Archive for category: Aid Effectiveness & Reform

Information and stories about aid effectiveness and reform

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33.3 Million Internally Displaced People in 2013

There are 33.3 million internally displaced people worldwide as of 2013 according to The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) in a report released mid-May.

The Global Overview 2014: people internally displaced by conflict and violence, the IDMC’s flagship annual report, was launched at an event co-organized by the IDMC, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The IDMC has been monitoring internal displacement figures since the late 90’s. The current numbers show 8.1 million newly displaced people in 2013, up 1.8 million from 2012.

Displacement occurs heavily in areas experiencing extreme conflict and violence, leaving the most unstable countries with the highest population of displaced people. Figures from the IDMC show the rankings of these areas as follows:

Countries with the largest displacement related to conflict and violence

  1. Syria (6.5 million)
  2. Columbia (5.7 million)
  3. Nigeria (3.3 million)
  4. DRC (2.9 million)
  5. Sudan (2.4 million)
  6. Iraq (2.1 million)
  7. Somalia (1.1 million)

As seen, 63 percent of the total displacement numbers come from Syria, Columbia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. Syria passed Columbia as having the most internally displaced people (IDPs) last year and accounts for almost half of new displacements in 2013.

However, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region containing the highest number of internally displaced people since 2003. “These numbers show why it’s so vitally important that the international response to Syria should not be at the expense of displaced people in Africa or elsewhere,” says Antonio Guterres, the High Commissioner for Refugees.

Currently, 12.5 million people are internally displaced in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a 55 percent increase in new displacements in the region from the previous year. The most problematic areas are the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

Aside from being forced to migrate from their homes, IDPs suffer various health issues associated with the move as well. Displacement camps are often militarized and lack inadequate shelter. Proper health treatment is often inaccessible while living conditions are unsanitary.

Continuing conflict also makes it difficult for governments and humanitarians in the field to deliver aid. Conditions are so bad that the average displacement time for affected people is now 17 years, according to Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“We have a shared responsibility to act to end this massive suffering,” urges Guterres, “Immediate protection and assistance for the internally displaced is a humanitarian imperative.”

A promising sign for positive change comes with the African Union’s Kampala Convention, the world’s first international treaty that legally binds states to assisting and protecting their IDPs. Five additional countries signed on this year alone.

The fact that internal displacement is an upward trend reveals an inherent flaw in the way the issue is being addressed. Comprehensive reform on the local, national and international approach is now being discussed as efforts increase to resolve the IDP crisis.

– Edward Heinrich

Sources: Internal-Displacement,Algazeera,The Chicago Citizen
Photo: FT Photo Diary

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Tsetse Fly Repellant in the Near Future?

The people of sub-Sahara Africa may no longer need to fear the bite of the tsetse fly. In an April 24, 2014, Business Weekly article, “Net Closing On Serial Killer Parasite,” Kate Sweeney reported, “Cambridge genome scientists and international colleagues are closing in on new weapons to eradicate deadly diseases spread by the tsetse fly.”

According to the World Health Organization, tsetse flies, blood-sucking insects, transmit Trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness, as well as other diseases to humans and animals in over 30 African nations. Sleeping sickness initially causes joint stiffness, weakness and fever. Over time though, it results in neurological damage and eventually, death. If one identifies the disease early enough, there are drugs to cure sleeping sickness in its initial stages. In 2001, the World Health Organization initiated a large campaign against the disease via early detection and reduced the number of reported cases significantly. In 2010, the number of cases reported dropped below 10,000 for the first time in 50 years.

In 2014, scientists believe a better understanding of the tsetse fly will help eliminate African sleeping sickness completely. The Cambridge genome scientists contribute to a team of 146 scientists from 78 research institutes. The Business Weekly article stated that this international team, “analyzed the genome of the tsetse fly and its 12,000 genes that control protein activity.” This analysis found that tsetse flies have very actives tsal genes in their salivary glands that crave blood.

According to The New York Times’ article, “New Tool to Fight Deadly Tsetse Fly”, a team at Yale University, one of the 78 universities, “found several spots on the genome they hope will eventually lead to better insecticides or repellents.” When studying other insects, such as fruit flies and mosquitos, scientists created repellants after determining weaknesses in their genetic composition. Therefore, this new understanding of the tsetse fly’s tsal genes could lead to new repellant technologies.

As stated in the Huffington Post article, “Tsetse Fly Genome Decoded, May Hold Clues to Fighting African Sleeping Sickness” John Reeder, head of the World Health Organization’s program for research and training in tropical diseases, said, “Sleeping sickness threatens millions of people in 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the affected populations live in remote areas with limited access to adequate health services, which complicates the surveillance and therefore the diagnosis and treatment of cases.” His words illustrate the importance of tsetse fly genome decoding for Africa. A repellant or insecticide to fight tsetse flies would be a more feasible solution compared to the difficult detection of the disease and distribution of drugs to cure it in Africa.

– Jaclyn Ambrecht

Sources: The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Business Weekly, WHO

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USAID Official Questioned On Aid in Afghanistan

afghanistan_aid_USAID
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has spent approximately $17 billion in Afghanistan since 2001. In a recent letter from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the general counsel claims that USAID has not been diligent in monitoring the use of money to prevent contract aid from being used by groups linked to terrorist organizations.

The letter declares that USAID has purposely withheld information regarding these funds and the fact that the Afghan government did not exercise oversight regarding the appropriation of those funds. John Sopko, the inspector general for SIGAR, stated “USAID kept this information from Congress and the American people.”

Yet a spokesperson for USAID, Matthew Herrick, has denied any wrongdoing on behalf of the agency. Herrick claimed that USAID complied with all requests from members of Congress and their staff to show documents relating to the matter.

In order to ensure the money was not spent in a fraudulent manner, the House Subcommittee on National Security questioned the USAID Assistant Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan Donald L. Samper. Members on the subcommittee called into question the ability of Afghan ministries to oversee the allocation of USAID funds.

In a country notorious for its corruption, USAID conducted internal risk reviews of its dealings in the country. But Rep. John Tierney of Massachusetts stated that although USAID conducted risk reviews of seven of the thirteen Afghan ministries and made 333 recommendations on how to lessen the risk to USAID funds, the agency provided direct assistance to the seven ministries and only required 24 of the 333 recommendations to be implemented.

Sopko called for the Afghan government to take more concrete steps to increase its oversight of USAID-funded projects and decrease corruption before USAID doles out any more funding for development assistance. Overseeing the proper delegation of funding to Afghanistan has been emphasized recently. In 2012 the US government concluded that a contractor working there had links to networks that provided parts of improvised explosive devices to be used against US troops.

This latest revelation comes amidst another scandal in which the USAID spearheaded a so-called covert “Cuban Twitter” project codenamed ZunZuneo. As a result, the federal agency has been under increasingly strict scrutiny from Congress.

– Jeff Meyer

Sources: UPI, USA Today
Photo: The Guardian

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UNESCO Pushes for Millennial Education Goals

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Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been a major proponent for global education since his tenure ended. He has made a number of announcements and proclamations in favor of increasing global literacy, yet recently his proposals have gained more steam. The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has agreed to follow through with Brown’s mission statement to put 57 million children in school worldwide by next year. This falls short of the Millennium Goals that were meant to be reached by 2015.

A report from January of 2014 brought on this concern towards the Millennial Education Goals. The UNESCO report said that the goals would not be met until 2086 under current projections. While striving towards these goals 70 years in advance may seem a little optimistic, the statistics used from 2011 showed a 50% drop in out-of-school children since the beginning of the new millennium. This gives hope for a renewed commitment to make an immediate impact.

The most recent statistics on the issue come from that 2011 study, but those numbers showed 123 million young adults (15-24) lacked basic reading and writing skills. The most progress for universal primary education has been in Southeast Asia, in South Korea, India and Vietnam. Afghanistan shows the most immediate promise for the future, even with troops potentially leaving the nation at the end of the year.

The nations struggling the most to achieve universal primary education are those of Western Africa. Senegal, Mauritania, Nigeria and a number of other sub-Saharan countries still lag behind most of the developed world. Particularly for women, there remain few options and little hope for advancement. West Africa will likely be where UNESCO efforts have to focus.

Gordon Brown, as the United Nation’s Special envoy for global education, called these struggles unacceptable. He said in a recent interview, “the inequality of opportunity that they face is unfair… we have seen the makings of a civil rights struggle amongst young people.” Brown hopes that drawing on grassroots campaigns for education around the world will help bring the world closer to universal primary education.

The fight to achieve universal primary education will take on multiple fronts and be supported by different leaders. Malala Yousafzai has become a global celebrity thanks to her courage in the face of opponents of this mission. Yousafzai and Brown have begun work in Lebanon to educate the thousands of school-age children living in Syrian refugee camps. Given the ongoing Syrian conflict it is unknown how long those kids will be living in the camps, and the need is there for education to prevent a “lost generation” of kids.

The Millennium education efforts may have missed their goals by a long shot. However, the emphasis that people like Brown and Yousafzai have placed on primary education brings hope for the near future. Organizations like The Borgen Project support this passion and hope it will be shared by more people around the world. The first step toward ending global poverty will be reaching children as early as possible, and universal primary education is a key method of doing so.

– Eric Gustafsson

Photo: Globalization101
Sources: United Nations, PBS, BBC

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Impending Famine in South Sudan

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The famine in South Sudan has reached a scale similar to that in Syria. Close to one third of the population of South Sudan is already at severe risk of starvation and, unless something is done soon, the struggle will only get worse. Some are calling it a race against time.

Since the violence erupted this past December, around 255,000 people have fled to neighboring countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, and more than 800,000 people have been displaced inside the country. Some people have even fled north to South Sudan’s recently separated Sudan counterpart. The United Nations coordinator for humanitarian aid in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, has appealed for the essentials such as food and water, as well as farming tools and seeds. If the South Sudanese are unable to plant their crops by the time rain comes in May, they will face the most disastrous famine in Africa since the 1980s.

According to Lanzer, aid donations have been catastrophically faltering. A United Nations appeal for $1.3 billion was not fully funded and only a quarter of the requested money went though, in an assertion that only $232 million was necessary for the bare minimum of humanitarian aid to the country. But the bare minimum is not enough, as tragic 7 million people in South Sudan are at risk of hunger. People are in such dire need of food and water that one family started boiling poisonous roots for an entire week in order to have something to eat. Many travel for days with no water whatsoever.

Violence in the country has only made matters worse. When weapons were reported to have been found in a UN convoy in March, the government and army in South Sudan understandably felt obligated to increase surveillance and security measures on UN vehicles delivering aid. The issue strained relations between the international agency and South Sudan, subsequently making aid delivery increasingly difficult.

The horrifying conditions in which people are currently living, however, can be changed. Famine implies that people are dying and, while many argue that South Sudan has not yet reached that point, the risk is very real. With enough funding reaching the people of South Sudan in a timely enough fashion, an even worse future can be avoided.

– Jaclyn Stutz

Sources: USA Today, Al Jazeera, The New York Times
Photo: UPI

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“War on Poverty”: Are We Progressing?

In his State of the Union Address 50 years ago, Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “War on Poverty,” joining the ranks of other war-dominated rhetoric such as the most recent endless war on terror and the ever-elusive war on drugs. Has the war on poverty made significant progress or has it turned into a stalemate like the other United States preemptive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Johnson’s efforts to eradicate poverty in America included programs such as Head Start, Food Stamps, Medicaid and Job Corps, some of which were included in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which strengthened overall efforts to further policies that eliminate poverty, expand educational opportunities and provide health services for those in need.

While there continue to be debates over whether Johnson’s initiatives were a success or a total disaster, they nonetheless serve as an appropriate frame of reference to the current poverty-reducing legislation that exists today.

‘Half in Ten Act’

One such legislation is the bill H.R. 2182, ‘The Half in Ten Act,’ that would, if successful, cut poverty in 10 years, with the long-term goal being the total eradication of poverty in America. Senator Barbara Lee provides tangible solutions to end poverty, such as investing in job creation and training, implementing anti-poverty programs and early childhood education and providing quality college education, all of which are included in the Act. This Act coincides with U.S. President Barack Obama’s statements addressing poverty in his recent budget proposal.

The Half in Ten campaign has four main goals: create good jobs, promote economic security, strengthen families and cut poverty in half in 10 years. It is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Coalition on Human Needs and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Small Steps Forward

While the war-based rhetoric is consequential in itself and implies that there will be a loser and a winner in the war on poverty, the declaration of the war on poverty nonetheless sets the stage for national discourse regarding poverty reducing legislation.

A recent poll conducted by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, revealed that Americans want more programs to combat poverty. Most Americans agreed with the statement “most people living in poverty are decent people who are working hard to make ends meet in a difficult economy” and nearly as many agreed that “the primary reason so many people are living in poverty today is that our economy is failing to produce enough jobs that pay decent wages.”

While chairman Paul Ryan has recently dubbed the War on Poverty to be ineffective and a complete failure, it nonetheless pushed Americans in the right direction to confront global poverty and the institutions that exacerbate already harsh living conditions in the developing world. Rather than dismissing the opposition simply because of their ideological views, it is more useful to analyze the long-term trends in poverty.

In 2013, a Columbia study found that the poverty rate fell from 26 percent in 1967 to 16 percent in 2012, proving that perhaps the social safety net programs that were implemented 50 years ago under Johnson’s presidency had some positive effect after all.

– Rozali Telbis

Sources: Marketplace, The Week, Huffington Post, Half in Ten, Bill Moyers
Photo: National Review

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Orphanage Tourism

orphanage tourism
The number of orphanages in Cambodia has nearly doubled since 2007, yet the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that there are now fewer orphans in Cambodia than ever before. The reason for this discrepancy? Orphanage tourism.

Volunteering at a local orphanage has become a bucket-list item for many tourists and the preferred feel-good end to a trip full of festivals, massages, cooking classes, and guided tours. Regardless of skill-sets or language barriers, most orphanages throw open their doors to well-meaning travelers, but for a price.

UNICEF’s statistics show that of the estimated 12,000 children living in Cambodian orphanages today, only 28 percent have lost both their parents. Most of the children in these establishments are serving as — for lack of a kinder expression — tourist attractions.

The inflation of orphanages has come an explosive 250 percent increase of travelers into the country.

Parents who cannot afford to feed or educate their children have started sending them to one of the newly sprung-up orphanages in the hopes that they will find a better life through the pocket change of tourists. But while a few orphanages deliver on their promises to desperate parents that their children will be educated, most do not.

Tuk tuk drivers are often commissioned by orphanages to deliver optimistic tourists, and again by market vendors if the tourists are brought to them first to purchase school supplies.

Smart travelers are able to find the few genuine orphanages, but it takes determination, and a willingness to accept their own limitations; trained child workers and long-standing volunteers are almost always more qualified to care for orphans, and the quick turn-around time of visitors often just deepens a child’s feelings of abandonment.

It’s common for unwieldy volunteers to pamper their own conscience more than those they are aiming to help, because while this sometimes leads to a life of humanitarian work, most times it just leads to cool Facebook pictures. Travelers wishing to spend some of their vacation doing volunteer work must be careful to put their money in the hands of people with similar motives.

– Lydia Caswell

Sources: The Telegraph, Forbes
Photo: Mangine

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ChildFund International Tackles World Hunger

Childfund International
The United States Census Bureau has forecasted the population of the world to reach eight billion by the year 2025. In terms of hunger this can be considered an extremely daunting statistic. How will eight billion people eat in the future when people cannot even adequately feed everyone living on Earth today? Eliminating global poverty and giving children necessary skills to survive and thrive in the coming years are crucial parts of the world hunger solution.

ChildFund International is one organization that focuses mainly on children and improving their quality of life in order to sustain a better future. It is known for sponsoring children in over 50 countries. Giving to countries in need with specific guidelines involving nutrition and social development have been proven effective in comparison with unspecific cash donations.

Focusing on making sure children and families have access to food and health living environments is a great strategy for charities to implement. Once starvation is off the table, kids can go to school and parents to work. Eventually they can become self-sufficient, disbarring the notion of welfare dependency.

Supporting children with food, water, school supplies, and access to decent medical care is all part of the sponsorship benefits that ChildFund International distributes. A recent article on their website notes how population increases are only exacerbating the problem of widespread hunger. Developing countries are becoming more urban; building cities means destroying farmland. Farmland is necessary for agricultural production, and the less natural farmland there is, the more difficult it becomes to produce food.

Solving global poverty and solving world hunger are interrelated goals. Providing access to clean drinking water, food and medical care boosts the economy by increasing the number of healthy learning and working children in a community. The more educated the children are, the more likely they are to grow up and secure sustainable employment.

Having a stable job will mean having a stable income and the ability to break the vicious cycle of poverty. Studies have shown that poverty in the United States has decreased significantly over the past 50 years and the goal of eradicating poverty altogether is very possible with governmental assistance and appropriate policy implementation. However, poverty is still a huge issue in foreign nations and every effort is needed to help resolve it.

There are still billions of people living on barely $2 per day and suffering from hunger and the absence of clean water. Foundations like ChildFund International and everyone who gets involved can make sure everyone has the chance at a better tomorrow.

– Kaitlin Sutherby

Sources: The Economist, The Huffington Post
Photo: TriCounty Sentry

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IKEA Brighter Lives for Refugees Campaign

IKEA_Syria_refugees
The devastating Syrian refugee crisis has brought to the forefront the plight of millions of refugees around the world.  It is estimated that today there are 10.5 million refugees globally, nearly half of whom are children. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres has noted that in 2013 alone, over two million refugees were registered, a record number not seen in 20 years.

In response to the dire conditions faced in refugee camps, the Swedish megastore IKEA, most popular for its range of modern and ready-to-assemble furniture and home accessories, recently launched their ‘Brighter Lives for Refugees’ Campaign, where they will donate one euro (roughly $1.38) to UNHCR for each LED light bulb sold in IKEA stores between February 3 and March 29, 2014.

Funds raised through the Brighter Lives for Refugees Campaign will provide a variety of renewable energy technologies to hundreds of thousands of refugees in Jordan, Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia.  Such technologies include solar streetlights, indoor solar lanterns, and fuel-efficient cooking stoves.

It is estimated that a refugee family will spend, on average, 12 years in a camp. This would make it more like a home rather than a temporary refuge.  Life in a camp usually stops when the sun goes down, making even the simplest activities a dangerous endeavor.  The goal of providing lighting and renewable energy technologies is to make camp life more humane, where using the toilet, collecting water or working inside the home is no longer an impossible feat.

It is important to take note of the IKEA campaign because it does not simply seek to provide temporary assistance to refugees.  The idea behind providing sustainable lighting is to transform the refugees’ quality of life, thereby allowing them to be active forces, rather than passive receivers, in improving their lives.  The Brighter Lives for Refugees Campaign website lists a number of positive effects that access to lighting will have on quality of life for refugees:

  • Improving safety by reducing the risk of crime
  • Improving results in school by allowing children more time to study after sundown
  • Enhancing camaraderie by enabling community gatherings and social activities
  • Allowing for the continuation of income-generating activities after sundown
  • Allowing refugees to keep their small shops open after sundown and earn a sustainable income

The IKEA Foundation has been partnering with UNHCR since 2010 to address the fundamental needs of children, including shelter, care, and education.  While the Foundation has committed 73 million euros ($100.448 million) to support UNHCR activities, it has also supported dozens of other organizations, donating 82 million euros ($112.832 million) in 2012 alone.

– Rifk Ebeid

Sources: IKEA Foundation, UNHCR, IKEA, AbuDhabi Week, IKEA Family Live Magazine
Photo: Humanosphere

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Fortress Europe: Ceuta and Melilla

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The term Fortress Europe refers to the European Union’s obstructive policies towards immigrants. It is a term that critics employ to highlight many member states’ reluctance and outright unwillingness to welcome migrants seeking a better life within the European Union.

Nowhere is this Euro-jargon more literal in than the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa. These two cities are where the E.U. borders the African; the cities are located only a few yards apart, they are also where modern day fortresses have been erected.

Heavily patrolled and surrounded with three rows of 20-foot-high barbed wire fences and infrared cameras, the borders of Ceuta and Melilla bare resemblances to the Berlin Wall. In 2005, 11,000 Africans forced their way across the borders in hope of entering the E.U. via Spain since these two cities are politically European despite not being on the continent.

Since then, the Spanish government has invested heavily in fortifying the EU’s southern most land frontiers (more than 30 million Euros, or approximately $41,238,000.)

In 2010, these two enclaves, both relying on resources from their immediate neighbor, Morocco, caused a political ruffling when the Moroccan government accused Spain of racism and boycotted produces going into the two Spanish territories.

What is the most direct effect of these European fortresses in Africa? Since the revamp of the fences, immigrants—many being refugees—have to cross into Europe via the Mediterranean, often in makeshift and unseaworthy boats.

The Arab Spring that sprung across North Africa and into the Levant unleashed waves of asylum seekers and refugees dire to get into the E.U. However, due to the difficulties of crossing into these two enclaves people have been going via the sea to reach another nearby EU territory—the Italian island of Lampedusa. These journeys frequently prove to be perilous.

A Syrian refugee and his family who had traveled through five countries with six forged passport across the Levant and North Africa hoping entering Europe via Melilla claims this European fortress is nothing less than an open-air prison.

Not only is the condition inside the refugee camp less than optimal, in February, Spain took the decision to close the border of Melilla after a group of around 200 to 300 Syrian refugees tried to enter.

After the Moroccan authorities warned the Spanish authorities of the presence of “uncontrolled people,” the gates of Europe quickly flung closed before these desperate people who found themselves stranded in Moroccan territory. Earlier in February, at least 12 people died outside of Ceuta’s fences; 23 others were handed to the Moroccan authorities to be returned to Syria, a human right violation and a contradiction of the terms laid out in the Convention for Refugees of 1951.

If the E.U. would like to live up to the terms set out in the Europe Convention on Human Rights of the Council of Europe and other treaties and conventions to which it and its member states are party, the unofficial Fortress Europe policies of its frontier member states must not continue. These policies are unjustifiable disregard of ongoing ordeals that many refugees are facing in their homeland as well as the value of their lives.

– Peewara Sapsuwan

Sources: CEA(R), 20 Minutos, Spiegel Online International, Reuters
Photo: 20 Minutos