Archive for category: Development

Information and stories on development news.

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The Digital Divide

Digital Divide
A report released by the World Bank shows that while technology has expanded, more people have remained poor. This phenomenon is often referred to as the digital divide.

The World Bank finds that more households in developing countries own a mobile phone than have access to electricity or clean water, according to “Digital Dividends,” its 2016 World Development Report.

The digital divide is created because most benefits for private enterprises arrive instantly, such as streamlined communication and information, online convenience and social connectivity throughout the global community.

The investments from these enterprises would ideally generate employment growth and services for those in the developing world — but progress there is more stagnant.

According to the World Bank report, digital dividends have not grown at the same rate as digital technologies because 60 percent of the world’s population does not have Internet access and are therefore unable to participate in the digital economy.

There are also emerging risks – such as polarized labor markets and inequality – that contribute to the digital divide. Routine jobs are replaced when technological advancements are made, which means more unskilled individuals compete for fewer low-wage jobs.

To combat these effects, solutions include infrastructure investment, providing worldwide Internet access and monitoring offline factors of technologies by region.

“While technology can be extremely helpful in many ways, it’s not going to help us circumvent the failures of development over the last couple of decades. You still have to get the basics right: education, business climate and accountability in government,” said Digital Dividends Co-Director Uwe Deichmann.

Education in the developing world can provide people with the skills needed to utilize digital technologies and become more productive in the workplace, which reduces polarity within the job market, according to the World Bank.

Accountable government agencies should implement policies and regulations that create a competitive digital market so that information costs go down and societies have the opportunity to become more inclusive.

Though growth has slowed in the developing world, organizations have found ways for the poor to benefit from the information and communication technology sector.

Question Box exists as a telecommunications network that provides populations suffering from high illiteracy rates and social or technical barriers with access to information.

According to the Guardian, Question Box has installed a series of ‘call boxes’ in areas of Uganda, that connect disconnected communities to someone with Internet access who can relay answers to questions regarding health, employment or other related issues.

Otherwise disconnected communities have the ability to create successful societies if given access to the digital information many of us take for granted.

– Kelsey Lay

Sources: The Guardian, Question Box, World Bank 1, World Bank 2
Photo: Google Images

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SOS Children’s Villages

SOS Children’s Villages
SOS Children’s Villages is a nonprofit group whose mission is to provide every child with the opportunity to grow up in a loving home to secure their futures as successful adults.

This international organization was founded in 1949 by Hermann Gmeiner to help orphaned children in Europe rebuild their lives after World War II. Now, SOS Children’s Villages sponsors vulnerable children and fragmented families in 125 countries, across 12 different continents, with headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

SOS Children’s Villages aims to help families stay together by offering community outreach programs that provide each family with a development plan designed specifically for their needs.

The nonprofit offers aid to children who have lost their parents, those living in an orphaned household and those whose parents suffer from a life-threatening disease. Funding for these villages comes from donations, volunteer workers, corporate partnerships, fundraising and sponsorships that offer donors the chance to support an orphaned child.

Each child that lives in an SOS village receives guaranteed education and health care. Nearly 100,000 children are enrolled in 187 SOS primary and secondary schools. Tens of thousands of people attend the 51 SOS vocational training centers created to enhance employment opportunities.

“If SOS Children was not here, our children would have become street children, with all the risks this may cause. Today, we are proud of ourselves, and many of us have found dignity. We can now stand on our own feet,” said a mother in Dakar, Senegal, now able to find financial independence thanks to an SOS outreach program.

With 150 SOS villages in 45 African countries, more educational projects are run in Africa than in any other continent. According to UNICEF, educating young people can support economic resilience and stability, as children learn to address family vulnerabilities and gain skills for future employment.

A total of 79 SOS medical centers have been built by the organization, primarily in Africa and the Middle East. In more remote areas that lack clinic access, SOS children train local people in the medical field, passing on first-aid skills and health advice garnered from SOS family health awareness campaigns.

Because vulnerable children often live in non-democratic societies, SOS prides itself on strong communication with central and local governments that hold legal responsibility for the welfare of these children. According to SOS, this has allowed them to bring aid to children in Zimbabwe, where other organizations have been asked to leave.

“As a result of the various economic opportunities that were created for many vulnerable families since the inception of the project [SOS Children’s Villages Ghana], more than 78 percent of caregivers have become more self-reliant and are capable of accessing social services like health, education, water and sanitation without external support,” said Alexander Mar Kekula, National Director of SOS Children’s Villages Ghana.

– Kelsey Lay

Sources: Ghana Web, SOS Children’s Villages 1, SOS Children’s Villages 2, SOS Children’s Villages 3, SOS Children’s Villages 4, SOS Children’s Villages 5, UNICEF, 
Photo: Flickr

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Digital Tech Saving People from Natural Disasters

Digital-Tech-Saving-People-from-Digital TechIn multiple developing countries, more families now have access to digital tech, such as cellphones, than to purified water or electricity. There is still a massive digital separation, however, between the poor and wealthier areas of the world in terms of Internet access.

According to “Digital Dividends,” an annual development report put out by the World Bank, greater strides must be made to connect more individuals to the Internet and to create a space that unchains the benefits of digital technologies for all.

Access to the Internet is crucial in vulnerable regions before, during and after a disaster occurs. Organizations like the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) have begun to create a wide range of tools that will deal with disaster risk management — but the tools rely heavily on the Internet’s unlimited potential.

Natural disasters can cause terrible damage, especially to the poorest parts of the world. As efforts step up to improve the Internet’s reach across the world, the GFDRR has helped over 160 million people in 60 countries gain improved access to risk information. Using its Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI), the GFDRR also helps countries to establish open disaster information platforms.

Innovative approaches to disaster risk, such as crowdsourcing and social data mining, also expand the information base quickly and cheaply. OpenDRI’s community mapping projects deploy local citizens to collect and maintain data about the environment and how it changes during the different stages of a disaster.

By allowing more people to have access to digital tech, not only will they have access to better jobs and opportunities, they will have first-hand knowledge and awareness of impending disasters heading their way. Digital technology also encourages tighter-knit collaboration with the different parts of a region’s government and the private sector.

A prime example of using crowdsourcing to save lives, the FloodTags project is developing a tool to utilize data via Twitter for eye-witness flood observations. Concepts like this provide a constantly updated understanding of the situation, hopefully saving lives that would otherwise be lost in disasters.

After floods hit Jakarta, Indonesia in February 2015, tweets peaked at about 900 per minute, with a major number including information about location and water depth. FloodTags then utilized this information to devise a method for creating real-time maps based on the messages and regional statistics.

While digital tech like FloodTags and GFDRR’s OpenDRI system have steadily improved and saved lives over the last few years, they fall short in areas that do not have access to the Internet. For digital tech to aid everyone everywhere in the world, the remaining countries need to eventually close the gap in Internet access.

– John Gilmore

Sources: GFDRR, Reuters, WE Forum
Picture: Google Images

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5 Ways Addressing Women’s Rights Reduces Poverty

Addressing Women's Rights
Since the 1970s, women have had a key role in addressing women’s rights in terms of ending global poverty.

There are several reasons for this phenomenon, whether laws in certain countries stimulating this repression or customs in a society. Laws protecting women often remain unimplemented at the national and local levels.

The U.N. Commission for Africa states that women, in particular, suffer from inequality, both socially and economically. It is important to recognize women’s rights implications for the declination of global poverty.

1. It Increases Education Enrollment

Young girls are among the largest of demographics not receiving an education. It is a known fact that women with equal rights become more educated. These women are more likely to participate in the job field. Education results in gaining the skills necessary to obtain work and consequently gain financial resources to rise above the poverty line.

2. It Increases Enrollment in the Job Sector

As women acquire education and skills, they may gain the aspirations of entrepreneurship. The right to education for women also creates future options for labor. Furthermore, as women become educated, their role is expanded beyond child-rearing. Women are then able to obtain a presence in the working field.

3. Women Are More Likely to Participate in Decision Making

Women with legal rights are more likely to own land and therefore to access finance. The U.N. claims that rural women with the right of control over their land increase social and political status. Addressing women’s rights in controlling land boosts bargaining power domestically and empowers their public voice.

4. It Diminishes Dependence

Many women who are impoverished are widows, single-headed households or those who did not have an income to begin with. Addressing women’s rights to education and ownership enables them to earn a living regardless of challenging situations. When women have rights to land ownership and to education, it ensures their ability to provide for their families’ daily needs. Land ownership also decreases the prospects of women being evicted and subsequently sliding into poverty.

5. It Reduces Unpaid Work

Many women spend a lot of time doing household work such as caring for children. Additionally, many women spend a great portion of their day preparing meals and gathering water, during which they resort to paying for childcare. Greater equality in the household would allow women the opportunity to spend time carrying out paid work.

The U.N. states that with access to resources such as financial credit, technical assistance, training and land ownership, the feminization of poverty will diminish.

– Mayra Vega

Sources: U.N.E.C.A., UNDP 1, UNDP 2, UNDP 3, UNDP 4, U.N. 1, Sachs, Jeffrey, U.N. 2
Photo: Africa Agribusiness

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Corporate Social Responsibility Investment

Corporate Social ResponsibilityCommunity Capital Management, Inc. (CCM) is one of the top fixed income impact investing managers in the United States that prides itself on corporate social responsibility.

CCM reported that the company’s CRA Qualified Investment Fund Institutional Shares (CRANX) ranked among the top one percent of all performers out of 309 government funds during 2015.

According to PR Newswire, CRANX saw about two percent returns in 2015, exceeding the average return for its category. Out of 301 funds, investment research group Morningstar rated the share class with four stars for its $1.8 billion asset portfolio across its three share classes.

“We are equally proud of the Fund’s bespoke impact portfolio and community impact performance, having invested $512 million in 2015 and $5.8 billion since inception in bonds financing economic and environmentally sustainable initiatives,” said CCM chief investment strategist David Sand.

CCM offers shareholders the ability to customize their investments to align with social or environmental missions, in addition to participating in open-ended bond funds that provide liquidity as a part of their corporate social responsibility.

Funds like CRANX offer investors the chance to facilitate change through impact investing – making investments that bring about a social or environmental change as well as a financial return.

CCM’s impact investments have brought great change to areas within the United States. For example, $283 million helped to fund job creation and small business development, $354 million was invested for environmental sustainability and neighborhood revitalization, $33 million helped to create affordable health facilities and 320,000 affordable rental housing units were created.

Canyon Crossing is one of these complexes that offers 180 rental properties to low-income residents of Salt Lake County in Utah. The construction of these buildings, along with the state’s other efforts over the last 10 years, has resulted in a rapid reduction of homelessness throughout the state, according to the Department of Workforce Services (DWS).

According to the African Development Report of 2011, the private investment sector is the driving force behind economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa. The report finds that 80 percent of Africa’s production, two-thirds of total investments and 75 percent of total credit to the economy comes from private sector investments.

Barron’s reports that the popularity of impact investing has grown in the last 10 years and current trends indicate an increase in international impact investing. A survey conducted by Fidelity Investments found that a quarter of respondents plan to invest their impact portfolios overseas.

“Impact investing has the potential to channel significant amounts of private capital to solutions to the world’s most intransigent challenges. Last year was a banner year for impact investing and set the stage for 2016 to be a year of tremendous growth and progress,” said Global Impact Investing Network CEO, Amit Bouri.

– Kelsey Lay

Sources: African Development Bank Group, Community Capital Management, Inc., Department of Workforce Services, Forbes 1, Forbes 2, PR Newswire
Photo: Huffington Post

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Assessing the Global Health Security Agenda

Global Health Security AgendaA new tool for assessing progress toward the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) goals has now been piloted in five countries, the CDC reports. International health organizations in Georgia, Peru, Portugal, Uganda and the UK have all submitted evaluations of the assessment.

The Global Health Security Agenda was launched in 2014 as a way to bring focus to the need for a global health strategy that would respond quickly and effectively to potential epidemics — a need that was highlighted later that year by an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.

“GHSA is about strengthening health systems for every country,” said U.S. Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins. “That means GHSA will help to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to infectious diseases like Ebola.”

The assessment is designed to measure baselines and strategies for potential improvement in regards to 11 action packages developed by GHSA countries in 2014.

Following the “Prevent-Detect-Respond” framework, these action packages include, among others, preventing microbial resistance, strengthening biosecurity, delivering immunizations, facilitating surveillance and reporting, fostering global communication and coordinating emergency response deployment and operations.

Each pilot country was scored on their capacity to take these actions based on indicators such as having biosecurity training programs, proper communication practices, national vaccine coverage, trained epidemiologists and resources to implement emergency responses. The teams then evaluated the assessment itself to determine if it was constructive and scalable.

Evaluators in Portugal, which is considered to have a strong health security strategy, noted several important improvements the assessment needs to undergo before it is launched on a broader scale.

They say that current indicators do not reflect global objectives as closely as they could. They recommended pulling indicators from existing global health initiatives (such as the Global Vaccine Action Plan) in order to maintain a focus.

Evaluators also noted that their team was given a limited amount of time to complete their assessment. This prevented them from conducting random samples from various regions across the country, in order to verify the information they received from the central health ministry. They also noted a lack of efficiency in the process stemming from the fact that the country being evaluated was not given the assessment ahead of time. The evaluators therefore suggest giving assessment missions a three-month lead time in order to properly prepare.

Overall, the teams think the tool is a promising step in assessing progress toward the Global Health Security Agenda. With further development, they are confident it can be launched in all partner countries.

– Ron Minard

Sources: Borgen Project, CDC, Huffington Post
Picture: Google Images

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Education in Namibia and Its Role in Development

Education in Namibia
The United Nations recently presented its Human Development Report in Windhoek, Namibia. The Report included the U.N.’s Human Development Index (HDI) which not only measures a nation’s economic well-being but also that of its citizens. Many find the HDI useful because it takes into account the citizenry’s quality of life.

The Report provided sobering news for the host nation when it was revealed its HDI rank was 126 out of 188. Despite its status as an upper middle-income nation, Namibia ranks fairly low on quality of life metric.

The HDI shows that a rising gross domestic product cannot cover up the citizen’s poor standard of living. The HDI points out that there is wealth inequality, poverty, poor healthcare and educational underperformance in Namibia.

Babatunde Omilola, the United Nations Development Programme’s chief of development planning in New York offered his opinion on solutions to these issues. In particular, Omilola noted that Namibia “could do better if it invests more in education.”

For example, Namibia invests billions of dollars in its education, yet only 30 percent of 12th graders in 2013 met the requirements for college admissions. With statistics showing that college graduates earn more throughout their lifetime, Namibia’s lack of collegiate students translates to unrealized potential.

By improving education in Namibia, it is likely that its citizens will benefit from increased opportunities and a higher HDI as the country tries to overcome a staggering poverty rate of 30 percent.

Omilola also noted that education “allows people to enhance their capabilities by providing them with acquired skills and knowledge.”

He then concludes this by saying Namibia’s “Education and skills need to be boosted.”

With a greater focus on education in Namibia, it is hoped that the country will produce more college graduates that have 21st century skills. These graduates will be able to fill the nation’s skills gap, and take advantage of the nation’s abundant resources.

– Andrew Wildes

Sources: Capacity4dev, World Bank, UNDP, Namibian 1, Namibian 2, Namibian Sun, WHO
Photo: UNDP

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Zambian Women Team Up to End Poverty

Zambian Women
Women in Kabwe, Zambia’s central province are establishing clubs and associations to help fight poverty. Through these organizations, Zambian women are educated on aid programs available and encouraged to take advantage of them.

Kabwe is a rural province with an 80 percent poverty rate. Women are especially vulnerable to poverty because of the tradition of gender inequality.

In the Mumbwa district of Kabwe, the Tandabale Wakamana Club has 20 female members who work to improve the quality of life and agriculture. Together they grow maize, groundnuts, and keep livestock.

Rhoda Kakoma, a member of the Tandabale Wakamana Club, said: “Through our club, I now own goats. I keep chickens and I also make fritters and the money I raise I am able to send my children to school. I have now managed to build a house which I have roofed.”

According to Mumbwa community development officer Abel Mwape, women are empowering one another in areas such as agriculture, weaving, tailoring, and rearing animals. These clubs help women find markets so they can sell their produce to make for profits.

In the Itezhi tezhi clubs have encouraged women to get involved in peanut butter making, basket weaving, and netting to sell in the markets.

The clubs are also making women aware of the Food Security Pack (FSF) which is a safety net program for farming households; particularly aiding households headed by women, children, and disabled persons.

Women are also connected to the Social Cash Transfer which provides women involved in agriculture with cash incentives in order to maintain their farms and livelihoods.

“Empowering rural women, therefore, remains cardinal to the well-being of individuals, families and rural communities,” said Engwase Mwale, the executive director for Non-Governmental Organizations Coordinating Council (NGOCC). “This is largely because women are the bedrock of our families, and indeed society at large.”

– Marie Helene Ngom

Sources: Dailymail, MCDMCH, IDS
Photo: Dailymail

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Income Growth Relieves Poverty in Rural Botswana

Rural Botswana
According to the Botswana Poverty Assessment released by the World Bank, thousands have risen out of poverty in rural Botswana as a result of government-supported programs that improved people’s livelihoods.

The report said increased agricultural income and improved welfare resulted in 158,000 people being removed from poverty in rural Botswana between 2002 and 2010.

Botswana was one of the 10 poorest countries in the world. However, it is now categorized among high middle-income countries. The World Bank said if this trend continues, less than 15 percent of the population will be living below the poverty line by 2018.

“Tackling poverty is at the heart of our National Development Plan. We are pleased to see that our welfare programs have improved the lives of many and made a dent in poverty levels,” said Olebile Gaborone, coordinator of Poverty Eradication.

The report accredits the 87 percent decrease in rural poverty to a drastic change in the demographic structure of the population and a decrease in household size and dependency rations.

Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Dikgang Makgalemele, said “the remarkable reduction in poverty was a result of sustained robust economic growth over the past few decades and sound government policies and programs that ensure the benefits of economic growth trickle down to the whole strata of the society.”

The study also predicts that with the help of education, social protection and employment, poverty levels in Botswana could fall below 12 percent by 2018, and below six percent by 2030.

The report advises investing in education so that more Botswanans have the skills to meet the labor demand, as well as creating a private sector that focuses on creating better jobs for the impoverished population.

“We see from our research that agricultural support programs were clearly a big part of the progress achieved during the period under review,” World Bank Senior Economist Victor Sulla said. “Going forward, investments in human capital and efficient safety-net targeting will be critical to accelerating poverty reduction and reducing inequality further.”

– Marie Helene Ngom

Sources: AllAfrica, World Bank
Photo: Google Images

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Ikea Builds 10,000 Shelters for Syrian Refugees

syrian_refugeesShowing no signs of stopping, the surge of Syrian refugees poses many issues for European and Middle Eastern countries, mainly housing, as the Northern hemisphere gears up for winter.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), since the start of 2015 more than 750,000 migrants have arrived by sea to Europe. The large amount of refugees has not only sparked international interest but also a crisis as many European countries struggle to cope with the influx of refugees fleeing to Europe for a better life.

The IKEA Foundation, in collaboration with Better Shelter, has partnered to create safer, more reliable housing options for the thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing to Europe.

Focusing on cost-effectiveness, IKEA developed a tent that costs approximately $1,000. The tent can comfortably house a family of five and only takes four to eight hours to assemble. The structures come in two sizes: 57 square feet or 188 square feet of living space and will last up to three years. Comparatively, the United Nations (UN) shelters only last three months.

“This is just a tiny part of humanitarian aid. But it’s an important one when it comes to allowing displaced people to live with dignity,” said Johan Karlsson, the main Swedish Industrial designer.

Additionally, the shelters are equipped with solar panels that are durable against extreme temperatures. The solar panels were developed in response to the cited lack of electricity among refugee shelters.

A woman by the name of Mayada, one of many refugees seeking asylum, came to a camp in Jordan ten months ago. She said she never imagined having to live without the most basic necessities, particularly electricity.

“Nowadays electricity is life, and without it even the most simple things become a struggle,” she told visitors from the UN Refugee Agency.

The absence of light and power makes everyday living activities difficult, as well as dangerous, particularly for women. Mayada’s daughter is too scared to go to the bathroom at night and has to wake her parents to accompany her. The solar panels will help to quell their fears.

With the arrival of winter and light disappearing earlier in the day, basic daily functions, as well as communication among refugees, become more difficult.

“You can’t visit friends, the kids can’t do their homework. By nine or 10 o’clock most of the camp is in bed,” Mayada said.

In addition to the solar panels, the tents will also have mosquito nets, windows and a door that locks. The lock option for doors is a simple solution to help prevent sexual assault among refugee women traveling across the Middle East and Europe.

“People tell us it will make a huge difference to them just to be able to switch a light on again, making them feel more at home,” UN Refugee Agency Energy Advisor Paul Quigley said.

The UN has ordered 10,000 of the units to help reduce the Syrian housing crisis. Europe will receive 755 units and 2,600 homes will go to Iraq.

Mayada said when electricity is made more available to the refugee camps, she will no longer have to put on a brave face for the sake of her kids, particularly her daughter.

“I wish I could give [IKEA] all a big kiss between their eyes! It will mean everything to us!” Mayada said.

– Alyson Atondo

Sources: PBS, UNHCR, Business Insider, BBC
Photo: Google Images