Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

The Impact of Agricultural Development on Poverty

agricultural developmentThe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the world’s most recognized foundations. It has a penchant for global awareness unlike any other. Started in 1999, the Gates Foundation has developed into an international organization across five continents and 138 countries. Additionally, the Gates Foundation has amassed an endowment of $46.8 billion. In the past two years alone, the foundation has provided close to $10 billion in direct grantee support. One of the Gates Foundation’s areas of focus is agricultural development in impoverished countries.

Agricultural Development

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded billions in research and grants in support of agricultural development. The vast majority of funds have gone towards making staple crops more resilient, farmers’ education on irrigation and techniques on pest or disease control.

The foundation stands by the idea that livestock offers the chance to improve both income and nutrition for those in poverty or extreme poverty. It also increases the livelihood of women in particular who stand to be the largest group overwhelmed by extreme poverty. Africa, in particular, is the continent with the highest probability in the agricultural sector. In Eastern Africa, more than 70 percent of individuals rely on small farms for both income and sustainment.

Poultry Donation

In a partnership with Heifer International, Bill and Melinda Gates donated 100,000 chickens to sub-Saharan African families, which helped to create a sustainable poultry market in the region. The science behind the donation is evident in the $300 yearly income increase that families who received a chicken saw. This furthers the effort to provide vaccinated chickens suitable to the area and its conditions. The goal is to provide 30 percent of families in the region with vaccinated poultry.

Heifer International and the Gates Foundation have been collaborating for nearly a decade now. Together, they made their first joint investment of $42.8 million an effort to double the income of East African farmers through dairy farming within the span of a decade. The history of both organizations in the region has seen actionable agricultural development from previous successes.

A Chicken’s Impact

When someone in poverty makes just $700 a year, $300 can make a remarkable difference and continue to improve their lives through targeted investments. With the donation of 100,000 chickens, around 2,500 families will be getting groups of 40 vaccinated poultry. By keeping chickens for over a year, many will benefit from eating eggs, which provide much-needed nutrients and protein. Furthermore, farmers can sell their chickens after only six weeks of breeding.

Once again, the Gates Foundation is providing the capital necessary to give projects that may never get off the ground the chance to see their impact on individuals living on less than $2 a day. Within the next year, we will see the Gates Foundation’s impact on 2,500 farmers’ lives as well as the marker of 30 percent of the poultry market being appropriately vaccinated for the region. Projects like these show the impact agricultural development can have on poverty.

– Cassiday Moriarity
Photo: Pixabay

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Ending Poverty in Bangladesh

Poverty in Bangladesh
Between 2000 and 2016, Bangladesh lifted 8 million people out of poverty. According to a World Bank report, the rate of poverty in Bangladesh went from 44.2% to 13.8% between 1991 and 2017. Improvements include increased life expectancy and nutrition, easier access to electricity, safer water and sanitation and broad-based expansion in education that is accessible to more than 164 million people. The road to ending poverty in Bangladesh is a challenging one, but the country and several organizations are making efforts to accomplish this.

History of Poverty in Bangladesh

About 61% of the country is rural while 39% of the population is urban. The urban regions experienced their turnaround from poverty at a slower pace than the rural regions with the help of industrial services, which resulted in solving the problems quicker and better for those living in the urban regions. Despite the 1:4 ratio of people still suffering from poverty, the progress has been remarkable. In fact, Bangladesh’s rural areas experienced a 90% decrease in poverty.

With the improvements that the country has made toward ending poverty in Bangladesh, the nation’s finance minister Mustafa Kamal has announced that the nation should expect to be poverty-free by 2030. With plans to improve more vulnerable, urban areas, the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) have been key contributors in investing to rebuild the nation by creating 10 million jobs over the next decade. SEZs are areas in a country that is subject to economic regulations that differ from other regions in the same country. For instance, since the urban regions have a slower rebuilding process than the rural, that means that they may be more favorable towards the urban region which has not caught up to the rural region in terms of progress, despite the improvement regarding poverty. With job creation on its agenda, Bangladesh could earn $100 billion in remittance from now until the deadline to wipe out poverty, which equals $1 trillion.

Pizza Hut and KFC

To make matters better, corporate food chains Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken have formed a partnership to launch a campaign called the World Hunger Relief, which supports the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Founded in 2009, the WFP not only raises funds to provide vitamin and mineral fortified biscuits among other snacks to children in small rural areas, but it also promotes the importance of basic education to help others rise from poverty in the long run.

Yum Incorporated owns Pizza Hut and KFC and has been using its network to raise awareness in the hopes of making a difference on top of the improvements that Bangladesh has made independently. Its success rate has included reaching more than 4 million children and calling for customers of the respective food chains to make a contribution. This campaign will be a key asset to ending poverty in Bangladesh by the start of the next decade and preventing it from returning.

The Investment Component for Vulnerable Group Development (ICVGD) Program

The WFP has also partnered with the Bangladeshi government to help women break away from their gender roles through livelihood training and food assistance programs. The Investment Component for Vulnerable Group Development (ICVGD) program’s participants come from all 64 districts of the country, which tend to be remote areas where natural disasters are likely to occur. The implementation of this program received positive feedback after improving food security, income and diet variation in those districts.

The organization is now bringing focus to financial management, life skills and personal hygiene. There is a training period where the women will receive a grant of $180, as well as fortified rice as their rations. The ICVGD is part of the Vulnerable Group Development program that the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs runs, which boasts the largest safety net to aid poor women and children across the country.

– Tom Cintula
Photo: Flickr

10 Facts About Child Mortality in Yemen

Child Mortality in Yemen
With a population of 28.25 million people, Yemen has been through more turmoil than many other countries. It is currently ranked as the country with the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. This crisis threatens the lives of children through increased malnutrition, inadequate hygiene and other significant health and safety risks. Here are 10 facts about child mortality in Yemen.

10 Facts About Child Mortality in Yemen

  1. Approximately 50,000 infants die in Yemen each year. These deaths are the result of violence, famine, a lack of crucial medical care and widespread poverty. World Food Program USA has been working with Islamic Relief to provide 2 months of life-saving food to families and conducts nutritional programs to malnourished children.
  2. According to the U.N., there are 400,000 children under 5 years old who suffer from severe malnutrition. Some of these issues are the result of longstanding war and conflict. City blockades and airstrikes sometimes make it difficult or impossible for food aid to reach the children who need it the most. One organization working to bring food aid to children and families affected by severe malnutrition is called Save the Children. Save the Children has been working with the children of Yemen since 1963.
  3. Millions of Yemeni children are in desperate need of food to stay alive. Around 85,000 children have died from starvation or health complications caused by starvation since the war escalated in Yemen. In an effort to save Yemeni children from starvation, Save the Children provided food to 140,000 children and treated 78,000 children who were on the brink of death due to severe malnutrition.
  4. In Yemen, 30,000 children under the age of five die every year due to malnutrition-related diseases. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) works to save the lives of malnourished Yemeni children by distributing a nutritional peanut-based paste. With 500 calories per packet, children suffering from severe malnutrition can recover in matters of weeks.
  5. Violence is still a grim reality for Yemeni children. Airstrikes and mine explosions killed 335 children since August of 2018. Many are pushing for the war in Yemen to end so that children can live normal and safe lives. The U.N. estimates that if the war in Yemen continues even until 2022, more than half a million people will have been killed.
  6. Airstrikes are the leading cause of death for children in Yemen. The Civilian Impact Monitoring Project (CIMP) reports that between March 2018 and March 2019, air raids killed 226 children and injured 217. These numbers average out to 37 deaths of Yemeni children due to airstrikes per month. Save the Children is working to help children recover from airstrike injuries. They assist with medical bills and provide emotional support to help manage their trauma.
  7. Conflict in Yemen has caused the destruction of many water facilities, leaving children vulnerable to deadly diseases. Around 5.5 million people in Yemen are currently living in areas at a higher risk for cholera due to a lack of clean or sufficient water. UNICEF is working with the local water corporations to restore Yemen’s water supplies. In 2017, UNICEF installed the first-ever solar-powered water system in the city of Sa’ad.
  8. According to ReliefWeb, 17 million people in Yemen are in need of sanitary drinking water. One potential solution to this is the Life Straw, a small, hand-held straw that filters out 99.9 percent of waterborne bacteria and 98.7 percent of waterborne viruses. Though they have mainly been distributed in Africa, these straws could have a significant impact in Yemen.
  9. More children have been killed by waterborne illnesses and poor sanitation than conflict. Poor sanitation is one of the leading causes of diseases. Many children also lack the proper hygiene supplies needed to stay healthy. Having access to soap would significantly reduce the chances of obtaining hygiene-related diseases. To improve access to hygiene supplies in developing countries around the world, including Yemen, a company called Clean the World recycles partially used pieces of soap from hotels. More than 53 million bars of soap have been distributed in over 127 countries to those who need it.
  10. Diseases caused by mosquitos also contribute to child mortality in Yemen. The country has heavy rainfall and many people collect rainwater as their main water source. Collected water standing idle is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos. An outbreak of mosquito-borne illnesses in Yemen killed 78 children under the age of 16, as of the end of 2019. There are 52,000 cases of mosquito-borne illnesses across the country. One potential solution is Kite Patch, which creates a mosquito repellent patch that sticks to the skin and protects against mosquito bites.

Child mortality in Yemen remains a persistent problem for the nation. For long-term improvement, the conflict in Yemen must be resolved. However, with continued efforts by humanitarian organizations, Yemeni children will still become safer, healthier and able to live longer lives.

– Amelia Sharma
Photo: Flickr

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6 Facts About Sanitation Conditions in Cyprus

Sanitation conditions in CyprusCyprus is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean with a rich history. Over the years, the island has sought to develop safe sanitation facilities that would greatly improve the way of life for much of its rural population. More and more measures are being taken to encourage higher hygiene levels by providing the right supplies such as proper sewer systems, latrines, septic tanks and composting toilets. Cyprus has also begun to address clean water measures throughout the country. These rapid developments have promoted economic growth and decreased high rates of poverty. Here are the top six facts about sanitation conditions in Cyprus.

6 Facts About Sanitation Conditions in Cyprus

  1. Due to the depletion of groundwater resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, National Resources and the Environment had to resort to non-conventional water resources such as desalination, using low-quality water and reusing wastewater. They have used these techniques since 1997. In fact, a desalination plant near Larnaca Airport produces about 33 million cubic meters of water per year, helping to improve sanitation conditions in Cyprus.
  2. The government implemented a harmonization program in 2012 to develop strategies that would improve water and environmental outcomes, which would improve sanitation conditions in Cyprus. It installed central sewage systems in four areas across Cyprus, including Nicosia, Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos.
  3. The irrigated agricultural sector makes up about 70 percent of the entire water use in Cyprus. The domestic sector, tourism and amenities make up the rest of it. Each year, Cyprus’ water demand equals to 265,9 million cubic meters. It is projected to rise to 313,7 meters in 2020 due to an increase in tourism and the use of domestic water sources.
  4. Currently, there is a domestic water supply project in progress to improve water and sanitation conditions in Cyprus. It will focus on the city of Nicosia and the surrounding areas in the western province of the city. The Vasilikos to Western Nicosia Conveyer Water Supply Project is financially backed by the European Investment Bank and the Kokkinokremmos Water Supply Project. It will construct necessary infrastructure including pumping stations, a pipeline and water storage facilities. The project cost around $66 million. The government of Cyprus was able to obtain a loan for almost $44 million.
  5. Due to the water shortage, many farmers face high costs today. Most of their income loss comes from competition within the agricultural sector. Insufficient surface water resources, deeper groundwater pumping and droughts can impact water availability, which then compromises water demand.
  6. According to a graph by the World Bank, the number of people using basic sanitation services in Cyprus has remained consistent from 2000 to 2016. In 2000, reports showed 99.7 percent of people had basic sanitation. In 2016, it had only decreased to 99.5 percent.

Sanitation conditions in Cyprus are readily improving with new development that has strengthened water supplies throughout the country’s regions. Water shortages compromise the livelihoods of much of the population on the island, which severely impacts the rate of global poverty as a whole. These six facts about sanitation conditions in Cyprus are therefore important in understanding how poverty in Cyprus is continuously shifting.

– Brittany Adames
Photo: Flickr

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The Tarahumara Runners of the Sierra Madre

The Tarahumara Runners of Sierra Madre mountain
Since the 16th century, the Tarahumara or Raramuri have been living in the alpine valleys of the Sierra Madre mountain range in Mexico. The name Raramuri roughly means “those who run fast.” Author and journalist Christopher McDougall popularized the tribe’s tradition of long-distance-running in his 2009 best-seller, “Born to Run.” The ethnography follows the search for a mysterious man nicknamed Caballo Blanco, who people said had spent many years living with the Tarahumara runners. McDougall’s book helps the Raramuri gain international recognition as a culture centered on running. Every day Tarahumara villagers traverse steep rocky paths to grow crops, herd goats or attend school while wearing thin leather sandals called huarache. However, the on-going spread of drug violence, mining, malnutrition and extreme poverty in the region threatened their livelihoods.

High and Dry in Copper Canyon

Some 60,000 Raramuri reside in Sierra Madre and many of them live in extreme poverty. Their lack of resources comes mainly from the community’s isolation. Most of Copper Canyon is still inaccessible by 4×4 vehicles and helicopters. This makes travel by foot and horseback the only reliable source of transportation in many parts of the region.

Food Crisis

With limited access to economic opportunities or primary education, 60 percent of the Tarahumara remain illiterate. In addition, many suffer from malnutrition. In 2011, a severe drought combined with an especially cold winter ruined villagers’ crop harvests. As a result, a health clinic in the small town of Creel treated 250 Tarahumara children of malnutrition, including 25 severe cases. Along with the spoiled crops, the slow response in sending aid from government officials may have worsened the famine conditions as well.

Caught in Drugs and Mining Disputes

The Tarahumara runners have also experienced difficulties due to Mexico’s ongoing drug war and mining disputes. State and Catholic Church authorities have blamed cartel gangs as the main problem from getting aid into the region. Drug traffickers will extort Raramuri villages into growing marijuana or poppies by threatening them with violence and land theft. Additionally, mining operations in the area have displaced the Raramuri.

Some suspect that Canadian corporation Minefinders displaced 60 families to open a silver and gold mine in the small town of Madera. Corruption likely played a role in the Raramuri’s exploitation. Consequently, the community has limited options in seeking relief and support from local governmental authorities.

The Silver Lining

The Mexican federal government is planning to set up a new education system in Copper Canyons that teaches Spanish. In addition, the Mexican federal government is planning to preserve the Raramuri indigenous language along with expanding schooling in the area and implementing a $95 million road-improvement plan that the World Bank cosponsored. This plan intends to connect the Tarahumara to nearby towns and to help them utilize their forested lands.

Nonprofit organizations are also joining the effort in helping the Raramuri. NGOs like GlobalGiving distributed food packages of corn, rice, beans, sugar and oil to 542 families in 2012. The extra food is essential during the region’s drought period and can act as a backup meal supply for up to 2 months. In addition, GlobalGiving delivered prenatal vitamins to pregnant women and new mothers to help prevent infant and maternal mortality. With the aid that the nonprofit gave, the Raramuri can continue to live healthy lives and inspire the globe with their ancient tradition of foot races.

Those Who Run Fast

The Raramuri live to run. A story exists that states that they escaped the Spanish conquistadors by running into the Sierra Madre mountains over 400 years ago. Additionally, they have run ever since. Lorena Rameriz, a 24-year-old Tarahumara ultra-runner, is the focus of a new Netflix documentary titled, “Lorena, Light-Footed Woman.” The film consists of Lorena’s homeland Copper Canyon. Also, the documentary features how her family and rural lifestyle have pushed her to become one of the top winning indigenous athletes of the era. She stands out from other runners because of the traditional skirt and sandals she wears while racing in 50 and 60-mile marathons. Lorena Rameriz is taking the running world by storm while embracing her Raramuri heritage.

Extreme poverty threatens the Raramuri still living in the high mountains of Mexico. But, government development programs and charity work are helping to make a difference. The people who “run fast” have inspired a new global sporting trend of minimal footgear and barefoot running. The Tarahumara runners continue to dominate in 90 km races. Hopefully, their villages will begin to win battles against poverty as well.

– Henry Schrandt
Photo: Flickr

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Education in Syrian Tent Cities: NGO Initiatives

Education in Syrian Tent Cities
2020 marks the 10th year of the ongoing conflict in Syria. A war that began with the Arab Spring uprising in 2011, the Syrian Civil War has accounted for over 400,000 deaths and the displacement of more than 12 million people. Amidst this conflict, NGOs are working to expand children’s access to education in Syrian tent cities.

The Crisis in Syria

Fighting between Bashar Al-Assad’s authoritarian regime and Syrian separatist groups increased the prevalence of terrorist organizations. Groups, including ISIS, are using this ongoing conflict to strengthen their power in the region. Caught in the crossfire are innocent civilians. Pushed out of their homes, they have been forced to find refuge elsewhere. Thousands of Syrian refugees are now located in neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.

According to World Vision, a nonprofit dedicated to lifting children out of poverty, over half of Syrian refugees are children. Bombings limit children’s access to education and healthcare, and the devastation is tearing families apart. Consequently, refugees are relying on resources within refugee camps, also known as “tent cities.”

Problems in Syrian Tent Cities

Syrian tent cities are loose constructions of temporary shelters made from the limited resources refugees can find, including boxes, bed sheets, blankets and plastics. With minimal safety precautions, resources and sanitation practices, tent cities are insecure and put refugees at risk.

Additionally, high levels of displacement exacerbate the financial plight of families, especially for children. UNICEF reports that 85 percent of children are living below the poverty line. According to the World Bank, Syrian children have low levels of enrollment and are especially at risk of succumbing to the numerous pressures involved with poverty. However, local NGOs are working to provide quality education in Syrian tent cities.

NGOs Support Education in Syrian Tent Cities

Many NGOs are continuing to expand throughout Syria and neighboring regions to provide educational assistance to children in tent cities.

  1. Nowell’s Mission: In 2014, Nowell Sukkar established Nowell’s Mission, a nonprofit that raises money to provide education to Syrian refugees living in Lebanon and Jordan. Sukkar and volunteers travel to Syrian refugee camps, providing basic education to children, including training in literacy.
  2. Children on the Edge: Another NGO, Children on the Edge, was established in 2000 by UNESCO to work with traumatized children and youth post-conflict in Timor-Leste. In 2004, when Children on the Edge became an independently registered charity, they expanded their support to include a wide range of children’s advocacy work across the world. These projects include building refugee education camps in Lebanon, the country with the largest Syrian refugee population per capita. These education camps have served over 300 children, providing education to children in their own dialect. Subjects include math, science, history, geography and English.
  3. Karam: Karam, the Arabic word for generous, is the name of one NGO, created in 2007. Their mission is to provide support to people across the globe, through education, employment and leadership training. One of their initiatives, operating out of Turkey, raises funds to rebuild schools and to provide Syrian children with opportunities in higher education.

While these are just a few NGOs helping support and rebuild education for Syrian refugee children, they represent the diverse ways children’s education can be improved. Whether it’s funding teachers, building schools or providing access to higher-education opportunities, initiatives to improve education in Syrian tent cities are helping children rebuild after tragedy.

 

With new global humanitarian problems emerging every day, it’s easy to forget the children impacted by sustained crises – like the one in Syria – who are now facing the long-term effects of insufferable war. By raising awareness, we can change the lives of Syrian children and provide them with the education they deserve.

– Aly Hill
Photo: Flickr

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The School Fund: Tackling the Education Crisis

The School Fund: What One Company is doing to tackle the Global Education CrisisOver 115 million school-age children are not able to attend school worldwide, largely due to compulsory school fees that are required for attendance. In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 63 million adolescents are out of school and only 37 percent of children finish secondary school. One company targeting barriers to education is The School Fund (TSF). Through the collaboration of technology and willing donors looking to make a difference, the organization is able to provide low-income students with the opportunity to receive an education.

The Mission

The School Fund is a crowdfunded, nonprofit organization based in California. One hundred percent of donations go directly toward each student’s unique scholarship. Its mission is to tackle the global education crisis by connecting donors to students in developing countries who cannot afford an education. It stands firmly behind the belief that education is the most effective way to successfully eradicate poverty.

Barriers to Education

The reasons children do not receive secondary education are plenty and vary from location to location. Some of these reasons are the cost of supplies, the long distances that need to be traveled to reach school, safety and cultural norms. When it comes to education, poor and rural areas are especially disadvantaged.

How it Works

The School Fund partners with local organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. These range from private schools to local public schools, or local scholarship organizations. The Field Partners then select students for the TSF website, including biographies, stories and pictures of the children. Biographies help to keep each donation personal and invested in the growth of each child. Donors then select which student they want to sponsor.

These donors are able to view the breakdown of school costs and receipts on a web platform with complete transparency. Direct journal updates from their sponsored student are available for donors as well, helping to foster the connection between the donor and the student. The School Fund ensures that students are attending school via receipt tracking and field drop-ins.

Outcomes

The School Fund has successfully funded 1,291 students, with many more on the horizon. Since 2009, the organization has raised over $500,000. TSF also found that with just one extra year of secondary education, a student’s lifetime wages have the potential to increase by 10 percent.

TSF has shown a 50 percent growth rate each year in revenue accrued for scholarships. It also connects regularly with its Field Partners to collect updates, including grades and yearly data. This ensures that each student is seeing improvement and growth through their education.

Women in particular benefit from receiving an education. Only one in four girls attend school in many of these developing countries, but of those who do, women have fewer unwanted pregnancies, delay getting married young, have healthier kids and are three times less likely to test positive for HIV. TSF is helping women combat cultural norms and ensuring empowerment for all.

 

Children around the globe continue to face barriers to education. The School Fund is one of many organizations breaking down these obstacles, making sure money is not a deterrent for something that everyone should be entitled to.

– Laurel Sonneby
Photo: Pixabay

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The State of Homelessness in Australia

Homelessness in AustraliaHomelessness is one of the biggest problems that the Australian government is trying to solve. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), there were approximately 116,427 homeless Australians in 2016. What was even more worrying about this data was that homelessness in Australia seemed to be on the rise. Compared to the ABS’s census in 2011, in which there were 102,439 homeless, there was a 13.7 percent rise in homelessness in 2016. What is the cause of homelessness in Australia? What is being done to alleviate this issue? Here is the current reality of homelessness in Australia.

Defining Homelessness

The ABS’s, criteria for defining homelessness doesn’t simply end at someone sleeping out on the streets. Instead, the ABS states that a person is homeless if they are living in accommodations that are inadequate or in housing that has no long-term tenure. This broad definition of homelessness means that if a person is couch surfing with friends to relatives, they are considered homeless.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s 2016 report found that “58 percent of homeless people were male, 21 percent were between the ages of 25 and 34 years-old and 20 percent of homeless people were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.” The last finding is especially troubling since Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders only made up about 3 percent of the population. For women who are homeless, domestic violence was one of the main causes of their homelessness.

Causes of Homelessness

The main causes of homelessness in Australia seem to be unaffordable housing, poverty and domestic violence. All of these three causes seem to be linked to high housing prices in Australia. More specifically, the lack of affordable rental housing that is plaguing the country seems to be at the core of the problem.

In 2018, a property survey discovered that only 485 rental homes out of 67,365 homes “were affordable for a single person on the Disability Support Pension.” This meant that only 0.72 percent of rental homes were affordable for someone with disabilities. Many people in Australia believe that the current state of housing was caused by the Australian government’s mismanagement of the housing market.

Homeless Youth

What distinguishes homelessness in Australia from those of other countries is how young the homeless population is. Youth between the ages of 12 and 24 made up 27,680 of the 116,427 homeless people in Australia in 2016. However, these estimates may not fully reflect the state of youth homeless in Australia since the youth who are couch surfing will put down their host’s address as their place of residence.

A 2016 research study found that there is an average cost of $15,000 to the country’s economy for every young homeless person. The study also found that an additional $15,000 per person must be spent on “health and justice costs.” The young homeless are especially vulnerable to the current housing crisis in Australia. Reports show that about 54 percent of all single people who look for aid from homelessness services and shelters were young people.

Assistance for the Homeless

The Australian government and many other Australian organizations are taking active measures to combat homeless in the country. In 2018, the Australian government created the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. This agreement aims to alleviate homelessness in Australia by providing affordable housing and homeless shelters for the homeless. In this pursuit, the Australian government invested more than “$6 billion in housing support and homelessness services.” At least $78 million is supposed to go to women and minors who are victims of domestic violence.

Other Australian organizations such as the Melbourne City Mission, Sydney Homeless Connect and Home for Good provides numerous services and programs for the homeless. These organizations not only provide immediate needs of the homeless, such as food and shelter, but many of them also provide programs that are aimed to provide the homeless with job opportunities and long-term physical, social and emotional needs of the homeless.

The effect of Australia’s undermanaged housing market created an environment where the low-income earners couldn’t afford a home. Since many of the homeless in Australia suffer from mental illnesses, alcoholism or other physical disabilities, these homeless are further marginalized from the Australian housing market. The number of Australian youth without a stable home and shelter also paints a grim picture. However, the Australian government and the people of Australia are taking active measures to alleviate the issue. With this continuous support, many hope that homelessness in Australia will be a story of the past.

– YongJin Yi
Photo: Flickr

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E-Commerce in Africa: Emerging Markets

E-commerce in AfricaAfrica’s recent growth in online technology has allowed the continent to join in on a new, digital economy. There are an estimated 264 start-ups in Africa as of January 2020. Currently, these e-commerce startups in Africa are active in at least 23 countries and are projected to expand into the rest of Africa.

The Importance of E-Commerce

The growth of e-commerce in Africa opens the door to new jobs. By 2025, Africa could see as many as three million jobs emerge from digital markets. These jobs would focus directly on online marketplaces, online services and other byproducts of economic activity.

Moreover, this new market will allow rural communities access goods that were previously inaccessible, helping establish the continent’s growing consumer class. According to the UNCTAD, Africa’s number of online shoppers has increased by 18 percent every year since 2014, six percent higher than the world average.

While e-commerce in Africa generates greater consumer gains, the young entrepreneur also benefits from this emerging market. Particularly, it opens the door to new revenue-generating jobs.

Challenges Facing E-Commerce in Africa

Although the future of e-commerce in Africa is bright, there are challenges blocking this booming market. Most of these are logistical. For instance, many countries in Africa lack proper national address systems. This complicates the delivery of purchased goods. Additionally, road conditions are less than ideal for deliveries. Deliveries are often delayed or canceled due to traffic jams, resulting in a loss of revenue.

Another significant challenge comes in the form of weak internet connections and an overall lack of trust in internet payment. Africa’s internet penetration rate falls at a median of 41 percent, meaning that less than half of the continent has internet access. For those who do, the absence of consumer protection makes it difficult for consumers to pay in any way besides ‘cash on delivery.’ Additionally, only 10 to 15 percent of those living in Africa have a bank account. As a result, 90 percent of online purchases are paid in cash. This, coupled with a lack of trust due to a history of scammers, complicates the success of e-commerce in Africa.

Solutions to E-Commerce Issues in Africa

Some large e-commerce players are taking steps to improve the road networks and overall infrastructure in Africa. Companies, like Jumia and Zipline, are implementing techniques in drone delivery to combat these logistical challenges. Further, Safe.Shop South Africa, a new trustmark, has worked to increase trust between consumers and online stores. Safe.Shop allows e-merchants to be verified by lawyers against South African laws and the standards of the trustmark. Once verified, the e-merchants carry the trustmark as a guarantee that their business is legitimate.

The Future of Africa’s E-Commerce

Although Africa still faces logistical challenges, the future looks bright for the continent’s role in e-commerce. The World Economic Forum supports the UN’s statistics regarding the increase of jobs by 2025. As of September 2019, the WEF created an agenda for the future of e-commerce in Africa.

This agenda highlights that seven growing internet populations are found in Africa, giving e-commerce the support it needs to grow throughout the continent. With this in mind, the WEF calls for entrepreneurs, negotiators and regulators to work together to build e-commerce in Africa. By joining forces, these actors are aiming to create jobs across the continent and to increase Africa’s presence in the global economy.

Overall, e-commerce is positively impacting Africa’s economy and infrastructure. The work being done to help standardize addresses, increase internet access and create better road networks is helping increase the continent’s standard of living. In turn, these changes are creating new opportunities for those living in Africa.

– Ariana Davarpanah

Photo: Pixabay