Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

The Rise and Impact of Renewable Energy in Africa

Renewable Energy in Africa

Renewable energy in Africa is one of the continent’s most promising industries. The Africa Progress Panel acts as one of the many entities responsible for making renewable energy such a priority across the continent.

The Africa Progress Panel

The Africa Progress Panel is run by 10 members and founded in 2008. Kofi Annan, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize and one-time United Nations Secretary-General, serves as chairman for the panel.

The remaining members come from all walks of life and numerous professional backgrounds. Politicians, economists and advocates representing organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank make up the Africa Progress Panel.

The overarching mission of the panel is to “advocate for equitable and sustainable development for Africa.” The organization’s advocacy covers numerous areas, including agriculture and education, but the group’s most recent focus is energy.

Africa and Renewable Energy

Africa’s natural resources represent a great opportunity for renewable energy to prosper in the continent, but millions of Africans continue to live without access to electricity. The role of the Africa Progress Panel is to influence African governments and international entities, such as The World Bank, to invest in low-carbon or renewable energy projects that move away from the dangers of fossil fuels and bring quick and widespread energy access to citizens.

Caroline Kende-Robb, the Africa Progress Panel’s executive director, wrote in an editorial piece that the panel hopes by 2030 energy will be available worldwide. The Africa Progress Panel’s 2015 “Power, People, Planet” edition of their annual publication — the Africa Progress Report — focused on achieving this goal.

Power, People, Planet

In this report, the panel outlines a number of proposals to governments, organizations and companies both inside and outside of Africa. These recommendations include terminating subsidies for fossil fuels, creating new urban centers with renewable energy in mind, setting higher goals for energy production, increasing international financing and enhancing both innovation and transparency.

Thankfully, the panel’s recommendations are taking hold — Africa is quickly becoming a hotbed of renewable energy. Solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal projects are expanding across the continent as countries begin surpassing their benchmarks for energy expansion and financing.

A recent article by CNN explores many of these projects, including the Olkaria Geothermal Power Plant in Kenya, which will eventually energize more than 250,000 homes throughout the country, and Rwanda’s Solar Power field, which brings electricity to 15,000 households.

Poverty-ending Potential

These new initiatives in renewable energy in Africa have the potential to end poverty for millions of Africans. According to the Africa Progress Panel’s Africa Progress Report 2015 — Power, People, Planet, new renewable energy bring “prices as low as US$1-2/kWh, implying cost reductions of 80-90 percent”.

Many Africans are extremely dependent on agriculture, as it is one of the continent’s largest industries. The Africa Progress Report 2015 expressed that the inconsistent availability of energy is damaging yields for farmers and forcing them to use techniques that are harmful to the environment. New technology will not only bring electricity to countless homes, it will also re-energize agriculture in Africa by helping to produce more food and protecting the ecosystem.

This rise of renewable energy in Africa will introduce light to the dark, impoverished and long-forgotten corners of the continent.

– Liam Travers

Photo: Pixabay

Circle of Sisterhood: Global Impact

Circle of SisterhoodCircle of Sisterhood is an organization comprised of college-educated, American sorority women working together to provide educational opportunities for girls and women around the world.

Circle of Sisterhood was founded in 2010 by Ginny Carroll. She was inspired by the best-selling book, Half the Sky, which focuses on women’s education around the globe. The Circle of Sisterhood website quotes the aforementioned book which states, “one study after another has shown that educating girls is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty. Schooling is often a precondition for girls and women to stand up against injustice, and for women to be integrated into the economy.”

Carroll saw the Greek community as perfect volunteers for her mission as “they’re already organized, they already understand philanthropy, they already give millions of dollars a year to domestic work… the vision was, this was a way for all sorority women… to have a global effect.”

Sorority chapters on college campuses around the nation who choose to participate as volunteers for Circle of Sisterhood raise funds to build schools and create scholarships for girls and women around the globe. Chapters may opt to host a bake sale, trivia night, or any other fundraising event to collect donations from fellow students. Many campuses even host screenings of the documentary version of Half the Sky to inspire more women to volunteer.

According to Circle of Sisterhood website, “as college educated women, we know the value of achieving an education… every girl in the world deserves the opportunity to go to school.” Considering that only around seven percent of the world’s population currently holds a college degree, many sorority women feel it is their duty to try to spread their educational good fortune.

As of 2015, Circle of Sisterhood had already impacted 17 countries and built five new schools, such as Ethiopia, Kenya and others. The organization has also raised almost $500,000 in grants.

After six years, sorority women involved in Circle of Sisterhood have continued to show their gratitude for their own educations by helping other women and girls to achieve the same.

– Carrie Robinson

Photo: Flickr

Five Ways Tobacco Control Reduces Poverty

Tobacco Control Reduces Poverty
Tobacco and global poverty have an often overlooked connection. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Many studies have shown that in the poorest households in many low-income countries, spending on tobacco products often represent more than 10 percent of total household expenditure.”

The WHO, the U.N. and other international organizations have recognized and researched this link to decrease tobacco use and poverty rates. Here are five ways tobacco control reduces poverty globally:

1. Tobacco control will relieve financial hardships.

Tobacco addictions exacerbate an already stressful financial situation for those living in poverty.

Families, as a result, have less to spend on food, education, healthcare and other necessities. Bangladesh, for example, spends 10 times the amount on tobacco than on education. Tobacco control reduces poverty by helping families spend less on tobacco, freeing up more income to spend on necessities.

2. Tobacco control will save lives.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports 6 million tobacco-related deaths worldwide per year. Tobacco users die 10 years earlier than non-users. Smoking also causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Tobacco control is known as one of the most effective ways to reduce consumption. Its implementation would reduce the amount of smoking-related illnesses, keeping more workers in the labor force and ease health care expenditures for families.

3. Tobacco control will reduce exploitation.

Tobacco also affects those who produce it. Farmers who produce tobacco on a small-scale in developing countries depend heavily on the tobacco industry. Although large corporations provide credit for farmers, including seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and technological support, they expect the farmers to forgo profits and sell at the company’s contract price. This is further evidence that tobacco control reduces poverty.

Furthermore, farmers’ children have saved the tobacco industry an estimated $1.2 billion in production costs through unpaid child labor. The industry employs 63 percent of children in tobacco-farming families, preventing 10-14 percent from attending school for work’s sake.

The lack of education drives individuals deeper into poverty. Tobacco control reduces poverty not only by giving farmers better opportunities to provide for themselves, but also eliminating the need for children to sacrifice school for work, ultimately granting them the chance to move up social classes in the future.

4. Tobacco control will improve economies.

Tobacco takes away 1-2 percent of the world’s GDP annually. A 2011 WHO report found that governments can introduce effective tobacco control measures for as little as $0.11 per person per year. If governments allocated the extra revenue from such taxes to their health budgets, WHO found this year in a report that “public expenditure on health would increase by four percent globally.”

Currently, the costs of tobacco production outweigh the profits. For example, although Tanzania earns $50 million from tobacco sales annually, the African country spends $40 million on health care for tobacco-related cancers.

Tobacco control in the form of taxes would increase government revenue and funds for the poor.

5. Tobacco control will help the achieve the SDGs.

The U.N.’s Division for Sustainable Development seeks to reduce poverty and coordinate the 17 internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aforementioned effects of tobacco control directly align themselves with the SDGs, as they include no poverty or hunger, good health and well-being, quality education and economic growth worldwide by 2030.

Because of its negative byproducts, tobacco use is considered a hindrance to global development.

However, with proper tobacco control, individuals, governments and organizations believe it can provide sustainable benefits.

– Ashley Leon

Photo: Pixabay

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Top Five Facts You Should Know about Haitian Refugees

Haitian RefugeesAfter six years of recovering from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people and left 1.5 million Haitians homeless in 2010, Haitian refugees continue to face marginalization and poor living conditions. As a growing number of refugees from Haiti flock to the U.S. border seeking asylum, here are the top five current facts you should know about the Haitian refugee crisis and what is being done to alleviate it:

    1. An estimated 60,000 people live in Haitian refugee camps, according to Public Finance International (PFI). This is a 96% reduction from the initial number of refugees that moved to makeshift encampments after the earthquake that rocked Haiti’s foundation. The improvement can be largely attributed to the effectiveness of Haiti’s relocation programs.
    2. Food insecurity and cholera are on the rise in Haiti’s refugee camps after El Niño and three years of drought. The effects of the tropical storm and years of drought have left 3.6 million people in Haiti food insecure, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). To deal with the crisis, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs calls for increased medical treatment, access to clean water, and nutrition interventions in Haiti according to PFI.
    3. Tense ties with the neighboring Dominican Republic, threaten mass deportations of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent. With the possible expulsion of nearly 200,000 stateless people, a new refugee crisis with devastating consequences looms in the distance, according to UN News. Last spring, the New York Times reported that an estimated 3,000 people had arrived in Haiti’s makeshift encampments after fleeing or being forced out of the Dominican Republic.
    4. Brazil is striving to improve immigration services on a community-level in order to decrease xenophobia and improve the living conditions of Haitian refugees. Brazilian organizations, such as the Association of Haitians in Balneário Camboriú, is filling in the gaps left by the government by managing work opportunities and improving integration services for refugees from Haiti, according to the Huffington Post.
    5. There has been a recent surge of Haitian refugees camping near the San Diego-Tijuana border as they await processing for asylum in the United States. Most of the refugees originally sought asylum in Brazil, but a worsening recession and lack of immigration support services drove refugees from Haiti to seek better living conditions elsewhere, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

As the poorest country in the northern hemisphere, Haiti continues to strive for economic and political stability years after the quake. While the Haitian government rebuilds Haiti’s economic and social infrastructure, the U.S. and other countries play a major role in supporting the integration and well-being of Haitian refugees abroad.

One way to ensure that the U.S. provides vital humanitarian support to refugees is by expanding the International Affairs Budget. The funds of the International Affairs Budget are imperative to helping refugees and the world’s poor but unfortunately, this resource is grossly underfunded.

To help alleviate the Haitian refugee crisis, call or email your congressional leaders in support of increased funding for the International Affairs Budget.

– Daniela Sarabia

Photo: Flickr

Olympic Success Can Boost Tourism in Kenya

tourism in kenyaDuring the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Kenya once again proved its dominance in the realm of track and field. And, the Kenyan Ministry of Tourism hopes that this success will continue to promote one of the fastest growing industries in the world, sports tourism in Kenya.

According to an article published by CNN, tourism in Kenya produces about $6 billion a year, but the recent rise in terrorism has hurt the industry. Government organizations have begun to focus on sports tourism as a solution to this downturn in the country’s economy.

The beauty, history and culture of East African countries, combined with the popularity of their native athletes has allowed sports tourism in Kenya to prosper in the past few years. Fatuma Hirsi Mohamed, the principal secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, stated, “our sportspeople put the country on the global map.”

Kenyan middle-distance runner David Rudisha, commonly known as “the King”, solidified his place as one of the greatest athletes in the world when he won the men’s 800-meter race in Rio, his second gold medal in that event after setting the world record during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. However, Rudisha is not only known for his abilities on the track, but he has also become one of Kenya’s most prominent ambassadors for tourism.

Kenya offers attractions for all types of tourists, including world-class athletes, dedicated fans and curious travelers. The famous town of Iten, Kenya located in the Great Rift Valley is one of the country’s most popular destinations. This high altitude attraction is most famous for being the training ground of countless decorated Olympic runners, including Rudisha. Lornah Kiplagat, a world champion runner, founded Iten’s High Altitude Training Center, which is now visited by both training Olympians and casual runners from across the world.

While Iten is an enormous draw for many tourists, Kenya is looking to expand the industry by building on many of their already popular events. The annual Maralal Camel Derby is a world-renowned race that attracts local and international spectators, with all proceeds going toward local communities. The Lewa Marathon, which is known as one of the world’s toughest marathons, also raises money for conservation and community projects.

The country is hopeful that sports tourism in Kenya will be a viable industry heading into the future. The country will continue to host sports events and clinics, while star athletes such as David Rudisha inspire fans to visit and experience the beautiful home of Olympic legends.

– Liam Travers

Photo: Flickr

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Foreign Aid Critical to Reducing Poverty in Sierra Leone

Poverty _Sierra Leone
As one of the poorest countries in the world, Sierra Leone is ranked 180 out of 187 on the U.N.’s Human Development Index and faces many challenges to creating sustained development. The year 2012, the last year for which official statistics are available, put the proportion of the population below the poverty line, at 60%.  Since the recent Ebola outbreak, current estimates indicate that 77.5% of the population suffers from poverty in Sierra Leone.

Ebola Epidemic and its Consequences

The Ebola epidemic significantly set back the progress made by the West-African nation since the end of its long civil war in 2002. Taking around four thousand lives, and disrupting the country’s health system, the outbreak rocked the developing country.

Until the outbreak, Sierra Leone made numerous strides in multiple aspects of development. The country was cited as a success story of peacebuilding missions and establishing good governance and stable institutions. GDP growth averaged over seven percent every year for the past decade, but shrank to two percent after the West-African Ebola crisis.

Sierra Leone’s Global Reliance

The country is heavily reliant on exports of iron ore to support its domestic economy, contributing to GDP more than all other factors combined. Most of the rest of the country’s revenue comes from agricultural products, which remain at low productivity levels across the board.

Additionally, the country has a high dependence on foreign aid, with more than half of investment coming from foreign sources.

Despite progress, lack of infrastructure and high youth unemployment remain large barriers to the country elevating to a middle-income status. With 70% of its youth unemployed and only about 40% of adults able to read, significant investments in economic development and education remain high priorities to eradicate poverty in Sierra Leone.

The poor nation also has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, with over 71 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Essential International Aid

Many international groups are engaging in efforts to reduce the level of poverty in Sierra Leone, including the International Finance Corporation branch of the World Bank, which is investing in many critical areas to boost economic and private sector development to hopefully make the country a self-sustaining middle-income country.

Additionally, the International Rescue Commission provides humanitarian relief efforts through local engagement to prevent death by preventable diseases. The organization accomplishes such feats through its healthcare and educational assistance which improves future prospects.

While the rise of Ebola may have temporarily derailed development efforts, Sierra Leone continues to march toward improved economic and social conditions with help from international organizations. While challenges exist, the country has been consistently improving since 2002.

The country hopes to bounce back from its recent hiccup as quickly as possible and to begin addressing the issue of poverty in Sierra Leone, which prevents it from becoming a middle-income country.

– Adam Gonzalez

Photo: Flickr

Poverty in Chad

Poverty in Chad
Through its history, the African country of Chad has fallen victim to instability, corruption and devastating climatic variation.

Since the country gained its independence from France in 1960, it has struggled with controversial elections and an allegedly corrupt president, Idriss Denby Itno. Tensions between religious groups and ethnic factions have furthered instability despite several peace agreements that have been reached.

Equally as damaging as Chad’s instability is its unpredictable climate. The country relies heavily on oil and agricultural exports, yet soil erosion, drought and plague locust can destroy crops and make it impossible to collect oil and other natural resources.

Factors like political and social instability, as well as an unforgiving climate, make poverty in Chad very real and very challenging to fight.

According to the World Bank over 45 percent of Chad’s population lives at or below the national poverty line. The poverty line is the amount of income needed to afford the necessities of life like food, water and shelter. Living at or below a poverty line can put immense pressure on people and often causes children to miss school. Unfortunately, uneducated communities often lack the skills and knowledge to help lift themselves out of poverty and in turn become even more impoverished.

Exemplifying what can come with living under the national poverty line is Chad’s slum population. As of 2014, nearly 90 percent of the Chadian population resided in slum housing. A slum is defined as housing that lacks access to clean water, sanitation, proper living space or structural durability. These living conditions can lead to higher rates of illness and crime within the community.

Overall, poverty in Chad has a devastating effect on the country. By looking at how long a country’s population lives, how educated they are and what standards of living they endure, one can determine how developed the country is. Every year the U.N. collects this data to look at each country’s development progress. The result is  the Human Development Index (HDI) which uses life expectancy, an education index and Gross National Income as key dimensions of human development.

In 2015, the U.N. ranked Chad 185 out of 188 countries measured in terms of HDI. This low score means that on average, Chad is not only less developed than most other countries, but it’s people live shorter lives, are undereducated and are relatively unproductive in terms of GNI.

This statistic is undoubtedly linked with high rates of poverty in Chad. And, though investments in Chad are risky, there are organizations reaching out to Chad.

One organization, Aid for Africa empowers especially vulnerable populations like women and children in hopes that they may one day escape poverty. This is done through community-based self-help programs, education programs, business help and ecological protection.

– Weston Northrop

Photo: Flickr

Nine Shocking and Alarming Facts About Hunger in Haiti

Hunger_Haiti
Hunger in Haiti acts as one of the country’s largest ongoing problems. With two and a half million Haitians living in extreme poverty, Haiti is the poorest country in the northern hemisphere.

Though partly due to the series of severe natural disasters over the last two decades, the nation’s humanitarian and developmental challenges stem from numerous factors.

    1. The country faces its worst food insecurity crisis since 2001.
      The United Nations World Food Program appeals for $84 million to alleviate hunger in Haiti and the country’s increased suffering state. The organization hopes to aid one million Haitians battle extreme malnutrition and high death tolls.
    2. Two out of three Haitians live on less than $2 per day.
      Half of the population earns less than $1 per day. Many people lack access to electricity, water, sanitation and/or healthcare. With this level of extreme poverty, Haiti is in dire need of assistance to improve living conditions.
    3. Fifty percent of urban Haitians are unemployed.
      This statistic can serve as a stark contrast to urban America, where the unemployment rate is 4.7%, as of 2015. That’s 45.3% more of the Haitian population who are unable to provide for themselves and their families.
    4. Climate change is a growing issue that threatens over 500,000 Haitians every year.
      Global shifts in atmospheric conditions and weather patterns caused by human-induced climate change and increased carbon emissions leave a lasting negative impact on poor farmers and production.
    5. Although agriculture provides 50% of jobs in the country and accounts for 25% of GDP, this profession does not contribute to improving hunger rates in Haiti. 
      The country fails to produce enough food and imports 80% of its main staple, rice.
    6. Drought has had detrimental effects on the Haiti population.
      With only 10% of crops irrigated, 90% of farmers depend on rain for their harvest. Lack of rainfall and the rising cost of basic necessities act as the main reasons for the scarcity of local products on the domestic market.
    7. One hundred thousand children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, while one in three children’s growth is stunted.
      The World Food Programme’s operations in Haiti work to end chronic malnutrition by providing nutritional meals to kids in schools and delivering supplementary food rations.
    8. A large portion of the Haitian population lacks access to clean water and adequate sanitation.
      Forty percent of the people in Haiti lack access to clean water and only one in five can access a sanitary toilet. Unfortunately, few water treatment facilities are properly functioning for the general public in the country. Soil erosion and deforestation also heavily contributed to diminished water quality.
    9. One-third of Haitian women and children are anemic.
      A result of poverty, the average Haitian child’s diet lacks many and most nutrients, including iron. The iron level in Haiti is also low because of intestinal blood loss due to worms and parasites.

The people of Haiti face a multitude of problems, and struggle to sustain a full, healthy life. Luckily, organizations like WFP, the Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs, the Food and Agriculture Organization and UNICEF work to end poverty and hunger in Haiti and help these communities rebuild their shattered lives.

– Mikaela Frigillana

Photo: Flickr

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Poverty Mapping with Help of Artificial Intelligence

Poverty Mapping with the Help of Artificial Intelligence
Poverty mapping has proven to be a difficult task in past years. Poor countries are often reluctant to account for poverty due to corruption or the inability to do so because of ongoing conflicts. The World Bank reports that only 20 African countries conducted two or more population surveys on poverty from 2000 to 2010.

A new study from Stanford University hopes to improve poverty mapping by combining high-resolution satellite imagery with artificial intelligence.

According to a feature article published by online tech magazine Motherboard, Neal Jean, a Ph.D. engineering student at Stanford, has designed a machine learning algorithm that can predict poverty in Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Using satellite imagery to determine “nightlights” and levels of economic activity as a method of poverty mapping is nothing new. What’s different about the algorithm designed by Jean and his team is that it looks at daylight images of infrastructure, such as roads and metropolitan areas, which it then uses to identify nighttime patterns.

“Our basic approach involved a machine learning technique called ‘transfer learning,’ which is the idea that you can solve a hard problem – in our case, predicting poverty from satellite images – by trying to solve an easier one,” Jean said.

According to Motherboard, the algorithm may prove to be a very effective method of poverty mapping, especially given the cost of traditional household surveys and the lack of viable alternatives. Another advantage of the machine learning model is its transparency, as it doesn’t rely on private or protected information.

Jean told Motherboard that he hopes to make the technology open-source and cooperate with NGOs to put the algorithm to use. “If we could provide them with high-resolution poverty maps, they could overlay them on regions where operations already exist, and ultimately inform where they distribute funding,” he argued.

Jean’s machine learning algorithm is not the only artificial intelligence tool that is providing better data for poverty alleviation efforts. South African computer scientist Muthoni Masinde developed a solution that can forecast droughts with 98 percent accuracy, combining traditional knowledge with new technologies. In recognition of her achievements, she received a Distinguished Young Women Researcher award at the 2016 South African Women in Science Awards.

Technological advance has been the greatest impetus for poverty reduction throughout history, and artificial intelligence is the future of poverty mapping. It provides economists and scientists with better data in order to pinpoint and resolve problems that are holding developing countries back.

– Philip Katz

Photo: Flickr

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Children in Danger of Death from Hunger in Nigeria

Hunger in NigeriaAfter assessing areas of the country previously cut off from foreign assistance by Boko Haram, the U.N. released a statement on July 1, declaring that 50,000 children in northern Nigeria stand to die from undernourishment and hunger in Nigeria if left untreated.

“Unless we reach these children with treatment, one in five of them will die. We cannot allow that to happen,” stated Jean Gough, Nigeria Representative of UNICEF.

Over the past year, the Nigerian army, with the help of troops from neighboring countries, fought to reclaim territories in the north taken by Boko Haram. The struggle resulted in the displacement of 2.4 million people in Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, making food insecurity and malnutrition an emergent issue in these countries.

The violence in northern Nigeria greatly disturbed the supply of food to markets, increasing the cost of basic commodities. However, the recapturing of northern territories allowed humanitarian agencies like MSF to provide aid in the form of medical services and health supplies to the most vulnerable residents of these areas.

In addition, on June 27, the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund allocated $13 million to provide immediate life-saving aid to northern Nigeria. Funds will be used to provide food, money for purchasing food, nutritional supplements, and seed and tools for the forthcoming planting season.

Unfortunately, this is only a portion of what needs to be done to end hunger in Nigeria. Conflict between the militant group and the Nigerian army is still ongoing, and the afflicted areas need more rapid assistance.

“While the government and humanitarian organizations have stepped up relief assistance, the situation in these areas requires a much faster and wider response,” said the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Munir Safieldin.

Hopefully increased efforts from international organizations will continue to assist reducing malnutrition and the under-five mortality rate in the country.

– Ugochi Ihenatu
Photo: Flickr