Inflammation and stories on Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Mobile Phone Data Can Improve Disease Response in the DRC

disease response in the DRC
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) “has the third-largest population of [impoverished people] globally.” The coronavirus has hit the DRC’s economy hard, further reducing the country’s capacity to fight disease. One advancement in disease response in the DRC is the government’s use of mobile phone data for population mapping, which helps create public health policies for COVID-19 and could do the same for other prevalent diseases in the country in the future.

Ties Between Disease, War, Poverty and COVID-19 in the DRC

The DRC has historically faced challenges in combatting cholera, malaria, HIV, measles, Ebola and Rift Valley fever. Factors contributing to the challenges in combatting disease include a weak health care system, low laboratory capacity, a lack of plans regarding border lockdowns for disease containment and a lack of information about vaccination and disease prevention for the public.

Additionally, the DRC endured a civil war from 1997 to 2003. The civil war ravaged the country’s infrastructure and the ongoing political instability in the country currently poses obstacles for aid workers to safely enter the country. The effects of the civil war also reduce the government’s ability to fight prevalent diseases in the DRC.

Furthermore, in 2019, the DRC’s economic growth stood at 4.4%. After the COVID-19 pandemic began, the DRC’s economic growth shrank to 0.8% in 2020. The slowdown in economic growth has made it even more difficult for improved disease response in the DRC.

Using Mobile Phones to Combat COVID-19

Low-income countries, including the DRC, struggle with data collection. However, data collection is vital in order to provide government officials with information to make sound public health decisions. The good news is that the DRC is starting to utilize mobile phone data for population mapping to combat COVID-19, which could greatly improve the DRC’s response to other diseases as well.

Orange DRC, a telecommunications company, provides anonymized mobile phone data to a marketing company called Kinshasa Digital. Using the phone data, Kinshasa Digital is constructing a dashboard for the DRC so that health officials can follow population movement after implementing various public health policies. The dashboard is useful because it allows the government to follow the spread of COVID-19 and use this data to create policies that will be most beneficial for the public’s health.

Data-Informed Responses

In addition, Vodacom DRC, a mobile carrier, and Flowminder, a company that analyzes mobile data, have created a report utilizing call detail records that analyzes how population movement patterns in Kinshasa’s Gombe district have changed in response to the DRC’s COVID-19 confinement policies. The report indicates “a drop of 70% in the total flow of subscribers traveling to Gombe after the confinement,” which shows that many people are complying with the government’s policies.

The creators shared the report with government officials. Reports like these can help the government measure how effective its public health policies are. As the technology and analytics industries develop, these reports can further improve the government’s response to COVID-19 and possibly other diseases too.

The DRC faces challenges in disease response, but the current innovation with mobile phone data to create more effective COVID-19 policies shows a promising development. As mobile phone companies, analytics companies and the government continue to work together, disease response in the DRC as a whole could greatly improve.

– Anna Ryu
Photo: Unsplash

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USAID’s Economic Support in the Congo

USAID’s support in the Congo
As one of the poorest countries in the world, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) consistently deals with the consequences of poverty, such as disease and starvation. The country’s low GDP of $49.87 billion leaves its government with little funds for the infrastructural and industrial development necessary to invigorate its economy and derive profits. At the same time, the Congo contains trillions of dollars in untapped natural resources, which, of course, it cannot extract for sale on the global market because of its economic underdevelopment and consequent lack of industrial power. However, foreign aid can enable the Congo to develop its industries and invest in the machinery needed to cultivate and export its vast natural resources.

Successfully entering the global market promises large profits, economic development and stability and infrastructural development. For the Congo, such economic success entails allocating its profits towards government programs that would eliminate poverty, starvation and disease.

For this reason, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has intervened in the Congo, providing $781 million, with $40 million given for this reason alone, in financial and economic support to jumpstart the country’s underdeveloped industries. Furthermore, it has intervened in the Congo’s labor sector to open the ability for women and previously marginalized groups to work in hopes of increasing economic productivity. Details about USAID’s work and overall vision for economic development in the Congo are below.

USAID’s Vision

USAID’s support in the Congo stems from its goal of bringing the country to a place of economic self-reliance. The organization believes it can achieve this goal by localizing agricultural practices, enlarging and empowering the Congo’s workforce, encouraging the expansion of farmable land, influencing local economic participation and introducing stable mining techniques to safely extract the Congo’s natural resources. While USAID’s support in the Congo has led to slow development, it hopes to see drastic economic changes by 2025.

Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS)

The organization’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy aims to transform local enterprise by encouraging economic participation. USAID’s program first intends to do this by enlarging the Congo’s labor force and diversifying its agricultural sphere. The size of the labor force is a driving factor in economic development. Young people and women are also overrepresented in the country’s unemployed population.

Through its Country Development Cooperation Strategy, USAID desires to increase employment in the Congo, which would not only result in economic productivity but also market participation. Importantly, increased market participation results in the spreading of wealth in which both the buyer and the seller benefit from the exchange. Thus far, USAID has focused on widening the Congo’s labor force by empowering women and previously marginalized groups to work. If citizens become employed, they can adequately farm and harvest foodstuffs, which would bring them the agricultural productivity necessary for economic independence apart from global food imports. Furthermore, by increasing employment, USAID hopes that these workers will expand their local agrarian enterprises to account for the “80 million hectares of arable land” in the Congo that farmers currently only use 10% of. Such an expansion is a necessary step for economic self-reliance.

Another concern is establishing economic productivity in a way that preserves the Congo’s plentiful natural resources without damaging them. It is no secret that resources such as water and forests experience pollution or destruction during aggressive industrial development. Because USAID desires to foster the expansion of farmable land and induce market participation, it is also interested in minimizing “biodiversity and habitat loss.” In effect, safe practices that are conscientious of the environment and reflect sustainable resource management will inevitably “increase economic opportunities for local communities.”

Responsible Minerals Trade (RMT)

USAID’s Responsible Minerals Trade (RMT) program is concerned with commencing a well-regulated minerals sector that focuses on decreasing the likelihood of trafficking and slavery concerning humane economic progression. In the past, the Congo has struggled with a plethora of problems, with blood-diamond mining as the most prevalent issue because of its humanitarian negligence and economic greed. Aside from the strict humanitarian violations, mining agencies that engaged in illegal practices rightfully could not sell their products on the global market and instead sold their minerals on the black market, thereby evading taxes that the government would have profited from and allocated towards industrial development.

However, USAID’s Responsible Minerals Trade program helps the Congo’s government surveil illegal practices and encourages mining companies to adopt legal practices, such as paying their employees and paying their taxes to the government. Consequently, USAID’s support in the Congo, on “both industrial and small-scale, artisanal mines will build on the tax and business reforms” and “will continue to support responsible minerals trade and promote compliance.” If these legal business models become widely adopted, the Congo will continue to derive profits that it can channel towards industrial development, which, in effect, will bolster its economy and render government programs directed towards poverty elimination.

Conclusion

USAID’s support in the Congo has resulted in $781 million in foreign aid and culminated in the formation of the Country Development Cooperation Strategy and the Responsible Minerals Trade, which envision increased employment and high profits through legal and humane market practices. If done properly, the Congo’s economy will grow stronger, empowering it to extract its valuable resources leading to overall economic self-reliance. Because of USAID’s support in the Congo, poverty in the Congo is closer to reaching elimination.

– Jacob Crosley
Photo: Flickr

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The Effects of Cobalt Mining in the DRC

Cobalt Mining
In recent years, the world has seen a growing demand for mined materials because of the growing popularity of crystals and semiprecious gems. Included in the demand for mined materials is cobalt, which is increasingly necessary due to its role in electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing. In fact, about “24% of the total cobalt demand” stems from EV production and the demand will continue to increase as more people continue to buy EVs. A prominent stakeholder in the crystal and mineral industry is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which produces “more than 70% of the world’s cobalt,” along with other semi-precious gems, crystals and gold. Of the cobalt mined, smaller mining operations, many without licenses, produce 15%-30%. The DRC government has failed to enforce proper accountability and ethics within cobalt mining in the DRC. This, combined with years of strict rule and war, has resulted in many people in the mining sector suffering human rights issues.

Human Rights Violations in DRC Mines

Cobalt mining in the DRC is rife with human rights abuses, such as the use of child labor. According to Amnesty International, an estimated 40,000 children are employed in artisanal mining in the DRC. A lack of proper safety precautions is also common practice and accidents frequently occur. Additionally, miners are usually subject to opportunist, abusive and exploitative mining firms, earning unlivable wages.

While it would be ideal for people within the mining industry to look toward alternative work, conditions in the DRC mean employment opportunities are scarce. Data from 2018 indicates that about 73% of the DRC lives in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1.90 per day — an effect of previous wars and dictatorships. These factors have led to skyrocketing costs of living in the DRC and ravaged land, leaving people desperate to take up any opportunity they can find to survive. Since the nation sits on top of a large cobalt reserve that experts estimate holds more than 50% of the world’s cobalt supply, working in the mining industry in the DRC has more financial promise than other sectors, which imports dominate.

The lack of industry regulation allows exploitative practices to continue, but it also presents a public health crisis. Without the proper safety gear, miners of all ages experience continuing exposure to dust and particles that result in lung and skin diseases, like tuberculosis or dermatitis.

Solutions to Mining Injustices

In recent years, awareness around mining exploitation has been increasing, largely due to the fact that the industry is expanding along with technology. In 2020, several online activists brought attention to the human rights abuses within the artisanal mining industry by creating “the hashtag #NoCongoNoPhone to fight against the cobalt supply chain that fosters child labor and the exploitation of small-scale artisanal miners.”

Additionally, cobalt mining in the DRC is about to experience a regulation shift. Reuters reported in May 2021 that the DRC government is working with the Enterprise Generale du Cobalt (EGC) to establish control over the artisanal cobalt mining sector and obtain a monopoly over Congolese cobalt production. EGC is also partnering with PACT, an NGO in the global artisanal mining industry, to oversee and implement mining condition reforms in the DRC. Furthermore, EGC is working with a commodity and logistics giant, Trafigura, in order to provide “support on traceability down the supply chain.” The EGC will create “a price sharing formula” that splits mining profits between the private company, the miners and the government.

This model underwent testing at the Mutoshi copper mine and proved to be extremely helpful to local economies while also bringing about socio-economic benefits. In the trial, about 5,000 workers were part of a formal system, with PACT and Trafigura regulating the mining activities and pay. Miners reported reduced health expenditure due to better working conditions and “reduced workplace harassment for women,” among other positive impacts.

Looking Ahead

The mining industry in the DRC has suffered because of the lack of mechanisms put in place for accountability. While NGOs do important work on advocacy and mitigating the effects of broken systems, they have not been able to reach the roots of mining exploitation. However, the efforts of NGOs are now combining with those of the government and offer much hope in tackling human rights abuses within the mining industry.

– Hariana Sethi
Photo: Flickr

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Creating Social Harmony through School Canteens

Social Harmony
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a school canteen program aims to create social inclusion and harmony. It seeks to address issues in a unique way: by connecting to students and the educational system.

About the School Canteen Program

In Lekoumou, located in the Republic of Congo, the school Makoubi comprises indigenous and Bantu children. Indigenous children comprise nearly one-third of the school population.

The indigenous population has historically experienced marginalization and has trouble exercising its rights, which include access to education. More than 65% of indigenous children do not attend school. The school canteen program, which the World Food Program initiated, is working to combat that. The program is a part of the SDG Fund initiative, which is an initiative looking to improve the indigenous community’s access to social protection programs in Lekoumou.

How it Works

During the school day, 313 Bantu and indigenous children sit down and share a hot meal. Parents or most often mothers of the children, cook the meals. Indigenous women, who are often victims of prejudice, meet with Bantu women daily to make the meals.

By working together, these parents are contributing to a growing social harmony. “Strengthening the participation and inclusion of indigenous peoples in Congo’s food systems is a key step in enabling people to have equal and fair access to adequate, nutritious and diverse food.” Not only that, but these meals also enable children to stay focused and prepare for their futures.

The Importance of this Effort

Before the program underwent enactment, tensions between the indigenous and Bantu communities created conflict. Notably, there is still a way to go to reach a better social harmony, but things are improving. When speaking with the WFP, Georgette, one of the indigenous cooks, said, “Before, the Bantus refused to eat meals cooked by the indigenous people because they were considered dirty. Now they do. And even outside of school, things are better.”

She also noticed that without the program, kids were missing school. These meals motivated children to attend school. For the indigenous children, remaining within school is even more important. Due to their weaker access to basic social services, indigenous children often have a harder time escaping poverty.

Reducing Poverty

The school canteen program feeds 313 children in Lekoumou, indigenous and Bantu alike, and promotes social harmony. However, that is not all the program does. As of 2019, chronic malnutrition affected 21% of children in the Republic of the Congo. By providing freshly cooked meals, the program gives many children meals that they might not have received otherwise.

Food insecurity affects a child’s academic progress in many ways. Children suffering from food insecurity are more likely to suffer from hyperactivity, absenteeism, generally poor behavior and poor academic functioning. These children are also more likely to need special education services, which can cost twice as much compared to a child who does not require such services.

Education has direct ties to poverty in the sense that having an education gives people a better chance at escaping poverty. Providing children with meals makes them healthier, more socially involved and more engaged. The WFP recognizes this and continues to do this while healing the rift between two communities at the same time.

– Ariel Dowdy
Photo: Flickr

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4 Health Care Facts About the Democratic Republic of the Congo

health care in the drc

While the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is abundant with natural resources and a thriving ecosystem, decades of armed violence have left the nation impoverished. Currently, health care in the DRC suffers from understaffing and underfunding concerns. Moreover, it is only readily available in certain regions of the country. To better understand this issue, here are four facts about health care in the Congo.

  1. Health care exists in a pyramid structure. The DRC government, aided by several NGOs, funds and controls the public health care system in a four-level model. The first level of health care in the DRC is community health centers. These are open for basic treatment and utilizes nurses for care. The next level contains centers where general physicians practice. The third level pertains to regional hospitals, where citizens can receive more specialized treatment. The fourth and highest level is university hospitals. At all levels, appointments are needed to see physicians, and as they also only see clients on certain days of the week, wait times can be long. This prompts patients who require specialist treatment to often see community nurses instead. In addition, USAID currently provides health care services to more than 12 million people in almost 2,000 facilities.
  2. The country lacks health care workers. Health care in the DRC is limited. Statistically, there are only 0.28 doctors and 1.19 nurses and midwives for every 10,000 people. Furthermore, access to health care in the Congo’s rural regions is extremely low due to the remote state of many villages. The northern rural areas of the DRC hold less than 3.0% of the nation’s physicians while Brazzaville, the capital and the most heavily populated city, holds 66% of all physicians. This is despite the fact that the capital only holds 37% of the Congolese population.
  3. Health care funding in the DRC, though low, steadily rises. The government of the DRC has made noticeable progress in increasing funds for health care. Between 2016 and 2018, the proportion of the national budget dedicated to health care increased from 7% to 8.5%. While this increase in funding is life-changing for many, it still pales in comparison to the budgets of many other countries. The U.S. currently allocates 17.7% of its GDP toward health care. The DRC, however, is on an upward trajectory. It seeks to reach a target of 10% allocation of the national budget for health care by 2022.
  4. The DRC’s vaccination rates are improving. In 2018, the government of the DRC implemented The Emergency Plan for the Revitalization of Immunization. The plan aimed to vaccinate more than 200,000 children for life-threatening diseases in a year and a half. While the outbreak of COVID-19 in the nation has been a major setback to the plan, the Mashako Plan, as it is referred to, was responsible for a 50% rise in vaccinations since 2018. This rise occurred in “vulnerable areas” and brings countless more children immunity for potentially deadly diseases.

Despite a lack of health care workers and resources, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is making steady improvements to its health care system. Efforts to make vaccinations a priority and allocate more of the country’s budget to health care each year already yield results. Organizations such as USAID aid these improvements. The combination of NGOs and the government’s new emphasis on health care provide an optimistic outlook for the future of health care in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

– Caroline Bersch

Photo: Unsplash

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Conflict and Poverty in the DRC

Poverty in the DRCConflict and poverty in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have once again become causes of concern. Conflicts have escalated in recent months and resulted in a crisis that impacts enormous swaths of the country. Since there is a strong link between conflict and poverty in the DRC, international attention and aid efforts have shifted to combat the situation.

The Ongoing Conflict

The current crisis and the damaging relationship between conflict and poverty in the DRC is a persistent problem. For years, the DRC experienced widespread violence, especially in the country’s eastern provinces. About 3,000 civilians died in the eastern part of the country in 2020 alone. There were also much higher rates of human rights violations in 2020 in the DRC. The violence has a destabilizing effect on the entire region.

The most recent escalation in violence occurred as armed groups went on the offensive following military efforts by government forces in 2020. The worst of the fighting is in the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. Attacks in recent months in the province of North Kivu displaced nearly 20,000 people. Additionally, about two million people experienced displacement within the province in the last two years.

Interaction Between Conflict and Poverty

The World Bank estimates that nearly 64% of the country lives in extreme poverty. The conflict is one of the key contributors to poverty in the country. In 2017 and 2018, there were two million displaced persons. Additionally, the violence is so widespread that many people have fled multiple times.

Conflict and poverty also resulted in an immense food shortage in the DRC. Hunger in the DRC skyrocketed in recent months due to conflict and COVID-19. “A record 27.3 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are facing acute hunger, one-third of the violence-wracked Central African country’s population.” The areas that have the highest rates of hunger have also experienced widespread conflict.

Aid Efforts

The need for assistance to the DRC is massive. Organizations are providing as much assistance as possible for Congolese people suffering from hunger, conflict and poverty. The UNHCR and other organizations coordinated with local authorities. Since the start of 2020, the UNHCR has provided more than 100,000 people with emergency shelters. The current UNHCR operation in the country has so far only received 36% of the funding necessary.

The World Food Programme (WFP) alone assisted almost seven million people throughout the country in 2020. The WFP distributed tens of millions of dollars of cash assistance throughout the country and tens of thousands of metric tons of food in 2020. However, the WFP stated that it would need $662 million in 2021 alone to address the crisis.

The people of the DRC suffer from a crisis of conflict and poverty. The widespread conflict plays a critical role in keeping most of the population in extreme poverty and causing widespread hunger throughout the country. As a result, sizable amounts of aid have come from organizations such as the UNHCR and the WFP. Still, these efforts require more support from the international community to effectively combat this crisis of conflict and poverty in the DRC.

– Coulter Layden
Photo: Flickr

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Tusse: A Refugee’s Journey to Eurovision

TusseThe 19-year-old singer Tusse recently represented the country of Sweden at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. Tusse first rose to fame after advancing to the semi-finals of Sweden’s Got Talent and later winning Swedish Idol in 2019. With the song “Voices,” Tusse took 14th place at Eurovision. As a Congolese refugee, Tusse uses his platform to educate and empower young people facing similar challenges as he has.

Tusse’s Journey

Tusse, whose real name is Tousin Michael Chiza, was born in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 2002. At 5 years old, Tusse and his family fled to a Ugandan refugee camp due to the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He left with his aunt, siblings and cousins. The escape effort separated Tusse from his parents. The family spent three years in the refugee camp until Sweden granted them asylum. The family then settled in Kullsbjörken, Sweden, in 2015 when Tusse was 13 years old. Tusse says that retaining his Congolese culture, filled with music and dancing, is what drove him to become a performer and singer, ultimately leading him to the Eurovision stage.

Civil War-Torn Country

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the second-largest African country and has faced conflict for decades. The country experienced its second civil war from 1997 to 2003, only a year after the end of the First Congo War. Sometimes called the “African World War” due to the involvement of several neighboring countries, the war claimed close to six million lives directly through the effects of fighting or indirectly through malnutrition, financial despair or disease. Economic and political reasons surrounding the nation’s vast mineral wealth fueled the war.

Despite a peace deal at the war’s conclusion, violent conflict continued in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This conflict was due to poor governance, weak institutions and rising corruption. Armed conflict rose among dozens of rebel groups, consequently affecting and disrupting civilians’ lives. More than 2.1 million people were newly displaced in 2017 and 2018, nationally. In Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has the highest number of internally displaced people at more than five million.

Overall, the conflict has subjected Congolese residents to significant human rights violations, extreme poverty and widespread rape and sexual assault. Efforts from the African Union and the United Nations to help implement sustainable development and defuse tensions have struggled to see success. As a result, most civilians are forced to flee and seek asylum elsewhere.

Sweden’s Relationship with Refugees

Sweden has one of the most generous refugee policies in Europe. Sweden has actively welcomed refugees seeking asylum in the country. However, there has been some domestic pushback to this hospitable policy, particularly in 2015, following the migration crisis when Sweden received more than 160,000 refugees, the most per capita in the European Union. This tension was heightened when many other European countries were unwilling to accept the influx of refugees. As a result, the Swedish government passed a temporary measure limiting refugee rights to the bare minimum of what the country had previously agreed to under international conventions. Despite this, Sweden continues to receive significantly more refugees than the rest of Europe.

Tusse’s Advocacy

Tusse uses his platform and story to empower other young refugees and educate his fans on refugees’ challenges. He works with UNICEF and recently performed at Sweden’s UNICEF Gala. UNICEF utilizes partners on the ground to deliver assistance to displaced families and support children’s needs and rights. Among other projects, the organization provides and distributes hygiene kits, clean water, vaccinations for children and treatments for malnutrition.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) supported Tusse and two other Eurovision performers with refugee backgrounds prior to the competition. Manizha, a singer representing Russia, fled Tajikistan in 1994, and Ahmad Jodeh, a Dutch ballet dancer, is a Syrian refugee.

Tusse uses his music to share and voice his experiences as a refugee. At Eurovision, he sang “Voices,” which is about “fellowship, freedom and the importance of all voices being heard.” By gracing the Eurovision stage, Tusse brought awareness to the struggles of his home country, the challenges of adjusting to life as a refugee abroad and the resilience of young refugees.

– Simran Pasricha
Photo: UNHCR

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The 2021 Nyiragongo Volcanic Eruption in the DRC

Volcanic Eruption in the DRCOn May 22, 2021, the Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo erupted. Hundreds of thousands of people experienced the aftershocks, including contaminated water and structural damage. The destruction of water infrastructure means 500,000 people now lack access to a safe water supply. In a press release, USAID announced that it would be committing $100,000 worth of humanitarian aid to secure clean and safe drinking water for citizens affected by the volcanic eruption in the DRC.

History of Mount Nyiragongo

The Nyiragongo volcano stands almost 12,000 feet tall on the eastern border of the DRC in the strip of Virunga Mountains, a chain of active volcanoes. The volcano is one of the most active in the world and has the largest, most active lava lake. Nyiragongo has erupted several times since 1884, with the most severe eruption occurring in 1977, taking up to 400 lives. The most recent eruption before 2021 occurred in 2002, resulting in about 100 deaths and displacing up to 400,000 people.

The Aftershocks of the 2021 Eruption

The 2021 volcanic eruption in the DRC led to about 32 deaths and thousands of displacements. On May 30, 2021, in a period of just 24 hours, 92 aftershock earthquakes and tremors occurred but only about four were felt by citizens. For safety purposes, more than 400,000 people were evacuated from the North Kivu area.

Cholera, a diarrheal infection caused by drinking contaminated water, is an increased threat since the eruption.  Natural disasters often increase the risk of epidemics, especially those transmitted via contaminated water. The eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano in the DRC caused the destruction of a vital water pipe and damaged a water reservoir. The damage cut off water access for about 500,000 people.

On June 7, 2021, UNICEF and partners announced that they were working to restore the water supply to the area. For temporary water access, UNICEF “installed 15 emergency station chlorination points” close to Lake Kivu. UNICEF also committed to assisting a task force by “supporting installation of 1,500 meters of pipe on top of the lava to replace pipework that has melted.”

The Hope of Crisis Assistance

Prior to the 2021 volcanic eruption in the DRC, the nation was already struggling with a humanitarian crisis, following years of political violence and conflict. At the beginning of 2021, the United Nations predicted that 19.6 million people in the DRC were in need of humanitarian assistance. With more than five million displaced persons and the highest recorded levels of food insecurity before the eruption even took place, the humanitarian crisis in the DRC has only grown. The U.N. requires financial assistance from the international community in order to comprehensively address the crisis in the DRC.

The United States serves as the largest donor to the DRC, providing more than $130 million worth of humanitarian assistance in 2021 alone. The U.S. commitment of $100,000 for water security initiatives in the DRC will aid the efforts of organizations such as UNICEF, protecting the well-being of vulnerable Congolese people.

– Monica Mellon
Photo: Flickr

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Urbanization and Economic Growth

Urbanization and Economic Growth
Even though historians often believe that urbanization and economic growth have a close connection, many people in developing countries are moving into crowded cities while still living in poverty. Stronger infrastructure in such cities could help decrease poverty rates.

Cities Grow But Retain High Poverty Rates

Over the last few decades, the populations of many developing countries have shifted from overwhelmingly rural to increasingly urban. For example, the population of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has grown from 450,000 in 1940 to around 12 million in 2018. Similarly, Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, grew from 200,000 to nearly 20 million in just two generations. According to Forbes economist Daniel Runde, around 96% of all urbanization will occur in the developing world by the year 2030.

However, rapid urbanization in developing countries has not seemed to promote economic growth. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), sub-Saharan Africa currently suffers from negative per-capita income growth. As of 2014, approximately 55% of the sub-Saharan African urban population lived in slums, which the CSIS defines as informally constructed residences disconnected from city infrastructure and ill-prepared to face natural disasters.

Urbanization Used to Be a Sign of Wealth

Until recently, urbanization and economic growth have had a strong correlation. As the Roman Empire expanded in power and influence, its capital expanded in population accordingly. More recently, New York City welcomed its millionth resident in 1875, shortly after the industrial revolution had brought massive productivity to the surrounding farmland. In these cases, people moved to the city because they no longer needed to rely on subsistence farming to put food on the table. Those who stayed on the farms could transport their surplus crops to the cities, and those who moved to the cities used their newfound wealth to contribute to public utilities such as roads, sewage and fire departments.

Nowadays, due to the global economy and relative ease of long-distance transportation, people in developing countries do not necessarily see subsistence farming as the default. As a result, many are moving to these emerging megacities without the wealth to immediately benefit their communities. Cities such as Kinshasa in the DRC and Port-au-Prince in Haiti are now struggling with increased disease and crime, and many governments are not financially or logistically prepared to provide resources for all their residents. In these cases, the connection between urbanization and economic growth appears to have reversed.

Infrastructure Increases Urban Quality of Life

Even though many growing cities in the developing world are not attaining immediate prosperity, the mere presence of so many people in a concentrated area could soon result in economic growth and increased quality of life. Historically populous cities may have initially grown due to a baseline of wealth from nearby farmland, but the influx of people caused massive improvement in infrastructure, employment and professional cooperation. Presumably, the same could happen in the developing cities of the present.

The key factors holding back cities such as Kinshasa and Port-au-Prince from development are negative externalities such as disease, crime and famine, which typically result from poor infrastructure and government corruption. Notably, neither of those cities has a functional sewer system, and both have seen massive cholera outbreaks as a result.

Due to high poverty levels in both cities since their initial growth, public infrastructure may be more difficult to develop than it was in New York or London. However, even those cities’ development experienced stunting at times due to unsanitary conditions. For example, in London in 1854, 125 people died of cholera after drinking from a single contaminated well. Due to adequate public funding and stable institutions, the British government was able to mitigate this problem and make London a safer and more prosperous city.

Perhaps with some help and reform, the same could happen in Kinshasa, Port-au-Prince, Lagos and the rest. Investment in infrastructure projects in these cities could help create economic opportunities for their development and make urbanization and economic growth synonymous once again.

– Sawyer Lachance
Photo: Flickr

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Residents of Goma Return After Volcano Erupts

Residents of GomaOn May 22, 2021, Mount Nyiragongo erupted close to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s city of Goma. The active volcano’s worst eruption was in 1977, a catastrophe that left more than 600 people dead. Nyiragongo’s volcanic activities have ignited fear in the residents of Goma who are already enduring the impacts of poverty stemming from years of civil war in the country.

The 2021 Volcanic Eruption

The Goma Volcano Observatory is responsible for monitoring the Mount Nyiragongo volcano. However, ever since the World Bank cut its funding in 2020, the observatory “lacked the funding, resources and infrastructure necessary to closely observe the volcano and forecast major eruptions.” From October 2020 to April 2021, the observatory did not have an internet connection “to conduct comprehensive seismic checks on Nyiragongo.” Due to a lack of forecasting ability, the observatory could not predict the eruption and warn residents to evacuate.

Following a government directive, after the eruption, the residents of Goma were evacuated in the thousands. Villagers who lived close to the city of Goma fled to the city center. The lava flowing out of the mountain’s crater threatened access to the airport in Goma and one of the main roads, further limiting evacuation routes.

The Devastation of the Eruption

According to ReliefWeb, the eruption resulted in about 30 deaths and almost half a million people were left without access to water due to damaged water infrastructure. Without proper water sources, people are prone to infectious water-borne diseases. Some citizens were burned by the lava and others experienced asphyxiation from volcanic gases. ReliefWeb reported that about “415,700 people have been displaced across several localities in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and across the border in Rwanda.” Aside from the destruction of infrastructure that occurred, people converging in large numbers to evacuate heightened the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

The Positive Impact of Organizations

Despite the devastation caused by the volcanic eruption, various groups were quick in their response, preventing further disaster. ReliefWeb provided frequent updates on the situation, enabling organizations and individuals to take precautionary and calculated steps during evacuation.

The UNHCR was among the first organizations to respond to the volcanic eruption in Goma. The organization, in collaboration with others, looked to aid the displaced in Goma by providing shelter and relief items. Reduced funding significantly impacted these efforts. Nevertheless, the UNHCR provided “soap, blankets, solar lamps, plastic sheeting and sleeping mats to 435 vulnerable families,” in the Congolese town of Sake. The UNHCR also established four shelters to temporarily house more than 400 displaced people in Sake. On June 7, 2021, the prime minister of the DRC “announced the progressive return of displaced people to Goma.”

Residents of Goma Return Home

Displaced citizens have gradually returned to resettle in Goma. In early June 2021, the prime minister of the DRC spearheaded the phased return of thousands of people as seismic activity reduced considerably. The government provided buses to help people return to Goma. The government also declared the airport safe for landing, which further facilitated the delivery of international humanitarian aid.

Slowly, the city is returning to normalcy. Businesses are reopening and vendors are back on the streets of the city. The groups of people who took refuge in Rwanda also returned. Thousands of people have returned home to rebuild their lives and reconstruct the areas destroyed by lava flow.

Even in unprecedented natural disasters, organizations can help to avert worst-case scenarios. From the volcanic eruption, it is clear to see how funding cuts can lead to severe consequences. The situation has emphasized the importance of funding to the Goma Volcano Observatory and the significance of early warning systems.

– Frank Odhiambo
Photo: Flickr