Archive for category: Developing Countries

Information and stories about developing countries.

, ,

How Megacities Can Hurt Development

Megacities
Mumbai, like Jakarta, Dhaka, Kinshasa and many others, is facing a population explosion of unprecedented size. These rapidly expanding ‘megacities’ are raising concerns from economists, urban planners and other experts.

A ‘megacity’ is any city with a population greater than 10 million. In 1990, there were only 10 megacities in the world, and combined, they housed about seven percent of the global population.

By 2014, the number of megacities had grown to 28, and 12 percent of the global population lives in one.

It is projected that by 2030, there will be 41 megacities. Today, just over half of the world’s population lives in cities or urban areas, but by 2050, that proportion is expected to swell to 66 percent. Most of that growth is expected to happen in Asia and Africa, specifically in lower-income countries. India, China and Nigeria will together account for 37 percent of all urbanization growth.

John Wilmoth, director of U.N. DESA’s Population Division, stated that “Managing urban areas has become one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century. Our success or failure in building sustainable cities will be a major factor in the success of the post-2015 UN development agenda.”

The recent increase in the rate of urbanization is unprecedented, but the causes are fairly clear. People flock to cities for jobs, amenities, healthcare, education and security. Cities often have better public transportation, better-paying jobs and a more resilient job market than rural areas. In some countries, cities are more likely to have a working sanitation system, electricity and Internet access.

Unfortunately, not all who move into megacities find what they are looking for. Many megacities are in developing countries, and their governments have been unwilling or unable to match the expansion of public services to the expansion of population these megacities have faced.

The result is living conditions that might politely be called ‘Dickensian.’ Currently, one in every thirty city dwellers lacks clean water. One in fifteen lack adequate sanitation, and one in six lives in a city with unhealthy air quality. Sexually transmitted diseases like AIDs are an ever-present threat, as is urban violence and theft. Many areas in megacities are structurally unsound, having been built quickly and sloppily, or having been assembled out of refuse by its inhabitants.

Megacities are also facing an ‘invisible epidemic’ of road-related injuries. As the number of cars and drivers grows faster than the infrastructure can support, more and more people are suffering from serious accidents. By one estimate, developing countries account for 85 percent of the world’s traffic fatalities.

Residents of the megacities themselves are not the only ones suffering negative consequences for their inefficiencies. Most megacities are growing so fast that infrastructure, when it is considered, must take precedence over the environment. This means that megacities usually have enormous carbon footprints. Traffic congestion, inadequate waste management and poor regulation make megacities huge sources of greenhouse gases, toxic chemicals and garbage.

Megacities will not stop growing, but perhaps if people invested more in infrastructure and services, they could grow into places that are pleasant to live in.

– Marina Middleton

Sources: National Academy of Engineering, Forbes, Utne, U.N., The Moscow Times, City Mayors
Photo: Flickr

,

Poverty in Khartoum, Sudan

poverty in khartoum
Sudan is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, but poverty desperately affects the population of 44 million.

The city of Khartoum is notorious for its destitution. The population has tripled over the past 20 years; however, the government has not implemented any formal accommodation for this influx. The current government is not a sufficient resource to address poverty in Khartoum as it lacks information and the capacity to combat the issue.

It is recorded that 180,000 people died of poverty before 2004 when the conflict finally gained international attention, with the U.N. warning on “atrocities” and Powell declaring it a genocide. Poverty linked with conflict has killed several million people in Sudan and South Sudan.

The conflict between Sudan and South Sudan is a significant source of poverty for the area. The tension over oil fields has created an unequal wealth distribution between the north and the south.

According to Poverties.org, “Even Khartoum remains pretty opaque regarding its resource management and never appeared ready to give up its oil revenues that easily. Injustices, grudges and protests are likely to keep on fueling armed conflicts, thus threatening the stability of the two countries and throwing countless more people into poverty in Sudan (North and South). Little effort has been made to stop the growing, oil-induced social turmoil and corruption that affect the whole region…The most simple thing to do would be to fund some social assistance to overcome land issues and poverty in Sudan and thus the extent of social unrest.”

Poverty is an undeniable threat to the existence of humanity in the 21st century. The global commitment to promoting adequate standards of living for all people is emphasized in the Millennium Development Goals, which sought to reduce poverty by half by 2015. Poverty cannot be overcome with a singular solution as it is very multidimensional. Poverty is experienced differently across time, space, culture and even gender. For example, poverty is most severe during specific weather seasons, while other times poverty is more static.

According to research conducted at The University of Khartoum, a “serious campaign against poverty necessitates opening up the issues to public debate, raising people’s awareness of them and directing the media to that end.” The overwhelming axiom is that South Sudan suffers from chronic underdevelopment and lacks the administrative capacity to address local and domestic needs. A lack of secure funding for the country, accompanied by failures of governance, have led to local level tensions and competition for limited resources (including but not limited to water, land, cattle, food and education.)

There are multiple actors required to adequately address destitution in Khartoum including governmental and non-governmental groups, private actors, communities and the youth. Existing institutions require additional funds, freedom and credibility. While the situation in Khartoum is stark, the space for improvement is vast.

–Neti Gupta

Sources: Poverties.org, The Guardian, SagePub
Photo: Post Conflict

, ,

People Working Toward Ending Global Poverty

Although the fight to end global poverty is still an uphill battle, there are a lot of people who are making a difference. From celebrities to CEOs, a variety of influential leaders have created organizations to bring more awareness to poverty around the globe. While some of these organizations work together to create a larger impact, it is the founders who have made it possible in coming closer to create better living conditions for people around the globe.

Bill and Melinda Gates are both influential leaders in the movement to end world poverty. The Gates Foundation tackles issues from global health to global development, focusing on creating the best living conditions in the most efficient ways possible. Bill Gates has recently partnered with engineer Peter Janicki, where they have developed a machine that turns human feces into clean water and electricity. “The machine’s purpose is to help the 783 million people living without clean water and the nearly 2.5 billion who don’t have adequate sanitation,” according to NPR’s Linda Poon. With Bill Gates’ technological knowledge, developments in better hygiene will further help people in poor countries.

Ten years ago, Bono’s organization ONE utilized the status of famous celebrities to raise awareness about the developing world. Its focus is in Africa, but the organization is passionate about ending poverty and preventable disease around the globe. The most popular accomplishment the organization has achieved is the (RED) campaign. By partnering with multibillion-dollar corporations they have “generated more than $300 million for The Global Fund to support HIV/AIDS grants.”

In May 2013, Mark Goldring was appointed chief executive of Oxfam International. The organization focuses on six key issues to help the developing world. Equality, sustainability and giving voices to the voiceless are some of the topics the organization has tackled. The organization works around the world with 17 congregations to maximize its progress. “Oxfam is determined to change [the] world by mobilizing the power of people against poverty,” according to the organization’s website.

These are only a few of the people taking a stand against world poverty. Organizations like The Hunger Project, UNICEF and Care are bringing the world closer to a poverty-free world. As more developments and strategies are created, these organizations will be able to generate awareness in ending global poverty.

– Kimberly Quitzon

Sources: NPR, ONE, Oxfam
Photo: Flickr

,

What is the Function of the 150 Account?

Function of the 150 Account
The U.S. budget contains scores of carve outs for specific programs, activities, and priorities. But all those individual projects are organized into broader buckets. Specifically, the federal budget is divided into 20 categories called budget functions, although it might be easier to think about them as accounts.

Each account (or function) has all the spending for a given topic, independent of which federal agency oversees the specific federal programs that will ultimately receive the money.

Function 150 is the international affairs account which includes money allocated for aid for developing nations, and consequently where a significant amount of global poverty and hunger funding falls. It’s a very diverse funding bucket. The account also includes money for operation of U.S. consulates and embassies; military assistance for our allies; economic assistance to be disbursed to new democracies; promotion of U.S. exports; payments to international organizations; and international peacekeeping efforts.

Function 150 primarily provides funding for the Departments of State, Agriculture, and Treasury, as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Funding in this account constitutes about 1 percent of the entire federal budget.

The budget process for fiscal year 2014 is far from over, in fact it’s barely started. Quite a bit needs to happen before we will know what the actual funding levels for programs are for the next fiscal year. The State Department requested approximately a total of $52 billion for the Function 150 Account in FY 2014 to fund everything from aid to developing countries to U.S. consulates and international peacekeeping missions, according to agency budget documents.

Learn more about U.S. Foreign Aid.

– Liza Casabona

Sources: House of Representatives Committee on the Budget,  State Department
Photo: Tunisia Live

New Hope in the Fight Against Dengue

Dengue
After decades of searching, scientists may have finally found a vaccine for dengue, one of the developing world’s most feared infectious diseases.

Researchers released a new report confirming the efficacy of the vaccine after the conclusion of a study lasting four years and involving over 20,000 school-aged children in Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Honduras. The study has proven the new drug to be overwhelmingly effective, and both scientists and doctors around the world are celebrating this monumental achievement. The efficacy of the vaccine against severe dengue was 95.5 percent.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection that affects nearly 400 million people annually. It is a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in many Latin American and Asian countries, and has been spreading violently throughout the developing world since the late 1950s.

The absence of a dependable treatment for the disease has made dengue a particularly terrifying illness in the global south. The debilitating muscle and joint pains associated with cases of severe dengue have earned the disease its nickname, ‘break-bone fever’. Infected individuals can also suffer crippling headaches, nausea, vomiting and a painful rash across the back and chest. Nearly 500,000 people, most of them children, die from the disease each year.

Initial news of the drug’s potential broke in late 2011, when French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur announced plans to release the new antiviral medication by mid-2015. Since that time, research teams have been working tirelessly in many countries spanning both Asia and Latin America, where the disease is most prevalent. Meticulously testing patients, administering vaccinations and recording their findings, scientists have emerged from the study with new certainty in the drug’s effectiveness.

Relaying the good news on Jan. 8, Sanofi Pasteur reported the overall efficacy of the drug to be 60.8 percent for children between the ages of nine and 16 who received three doses of the vaccine over a 12-month period. Furthermore, the study confirmed 80.3 percent reduction in the risk of hospitalization for dengue-infected individuals. The crowning achievement of the study, however, was the accomplishment of a 95.5 percent protection rate against the most deadly form of the disease, a discovery that is projected to save countless lives in countries from India to Brazil.

Past efforts to control dengue have relied heavily on preventative practices such as destroying mosquito egg-laying habitats and spraying insecticides intended to kill the disease-carrying mosquito vector. Without an effective antiviral medication available to treat infected individuals, however, the fight against dengue has been violent—and often deadly—for economically disadvantaged communities in tropical areas of the world. Because of the mosquito’s ability to adapt to many diverse environments, and its skill for finding hidden deposits of stagnant water in both rural and urban areas, regions affected by dengue quickly find the disease to reach epidemic proportions amongst their populations.

The introduction of the new dengue vaccine serves as a beacon of hope in the world’s fight against deadly pathogens, and will prove to empower millions of people in the developing world in their own fight against poverty.

– Brady Thomas Mott

Sources: New England Journal of Medicine, WHO
Photo: Top News

, , ,

Corruption Kills Millions, Steals Trillions

In a report released by ONE, an anti-poverty organization, it is estimated that corruption causes 3.6 million unnecessary deaths and costs poor countries $1 trillion each year.

Using three different methodologies to calculate the cost of corruption, all three measures indicated that the loss was either $1 trillion or $2 trillion.

In what is called a “trillion dollar scandal,” corrupt business practices, “anonymous shell companies, money laundering and illegal tax evasion” all serve to severely reduce the effectiveness of poverty relief efforts.

While extreme poverty has been reduced to half its original level over the past 20 years and has the potential to be completely eradicated by 2030, corruption is putting much of that progress at risk.

While corruption is damaging in almost all countries, it is especially dangerous in poorer and developing countries and mostly affects children. It is estimated that millions of deaths could be avoided if corruption was combated and recovered funds were reinvested in essential fields.

Furthermore, the money that is siphoned out of poor countries is not from international development aid, which has helped make a considerable improvement, but rather directly from businesses in these countries. The money is generated by domestic businesses and illegally extracted out of the country. The largest source of financial drain is the illegal manipulation of cross-border trade.

The organization found that even recovering a small amount of the money lost to corruption could dramatically affect development. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a small amount of recovered funds could provide an education to an additional 10 million children each year; pay for an additional 500,000 primary school teachers; provide antiretroviral drugs for more 11 million people with HIV/AIDS and buy nearly 165 million vaccines.

The report stresses action that serves to end the secrecy that allows corruption to thrive. If specific policies were implemented that increased transparency and combated corruption in the four areas of “natural resource deals, the use of phantom firms, tax evasion and money laundering,” developing countries could considerably stem the financial drain.

Natural resources in particular can provide a vital source of funds that could greatly increase economic growth in many developing countries. Corruption concerning natural resources is particularly bad, with approximately 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa rich in natural resources but receiving few benefits from these reserves.

Specifically, One calls for mandatory reporting laws for the natural resource sectors and publish open data so citizens are able to track where travels from and to, ensuring that the funds are not lost to corruption.

Published in anticipation of the G20 meeting in Brisbane, Australia in November, the organization stresses the importance for the G20 nations to address the issue. Now that the cost of corruption has been defined in real terms, the fight against corruption can become more directed and effective.

— William Ying

Sources: ONE 1, ONE 2, ONE 3, BBC, The Guardian, ABC News, Yahoo News
Photo: Blogspot

, ,

Obesity and Food Insecurity

According to nutrition epidemiologist Barry Popkin, in roughly 15 years, obesity rates in Mexico among men and women went from a small proportion of each population to 65 and 71 percent, respectively. Mexico’s situation is part of a trend of increasing obesity on a global scale. Around 2.1 billion people in the world are now either obese or overweight.

Because more than half of all the world’s obese and overweight live in fewer than 20 countries—developed countries, mostly—the temptation exists to disregard obesity’s impact on many developing countries.

However, one study found that “obesity rates tripled in developing countries between 1980 and 2008,” whereas it only increased by about half that amount in developed ones.

Developing countries tend to struggle with high levels of food insecurity, though, which one might assume would lead to lower weights, not obesity. Researchers are perplexed as to how the two factors— obesity and food insecurity —can coexist and they have been searching for data that will establish correlation, causation or both.

The recently released Global Food Security Index, which just added a new obesity indicator to its model, studies the matter in detail. Its overall conclusion affirms that co-existence is possible. Despite the correlation, it remains that the relationship between obesity and food security/insecurity is still poorly understood on a global scale.

The index helps to explain the presence of obesity in highly food insecure countries by noting differences between classes. It is the wealthier classes in developing countries, which are more food secure, that have experienced the largest increases in obesity (often after switching to more Western lifestyles).

The study also points out that obesity is increasing among the poor, as well, and experts have proposed various explanations for this phenomenon.

Some maintain the poor have to rely on high-calorie, low-nutrient food, which leads to obesity. Others look to “feast-famine cycles” for answers: poor populations swing between binging and starving—a cycle that changes one’s metabolism. Still others say obesity among the poor is rising because obesity is a wealth-indicator for the poor.

Causality remains exceedingly difficult to prove, though, because many factors, such as diet, wealth and level of physical activity, can all help cause obesity. Moreover, even correlation has been hard to establish in every developing country. In fact, studies in Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago show food insecurity correlated with lower weights, but results from studies in Malaysia were more complex.

Thus, no conclusion can be drawn as to what single factor is causing obesity in developing countries. It may be that no such factor exists.

Nevertheless, researchers will continue to search for causes. Three million people die every year from health problems that obesity contributes to. Researchers know that if they can pin down the causes of obesity, it could help to save the lives of millions.

– Ryan Yanke

Sources: Global Food Security Index, Scientific American, Huffington Post, Reuters
Photo: Today Online

,

More Natural Disasters?

It’s widely accepted by scientists today that natural disasters are on the rise and there’s increased risk for everyone. It’s more likely that people are going to experience a natural disaster in their lifetime.

One reason for this is that there are simply more people and many are concentrated in areas that are prone to disaster. The proportion of people living in cities of developing countries has doubled since 1960. This is important because 13 of the world’s 19 largest cities are located in coastal regions that are naturally at risk for disaster. This proportion is expected to rise 55 percent, too, by the year 2030.

It’s important to note also that developing countries, harboring the greatest populations in the world, experienced 94 percent of the world’s natural disasters between 1990 and 1998.

On the other hand, there are more natural disasters today than there used to be. The earth’s southern hemisphere is most likely to bear the brunt of climate change, a fairly well-known driver of the planet’s increase in the frequency of natural disasters. Since 1950, there have been more droughts, hurricanes, floods and windstorms than there used to be. And most developing countries can be found in the global south.

But regardless of what’s causing these disasters to tear cities and lives apart, the experiences are costly. Since the 1960s, the costs of natural disasters have increased sevenfold and low-income economies are at the greatest risk. Here, the poor stand to suffer the most. Consequently, natural disasters are quickly rising as a major issue in efforts at global poverty reduction.

Recall the recent typhoon Rammasun in the Philippines, which flooded streets in Quezon City, killed thirty-eight and left eight missing. It came on the heels of the devastating Typhoon Haiyan which killed more than 5,000. These storms left the already-poor coconut farmers of the nation in devastation after having lost their livelihoods in the storm. Poor fishers, whose boats were destroyed, were threatened with relocation away from coasts, as well.

In southern Karnataka in India, coffee growers fear for their yield as the yearly monsoon rains have delivered 14 percent more water than normal.

But there is hope. Despite the increasingly costly nature of natural disasters, data shows that this year represents a leveling-out in disaster costs, which have generally been on the increase over the past ten years. The first six months of 2014 have had costs nearly 50 percent lower than the $95 billion average.

As climate change moves across the globe as an unstoppable force behind disaster and people concentrate in vulnerable regions, we can only hope that losses continue to fall with increased responsiveness and preparation.

– Rachel Davis

Sources: IMF, CBC, The Hindu, Actuarial Post
Photo: The Stress Surfer

, , , , ,

Economic Growth: Will a Rising Tide Lift All Boats?

Developing countries around the world face the tremendous challenge of promoting sustainable growth while also reducing poverty and increasing the living standards of their populations.

Around the world, conventional wisdom holds that by focusing development policy on economic growth, inequality will be reduced and incomes of every segment of society will increase–a rising tide lifts all boats.

While poverty has been reduced dramatically all around the world (700 million fewer people live in conditions of extreme poverty in 2010 than in 1990), big challenges still exist to further reducing this number. One of these challenges is rising inequality within and between nations.

Listed below are three reasons why income inequality must be addressed in both the developed and developing world in order to ensure long-term economic growth benefits for everyone and not just a select few.

1. Economic growth is not always equal

China, one of the countries where poverty reduction has been dramatic, is astoundingly tolerant of large gaps in inequality in exchange for growth. Deng Xiaoping, a top Communist Party leader from 1978 to 1992 who initiated economic reforms, is thought to have acknowledged, “It is good for some people to get rich first.”

While this may be true in some cases or at the beginning of market reforms, recent studies undertaken in Indonesia, South Africa, India and China reveal an increase in the gap between the rich and poor. This gap in income inequality can not only prevent further reduction in poverty, but it also has long term implications in the ability of large parts of the population of each country to be able to contribute to the country’s economy and growth.

2. Education, health, and job creation policies must be pursued simultaneously with growth policies

In order for a country’s population to contribute to and participate in the country’s economy, individuals must have the skills. Pursuing policies only focused on increasing GDP may improve growth outlook in the short run. However, in the long run, without education initiatives to match, a large segment of the population will remain poor.

In the 1990s, Brazil pursued a pro-equity growth policy in which it provided grants to help boost education. Average years of school for the poor shot up and when growth hit; they too were able to take advantage of the better jobs.

Just as an overall boost in education and health is important, so is robust job creation. People must have the opportunity to input the skills they have learned back into the economy.

For this reason, inequality cannot be solved without government involvement. The market left as is does not ensure that growth is shared equally. A combination of strong government programs and a strong private sector ensures better opportunities for more people.

3. Positive GDP growth can hide underlying inequality

The main measure of inequality within a given country is through the gini coefficient. The gini coefficient is a variable that measures how equal a country’s income is with zero representing an instance where everyone’s income is exactly equal, and one representing an instance in which one person has all of the income and the rest have none.

In South Africa, while the government is vocally committed to fighting poverty and inequality, between 2003 and 2008 overall income inequality increased. During this period, South Africa’s gini coefficient rose from an already high .66 to .70 – one of the highest in the world. So despite an average GDP growth rate of 3.2 percent (1994-2012), steps still need to be taken to ensure that the bottom segment of society is able to contribute and benefit from that growth.

Today, nearly 80 percent of humanity lives on less than $10 per day and over 3 billion live on less than $2.50. High levels of inequality exacerbate problems of poverty and reduce opportunities for the poor to move beyond their circumstances. Fewer opportunities for children to rise up economically means that inequality becomes more exaggerated over time and can affect the social structure of a country – leading to unrest, crime and violence.

Developed and developing countries alike all face the challenge of reducing their gini coefficient while also promoting growth. While each country faces unique challenges, this is one problem that can benefit from collaboration at the international level. From the information above, it becomes clear that poverty cannot be fully eliminated without measures in place that simultaneously address income inequality.

– Andrea Blinkhorn

Sources: Science Mag, Global Issues, Global Issues 2, Politics of Poverty, United Nations, South Africa, Hvistendahl, M. (2014). While emerging economies boom, equality goes bust. Science,344(6186), 832-835.
Photo: PBS

Cob Homes in Developing Countries

A natural building technique called cob is emerging as an alternative home construction method in developing countries. Cob building has many advantages, including more readily available materials, less environmental impact and decreased expenses.

Building with cob involves mixing sand or clay with local subsoil and straw. This creates a stiff substance that can be molded and smashed together into small loaves (cobs). These cobs are then stacked to form the walls and foundations of buildings.

The practice of cob building has its roots in historic techniques, such as adobe and wattle-and daub construction.

“A sculptural technique, which lends itself to curved organic shapes, cob requires minimal tools and can be built by young and old alike,” according to Joseph F. Kennedy of the National Buildings Colloquium.

Unfortunately, cob is very labor intensive and building walls can take up to a year to complete.

However, cob structures are incredibly sturdy and able to withstand a wide variety of climatic conditions, including fires and earthquakes.

Cob can absorb large amounts of water without softening, and it is naturally insulated so it will stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Cob buildings in the British Isles have withstood centuries of harsh weather and still remain in use today. Five hundred year old cob houses in England have recently been discovered in near perfect condition.

Cob is also preferable to other commercially available materials. Brick and concrete blocks are often too expensive for developing countries, while the materials needed to make cob are all locally available.

Additionally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that the production of concrete is the third largest source of greenhouse gas pollution in the United States. Making one ton of cement results in the emission of roughly one ton of carbon dioxide.

Cob homes are the cost-effective, environmentally friendly alternative to concrete structures.

Cob buildings are currently going through code-testing procedures in the U.S., and have experienced a major revival in England, where homebuilders are turning to cob as a natural, sustainable construction strategy.

Natural methods of building also have a growing future in humanitarian aid efforts abroad. At the U.N. Habitat II conference in Istanbul, volunteers and local labor built a domed prototype house from compressed earth blocks in a week.

Buildings constructed with this natural, cost-effective and environmentally friendly technique could be the future for aid efforts that provide shelter for those in need.

– Grace Flaherty

Sources: Network Health, Bare Foot Builder, Scientific American, MIUN
Photo: Yahoo