Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Human Trafficking in Bangladesh

Human trafficking in BangladeshHuman trafficking is defined by the United Nations as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception.” Put simply, it is the sale of human beings for labor, sexual abuse or forced prostitution. Trafficking affects people across almost every nation, but the U.N. has seen recent trends that show developing nations are a breeding ground for human trafficking. These nations generally have a higher percentage of people who are at risk of human trafficking. This is because there are many vulnerable impoverished people and undocumented immigrants who can be easily manipulated.

The most common tactic used by traffickers to attract men and women for illegal labor is the promise of a better life, better pay to feed their families and security from the violence and war in their nations. This is often due to a lack of support, opportunities and help from their own governments, which make it tantalizing for people to accept all offers of better wages and a new life.

Human Trafficking in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the majority of traffickers look for Rohingya migrants from Myanmar, promising them asylum and work in Europe. This is the result of a large influx of Burmese migrants in 2017 due to violence and discrimination. Approximately one million Rohingya are undocumented in Bangladeshi refugee camps, meaning they are desperate for work, homes and support. Traffickers prey on undocumented immigrants because they are invisible to their communities and to the government. Thus, their disappearances go unreported due to the families of victims fearing deportation or imprisonment.

Rohingya women and children are the most vulnerable for human trafficking in Bangladesh. They are often promised housekeeping and nanny work in private homes and hotels. However, this is only to have their passports and identification stolen and to be sold into sex trafficking. Girls are sold into prostitution as young as 10 years old. It is also worth noting that Bangladesh has the highest rate of child marriage under age 15, although a 1929 doctrine outlawed marriage under age 18. In Bangladesh, 59% of girls are married before age 18, and 22% are married before age 15. Girls trafficked in Bangladesh are often forced to marry, another tactic used by traffickers to create bonds with their victims.

Progress in Ending Human Trafficking in Bangladesh

In 2019, the United States made a major stride in punishing and resolving human trafficking in Bangladesh. USAID’s Bangladesh Counter for Trafficking in Persons partnered with the Forensic Training Institute and the Bangladesh police on a five-day training program on human trafficking. This event was highly successful, and the U.S. continues to work closely with Bangladesh on the issue. Furthermore, the U.S. has invested $8 million in shelters and programs for trafficking victims. The Bangladeshi and American governments also created a program to take place from 2018 to 2022 that works to reform trafficking policies. It creates new standards for officers and works to improve interagency communication through protocol. This partnership has led to a new awareness of human trafficking. Thanks to these new initiatives, Bangladesh has improved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 on the Human Trafficking Watchlist.

Bangladesh, with the assistance of USAID, is making strides in prosecuting traffickers and making resources for victims more accessible, such as taking the mental and physical effects of trafficking more seriously. Hopefully, this new motivation will continue, and Bangladesh will see less trafficking and stricter punishment of traffickers.

– Raven Heyne

Photo: Pixabay

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5 Things to Know About Water in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s population of 36 million has suffered violent conflict in recent history. According to the UN, the scarcity of water in Afghanistan remains the greatest obstacle blocking its path to national stability. Here are five things to know about water in Afghanistan.

5 Things to Know About Water in Afghanistan

  1. Afghanistan’s instability has brought more than war to the people who live there. According to the United Nations, the worst result of the political unrest and lack of sound government in Afghanistan is lack of water accessibility. A reported 22 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces currently suffer from drought. Only 67% of people have access to safe drinking water.
  2. Most people in Afghanistan do not have access to proper sanitation. Only 43% of people in Afghanistan have access to safely managed sanitation, meaning citizens must be separated from contact with human waste. Diarrhoeal diseases, caused by poor sanitation, are the second most frequent cause of death for children under five years old, with a mortality rate of six out of 1,000 live births.
  3. Afghanistan has enough water for all of its people. The nation’s five prominent basins have the potential to provide around 3,063 cubic meters of water per capita. Therefore, the problem lies not with water availability but the government’s capacity to distribute it to the people. The government uses less than 60% of the water in four out of those five basins. The constant and destructive war seen recently in Afghanistan has largely destroyed the country’s water management system.
  4. Glacial depletion has contributed greatly to these problems. The glaciers of the Hindu Kush mountain range have long provided the majority of Afghanistan’s water. Due to rising average temperatures, however, these glaciers face depletion. Estimates predict that the Hindu Kush glaciers will lose 36% of their mass by the year 2100, initially causing destructive flooding and eventually leading to further drought. Afghanistan has also recently seen a 62% drop in precipitation. The Ministry of Water and Energy has identified glacier depletion as the cause of its troubles.
  5. Despite these challenges, organizations are stepping in to help. UNICEF has named open defecation and a severe lack of water distribution in impoverished regions as major contributors to Afghanistan’s sanitation problem. The organization aims to eliminate open defecation by 2025 through public education about building and using latrines to keep people healthy. UNICEF has also helped the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development implement a water supply project to reconstruct the nation’s water systems. USAID has stepped in as well to impact the situation. With the help of USAID, 1.5 million people received drinking water access between 2008 and 2017 and 200,000 people received improved sanitation between 2008 and 2017.

While access to water and sanitation remains a major issue in Afghanistan, the situation is improving. UNICEF reports that in 2017, almost 300,000 people in Afghanistan gained clean water access. The percentage of people in Afghanistan practicing open defecation dropped from 26.2% to 12.74% between 2000 and 2017. Since then, the efforts of organizations such as UNICEF and USAID continue to make a positive impact on sanitation and water in Afghanistan. 

– Will Sikich
Photo: Flickr

Personal Debt in the Czech Republic

debt in the Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a country cradled in Central Europe and is a member of the European Union. Despite its membership in the EU, the Czech Republic opted out of adopting the Euro in favor of keeping its own currency, the Koruna (CZK). Formerly a communist country in the Soviet Bloc, the Czech Republic adopted democratic market-oriented policies following the Velvet Revolution in 1989. With this shift toward free markets and an industrial economy, the Czech Republic experienced a credit boom in the early to mid-1990s. Unfortunately for Czech households, with rising credit comes rising debt in the Czech Republic as well.

A Closer Look at Debt in the Czech Republic

After shedding the yolk of communism in 1989, the Czech Republic embraced free-market policies focused on industrialization and the growth and privatization of business. Deregulation ensued, with particular focus placed on unshackling the banking and lending industries.

Following the credit boom of the 1990s, a reform on the lending system in 2001 provided the opportunity for a slew of private bailiffs to emerge to collect debts racked up throughout the spending boom in the previous decade. These private debt collection agencies often employ aggressive strategies to enforce repayment. The private bailiffs often pursue debts regardless of the debtor’s ability to pay. They utilize brutal strategies for recollection such as freezing bank accounts and siphoning earned income. They even enter into debtors’ homes to seize property.

How Debt Destroys Opportunity

Currently, 863,000 Czechs face at least one seizure order. This means, due to the current legal framework, their income above a certain minimum amount can be forcibly redirected towards debt repayments. This represents roughly 10% of the current population of the Czech Republic.

Personal debt in the Czech Republic can become financially crippling for many people. Those with outstanding debts have their income siphoned away to pay the interest. This leads many to enter into the black market to find jobs which would not disclose their income. This expansion of the black market is exacerbating a labor shortage within the Czech economy.

People who accumulate even small debts such as those from telephone bills may face compounding debt traps. This is a result of poor financial literacy and loose regulations on lenders and financial institutions. In addition, there are laws that make bankruptcy declaration extremely convoluted and difficult. This legal and institutional framework of the Czech debt system regressively places an undue burden upon the middle and lower classes to pay debts which they cannot afford. Thus, it stifles economic mobility and magnifies the financial hardships faced by the Czech people.

Finding Ways Out of Debt in the Czech Republic

Fortunately for many within the Czech Republic, various government and non-government solutions are being implemented. Financial literacy is critical when navigating the complex landscape of personal debt, which is one of the main services that Czech nonprofit People in Need provides. People in Need offers debt advisory services to Czech citizens to help them understand financial planning, borrowing and repayment of loans. People in Need also helps debtors legally defend themselves from unjust collections strategies as well as petition for bankruptcy. This can be an important tactic for alleviating debt in the Czech Republic.

The Czech government is also aware of these systemic issues. As of 2017, Parliament has debated bills addressing these strict policies regarding seizures and bankruptcy. Since the early 2000s, the law allows companies to better collect their loans by paying collections agencies. These agencies can cause the fees owed by debtors to skyrocket, potentially over ten-fold. This is due to costly collections processes as well as fees collected by the agencies. Both the government as well as nonprofit organizations like People in Need are working on ways to lower fees. They also work to expand access to the possibility of bankruptcy and more generous debt relief.

Conclusion

The Czech Republic serves as an important case study in national debt policy. Even a relatively rich country in Europe can still place undue financial burdens on its lower classes through inadequate lending laws and aggressive privatization of the credit industry. The work being done by nonprofits and the government should act as an example in reforming household credit markets and hopefully create a more just and forgiving landscape for lenders within the Czech Republic.

– Ian Hawthorne
Photo: Flickr

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4 Forces Advancing Women’s Rights in Yemen

Women's Rights in Yemen Women in Yemen are enduring one of the worst humanitarian crises in history. After a 2011 Arab Spring uprising forced longtime dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office, deputy Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi took power and enlivened Yemenis with hope for change. In contrast to these expectations, however, civil unrest and development setbacks like corruption crippled Hadi’s government. The Houthi movement, a militant Shiite group, capitalized on this political disarray in 2015 and seized huge territories throughout the country, including the capital in Sana’a. Soon after, a coalition of U.S.-backed, Sunni-majority countries deployed troops to eradicate this Shia influence in Yemen. A brutal war followed that has expelled Hadi from the country, killed thousands and deepened extreme poverty and food insecurity for millions. The conflict has subjected women, who are already victims of deeply rooted prejudice, to increasingly unjust gender roles and violence. Fortunately, numerous organizations and legislation are working to advance women’s rights in Yemen.

Gender Inequality in Yemen

Patriarchal norms have long prevailed in Yemen. For 13 years, the Global Gender Gap Index has identified women’s rights in Yemen as the worst in the world. As the fighting continues, widespread instability is magnifying the country’s vast gender inequality.

Educational and economic opportunities for Yemeni women are severely limited. According to the World Economic Forum, only 35% of women are literate compared with 73% of men. While a majority of women receive primary education, only 40% continue on to secondary schooling. Such educational gender disparity, coupled with misogyny in the job market and burdensome responsibilities at home, contributes to women’s shockingly low labor force participation rate of 6.3%.

Beyond economic injustice, Yemeni women face a bleak social landscape. Tasked with managing the domestic sphere, women strain to procure even basic necessities such as food. This is especially true recently, as the civil conflict has subverted conventional supply lines. The concept of males as female guardians further jeopardizes women’s safety in Yemen, as a woman is considered safer when escorted by a male. With working husbands and pressing needs at home, however, women are forced to venture out unaccompanied. Without effective laws to defend them, women are left vulnerable to sexual assault and physical violence.

Years of conflict have eroded the institutions that once might have protected these women. The urgency of national stability has also relegated women’s security to a position of low priority. Even in previous times of peace, however, women had little means to voice grievances and even less power to enact change. Today, Yemeni women’s political participation remains low, with women making up a paltry 0.3% of parliament.

Amid the global push for gender equality, traditionalist insecurities drive men to violent retaliation against societal change, exacerbating the challenges women already face. But the outlook is not entirely hopeless. Here are four forces that are working to advance women’s rights in Yemen.

4 Forces Advancing Women’s Rights in Yemen

  1. Yemeni Women’s Pact for Peace and Security. Formed in 2015 after collaboration with U.N. Women, the pact is an association of Yemeni women aimed at ending the country’s protracted civil war. Beyond its aspirations for peace, the group has spearheaded women’s involvement in civic activism, paving the way for long-term political empowerment.
  2. Yemeni Women’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG). Also working to redress women’s exclusion from politics, the TAG comprises women from various areas of vocational expertise and serves as an advisory body. In addition to conferring on policy, TAG members participate in various peace talks. One such conference was the 2018 Stockholm consultation, in which the warring parties arranged to remove troops from Hudaydah, where fighting threatened to close off a crucial port to the Yemeni population. Though both sides have yet to observe this consensus, the Stockholm agreement set a precedent of women’s involvement in the civil negotiation of a violent, divisive conflict.
  3. Keeping Girls in School Act. Already passed in the House of Representatives, the Keeping Girls in School Act would combat global gender disparities in education. Under this act, USAID would execute a procedure to circumvent common obstacles to girls’ education, such as child marriage and patriarchal norms, and to boost female enrollment in secondary schooling. If passed, this act would abate Yemen’s severe educational inequality and equip adolescent girls with the knowledge and skills for future occupational success. Not only would the Keeping Girls in School Act enhance women’s rights in Yemen; according to Congressional findings, increasing girls’ education sparks development and economic progress. Thus, the act is both a form of social reform and a strategic necessity.
  4. Girls’ Leadership, Engagement, Agency, and Development (LEAD) Act. Referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in late 2019, the Girls LEAD Act has the potential to advance adolescent girls’ political involvement and civic engagement. The bill provides for USAID’s implementation of a comprehensive plan to educate and empower girls in developing nations. The Girls LEAD Act, if passed, would extend unparalleled political opportunity to Yemeni girls, helping to dismantle restrictive gender norms and molding once-disenfranchised women into agents of meaningful change.

As the civil war rages on, women’s conditions in Yemen may appear an irremediable predicament. Yet determined organizations, dynamic legislation and a country of women eager to escape society’s shackles are working to advance women’s rights in Yemen and make gender equality a reality.

– Rosalind Coats
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Mass Incarcerations in Colombia: 4 Things to Know

mass incarcerations in Colombia
Colombia is a country in South America with a population of nearly 50 million as of 2018. It is the second largest country located in South America, with the 38th largest economy in the world. The Colombian Justice System is structured similarly to that of the United States, where defendants have the right to a fair and speedy trial and are sentenced by judges.

Colombian prisons have a problem with mass incarceration. They have an overall capacity of 80,928 people; however, their actual capacity is at 112,864 people as of May 2020. The majority of people are incarcerated for non-violent crimes, such as drug-related offenses. Mass incarcerations in Colombia are also an issue because they lead to other health issues, such as the transmission of HIV and tuberculosis. Here are four more important things to know about mass incarcerations in Colombia.

Mass Incarcerations in Colombia: 4 Things to Know

  1. Capacity Rates: There are 132 prisons in Colombia with a total maximum capacity of just over 80,000 people. Despite this capacity, Colombian prisons have an occupancy level of 139.5%, or just over 112,000 people. Women make up approximately 6.9% of this number, or about 7,700 women. There are no children actively incarcerated in Colombian prisons. The country’s congress has regularly fought against the release of prisoners, instead choosing to keep the prisons full.
  2. Effects of COVID-19: Prison riots are becoming increasingly common in Latin America with the spread of the coronavirus. Mass incarcerations in Colombia have created panic amongst the prisoners, who have demanded more attention to their conditions. The Colombian Minister of Justice, Margarita Cabello, has not outwardly acknowledged the prison riots as demands for better care against COVID-19. Instead, she has stated that the riots were an attempt to thwart security and escape from prison. Furthermore, because of the scarcity in the number of doctors, many prisoners have contracted and/or died from COVID-19. In one particular prison in central Colombia, over 30% of staffers and prisoners have become infected with the virus.
  3. Infectious Diseases: Beside COVID-19, mass incarcerations in Colombia have allowed for the spread of other infectious diseases, such as HIV and tuberculosis. Colombian prisons have designated cell blocks for those who contract HIV, as it is common for prisoners to engage in sexual relationships with guards. Healthcare facilities are not readily available in prisons, and condoms are in scarce supply. Active cases of tuberculosis (TB) also correlate with mass incarcerations in Colombia. Approximately 1,000 prisoners per 100,000 were found to have active cases of TB with little to no access to affordable care.
  4. Possible Solutions: Local citizens Mario Salazar and Tatiana Arango created the Salazar Arango Foundation for Colombian prisoners. Salazar conceived the idea after being imprisoned in 2012 on fraud charges and seeking ways to make serving his sentence more tolerable. The Salazar and Arango Foundation provides workshops for prisoners in the city of La Picota and puts on plays for fellow inmates. Prisoners have found the organization to be impactful to their self-esteem and their push for lower sentences.

Mass incarcerations have had major impacts on the Colombian prison system. Issues such as food shortages and violence have given way to poverty-like conditions with little action. Despite these conditions, organizations such as the Salazar Arango Foundation look to make mass incarcerations in Colombia more tolerable for those behind bars. Hopefully, with time, mass incarcerations in Colombia can eventually be eliminated.

– Alondra Belford
Photo: Unsplash

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Homelessness in Trinidad and Tobago

Homelessness in Trinidad and Tobago

The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is the southernmost island in the Caribbean. The country has a population of approximately 1.39 million people, with 20% of those people living below the poverty line. As a result, homelessness in Trinidad and Tobago is a common reality for many citizens. Homelessness does not only impact those who experience it directly, but it also harms the surrounding community and the overall Trinidadian economy.

The Effects of Homelessness and Poverty

According to Newsday, there are approximately 414 homeless people living on the streets of Trinidad and Tobago. Behavioral health disorders, rising numbers of victims of assault and acute and chronic physical conditions are just some of the effects of homelessness in Trinidad and Tobago. Crimes against the homeless has risen drastically in the country. There has been a total of 1,437 assault cases against homeless individuals alone. With an unemployment rate of 4.9%, and rising drastically, conditions are made worse as more citizens fall below the poverty line and into homelessness. 

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted economies worldwide, and Trinidad and Tobago is no exception. The pandemic has increased the number of vulnerable individuals and the percentage of people living in homelessness in the country. As a tourism-dependent country, the pandemic caused the closure of most touristic attractions, thus decreasing the amount of money going into Trinidad and Tobago. Therefore, many people were laid off and fell below the minimum wage line.

The Good News

Despite the increasing numbers of people on the streets, many organizations have come together to help the homeless in Trinidad and Tobago. With the help of The Social Development Ministry, the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force has worked rigorously to build temporary housing for the homeless. The facility aforementioned began construction in April of 2020 and provides homeless individuals with roofs over their heads, cots to sleep on, clean bathrooms and meals three times a day. To ensure the safety and health of those staying there, social distancing has been enforced and The Public Health Department has conducted inspections.

By raising funds to provide housing for those less fortunate, Habitat for Humanity has also made a positive impact in the country. The organization builds safe and clean habitats for those in need in Trinidad and Tobago. The non-profit began building in 1997 and has served more than 700 people since.

Homelessness in Trinidad and Tobago affects many people, especially during a time when homeless rates are rising drastically as more people lose their jobs. Assistance provided by the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force has helped decrease the number of people living on the street. As more shelters open, more homeless individuals begin receiving the help they need.

– Jacey Reece
Photo: Flickr 

Artificial Intelligence Helps Impoverished Communities during COVID-19 Pandemic

BlueDot, a Canadian artificial intelligence company, alerted its customers of an outbreak more than a week before the WHO notified the public of the COVID-19 outbreak. The company uses programs driven by artificial intelligence to analyze large amounts of information with the goal of discovering disease outbreaks. This company – and many others like it – could be key in helping thousands of people navigate COVID-19.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science focused on intelligence displayed by machines. There are both pros and cons associated with the development of artificial intelligence. However, with the possibility of COVID-19 pushing 50 million more people into poor households in 2020, many countries are doing everything they can to harness this developing technology.

Artificial Intelligence, COVID-19 and Poverty

People in impoverished communities are facing a serious dilemma: should they continue to work and potentially catch COVID-19 or stay home and face hunger or malnutrition?

There is currently no vaccine for the virus, and lockdowns and social distancing measures are effective but economically harmful. Most people in poverty do not have the financial savings to support themselves. Similarly, restrictions have the potential to push already unstable economies in less developed countries into a recession. Fortunately, artificial intelligence is providing new ways to support people in such challenging times.

4 Ways Artificial Intelligence Can Help Impoverished Communities During COVID-19

  1. Satellite images and phone data are assisting in identifying communities in need of financial assistance. Policymakers in Togo, a West African nation, teamed up with UC Berkeley to find ways to use satellite images and phone data to identify the country’s most impoverished communities and provide aid. A similar program is already in use in various African countries. The NGO GiveDirectly partnered with a local phone company to give governmental assistance to subscribers who live in impoverished communities. The government contacts citizens and offers them a cash transfer. In March alone, GiveDirectly made payments totaling over $2.5 million to 13,806 recipients.
  2. The technology could help researchers analyze COVID-19 data and make clinical decisions. A doctor from Kashmir is using artificial intelligence to detect patterns in large amounts of COVID-19 data. Currently, there is an overwhelming influx of public health data surfacing. In addition, with the virus’s potential to push more people into poverty, there is a need to analyze and evaluate the data quickly. The doctor is also working with local professionals to discover innovative ways to provide healthcare in the country.
  3. Developing countries have started using artificial intelligence for surveillance and social control. Nations like Ecuador, Kenya, Peru and South Africa are using surveillance technologies to ensure citizens are using social distancing measures. South Africa implemented a “real-time contact tracing and communication system.” The software used to create the system was originally intended to detect rhinoceros poaching hotspots in national parks.
  4. Artificial intelligence makes it possible to accurately screen many people at a time from a distance. China has used the technology to install distanced fever-screening systems in railway and subway stations. Beijing’s Qinghe Railway Station houses one of the systems, which can “examine up to 200 people in one minute without disrupting passenger flow.” Many developing countries are densely packed, and many people in those countries have poor access to healthcare. Screening large numbers of people in a short period of time can have a positive impact on the fight against COVID-19 in developing countries.

The race to harness artificial intelligence is on around the globe. Artificial intelligence has the potential not only to alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 on developing countries but around the world. The public database Kaggle is sponsoring the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge. Its hope is that experts around the world will come together to find new ways to use artificial intelligence techniques. Ultimately, this will produce new insights to assist in the global fight against COVID-19.

– Araceli Mercer
Photo: Flickr

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Health and Climate Correlations

Health and Climate Change
Health and climate issues closely relate as environmental hazards have the ever-increasing potential to inflict damage on human populations. Climate conditions are able to worsen human health in the form of physiological deterioration, such as heart and lung diseases, asthma, mental health illnesses and many more ailments.

Extreme natural disasters such as floods, droughts, hurricanes and wildfires are examples of environmental factors that hurt human health. While these elements can cause health issues like the ones above, indirectly, the correlation between health and climate issues appears in the form of ecological changes and other biological forms. Examples include food security, mental illness, malnutrition, water-borne diseases and/or other infectious diseases. Reducing environmental risks can ultimately reduce these health risks.

Food Insecurity

In 2017, there were 157 million more “heat wave exposure events” than in 2000, which are extreme weather conditions that drastically increase individuals’ chance of mortal health risks. Extreme heat leads to an increase in hospital admissions and deaths credited to cardiovascular diseases, respiratory disorders, heat stroke and more. Heatwaves also decrease productivity—people lost 153 billion hours of labor from “excessive heat,” primarily in the agricultural industry, in 2017. Productivity loss leads to food insecurity, disruption of livelihoods and poor income distribution for those depending on agriculture for jobs.

As well as productivity decline, extreme weather events can diminish biodiversity and change rainfall trends, which causes crop yields to decline around the world. Insufficient crop yields reduce the amount of “consumable food calories” or the amount of food produced from crop yields for people to eat. This process results in global food insecurity, malnutrition, stunted growth, diseases and death, and while most wealthy countries are able to import food or find other viable crop options, rural areas in poorer countries, where 70% of the world’s most food-insecure live, suffer. Globally, food production lost approximately 35 trillion calories, which could have fed undernourished populations, as a result of fluctuating and unfavorable environmental conditions. Meanwhile, about 70% of weather disasters (droughts, floods, storms and more) are climate-related and FAO specifies that agriculture endures more than 20% of the damages. Of the damages to all industries from droughts in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2006 and 2016, agriculture bore 80% of the damages.

Food insecurity from insufficient crop yields increases the demand for food without a supply, therefore prices rise, which generates a new level of vulnerability for poor populations and forces them to turn to less nutritional food and threatens mass malnutrition. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) possesses a small agricultural industry and imports approximately 86% of its food. Food insecurities from their produce suppliers will “constrain trade flows” to the UAE and pressure individual people and households to spend a greater proportion of their income on food.

Increase in Diseases

Infectious diseases, such as malaria and cholera, and waterborne diseases spread faster in warmer climates leading to illnesses becoming more prevalent in regions where they were previously not a threat. As the frequency of droughts increases, humans become dependent on contaminated water sources that are more likely to have waterborne viruses that infect populations.

Malaria is an example of a disease that can spread based on environmental factors. As the temperature of the earth rises, malaria becomes more prevalent and the death rate increases because warmer than usual conditions enable the disease to spread to new, previously immune regions, such as East Africa.

Because the threat level of food and waterborne diseases is dependent on climate conditions, governments must prepare surveillance and preventative measures within their health systems.

Air Quality

The increased frequency of wildfires that put human health at risk is another example of how health and climate intertwine. Wildfires produce smoke that leaves behind carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter in the air which dramatically reduces the air quality. The World Health Organization (WHO) and CDC credit smoke exposure and poor air quality as the causes of “hundreds of thousands of deaths annually” from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, lung cancer, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and strokes.

Additionally, poor air quality from unclean cooking, heating and lighting practices—using indoor stoves and burning kerosene, wood, animal dung or vegetables—kills 4 million annually and causes 93% of children around the world to suffer from respiratory infections, according to WHO. Air pollution impacts the population generationally, as those that suffer from exposure to polluted air are later more likely to give birth to premature children with increased susceptibility to diminished cognitive ability, asthma, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. In 2016, 1,432 individuals died as a result of air pollution in the United Arab Emirates.

Poverty undoubtedly plays a significant role in health. Factors such as geographic location, socioeconomic status, age, access to health care, the resiliency of health care infrastructure and type of ecological threat have the potential to drastically amplify the level of health risk to populations. A perfect example of the role of wealth regarding health is how 98% of “low- and middle income countries with more than 100,000 inhabitants” worldwide fail to reach air quality standards that WHO has presented. Comparatively, the number of high-income countries with inadequate air quality levels is 56%. The good news is that many of these environmental problems are reversible: just as environmental issues can cause health problems, solving environmental issues can improve global health.

Actions Taken

The East African Development Fund (EADB) is an example of an economic institution that recognizes the threat of environmental issues on socio-economic development and overall health. The EADB has identified the necessity of addressing health and climate threats through the process of development in developing countries and regions. By supporting various initiatives and technologies, the EADB helps those facing environmental obstacles such as droughts, changes in rainfall and diminished crop yields.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is an organization that finances projects that address environmental issues. The GEF has provided $20.5 billion in grants and $112 billion to finance environmentally regenerative projects in 170 countries. GEF prioritizes a multifaceted approach and deliberate engagements with the “private sector, indigenous peoples, and civil society” to establish a variety of strategies and results.

Many more organizations like these exist, such as the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE). These environmental organizations support national strategies to mitigate the economic and health repercussions of the environment and encourages each nation to do its part in addressing environmental challenges.

WHO Recommendations

Every four years, WHO curates profiles for countries to identify climate risks, correlating health impacts and national responses. In these profiles, WHO connects health and climate issues, as well as categorizes health impacts and solutions that differ between country and region. Across the board, one of the primary recommendations is the implementation of policy and a national strategy for health and climate issues. For example, one of the primary concerns in the United Arab Emirates is air pollution and the respiratory effects, whereas, in the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu in Polynesia, rising sea levels produce the most concern. WHO helps plan and implement “climate-resilient health systems” which improves the health workforce’s ability to better respond to health effects from environmental problems. In Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands, health officials receive training on health services for extreme weather events and “climate sensitive diseases.”

There are innumerable ways that public health and climate issues interconnect—tackling health problems and global environmental problems together is like killing two birds with one stone. As an international organization, WHO is responsible for producing thorough health guidelines and coordinating global health and climate responses. It falls upon each country to determine its role in protecting global health and solutions for environmental challenges they can implement to ensure the safest future.

–  Nye Day
Photo: Flickr

8 Facts about Healthcare in Brazil

Healthcare in BrazilBrazil is the largest country in South America with a population of over 211 million people. The country’s economy has improved greatly in the past few years and is considered an upper-middle-income economy by the World Bank, yet healthcare system in Brazil still has a long way to go to provide equal care for its citizens.

8 Facts about Healthcare in Brazil

  1.  Free Healthcare – Since 1988, Brazil has provided free healthcare for all its citizens. This has improved the overall health and quality of life of the people in Brazil, decreasing the infant mortality rate from 27 per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 12.8 per 1,000 live births in 2018. Life expectancy has also increased from 68.7 in 1996 to 75.7 in 2018.
  2. Low GDP on Health Spending – Total government spending on health increased from 7% to 8.3% between 2000 and 2014. Currently, Brazil has the lowest proportion of public spending on healthcare in Latin America and the Caribbean, but leaders in Brazil are working on increasing that number.
  3. Implementation of ‘More Doctors’ Program – Social inequality in different areas of Brazil serves as a barrier to healthcare for some residents, particularly those in rural areas in Northern Brazil. Moreover, there is a shortage of doctors and other health professionals in Northern Brazil. To fill these gaps in underserved areas, the government created the program More Doctors (Mais Médicos) in 2013 to bring in doctors from other countries, especially Cuba.
  4. Family Health Programme – A huge part of Brazil’s national health system is the Family Health Programme, which gives healthcare to 97 million Brazilians. The program employs more than 30,000 healthcare teams, and its main goal is to extend healthcare to the country’s most impoverished. Along with offering free healthcare services through the Family Health Program, Brazil’s healthcare system also offers hospital services like heart surgery, medical scans, free dental care and government subsidization of 90% of medications.
  5. Threat of Infectious Diseases – Political and economic crises serve as the biggest obstacles to good healthcare in Brazil. From 2014 to 2016, the percent of people in Brazil who were living in poverty increased from 20.4% to 23.5%. Moreover, 2.9 million people also had to give up private medical insurance during the same time period. Infectious disease outbreaks such as dengue, Zika virus and, most recently, COVID-19 increased in the past few years. Some infectious diseases that were perceived to be under control in Brazil had recorded outbreaks such as yellow fever in 2016 and 2018, which officials reported to have likely occurred from a lack of vaccinations in risk regions.
  6. Underfunded Healthcare – Healthcare in Brazil is significantly underfunded. Twelve percent of state governments’ budgets go toward healthcare, with 15% of city governments’ budgets following suit. Although 98% of city governments meet and even exceed that requirement, many state governments fail to do so each year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than half of state governments fail to allocate at least 12% of their budget towards healthcare.
  7. Private Sector Optimization – Much of the healthcare services in Brazil are based in the private sector, with Brazil having the second-biggest private health insurance market in the world. Investments keep the private healthcare sector afloat with more than half the funding originating from out-of-pocket investments, mainly from pharmacies. The private healthcare sector is based primarily on hospitalization and not primary care, so it is a medium to save the injured or the ill rather than provide preventive health measures.
  8. Technology in the Healthcare System – One of Brazil’s main priorities in regard to healthcare is incorporating technology into the healthcare system to extend the benefits of healthcare to poor and remote communities. Most primary care clinics do not have computers while some emergency hospitals lack computers. The Ministry of Health also wants to increase the use of smartphone healthcare apps and technology to improve access to healthcare services in certain communities.

Although Brazil’s healthcare system requires improvement in certain areas, such as the availability of technology and funding, it still serves as a model healthcare system for other countries in South America. With certain improvements, healthcare in Brazil has a promising future.

– Shveta Shah
Photo: Flickr

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4 Facts about Homelessness in Nicaragua

Homelessness in NicaraguaNicaragua, a Central American nation between the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea, has a population of more than 6 million. Unfortunately, homelessness is a current struggle in the country. The homeless are known as some of the most marginalized groups in Nicaragua, and the population of homelessness is only increasing. Currently, around “30% of the population lives on about$2 per day.” As Nicaragua lacks the key characteristics of a well-developed country, a correlative relationship between development and homelessness. Here are four facts about homelessness in Nicaragua.

4 Facts about Homelessness in Nicaragua

  1. A strong factor in homelessness is mental illness. Compared to the general population, the homeless population has a more difficult time seeking help and beneficial resources because of the prevalence of mental illness. Recent studies state that reports of mental illnesses are increasing. The main cause is a combination of economic problems and the difficulty of social interactions, especially with family members.
  2. With such a high percentage of people living in poverty, there are very limited opportunities for education and development. Families often operate farms for healthy crops, but they struggle to make a comfortable living. For some who don’t make a successful living growing crops, it may lead to homelessness. The Opportunity International Program has helped improve Nicaragua’s agriculture with “loans and technical assistance” with higher-quality crops. Crop growth has increased by 30%. The organization also fights homelessness in Nicaragua by giving the children of struggling families opportunities to receive an education. Opportunity International has partnered with more than 20 leaders to help downsize the number of homeless Nicaraguans struggling to make good livelihoods.
  3. Natural disasters in Nicaragua are major contributors to homelessness. Since the 2007 Hurricane Felix, as well as the prior and subsequent weeks of heavy rain, rural parts of Nicaragua are still struggling to recover. This has left a total of 436,000 homeless. The storm also destroyed large amounts of agricultural land and forests, further devastating the livelihoods of those with farms. International responses have been actively sending aid to the least developed areas of the country as well as where homelessness is most prevalent.
  4. Social organizations and students have volunteered for years to aid poor, homeless communities in Nicaragua. Habitat For Humanity has been working in poor rural areas since 1984. It continues to mobilize volunteers to take action in Nicaragua’s homeless communities by building small homes. It has helped supply 91,900 people in need throughout the country. To ameliorate the homeless problem, the organization estimates that Nicaragua still needs an additional 957,000 in housing improvements and new home construction projects. Habitat For Humanity continues to mobilize students to take action in Nicaragua’s homelessness starting by helping build small homes.

These points mark four facts about homelessness in Nicaragua. There is a strong need for economic improvements in order to reduce the homeless population. The first step is creating more homes for families to stay in and improving the current homes with more available resources. Furthermore, improvements in crop production can help families in agriculture earn a sustainable living.

– Rachel Hernandez
Photo: Wikimedia Commons