Information and stories on development news.

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Poverty Simulation Enriches Lives

It is a bold move towards unraveling many of the myths that surround the modern American family currently in poverty. Gayle Gifford of Cause and Effect summed it up as the views that many upper and middle class Americans have about those in poverty. “For many of my middle-class peers, the notion that lots of people in our community simply cannot earn enough to pay the minimum costs of food, shelter and health care, no matter how hard they work, just makes no sense in light of their own life experiences. To them, it seems the poor have chosen poverty.”

The Community Action Poverty Simulation, originally developed by the Missouri Association for Community Action, seeks to enlighten people on what it truly means to live in poverty and the process on how to get out. The poverty represented is not living on a dollar a day or less, but living in conjunction with government assistance, difficult circumstances and the daily stress one carries around while in poverty.

The simulation is divided into a series of 15 minute intervals each representing a week in a month. Members of the simulation are broken up into families and assigned roles. They are also given scenarios and background on their roles to better understand the conditions they are living in. When the buzzer sounds each member of the family carries out the duties of daily life while in poverty. Many tried to find work, but due to past histories ended up in the unemployment line with no money. These same people would also have to find alternate means of funding for unexpected bills, groceries and bus tokens while simultaneously trying to provide for their children.

Circumstances of the simulation would intervene and some participants would have their houses robbed or lose vital paperwork that was needed to prove something to a government official. Others found themselves stealing from other families in the simulation. All this stress just to make it through the day. And this is before any of the groups arrive at the part about getting out of poverty. The short time frames and mountains of work force the participants to make many of the stressful decisions that thousands of Americans have to make daily. The choice whether to feed one’s children or to pay rent is a very real decision and one many people had to make in the simulation.

This poverty simulation program was first used in 2006. It has continued to open eyes all across the country in places like ATSU in Arizona, Davenport University in West Michigan, Ozark Technical Community College in the Midwest, the court systems of New York and even the city employees of Chicago, and many more churches and communities across the nation.

The results have been what a lot of the community leaders were looking for. As an Ozark Technical Community College administrator realized, “There’s a point where it registers that it’s an everyday struggle for many people in this community.” The experience has prompted Ms. Casper, a participant in the Chicago simulation to say, “I felt really below the earth because everybody was so cold. This world has to change in some way.” Still another participant said, I was “waiting for it to be over, but in real life it doesn’t end.”

There are many who feel the program to be a success, but it has also fallen under fire by many of the organizers of volunteer programs and those that have risen up from the depths of poverty. Cheryl Jackson of the Minnie Food Pantry in Plano, TX says “allowing people to steal as part of a poverty simulation isn’t effective.” A former poverty dweller from Creating Bridges in Chicago echoed this sentiment after completing the simulation. “You don’t go to stealing in the first week or the first month. It takes longer than that. You try everything else first.”

— Frederick Wood II

Sources: MACA, Cause & Effect, News Leader, iConnect, Access of West Michigan, NY Courts, CoActive Connections, Chicago Reader, culturemap
Photo: Flickr

China’s Interest in South Sudan


For more than half a century, China has had interest in Africa- not just for the natural resources, but in aid to alleviate the continent’s poverty and living conditions.

China has helped with agriculture, health and education projects and solar energy. The country has also had a high interest in the continent’s natural resources, in particular, oil.

One of the countries that China purchases oil from is South Sudan, which outputs about 160,000 barrels a day- which before civil war in the country that began in December 2013, was producing one-third more than it is now.

War broke out in South Sudan when the political battle between the South Sudanese president Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and his vice president, Riek Machar, a Nuer, turned an ember into a flame. Once again, the once-liberated Sudanese were in an ethnic war.

China is not only a major aspect of the economy in South Sudan, it is also part of the United Nations Security Council and has voiced concern over the civil conflict between the ethnic groups. But if China has voiced a desire for ended conflict, why has the country’s largest arms manufacturer, China North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco,) sold weapons of war to the country?

 

10 Facts about Poverty in China

 

Bloomberg reported that South Sudan has bought at least $1 billion in weapons and delivery systems since December 2013. Documents from a shipment that left China to South Sudan included “9,574 automatic rifles, 2,394 grenade launchers, four million bullets for automatic rifles, two million rounds of pistol ammunition, 319 machine guns, 660 pistols, 20,000 rounds of 40-millimeter anti-personnel grenades and 4,000 rounds of 40-millimeter “heat rockets.”

If China is part of the U.N. Security Council, which is responsible for international peace and security, and the “Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he was ‘ready to directly engage’ the warring parties to end fighting” the question becomes why is China allowing Norinco to sell weapons to South Sudan which in turn fuels war? And is China’s involvement in the country actually helping its economy or hurting it socially?

– Kori Withers

Sources: Bloomberg, United Nations Security Council, The Guardian
Photo: BET

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President Bush’s Fight Against Disease in Africa

At the recent U.S.- Africa Leaders Summit, President Bush spoke to the spouses of African leaders about the need for greater efforts in combating not only AIDS, but cancer as well.

Bush has spent a great majority of his time after being president fighting AIDS and getting treatment to women in order to prevent breast and cervical cancer in Africa. Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon’s 2013 annual report stated that in sub-Saharan Africa, more than 93,000 women develop cervical cancer per year and an estimated 57,000 women die annually because of it. In the region, 94,000 cases of breast cancer a year have been found with 50,000 women unable to win their battle with breast cancer.

Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon is an organization that improves existing healthcare programs in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Organizing members of this partnership include the George Bush Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. These groups collaborate to find improvements in preexisting health programs which aim to reduce the number of deaths caused by breast and cervical cancer.

While Bush was in office, he headed a program for the fight against AIDS called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. PEPFAR fights AIDS globally and provides testing, counseling and medical treatment. In 2003, PEPFAR pledged $15 billion in spending on combatting AIDS through 2008. This was three times the amount the U.S. had spent fighting this disease before.

In his African Summit address, Bush urged the importance of collecting better data, and improving treatment and education. He also urged the importance of avoiding discrimination when it comes to healthcare given that, in Uganda, homosexuality is criminalized.

Bush explained that “Applied with clear goals and accountability, this saturation approach presents an amazing opportunity. It also requires something from the rest of us. It is impossible to direct help where it is needed most when any group is targeted for legal discrimination and stigma. Compassion and tolerance are important medicines.”

– Kori Withers

Sources: New York Times, Political Ticker, World Health Organization, Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon 1, Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon 2, Huffington Post
Photo: Look to the Stars

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Bankers Without Borders

Bankers without Borders started with 100 volunteers but, in the past five years, has grown to include 16,000 business professionals, academics and students coming from over 170 countries, working to increase the impact and sustainability of poverty reduction projects. So far, BwB has used its consulting and coaching to help more than 1,000 projects in 38 countries.

BwB was founded in 2008 by the Grameen Foundation, the original banking organization working through microfinance. Its motive for creating BwB was to expand its services to gain coverage in areas not originally reached by Grameen Bank.

The company reaches out by partnering with other organizations, including nonprofits, Fortune 500 companies or poverty-focused social enterprises. The experts work for free, and the Grameen Foundation likes to refer to them as “Skillanthropists;” rather than donating money, the workers are donating their skills, time and knowledge.

The volunteers’ involvement ranges from sparing a few hours a week at the comfort of their desks at work or home, to living and working in the field for weeks or months at a time. The wide range of skills and commitment BwB requires makes it possible for many people of different skill sets to make an impact through the company.

BwB’s volunteers are involved in a wide variety of fields. These include financial consultants, legal professionals, translators, researchers, a marketing staff and even a Human Resource Reserve Corps to address human capital related issues for nonprofit partners abroad.

From an economic standpoint, BwB continues to prove useful. For every dollar spent creating a BwB project, an average of $10 in skill and time has been donated by its pro bono staff, adding up to over $10 million worth of skilled work.

The volunteers work not to create temporary relief for recipients, but rather to implement a sustainable solution for clients to have successful, profit-making businesses.

BwB has formed many useful partnerships over its five years of operation, notably with J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, Google, Bloomberg, John Hopkins University and the Washington Center. As of August 5, BwB has added Wells Fargo to its arsenal of partnership companies, as well.

From the quickly-expanding volunteer base to the quantitative economic data to the qualitative success stories shared on BwB’s website, it is clear that the Grameen Foundation’s extended project has proven successful.

– Courtney Prentice

Sources: Triple Pundit, Bankers Without Borders, Grameen Foundation, Grameen-Jameel
Photo: HW Production

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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

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Remembering the Words of Simin Behbahani

“My poems and the wild mint
bear messages and perfumes.
Don’t let them create a riot with their wild singing.
My heart is greener than green,
flowers sprout from the mud and water of my being.
Don’t let me stand, if you are the enemies of Spring.”

These lines are from the poem “It’s Time to Mow the Flowers” written by the late Simin Behbahani, who was considered by many to be Iran’s most influential poet. Born on July 20, 1927, Behbahani lived and wrote through much of 20th century Iranian history.

She worked from within Iran for six decades and wrote over 600 poems.

Her words became a part of social resistance against a strict and oppressed Iranian culture. Behbahani wrote openly against the repression following the 1979 revolution, as well as about many other issues ranging from egalitarianism to women’s rights to sexism, prostitution, peace, violence and even poverty.

Her poems were well known as some even made their way into popular Iranian love songs. For this she was given the nickname, the “Lioness of Iran.”

Despite censorship and even restricted travel from a government that feared her, Behbahani continued to write and share her ideas with her fellow Iranians. She remained part of Iran’s Writers Association despite the murders of several of its members during the 1990s.

She addressed the social issue of poverty in her book “From the Street”, which is a series of poems she wrote between 1983 and 1985. The poems discuss concerns of homelessness and hunger. One covers the sadness of a hungry boy, while in another a pregnant woman gives birth while she waits for rationed food.

In 2009 she won the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women’s Freedom. This was for her tireless efforts in fighting for women’s rights, as many of her poems delve into women’s freedom.

For example, her poem “The Ballad Of The Brothel” talks about the issue of prostitution in Iran, an issue that continues to be prominently ignored by Iranian society.

Behbahani also spoke out against the controversial elections of 2009, in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to the presidency and protests occurred in Tehran. She wrote a poem titled “Stop Throwing My Country To The Wind.”

The poem points out Ahmadinejad’s dishonesty, pride and his recklessness. At the end she writes—“You may wish to have me burned, or decide to stone me. But in your hand match or stone will lose their power to harm me.”

It was Behbahani’s life’s work to spread the word of justice and freedom—to fight from within the country she loved to help promote social change. She believed that “We [writers] will be truly honored the day when no writer is in jail, no student is under arrest, when journalists are free and their pens are free.”

– Eleni Marino 

Sources: BBC News, NPR, The Guardian, Simin Behbahani Poems, PBS,
Photo: 1000 Kitap

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Global Food Security Index 2014

Last May, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published its annual DuPont-commissioned Global Food Security Index (GFSI). The index aims to “provide a robust and consistent analytical framework for measuring and deepening the understanding of food insecurity around the globe.”

The index showed that food security in 70 percent of countries increased from 2012 to 2013. In that time span, the number of people suffering from chronic hunger decreased from 868 million to 842 million, with a 17 percent decline over the past 24 years.

However, the index also highlighted numerous obstacles inhibiting the growth of food security that both poor and rich countries have yet to surmount.

One hundred nine countries were ranked. The top five, in order, were the United States, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway (tied with the Netherlands) and Singapore. The bottom five were Burundi, Togo, Madagascar, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Of all 109 countries, Uganda saw the biggest increase and Myanmar saw the biggest decrease in food security.

To determine these rankings, the GFSI incorporates three categories: Affordability, Availability and Quality & Safety.

The Affordability category incorporates measures like food consumption as a percentage of household expenditure, the proportion of a country’s population living under the $2 dollar per day global poverty line and import tariffs on agricultural goods. This category, a combination of six indicators, seeks to determine the degree to which people can purchase nutritional food without depleting their financial resources. In the top performing countries (U.S. and Singapore), people spent less than 15 percent of their budget on food.

This all matters little if food is affordable, but unavailable, so the GFSI assesses how easily people can access food as well. Acquiring the food one needs can be difficult in countries plagued by corruption, a lack of infrastructure and unpredictable agricultural outputs. Low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa scored the lowest in Availability, though the region experienced a notable increase in overall food security.

Lastly, the GFSI analyzes the quality and safety of diets in different countries. It looks at the availability of micronutrients like vitamin A and vegetal iron, protein quality and diet diversification, among other indicators.

According to the index, the majority of countries made gains in Affordability, but many countries lost points in Availability and Quality & Safety. In many countries grouped in the “Asia & Pacific” region, food indeed became more affordable, but only because diet diversification had been markedly reduced.

Two new indicators were added this year: food loss as part of the Availability category and obesity as part of the Quality & Safety category. Both have been controversial in recent years. In India, for example, a lack of food-chain infrastructure results in tremendous food loss—as much as 25 percent of produce every year.

Furthermore, obesity has become a growing concern even in countries with high food insecurity, though experts are still at a loss to explain this phenomenon.

The upshot of the index seems positive, with food security increasing in most countries. Despite this progress, areas for improvement have been pointed out. For one, women farmers across the globe still lack the same access to education, land and machinery that men have. Moreover, governments in developing countries are still struggling to make food more affordable without sacrificing dietary quality.

– Ryan Yanke

Sources: Economist, Blouin News, Dupont, Global Food Security Index
Photo: BlouInNews blog

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Six Female Tech Entrepreneurs in Africa

African women have historically been some of the most disadvantaged people because of social and political norms, but recent developments in the corporate and startup worlds in Africa have allowed women to conceive of unique ideas to combat gender inequality and promote employment for all in the technology industry. Here are six female tech entrepreneurs who are making a difference with their business ideas.

Judith Owigar

Owigar is the co-founder of JuaKali, an online platform similar to LinkedIn that connects blue collar workers in the informal sector to employment opportunities. JuaKali allows users to create online profiles to showcase their expertise and recommendations to find formal employment in Kenya through web and mobile platforms.

Owigar is also the founder of Akirachix, an association that provides professional development services to women interested in technology. The association offers networking, training and mentoring to women with the goal of reducing the gender gap in technology for women in Africa and the world.

Coudy Binta De

This 24-year-old Senegalese entrepreneur is one the rising stars of the Information Technology sector in West Africa. Coudy Binta De and three other women established the first technology hub run by and for women in Sacre Coeur. The hub, named Jijiguene Tech Hub (Jijiguene means women in Woluf), offers elementary training for computer literacy to advanced training like coding in HTML and CSS.

Jijiguene Tech Hub also offers professional development services, and both men and women are welcome to come in with entrepreneurial ideas. Men overwhelmingly dominate the IT sector in Africa, and women like De are working to increase employment opportunities and create favorable social norms for female entrepreneurs.

Jamila Abass, Linda Kwamboka and Susan Oguya

These three Kenyan women created MFarm, a mobile platform that connects farmers with consumers in urban and rural areas. MFarm uses software that provides producers and buyers with the latest retail information, and consumers can purchase produce directly from the farmers and vice versa.

Farmers can find local consumers while buyers can find the lowest price for food amongst farmers; every user connects via SMS. The company began in 2010 after winning the IPO48 competition and is now supported by partners Samsung and Tech for Trade, a U.K.-based charity.

Akaliza Keza Gara

A Kigali native of Rwanda, Akaliza Keza Gara is a 27-year-old entrepreneur in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry of Rwanda’s technology sector. She is the founder of Shaking Sun, a multimedia company that offers website development, graphic design and computer animation services.

Gara believes women should be producers of technology, not just consumers. As such, she actively works to advance the position of women in the Rwandan ICT industry. In 2012, Gara was one of four female Rwandan entrepreneurs honored by the International Telecommunication Union for contributions to the ICT sector.

– Joseph McAdams

Sources: All Africa, BBC, Forbes, M Farm, Juakali
Photo: Africa Style Daily

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Latin America Rated on Social Inclusion

Latin America is known for its poor record of income equality, but the 2014 Social Inclusion Index from Americas Quarterly reveals that in terms of civil, women’s and LGBT rights, several Latin American nations outstrip even the United States.

The Index pulls together data on 21 different variables, including GDP growth, enrollment in secondary school, access to housing and formal employment, financial inclusion by gender and political rights, to name a few.

The Social Inclusion Index approaches development from a multidimensional perspective, considering many factors that go beyond the scope of cut-and-dried economic growth.  This year’s report is the third in the Americas Quarterly series and it reveals an encouraging amount of poverty reduction and social inclusion in the region.

Uruguay remains at the top of the Index, receiving high scores in women’s rights, civil rights, LGBT rights and formal job access. According to the Index, the U.S. lags behind four Latin American countries on women’s rights, including Uruguay, Costa Rica, Argentina and Peru.

Argentina and Costa Rica are tied in second place, scoring well due to high spending on social programs and women’s rights. The United States falls into fourth place because, although its social spending is the highest in the region, murder rates, particularly femicide, remain high, as well.

The report also points out that some of the region’s larger economic powers like Brazil and Mexico could greatly improve their scores by placing more emphasis on women’s rights, access to education and access to formal jobs. For example, only 37 percent of the working population in Mexico has access to formal employment. Increasing this number has great potential to reduce poverty.

Significant economic growth and increasing stability in Latin America means that more and more people are emerging from poverty and entering the middle class. This trend is allowing for important conversations on social inclusion to take place.

There are still many gaps in security, gender equality and inclusiveness in Latin America. The region remains the planet’s murder capital and violence against women is rampant. Yet the Social Inclusion Index does reveal positive change and provides valuable direction for further progress.

-Kayla Strickland

Sources: Americas Quarterly, VOXXI, Wall Street Journal
Photo: Global Public Square

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Human Trafficking in Bangkok

Human Trafficking in Bangkok
According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Thailand is a “top destination for victims of human trafficking.” The majority of Thailand’s trafficking victims are voluntary economic migrants from countries like Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and China. They come only for the promise of a good job.

Without documentation, knowledge of Thailand or understanding of its language, they are vulnerable to traffickers. For the same reasons, it is nearly impossible for them to escape. Many are trapped in Thailand’s bustling capital of Bangkok, famous for its rich history, stunning architecture and thriving sex tourism industry.

Operation Graceland began with a tip-off by an Uzbek woman trafficked into prostitution at Bangkok’s Grace Hotel and desperate to return home. What followed was a police raid, the holding of 19 women and an investigation of all involved. In the end, only two of the detainees admitted to being trafficked. They identified their abusive ‘manager’ amongst the group, but after receiving word that their families had been threatened, they spoke favorably of her in court. She was released.

In 2002, there were an estimated 200,000 sex workers in Bangkok and the trade has grown. It is a lucrative job: women and men from poor families earn money to support their relatives, finance future aspirations or live a life of previously unknown affluence.

Though many are forced by circumstance, involvement in the sex industry is considered voluntary. Because there are so many willing sex workers in Bangkok, it is difficult to identify victims of trafficking. Officers are being trained to recognize trafficked workers. Do they work excessive hours? Do they have documentation? Are they of age?

But even if they manage a rescue, it is difficult to convict the perpetrators. Gangs threaten those rescued and their families, warning them against speaking out. Some victims hope that, by cooperating with their captors, they will be released with a small share of their earnings, all of which typically go to their slavers. Still others are undocumented migrants, who fear legal retribution for involving themselves in any legal affair.

In any case, testifying is risky, since many prosecutors base their arguments entirely on hearsay and the victim’s statements. Slavers are often released and the case against them deemed unsubstantial.

The prevalence of trafficking in Thailand and the legal support for victims have not improved enough for international recognition. In June, the United States dropped Thailand from tier two to tier three on the 2014
Trafficking in Persons report.

But the Thai government is making headway. In 2013, the number of trafficking cases investigated was double that of 2012. Nearly 750 victims received some form of assistance from the Thai government: most were referred to one of nine shelters run by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Thousands of public officers were trained on new anti-trafficking laws; ideally, they will offer victims the legal support they need and give them hope of a life once again in freedom.

-Olivia Kostreva

Sources: Bangkok Post, Time, UNIAP
Photo: Laura Leigh Parker