica rightfully deserves its ranking as one of the best healthcare systems in Latin America.
– Emma Benson
Photo: Southcom
Ending Child Labor: 3 UN Solutions
Living in poverty is the main reason children work, whether by circumstance or force. However, child labor creates a cycle of poverty. Some children have to work to survive and help support their families. These children, therefore, do not have the time to receive an education. Education is considered a key to escape poverty; without it, children do not have many options other than continuing to work.
Most child labor is in agriculture; more than 75% of child laborers work the fields, but others work in factories or the service industry. Out of the 170 million child laborers, 6 million children are forced into labor. These children often become child soldiers or are sold into prostitution or slavery. The United Nations calls for an end to child labor in all forms by 2025, a mere five years away. Here are three U.N. solutions to achieve their goal to end child labor:
3 UN Solutions to End Child Labor
While the U.N. has set a challenging goal, with increased awareness, commitment and cooperation, the global community can succeed in its programs, ending child labor by 2025. With a real childhood, education and a brighter future, these children will have a chance to step out of the vicious cycle of poverty.
– Zoe Padelopoulos
Photo: Unsplash
US Initiatives Help Fight Poverty in Africa
Though the extreme levels of poverty in Africa are what typically define the continent, it has seen rapid economic growth as foreign nations increase investment in sub-Saharan Africa. The U.S. seeks to expand and increase trade with Africa by way of economic development initiatives. The following article describes two U.S. initiatives that create a mutually beneficial relationship between the U.S. and Africa. These initiatives seek to fight poverty in Africa and accomplish the humanitarian and economic goals of both parties involved.
African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)
The African Growth and Opportunity Act increases sub-Saharan Africa’s accessibility to the U.S. market with duty-free access to many U.S. commodities, incentivizing investment in the goods of U.S. companies. Sub-Saharan African countries that wish to attain and keep eligibility for AGOA must be actively working towards improved rule of law, human rights and labor standards. This means that these countries must minimize the poverty levels their citizens face. The desire to be part of these trade acts motivates many countries to improve upon their standards of living.
Through the benefits of AGOA, Kenya has become a top exporter of apparel and macadamia nuts to the U.S. Ethiopia now generates about $20 million in footwear exports. South Africa, the largest AGOA beneficiary by value, has increased exports to the U.S. threefold since 2001, totaling $2.9 billion in 2015, and is developing a booming automobile industry. The agriculture industry in South Africa has also flourished under AGOA. The citrus sector alone has generated 85,000 new jobs in South Africa. Since the implementation of AGOA, sub-Saharan Africa beneficiary countries have increased non-energy exports to the U.S. in total by 57.8%. These economic developments create thousands of new jobs every year which helps eradicate hunger and poverty in Africa.
American companies are also benefiting from AGOA. An example is American Augers Inc., who is adding new jobs to its factory by growing its exports to Africa. By committing to laying the fiber optic infrastructure across all of Africa, American Augers Inc. was able to expand and grow its business. This is but one company’s example of how increasing U.S. export to Africa provides jobs anywhere from factory workers to farmers throughout America.
Prosper Africa
Prosper Africa is a recent extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Due to U.S. foreign direct investment statistics in Africa recently declining, Prosper Africa is the Trump administration’s initiative to double two-way trade between the U.S. and Africa. Making this initiative unique from the original AGOA, Prosper Africa creates a one-stop-shop of U.S. government support services to aid U.S. and African businesses and investors. The initiative also promises to negotiate at least one new bilateral free trade agreement in Africa. This type of agreement can significantly improve the economic activity of a country. For example, the U.S. signed and enforced a free trade agreement with Morocco. Within a decade, U.S. imports from Morocco doubled and U.S. exports to Morocco roughly quadrupled.
Small U.S. businesses in particular are benefiting from the improved, mutually beneficial business climate the initiative creates. An example is the Environmental Chemical Company. While the firm attains economic success through commercial opportunities now made available in Africa, the people of Nairobi, Kenya and the surrounding area are also benefiting from the environmental restoration and social services that the U.S. company is providing. As more U.S. businesses invest, the statistics of poverty in Africa should only see improvement.
Overcoming Poverty in Africa
In a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics from over a decade ago, estimates determined that removing trade barriers and opening up more countries to the global market could help fight poverty in Africa by bringing as many as 500 million people out of poverty and putting $200 billion a year into the economies of those developing nations. AGOA and Prosper Africa’s efforts show that the numbers that the Peterson Institute predicted are an attainable future goal. With increased employment and reliable income, people of sub-Saharan Africa can lift their families above the poverty line. As the fight against poverty in Africa causes poverty rates to decrease, the purchasing power of the region should increase, allowing access to untapped markets.
– Hanna Rowell
Photo: Wikimedia
Homelessness in Sweden: A Country in a Housing Crisis
Sweden is known for its generous welfare state; however, homelessness in Sweden is a rising concern. Swedes spend a larger proportion of their disposable income on housing compared to other European countries, and that figure is rising rapidly. The lack of affordable housing and the growing population has led to a housing crisis and an increase in homelessness.
The definition of homelessness in Sweden is divided into four categories:
acute homelessness
institutional care and category housing
long-term housing solutions
short-term insecure housing solutions
The Swedish government conducts a national survey every six years to analyze trends in homelessness. The survey reported that 33,269 people were homeless in 2017. Since the last report in 2011, acute homelessness increased from 4,500 to 5,935 people, and those in long-term housing solutions increased from 13,900 to 15,838.
Who Are The Most Vulnerable to Homelessness?
Women are increasingly more susceptible to homelessness, compared to men. More than one-third of the homeless in Sweden have children younger than 18, resulting in at least 24,000 children with parents who are homeless.
The majority of parents struggling with homelessness stated the main cause as having an income too low for them to qualify as tenants in the ordinary housing market. This factor forces them to enter the secondary market and into long-term, but insecure, housing situations.
In recent years, a large influx of migrants including refugees has contributed to rising homelessness in Sweden. Around 43% of people that are homeless were born in a country other than Sweden. Sweden has the highest rate of homelessness per 1,000 inhabitants in Scandanavia.
More people are becoming homeless due to evictions, sudden unemployment, or relationship breakups than due to mental health or substance abuse issues. Since more than 20% of the homeless do not need additional social services besides housing, they do not get support at all. The largest contributor to homelessness in Sweden is the housing crisis.
The Housing Crisis
There is a lack of available and affordable housing in Sweden, especially in cities. In 2017, 88% of municipalities reported a housing shortage. The wait time for an apartment is significantly increasing over time, making it nearly impossible to secure a rental apartment.
A reason for the shortage is that new construction is not keeping up with the growing population. There is low production of new public housing or rental apartments due to the cost of land, workers and materials; the cost is high due to the extremely high demand. There is little space left to build, and architects and city planners are reluctant to build taller to adhere to Swedish building customs. The rentals that are built are directed to upper-class markets with an average rental rate substantially higher than what social services will pay. Rising costs have made it even more difficult for marginalized groups to enter the conventional housing market.
What is the Solution?
To deal with the lack of housing, some have turned to co-housing. Companies such as Colive are remodeling large houses where tenants would pay for a bedroom and shared common spaces. The plan is to create tens of thousands of units within the decade.
Homelessness in Sweden is more of a structural issue than a social one, although the social aspects should not be ignored. While there is no explicit national strategy to address homelessness, there have been calls for an integrated housing provision strategy in which the state, region and municipality are all jointly responsible for providing adequate housing. Policies need to be more proactive to tackle the large proportion of people stuck in the secondary housing market. Measures need to be put in place to incentivize affordable housing builds with specific goals for low-income housing, according to the Stadmissionen report.
Having one’s own home is a fundamental need that also offers safety and security. Housing First, a method for dealing with homelessness in New York City, was implemented in Stockholm and Helsingborg in 2010. This approach eliminates conditions for housing and treats housing as a fundamental human right. Now, 94 municipalities in the country have Housing First strategies; these programs are local and not national.
Overall, the solution to homelessness in Sweden requires solving the housing crisis. The government needs to enact policies that spur affordable constructions while simultaneously moving the responsibility of homelessness prevention to municipalities and the state rather than social services.
– Katie Gagnon
Photo: Pixabay
6 Facts About Technological Improvements in Ghana
6 Facts About Technological Improvements in Ghana
Technology improvements in Ghana continue to increase today. Ghana is shaping the future by instilling all the skills and foundations into its youngest citizens to continue growing, developing and improving. The median age for Ghana’s capital city is 21 years old. The Ghanaians are young and flourishing, constantly learning new things and adding programs to their hub for technological development. In the next decade, Ghana hopes to be a self-sustaining, middle-class economy through advanced technological improvements.
– Kimberly Elsey
Photo: Flickr
Education Development in Burkina Faso
Frequent terrorist attacks since 2016 have impacted many sectors in Burkina Faso, especially education. The high cost of education prevents many in poverty from going to school. This is particularly true for girls, as parents are more likely to prioritize the education of their sons. Education remains a challenge for the West African country since Burkina Faso’s education spending relies heavily on aid. Furthermore, violence in the Sahel region displaced more than 765,000 people and caused more than 2,000 schools to close in March 2020. School closures continue to affect about 300,000 students and 11,000 teachers. Although recent violence has impacted education in Burkina Faso, organizations are stepping up to provide aid.
Education to Reduce Poverty
An educated society helps reduce poverty. Burkina Faso has a poverty rate of 40.1% and affordable education could benefit its people. Affordable education could also improve the country’s poor infrastructure and communication. Further benefits include the diversification of knowledge, allowing individuals to better change the world around them. All these benefits encouraged the OPEC to sign a loan of $20 million to Burkina Faso in support of its education development in 2019. A reported 18,500 on-campus University of Ouagadougou students will benefit from expanded facilities.
The loan also helps the government finance its Agricultural Value Chain Support Project, which focuses on poverty reduction and agricultural productivity. Director-General of the OPEC Fund Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa said, “Ensuring inclusive and quality education for all – and promoting lifelong learning – is a fundamental ingredient to sustainable development. To see such a project come to life is inspiring and I believe this university will enable many people – young and old – to play a role in advancing the development of Burkina Faso, and more generally, in contributing toward a more equal global society.”
Improvements in Girls’ Education
Education for children continues to improve although the achievement gap between boys and girls still remains large. For females age 15 to 24, the literacy rate is only 33% in contrast to a 47% rate for boys in the same age range. In the Sahel region, girls’ education is particularly grim. Girls are two times more likely to drop out of primary school than their female counterparts nationally. About half of the girls in the Sahel region are married and give birth before the age of 19. This has created a high-drop out rate of around 30% during the final year of lower secondary school. If tests are not taken during this time, girls cannot move up to upper secondary school, both of which are barriers to furthering education for girls.
In response to these conditions, Education Cannot Wait provides emergency aid to countries without access to proper education. Education Cannot Wait, hosted by UNICEF, allocated $6 million in July 2019 to help children in the Sahel region. This came as a response to the widespread violence in the region that affected 2.3 million children. The organization provides emergency education assistance throughout the world, benefiting 187,000 children through its assistance. Its goals in the Sahel region for 2020 include constructing and rehabilitating classrooms for about 41,000 children who are out of school, distributing learning material for 94,000 children and mobilizing 83,000 community members to help support secure learning environments.
The 12-month plan also includes hygiene promotion, which includes menstrual hygiene management for more than 68,000 students. Sexual violence against women, child marriage and exploitation in the region are common, so a safe environment, such as a school, can help provide safety to student girls and female teachers in spite of the recent violence.
Moving Forward
Education remains of vital importance to a country’s wellbeing, both socially and economically. Burkina Faso continues to experience widespread violence, yet aid from outside the country is helping provide education to children and adults. However, more can be done to not only improve education but also increase economic development. Continued efforts are needed to reduce poverty and improve education in Burkina Faso.
– Lucas Schmidt
Photo: Flickr