Archive for category: Development

Information and stories on development news.

Top 5 Countries to Visit in Africa

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Though African countries may not be the most traditional tourist destinations for the average Westerner, the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013 ranked five African countries in the world’s top twenty-five most welcoming places to travel. This report, which evaluates destinations according to their “attractiveness and competitiveness,” also indicated that several African countries are frequent destinations for business trip extensions. While these measures cannot wholly encompass the subjective factors that draw people to specific tourist destinations, the WEF’s report highlights the burgeoning role of African countries in the global economy and encourages people to travel to Africa for their next trip abroad. Here are the top 5 countries to visit in Africa:

1.  Seychelles – Ranked as the top country for travel and tourism competitiveness in Africa, the Republic of Seychelles is a group of 115 islands located off the east coast of Africa. The islands’ scenery is replete with luxury hotels, sandy beaches, and palm trees, vastly different from the diverse climates of continental Africa.

2.  Mauritius – Mauritius came in second on the WEF’s list of Africa’s most competitive travel destinations, ranked highly because of its high safety and security ratings and desirable island environment. Located to the east of Madagascar, Mauritius is a popular destination for golf and deep sea fishing and is home to countless resorts and spas.

3.  South Africa – South Africa has become an increasingly popular tourist destination due to its historical significance, outdoor activities, and cultural opportunities. Listed as the third most competitive travel destination in Africa by the WEF, South Africa’s visitors embrace the country’s climactic and cultural diversity.

4.  Morocco – Ranked third in the world on the WEF’s list of the most welcoming nations for tourists, Morocco is home to many sites of cultural and historical significance. Visitors flock to the country in pursuit of its grand architecture, exciting bazaars and monumental cities such as Casablanca.

5.  Rwanda – Placed third on the WEF’s list of the African countries most recommended for business trip extensions, Rwanda is finally moving past the days of its 1994 genocide to become a popular travel destination. The country boasts mountainous scenery, hidden beaches, and extensive rainforests, a prime destination for visitors wishing to experience Africa’s beauty without traveling to its more frequented sites.

– Katie Bandera

Sources: How We Made It In Africa, WEF, Lonely Planet
Photo: Vacation Rental Times

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Economic and Social Council Focuses on Science

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The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) kicked off its annual forum at the start of this month, focusing on the importance of science and innovation to achieve development goals. The top UN officials, who were in attendance at the forum, stressed that technology and science are crucial for tackling todays global challenges, from reducing poverty to ensuring sustainable development. Some of the key speakers on the first day of this forum were ECOSOC president, Ambassador Nestor Osorio of Columbia, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and President of the UN General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic.

“The steadily increasing pace of technological innovation makes ours an era of a long profound change…So many fields of human endeavor – medicine, energy, agriculture – have made significant, even drastic, improvements in just a few generations. Yet in the field of development, despite our progress, there are still over one billion people living in extreme poverty. And tonight many, if not most, will go to bed hungry,” said Osorio.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the importance of science and innovation as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) come to a close in 2015. While some of the MDGs have already been met, there are several that need extra attention if the international community wishes to achieve them by 2015. “We must intensify out efforts, particularly to tackle the disparities across regions and between social groups…the future we want is within reach. Let us innovate together to achieve it,” stated Ki-moon.

Finally, Vuk Jeremic, President of the UN General Assembly, spoke about the need for a renewed commitment from Member States to face these development challenges together. He urged for a revitalized General Assembly and a renewed ECOSOC to lead the UN in setting the world on a more equitable, prosperous and environmentally sound path.

The ECOSOC forum will last for 26 days, but this assembly on innovation and science will last for four, including several more speeches from world leaders as well as collaboration meetings between several international institutions.

– Catherine Ulrich

Source: UN News, UNOG
Photo: Ventures

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Paul Farmer Fights for Human Right to Health

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While many human rights activists address a wide spectrum of issues, Paul Farmer focuses his efforts on an often-overlooked human right – the right to health.

Farmer is a medical anthropologist at Harvard Medical School and the founding director of Partners in Health, an international organization that seeks to address the health problems of the poor. An enthusiastic human rights advocate, Farmer believes that human rights organizations have focused too much on political and civil rights, which cannot be enjoyed when people lack access to basic healthcare and nutrition.

Farmer says that his experience working as a doctor in countries like Haiti and Rwanda revealed to him that ill health is usually “a symptom of poverty and violence and inequality” that can only be remedied by “bringing…many others” into a movement to recognize basic human rights.

Farmer points out that many of his patients “can vote but…can’t get medical care or clean water,” highlighting the discrepancy between the constitutional rights of the world’s poor and the basic human right to health that they are regularly denied. So how, when millions of people die each year due to poverty-induced ill health, can the global community even begin to establish health as a fundamental and inalienable human right?

Farmer says that the key is to “go to people with power and try to get their help.” He acknowledges that Partners in Health and similar aid organizations cannot singlehandedly establish health as a globally-recognized human right, but ordinary people can make a difference in the lives of the world’s poor and sick simply by letting those in power know they care.

While the poverty and illness present in the world may appear overwhelming, Farmer stresses that we must not assume that those in power will not help. In order to change the world, though, we have to ask.

– Katie Bandera

Sources: NPR, NY Times, WHO
Photo: The Daily Beast

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Why Mental Healthcare Is Important to Development

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Mental healthcare is important to development. Last month, the World Health Organization adopted the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan of 2013-2020 to emphasize the importance of global mental health and to establish goals pertaining to mental healthcare.  The Action Plan is the first ever to make mental health its primary concern.

The main objectives of the Action Plan are to “implement strategies for promotion and prevention in mental health”, provide necessary mental health care when needed, and to strengthen research for mental health.

The Action Plan was created due to the fact that much of global health care overlooks mental health problems as a serious concern. The World Health Organization states that “people with mental and psychological disabilities are a vulnerable group as a result of the way they are treated by society”.

Those with mental disabilities are more likely to face physical and sexual victimization, and often times have trouble with school performance and finding employment, leading to a higher risk of living in poverty. On a larger scale, a lack of adequate mental health care for those in need can lead to “reduced social capital” and “hindered economic development”.

In order to reduce the risk of those with mental disabilities living in poverty, the World Health Organization seeks to incorporate adequate mental health support into schools in addition to making opportunities for employment available to those with mental disabilities. While many development efforts focus on ensuring that physical needs are met, the importance of mental health must not be overlooked.  When adequate mental health care is available to those in need, the individuals affected, their families, and their communities experience improved development outcomes.

– Jordan Kline

Sources: WHO, Forbes

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Best and Worst Places to be Women

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One of the Millennium Development Goals is to promote gender equality throughout the world. This is because it has been proven that empowering women often leads to the empowerment of communities. The education of women is key to progress, for a number of reasons.

An annual report by the NGO Save the Children has shed light on a disturbing reality. Through a measurement of life expectancy, education, use of contraception, wages and political power, the organization measured the best and worst places in the world to be a woman. Overall, the results are mostly unsurprising, but show the complexity of the problem of gender inequality. Much progress has been made, but much work is still left to do.

Unsurprisingly, this year Western Europe and Scandinavia top the list of best countries to live with the countries of Finland, Sweden and Norway, followed by Iceland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Australia. At the bottom of the list, the worst places to be a women include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Somalia, Niger, Chad, Afghanistan, Mali, Eritrea, Sierra Leone and Madagascar.

Though countries like India and South Africa have received significant media coverage for the levels of sexual violence their female populations suffer, they are surprisingly high up on the list. South Africa has an impressive 60% of its population using modern contraceptives and 41% of its government seats held by women. India is significantly less well off, but still beats countries such as Singapore and Korea, with an encouraging life expectancy rate and close to half the population on contraceptives.

What this shows is the multifaceted nature of discrimination; it is not manifested solely in sexual violence, but in a myriad of ways which -– though they may not be as visible -– can be similarly devastating to a women’s physical and mental well-being.

One thing that does stand out is that the link between poverty and gender discrimination is clear. The list correlates surprisingly well as a ranking of wealth as well as status. It is not exact; other factors such as culture and religion play a large role. But all of the top-ranking countries are developed and established, while all of the bottom-ranking ones have many citizens struggling to eke out an existence.

At times, some think of foreign aid as the solution to a given problem — food for hunger, relief for a disaster, supplies for education. But the truth is that foreign aid, successfully delivered, contributes to development which has far reaching implications. Encouraging the development of countries, no matter what way, opens opportunities for its citizens in far more than one area. If we are to fight gender discrimination, we must also fight poverty, one of its root causes.

– Farahnaz Mohammed

Source: Foodtank, The Independent
Photo: Visit Europe

Global Impact Appoints New President & CEO

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Scott Jackson has been named as Global Impact’s new President and CEO. Global Impact is a Washington, D.C.-based international nongovernmental organization (NGO). Jackson is highly qualified for the position, and Global Impact expressed in a May press release that their new president & CEO will be capable of using his accomplishments and Global Impact’s mission to achieve success in helping the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Scott Jackson previously worked for PATH, a Seattle-based global health non-profit where he served as the Vice President for External Relations. His experience at PATH provided him with significant global development, marketing and fundraising experience.

Global Impact believes that Jackson’s twenty years of experience in international development will be highly valuable to Global Impact. Mr. Jackson’s new role as President & CEO will entail a variety of responsibilities. These responsibilities will include: leading Global Impact’s advisory services, fundraising campaigns, workplace giving, partnerships, and strategic alliances.

Jackson will be comfortable managing donor and fundraising campaigns. He gained experience in the field at PATH where he worked relentlessly to strengthen relationships with partners and donors while also maximizing the visibility of PATH’s work. His work there helped to increase their donor base and grow their organization. PATH issued a statement in which they said Jackson would be truly missed as both a colleague and a friend. They also stated that he contributed a great deal to PATH’s work and the global health field overall.

Global Impact raises funds to address critical humanitarian needs around the world. They are responsible for impressive fundraising campaigns for thousands of different organizations. They have raised over $1.5 billion for their partner organizations. Global Impact funds more than 70 U.S. based international charities. They provide unique solutions to meet the unique giving needs of both organizations and donors. Global Impact was founded in 1956 and has provided valuable services to help the world’s poor and most vulnerable populations.

– Caitlin Zusy

Sources: Global Impact, PATH
Photo: Washington Post

South Korea Mentors Myanmar

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South Korea’s Saemaul Undong, or New Community, movement of the 1970s is lauded as one of the most successful economic development programs in modern Asia. This week the South Korean government announced its plans to use the experience and knowledge gained through this initiative to help the new government of Myanmar spur development in the Southeast Asian country.

The announcement came as the finance ministers of the two countries met to discuss future expansion of bilateral economic cooperation between the countries. The South Korean model is a community-based rural development program credited with modernizing the country’s economy and greatly reducing domestic poverty. The approach could offer effective strategies and guidelines for the future development of Myanmar as the emphasis is on enacting measures appropriate to the given political, economic, and social contexts  and is not about catch-all international theories.

As the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia and located in a prime position between the major global economies of India and China, Myanmar has great development potential. South Korea understands the unique opportunities that an investment in the economic expansion of Myanmar could potentially offer. In addition to an ad hoc advisory role at the policy level, South Korea is also pledging assistance to build a “Korea-Myanmar friendship bridge” over the Yangon River.

The bridge would allow more disconnected, rural communities new and expanded growth opportunities. South Korea also acknowledges that the assistance would have a public relations element, with the aid garnering the country a favorable opinion from the people of Myanmar. Such positive public opinion would definitely be helpful when South Korean companies begin to venture into Myanmar’s economy. Such an entrance will more than likely initially center around a planned industrial complex on the southern part of the Yangon River. The complex is set to involve South Korean investment.

Despite the promising investments from abroad, Myanmar faces significant challenges to its development. The country’s transition from an authoritarian regime with a tightly controlled economy to a democracy with free markets is certainly daunting. With over a quarter of its population living in poverty, Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in East Asia.

This poverty carries population challenges, like the high rate of 32% for children under the age of five suffering from malnutrition. While such a statistic holds concerns for the future and quality of social and economic development within Myanmar, other issues have more direct and immediate effects on development. Chief among these issues is the lack of modern infrastructure. Most notably, 75% of the population does not have access to electricity. With electricity consumption stuck at 20 times below the world average, the country faces huge barriers to entering the global market.

Fostering real, sustainable development in a country with such limited availability of basic, modern infrastructure capabilities will be a difficult challenge. These unique challenges, though, are potentially well-suited to the model of the South Korean Saemaul Undong. Through the empowerment of the rural communities and major investment, both domestic and foreign, in infrastructure, Myanmar could be well on its way to becoming the new Asian success story.

– Lauren Brown

Source: Asia-Pacific Development Journal, World Bank, Global Post
Photo: Donga News

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Brazil’s Agricultural Development Success

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The greatest challenge of a generation remains as the world figures out in the decades ahead how to feed an additional two billion people. Unprecedented population growth, rising incomes in the developing world and a growing need for energy contribute to the increase in demand for agricultural products. Agricultural development is needed now more than ever to meet this demand, but if Brazil‘s success in recent decades is any indicator, development can be improved worldwide to address global poverty.

Agricultural Development or Perpetuated Hunger?

Depending on the actions of the international community, this increase in demand will lead the world down one of two paths. If agricultural production is not increased, millions of people will increasingly be left in a state of perpetual hunger. On the other hand, the increase in demand for agricultural products can be seen as an opportunity for economic development through new food markets in the developing world.

While there is a certain amount of truth to the argument that the global food security problem stems from distribution rather than production, there is also strong evidence that an increase in production is possible — and necessary. Economists predict that as incomes and population rise, the global demand for food will increase 60 percent by 2050. This means that the world will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as they did in the last thousand.

If done properly, agricultural development can be a driving force for economic development and poverty reduction. Research conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs suggests that global food security is particularly advanced with increases of the agricultural potential of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The benefits are two-fold: the increase in agricultural income for smallholder farmers can lift millions out of chronic hunger, and the increase in production can provide more food to the global market as a whole.

How can a country best facilitate agricultural development? The simple answer is through investment research and training in science-based agriculture. The success story of Brazil best illustrates this methodology.

Brazil’s Success Story

Through investments in agricultural research, Brazil has moved from a net importer of food to one of the world’s largest breadbaskets. Between 1996 and 2006, the total value of Brazil’s crops rose by 365%. The tropical country has now caught up with the “big five” grain exporters (America, Canada, Australia, Argentina and the European Union) – all of which are temperate producers.

This astounding progress has been made through the successes of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – Embrapa for short. Since its founding in 1973, Brazil has doubled its cultivated land and multiplied its agricultural output by six. Antonio Lopes, the president of Embrapa, says that the success lies in the delicate balance between agricultural expansion and land conservation.

Because no model for successful agricultural development in a tropical climate existed previously, Brazil was forced to create its own. First, they increased the amount of ploughable land by adding lime and nitrogen-fixing bacteria to soil that was previously unfit for farming. Second, they introduced a larger-leafed variety of grass and converted part of the new land into pastures so as to allow for the expansion of Brazil’s beef herd. Third, and perhaps most importantly, they converted temperate-climate soybeans into a tropical crop through genetic modification. Last, Embrapa encouraged and integrated new operation farm techniques such as “no-till” agriculture and forest, agriculture and livestock integration.

According to Lopes, Brazil will continue to invest in agriculture research and development for the foreseeable future. Brazil should serve as an example to the rest of the world for the ways in which private and public investment can transform a developing country in the tropics into an agricultural powerhouse.

– Kathryn Cassibry

Source: InterAction, The Economist
Photo: Guardian

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Japan’s Foreign Aid Efforts in Africa

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In the past, Japan has mostly focused its foreign aid budget on areas in East Asia and Southeast Asia. However, this trend is changing as the country has turned its attention to Africa. Japan altered its foreign assistance policies after creating the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in 1993 and slowly began to increase aid to the region.

Japan’s foreign assistance to Africa has now reached an annual contribution of $400 million in “technical cooperation” and $800 million in “concessionary loans,” an amount that accounts for 40% of Japan’s total aid budget.

The concessionary loans are given for African countries to improve their infrastructure by building new ports, railways and other power stations. Japan also emphasizes health and education. The recipient countries must build schools, vocational school and teacher training programs as well as new hospitals with the grant money.

These grants and loan vary between countries. Many South African countries are ineligible, but those that do meet Japan’s criteria are giving aid based on individual needs and circumstances. Some countries struggle more agriculturally, while others may need advanced assistance in infrastructure, health or education sectors.

The recipient African countries are given concessionary loans at interest rates as low as 0.1% and have a ten year grace period followed by a 40-year time frame to re-pay the loans. The concessionary loans are mainly offered for large, high budget projects while the grants are given for smaller development projects.

So far, Japan’s foreign aid money has trained 800,000 math and science teachers as well as 220,000 healthcare workers in Africa. Japanese companies located in Africa have created about 150,000 jobs for local people. These numbers will continue to increase as Japan sends more money to the region. Japan’s foreign aid budget for Africa has doubled in the past five years, reaching $1.8 billion annually. By focusing on “development, energy production, good governance and human security,” Japan hopes to turn Africa into a flourishing trade partner while improving the lives of thousands of people.

– Mary Penn

Source: Engineering News
Photo: Bloomberg

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Ethiopia No Longer Crippled in Poverty

Ethiopia No Longer Crippled in Poverty
Ethiopia has proven to be a country to model economic growth for other African nations. The World Economic Forum on Africa will be meeting soon to discuss, among other issues, how Ethiopia was able to bring itself out of high poverty levels and into a relatively flourishing state. As a country that has a history of civil, Ethiopia’s progress is an inspiration to all of Africa.

Ethiopia has made huge strides in its economic sector as well as healthcare and government accountability. In the past two decades, Ethiopia has decreased the child mortality rate by 60 percent and built more than 15,000 primary healthcare facilities in rural areas. The country is also well on its way to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

The government of Ethiopia has been adamant about implementing policies that will better the economy and all aspects of the country. Haddis Tadesse, a representative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Addis Ababa, has described Ethiopia’s policymakers as shifting from the mentality of “we can’t” to “we can.” This philosophy has done wondrous things to inspire hope for everyone living in Ethiopia.

Politicians and government authorities are now developing strategies to end hunger and create food stability for all citizens, build a new, impressively large hydro electronic power plant, an electrified railway system and a light manufacturing industry. Once these projects are complete, Ethiopia’s economy will continue to boom.

By following the examples of India, Malaysia, China, Brazil and Turkey, Ethiopia has been able to mold itself into a prospering economy and society. As Haddis Tadesse says, “Ethiopia is well-positioned to escape the poverty trap. But it won’t be easy.” With further improvements in infrastructure, human rights and creating a stable market, the country is likely to become dependent on foreign assistance and begin to provide aid to other African countries.

– Mary Penn

Source: World Economic Forum
Photo: Celebrate Children