Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Aziz Sancar Creates Girls in STEM Project

Aziz Sancar
Aziz Sancar is one of the three recipients of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Currently, he serves as a professor of biochemistry and physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Though he has been teaching and researching at UNC since 1982, Sancar’s education began in his native Turkey. He grew up in a large family in a predominantly Kurdish region of Turkey.

His early life taught him that education for women and men in Turkey was not equal, particularly in the Kurdish areas of Turkey, where girls often married at the age of 13. In an interview with Yahoo, Sancar noted that education for girls was not emphasized as a priority.

Even as a whole, the Turkish nation seems to give less attention to girls’ education. UNC Global states that, per the World Economic Forum’s most recent Global Gender Gap Report, the illiteracy rate is 1.9 for males in Turkey, but 9.4 for women.

Sancar told UNC Global, “As someone from rural Turkey, I understand the power of education. I know what it has done in my life. I want all girls in Turkey and around the world to have the same opportunity I had.”

To this end, Sancar recently launched a program in cooperation with the Harriet Fulbright Institute called Girls in STEM Project. The initiative is designed to increase female students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

UNC Global shared that the project would span seven Turkish cities and host a series of three-day conferences, with both Turkish students and Syrian refugee students participating.

The project’s website details that 700 girls in 6th grade will participate, at no cost, by registering online. The first 100 girls to register in each city involved will be accepted.

Sancar told UNC Global, “We hope this is a beginning,” Aziz Sancar said. “We want to close the gender gap in education and in the workforce in Turkey, and this is one way we can encourage that to begin, to inspire girls to get involved in STEM.”

– Katherine Hamblen

Photo: Wikimedia

Poverty Reduction: World Bank Climate Change Action Plan

Climate Change Action Plan In the face of famine and disease, climate change may appear less urgent as a global agenda – but the World Bank’s recent decision to set climate change as its main agenda reflects its inseparability from poverty.

In fact, the group notes that without action, “climate change could push more than 100 million additional people back into poverty by 2030”.

The World Bank’s newest report on its Climate Change Action Plan clarifies that environmental crisis affects everyone in the world, but strikes hardest on the poor.

For example, natural disasters completely destroy the means of survival for agricultural communities – the report estimates that the world could lose up 5 percent of its crop yields by 2030. Of note, heat waves, droughts and river floods are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude with global warming.

In addition, families that spend a large portion of their budget on food cannot adapt to resulting fluctuations of food price. With the lack of quick and specific governmental support, these damages also lead to long term conditions. Ongoing efforts to eradicate poverty may even be compromised due to families who fall back into poverty due to a number of factors including climate change.

Global warming also creates an environment for more diseases to thrive, including malaria and diarrhea. The World Bank notes that a 2-3 °C increase in temperature could increase exposure to malaria by five percent and diarrhea by up to 10 percent. Children under five are the most vulnerable to such sickness, which threatens the health and survival of future generations.

The fact that some effects of climate change can actually benefit small farmers, complicates the issue of estimating the actual damage. However, based on research conducted in 92 countries, the group notes that the overall damage outweighs the benefit as it falls upon the majority of people in the long-term.

Following last year’s Paris Climate Agreement involving 195 states, The Guardian reports that the World Bank will allocate 28 percent of its budget in assisting developing nations to meet greenhouse gas emission standards and develop more sustainable energy solutions. The International Financial Corporation (IFC) under the World Bank will mobilize an additional $13 billion to environment technology related projects in the private sector.

John Roome, senior director for climate change at the World Bank, told journalists including The Guardian, “This is a fundamental shift for the World Bank. We are putting climate change into our DNA. Climate change will drive 100 million more people into poverty in the next 15 years [unless action is taken].”

The World Bank’s climate change action plan emphasizes that environmentally friendly policy and economic development are not mutually exclusive, setting the example of Climate-Smart Agriculture. Access to better technology and more resilient breeds of crops can protect even small farmers against sudden changes.

– Haena Chu

Cooperatives: Poverty Relief & Inclusive Development

CooperativesHave you ever purchased a product from a cooperative business? Chances are you have, although you may not have been aware.

Cooperative businesses are owned and run by their members — either employees, customers, or the local community as a whole. These members divide all profits earned by the organization and have an equal say in how it is run.

Many people tend to think that the cooperative structure is most commonly used in niche industries such as farmer’s markets or beer brewers.

However, cooperatives exist all across the world in a variety of industries and scales. In addition, research has shown cooperatives to be a successful method of promoting inclusive development and eradicating poverty in countries of all income levels.

The issue of extreme poverty is most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 414 million people still lived on less than $1.25 a day in 2015, according to Cooperatives Europe.

The United Nations and other development-oriented organizations have stressed that in order to successfully end extreme poverty in Africa and globally, solutions must promote self-help and country-owned development.

As members of both the private sector and civil society, cooperative businesses are uniquely positioned to promote inclusive, sustainable development that benefits the entire community.

Cooperatives can act as vehicles for promoting values such as democratic decision making, youth and women’s empowerment, practical education, cooperation across firms as well as civil awareness and participation.

Starting in 2013, the Cooperatives Europe Development Policy program has worked with the African Region of the International Cooperative Alliance to promote cooperative enterprises as a vehicle for development across the continent.

In its last report on cooperatives and community development, Cooperatives Europe highlighted several case studies across the continent in order to represent how the cooperative model might be further utilized in promoting inclusive development in Africa and worldwide.

One example provided is the Rise and Shine Student Cooperative (RSSC) in the kingdom of Lesotho. The RSSC is a savings and credit union organized by the students and teachers of Mohales Hoek High School and provides interest-free loans for students who need money for school fees and uniforms.

Rather than profiting from the loans themselves, the cooperative generates capital through fundraising activities like dance parties at the school itself. The cooperative has been such a success that the students are now planning to expand by constructing a chicken coop at the school so that students can learn about livestock cultivation and generate income.

Another example is the Eudafano Women’s Cooperative in Namibia. In Namibia, 80 percent of cooperative members are women. The EWC was originally formed by workers harvesting Marula fruits, traditionally a woman’s job. In 1999, women in this industry formed the EWC in order to create the necessary infrastructure to sell their harvest to the international market.

Today, the EWC has grown to represent four associations of producers totaling 1,300 employees as well as a factory that processes their products prior to international export in order to command higher prices and ensure that members are paid a living wage.

For both of the examples listed above, the cooperative structure has allowed their members to not only form a viable and sustainable business, but also to contribute to development goals in their communities through their operation.

By educating entrepreneurs and their communities about the cooperative enterprise structure and by supporting efforts to create new cooperative businesses, stakeholders such as the United States can promote sustainable, inclusive, and democratic development in Africa and elsewhere.

– Hayden Smith

Photo: South African LED Network

Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes in Africa

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In Africa, sweet potatoes are proving to be invaluable in the fight against malnutrition. According to a publication by HarvestPlus, the Vitamin A rich Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) was introduced in 2007 to 24,000 farming families in Mozambique and Uganda. The program was presented by HarvestPlus and its partners, specifically targeting women and children who suffer most from vitamin A deficiency.

African farmers are no strangers to sweet potatoes, but they have always grown the paler varieties: yellow and white, which lack beta carotene and other nutrients, while the OFSP does not. The OFSP is a crop that has gone under biofortification.

According to a HarvestPlus research brief, “Biofortification is the process of breeding staple food crops that have a higher micronutrient content.” This process can be carried out conventionally or through genetic engineering. “All crops being released by HarvestPlus and collaborators are conventionally bred.” The seeds and vines of the OFSP can be shared.

Since the sweet potato was already a staple in the diet of Africans, introducing the OFSP was a deliberate strategy to cater to the existing market. In Mozambique and Uganda, the effort succeeded in raising Vitamin A levels by an appreciable margin in women and children.

The sweet potato requires less work than the other staple crops of cassava, wheat and rice, according to the International Potato Center (CIP). It tolerates poor growing conditions better than the other crops and produces better yields with more edible energy per hectare. The sweet potato has previously been grown in small plots but the CIP sees this changing as the OFSP grows in popularity and importance.

USAID, with the support of Feed the Future has introduced the OFSP into Ghana. They hope to eventually reach 300,000 households with women of reproductive age and children under the age of five.

Feed the Future works directly with the government of Ghana to target the poorest households to give them access to the Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato. Feed the Future wrote a Multi-Year Strategy for Ghana (2011-15) to outline its goals, including improved nutrition, especially of women and children, and improved agricultural production in Northern Ghana, especially for small farm holders.

– Rhonda Marrone

Photo: Flickr

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Greater Access: Financial Services in Developing Countries

Financial Services in Developing Countries
When talking about fighting global poverty, most people discuss solutions to problems of malnutrition, poor shelter, or dirty water. But how about greater access to financial services?

Most individuals in the developed world could never imagine living on wages of less than $10 a day. There are thousands of ways to secure an adequate daily income because of the countless economic opportunities that are supplied by developed markets.

Access to these financial services, a sparse resource in areas suffering from poverty, provides individuals with the chance to actively participate in securing a means of subsistence.

In March, the World Bank released a video interview with Douglas Pearce, the Global Lead for Financial Inclusion at the international organization. The conversation shed light on the lack of access to financial services in developing countries.

“My favorite number is two billion,” said Pearce, “Two billion is the number of adults who don’t have access to formal financial services.” This latest statistic has fueled the World Bank’s new Universal Financial Access Goal which targets 25 countries that account for 73 percent of the world’s “unbanked.”

Access to financial services in developing countries would offer more of the world’s poor the opportunity to feed themselves and increase their potential income. “Being able to tap into savings provides that level of protection, cushion, of falling back into poverty,” Pearce continued. This method of poverty relief plays an important role in sustaining an individual’s rise out of hardship.

The World Bank plans to meet the goal of more financial inclusion by ensuring that each individual helped has a bank account regardless of gender. Pearce hopes that these accounts will be “gateways to a range of credit, insurance, payment, and savings services.” These services then allow people living in poverty to afford education, a home or vehicle and equipment to start a business.

Pearce hopes that these accounts will be “gateways to a range of credit, insurance, payment, and savings services.” These services then allow people living in poverty to afford education, a home or vehicle and equipment to start a business.

There are multiple kinds of financial services that are being integrated into poverty-ridden areas:

  1. Microfinancing is a smaller, more intimate version of a traditional loan from a large financial institution. This type of lending is more beneficial for the poor because smaller institutions can work closely with the borrower to design a plan that works for both parties. Also, a relationship of trust between the borrower and the lender can often take the place of a good credit history which allows more people to qualify for loans.
  2. Access to a micro savings account allows people to safely store any additional resources as well as earn interest on money not being spent. Digital services provided by mobile technology can enhance the interaction between those in poverty and financial institutions as electronics get cheaper and internet access increases.
  3. Owning a micro insurance policy may not seem like a useful service for those with few assets, but its importance emerges as individuals start to rise out of poverty. People who are rising out of poverty cannot afford the sudden costs and extreme losses that come with an accident. Without an insurance policy, unexpected events endanger the pathway to a better life.

These financial services are being integrated into many developing countries across the goal. The emergence of these economic opportunities has the power to inspire entrepreneurship and income security in areas with the most poverty. As Pearce says, “financial inclusion has the potential to unlock opportunity for people.”

– Jacob Hess

Photo: Flickr

Social Inclusion Project: Investing in Bulgaria’s Youth

Social Inclusion ProjectThe World Bank research supports the stance of many organizations around the world advocating for early childhood development (ECD) programs.

The Bulgarian government has been working to ensure increased educational opportunities for its youth with programs such as the Social Inclusion Project which was completed at the end of 2015.

The Project was designed to increase school readiness in children under the age of seven to ensure equal life choices, targeting low-income and marginalized families. The initiative has reached over 20,000 youth and the country’s kindergarten enrollment rate currently stands at 83 percent.

“Giving people the same life chances requires investments in early childhood development, providing kids, as one says here in Bulgaria, with their proper initial seven years,” said Markus Repnik, World Bank country manager for Bulgaria, in his address to the Minister and the government.

Repnik went on to say that “the project will provide these proper initial seven years for the most vulnerable children through pre-school training and services – so that these kids enter school at an equal footing, allowing them to successfully progress in their later education and life.”

Educational achievements correlate significantly with future employment opportunities. Productivity is declining in many Eastern European countries because many working-age people lack sufficient education to participate in the labor market.

Investing in ECD programs equips a generation to be conscientious, responsible and resilient especially during difficult economic conditions.

The Social Inclusion Project invested in infrastructure, building kindergartens and children centers and in services such as medical screenings, speech therapists, physiotherapists, pediatrician checkups and parental training.

This initiative was possible because stakeholders, policy makers and international partners decided to make a commitment to ECD.

By partnering with the World Bank, the Bulgarian Red Cross, UNICEF, the Bulgarian Pediatric Association and many other supporters, Bulgaria has equipped young people to pursue better jobs and ultimately have the ability to provide for future generations.

– Emily Ednoff

Photo: Flickr

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Farm Africa: Expanding Exports for East African Farmers

Farm Africa
Farm Africa is the top agency under the Food Trade project, a U.K. government-funded food crop trade enhancement program that assists farmers in Uganda and Tanzania to increase their household incomes and boost their living standards.

The undertaking is supported by a £3 million ($4.2 million) grant from the U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID). The Guardian reports that the project will benefit 70,000 Ugandan and Tanzanian farmers, in part by expanding their export markets.

According to Farm Africa, 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated land suitable for crop production is in Africa. There is an enormous possibility for development in the continent that would allow for self-sustaining food production.

In the last year, Farm Africa has impacted 1.4 million people in eastern Africa. The organization has incorporated contemporary systems and methods to help farmers “grow more, sell more and sell for more.”

The Farm Africa project will assist Ugandan and Tanzanian farmers manage and supply exceptional quality grain and market it for maximum profit.

The project will help 12,000 farmers in the Teso sub-region, including 2,000 members of the Katine Joint Farmers’ Co-operative Society (Kajofaco). This will allow more isolated farmers to connect with high paying buyers, particularly in Kenya.

The Kenyan market has a large population and booming economy which is key for the success of Ugandan and Tanzanian farmers. Additionally, Kenya, for the most part, is a food importer due to its mediocre crop growing capabilities.

Farm Africa, through the Food Trade project, will train farmers in Katine which is one of the poorest areas is in Uganda. The agency will provide guidance for improving methods of harvesting, drying, sorting and grading grain in three staple crops: maize, rice and beans.

Steve Ball, Farm Africa’s county director in Tanzania said to The Guardian: “By incentivizing farmers to grow bigger surpluses and making regional trade easy and affordable, this project will help lift tens of thousands of grain farmers in Tanzania and Uganda out of poverty as well as taking eastern Africa a step closer to agricultural self-sufficiency.”

– Heidi Grossman

Photo: Flickr

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“Africa Code Week” Seeks to Make a Sustainable Impact

Africa_computer Africa Code Week

In October 2015 nearly 89,000 African youth in 17 countries took part in “Africa Code Week” where they had the opportunity to attend free online sessions and coding workshops. The event was created to empower African youth to become fluent in the language of the digital age and stimulate the continent’s economic development.

For some of the youth who took part in the week-long celebration of digital literacy, Africa Code Week marked the first time they had ever written a single line of code. For others, it was their first time using a computer.

“Africa Code Week gives us an opportunity to marvel at what the future holds,” said Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, in an article for Forbes. “It’s true that today less than one percent of African children leave school with basic coding skills. I’m confident that figure is about to rise dramatically, just as Africa prepares to claim its rightful place as a soaring economic power in this new digital economy.”

Throughout the world, coding is becoming an increasingly critical skill for those entering the workforce. Over the next 10 years, it is estimated that there will be 1.4 million jobs in computer sciences but only around 400,000 graduates qualified to do them, according to International Business Times.

As we wind our way deeper into the 21st century, individuals with coding skills will become more and more valuable in the workplace. Digital literacy could become a key strategy for strengthening economic infrastructure in developing countries.

“Digital literacy has the power to put millions of young Africans on the path to successful careers,” Moroccan Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Rachid Belmokhtar, said to IT News Africa. “Trained, tech savvy graduates are needed to improve Africa’s position in the globally competitive knowledge economy. Everyone from governments and educational institutions all the way to NGOs and corporations has a role to play to spread digital literacy across Africa.”

It was foundations like Ampion, SAP, Simplon.co and more that saw the need and came to help. They founded Africa Code Week to bestow young Africans with a set of useful skills through hands-on teaching.

Despite the fact that the event is the largest digital literacy initiative ever held on the African continent, SAP and its partners are not satisfied. Next year, the Africa Code Week team hopes to reach 150,000 youth in at least 30 countries.

“The digital economy is here and the opportunities it presents are manifold,” said Pfungwa Serima, Executive Chairman, SAP Africa. “If we equip young Africans with the best technology, give them skills that make them relevant to the job market and empower them to be bold and innovative, we’ll see them do amazing things.”

– Jen Diamond

Photo: Flickr

Making the Link: Technology & Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Tech_Africa_education

In Sub-Saharan Africa over 56 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 have not completed primary school education, according to a UNESCO report.

In addition, 30 million children are not attending primary school and 22 million teenagers are not enrolled in secondary school.

At the same time, however, the mobile phone penetration rate stands at 73 percent. “More households in developing countries own a mobile phone than have access to electricity or improved sanitation,” states a World Bank report.

Due to the easy access to technology in developing regions, connecting technology with education is a logical solution. The only challenge is how to adopt this strategy. In the past, large “umbrella” initiatives have proven ineffective, because of the very varied contexts in which they are implemented.

However, regionally-tailored, context appropriate technologies to narrow the education gap are being developed and utilized across sub-Saharan Africa.

The Kio Kit is one potential solution. The Kio Kit, which runs on BRCK, a mobile Wi-Fi and storage device, consists of 40 Kio tablets and headphones. “If it works in Africa, it’ll work anywhere,” is one of BRCK’s creator, Erik Hersman’s, catchphrases.

The Kio Kit was first launched in Kenya. The tablets have enough battery to manage the typically intermittent power in rural areas. Each one can run for 8 hours on a single charge.

A mix of the Kenyan educational curriculum and some international content is already pre-set on each Kio tablet. To stop students from roaming the Internet while in class, the tablets do not offer network connectivity. However, when connected to BRCK (thought as of the “brains” of the Kio Kit), tablets can be updated with new information and software. The BRCK has a sim card and options to have an ethernet connection.

As stated on the BRCK website, the Kio Kit sells for $5,000 and a Kio Tablet for $100. They are also available for purchase online, making them easily accessible.

“We knew if we were going to look at education seriously, we need to look at this with a solutions-based approach,” said Hersman. “The fact that most [existing] tablets have power cables you have to plug in and out – it doesn’t work for teachers. Little things make a big difference when you get to a classroom.” BRCK and Kio Kit have the potential to improve the education and futures of many children in different parts of the developing world.

– Michelle Simon

Photo:  Flickr

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SolarAid: Addressing the Energy Crisis in Malawi

Electricity_solar_africa

In Malawi, only nine percent of the population is connected to the electricity grid. In rural areas, this number drops to one percent. In a country with a population of 16.7 million, growing at three percent a year; this is not sustainable.

The country’s economic and social development will slow drastically, if the energy crisis in Malawi persists.

According to a report by the BBC, the Malawian government is attempting to connect more people to the grid by opening the energy market to independent producers. Although this will make a significant difference, it comes at a price.

Malawi’s Energy Minister, Bright Msaka, said that Malawi could produce an extra 200 Mega Watts of solar energy by 2019, adding to the current capacity of 300 Mega Watts.

In the meantime, SolarAid is providing a cheaper and cleaner solution to the energy crisis in Malawi through its solar-powered lamps which can also charge mobile phones.

According to the charity’s website, many households in countries across Africa use homemade kerosene lamps. These are dangerous, emitting toxic black smoke; they are a weak light source and on average use up a significant portion of a family’s household, budget.

“A solar lamp is a compact, portable device that uses a photovoltaic panel to produce up to 10 watts of power,” according to a statement on SolarAid’s website. They typically take eight hours to charge, but can emit light for several hours.

The charity has introduced a pay-as-you-go ownership system at a cost of $12. In order to make the lamps more accessible, the organization offers a payment plan over the course of 3 or 4 months.

SolarAid’s social enterprise, SunnyMoney, is the largest distributor of solar lights in Africa. SunnyMoney has worked with Powered World Initiative USA to provide more students with solar lights that can make studying at home much easier.

“The amount of light that you get is linked to the amount of money you pay,” said Brave Mhonie, the national sales co-ordinator for SolarAid, in an interview with the BBC. While this is not a sustainable long-term solution, it is a strategy that can provide many with electricity, when they otherwise would be unable to access it.

The lamps help to address the energy crisis in Malawi, by providing a much safer alternative to kerosene, candles, or battery-powered torches. So far, SolarAid has sold 1,844,592 solar lamps and counting.

– Michelle Simon

Photo:  Flickr