Australia, by definition, is a developed nation. Despite it’s commonly perceived status as a “first world nation,” though, Australia faces a sizeable food crisis that has only gained momentum over the past decade. Here are the top 10 facts about hunger in Australia.

Top 10 Facts About Hunger in Australia

1. High Costs of Living are Causing Food Insecurity: Over the past year, Australia’s economy has grown an impressive 3.1 percent. This bodes well for livelihoods within the nation but also comes with an assortment of costs. Chief among these is the rising cost of living within the nation. Rising costs of living, directly and indirectly, impact livelihoods in a variety of ways, but most importantly, they can drive people into a state of food insecurity. Food insecurity means that they cannot adequately feed themselves or their family.
2. Child Hunger is a Key Component of the Crisis: As previously stated, food insecurity is a direct symptom of rising costs of living in Australia. Many of those experiencing food insecurity in Australia are children. A report published earlier this year by Foodbank Australia, entitled “Rumbling Tummies,” found that more than 1 in 5 Australian children were subjected to food insecurity over the past year, meaning they regularly missed meals due to financial reasons.
3. Australia’s Hunger Crisis is a “Hidden” Crisis: Due to Australia’s global high-income status, people are often shocked to hear that many of its citizens, as many as 1 in 6, go hungry every day. This dichotomy creates a “hidden” crisis, as images of Australia as an established first world nation mask the millions of common Australian households facing food insecurity.
4. More and More Families are Being Impacted: According to a report by the Foodbank Organization, there was a 10 percent increase in food-insecure families throughout Australia. These findings suggest that this crisis is only now mounting, and will require further attention down the road to be adequately addressed.
5. A Broad Range of Australians Faces Food Insecurity: Food insecurity impacts a wide strata of different Australians groups. As many as 50 percent of food-insecure Australians are employed, which points to the deep impact that rising living costs have brought about in Australia. Food insecurity affects young, old, rural and metropolitan Australians; it’s not a crisis that falls on one group.
6. Food Insecurity Promotes Feelings of Depression and Negativity: Food insecurity is a challenge that frequently gives rise to emotional complications, according to a group of surveyed Australians. Depression, the most commonly reported feeling associated with food insecurity, was accompanied by smaller rates of stress, embarrassment, shame, and sadness. Cleary, Australia’s food crisis is more nuanced than a simple lack of resources. This crisis is multi-faceted, and, in turn, its response should go beyond just providing at-risk communities access to food banks and food stamps. The emotional ramifications of the crisis should be considered as well.
7. Poverty, and In Turn Food Insecurity, is a Hard Trend to Buck: According to a report published by the University of Melbourne, the idea that poverty is short-lived for most Australians is a dominant narrative within the nation. This idea is misguided though, as less than 15 percent of Australians below the poverty line escape poverty on a yearly basis. This suggests that poverty in Australia is a pervasive condition and that treating its root causes cannot be swept under the rug if rates of food insecurity are to be reduced in the nation.
8. More Australians Than You Think Live Below the Poverty Line: While the Australian poverty line is an occasionally unreliable metric, it can be used to make general inferences about the number of Australian citizens that are struggling to make ends meet, and, in turn, put food on the table. The population of Australia is roughly 24 million people, and about three million of these people — after having their housing costs taken into account — are estimated to live below the poverty line. While this number may appear high, it is important to consider that its estimation relied on the inclusion of living costs, which are only continuing to rise in Australia.
9. A Changing Climate Could Impact Australia’s Hunger Crisis: In 2008, a drought-plagued Murray-Darlin Basin — a watershed in Australia — and led to a seasonal food crisis in the surrounding area. This points to the threat of climate change to the maintenance of food-access stability in Australia.
10. Cultural Barriers Can Lead to Food Insecurity: Recent immigrants and those not originally from Australia face higher rates of food insecurity due to a lack of cultural knowledge on local food customs. These groups are more susceptible to food insecurity for a variety of other reasons as well, and, like indigenous groups in Australia, typically face higher rates of food insecurity.

Complex and Multifaceted

Hunger in Australia operates at multiple levels and impacts groups differently across a vast range of the socio-political spectrum. Due to this pervasiveness and complexity, the treatment of the hunger crisis in this developed nation will require a broad, multilateral approach.

– Ian Greenwood
Photo: Flickr

Established in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aims to accelerate progress and peace in the region and increase international cooperation.

What is YSEALI?

As part of the U.S. Mission to ASEAN, the U.S. established the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) in 2013 to help strengthen leadership development in Southeast Asia by targeting 18 to 35-year-olds. According to the initiative, “Approximately 65 percent of people in the ASEAN region are under the age of 35.”

YSEALI runs a Seeds for the Future program that provides small grants to youth in Southeast Asia through annual competitions. The program awards funding to projects within four issue areas: sustainable development, economic growth, civic engagement and education. These grants create better futures for youth in Southeast Asia.

Top 10 2018 YSEALI Grants

1. Back2Communities is a convention in Brunei that facilitates discussions about the issues people with disabilities face in day-to-day life. The organization emphasizes teamwork and hosts brainstorming sessions at its conventions. YSEALI’s grant helps fund Back2Communities’ conventions and search for practical solutions.
2. FIBERS hosts workshops to educate young fashion entrepreneurs and help them prosper in the fashion industry. This year, FIBERS is targeting Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines and pushing initiatives in sustainable unisex clothing and empowering underprivileged youth in Southeast Asia. The organization is also creating an online marketplace where young designers can sell their products.
3. Kid+ is based in Hanoi, Vietnam and works with kids with disabilities and kids from low-income families. According to the organization, disadvantaged children are four times more likely to be victims of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Kid+ already has programs in three schools reaching over 400 students and teaching them about child rights, gender education and child sexual abuse prevention. YSEALI funds will help Kid+ expand to more schools in Hanoi.
4. The Lao Film Academy (LFA) trains young filmmakers ages 18 to 22 to make films related to environmental protection. Young students receive direct contact with established filmmakers and gain important insights into the industry. LFA also does important work raising awareness for environmental issues and educating audiences about environmental protection.
5. PREDIKT, which stands for Preparedness for Disaster Toolkit, works in the natural disaster-prone ASEAN region distributing toolkits that educate families about natural disasters. The toolkits also help families design disaster plans and include disaster supplies such as emergency torches, whistles and first-aid kits. PREDIKT has already distributed over 600 toolkits and YSEALI funds are helping the organization translate materials into more languages for wider distribution.
6. The School of Coastal Environment (Schoove) is a fishery and marine incubator that educates students from coastal villages in coastal management, fishery-based social entrepreneurship and coastal housewife empowerment. Schoove has already reached more than 100 young leaders and women in Indonesia. The program gets young leaders more involved in the environment and coastal development.
7. SHero was founded by a domestic violence survivor to encourage other survivors to share their stories. The founder is also a lawyer and SHero also encourages young lawyers to work with victims. Originally just in Thailand, SHero has expanded to Vietnam and the Philippines with YSEALI’s grant. SHero also plans to expand its platform to include sexual assault and other gender-based violence.
8. Teach for ASEAN (T4A) was founded by three young leaders in Myanmar, and now T4A works in the entire Southeast Asian region. The project educates and empowers youth in Southeast Asia through training programs and community events. Many young people in the region lack job preparedness which leads to a large number of unemployed youth. Large rates of unemployment strain communities and increase poverty rates. An amazing 70 percent of T4A’s Workplace Skills Program’s first class is now employed or in vocational training.
9. Tonkar Learning is an online learning program for Lao students that provides an opportunity for them to learn outside of the classroom. The program offers courses in math, physics and chemistry as well as test prep for Lao university entrance exams. YSEALI’s grant has been instrumental in the program’s development and also helps sponsor educational events for students.
10. Viet Children’s Picture (VCP) works in public school districts outside of Ho Chi Minh City. These school districts only spend 45 minutes per week on art but VCP has established after-school classes in drawing, photography, crafting and dancing. Thanks to YSEALI funds, VCP has already reached over 450 students.

YSEALI’s Other Projects and Impacts

Outside of its Seeds for the Future program, YSEALI also sponsors professional and academic fellowships to the U.S. and hosts regional workshops for youth in Southeast Asia. Even after young leaders move on from YSEALI, many of them continue to make positive changes in their communities.

YSEALI has also inspired other young leaders in Brunei to establish Youth Against Slavery (YASBrunei) — Brunei’s first civil society to focus on people trafficking. Both through its small grants and its example, YSEALI is making huge impacts on youth in Southeast Asia.

– Kathryn Quelle

Photo: Flickr

The Republic of Belarus is an Eastern European nation that boasts a free and universal education system, required for ages 6-14. Belarusian youth attend primary school from ages 6-9 and secondary school from 10-14, most remaining an additional 1.4 years until graduation. In Belarus, education is as accessible to girls as it is to boys.

Gender Discrimination in Society

Despite its accessibility, girls’ education in Belarus does not guarantee that girls will have the same opportunities as boys in adulthood. In 2016, the National Statistics Committee of the Republic of Belarus reported that women earned only 76.2 percent of the salary of men. In addition, many of the nation’s most profitable professions, namely in manufacturing, experience horizontal segregation with a majority of leadership positions being held by men regardless of female employees’ qualifications. This encourages high-skilled women to enter into low-wage public service jobs like education and health care, which are occupied almost exclusively by women.

The Anti-Discrimination Centre (ADC) and the Office for European Expertise and Communications (OEEC) attribute gender discrimination in Belarus to traditional, patriarchal notions that are ubiquitous throughout Belarusian society. These notions portray childbirth and motherhood as women’s greatest value and devalue the importance of their professional success.

The media, aspects of the compulsory education system, politicians and other government officials all contribute to the perpetuation of gender stereotypes. In a 2014 analysis, the OEEC describes the media in Belarus as “gender non-sensitive” and lacks an understanding of ideas concerning gender issues that they put out into their society. The ADC echoed these concerns in its 2016 report, pointing out that media outlets often refuse to acknowledge misbehavior when criticized for producing gender-biased content.

Gender Discrimination in Education

Belarusian schools, private and public, are at the will of the state and considered political bodies. The Education Code of the Republic of Belarus requires instruction in “the role and purpose of men and women in contemporary society.” Boys and girls attend separate classes to teach them their respective roles in society, reinforcing stereotypes rather than promoting individual development. Girls are instructed in matters of homemaking and boys are taught activities such as woodworking and carpentry.

In 2009, Deputy Education Minister Tatsiana Kavalyova highlighted the importance of ideology in schools, calling it “the backbone” of Belarusian education. According to Kavalyova, every educational institution in the country has an ideology department. As of 2009, the government has continued banning teachers and democratic activists in opposition to the government.

Government agencies have failed to enforce anti-discrimination legislation despite having signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration, among other U.N. documents that commit the country to working toward gender equality. As of 2012, 68 percent of government officials and politicians in control of these policies are men.

The OEEC found in 2014 that 86.6 percent of the general public viewed women’s lack of representation in politics as either the natural order of things or as a necessary consequence of their primary roles as wives and mothers. Some men in government have publicly expressed the same sentiment, claiming that “gender equality is perverting society,” that women are “apolitical by nature” or that they should “sit at home and make borscht, not roam around squares.” Yet, in the face of these challenges, there is promise that more progress will be made.

Hope for Girls’ Education in Belarus

The data that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has published paints girls’ education in Belarus in a favorable light. In the organization’s most recent statistics, Belarusian girls have consistently, if only slightly, come to surpass Belarusian boys in academia:

• In 2015 and 2016, Belarusian girls had higher net enrollment rates in primary and secondary education. Rates for both girls and boys have steadily climbed from the low to high nineties since 2008, and the difference between boys and girls is less than one percentage point.
• The 2015 transition rate from primary to secondary education was 0.34 percent higher for girls at 98.25 percent.
• As of 2009, girls 15-24 years old have a 99.85 percent literacy rate, compared to the boys’ rate of 99.8 percent.
• In 2016, 6,747 girls and 7,654 boys were out of school. Although these numbers fluctuate, there have been more boys out of school each year since 2010.
• According to ADC’s 2016 report, 56.1 percent of women, compared to 43.9 percent of men, had a higher education.

With girls’ education in Belarus set firmly in place, NGOs have been able to focus on gaining gender equality in other ways. These organizations are able to focus their efforts on both preventing domestic violence and human trafficking and helping victims. Their work has also led to the National Scientific Research Institute of Labor’s development of a concept of gender equality and a gender assessment of current legislation by the National Center of Legislation and Legal Research.

One such NGO is Gender Perspectives, established in 2010. Gender Perspectives offers social, psychological and legal help to victims of domestic violence in Belarus, either directly or by referring them to other organizations and institutions. The organization created a hotline for victims in 2012, which responded to over four thousand calls in 2012 and 2013 and provided 117 with direct assistance.

In 2012, 54 women were selected for the National Assembly in 2012, which consists of 174 total delegates. Although they comprise only 32 percent and their admission was a result of a quota, women’s presence in the government offers hope that the state, with the help of NGOs, will establish gender equality that reaches beyond the sphere of education.

– Ashley Wagner
Photo: Flickr

Many Hands Fair Trade Shop, located in Liberty, Missouri, sells fair trade items from a global community of artisans and workers. The shop — open between the months of March and December — benefits fair trade sellers in over 30 countries.

What is Fair Trade?

Fair trade is a concept that began around the 1980s in an effort to provide sustainable compensation and livelihoods to the producers and workers who make globally-traded products.

Essentially, consumers pay slightly more for internationally-traded products to ensure that a fair wage is paid to the producers of the products. Additionally, fair trade organizations set standards on the products produced, including environmental and human rights standards for producers and a fair trade minimum price for consumers.

What is Fair Trade’s Impact?

In 2016, there were over 1,400 fair trade certified producer organizations in over 70 countries who work to ensure fair compensation to over 1.6 million workers and producers. In fact, 23 percent of fair trade workers are women, a position that empowers them to help build their communities and work in a meaningful way.   

By selling solely fair trade products, Many Hands Fair Trade Shop uses their small storefront to contribute in a large way to producers all over the world. Established in 2015, the store works to ensure they are providing “a channel for these [fair trade sponsored] artisans to sell their products, [and] offering them an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and embrace a better life.”

What is the Many Hands Fair Trade Shop?

Cindy Noel, one of the managers of the Many Hands Fair Trade Shop, spoke with The Borgen Project about the efforts of the store’s managers to ensure as much income as possible goes to the fair trade producers.

“We put everything back into buying fair trade items so we can support more fair trade artisans and farmers. We have had to purchase a few shop displays but we ask for donations of most things and really have bought very few things. We are frugal. No one takes a salary,” said Noel.

The store is so serious about putting all the profit back into fair trade they have made an agreement with the Second Baptist Church of Liberty in Missouri — the owners of their property and sponsors of the store’s mission — to pay no rent on the storefront.  

The store purchases its products from a variety of companies, mainly SERRV, Papillion and Equal Exchange — all of which are members of the Fair Trade Federation or the World Fair Trade Organization.

All three of the store’s suppliers buy and sell products from fair trade producers in many different countries. SERRV purchases from producers in 24 different countries; Papillion benefits artisans in Haiti; and Equal Exchange has partnered with over 40 farmer producers over the world.

How Does Fair Trade Benefit its Producers?

Noel continued to describe the ways in which the store, and more generally fair trade, benefits its producers:

“The artisans and farmers are guaranteed an ethical wage and provided a safe place to work before we order our merchandise. Most times their children are cared for and educated in schools where their parents work. Sometimes workers who have broken free of the sex trade, or who have diseases and are shunned, work at home and provide for their families by joining a home based co-op,” Noel said.

Going Above and Beyond

Through the international network of fair trade, Many Hands Fair Trade Shop is making it possible for hundreds of fair trade producers to pursue meaningful work while earning fair and sustainable wages.

By taking no profit or salary from the shop, the managers at Many Hands are going above and beyond to see to it that every possible cent is put back into purchasing fair trade products. Through these admirable efforts, the organization will continue to support producers and workers in over 30 countries all over the world.

– Savannah Hawley

Photo: Savannah Hawley