Archive for category: Developing Countries

Information and stories about developing countries.

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Myanmar Government Bans Doctors Without Borders

The Myanmar government banned Doctors Without Borders (DWB) from operating in one of its most impoverished states, following rumors of ethnic tension.

Most of the disenfranchised Muslim minority reside in the Rakhine State. The government accused the DWB of favoring this minority over its rival group, the Rakhine Buddhists. This tension led to widespread violence, killing 100 people and displacing nearly 140,000 others. The government regards Muslims as “interlopers” from Bangladesh, as opposed to a legitimate minority. President Thein Sein granted DWB permission to resume its work in other regions, but continued its ban on operations in Rakhine.

Presidential spokesman Ye Htut accused DWB of “not following their core principle of neutrality and impartiality.”

Rakhine State government accused the NGO of intentionally fueling tension between the minorities, according to Htut. The perception of bias led to large-scale protests in the state capital against DWB.

The organization responded to these accusations in a statement, asserting “services are provided based on medical need only, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or any other factor.”

This January, DWB released a statement contradicting the government on an alleged massacre in Rakhine. This reportedly “triggered” the ban on its operations in the region. The United Nations report the death of more than 40 Rohingya Muslims, and DWB confirmed treating 22 victims. Wounds occurred at the hands of state security forces, yet the government denounced these claims, reporting the death of one police officer.

Following the ban, the Ministry of Health plans to provide health services for the “whole community.” Myanmar President Thein Sein also dispatched the emergency response workers and ambulances to the region, replacing the DWB clinics.

These services cannot match those provided by the NGO. The national health services rank “among the most rudimentary in Asia,” according to the New York Times. The government also confines Muslims to their villages, preventing the group from receiving medical care.

Banning DWB deprives nearly 750,000 people of proper healthcare.

The NGO acted as the largest provider in northern Rakhine, a region largely populated with Muslim Rohingya. It managed five permanent clinics as well as 30 mobile units. Within these clinics, workers operated an intensive feeding center for undernourished children. Medical professionals report diagnosing more than 20 percent with acute malnourishment.

The government ban forced these centers to close, following the removal of DWB.

The organization also served those living in displaced camps outside the state capital, Sittwe. Tuberculosis, a disease endemic to Muslim neighborhood Aung Mingla, threatens the health of displaced Muslims. HIV and malaria also threaten resident health. With limited medical attention, the supplies of medicine continue to dwindle.

The government prevents these patients from leaving the area, surrounding the camp with “barbed-wire security posts and police officers.”

As head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar, Mark Cutts expresses concern for the present healthcare shortage. Rather than antagonizing the government, though, the U.N. has chosen “quiet diplomacy.”

For the time, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organizations can provide care. Myanmar deputy health director Dr. Soe Lwin Nyein plans to accept tuberculosis and HIV medication from DWB. These concessions help patients in the region receive more than the minimum government care, yet negotiations over the medicine distribution appear ongoing.

Cutts plans to coordinate with the government and reinstate DWB “as soon as possible,” protecting the minority from disease. As ethnic tension continues to incite violence, the government banned professionals in the best position to serve its people.

– Ellery Spahr

Sources: CNN, New York Times
Photo: Richard Roche

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Wasting Food Makes Ending Poverty Difficult

According to a report by the World Bank, 25% to 33% of the food produced for consumption around the globe is wasted every year.

The Food Price Watch report argues, “Between one-fourth and one-third of the nearly four billion metric tons of food produced annually for human consumption is lost or wasted.”

The World Bank claims that such waste mainly occurs during the production, transport, retail and consumption stages of food. This is bad news, considering millions of people around the world are dying of hunger, particularly in countries throughout Africa and South Asia.

Sadly, the report also argues that most of the food is wasted in developed countries.

“Overall, some 56% of total food loss and food waste occurs in the developed world; the remaining 44 percent across developing regions,” said the report.

The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, said that the large amount of food wasted around the world is shameful.

“Millions of people around the world go to bed hungry every night, and yet millions of tons of food end up in trash cans or spoiled on the way to market,” Kim said.

Apart from the food insecurity that such waste can create, the World Bank claims that wasting and losing food also harms the economy and environment, and makes fighting poverty even harder.

But, how guilty are Americans when it comes to wasting food?

According to NPR, people in the United States waste around $165 billion worth of food each year. On one of the agency’s radio programs, Jonathan Bloom, author of “American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What we Can do About It,)” said, “We often don’t tend to realize that we’re throwing away perfectly edible food, especially when we’re paying attention to those expiration dates and when we’re thinking of those as the gospel truth.”

He believes that expiration labels are placed on food items for quality reasons, not safety.

But returning to the report by the World Bank, consumers often fall victim to the deals pushed by advertisements. Since consumers tend to buy more food than they need, many perishable items tend to expire by the time they are finally willing to eat them.

It is ultimately up to the consumer how much food to purchase and how long to wait before eating it. However, the consumers can make a big difference in the world if they stop wasting so much food.

This can be achieved by paying closer attention to their own eating patterns and simply buying less food.

– Juan Campos

Sources: NPR, The World Bank, Yahoo News
Photo: Enterra Solutions

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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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Will E-Cigarettes Tackle China’s Tobacco Monopoly?

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Since 1982, the China National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC) has grown to be the world’s largest tobacco company, contributing almost 10 percent of total tax revenue to the central government. The state-backed monopoly has remained stubborn to reform in the wake of the roughly one million smoking-related deaths the country sees each year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently released a statement saying that China needs to take a firmer stance against its giant tobacco industry if it hopes to reduce these numbers.

China has the world’s largest tobacco consumer base, home to more than 300 million smokers. In 2012, the CNTC had an annual net income of $18.6 billion, in contrast to the American-owned company, Phillip Morris International, with an annual net income of $8.57 billion.

So how do we tackle a multi-billion dollar monopoly?

The biggest problem is that the government itself is in the business. This creates a strong conflict of interest, which is proving difficult in weeding out the destructive habit.

In recent months, China has adopted several anti-tobacco measures, including banning government officials from smoking in public areas and banning smoking in schools. However, the tobacco monopoly has managed to continuously oppose reforms such as raising cigarette prices and using stronger health warnings on cigarette packs.

It seems that all hope is not lost.

A pair of tobacco industry manufacturers from southern China launched a joint venture on February 25 aimed at tackling the tobacco monopoly once and for all.

The collaboration between FirstUnion Technology, the world’s largest e-cigarette producer, and Jinjia, China’s biggest maker of cigarette packaging products, is an entrepreneurial match made in heaven. Both companies have achieved massive success in the southern city of Shenzhen and hope to rise among the ranks by manufacturing China’s first mass-market e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes first entered the Chinese market in 2004 and have since been exported to major markets worldwide.

Their significance?

They have become the new alternative for tobacco smokers who want to avoid inhaling smoke. Also known as electronic cigarettes, or vaporizer cigarettes, they emit doses of vaporized nicotine, or non-nicotine vaporized solution, that is inhaled. E-cigarettes have been found to have comparable rates of success in helping smokers quit as nicotine patches.

Overall, this is good news for China, but bad news for the tobacco monopoly.

The partnership between the two Chinese companies is receiving a start-up investment of just over $16 million, but they might need support from the central government if they hope to succeed.

– Mollie O’Brien

Sources: The Street, Medical News Today
Photo: Carbonated

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More Than Safaris: Kenya’s Rise to Power

Thus far, Kenya’s economy depends largely on tourism, specifically safari tours. Travelers often spend the night in Nairobi, the region’s gateway to business, before their safari adventure. Kenya also benefits from pineapple production–a top five producer worldwide–through exporting both canned pineapple and juice concentrates. But there is much more to the booming country than tourism and agriculture. So what else is special about this east African nation?

Kenya is Young and Friendly

Youths serve as optimists for the future and in Nairobi, they keep the economy going. More than 60% of the population is less than 25 years old. Kenyans tend to be warm-hearted and welcoming to foreigners. While the national language in Swahili, many Kenyans speak English at a high level and are willing to converse with tourists about Kenyan culture.

While Kenya is sophisticated compared to its East African neighbors, the country still suffers from unemployment and poor infrastructure. Many of Kenya’s young cannot get jobs due to a lack of skills and opportunities.

The Diaspora Returns

Waiting an hour and a half for a pizza in Nairobi? Rotesh Doshi would rather not. After studying at the London School of Economics, he pursued work opportunities abroad. When he had the chance to bring United States-based franchise, Naked Pizza, to Nairobi, he took it and ran with it.

Although it is his hometown, Doshi found many challenges to setting up a business in Nairobi, including poor infrastructure, government bureaucracy and a short supply of skilled human labor. “You often ask yourself ‘is it worth it’ when a lot more things go wrong than right,” Doshi said. “But there is nothing else that I would rather be doing right now, especially being part of that growth story in my own country.”

Promising Entertainment Industry

Lupita Nyong’o’s Oscar win for her supporting performance in 12 Years a Slave gives Kenya’s entertainment industry a ray of hope. With 40% of Kenya’s workforce unemployed, and 70% of those being less than 35 years old, successes like Nyong’o’s show young people that they can, in fact, make it in the entertainment sector, which can then boost the economy.

The government hopes to do this through establishing a film school and promoting the entertainment industry as a legitimate avenue for job creation. Kenya looks to Nigeria for inspiration. Nigeria’s film industry, referred to as “Nollywood,” produces about 50 films per week–many more than Hollywood and second only to India’s Bollywood.

Attracting New Businesses

Food processing giant Del Monte set up a Kenyan branch called Cirio Del Monte Kenya to take advantage of the region’s high-yielding pineapple production. In the technology sector, Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung announced plans for a new assembly plant in Nairobi, positioning the city as the East African center of operation.

With businesses like Proctor & Gamble, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and IBM opening regional hubs in Nairobi comes the opportunity for more employment for the country’s youth. Foreign businesses that are setting up their African headquarters in centrally located Nairobi also benefit local businesses, like Kenya Airways.

– Haley Sklut 

Sources: BBC, How We Made It In Africa, All Africa, US Embassy, Career Nation
Photo: Sida

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What Can the U.S. Learn From Foreign Education System?

The U.S. public education system focuses on a century-old model that was originally designed to educate factory workers. While American public education has made many reforms throughout the years, student performance has remained stagnant.

The National Center on Education and the Economy suggests that the U.S. should look abroad for inspiration to fuel education reforms, including expanding national standards for curriculum, administering smarter and fewer tests and improving teacher quality and salaries.

U.S. Ranks Low in Test Scores

Students from the U.S., China, South Korea, Finland, Australia and many other countries took the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to measure their skills in reading, math and science. The test is administered to 15-year-olds every three years by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Among the 65 participating countries, the U.S. ranked 15th in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math.

The U.S. average scores in the three testing sections have not changed much from previous testing years. On the other hand, Shanghai, for example, has turned itself into an education powerhouse in three decades. The biggest focus in Shanghai and other top education performing countries is the quality of teaching.

Finland and Shanghai Inspire Higher Standards

The country with the most rigorous standards for teachers is Finland, closely followed by Shanghai. In Finland, one in ten applicants for teacher training programs are accepted. The training programs take five or more years to complete, and you must have a master’s degree to be considered for the program. In Shanghai, teachers must have a degree in the field they wish to teach, even at an elementary school level.

Teachers in Shanghai are mentored from the beginning of their career, by a master teacher. Throughout their career, teachers continue to meet with their mentors to improve their professional development.

Teacher Quality

While it is important for students to learn in a structured environment, it is equally important for teachers to have a structured environment in which to improve their teaching. Teachers in Shanghai can expect to be observed 20-30 times each year – a facet of teacher training that may seem daunting to teachers in the West.

The education system in Shanghai does not succeed based on any of the sole factors, but rather by a combination of all of these factors. The system still has its drawbacks, but the U.S. can learn a lot from the Shanghai education system.

If the U.S. puts as much money into teacher training as it does into reducing class size and creating charter schools, the country will improve its scores and be among European and Asian students who are currently outperforming U.S. students.

A sample of the PISA test is available here. 

– Haley Sklut

Sources: San Jose Mercury News, Parenting, National Center for Education Statistics, Forbes
Photo: The Week

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Olympic Youth Development Center Celebrates Third Year

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) thinks sports are the answer to improving life in developing countries. The IOC’s “Sports for Hope” program provides communities with better opportunities to exercise and learn about the values of Olympism.

The organization believes practicing sports in a safe and welcoming environment has the power to bring hope and positivity to developing countries. Sports have the ability to foster cognitive development, social interactions and community integration. The program involves building multi-functional sports facilities in developing countries.

Besides improving the health of those who participate, the program will also help young athletes actively develop their minds. Other goals of “Sports for Hope” include offering athletes professional training opportunities, organizing sports competitions and providing health services.

The pilot project for the program is in Lusaka, Zambia. In addition to the Olympic Youth Development Center, the project provides community development services, Olympic education, health services and sports administrators’ seminars. The Olympic education covers girls’ empowerment and civic education.

The Center, costing a total of about $10 million, includes outdoor sports fields, indoor multi-purpose courts, a boxing arena, a gym, classrooms, administrative offices, locker rooms and storage rooms. The IOC partnered with the Government of the Republic of Zambia and the National Olympic Committee of Zambia to bring the center to the people of Zambia.

Now in its third year, the Center welcomes about 10,000 children and teenagers each month. The facility offers opportunities for young athletes to train in 16 different sports.

Following the success of The Center in Zambia, the IOC is currently building its second Olympic Youth Development Center, this one in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Haitian Center will feature large shaded areas to protect athletes from the heat of the region.

The Centers offer educational classes, including HIV/AIDS programs. Zambia has one of the world’s most devastating HIV/AIDS epidemics; at least one in every seven adults in the country live with HIV. Woman and girls aged 15 years old to 24 years old are most vulnerable to the disease with double the prevalence of men in the same age group. The educational programs on female empowerment focus on positivity, including safe sexual practices to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Zambia’s Olympic Youth Development Center is an example of how a sports complex and sports in general, can be so much more than what meets the eye. Zambian Olympian Samuel Matete says, “As an Olympian myself, I look forward to using the Center to provide great opportunities for young people to achieve their dreams.”

– Haley Sklut

Sources: Olympic, Olympic, Olympic Youth Development Center, Avert, YouTube
Photo: Asian Wave Mag

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Julia Roberts Backs Clean Cookstoves Initiative

julia roberts
When people think of the needs of the hungry in the developing world, their supply of proper cookware is not always the first thing that comes to mind. More common are thoughts of the need for immediate food supplies and ways to promote agriculture. However, there is a definite need in the developing world for proper cookware. Estimates say three billion people around the world rely on open-air stoves, an inefficient and sometimes dangerous way of cooking food.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves was organized in 2010 by then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and the United Nations Foundation to raise awareness about the challenges that so many face in cooking their food from open-air flames. In 2011, Julia Roberts joined the Alliance as a global ambassador and became a key spokesperson for the group. In a statement soon after her decision, she said, “I was inspired to join the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves because its core mission is saving lives – especially children’s lives.”

It is believed that two million people a year are killed due to the smoke coming from the cooking done on unclean cookstoves. Up to a million of those killed are children. In the necessity for parents to provide for their children they inadvertently put them at risk. This shows the necessity for governments in the developed world to step in, and shows the necessity of groups like the Borgen Project to encourage this type of support.

Fires cooked over open-air flames take the terrible human toll that have resulted in the millions of deaths around the world. They also take a toll on the environment, raising concerns about the future of humans on this planet. In order to supply these open-air flames, the people using them are contributing to the global deforestation problem. The flames from the stoves, just as they release carcinogens that can harm the cooks, can also release dangerous greenhouse gases that harm the environment. Studies have shown that fires contribute to emissions of methane, carbon monoxide and black carbon.

The goal of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is to change the landscape of cooking in the developing world by 2020. Goals have been set to establish 100 million clean stoves by that year. Julia Roberts describes the “effective solutions, which can save lives, improve livelihoods… and combat climate change.”

This is a fight worth taking up, one that could have large impacts on the global stage. With more efficient stoves, the health costs spent combating smoke-related diseases could be used towards the upkeep of a productive family. As more families have these funds freed up, a significant impact on the global economy could follow.

Human lives being lost in the search for a good meal should not be the case anywhere in the world. The meals people cook everyday at home are an unheralded luxury we enjoy. If citizens take the time at every meal to think of how they can make it easier for those abroad to healthily enjoy their meals, it may contribute to a global effort to save lives.

– Eric Gustafsson

Sources: Kiva, Clean Cookstoves, Guardian, PBS
Photo: TV Guide

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Asthma in Developing Countries

Asthma in Developing Countries
Asthma is often considered a burden of wealthy countries.

However, asthma is a public health problem that is increasing with globalization and modernization. Although diagnoses may differ, symptoms are present across all regions of the world. Sociological, economic and educational differences play a large part in the lack of diagnoses in developing nations.

Despite being a burden to high-income countries, most asthma-related deaths occur in low to middle-income countries.

According to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, an estimated 300 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, with 250,000 annual deaths attributed to the disease.

However, there have not been reliable epidemiological studies to determine the magnitude of the disease in many developing countries.

Asthma is a difficult disease to tackle in developing countries. The limited data and the expense of the problem makes it difficult to diagnose. It typically takes two different asthma exacerbations less than six months apart for an individual to be officially diagnosed by a physician.

This can be troublesome for developing countries who may have as little as one physician for every 10,000 people. Rural locations can also have compliance and testing issues.

However, because the effects of asthma go hand-in-hand with the social determinants of health, impoverished countries are at a high risk for this “wealthy-nation-disease.” Increasing air pollution and rapid industrialization create ideal environments for asthma to thrive. Asthma is further complicated by poor access to medical services and high drug prices.

Chelsea Stone, a student at Drexel University’s School of Public Health, studies epidemiology and focuses on asthma in developing countries.

While Stone was conducting research in Haiti, she found that education was the biggest hurdle to treatment. Only half of the families surveyed in the Croix des Bouquets community knew or had heard of asthma, revealing a large gap in health education. Asthma surveys have to be worded in concise, culturally appropriate ways.

In other asthma studies, rates have varied from 3% to 30% depending on location and survey methods. Solomon, an older man, willingly discussed his asthma with Stone.

Asthma typically beings in early childhood, as it had with Solomon.

He explained that his symptoms are better than they were while living in New York City because of the climate. Solomon was educated on the disease, a significant factor in controlling asthma attacks. Since there wasn’t always medications available or access to the emergency department, Solomon used natural remedies, such as coconut oil, to help with asthma flare-ups.

Asthma education is a substantial part of controlling the disease and preventing asthma-related deaths. Since there is limited data on asthma in developing countries, there is little education as a result.

This lack of research generates an under-diagnosed and under-treated disease.

The burden imposed on individuals and families is restricting and socioeconomically hindering. The availability of modern medications can complicate treatment and management. Even if there is access to an emergency department, they may not be equipped with proper medication to control asthma.

Avoiding asthma triggers all together can also reduce the severity of asthma. Some argue that there is not enough education centered on asthma awareness and signs of these triggers. Asthma education and management should be taught not just at the community level, but also integrated into nation-wide health staff education.

– Maris Brummel

Sources: Elsvier, World Health Organization, NCBI

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Shortage in Public School Openings Hinders Education in Argentina

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According to the Buenos Aires Minister of Education Esteban Bullrich, 7,000 to 9,000 children aged one and a half months to three years will not be able to attend nursery school in 2014. This number has risen since last year, when 6,700 young children were unable to attend school and receive an education in Argentina.

Parents will either have to pay for a private school or search for other daycares that they are able to afford. Bullrich acknowledge that the Ministry was not able to accomplish and satisfy the expectations of the public.

The shortage of space in public schools and the “failures in the bureaucratic forms of information processing” caused 4,000 students to have to be moved to different schools farther away from their homes, Bullrich claims. This is an issue, particularly because there are no school buses in Argentina, so students have to walk or take some form of public transportation to school each morning.

Those families were initially told that there were vacancies for their students in schools, only to be made aware later that their students had to be removed from the lists.

Bullrich did however highlight that the recently developed online registration process was functioning properly “despite these mistakes.” He stated that although many students were unable to gain spots within the public schools, roughly 100,000 children were able to register and be placed. Statistically speaking, Bullrich says that the system was a success in regards to those who could be placed compared to those who could not.

Bullrich claims that since 2007 more spots have opened up in kindergartens, allowing 20 percent more students to gain an education in Argentina at a young age. There were approximately 45,956 vacancies in 2007 and currently there are 55,607 kindergarten vacancies in Buenos Aires.

The National Education Law and the City Constitution are butting heads regarding a student’s right to begin school. The National Education law states that school attendance is mandatory at the age of four, but the City Constitute claims that at 45 days old a child has the right to begin education.

The City Education Ministry recognizes that, “No government has achieved this so far.”

– Rebecca Felcon

Sources: The Argentina Independent, Country Reports, Buenos Aires Herald
Photo: Carlo Shiller