Archive for category: Development

Information and stories on development news.

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Pencils of Promise

Pencils of Promise
Pencils of Promise’s programs have impacted more than 300,000 lives. Its schools have served more than 31,240 students and its scholarship recipients are two times more likely to progress to secondary school than the regional average.

Founder Adam Braun was a college student backpacking across the globe when he asked a small boy begging on the streets of India what he wanted most in the world—the answer? A pencil. Braun reached in his backpack and handed him his pencil as ‘a wave of possibility washed over him.’ Over the next five years, Braun backpacked through more than 50 countries handing out thousands of pens and pencils across six continents.

These pencils led to powerful conversations with local parents and children across numerous cultures and languages. In October 2008, PoP was founded. What began with a mere $25 deposit has now built more than 200 schools, breaking ground on a new school every 90 hours.

“We’ve learned that education is a living, breathing entity that with the right nurturing, evolves into something spectacular,” Braun writes on the website.

“We’ve learned that every piece of its growth is a challenge and that each pencil, each dollar, each supporter is essential. Pencils of Promise is now a global movement of passionate individuals, many of which are the most dynamic and impactful leaders we have ever seen. They are committed to supporting a world with greater educational opportunity for all. Thousands have joined us, making contributions through acts both large and small.”

There are three main things that set PoP apart from other organizations. PoP is 100 percent for-purpose, 100 percent direct giving and has a 100 percent success rate. It is a unique organization  because it blends the head of a for-profit business with the heart of a humanitarian nonprofit— by covering operational costs through private donors, events and companies, 100 percent of every dollar donated online goes directly into its programs to educate more children. Furthermore, it does not just “build a school and move on.” PoP monitors and evaluates every project it undertakes— ensuring that every school it opens is fully operational and educating students daily.

On its website, one can donate various amounts of money, each detailing exactly how much of an impact it would make— $100 to keep children healthy, $250 to educate a child, $500 to train a teacher and $25,000 to build a school.

Pencils of Promise is true to its word in terms of a functioning education system. PoP’s students score three times higher on language literacy tests than their peers and the teachers enrolled in PoP’s teacher training program attend school with 97 percent frequency. Additionally, 85 percent of PoP’s teachers report student literacy increases, 88 percent of the teachers report student numeracy increases and an astonishing 90 percent of the teachers report increases in student engagement due to its programs.

PoP can also be credited with being extraordinarily innovative. PoP works to provide schools with smartphones, e-readers, long-range radio and creative materials in order to reach the most under-served communities in the countries where PoP works. One e-reader provides a student with 50 books in both English and the local language. Smartphones deliver interactive audio lessons to provide expanded access to learning and a mobile learning kit contains books, phonic games and creative educational tools for teachers.

This  organization not only trains teachers, but also teaches and trains students about WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene). Students miss 272 million school days due to preventable illness and the international WASH program has allowed PoP to train more than 5,040 students since 2009. Pop does this via a three-step approach: building bathrooms and hand washing stations, teaching students and tracking behavior change.

The Huffington Post reported that the program has brought hope to children around the world in the form of 10 million hours of education as of March 2014.

As Braun writes in his book, “Take the first small step, and chase the footprints you aspire to leave behind.” To take this first small step, visit https://pencilsofpromise.org/.

– Eastin Shipman

Sources: Pencils of Promise 1, Pencils of Promise 2, Pencils of Promise 3, Pencils of Promise 4, Huffington Post,
Photo: Pac For Kids

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Education in Tuvalu: Past & Present

education_in_tuvalu
Tuvalu is one of the smallest and most remote countries on Earth. The total land area of the country is approximately 26 square kilometers, or comparatively 0.1 times the size of Washington, DC. Located in Oceania, the country is an island group consisting of nine coral atolls in the South Pacific Ocean with a population of 10,782.

Education System Restructure: Late 1990s

Prior to the restructuring of the education system in 1998, communities operated early childhood education and  had no support from the government. Preschools were operated under a voluntary basis and teachers were poorly appointed and often untrained. Tuvalu also did not have the proper infrastructure to support schools.

When education in Tuvalu was restructured, the following five strategies were put in place: the government would provide financial assistance to all preschools; formal training would be offered to preschool teachers; new salaries would be granted to preschool teachers; funds for building preschool classrooms were secured by the government; and preschool education linked with the primary section would be provided for three year olds.

Tuvalu’s education system at the primary level was also restructured and revamped. Goals and targets contained in the Tuvalu National Education Policy Document included compulsory education for all Tuvaluan children between the ages of six and 15, redesigning and strengthening the administration of the education system, access to education and training for all, development of a national curriculum, as well as improvements to school buildings, teacher training and programs for students with special needs.

Many other improvements and goals were to be met following the restructuring of the system. Children were not the only focus of the reform—education for survival with reference to community life skills was also made available. The skills that adults were offered included secretarial skills (typing, computing, office skills, etc.), carpentry, pluming, engineering and home economics.

Additionally, strategies were put in place to improve the overall quality of life and standards of living. Basic housing, clothing, water, food and nutrition, access to health and education as well as the ability to participate in community life and cultural pursuits strengthened the communities of Tuvalu.

Tuvalu Today

Many of the strategies and Millennium Development Goals have improved conditions in Tuvalu. For example, Tuvalu’s youth literacy rate (ages 15-24) rose from 95 percent in 1991 to 98.6 percent in 2007. The percentage of cohorts reaching grade five also rose dramatically from 72.7 percent in 2000 to 91.2 percent in 2004.

According to the IMF, although cases of extreme poverty are rare, poverty in Tuvalu has risen in the last few years despite improvements in education. Given Tuvalu’s limited land area, poor soil and geographic isolation, it is difficult to create large private-sector employment opportunities domestically. Therefore, citizens of Tuvalu will need to better utilize overseas job opportunities, including seafarer employment and the temporary labor migration scheme in New Zealand.

Vocational training will need to be strengthened in order to enhance the competitiveness of Tuvaluans for these important sources of foreign exchange earnings and to reduce poverty.

– Eastin Shipman

Sources: International Council for Open and Distance Education, UNESCO 1, UNESCO 2, UNESCO 3, CIA Factbook,
IMF

Photo: UNESCO

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Private Sector Partners Further Development

The U.N.’s post-2015 development agenda — the framework for which is expected to be ratified in September of this year — will rely heavily on the private sector.

According to Martin Sajdik, president of the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council, including non-state actors in the development agenda is a crucial step in making the post-2015 development goals more feasible. “Our economic life, our social life is not only determined by state actors, so if we want to have a development agenda that is for all countries of the world — both developed and developing—we cannot ignore the fact there are many more actors,” said Sajdik.

The new Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, place particular emphasis on the importance of building multistakeholder partnerships across sectors. While the U.N. has involved private sector partners to a greater extent than it did when crafting the MDGs, some believe that the private sector’s role in setting the post-2015 agenda could be expanded further.

“Ultimately, we in the [Community Service Organization] community and World Vision understand this is a governmental process, that the ultimate decision will be taken by member states of the U.N. but our role is to influence those member states,” said World Vision external relations director Chris Derksen-Hiebert.

In recent years, cross-sector relationships have become increasingly common. One advantage of such relationships is that they harness the valuable expertise, resources and distribution channels of private enterprises.

One example of this movement is ColaLife. In 2012, the U.K. based charity began sending medicine kits to Zambia in cases of Coca-Cola. Rohit Ramchandani, ColaLife’s principal investigator, explained the organization’s philosophy: “Our model looks specifically at how we can partner with and leverage private sector distribution channels, these companies that are able to get their product out to that last mile in the most remote parts of the world.”

More recently, President Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative received over $20 billion in private sector commitments, which will create millions of jobs, and fast-track the development of sub-Saharan Africa.

Andrew Herscowitz, USAID’s coordinator for both the Power Africa and Trade Africa initiatives, believes that governments will need to draw on the vast resources of the private domain in order to establish the expansive infrastructure needed to power the African continent. “Energy is one of the key constraints to economic growth in Africa, and only the private sector has the sufficient resources to build the necessary infrastructure,” he wrote.

Herscowitz also believes that the partnerships being forged within the Power Africa initiative are representative of a changing paradigm in the development world. “Our African partners are now looking less for the high-priced expert, who comes into a country to opine on what reforms a country may need to drive development,” he explained. “Rather, they want the deals themselves to drive the development.”

He went on to connect the role of private sector partners and government organizations: “The role that development institutions play in driving infrastructure development is being redefined, and the Power Africa partners are excited to be driving this new model for development.”

As policymakers continue to forge the post-2015 development agenda, it appears they will begin relying more heavily on the private sector’s diverse and valuable resources.

– Parker Carroll

Sources: The Brookings Institution, Businessweek, Devex 1, Devex 2
Photo: Wave Partnership

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What Causes Hunger in Africa

What causes hunger in Africa? To be certain, Africa is by no means a single entity. The second largest continent on Earth, Africa is an enormous landmass that is home to a wide variety of landscapes, cultures and people.

That said, the continent is also home to much of the world’s hunger, spread across several of the world’s poorest countries. Approximately 30 million people in Africa face the effects of severe food insecurity, including malnutrition, starvation and poverty.

Ending hunger not just in Africa but wherever it occurs is crucial to solving impoverishment and, accordingly, is a leading priority for many humanitarian organizations.

 

Causes of Hunger in Africa

 

1. Lack of Infrastructure

Many of the African countries in which there is widespread hunger are countries in which there is also plenty of food. Agriculture is the leading economic industry in several of the hungriest African nations including Niger, Ethiopia and Somalia.

The issue is not that there is a lack of food, the issue is that there are are often no reliable pathways for getting that food from the fields into that hands of the people who need it the most. Many hungry countries lack accessible rural roads on which food could be transported into the countryside.

Where it does not already exist, building the infrastructure necessary for distributing food is essential to ending hunger in Africa.

2. Poverty

Poverty is a cause of hunger in Africa as well as an effect. Nearly a third of individuals living in sub-Saharan Africa are “undernourished,” and 41 percent of people in that same area live on less than U.S. $1 daily. That’s no coincidence; high rates of poverty are correlated with high rates of hunger because acquiring adequate food provisions requires ample resources, not only financial but social as practical as well.

3. Gender Inequality

According to one of the most successful hunger-focused humanitarian organizations, The Hunger Project, gender inequality is a major driving force behind hunger because food tends to go further in the hands of women. When women have adequate food supplies, they as well as their families experience better health and social outcomes than when men have sole control of food rations.

However, in many African nations experiencing hunger crises, though women do the majority of agricultural work, they do not control their own access to food. Addressing gender inequality where it occurs in Africa will be central to eradicating hunger.

4. AIDS

AIDS is especially prevalent in southern Africa (Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe), where approximately six million people are estimated to live with the condition. Not only does AIDS render these individuals too sick to do any sort of agricultural work (which, if farming is their livelihood, can throw them into poverty), it can also render them to sick to leave their homes to acquire food for themselves and their families.

– Elise L. Riley

Sources: Save the Children, The Hunger Project, World Food Programme
Photo: Ceasefire Magazine

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Education in Myanmar

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World AIDS Day 2014

world_aids_day
As World AIDS Day 2014 fast approaches, organizations strive to promote awareness and support for the cause. Led by groups such as the World Health Organization, World AIDS Day takes place on December 1 each year. This year’s campaign aims to promote social change and focuses on closing the access gap to important treatment.

Over 39 million people have lost their lives to HIV over the last few decades, and an estimated 35 million people were living with the disease in 2013. World AIDS Day is intended to pay homage to those who have died while advocating awareness and support for an HIV-free future.

The 2014 campaign asserts that closing the gap in HIV testing accessibility would help 19 million unknowingly affected people receive care and support. Additionally, the 35 million HIV-positive people across the world would gain access to vital medicine.

The campaign also aims to allow for children to receive better access to HIV treatment, as currently only 24 percent are able to receive care.

Organizations declare that by closing the access gap, the world could see an end to the AIDS pandemic by the year 2030.

The WHO plans to honor World AIDS Day by releasing new information and recommendations to assist countries in their progress toward HIV prevention and treatment. The new WHO guidelines will cover recommended use of antiretroviral drugs for those that have been exposed to HIV including healthcare professionals, sex workers and rape victims. The manual will also include information regarding the treatment of infections and diseases that can be detrimental to HIV patients.

For the last several years, the WHO has been a strong advocate of antiretroviral, or ARV drug treatment for HIV infections. The latest statement reported, “The ARV regimens now available, even in the poorest countries, are safer, simpler, more efficacious and more affordable than ever before.”

As World AIDS Day approaches, many are showing their support for the cause and the 2030 virus-free goal. Leader of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, states, “With collective and resolute action now and a steadfast commitment for years to come, an AIDS-free generation is indeed within reach.”

However, WHO officials urge that there is still a great deal of work to be done in order for these treatments to become accessible to communities in need. Officials hope that the new HIV guidelines will help to close the gap in prevention and treatment for everyone affected.

In honor of World AIDS Day 2014, many companies are providing special offers that allow for proceeds to go toward the fight against AIDS. The (RED) campaign has partnered with businesses including the Apple Store, Starbucks, CocaCola, Bank of America and many more to raise awareness and gain support for the cause.

Getting involved this holiday season, either by participating in the campaign or helping as a consumer, can make an enormous difference in the future of our world.

– Megan Douches

Photo: World Aid Day UN AIDS, WHO
Photo: Flickr

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PAK-Energy Saves Lives

PAK-Energy
In Pakistan, 16 million families don’t have access to clean-burning fuels for cooking and heating. The result of this is increased health problems, especially for women and children. A solution has been developed by PAK-Energy to help reduce this issue. Ranked in the list of “10 Incredible Tech Innovations from 2014 that will Benefit Humanity” on the ONE website, PAK-Energy knows where the need lies and seems to be working towards a better alternative for people living in Pakistan.

Ali Raza of PAK-Energy has created a small, sustainable domestic biogas unit that produces biogas good enough to take care of a family’s cooking and heating needs. This biogas unit will also help the family save money by reducing the cost of fuel. The other benefits of it include reducing waste production and producing nontoxic organic residues that can be sold later on for fertilizer.

PAK-Energy has a vision that is committed to becoming part of a green revolution for Pakistan. It does this by providing energy solutions that are more cost efficient and better for the community like the one mentioned above.

So what is biogas exactly? Organic waste like animal manure, kitchen waste, agricultural residue and even industrial waste can be turned into biogas. This biogas can be used for cooking, heating, lighting and electricity generation for families. There are also economic benefits to biogas such as employment generation, industrial growth, additional source of income with fertilizer, rural development, low cost product and create a sustainable economy.

PAK-Energy has received a lot of recognition for its progress in helping the poor for example in 2011, it received an invitation from the Prime Minister of Turkey to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Also within that same year, it one the first prize in the Young Entrepreneurs Business Challenge in Lahore, Pakistan.

So far, PAK-Energy has made a big impact by creating seven pilot projects in Lahore, Pakistan. This helps families save money and it helps the environment as well. As a plan moving forward, PAK-Energy has a goal of 25,000 units to be installed within the next five years.

– Brooke Smith

Sources: ONE, PAK Energy Solution
Photo: Flickr

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Movement Made Toward Sustainable Communities

sustainable_communitites
Sustainable communities are achievable when a community is economically, environmentally and socially healthy and resilient. A sustainable community, just like any other, is faced with many challenges, but it takes more community-based approaches to tackle the issues and meet their goals. A sustainable community is defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as a community that “should establish goals and a vision by developing more efficient and effective ways in which to live and grow. It also will involve the participation of the entire community in creating a vision of the community’s future that balances economic, environmental and social needs.” The Institute for Sustainable Communities focuses on empowering communities so they can achieve the state of sustainability in their environment, social and economic sects of the community.

The Institute for Sustainable Communities was formed in 1999 by former Vermont Governor Madeleine M. Kunin. ISC focuses on communities uplifting and motivating themselves towards a built sustainable environment.

“A sustainable community seeks a better quality of life for the whole community without compromising the wellbeing of other communities, healthy ecosystems, effective governance supported by meaningful and broad-based citizen participation and economic security,” said Governor Kunin.

The ISC works in different countries across the world, focusing on the climate, citizen, industry and urban situations. The countries include the U.S., Serbia, China, Bangladesh and India. The ISC recognizes that each country, city and community is unique and has its own adversaries to face. These communities are used as a stepping stone for countries that already have working visions of becoming a fully-functional sustainable community. Countries that are most vulnerable to climate change, with the largest outputs of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, include the U.S., China and India. They are given ideas for successful urban systems and sustainable manufacturing.

Urban systems focus on creating alliances, academies, educational services, etc. that can be utilized in the different countries. For example, the Western Adaptation Alliance (WAA) focuses on connecting 13 different cities in Southwest USA, who all have similar climate adaptation plans to form a support group discussing future ideas, impacts, benefits and drawbacks of their current situation. The urban systems are specific to issues in an area, as climate change is very region specific. So the urban systems for each area could be entirely different, depends of the resiliency of the city, current infrastructure and typical weather patterns in the area.

On the other hand, sustainable manufacturing can be more universal. All areas need a sustainable system of manufacturing as a solid basis towards a sustainable built environment. Sustainable manufacturing through training centers, global partnerships and technologies try to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in an area. For example, in China there are centers located in the two most industrious cities in China that trains factory managers to focus on reducing greenhouse gases in the industry, the environment, health safety, lowering hazards and overall improving the quality of life of worker’s.

Through outreach, training, agencies, alliances, conferences, workshops and education, the Institute for Sustainable Communities is achieving their goals towards a more sustainable built environment. They measure their successes in real-time based on the initiatives that the place in a community and the sustainability they achieve. Through their commitment to the climate, industry, citizens, and urban infrastructure, they are able to transform communities into fully-functioning sustainable places to live.

– Charisma Thapa

Sources: EPA, ISCVT
Photo: RE Sources

Tajikistan’s Innovative Buildings

Tajikistan
On January 2, 2010, a devastating earthquake hit the mountainous country of Tajikistan. Seven thousand people were affected by this natural disaster. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that 20 villages in the Vanj district in the eastern Gorno-Badakhshan region were badly damaged. Estimates suggest that more than 140 houses were destroyed and 950 were left partially damaged.

Urgent Need for a Change

Nancy Snauwaert, a humanitarian coordination officer in the office of the U.N. Resident Coordinator in Vanj reported that, “There is an urgent need for the total reconstruction of houses. Technical guidance is crucial as over 1,000 houses have been damaged and are in need of becoming earthquake resistant.”

Currently, buildings are being constructed using concrete reinforced with steel rebar. Unfortunately, 50 percent of the country lives on less than $2 a day and rebar is financially out of the reach for many of the families residing in this earthquake-prone area.

Sustainable Housing Technology

Starting in 2008 Habitat for Humanity Tajikistan and the Tajik Institute of Seismology began to research alternate means of creating an inexpensive and sustainable house-reinforcing technology. The design created won them the FedEx Award for Innovations in Disaster Preparedness in 2013.

The design has been coined as “Sinj-technology.” Mulberry trees are cut down seasonally to harvest silk cocoons. The twigs of the tree have no other purpose and are free to use. Researchers tied mulberry branches into grids. These grids are then attached to a structural wood frame in mud walls. The grid is plastered with a mix of mud, straw and wool. This design effectively makes the walls able to resist lateral forces.

Preliminary Tests have proven that mulberry grids provide tensile strength equivalent to 80 percent of that of steel rebar. The first earthquake to test this new technology occurred in December of 2008 when the Rasht district was shaken by a 5.8 earthquake. Eighty homes in this region had been previously reinforced with Sinj-technology.

2009 Earthquake and its Effects

The next earthquake occurred in January 2009 when a 6.0 earthquake was felt in the Kumsangir district. Over one hundred homes were reinforced with Sinj-technology. A post-disaster survey found that none of the reinforced houses were damaged.

Another large advantage to this technology is that homes do not need to be rebuilt with the mulberry grids. The structures can be added to existing structures, saving homeowners as much as five times the expense of new construction. It is also 30 percent cheaper to use these materials than the standard techniques used in other seismically unstable regions.

Since receiving the FedEx Innovation Award, Habitat for Humanity Tajikistan has reinvested the money into proof of concept in an effort to create a new business strategy for Sinj-technology. Their intention is to pair this technology with local training of masons and construction workers. This would also effectively provide opportunities for affordable financing of home retrofits through microloans.

This comes as promising news for the 70% of people living in Tajikistan’s rural communities. The materials for earthquake disaster mitigation is easily accessible since it is produced by trees. The communities are now learning the trade in order to create a more sustainable future.

– Frederick Wood II

Sources: Interaction, Habitat 1, Irin News, Habitat 2
Photo: Habitat for Humanity

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Jeffrey Sachs: Sustainable Development after MDGs

jeffrey_sachs
In a presentation at the United Nations University earlier this month, Jeffrey Sachs gave updates on the Millennium Development Goals and projections for after 2015. Sachs, one of the developers of the Millennium Development Goals and Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University, discussed the post-2015 future of sustainable development. With the expiration of the MDGs set for 2015, attention is turning to the Millennium Villages Project and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Despite the progress of many nations agreeing to the framework of the MDGs, there is still room for improvement. In the midst of the Ebola crisis, the interdependency of the MDGs, especially focusing on maternal health, epidemic diseases and education, has emphasized a need for equal attention to the goals.

With expectations for exponential increases in global GDP and population, the need for advanced poverty relief is greater than ever. Under the new SDSN framework, set to be instituted by the United Nations after 2015, new goals will be created to target financial responsibility and climate change. In 2015, three conversations will take place in both developed and developing nations to tackle the next phase after the MDGs.

Jeffrey Sachs is seen to be among the frontrunners of the next several decades of continued development. Though the concrete plans implementing change are still yet to be solidified in the post-2015 meetings, cooperation between developed and developing nations is still going to be in the center of the plans.

In an article written in Horizons, Sachs writes, “Ours is a world of fabulous wealth and extreme poverty: billions of people enjoy longevity and good health unimaginable in previous generations, yet at least one billion people live in such abject poverty that they struggle for mere survival every day. The poorest of the poor face the daily life-and-death challenges of insufficient nutrition, lack of healthcare, unsafe shelter, and the lack of safe drinking water and sanitation.” The gap between the OCED and developing nations is growing, and Sachs is acutely aware that the growing rate of the global economy will only aggravate the poverty gap. Achieving a basic standard of living will not eliminate the poverty gap, but will ease the daily struggles of the bottom quintile.

The sustainable development framework is working to achieve a universal standard of living. Though it was intended to reach this standard by 2015, realistically, additional work under a revised viewpoint will follow in the subsequent years.

– Kristin Ronzi

Sources: UN U, UN, UNSDN, Millennium Villages, CIRSD
Photo: Flickr