Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Causes of Poverty in Malawi

Causes of Poverty in Malawi

Malawi has a population of 15 million people, and 74 percent live below the income poverty line of $1.90 per day. Causes of poverty in Malawi include problems with the agricultural sector and diseases. Both of these complicated issues prolong impoverishment for many communities in Malawi.

Weather-related complications often shock rural communities, plunging them deeper into poverty. Droughts are the root of the largest harm in the agricultural sector. When a drought occurs, there is a significant fall in crop production and sometimes crop failure occurs. Lower crop outputs are common in subsequent farming seasons after a drought.

Farmers have harvests that are not large enough to sustain their communities. This causes food shortages, generating larger numbers of malnourished people. More than one-third of rural households earn their income through either farming or fishing, so when there is a drought, income is scarce because food production is scarce. The agricultural sector’s problems are among the serious causes of poverty in Malawi. These problems affect the food security of Malawi’s citizens and the overall economy.

Diseases are a vast problem for the citizens of Malawi. When a family member gets sick, other members often have to sell belongings, withdraw school payments and cut back on daily food consumption. Approximately 11.9 percent of Malawians are affected by HIV/AIDS. Many families of those infected are no longer able to pursue a productive lifestyle and escape from poverty. To make medical payments, the patient’s family often has to sacrifice their education, nutrition and personal belongings. Disease causes substantial impoverishment.

Causes of poverty in Malawi, such as agricultural struggles and diseases, are severely complex issues, but there are programs being developed to help. The government of Malawi developed a National Nutrition Policy aimed at coordinating food security programming. USAID training increases the productivity of farmers and their incomes, leading to long-term agricultural development. The diseases are still a cause for concern, but USAID is helping by increasing access to high-quality healthcare. There are certainly issues, but there are ways to fix those issues, and that is what needs to be focused on.

– Lucy Voegeli

Photo: Flickr

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Different Approaches to Measuring Poverty

Measuring PovertyWhile the word “poverty” is for many a familiar term that invokes strong imagery, the exact definition remains elusive. Today, no consensus exists on the guidelines for measuring poverty around the world. However, measuring poverty is of utmost importance to those on the forefront of global development — primarily governments or international organizations like the World Bank — and essential to tracking the progress of aid programs. As a result, there are several varying methods used to quantify poverty around the world.

The typical method for getting a headcount of impoverished people within a single nation is using a calculated number called an absolute threshold. Typically referred to as a ‘poverty line’, this threshold indicates that those whose incomes fail to meet a certain standard are poor. The standard varies with country, taking into account economic factors like inflation.

Absolute thresholds were historically used by the World Bank and most governments around the world as a means of taking a “poverty census”.

However, critics like Mark Greenberg, senior fellow of the American Progress organization, call the absolute threshold method “essentially arbitrary.” Many point out that an absolute threshold is limited as a headcount evaluation because it fails to take into account factors outside of income that may still be related to poverty.

The absolute measurement’s counterpart is that of relative poverty. This approach focuses on quality of life as the determining factor for a poverty headcount. According to UNESCO, evaluating poverty this way takes into account income as well as two additional perspectives: basic needs and empowerment.

The U.N. asserts that humans have eight basic needs: food, safe water, sanitation, health, shelter, education, information and access to services.

The level of access to each need is evaluated using clearly defined standards, such as body mass index for measuring access to food, or distance from a clean water source. The state of living with two or more ‘severe deprivations’ (substandard measurements) is termed ‘absolute poverty’.

The final aspect of relative poverty — the empowerment perspective — views poverty as limiting social and political rights. Therefore, groups that experience high levels of discrimination or are denied basic rights, such as that of political participation, are also considered impoverished.

While methods of measuring poverty certainly vary, the general consensus is that living on less than $1.90 per day is extreme poverty.

Though it is by no means an easy task and there is ample room for improving methodology, measuring poverty is essential to understanding and approaching this complex, global issue.

– Kailey Dubinsky

Photo: Flickr

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Female Victims of Sex Trafficking in India Get a Second Chance

Female Victims of Sex Trafficking in India Get a Second ChanceMillions of women and children in India are victims of sex trafficking. The National Crimes Records Bureau states that a girl falls victim to sex trafficking every eight minutes in India. Many are told that they will be assisted in finding a job or even a potential marriage to alleviate them of their poverty, making them trusting of traffickers and easier targets for prostitution.

In 2014, police in India recorded 2,604 sex trafficking cases, but more than three-quarters of the traffickers accused went unpunished. The Better India states that “less than 50 child prostitution cases in a year lead to successful convictions on average.” Current laws are not effective enough in preventing human trafficking in India.

The Dutch anti-trafficking group Free a Girl created a new approach to the sex trafficking issue in India, called The School for Justice. It launched in April of this year with 19 women who were victims of sex trafficking in India. Not only are these women training to be lawyers but they are also gaining empowerment in a community in which they are ostracized.

The program financially and emotionally supports the process. It enrolls them into a university so that they can receive a bachelor’s degree in law. The rescued girls live in a house together while receiving food and an education to prepare them for a future career. For each student in The School for Justice program, it costs $3,400 per year which is covered by donors for the first two years.

Having women who were once trafficked as prostitutes become members of India’s legal system is a huge step for the country. Not only are females that are trafficked not welcome back with their families, they are also more likely to be arrested. These women are not receiving the help that they need once they escape sex trafficking in India.

The main goal of The School for Justice is to provide the help and resources needed to create prosecutors out of the victims of trafficking in India. This could be a small change that eventually leads to holding traffickers accountable for their actions and keeping women and children out of trafficking. Per The Better India, “not only will these brave women finally be able to chart a course of their own life but they will also be saving the lives of others like themselves in the process.”

– Mackenzie Fielder
Photo: Flickr

Hunger in the Solomon Islands

Hunger in the Solomon Islands
Hunger in the Solomon Islands is prevalent despite the abundance of food resources available to the population. Conditions are ideal for agriculture and fisheries are high producing, yet 32.8 percent of children under the age of five have stunted growth and 8.5 percent have severely low heights for their age. There is little evidence of wasting, which is the phenomenon where children have low weights for their heights, meaning that most children do get their required daily energy intake.

The prevalence of stunting, however, shows that most residents of the Solomon Islands suffer from “hidden hunger,” meaning they have enough food intake but are deficient in important vitamins and minerals. This reduces growth and restricts development while leaving them vulnerable to disease and infection. Alongside the prevalence of stunted children, there is a large trend of obesity in adults in the Solomon Islands. This creates a double burden of disease with both often appearing in the same household.

People in urban areas are disproportionately disadvantaged and limited because they don’t have access to land to grow their own food and so must rely on overpriced foods in urban areas. Fresh fish and even canned tuna is too expensive for many to buy, and the cheapest foods like rice and noodles present dangerous nutritional problems for residents of the Solomon Islands. There are high rates of anemia and diarrhea that result from this type of improper nutrition. People living in rural areas also have the opportunity to trade their produce for healthier foods, an opportunity that city dwellers do not have.

In an effort to increase food security and decrease hunger in the Solomon Islands, several agricultural projects have been established to support existing infrastructure. In the fishing sector, the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency project, funded by the European Union, is attempting to promote local businesses and employment in the Solomon Islands by controlling illegal fishing and developing existing fisheries with technical assistance and changes to local fishing policies.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock is trying to develop new ways to produce rice locally in the Solomon Islands, as previous attempts at localized growing failed because of low crop yield, poor taste and high rates of insect infestation. The Ministry is working on implementing new rice production systems to overcome these preliminary issues and have already had success with seed planting.

The Nut Growers’ Association of the Solomon Islands is a national non-governmental organization that is trying to assist the production of indigenous fruits and nuts to increase the food variety available to local populations and increase trade.

Hopefully these new programs will hit their marks and do more to decrease “hidden hunger” and improve the nutritional wellbeing of inhabitants of the Solomon Islands.

– Saru Duckworth

Photo: Flickr

Why Is Ethiopia Poor?

Why Is Ethiopia PoorEthiopia’s poverty rate of 44 percent, and many Ethiopians live in hazardous conditions. Some of the country’s homes are made from cardboard. Others are made from rope, sticks, mud and other materials that cause poor hygiene for residents. Many homes even lack windows and sometimes trap hazardous fumes inside. The question is, why is Ethiopia poor?

Droughts and other disasters cause Ethiopia’s farms to lack necessary amounts of rainwater for irrigation. Famines occur in effect and leave crops to suffer greatly. Ethiopia’s food and fertilizer prices increase as well, leaving many residents without the financial means to afford these items. This is especially problematic when considering that 80 percent of Ethiopians rely on agriculture to stabilize their economy.

A lack of infrastructure and basic services, such as safe drinking water, education and healthcare, contribute to Ethiopia’s poverty as well. Malaria, HIV and other diseases often kill Ethiopia’s young residents who provide for their families. If more Ethiopians had access to healthcare and other vital services, more Ethiopian families might be able to rise above poverty.

Many Ethiopian families that are run by women are especially vulnerable to poverty. Since many Ethiopian women do not participate in awareness programs, many of their infants suffer malnutrition, lack literacy skills and sometimes die. This problem could be avoided if more Ethiopian women, and other less-privileged groups in the country, participated in the awareness programs.

Why is Ethiopia poor? Human rights abuses, even though some have been carried out with the intent to strengthen Ethiopia’s economy, have done great harm to the country’s poor. “When a society is not free, development is not as sustainable,” according to Obang Metho, executive director of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia.

There is hope for positive changes to Ethiopia’s economy. For more than a decade, Ethiopia has witnessed an economic growth rate of 10 percent, bringing the country close to meeting the U.N.’s development goals. Ethiopia’s government plans for the country to have a middle-income rate by 2025.

Ethiopia’s poverty rate in 2000 was 44 percent but dropped to 30 percent by 2011. Agricultural growth was one of the main reasons for this change. It could help Ethiopians in the present if such a change were to occur again. Education, household health and living standards have also been making steady improvements since 2000.

Why is Ethiopia poor? Ethiopia should maintain a focus on agricultural development in order to strengthen its economy. Promoting the growth of farms and helping households overcome migration constraints could help Ethiopians achieve financial security as well. While safety net programs have also proven to be effective, those programs must still adapt to Ethiopia’s changing poverty conditions.

– Rhondjé Singh Tanwar

Photo: Pixabay

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Working to End Neglected Tropical Diseases

End Neglected Tropical DiseasesPrevalent in more than 149 countries, Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a range of parasitic and bacterial diseases that affect more than a billion people across the world. Neglected Tropical Diseases disproportionately target poor and vulnerable populations in tropical areas, and if not treated, can often lead to physical and intellectual impairments. Fortunately, humanitarian organizations such as USAID are working alongside U.S. Congress in order to end Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Typically caused by inadequate sanitation and lack of clean drinking water, NTDs vary in their effect but can prove detrimental, especially in children. These diseases can impair intellectual development in children as well as cause blindness and other physical disabilities. The health costs are not the problem caused by NTDs, as they also reduce school enrollment and prevent economic progress because infected individuals are limited in ability. This is why it is critical to end Neglected Tropical Diseases.

USAID is leading the global fight against NTDs. It implemented large-scale treatment programs and research for the affected countries. In the past 10 years, the U.S. made great progress in this fight, giving more than $11.1 billion in donated medicines. This contribution provided more than 1.6 billion treatments to approximately 743 million individuals.

The U.S. impact does not end there. In addition to the treatment programs and research implemented by USAID, Congress also prioritized this issue by introducing the End Neglected Tropical Diseases Act (H.R. 1415).

H.R. 1415, sponsored by Representative Christopher Smith (D-NJ), advances the current program working against NTDs. This act prioritizes improving the current program by monitoring funding, including morbidity management in treatment plans and expanding research development. So far, this act has five cosponsors and was referred to three House sub-committees.

Although USAID led a strong battle against NTDs, there is still much work to be done for the one billion people affected by this problem. As NTDs are slowly eradicated, the livelihoods of the world’s poor will begin to improve as children can return to school and adults are able to achieve financial stability.

– Kelly Hayes

Photo: Flickr

Farmerline: Increase Food Security in Ghana

Food Security in GhanaAlloysius Attah grew up on one of the many maize farms in the Volta region of Ghana, under his aunt’s care. But after 15 years of farming, Attah knew very well the number of challenges small-scale farmers endure, and he wanted to do something about it.

The main challenge Ghanaian farmers face is that they have little or no access to farming information and services. Only those in the cities of Ghana have access to updates on market prices, growth innovations and weather patterns. For Ghanaian farmers in rural areas like Volta, predicting even the next day’s weather is difficult, and could mean a huge difference in revenue for the farm. Even when this information was available, it is usually not in languages farmers could understand, given Ghana’s vast language and dialect diversity.

Almost half of Ghana’s working population and its land are involved in farming.  TheWorld Bank suggests that around 80 percent of agricultural output in Ghana comes from small-scale farms. Food security in Ghana is imperative to the country’s stability. When these farms succeed, the whole country succeeds. When they don’t, thousands of people struggle to get enough food to eat.

Attah wanted a way to help farmers receive the information they needed to help their farms thrive. As a young adult, he left his aunt’s farm and started learning how to code, pioneering a career in technology. In 2011, he realized cell phones were the answer. Cellular devices were becoming more popular in Ghana, and most farmers had access to at least a basic cell phone. Even the simplest devices could deliver prerecorded messages with the latest information on productive farming.

Attah began his start-up, Farmerline, and today, it has more than 200,000 farmers using its services to increase food security in Ghana and nine other African countries. The platform offers farmers several services, such as market prices, agricultural tips and weather forecasts in their own local language. It also connects potential buyers and businesses to the farmers, such as NGOs, global food companies and more through farm data, auditing, mapping and profiling services.

The company estimates that some farmers increased their revenues by more than 50 percent using Farmerline. This is a huge return, seeing that Farmerline only costs farmers $2-3 for a few months. The company created a gigantic agricultural network that reaches even more people in need of food. Farmerline broke down literature and language barriers in Ghana. Furthermore, because 80 percent of domestic food production comes from small-scale farms, food security in Ghana is steadily rising.

The company’s success was recognized with the King Baudouin African Development Prize. Along with two other start-ups, Farmerline won 367,000 Ghana Cedi to fund its business in early 2017. Attah is ecstatic with the win, and hopes to use the prize money to expand his business. The field of entrepreneurship in Africa is tricky, given high taxes and a lack of investors. Attah says there are plenty of successful start-ups in Africa, but transforming into a successful long-term business is nearly impossible without significant funding.

Up until now, Farmerline succeeded on the revenues of its customers and partnering NGOs, but the prize money will give it a new boost to take the company to the next level. Several investors and partners from other countries, including Mexico and Peru, have shown an interest in Farmerline’s technology. Attah welcomes the change. He ambitiously wants to help farmers all over the world. Attah hopes by 2020 he can have one million farmers using Farmerline and even more people breaking out of the poverty cycle as food security in Ghana and across the world improves.

– Sydney Cooney

Photo: Flickr

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Best Ways to Help the Homeless

How to help the homelessThe most recent global homelessness survey was conducted in 2005 by the United Nations. It estimated that about 100 million people were homeless worldwide. According to Habitat for Humanity, as many as 1.6 billion people around the globe lacked adequate housing 10 years later, in 2015. The United States is pushing to provide adequate housing for all of the poor in the country, but what are some other basic ways that everyone could help the homeless globally?

 

Top 3 Ways to Help the Homeless

 

  1. End stereotypes and stigma. The first step in helping the homeless is understanding who they are. You can help the homeless by dispelling the stereotypes and stigmas surrounding homelessness and learning about the reasons why people become homeless, remembering that everyone and every situation is unique. According to the National Coalition to End Homelessness, the top five reasons that people fall into homelessness are a lack of affordable housing, a lack of a living wage, domestic violence, medical bankruptcy and mental illness. Many people have a difficult time getting past the many negative stereotypes that burden the homeless population. They also have trouble sympathizing with the homeless population because of these stereotypes. Educating others is as simple as correcting someone who expresses a homelessness stereotype, or talking with local publications about the problems homeless people face.
  2. Support nonprofits. To help the homeless, you can also support nonprofit organizations by donating money and clothing that will aid their projects and their missions. This is usually the easiest way to help. It ensures that social workers and professionals who best understand how to help the homeless will have the resources necessary to do their important work. Donating used items or new items is another easy way to help. These items can be donated to local organizations that house the homeless or otherwise support them. Additionally, you can always support your local homeless population by donating items directly. If you can’t donate money or goods, you can sign up to volunteer with a nonprofit organization. You can also encourage local publications to publish information about shelters. Many people are unaware that there are shelters for the homeless in their communities. To help the homeless, contact local papers, religious institutions and the editors of local civic group newsletters and ask if they would consider running a weekly or monthly listing of local services available to the homeless.
  3. Be an advocate. To help the homeless from a political standing, you can support mental health services. Mental health problems can be both a cause and an effect of homelessness. One of the best ways to make a difference for homeless people is to encourage and support access to free or low-cost mental health services and make sure that your politicians are encouraging other countries to do the same and discussing it at summits.You can support affordable housing initiatives, free and low-cost health care, day shelters and local libraries where people can research jobs and places to find help. Basic medical care is also a huge problem for homeless people. They are more prone to serious health problems but are stuck in a position where they cannot afford help. Day shelters are another service which can help homeless people get back on their feet. They give people a safe place to stay and store their things. Day shelters are uncommon, so if your city doesn’t have one, talk to your local city councilors or mayor about establishing one.

If the world works together to solve our poverty problem, we can help the homeless. To do this, people around the globe must first educate themselves about each issue and push for legislation that will improve the lives of the homeless population. Continuing to dispel stereotypes and volunteering time and items for nonprofit organizations are important steps to improve lives of others and make the world a better place.

– Rilee Pickle

Photo: Flickr

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Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Sub-Saharan Africa

Mental HealthIn sub-Saharan Africa, a poverty-dense region, there is a relative lack of mental health services. This is partly because most healthcare resources in sub-Saharan African countries are allocated to infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Ninety percent of malaria deaths, 70 percent of people with HIV/AIDS and 26 percent of tuberculosis cases are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. Against this background, mental health problems do not always raise concern. Mental illness accounts for 10 percent of the disease burden in sub-Saharan Africa.

The most common mental disorders in the region are depression and anxiety. The prevalence rates of depression and major depressive disorder in sub-Saharan African countries range from 40 to 55 percent. Among the child and adolescent populations of Sub-Saharan Africa, mental health issues are common. Fourteen percent have mental health problems and nearly 10 percent have diagnosable psychiatric disorders.

Poverty, warfare and disease have all been identified as vulnerabilities and risk factors to child and adolescent mental health in sub-Saharan Africa. In one study conducted in southern Sudan, researchers found that 75 percent of children there suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. There is a lack of evidence-based research on child and adolescent mental health in sub-Saharan Africa. However, a review of the literature indicates that psychological distress and mood, conduct and anxiety disorders are common among children who have experienced armed conflict.

In 2011 it was estimated that 90 percent of children infected with or directly affected by AIDS reside in sub-Saharan Africa. Rates of anxiety and depression are significantly higher in children who have been orphaned by AIDS than in other children. One study found that 12 percent of children orphaned by AIDS in rural Uganda had suicidal thoughts.

There are several challenges to providing quality mental health services in low- and middle-income countries. Two of these include cost and lack of research and needs-based assessments. Of all medical conditions, mental disorders are some of the most expensive to treat. In most sub-Saharan African countries, treatment facilities are limited in number and often inaccessible to much of the population. But without needs assessments and research demonstrating the value of providing effective treatments and services in the region, improving mental health care and its availability to those who need it remains a relatively low priority.

In recent years, mental health has been getting increased attention in sub-Saharan Africa and new efforts have been developed to improve mental health research and care in the region. In 2011, an association of research institutions and health ministries in Uganda, Ethiopia, India, Nepal and South Africa partnered with Britain and the World Health Organization to research the effect of community-based mental health treatment in low- and middle-income nations and to develop facilities and services in these areas.

Another effort is the Africa Focus on Intervention Research for Mental Health, which is working with several sub-Saharan nations on infrastructure development and has conducted a number of randomized controlled experiments to test affordable, accessible intervention methods for severe mental disorders.

This is only a small sample of the development efforts addressing mental health treatment and services in sub-Saharan Africa. Recognition of mental disorders’ significance in national health and more research on intervention will go a long way toward bettering child and adolescent mental health in sub-Saharan Africa.

– Gabrielle Doran

Photo: Google

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4 Facts About Hunger in Kyrgyzstan

Hunger in KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan, or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a Central Asian country with 6.5 million inhabitants. It has registered positive changes in living standards in the past decade. In fact, it ranks 36 out of the 127 countries evaluated in the 2024 Global Hunger Index, meaning the threat of hunger is considered low. Despite progress against hunger compared to concerning levels around 15 years ago, Kyrgyzstan faces challenges in pursuing the U.N. Sustainable Development Agenda on eliminating hunger and improving nutrition. Here are four facts about hunger in Kyrgyzstan and how it is being addressed nationally.

4 Facts About Hunger in Kyrgyzstan

  1. Poverty Causes Malnutrition. As many as 2.3 million Kyrgyz citizens live in poverty on less than $2.15 a day and thus lack access to nutrient-rich foods for a balanced diet. Spending more than 50% of one’s earnings solely on food is commonplace. Many households cannot afford to expand their food budgets further to sustain a healthier diet. Furthermore, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been especially potent in Kyrgyzstan, where the poverty and food insecurity rates skyrocketed by over 10% and have still not recovered. This phenomenon has also endangered the state of the Kyrgyz economy; 30% of the annual GDP is dependent on remittance payments from Kyrgyz citizens working abroad, yet remittances have also suffered since 2020.
  2. Geography Matters. Another obstacle to eradicating hunger in Kyrgyzstan is its geography. The country is covered almost entirely by mountains, which makes large-scale crop cultivation difficult without sophisticated infrastructure. Cold winters and hot, dry summers undermine agricultural yields, and restricted access to equipment and funding prevents producers from implementing better irrigation and fertilizing techniques. As such, most of the ⅔ of the population who reside in the vast mountainous areas are subsistence farmers, growing crops to ensure that their families do not starve, rather than generating income from selling them. Agricultural yields equally suffer from tough weather conditions and climate change shocks, particularly floods and mudslides, meaning hunger is possible at any moment. Furthermore, the lack of stable agriculture means that many Kyrgyz citizens are dependent on imported goods for essential foods.
  3. Malnutrition Mostly Affects Children. Hunger severely affects the well-being of local children. Around 13% of Kyrgyz children below the age of 5 experience stunting and 43% of the same demographic suffer from anemia. By 2011, malnourishment affected around 18% of children, and 22% of child mortality cases were a result of malnutrition. Despite the noticeable diminution of Kyrgyzstan’s stunting and anemia rates relative to decades ago, malnutrition continues to have lasting consequences. With nutrient-deficient diets, children fail to receive the vitamins and minerals required for their growth and development. This may impact their physical and mental capacities in the future and restrict their career prospects.
  4. Progress Continues. Kyrgyzstan has already achieved plenty in fighting hunger, and further progress is in the making. In 2018, its National Statistics Committee adopted the Food Balance Sheets to examine the national food supply, the kinds of foods being eaten and whether the food supply meets the population’s nutritional requirements. This constitutes an important step toward accurately measuring the prevalence of undernourishment, as prescribed by the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal No. 2: Zero Hunger. Furthermore, the World Food Programme has remained active in Kyrgyzstan, distributing 2,000 tons of food assistance to 64,000 poor Kyrgyz citizens and providing 53,000 children with take-home wheat flour rations in 2024. The program is also partnering with the state to introduce hot meals into the nation’s 2,200 primary schools and is supporting rural farmers with food, funding and training in cultivation, harvesting and sustainable management of resources. Finally, USAID has invested $1.5 million in Kyrgyz agriculture, stimulating the nation’s economy through job creation in food storage facilities and improving the quality of agricultural exports.

Further Progress and Aid

UNICEF is also conducting humanitarian aid in Kyrgyzstan. Its work focuses on bettering child nutrition and has incentivized several breakthroughs in this field. Under its guidance, the country developed its inaugural National Food Security and Nutrition Strategy that directs government efforts to address hunger in Kyrgyzstan and offers children vitamins and minerals to fight malnutrition-induced iron-deficiency anemia. UNICEF first introduced the project in the Talas province, resulting in a 26 % drop in anemia rates between 2009 and 2010.

Shoring up these efforts are those of smaller nonprofit organizations, including the Red Crescent Society Kyrgyzstan and the Aga Khan Foundation. The former has worked with USAID to improve emergency preparedness and vaccination rates in Kyrgyzstan. The latter has pioneered the Mountain Societies Development and Support Programme, working with 520,000 rural Kyrgyz residents. The program links farmers to microfinancing companies and helps them to improve productivity and manage their livestock. Additionally, it provides early childhood development and primary school education services to young people.

These four facts about hunger in Kyrgyzstan show that the country has yet to eradicate hunger entirely. Local poverty rates and geographical landscapes complicate this task, affecting the well-being of the Kyrgyz children. However, the government and the nonprofit sector remain actively involved in alleviating hunger, striving for positive change.

– Dan Mikhaylov and Cole Zickwolff
Photo: Flickr
Updated: November 21, 2024