Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Ending World Hunger: Understanding Causes and Effects

World Hunger's Causes and Effects
The causes of world hunger are directly related to those of poverty. Close to 795 million, or one in nine, people living in the world today do not have enough food. Ending world hunger requires an understanding of the causes and effects.

  1. War causes communities which are dealing with crumbling infrastructure, violence and fleeing refugees to be largely unable to maintain stable food systems. Declining income levels during times of war significantly impacts the supply of food and food security.
  2. Agricultural practices such as deforestation, over-grazing and over cropping combined with drought and the effects of soil erosion can often destroy farm and grazing land.
  3. Climate change is a huge factor in causing world hunger as it has been increasing the number of droughts, floods and tropical storms. These often unexpected, rapid natural disasters destroy the small plots of land that farmers count on for their food and livelihood.
  4. As the global population continues to increase, especially in developing countries, the demand for food will invariably continue to rise as well. As food prices rise, it is becoming harder and harder for developing countries to match production rates with the population growth rates.

Poverty and hunger more often than not go hand in hand. Poor people just do not have the resources such as tools, money, land and even physical energy  to combat hunger.

World hunger itself causes roughly 146 million children to be underweight while one in three children in a developing country have their growth stunted. Approximately 66 million primary school age children go hungry every day and between 2 to 3.5 billion people have micronutrient deficiencies. Over nine million people die worldwide from hunger and malnutrition. Five million of those people are children.

In the world right now there is enough food to feed every human being on the planet. Yet according to globalissues.org, concernusa.org and many other organizations and sources, a shocking amount of food is wasted in first-world countries and even in third-world countries.

– Drusilla Gibbs

Sources: Concern USA, Freedom from Hunger, WFP, Global Issues
Photo: Flickr

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Saving Millions: Reach Every Mother and Child Act

Reach Every Mother and Child Act
On the African continent, women are 47 times more likely to die from preventable complications during childbirth than they are in the United States. That amounts to approximately 800 women dying a day in developing nations. Mothers are not the only vulnerable ones. Each day, an estimated 17,000 children under the age of five will also die from treatable conditions.

Delaware’s Senator Chris Coons and Maine’s Senator Susan Collins hope to dramatically shrink and ultimately eliminate these statistics. In July 2015, the senators introduced the Reach Every Mother and Child Act of 2015 in order to increase the amount of U.S. aid being directed toward ending these tragic and preventable deaths. The bill establishes a framework to implement the existing tools and focus necessary for winning the battle against preventable mother and child deaths.

The bill calls for a strategic and attainable 10-year plan to succeed in ending preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths by 2035. This includes the creation of a permanent Maternal and Child Survival Coordinator at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) who will be responsible for implementing the 10-year plan and to confirm that resources and interventions are being effectively utilized in target nations.

The U.S. government will also create a financing framework that will allow the use of U.S. funds to leverage additional funds from nongovernmental organizations, partner countries and international organizations.

While introducing the bill in their floor speeches, Senators Coons and Collins both stressed that the Reach Every Mother and Child Act is not a bolt-from-the-blue or a handout.

“Investing in maternal and child health in developing countries is an investment in the future, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to help all mothers and children around the globe get the health care they deserve,” said Senator Coons.

Acting USAID Administrator Alfonso Lenhardt echoed Coons’ sentiment. “As children survive and thrive, parents are choosing to have smaller families,” said Lenhardt, “unleashing a virtuous cycle of progress and prosperity.”

USAID recently released a new report showing that previous efforts to improve the survival rates of mothers, newborns and children under the age of five have already saved 2.5 million children and 200,000 mothers since 2008. This demonstrates substantial evidence that the new act will be successful.

“There are simple, proven and cost-effective interventions that we know will work if we can reach the mothers and children who need them to survive,” said Senator Collins. The Reach Every Mother and Child Act, if passed, is anticipated to improve the health of millions of impoverished and at-risk mothers and children.

World Vision’s Director of Government Relations Lisa Bos is particularly excited about the bill, praising Senators Collins and Coons for championing the bill. “The goal of ending preventable maternal and child deaths is achievable, but it will take renewed commitment, coordination and resources,” said Bos. “This bill builds on the progress we’ve made and is critical for ensuring we reach every mother and child. We hope every Member of the Senate will support this legislation.”

– Claire Colby

Sources: Senate, USAID, World Vision

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Why is Transparency in Foreign Aid Important?

Transparency_in_Foreign_AidGovernment transparency is one of the key elements to maintaining a free society. According to Ballotpedia, “openness, accountability and honesty define government transparency. In a free society, transparency is defined as a government’s obligation to share information with citizens. It is at the heart of how citizens hold their public officials accountable.”

When a free society is established, the government needs to be held accountable and inform the people of how taxpayers’ money is spent and where. This occurs through transparency.

At the end of October, many organizations and individuals applauded the reintroduction of Bill H.R. 3766, or the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2015.

“By strengthening its commitment to monitoring and evaluation and transparency, the U.S. government can better allocate aid resources and be held accountable by a range of stakeholders,” according to Modernize Aid. This means that those with influence are able to put the money where it is most needed and most effective.

Former attempts to pass the bill were largely successful and moved quickly through the Senate and the House. However, the Senate stopped progress in both instances.

Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and the Professional Services Council (PSC) are two of many organizations that are enthusiastic about the bill.

PSC’s CEO, Stan Soloway, has stated that “Congress should increase aid transparency and accountability and provide USAID and other agencies with the necessary acquisition and other resources to effectively plan, award and oversee development implementation by international development companies.”

As United States citizens, there are certain responsibilities to the government. The National Center for Constitutional Studies notes that “the success of the American Republic as a political structure has been the consequence…of the voluntary participation of citizens in public affairs – enlisting in the army in time of war; taking part unpaid in political campaigns; petitioning legislatures; and in a hundred other great ways, or small-assuming responsibility for the common good.”

The key goal in foreign aid transparency is the petitioning for legislation. This process is the people’s opportunity to let government officials know what is most important to them. It also gives the leaders an idea of what bills to pass.

Transparency in Foreign Aid allows a country to see exactly where tax money is going. It is a bill that holds promise for a more accountable government.

OXFAM America has expressed its desire for the legislation to be passed. “Now’s the time for effective aid supporters from both sides of the aisle in Congress to rally behind the House and Senate sponsors and push this bill over the finish line. It’s fun to cheer positive action in Congress! Let’s make sure we have the opportunity to do more of it.”

In order to do this, constituents are able to write, email or call their government leader’s offices. Each time a citizen does this, a tally is made on the issue the individual expresses interest in.

These tallies add up each week and are then considered when it comes time for voting on various bills and legislation. The more tallies from people, the more likely the piece of legislation has for success.

– Katherine Martin

Sources: Ballotpedia, Modernize Aid, Professional Services Council, NCCS, Politics of Poverty
Photo: Google Images

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Lights, Camera, Global Health Film Festival

Global_Health_Film_festival
The Global Health Film initiative held its first festival last month to use film and media as a catalyst for discussion and change on global health issues. The festival included film production workshops, in-depth panel discussions and pitching opportunities.

The inaugural event was held in London this year on Oct. 30-31. The festival – Films to Inspire Change, began a new era of global health discussion, incorporating art and expression into the previously science-only forum.

According to the Global Health Film initiative, workshops at the festival included:

  • Film for social change in low-resource settings ( by Medical Aid Films)
  • Guerrilla filmmaking and global health (by What Took You So Long?)
  • Crowdfunding for global health film (by Dartmouth Films)
  • Impact of global health film (by BRITDOC Foundation)
  • Innovation at grass roots: filmmaking in low resource settings (by BBC Media Action)
  • Media training for health advocate (by Rockhopper TV)

One of the films featured at the festival, “Body Team 12,” follows the first female member of the Ebola response teams in Liberia. Another, “Fire in the Blood,” documents the battle to make AIDS drugs cheap enough for poor countries to afford them (Sci Dev Net). “TB Unmasked” and “TB Silent Killer” cover tuberculosis, while “Outbreak” exposes the “hidden” beginning of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

In order to facilitate discussions such as those sparked at the festival, the Global Health Film initiative also developed two labs this year to support global health advocates and produce films that highlight critical global health issues. The Global Health Film Lab houses nine fellows and gives them the training and tools they need to produce their own change-inspiring films.

The initiative also holds screenings for new films that present new ideas in the global health field. Past screenings include “Girl Rising,” which promotes the education of girls in developing countries, and “Open Heart,” which tells the story of Rwandan children with rheumatic heart disease.

These films continue to raise awareness and present otherwise widely-ignored information in a way that evokes an emotional response.

– Ashley Tressel

Sources: SciDev, Global Health Film 1, Global Health Film 2
Photo: Pixabay

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Water and Sanitation for Nicaraguans

Water and Sanitation for Nicaraguans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Nicaraguan urban poor have a long-standing history of lacking access to basic services, such as water and sanitation. In the capital city, Managua, the Greater Managua Water and Sanitation Project (PRASMA) was devised to create new water and sanitation infrastructure throughout the city.

This includes a system of low-cost sewage networks designed to target the poor regions of Managua. Although the PRASMA was a solid start, city officials realized that more was needed if they hoped to achieve their goal of reaching universal piped water connectivity.

The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (MHCP) reached out to the World Bank for funding to create the Nicaraguan Water and Sewerage Enterprise (ENACAL) in order to expand 15,798 water and 19,716 sewer connections to some of the poorest households.

Before ENACAL was launched, only 26.5 percent of households had access to piped water. Only 1.2 percent had in-house toilets. The majority of the population, more than 72 percent, used latrines. The remaining portion of the population concerned city officials the most, with more than 26 percent lacking access to any sanitation services.

Among the poorest neighborhoods, it was not uncommon to see raw sewage running down the streets. In other impoverished neighborhoods, even for those connected to piped-in water, service was less than reliable. Some households received water as infrequently as two hours per day.

Since collecting $20 million in credit and $20 million in grant money from the World Bank to get ENACAL operational, the project has improved service reliability for 161,896 Nicaraguans as well as increasing the overall financial sustainability of its operations.

The World Bank reported a little less than half of the money was used to expand and add additional infrastructure. The remainder of the funds were used to optimize technical efficiency and strengthen institutional activities.

Moving forward, ENACAL is developing the Master Plan for Operational Efficiency in Managua. This focuses on non-revenue water reduction and the optimization of energy efficiency.

With the assistance in the funding of $300 million from the World Bank and other international donors, continued improvements under the Program for Human Water and Sanitation will take place over the course of the next 15 years.

Thus far, ENACAL has benefited 62,295 residents and improved the percentage of households with access to water for 16 or more hours a day to 72 percent.

– Claire Colby

Sources: Central America Data, World Bank
Photo: University of Colorado Boulder

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CEO of the Global Poverty Project Receives Humanitarian Award

Global_Poverty_Project
Hugh Evans, CEO and co-founder of the Global Poverty Project, received the Humanitarian Award at the 12th annual Billboard Touring Awards on November 19 for his efforts to end extreme poverty.

The award show was established in 2004 and is  sponsored by Billboard Magazine to honor the top entertainment artists and professionals, as well as recognize box office and entertainment achievements.

The Billboard Touring Awards honor the industry’s top achievers in categories including Top Festival, Top Arena, Top Manager and Top Comedy Tour.

Founded in 2008, the Global Poverty Project aims to connect everyone around the world using social media to express the need to end extreme poverty.

By joining the conversation, the Global Poverty Project believes it can grab the attention of government, businesses and NGO’s to restructure the systems and policies that are trapping people into poverty worldwide.

The Global Poverty Project began hosting the Global Citizens Festival in 2012 with the slogan, “We Are Not A Generation Of Bystanders.”

The annual festival in New York City brings both musicians and activists together and urges world leaders to make more contributions toward ending extreme poverty. Since launching the festival, the event has helped secure $1.3 billion commitments to help end extreme poverty.

“In an industry filled with people who are dedicated to helping others through the power of music, Hugh Evans stands out for his ability to rally both artists and executives around the common cause of ending global poverty,” said Ray Waddell, executive director of Content & Programming for Touring & Live Entertainment at Billboard.

This past year, a crowd of 60,000 people filled Central Park with live performances from Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Pearl Jam. High-profile leaders and activists including First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Hugh Jackman, Bill Gates and members of the UN General Assembly were also in attendance.

Through combined efforts, the European Commission closed the festival by pledging $530 million dollars to aid the Syrian refugee crisis.

As the Global Poverty Project continues to gain activists, Evans shows the world that extreme poverty can end by 2030. “No movement is about an individual,” said Evans of his organization’s mission. “It’s about an amazing group of people coming together from different backgrounds.”

– Alexandra Korman

Sources: Billboard, Global Citizens
Photo: Flickr

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CFHI and Omni Med Tackle Preventable Diseases in Uganda

CFHI
Less than half of the population in Uganda has access to health care. In addition, the country suffers from a deficit of 1.5 million health workers. It is therefore not surprising that treatable diseases are the leading cause of death in Uganda.

The government created the Village Health Team program in 2001 to focus on the lack of health workers. The joint program “Community Health Workers & Global Health” will be based in Uganda’s Mukono District, 13 miles from the capital Kampala. The Child Family Health International organization offers global health education programs that “broaden students’ perspective on global health.”

Child Family Health International (CFHI) is partnering with Omni Med to expand health care capacity from rural to central Uganda. This expansion will improve Omni Med’s training and surveillance of Village Health Team and allow participants to assist the locally-led capacity building and quality assurance.

Omni Med began its work in Uganda in 2008 and has since trained over 1,200 community health workers and established protected water sources and cookstoves as well as distributing insecticide-treated nets. These teams include health educators in rural villages who make a big difference in the health of the world’s poorest people.

Village Health Teams are elected by local villagers and tasked with educating locals with preventative health information, referring sick people to health care centers and tracking health trends for Uganda’s Ministry of Health.

Child Family Health International Global Health Scholars, also known as participants, will assist the Village Health Teams in providing locals in rural Mukono with the best preventative tool: knowledge.

Scholars will accompany the teams on their home visits, train and maintain the team’s health knowledge by teaching in quarterly meetings and aiding in other Omni Med local activities.

“We believe strongly that it is not enough to feel good about what we do–we have to measure the impact we make, and then adjust our programs based on the data,” president and founder of Omni Med, Dr. Ed O’Neil Jr said.

– Marie Helene Ngom

Sources: PRweb, CFHI
Photo: Flickr

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Lottie Moon: A Southern Belle

Lottie_Moon
Why do citizens in the poorest states give the most to charity? When it comes to statewide charitable funds, this question seems to arise time and time again. As for the reason – research has suggested the answer lies in religion.

In 2013, Southern Baptists gave approximately $153,000 to the International Foreign Mission Board through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Each Christmas, Southern Baptists participate in this tradition through donations. Who is Lottie Moon, and how does she continue to fight global poverty?

Charlotte Digges “Lottie” Moon was born on Dec. 12, 1840, to a wealthy Virginia family. She cherished education and became the first woman to obtain a master’s degree from a southern college. Around age 18, she became a Christian and desperately desired to become involved with foreign mission work. At the time, this field was closed to single women.

Moon’s sister, Edmonia, began writing to the secretary of the Foreign Baptist Foreign Mission Board, Henry Tupper. Surprisingly, he agreed to let them help, and in 1873 at age 32, Moon and her sister arrived in Tengchow, China.

Moon wasn’t there simply to teach her religion, she was a reformist. She taught school and was a strong advocate for women. Moon fought ardently against the women’s practice of foot binding. In foot binding, a woman’s toes are forced to curl down into her heel, producing a crescent shape. Even though foot binding was a symbol of the elite, it was painful and harmful to the body.

Even though many other missionaries fled, Moon remained in China during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Starvation surrounded her, so she took in children and animals, even refusing to eat if they could not.

She wrote home suggesting a week of prayer and offerings be set aside for missions during Christmas. People responded and the Women’s Missionary Union was born. The union is alive and productive in the South today; it collects more than $20 million annually for Southern Baptist mission work overseas.

Eventually, Moon herself fell ill. She did not want to leave China, but her colleagues sent her home on a ship. She died in 1912 on Christmas Eve, and there are conflicting stories about her exact cause of death.

Nevertheless, Lottie Moon has become a beloved friend of Southern Baptists and a martyr among missionaries. Sandra Spears, a Southern Baptist from Mississippi, said she learned about Lottie Moon as a child and has given to the cause for more than 50 years. It’s a tradition.

It should be noted that even though the donations received for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering are designed for mission work, they aren’t solely spent on building churches and supporting missionaries. Some of the work could be considered “humanitarian” as the missionaries provide meals, medical resources and a host of other critical needs that exist in developing countries.

A 7-year-old boy who was growing up Southern Baptist in the Deep South asked his mother, “When does Lottie Moon ever get paid off?” A humorous question from a child, but when it comes to lifting others out of poverty and giving to help others, the possibilities seem endless.

– Dana McLemore

Sources: BDC Online, History’s Women, The Pathway, Cornell University
Photo: Wikimedia

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Millennium Development Goals Successes

Millennium_Development_GoalsAs 2015 comes to a close and the world takes a look at the progress that has been made in global poverty relief, it is clear that significant progress has been achieved. The list of what has been accomplished is extensive, but here are some of the top Millennium Development Goals successes:

  1. Between 1990 and 2015 the number of people living in extreme poverty went from 1.9 billion to 836 million people. That’s 1,090 million people who no longer live in poverty.
  2. The number of primary school age children who were out of school dropped globally from 100 million to 57 million. That’s 43 million more children able to go to school.
  3. In 1990, for every 100 boys that attended school in Asia, there were only 74 girls attending. That number has now risen from 74 to 103 girls.
  4. The number of infant deaths under age 5 has declined from 12.7 million to in 1990, to 6 million today.
  5. In 1990, only 2.3 billion people had access to clean drinking water. That number has now climbed to 4.2 billion.
  6. 99 percent of all countries have more women in parliament than they did in 1990.
  7. The child mortality rate has been reduced from 90 deaths per 1,000 live births to 43 deaths per 1,000 live births, and it continues to fall.
  8. The number of people living on only $1.25 a day has gone from 47 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2015.

While the Millennium Development Goals have had many successes, some goals have not been reached. World leaders have come together once again to decide on the new long-term sustainability goals, building on the past successes.

According to the UN, The Sustainable Development Goals, “will break fresh ground with ambition on inequalities, economic growth, decent jobs, cities and human settlements, industrialization, energy, climate change, sustainable consumption and production, peace and justice.”

– Drusilla Gibbs

Sources: The Guardian, UN
Photo: Flickr

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Combating Cholera Outbreaks in Iraq

Cholera Outbreaks in IraqCholera outbreaks are not altogether uncommon in Iraq. The bacterial infection is endemic to the region and reported cases usually spike every two to three years around November. Due to this regularity, the Iraqi Ministry of Health has developed a multidimensional approach to combating these outbreaks—but this year has been different.

An unprecedented at-risk population has emerged, as more than 250,000 Syrian refugees have fled their homes to Iraq at the same time that Iraqis are becoming internally displaced by the ongoing conflict with ISIS in the north. Funding has been diverted away from municipal services to pay for defense, and authorities have been unable to fully address community wells that have been contaminated by sewage from flood drainage.

More than 2,000 cases of cholera have been reported over the last three months, including six that have been fatal. One in five of these cases affect young children, and many are being diagnosed in the 62-refugee and Internally Displaced Person camps across the country.

Health officials may also face being inundated with additional patients due to the millions of Shi’ite Muslims expected to make their pilgrimage to Iraq in observance of Arbaeen, a ritual marking the end of mourning over the death of Hussein. When these travelers return home, there is a good chance they will take the bacteria with them, and this will compound an outbreak that has already spread to Syria, Kuwait and Bahrain.

“There is, unfortunately, a high risk that cholera will reach more areas affecting marginalized and displaced children, women and their families, in particular,” UNICEF Representative in Iraq, Peter Hawkins, said. In response, the Health Ministry, UNICEF and the World Health Organization are ramping up their campaigns to vaccinate refugees, treat patients and educate communities on practices that will reduce the risk of transmission.Cholera_outbreaks

In late October, health officials trained 1,300 vaccinators and 650 social mobilizers to carry out a first-phase vaccination deployment. Since early November, more than 91 percent of targeted Syrian refugees received the oral vaccine and will receive a second dose by the end of December. The second round will guard against cholera for at least five years. It was a desperately needed victory for Iraq, but the World Health Organization stressed that vaccinations should not divert attention from other prevention measures.

“We need to intensify health promotion and education to help communities protect themselves,” WHO Representative, Atlaf Musani, said.

To that end, UNICEF has supported a massive public education campaign. Cholera prevention methods are being sent out on social media, in text messages, by volunteers taking pamphlets door to door and on billboards in affected areas. People are being urged to use water only from protected sources and to get seen by a doctor as soon as symptoms of cholera present themselves.

Primary school children at a refugee camp in Dohuk were taken from regular classes to learn how to properly wash their hands and blow their noses. Officials are hoping that by reaching students, the information will get back to families as well. “Families can protect themselves in simple ways,” Hawkins said.

For communities already infected, or at risk of infection, health officials and UNICEF have undertaken an aggressive treatment campaign. Bottled water has been distributed to 37,000 people, community wells capable of serving 15,000 people have been built, 820,000 packets of rehydration salts are being given out and 3.1 million water treatment tablets will reach households across the country. Some schools have even delayed the beginning of classes for at least a month.

As with most humanitarian missions, the fight against Cholera outbreaks in Iraq is being hampered by a limited budget. If UNICEF is to continue supporting the Iraqi government, a $12.7 million funding gap will need to be filled. For the most vulnerable patients, this funding will mean life or death.

– Ron Minard

Sources: WHO, Reuters, UN, UNICEF

Photo: Islamic Relief, Pixabay