Discrepancies in pay for women are nothing new. However, the ongoing inequality has led to overwhelming financial losses across the globe. In 2018, the World Bank estimated that a lack of equal pay and opportunity for women globally accounts for a striking $160 trillion global deficit. Countries like Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and Vietnam–which are responsible for large exports of apparel globally–are seeking to correct outdated practices by supporting women’s education and careers in hopes of building a greater future.
Egypt
U.N. Women’s gender-focused education project aims to promote economic growth within the country. By focusing on young women and girls, the initiatives encourage formal education and business communities. Educational policymakers are in connection as well to formally improve the connection of education of women to employment. As a result, there have been 205 completed infrastructure improvements, the building and funding of four new community schools and interactive learning techniques and methods with 3,990 students. Additionally, the project has helped mothers to better understand financial literacy and the importance of their daughters’ education.
Turkey
Turkey has the second-highest rate of young unemployed people. While only 34.5% of women have entered the workforce in Turkey, the country is working hard to initiate a movement toward women’s career and education growth. The Young Women Building Their Future program focuses on the nearly 3.5 million women in Turkey who have not had access to formal schooling or vocational training.
Governmental developmental goals focused on supporting women’s education and careers seek to “leave no one behind” and provide opportunities specifically to young women designed to help them enter, navigate and succeed in the workforce.
Pakistan
Pakistan has set inclusive gender growth participation targets to rise from 26% to 45%. In the last 22 years, the participation rate has almost doubled but the World Bank and other programs, are seeking to increase educational and career rates at an even faster pace.
Because work for pay increases with formal education, the country seeks to move beyond the only 10% of college-educated women in the coming years. With pay increasing three-fold for women with formal secondary education, this goal could contribute to decreasing poverty rates as well as inequality.
Vietnam
Vietnam has developed the National Strategy on Gender Equality with female-focused entrepreneurship goals set for the 2021-2030 period. Among those goals, promoting gender equality and employment opportunities for women–who make up approximately 50% of the overall population–is at the forefront of goals.
With goals such as focusing on reducing unpaid work by women, promoting women to director and ownership positions of business, as well as reducing domestic and gender-based violence also at the forefront, the country hopes to combat poverty rates with opportunities for women.
As these countries come together with goals of reducing poverty through supporting women’s education and careers, the future is bright for the current and future generations.
– Michelle Collingridge
Photo: Flickr
The Migratory Birds is a newspaper that 15 Afghan refugees founded while working with the Network for Children’s Rights Center in Athens, Greece. The paper’s mission is to report the situations and the lives of refugees within the youth center. Refugees have always lacked a voice in the media, which led to Migratory Birds’ goal of providing them with one. Operating out a youth center in Athens, many journalists spanning many different countries and origins are coming together to share the stories of those whose hasn’t been shared before.
Refugee-Led Initiative in Greece
Migratory Birds, a bi-product of the Young Journalists program, which, “boasts a bi-monthly circulation of 13,000″ is the only still standing initiative in Greece that refugees are reading, according to The World.
Each issue of Migratory Birds has articles that consist of first-hand accounts about life as a refugee. This, among others, includes love poems refugees write and recipes for traditional dishes from the author’s home country. The local distribution route of Migratory Birds goes to refugee camps and various humanitarian organizations all throughout Greece.
Founding Voices
Mahdia Hosseini, 28 and Fatima Sedaghat, 16, are the founders of Migratory Birds and work at the Network for Children’s Rights Youth Center in Athens, Greece. These two met in a refugee camp called Schisto, which is also located in Athens. They, along with 13 other refugees, founded the newspaper because they wanted to change the way the mainstream media represents refugees and migrants, The World reports.
The main motivator behind the project was the fear that refugees felt when talking to journalists. A fear that came from not having their stories shown to the world in a proper manner. The goal of the publication is to “empower the social integration of adolescent and young refugees and fight xenophobia.” The publication dedicates itself to the principles of journalism, promoting conversations across a variety of cultures and helping young people express themselves.
Operating from a youth center based in Kolonos, a neighborhood within Athens, the mission of Migratory Birds is to share the truth regarding the lives of refugees in the Schisto camp, “their fears and frustrations and hopes and dreams,” according to The World.
First-Hand Accounts
Hosseini has a desire to show the world who refugees truly are because she feels that most people don’t possess a true understanding of refugees. “I think we needed to be heard and for people to understand us, I mean refugees and migrants,” she said to The World.
The freedom of speech, an essential right to all but especially to these aspiring journalists was an opportunity provided by Migratory Birds. The newspaper gave these refugees something that wasn’t available in their home countries. Abdul Rashid, a 16-year-old refugee from Afghanistan and a member of Migratory Birds said that he’s happy that he gets to write about what he experienced during migration without fear, The World reports.
Morteza, who is a member of the Young Journalists team, described the way that mainstream media often covers refugee stories. “Eventually what comes out is often the story of the ‘miserable refugee.’ I think this is unfair. That is why I participate in the Newspaper ‘Migratory Birds.’ We write our own stories, we get to know the world and we give people the opportunity to get to know us better,” he said.
The Problem
Exactly how does the media represent refugees? Social psychology defines the “identifiable victim effect,” as people interacting differently with words and images that depict the struggles of a single person rather than groups of people.
Western media commonly represents refugees as “anonymous, faceless masses.” The result of this depiction is the audience feeling detached from the hardships the subject has to face. According to The Conversation, a recent study showed pictures of refugees to almost 4,000 Europeans. After showing them images of large groups or images where they cannot identify the individual, viewers showed increased desensitization of the refugees at that point. Some of the responses from the test subjects revealed that they felt refugees are a crisis in the countries that they journey to.
Migratory Birds seeks to share the whole truth regarding the lives of the refugees living within camps in Athens, Greece. Due to a lack of a proper voice in mainstream media, Migratory Birds took the mission of providing them with one onto themselves. By bringing together journalists that come from various backgrounds and cultures, the publication desires to give refugees proper and genuine representation, so the world can know what life as a refugee is truly like.
– Henry Hyman
Photo: Flickr
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been working since the 1960s to provide aid to developing countries across the world. Since Namibia’s establishment as a free country in 1990, USAID programs in Nambia have focused on a wide range of developmental factors in the country.
The factors include prevention and treatment for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, fundamental access to education, “community-based natural resource management”, “democracy and governance” and establishing employment opportunities and expanding on existing enterprises.
Energy Programs in Namibia
Electricity access is still lacking in parts of southern Africa. In 2020, The World Bank reported that only 56% of Namibians had access to electricity. Namibia is one of 11 nations in the Southern African Energy Program (SAEP), which was launched in 2017. Another country targeted by SAEP is Zambia. In 2021, Namibia imported 100 megawatts (MW) from Zambia according to NamPower, Namibia’s national electric utility provider.
Of note, renewable energy has been a focus of the SAEP, using existing resources from its parent organization USAID to fund a renewable energy feed-in-tariff program. The feed-in-tariff program provides individuals with means to renewable energy similar to solar panels. Excess or unused energy produced is sent to the national power grid and the individual is given a tariff or small sum for the unused energy. If an individual in the program needs more energy than they produced, they can get energy from the national grid.
Tuberculosis in Namibia
Tuberculosis (TB) is the fourth highest cause of death in Namibia. Around 1,500 people died from TB in 2020 according to the organization Stop TB.
Still, Namibia has had some recent success thanks to USAID treatment programs. New incidences of TB in Namibia were at the lowest rate in over a decade with approximately only 11,700 cases in 2020. Additionally, treatment programs were largely successful; USAID reports an 87% success rate in new TB cases in 2020. A course of several antibiotics is the routine treatment for TB.
TB ties into a greater health problem in Namibia, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). According to USAID, 61% of people in Namibia with TB are also HIV positive. In 2020, 1,989 Namibians were diagnosed with both HIV and TB.
Combating HIV in Namibia
In Namibia, USAID and PEPFAR have provided substantial help in the fight against HIV. USAID programs in Namibia geared toward HIV provide counseling, resources and treatment for Namibians with HIV. This includes pregnant women at risk of passing HIV to their children.
USAID’s efforts have paid off. For 20 years, new HIV and AIDS cases have been on the decline. HIV is the virus that, if left untreated, can develop into AIDS. In 1998, new AIDS cases in Namibia were estimated to be at 22,000. In 2020, there were only an estimated 5,500 new AIDS cases according to UNAIDS, the joint program in the United Nations dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS.
One of the most effective ways to prevent HIV is using condoms during sex. In Namibia, the demand for access to condoms exceeds the supply, which is where USAID comes in. Supplying condoms to Namibians is one prong of the strategy to combat HIV. The most recent update to fighting HIV through USAID programs in Namibia came in early June 2022. USAID donated 6.9 million condoms and 2.6 million bottles of personal lubricant to the country to fight to help prevent the spread of HIV.
Final Thoughts
USAID programs in Namibia have been actively fighting to improve conditions in the southern African country. Direct efforts from USAID, including energy programs through SAEP, have given access to electricity to thousands of Namibians. Healthcare to treat and prevent diseases like HIV and TB have increased living conditions in Namibia, highlighting the need for programs to help Namibians in the fight against poverty and disease.
– Emma Rushworth
Photo: Flickr
In recent years, China has become one of the most popular destinations for students from other developing countries, mainly African states, to seek higher education. The number of African students in Chinese universities reached a new peak of 81,562 in 2018, compared to less than 2,000 in 2003. It is worth asking how universities in China are attractive to African students and how those students benefit from this study experience overseas.
Growing Recognition of Chinese Higher Education
Speaking of opportunities to study abroad, most people immediately think of the U.S. and the U.K. as the ideal destinations, as the two countries occupied nine of the top 10 universities in the QS World University Rankings 2023. However, it is essential to notice that the Chinese universities’ performance in the world rankings is improving yearly, so many see them as providing an excellent academic environment for students as well.
In 2015, the two most prestigious universities in China, Peking and Tsinghua, ranked 51st and 47th in the QS World University Rankings. However, in the 2023 list, they ranked 12th and 14th respectively, showing that Chinese higher education is receiving more international recognition.
In 2018, 11% of students from Africa and the Middle East who chose to study abroad picked China as their destination. Additionally, the survey showed that universities in China are the sixth most popular among those students, ranking higher than both France and Switzerland.
Opportunities and Experiences of African Students in Chinese Universities
The fact that African students in Chinese Universities are becoming more common is significant due to China’s soft power diplomacy. As the Chinese government cooperates economically and politically with African states, it becomes more valuable and practical for African students to study in China. Indeed, China embraced those students with open arms.
First of all, the Chinese national government, local government, Confucius Institute and individual universities (including Peking university) have set up multiple scholarships for international students. Most of those scholarships cover all the fees of tuition and teaching materials, as well as living expenses. Some scholarships even provide free medical insurance and plane tickets to travel home and return to school.
Also, the Chinese government valued African students in their university as a successful soft power approach to push forward international cooperation. According to Global Times, in October 2021, China-Africa Institute held the First Forum on International Students from Africa named “We, the Inheritors of African-China Friendship,” with Martin Mpana, Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps and Ambassador of Cameroon to China, giving the opening speech. This encouraged more African students to pursue higher education in China.
Moreover, many significant figures in African politics had previous experience as a student in Chinese universities. For example, in 2005, 22 critical African politicians had received scholarships in China before, and eight of them explicitly worked on the diplomatic relationship with China.
African students that China Daily interviewed stated that studying and knowing about China helped their future careers as many Chinese-related investments and cooperations created jobs in their homeland. He also believed that learning from Chinese business could help to improve Africa’s economy.
Case Study: Peking University African Student Association
African students in Chinese universities would not feel alone, as many of them have their own student society. The Peking University African Student Association is one of them. The Association organizes many academic and social activities for African students. It also provides overseas African students with invitations and information to study at Peking University, including collaboration with African Student Associations from other schools like Tsinghua University.
In 2020, the Peking University African Student Association took a significant role in the Ninth Meeting of the China-Africa Think Tank Forum, showing their influence in promoting African students’ participation in Chinese academic activities.
Overall, the number of African students studying in Chinese universities continues to rise. This sizeable eastern economy could provide more opportunities for higher education for students from other developing countries.
– Ella Li
Photo: Flickr
On June 21 2022, The World Bank approved a $2.3 billion program aimed at addressing food insecurity in Southern and Eastern African countries in different phases. Due to factors such as market instability, the war in Ukraine and disease outbreaks, “an estimated 66.4 million people” could face food stress and famine by July 2022. The World Bank’s $2.3 billion program in Africa will utilize systems created to tackle food insecurity. The Food Systems Resilience Program for Eastern and Southern Africa (FSRP) will be used to strengthen “inter-agency food crisis response strategies.” This includes “rapid response planning” and “emergency trade measures.”
Alleviating Food Insecurity
The World Bank’s $2.3 billion initiative in Africa highlights the power of international institutions to help vulnerable populations during difficult times. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine, international institutions such as The World Bank have stepped in to alleviate food insecurity in developing countries. In fact, The World Bank’s $2.3 billion program in Africa “is the first regional and multi-sectoral operation” aimed at tackling food insecurity in Eastern and Southern Africa.
The World Bank hopes to achieve that by “ensuring regional coordination” in confronting food insecurity by focusing on food policy reforms and market volatility. In other words, this is a story of how international institutions uphold human rights by cooperating with countries to make sure every person lives a better life.
The Impact of Food Insecurity on People in Southern and Eastern Africa
Food insecurity has had a devastating effect on the livelihood of people living in Africa. For example, 22.7 million people in Ethiopia are struggling with food insecurity “due to drought.” In fact, the food price index in Ethiopia has increased to 43% alongside an increase in the price of vegetable oil and cereals “by over 89% and 37% year-on-year.”
In Madagascar, between 1 and 2.5 million people are in need of food assistance because of weather disasters such as flooding and storms. Thus, The World Bank’s $2.3 billion program in Africa aims to address these crises and mitigate them.
First Phase of the Program
The first phase of The World Bank’s $2.3 billion program in Africa will address food insecurity in Ethiopia and Madagascar. The World Bank has approved “a total financing package of $788 million that could “benefit 2.3 million people,” as reported on its website. This financing package will support the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) “which will strengthen information and data sharing.”
It will also support the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA). This will utilize “its existing networks and outreach tools for regional coordination mechanisms” to help Ethiopia and Madagascar.
Other Efforts to Tackle Food Insecurity in Africa
The World Bank’s $2.3 billion program in Africa is ongoing and more details will be unveiled later. However, more international institutions are also tackling food insecurity in Africa at the same time as The World Bank. For example, since April 1, 2022, The World Food Programme (WFP) “has delivered 100,000 tonnes of food,” to the Tigray region of Ethiopia which was “enough to feed 5.9 million people for a month,” the U.N. News reports. The WFP has also provided emergency food rations to “1.3 million people in Afar and Amhara,” regions of Ethiopia since April 1, 2022.
Though much more aid is needed as global threats persist, The World Bank’s and other international institutions’ efforts in tackling food insecurity in Africa are a step in the right direction.
– Abdullah Dowaihy
Photo: Flickr
The Can’t Wait to Learn Program (CWTL) which began in 2021 runs in five countries and provides tablets to children in remote areas with high learning poverty. The program aims to provide education to children affected by conflict in Sudan, Jordan, Chad, Uganda and Lebanon. On June 23, 2022, a report announced that learning poverty in low-income and middle-income countries had increased by 13%.
The learning poverty increase is due to lowered household income and extended school closures during the pandemic and conflict in given countries. Learning poverty measurements occur by studying 10-year-olds’ ability to read and comprehend simple written text. In 2015, learning poverty in low-income and middle-income areas was at 57%. As of June 23, learning poverty increased to 70% of children unable to read simple text.
Can’t Wait to Learn
The Ministry of Education (MoE), UNICEF, War Child Holland and Ahfad University partnered to create the first Can’t Wait to Learn Program. They created the program in Sudan in in 2014 with their e-Learning Sudan (eLs) Project. This phase of the Can’t Wait to Learn program focused on math games on tablets.
In Sudan, conflict affects 2.6 million children. As of August 2019, approximately 3 million children were not in school. This amounts to around one-third of children who are old enough to attend school missing crucial learning.
The Can’t Wait to Learn Project relies on local facilitators who can travel to villages and understand how to use the tablets. In Kassala, Sudan Can’t Wait to Learn established learning centers in 23 communities. This was the start of Can’t Wait to Learn’s fight against learning poverty, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Can’t Wait to Learn @ Home
In refugee camps in Uganda and Lebanon, CWTL adapted to have children learn remotely. In June 2021, Uganda’s government enforced a 42-day lockdown, meaning that schools were closed to children and travel was limited. With public transit closed, War Child Holland provided bikes to facilitators to check on families and deliver charged tablets to their homes.
With the pandemic, more than 1.2 million children in Lebanon missed school. War Child Holland has 40 locations in Lebanon, helping Lebanese families that cannot send their children to school. More than 40% of children spend their family finances on essential items such as food. In response, War Child created Can’t Wait to Learn @ Home, where families receive a manual to help their children use their tablets.
Inside and outside of schools in developing countries, CWTL provides tablets with educational games to children. The games are meant to teach children how to read, write and count. In each country, games receive adjustments for specific languages and needs of the children in the area. Out of school children who may have never used a computer before can learn with a tablet without teacher assistance.
Results and Future
Children in the program showed improved skills greater than those in the Government Alternative Learning programme (ALP). Children improved their math skills by two times and reading skills by 2.7 times with the ALP. COVID-19 worsened the learning poverty crisis, showing risk of children missing out on $21 trillion in possible income.
Can’t Wait to Learn and Can’t Wait to Learn @ Home provide the opportunity for children to continue their schooling despite the state of where they live. Through crises, a pandemic and low family income, the program continues to provide tablets and learning opportunities to children around the world.
– Sara Sweitzer
Photo: Flickr
Landlocked and located in Europe, the small country of Luxembourg features beautiful landscapes and diverse intercontinental ties. Amidst these features, health care in Luxembourg has been established so there is a plan for all citizens to access the needed tools to stay healthy.
The National Health Fund
Prior to 2008, Luxembourg retained separate health insurance in various sectors as well as the Union of Health Insurance Funds. However, in 2008, these separate institutions joined to create the National Health Fund.
The National Health Fund coordinates the health care system and social security provides funding. People apply for reimbursements for their medical bills after seeking medical care. In other instances, such as prescriptions or charges from the hospital, third parties provide insurance and coordinate directly with the National Health Fund. The individual pays for the remainder of the bill that insurance does not cover. Citizens additionally have the option of private insurance, often offered through employers.
COVID-19 Health Care Response
An evaluation of health care in Luxembourg must include an assessment of the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis naturally tests the system’s response. Efforts to combat the pandemic included a task force, named Research Luxembourg, that coordinated communication of health information between various research institutions. The Luxembourg Institute of Health also focused on educating the public about ongoing research.
Similarly, Luxembourg remains a member of The Global Fund, which contributes to battling diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. During the pandemic, Luxembourg donated to the fund to lessen the impact of COVID-19 on already existing programs for AIDS, TB and malaria. Particularly important is the donation’s impact on low-income countries in fighting both COVID-19 and the organization’s prior infectious disease focuses.
Caritas Luxembourg works to reach vulnerable members of the community including youth, migrants and those without a home. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of nurses alongside others in the medical network created a program to provide hygiene and health care to Luxembourg’s homeless. These are individuals that might not have access to health care in Luxembourg in the traditional ways.
Current Efforts
Luxembourg fights poverty by making commitments to improve the health of mothers and adolescents. For example, the government offers a birth allowance that mothers apply for after the birth of their child. To receive the allowance, mothers must attend medical examinations for themselves and the child before and after birth.
Furthermore, Luxembourg is a key contributor to the World Health Organization (WHO), ranking seventh in the years 2020-2021. It is a supporter of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme and the Contingency Fund for Emergencies. Finally, Luxembourg provides funding for “Healthier Kosovo” in an endeavor to improve health issues related to air pollution in the environment.
International Health Cooperation
In addition to improvements to health care in Luxembourg, the country prioritizes health in other contexts. The Small Countries Initiative includes Luxembourg. The WHO created this group in 2013 between eight European countries to facilitate communication on reporting health information within their systems and to the public. The members periodically attend meetings to discuss the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Luxembourg also partnered with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the WHO to create a program for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR). The program aims to improve the health of those listed in its title with the goal to reduce poverty within the country. The program began the third phase in 2022.
In addition to their partnership with Laos PDR, Luxembourg also partners with Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Mali, Niger and Senegal in the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Partnership, according to WHO.
Initiated in 2011, the UHC Partnership connects Luxembourg with a variety of global actors including the WHO, the European Union, Japan and Canada. The organization works to provide assistance in planning systems to facilitate access to health care. It ensures that people receive health care at both an individual and community level. Thus far, the partnership has impacted 115 countries. It also incorporated more than 120 advisors to engage in the dialogue necessary to implement these systems.
For example, in Rwanda, the addition of health posts improved access to health care by decreasing travel time from an average of 95 minutes to 47 minutes to receive services with future goals to further decrease this time.
Luxembourg continues to provide innovative solutions to domestic health care systems as well as improve health abroad. Its solutions contribute to progress in decreasing global poverty through the medium of health.
– Kaylee Messick
Photo: Flickr
Kosovo, officially known as the Republic of Kosovo, is a small country situated in the middle of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe. Since Kosovo’s independence from Serbia in 2008, the United States has maintained a close relationship with the relatively young country, providing everything from military aid to economic assistance and COVID-19 relief. The U.S.’s main foreign aid avenue, USAID, has played a vital role in this relationship between the two countries and their joint mission of reform, modernization and transition. With roughly 23% of Kosovo’s population living in poverty and an estimated unemployment rate of 26% as of 2021, pursuing such endeavors to support goals like self-sustainability, job creation and economic prosperity are crucial to the country’s development. There are several notable USAID programs in Kosovo currently underway.
2022 Development Funding and COVID-19 Relief
In March 2022, the United States announced $31.9 million in assistance to Kosovo. Per a USAID press release, the funding will work to “[promote] Kosovo-led development solutions to economic and democratic challenges.” This aligns with USAID’s goal of Kosovan self-reliance outlined in the USAID-Kosovo Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) — a plan which acts as a developmental roadmap for the country through 2025.
Earlier, in January 2022, the U.S. announced $3 million in additional COVID-19 assistance for Kosovo, building on the $5.1 million in aid given over the course of the pandemic. Along with this financial aid, USAID has also worked to deliver personal hygiene kits, ventilators, testing equipment and nearly 538,200 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Kosovo. As of 23 June 2022, Kosovo has had a total of 228,563 COVID-19 cases resulting in 3,130 deaths.
Energy Sustainability Activity
Launched in February 2021 and expected to run through February 2026, the USAID Energy Sustainability Activity aims to enhance Kosovo’s energy security by building “sustainable power networks,” increasing energy capacity for local institutions and accelerating investment in Kosovan renewable energy infrastructure.
“The next five years for Kosovo are critical for establishing a robust, reliable and regionally integrated power system in line with Energy Community (EnC) standards — an integral part of bolstering the country’s economic growth and increasing opportunities for its citizens,” a USAID fact sheet explains.
As one of the most impoverished countries in Europe, with a per capita GDP of $4,291 as of December 2020, building a sustainable, reliable energy infrastructure is absolutely crucial for Kosovo as the country’s ongoing energy crisis acts as a direct obstacle to its economic development. “Without reliable, affordable electricity, Kosovo’s businesses cannot invest, operate and create jobs; hospitals and schools cannot function fully or safely with frequent power cuts… Basic services that people in developed countries take for granted cannot be offered.” says the World Bank.
Commercial Justice Activity
Operating as a larger program containing a plethora of smaller programs, the Commercial Justice Activity is an initiative by USAID and various Kosovan judicial institutions to work on judicial reforms that have the potential to promote “investment, economic growth and job creation” in Kosovo.
This program has already made a positive impact on the Kosovan justice system. The Kosovan government adopted a draft Law on Commercial Court in August 2021, which proposed the establishment of a standalone court for business and investment disputes in order to streamline commercial justice. Kosovo’s Assembly unanimously passed the law in February 2022.
Other aspects of this program include improved training for judges and court staff as well as initiatives to increase court accountability and efficiency.
Kosovo Youth Dialogue
USAID established the Kosovo Youth Dialogue in August 2021 for the primary purpose of empowering and educating the Kosovan youth population. The ongoing 30-month project works to encourage dialogue and education among the youth population regarding the country’s past and the various ethnic groups belonging to the region.
Specifically, the program aims to “[empower] young people to actively participate in the dealing with the past and reconciliation process in Kosovo by encouraging inter-ethnic communication, interaction and cooperation, addressing common interests, building confidence and promoting mutual understanding and positive attitudes.” The program includes youth exchange programs, grants, educational programs and partnerships with various Kosovan non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The Future
As one of the most impoverished countries in Europe, and considering its lack of recognition as a sovereign state by many, Kosovo has a long road ahead in achieving its sought-after self-sustainability. However, with its continued steadfast focus on policy reform, modernization and stability, the nation’s future is certainly bright.
With the work of these USAID programs in Kosovo and that of other like-minded organizations such as UNICEF, the World Bank and the European Commission, Kosovo can take much greater steps toward achieving its desired future of sustainability and improving the social and economic well-being of citizens.
– Riley Wooldridge
Photo: Pixabay
On May 27, 2021, an intense debate on the distribution of educational resources and inequality in the accessibility of higher education in China took over China’s social media platforms. A young woman who graduated from the Affiliated High School of Peking University, one of the most advanced and highly ranked high schools in China’s political center, Beijing, posted a video that sparked this debate.
A Viral Video Highlights Inequality
The video showcases the daily routine of the female student studying in the Affiliated High School of Peking University, including creative and engaging syllabuses and various afterschool activities. The video highlighted “the unequal distribution of educational resources in China,” and combined with the fact that the students from this high school usually obtain access to good quality higher education after graduating, had triggered many negative responses and social discontent from people living in other regions of China.
The fact that Beijing students can get placements at universities much more easily than the majority of other Chinese people is unacceptable to many. The higher education priority enjoyed by first-tier Chinese cities reveals the deeper societal inequalities that China, at large, grapples with.
3 Facts About Higher Education in China
- Most Chinese universities allocate their undergraduate places by region and usually assign a significantly higher quota to their own region and do not take into account different provincial population densities. In 2016, Peking University, located in Beijing, gave 22 places to Beijing students in the digital information department, but only two places to Tianjin students and three places to Henan students for the same course. It is worth noting that Henan province has a population of about 99.4 million in comparison to Beijing, which has about 21.5 million, and Tianjin, which has about 15.6 million.
- There is a considerable quantity and quality difference in higher education in China between different cities and provinces. Qinghai, a remote province in China, had only 12 colleges and universities in 2021. In contrast, Beijing had 92 in the same year. Since the mid-1990s, China has developed “the “211” project and the more recent “985” project for transforming universities. The “985” project aimed to establish “world-class universities in the 21st century.” The “211” project aimed to strengthen higher education institutions in the 21st century. However, 12 out of 29 of the “985” universities and 36 out of 116 of the “211” universities are located in Beijing and Shanghai, the two most developed cities in China.
- In China, students in different regions write different papers in the National College Entrance Examinations and the difficulty of those papers is not the same. In fact, Beijing’s entrance exam is one of the easiest and Jiangsu Province has the most difficult exam.
All the facts above represent visible inequalities in access to higher education in China. Students in first-tier cities, such as Shanghai and Beijing, certainly enjoy easier access and better quality of higher education than students in other regions. Additionally, high school students from these areas receive the highest quality of secondary education as well.
High school life in China varies tremendously. When most high school students in Beijing could enjoy extra-curricular activities alongside their hard work, a six-episode documentary released in 2015 called “Gao Kao (The College Entrance Exam)” revealed the tough academic work and tension and fatigue of students living in relatively remote areas. These less privileged students may spend all their free time studying but still may not get access to the same higher education institutions as students in big cities.
Solutions to Higher Education Inequalities
Due to the widespread realization of inequality in accessing higher education in China, the Chinese government has proposed multiple solutions.
China has launched a special program for colleges and universities to provide opportunities for intelligent students in rural areas to access top universities more easily. The policies included an independent registration path for those outstanding rural students and lower grade requirements, aiming to help large numbers of students living in remote areas attain access to quality higher education.
According to China’s Ministry of Education (MOE), “Full implementation of reforms in higher education examinations and enrollment systems have led to greater equity in China’s college admission processes with more reasonable procedures which prioritize student merits more than ever.” In 2017, 30 provinces in China implemented preferential policies for students from rural migrant families to write the National College Entrance Examinations in the areas they reside in, leading to a 25% increase in the application rate in comparison to 2016. The MOE says that, due to “targeted national, local and higher education institution (HEI) programs, a total of 100,000 rural and underprivileged students were admitted to HEIs” in 2017, up 9.3% from 2016.
Although inequalities in the Chinese education system are deeply rooted, increased equity policies and the continued commitment of the Chinese government can improve access to quality higher education in China for all, especially students in smaller cities outside of Beijing and Shanghai.
– Ella Li
Photo: Flickr
Child poverty in Iran runs rampant among young residents. In 2020, 50% of Iran’s population lived under the poverty line. The effects of poverty on children are dire and 9 million Iranian families currently struggle amid poverty, but organizations are stepping in to assist.
Contributors to Child Poverty in Iran
Families cannot earn enough money because of gender discrimination, unemployment and other factors. Only men can work well-paying jobs because of the large pay gap. In 2021, the Global Gender Report stated that women earn 19% of the wages a man earns for the same job.
With the significant differences in pay between men and women, women are often unable to help support their families. Additionally, the unemployment rate among men and women is very high. According to the World Bank, the unemployment rate for women was 16.1% and for men was 7.8%.
Along with the unemployment rate and gender discrimination, the cost of basic needs is high, so the majority of families’ wages go toward securing this. In Iran, high inflation rates directly impact the cost of food and groceries, making it difficult to afford basic essentials. In 2019, 33% of underprivileged communities’ income was allocated for food.
Poverty forces many children to make money for their families, but their wages are unlivable. Garbage collecting, run by the municipality contractors, is one of the main jobs children work to earn a living. In 2020, however, children made only 6% of the profits of garbage collectors. Of the children in the workforce, 60% are their families’ only source of income. Working to support their families has an impact on a child’s education. In 2017, “37% of Iranian students drop out before getting their diplomas.”
Impact on Iranian Children
The vast number of contributors to child poverty in Iran has destroyed the quality of life for children.
Food is all too often a scarcity among these children. They are unable to eat the minimum caloric intake, and numbers have only increased since the pandemic. According to the Global Hunger Index, in 2020, one out of three children were undernourished which can leave to a multitude of health complications, including children’s growth stunting.
Child marriage and trafficking are common in Iranian society. For little money, families sell their children, mostly girls, into marriage. In the summer of 2020, according to the Statistic Center of Iran, 9,058 girls were married before the age of 15. In some cases, child spouses run away from home or attempt suicide because of their treatment during their marriage.
Hope for the Future
The government and other organizations are working to stop child poverty in Iran. In 2020, the Guardian Council, the body in charge of approving legislation passed by the Parliament, approved a Child and Adolescent Protection Bill. The bill was later passed, inflicting penalties on people who prevent children from attending school or putting children in unsafe environments With this law, children in Iran are protected from various circumstances that could potentially be a danger to them and instead, can go to school to get an education
Organizations like Relief International work globally to dissolve poverty. Relief International was established in 1958 with its work in Iran beginning in 1990 after a large-scale earthquake in the country. Currently, Relief International works primarily to aid Afghan refugees in Iran while also mobilizing resources if a countrywide emergency occurs.
Recently, in 2021, because of Relief International, 22,000 people were taught hygienic practices, 3,500 families received cash support and thousands more received health care, education and other services. This is just one of the many organizations and institutions working to end poverty in Iran by providing support to those who reside there.
According to UNICEF, as of 2020, the mortality rate for Iranian children under 5 is 12.9%. Iranian children face increased risks of death due to a lack of food and basic needs. However, the Iranian government and other organizations are working to put an end to poverty.
– Janae O’Connell
Photo: Flickr
