Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Impacts of Child Undernutrition Widespread in Malawi

Child Undernutrition
Malawi is a country in southeast Africa with a population of more than 17 million people. Of those, 6.5 million require food assistance. In southern Africa, it is the country with the largest number of people facing extreme hunger. But for the people who live there, the problem of child undernutrition is a larger issue than the reality of daily life without enough food.

The African Union, with the support of the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Africa and the World Food Program (WFP), conducted a Cost of Hunger Study, which included Malawi. It detailed the social and economic costs of child undernutrition in Malawi, specifically, its impact on health, education and the national economy.

According to the study, “When a child is undernourished, the negative consequences follow that child for his or her entire life.” Child undernutrition includes low weight-for-height, low height-for-age and low weight-for-age. The negative consequences consist of higher morbidity and mortality rates, which can create costs for families as well as the healthcare industry. The WFP indicates that “Hunger and malnutrition are in fact the number one risk to health worldwide – greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.”

Increases in morbidity and mortality rates caused by undernutrition also account for a reduction in the number of people who are available to work in Malawi. The study estimated that in 2012, 10.7 percent of the workforce was missing due to increased mortality rates caused by undernutrition. This equaled 800,566 people who were either lost from or did not become part of the nation’s workforce.

There is also an impact on the outcomes in education. Malnourished children have lower attention spans and learning capacities, which often results in the need to repeat grade levels. This can lead to completing fewer years of school, and will directly impact how productive children will be as adults. It considerably inhibits children’s abilities to reach their full potential. As stated in the results of the study, “National productivity is significantly affected by historical rates of child undernutrition.”

The cost of hunger in Malawi is significant, but there are things that are being done to improve the country’s situation. The WFP’s ShareTheMeal app enables users to donate as little as 50 cents, which will feed a child in Malawi for one day.

The organization also recently imported 55,000 metric tons of maize into Malawi to aid the 4.7 million people who live in drought-affected areas. However, there is more that is still needed to ensure that the negative consequences of hunger do not continue in Malawi.

– Kristin Westad

Photo: Flickr

Saving Mothers and Reducing Maternal Mortalities in Africa

Saving Mothers, Giving Life Reduces Maternal Mortalities in Africa
Almost every two minutes, a woman dies from preventable causes during pregnancy or childbirth. Delays in seeking care, reaching care and receiving care are the primary causes of neonatal and maternal mortalities in Africa. Saving Mothers, Giving Life is a public-private partnership launched by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012 as a five-year initiative to reduce avoidable maternal mortalities in Africa.

For every 1.6 million annual births in Uganda, almost 6,000 women and 34,000 newborns do not survive. In fact, approximately one in 44 Ugandan women will die due to maternal-related complications. These dangers are comparably high in Zambia and Nigeria, as well as in other parts of Africa.

Saving Mothers, Giving Life (SMGL), in coordination with the Ugandan and Zambian governments, addresses this problem by improving supply systems and better equipping health care facilities, providing training to enhance the quality of delivery and emergency response services, mobilizing communities to demand better delivery and family planning services and advancing communication and transportation systems which render health care facilities more accessible.

Since SMGL’s inception, Ugandan institutional maternal mortalities have decreased by 45 percent, and the number of cesarean sections has increased by 31 percent. Stillborn and perinatal mortality rates are down 5 percent, while neonatal mortalities have dropped 6 percent. Similar dramatic success has been recorded in Zambia.

SMGL’s remaining two-and-a-half years will be dedicated to reducing maternal and infant mortalities in Nigeria, a nation which alone accounts for 25 percent of newborn deaths and 14 percent of maternal deaths worldwide. USAID recently pledged $18 million to SMGL toward efforts in Nigeria’s Cross River State.

Hopefully, the rapid results that Uganda and Zambia experienced following SMGL involvement indicate the kind of progress the Cross River State can anticipate over the next two years. With the continued dedication of initiatives like SMGL, it seems likely that maternal mortalities in Africa will become increasingly rare.

– Robin Lee

Photo: Flickr

These Numbers Have Faces: Empowering Young Africans

These Numbers Have Faces Empowers African Young People to Lead
These Numbers Have Faces is a nonprofit organization that believes the problems in Africa essentially boil down to one issue: poor leadership. To combat this central problem, the organization is investing in the youth of Africa to ensure a better future through the development of honest and ethical leadership.

By investing in university students and young entrepreneurs, These Numbers Have Faces has impacted over 4,000 people. Eventually, it could impact the entire African continent. The organization has global, creative, corporate and church partners whose investments make its achievements possible.

Its approach involves five different avenues for positively changing the next generation of African leaders: university education, entrepreneurship investment, women’s empowerment, a refugee initiative and American internships for African students.

The University Leadership Program recognizes the excitement African high school students have for their futures and how that excitement often dies because of financial roadblocks keeping them from attending college. The program combines a social impact loan with leadership training, professional development opportunities, 200 hours of community service and an intentional support group consisting of family and friends.

These Numbers Have Faces’ Accelerate Academy Entrepreneurship Fellowship teaches the most promising East African entrepreneurs how to become thriving business leaders.

The organization is also committed to empowering women, recognizing that women will play an incredibly important role in ending poverty-related problems in Africa. These Numbers Have Faces invests in young women, providing education and tools to help develop their characters, skills and talents in order to change the trajectory of their lives.

The organization’s Hope Starts Here Refugee Initiative cares for refugees from the Dominican Republic, Congo and Burundi, educating and empowering them in order to give them a chance for a better future.

Finally, the organization connects students in Africa with internships in America. The students are recruited into six fields: business, science, engineering, technology, medicine and law. The program seeks to foster connection and engagement by training the most driven, promising students to be future leaders of their countries. The three-month professional internships involve placement at companies such as Amazon’s Lab126, Allion USA, Delap CPA, TMT Development, The Portland Timbers and Aspen Heights.

Luke Hammill of The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported the inspiring story of Jean Paul Mugisha, who eventually traveled to the U.S. for an internship with These Numbers Have Faces. His family fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo and lived on a mere 24 cents per day in a Rwandan refugee camp.

These Numbers Have Faces selected Mugisha, who had gotten a perfect score on the national physics test but was unable to attend college due to his status as a refugee. He qualified for a leadership loan and began pursuing his degree at the National University of Rwanda.

“There is no other way I’d go to school,” said Mugisha, who spent the summer of 2015 interning at Allion USA, a successful engineering service provider located in Beaverton, Oregon.

Jean Paul Mugisha is just one example of a life being changed through the work of this organization. Through its intentional, developed and sustainable programs, it is showing the world that these numbers do in fact have faces and that young leaders are the key to a better future for Africa.

– Rebecca Causey

Photo: Flickr

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Education in the Congo

Education in the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo recently began making education a greater national priority. Due to internal tumults and conflicts which ensued since the nation achieved independence in 1960, the financial burden of education in the Congo has largely fallen on families, despite the fact that more than 70 percent of the Congolese population live in poverty.

About 95 percent of school fees, which fund everything from classroom materials to maintaining school infrastructures to teacher salaries, are paid for by families. Therefore, children from poor families are far less likely to attend school than their wealthier counterparts. In fact, about 1.2 million children who are not enrolled in school would be able to attend if these fees were abolished.

Fortunately, in recent years, universal education in the Congo has become a national priority. The DRC joined the Global Partnership for Education in 2012 and has since received two substantial grants to overhaul the Congolese education system.

The first grant of $100 million from 2013-2016 significantly improved national primary school enrollment, restored more than 700 classrooms, distributed 20 million textbooks and teacher guides, trained more than 11,000 teachers, as well as constructed latrines and water points throughout the Kasai and Equator provinces.

There is still much to be done. The next grant of the same amount will be implemented from 2016-2020.

Making education free and universal for Congolese children is fundamental to the DRC’s plan for poverty reduction and economic promotion. However, it is not only accessibility that needs to be improved. Overall educational quality is severely wanting.

Sixty-eight percent of Congolese children in third and fourth years of primary school cannot read, and less than half of fifth-year students exhibit the most rudimentary understanding of French. Likewise, less than 60 percent of fifth-year students are able to meet mathematics requirements.

Now that education in the Congo is a more deliberate national priority, both quality and accessibility of schooling can be better addressed. With the renewed grant from the Global Partnership for Education, the DRC continues to improve supplies to schools and quality teacher training.

Better materials and lower student-teacher-ratios will enhance the likelihood of student successes, and in the long run, reduce national poverty and enhance economic competence in the Congo.

– Robin Lee

Photo: Flickr

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Three Organizations Fighting Malnutrition and Hunger in Nicaragua

Hunger in Nicaragua
With about 29 percent of households living in poverty and 8.3 percent in extreme poverty on less than $1.25 a day, Nicaragua is considered one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Hunger in Nicaragua is just one of the major problems the country faces. Fortunately, organizations such as North Country Mission of Hope, World Food Program and Action Against Hunger have acted out of generosity, providing support and food assistance for areas suffering from chronic malnutrition.

  1. North Country Mission of Hope/Stop Hunger Now
    North Country Mission of Hope is a humanitarian organization specifically committed to aiding and building relationships with the people of Nicaragua, with 97 percent of profits going directly to services in the country. Likewise, Stop Hunger Now works to end world hunger by distributing meals through feeding programs operated by partner organizations in developing countries. Earlier this year, Stop Hunger Now teamed up with North Country Mission of Hope to ship 22,660 pounds of medical equipment, school supplies and food to Nicaragua.
  2. World Food Program (WFP)
    WFP has been fighting hunger in Nicaragua since 1971. The organization supports the government of Nicaragua’s Zero Hunger Program by working to prevent chronic malnutrition and improving the food security of smallholder farmers. Focusing on nutrition, WFP reaches out to vulnerable groups, including mothers and children, in communities like Madriz, which has a 30 percent rate of chronic malnutrition, and Nueva Segovia, which has a 28 percent rate. WFP’s school meals program also provides daily meals to needy children in preschools and primary schools.
  3. Action Against Hunger
    Action Against Hunger has been working in Nicaragua since 1996. In 2015, the organization provided nutritional support to 1,294 individuals, helped 6,181 gain access to safe water and assisted 21,193 in total. The organization emphasizes four main action steps that go into its aid process.

First, Action Against Hunger predicts where and when to expect malnutrition in order to target it effectively. Secondly, it recognizes that global hunger is preventable and encourages members to find ways to ensure that children stay healthy. Next, the organization utilizes available resources, particularly therapeutic ready-to-use foods. Finally, it maintains that anyone can get involved and make a difference. Just $45 can provide a child with life-saving treatment, adequate supplies and food for survival.

Though Nicaragua has encountered many struggles, the work of these global humanitarian groups is bringing hope to the country and its people.

– Mikaela Frigillana
Photo: Flickr

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Improving Maternal and Child Health Through Innovations

Improving Maternal and Child Health
The problem of poverty is not too big to tackle, but it is a huge issue. Chief Strategy Officer and Vice President of Strategy and Learning at PATH, Amie Batson, believes the answer is innovation, and she is especially optimistic about innovations geared toward improving maternal and child health. She worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on its Child Survival: Call to Action initiative that “challenges the world to reduce child mortality.”

This initiative united the governments of India, Ethiopia and the U.S. to work with UNICEF toward the goal of making sure every child reaches his or her fifth birthday. By 2035, Child Survival: Call to Action strives to reduce the number of deaths before age 5 to only 20 in every 1,000.

“We have the tools, the treatments and the technology to save millions of lives every year, and there is no excuse not to use them,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. He also stated that countries must focus on “scaling-up coverage of high-impact, low-cost treatments, sparking greater innovation and spurring greater political will to reach the hardest-to-reach children.”

One such low-cost practice proven to be effective in improving maternal and child health is “kangaroo mother care.” This practice involves immediate and prolonged skin-to-skin contact between mother and child after a child is born. Research shows that this contact results in exclusive breastfeeding, which is especially important for children in developing countries. It also helps with thermal regulation and creates a psychological connection between mother and child. It is a simple change with lasting impact.

Many other notable innovations involve giving women access to family planning. Sayan Press produces an injectable contraceptive available in small doses through an easy-to-use injection device. Its availability and ease of use allow community-level workers to hand it out, thus expanding its accessibility.

Batson encourages nonprofits and governments alike to continue the search for innovators as a way of reducing the number of preventable deaths among women and children.

“Local innovators have incredible ingenuity and capacity to drive ‘frugal’ innovations—low-cost, life-saving innovations tailored to local needs,” she said, encouraging countries to look within for their solutions.

Through the collaboration of organizations like USAID and PATH, it has been shown that even as few as 11 innovations can make a significant difference. There is much hope for the future of women and children’s health, and the best place to start is here.

– Rebecca Causey

Photo: Flickr

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The Rise of Online Education in Developing Countries

Online Education in Developing Countries
In 2012, Battushig Myanganbayar, a boy from a Mongolian village, became one of only 340 students out of 150,000 to earn a perfect score in an MIT Circuits and Electronics class. That class was the first Massive Open Online Course — a free mode of accessible international online education offered at MIT.

Stories like Myanganbayar’s are certainly inspiring, but access to online education in developing countries isn’t the norm. Most MOOC users are educated, wealthy and employed. However, MOOCs present incredible opportunities to students around the globe. Consequently, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and EducationUSA have taken the initiative to raise awareness about and increase access to MOOCs and online education in developing countries.

USAID partnered with Coursetalk in 2014 for the Advancing MOOCs for Development Initiative (AMDI) to raise awareness about MOOC opportunities in populations that could benefit from them the most, such as unemployed and uneducated women. Through establishing relationships with NGO, college, university, business or foundation communities, USAID will work toward increasing enrollment in MOOCs in developing countries.

The Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA) at the University of Washington’s Information School and nonprofit development organization IREX are also involved in the initiative to help conduct research in Columbia, the Philippines and South Africa.

Another organization called EducationUSA — a network of student advising centers to support higher education around the world — is bringing educational opportunities into the classrooms of students who wouldn’t have access to them otherwise. Through the support of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, EducationUSA has hosted impactful MOOC camps hosted by Fulbright alumni and U.S. embassy staff. MOOC camps are free, open to the public and occur in more than 60 countries.

MOOCs have pros and cons. The largest complaint about MOOCs is that it could be considered “cultural imperialism” that stunts the growth of a country’s organic progress. Some argue that bringing elite education from the developed world offers a short-term solution to a select group of people in the developing world. As a result, MOOCs inhibit the progress of the long-term goal to improve a country’s education system.

Despite the obvious downsides to MOOCs, one might consider them a temporary necessary evil. One key example where this is true is Kepler University in Rwanda that combines online learning with in-person seminars. Eventually, graduates from Kepler will go on to be the well-prepared educators for the next generation as well as innovators and politicians who are integral to the development of Rwanda.

In support of online education in developing countries, Bill Gates has said that he believes in a “future in which world-class education is only a few taps away for anyone in the world.” With the rapid growth of MOOCs and the support they are receiving from U.S. foreign aid programs, it looks like the future is now.

– Sabrina Yates

Photo: Flickr

Vietnam Green Growth Strategy Promises Sustainability

The Vietnam Green Growth Strategy Promises Sustainable Growth
In the face of increasing pressure on natural resources, Vietnam has demonstrated great commitment to sustainable growth and development. Launched in September 2012, the Vietnam Green Growth Strategy aims to restructure economic efficiency, cope with climate change and reduce poverty within the country.

Vietnam has experienced rapid growth in recent years, but this progress has also put pressure on the country’s natural resources. Poverty in Vietnam declined from 49.2 percent in 1993 to 3.2 percent in 2012.

As unfortunate side effects of this achievement, air pollution levels rose in major cities, rivers became more polluted, greenhouse gas emissions almost tripled between 2000 and 2010, and climate-related disasters began to devastate rural and coastal regions.

In response to increasing strains on the environment, the government adopted the Vietnam Green Growth Strategy in 2012, with the ultimate goal of creating a more sustainable footing for the national economy while further reducing poverty.

The Green Growth Strategy seeks to accomplish its goals largely by encouraging businesses to move towards greener practices and help new businesses develop along green lines. Focusing on business practice reform paves a strong foundation for lasting growth, as “green investment is good investment,” according to Pratibha Mehta, UNDP resident representative.

If successful, the strategy would reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions by 8-10 percent as compared to the 2010 levels, reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 1.5 percent per year, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy activities by 10-20 percent as compared to standard current rates, and promote green lifestyles and sustainable consumption among Vietnamese citizens.

The World Bank is supporting Vietnam’s progress through investments that steer the energy sector towards lower carbon options. By focusing on restructuring the economy and business practices, Vietnam is showing a strong effort to create large-scale and lasting green growth.

The Vietnam Green Growth Strategy is further supported by a partnership between Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment, the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Program. This partnership assembled a supplemental framework that accelerates Vietnam’s ability to implement green growth policies. The Strengthening Capacity and Institutional Reform for Green Growth and Sustainable Development in Vietnam project supports capacity building and encourages policy reform along Green Growth lines.

Thus far, five ministries and almost 30 localities in Vietnam have implemented green growth strategies. The steps taken include resource mobilization, institutional and policy improvement, capacity enhancement, and technology improvement.

The Vietnam Green Growth Strategy is guiding both rural and urban development toward substantial and sustainable growth. By integrating green growth with national policies, the initiative is positioning Vietnam to achieve the sustainable development goals.

– McKenna Lux

Photo: Flickr

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Dengue Track: Mapping the Spread of Disease

Dengue Track: How Mapping the Spread of Disease May Help to Stop It
Dengue is a notoriously malicious mosquito-borne virus that has seen an uptick in recent decades with the expansion of urban environments. But a new tool called Dengue Track is trying to change that.

Dengue fever causes flu-like symptoms, minor bleeding and a characteristic full-body rash. The disease used to be confined primarily to tropical regions, but the World Health Organization estimates that about half the global population is now at risk. It is rarely fatal but nonetheless constitutes a leading cause of illness and death among children in some developing countries. Though a vaccine has been developed, its use has only been approved in three countries so far, and it is not yet widely available anywhere.

Dengue is a disease that is uncommonly hard to fight. Because it has an incubation period of four to 10 days, mosquitos can be spreading it in an area for weeks before officials start to realize that they have an epidemic on their hands. What’s more, as globalization intensifies and people and goods travel more broadly than ever, it’s nearly impossible to keep infections localized or to judge where they might develop next.

Illnesses that, like dengue, are transmitted by blood-sucking insects are called “vector-borne” diseases, and when vaccines are not available, the only way to protect human populations is through methods known collectively as “vector control.” These include strategies for reducing the insects’ breeding areas, creating tools like nets to keep them away from vulnerable people or killing them with pesticides.

Vector control, however, is most effective when the movement of the disease can be plotted on a map. The trouble is that dengue, which is most prevalent in developing countries around the equator, is dramatically underdiagnosed and underreported, and systems to share what little information there is are inefficient, unstandardized, or nonexistent.

Dengue Track, a crowdsourced tool that tries to map the epidemiology of the disease, is an initiative from an organization called Break Dengue. Drawing information from cell phone conversations, social media, and an online chat system, it plots cases of the illness across the globe to try to predict where it may surface next.

It is a low-cost method that relies on tools common in developing countries, where only one-third have access to the internet but over 95 percent own mobile phones. This means that it is particularly well-suited to places where the national health system does not have the ability to track outbreaks itself.

“Thousands of lives are lost every year in developing countries for failing to detect epidemics early because of the lack of real-time data on reported cases,” said Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, a professor at New York University who helped to develop Dengue Track. This app might prove a useful model for identifying such epidemics early in the game and taking the appropriate steps to head them off.

– Madeleine Read

Photo: Flickr

Potential Reform for the Chilean Pension System

Protest and Potential Reform for the Chilean Pension System
In the past, pension analysts, the World Bank and political figureheads around the world, including George W. Bush, have praised the privatized Chilean pension system as one of the most effective in the world. However, many issues have arisen due to the system, and Chilean retirees are unable to sustain themselves due to small pensions. Many citizens are forced to work past retirement age in order to live at the most basic level.

Following protests from dissatisfied citizens and warnings from international organizations regarding the failing pension system, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet began to explore reform options in 2008. Under the current system, which was implemented in 1981 under the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, workers must contribute 10% of their salaries into accounts operated by private businesses called pension fund administrators or AFPs.

The companies invest the money while employers and the government don’t make any contributions to the workers’ accounts. The funds are controlled by six AFPs and are equal to approximately 71% of Chile’s gross domestic product.

Recently, discontent among citizens has reached an all-time high as fewer and fewer people are capable of surviving solely off the money from the Chilean pension system. Although the invested money has helped to boost Chile’s economy in the past, the pension system is rather unreliable. If the stock market dips or the global markets stray from normal trends, workers lose savings and retirees receive smaller pension checks. Culturally, the Chilean economy is informal and people make inconsistent contributions to their pension accounts, which makes the situation even worse. Currently, the average pension check in Chile is $315, which is less than a monthly minimum wage salary.

Women also fare worse than men due to the fact that they typically earn less, are more likely to retire early and have a longer life expectancy than men. These factors, mixed with a general financial illiteracy among Chilean citizens, have led many people into desperate situations.

In 2008, President Bachelet introduced several pension reforms in an attempt to remedy the failings and move toward a mixed public-private system. She implemented a state-funded minimum pension amount of $140 for those who were unable to save for retirement. Close to 1.3 million Chileans receive this benefit today.

Now, further reforms such as a minimum required contribution from employers, the introduction of a state-run AFP with the hopes of creating competition and efforts to keep fund managers commissions on an equal playing field. Bachelet stated, “This increase in contributions will allow us to build the foundation for collective savings with solidarity. Part of it will enable raising current pensions and the other part will be used to ensure more equity in future pensions.”

As long as the Chilean pension system follows through with these reforms and takes care of their growing aging population, outside parties may still be able to look at Chile as having one of the most effective pension systems in the world.

– Peyton Jacobsen

Photo: Flickr