Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Changes to US Food for Peace to Increase Sustainability

Changes to Food for Peace to Increase Sustainability
Sixty years after being put into effect, the Food for Peace program faces congressional reform that will lower costs and provide sustainable support for those living in conflict-ridden countries. Currently, law requires that food aid be grown in and shipped from the U.S. – a mandate that increases costs 25-50 percent more than they would be on the current market. Advocates for reform criticize the program for its inefficiency and helping American shipping and farming businesses profit from such programs.

Shipping firms, farms and some NGOs form an “iron triangle of special interests” that have benefited from international aid and attracted criticism from politicians in both parties. Between 2004 and 2013, 88 percent of USAID funding was used to harvest and ship food- a huge cost that decreased the amount of food the organization was able to provide by 64 percent.

A system designed this way is not only inefficient in properly allocating resources, but also counterproductive in affecting any kind of change in the countries that need it most. Daniel Maxwell, professor and research director at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, commented, “We need to support local agricultural producers and markets, or at a minimum, not undermine them.” Reformers advocate for changing the system to implement locally grown and shipped food resources rather than those from the U.S.

Senators Corker and Coons, who are cosponsoring the reform of the bill, have estimated that such changes could expand the program’s reach by 12 million people and free up $440 million through local, sustainable production. Providing support for local growers and shippers will strengthen local economies rather than keeping them reliant on international resources, empower and employ more people, and create a more sustainable rebuilding of communities.

Eric Munoz at Oxfam America says that a program created 60 years ago is not useful or appropriate for current times. Indeed, when 60 million people per year are in need of food aid, expansion of resources and lowering costs is more greatly needed than ever. Many farmers believe they have a right to profit from food aid programs and would suffer from reforms, but experts estimate such programs amount to only 1 percent of agribusiness profits.

For policy changes that would so greatly impact those in need, lessening the profits of huge farming businesses in the U.S. seems trivial. Worrying about this profit loss is “an inappropriate way of viewing the rationale of providing emergency assistance and foreign assistance, particularly assistance that is meant to address food insecurity in complex crises like Syria or South Sudan,” says Munoz.

Corker and Coon’s reform bill will see congressional debate in September.

– Jenny Wheeler

Sources: IRIN 1, IRIN 2
Photo: Flickr

 

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Mosquirix: New Malaria Vaccine Approved

Mosquirix: New Malaria Vaccine Approved
Thanks to the efforts of GlaxoSmithKline and the generous support of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s first malaria vaccine has been approved by regulators at the European Medicine Agency. The drug is called Mosquirix, and although it is likely not the end-all solution to the widespread disease, it is a stepping stone in the right direction.

GSK worked with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to create the immunization, which is meant for use in tropical and subtropical areas where the illness is prevalent and largely uncontrolled. Called RTS,S in its experimental stages, Mosquirix is designed for children 6-17 months old whose immune systems are still developing.

Mosquirix works to prevent malaria by attacking Plasmodium falciparum parasites. These parasites multiply in the livers of people affected by malaria and head into the bloodstream where they cause more severe symptoms. This approach to preventing malaria is different than those of other vaccines, which seek to take down viruses and bacteria.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed over $200 million to the drug’s research and development, and GSK is optimistic that it will be effective in reducing incidences of malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa where cases of malaria caused by the parasite are most common. Of the nearly 600,000 deaths related to malaria in 2013, 90 percent of these occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa; 83 percent in children under the age of five in the same region.

Studies show that Mosquirix reduces malaria cases by only a third and that its protection decreases in the long term. However, experts agree that some results are better than no results. In conjunction with other protective measures like insecticide-treated bed-nets, Mosquirix may become an important part of the malaria fight.

The main road bump for Mosquirix? Distribution. The vaccine may exist, but to the young children in Africa who need it, it may as well be a fantasy.

The question is whether the distribution of the vaccination to areas where it is needed is worth the time and the money. The World Health Organization is skeptical of the feasibility of Mosquirix’s implementation and has not yet issued a recommendation for its use. Officials at the WHO are worried that financing for the vaccine may “draw away from scaling up bed nets, effective drugs and rapid diagnostic tests for malaria.”

There is a reason that most vaccines are not made against parasites – unlike bacteria or a virus, a parasite has a complicated life cycle that transports it around the body. Parasites like those that cause malaria can remain living in the body for years.

However, the news that it is possible for a malaria vaccine to be developed and approved is promising. Whether or not Mosquirix achieves outstanding success, discussion surrounding it is undoubtedly paving the way for future malaria-related drug research.

– Katie Pickle

Sources: NBC News, Tech Times
Photo: Press Herald

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Google Street View Depicts Mongolia

Google Street View Depicts Mongolia - The Borgen Project
Since its launch in 2007, Google Street View, an extension of Google Maps, has provided users with realistic views of locations they might like to visit. People can actually navigate entire countries without leaving their homes thanks to these technologies and the number of popular tourist destinations has greatly increased.

Google Street View actually used their Google Trekkers—15 fixed-focus lenses with 360-degree panoramic shots every three meters—to capture incredibly important aspects of Mongolian culture. Nadaam, also known as the Three Games of Men, was going on in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar on July 11-13 this year as the Google Trekkers made their way through. They were joined by CNN who covered the story.

Nadaam is a type of Mongolian Olympics composed of archery, wrestling and horse racing. The horse racing event is particularly interesting because jockeys are generally ages five to thirteen and are raised to ride horses even before they can walk. According to residents, the competition itself focuses more so on the skill of the horses and their compatibility with their riders rather than the rider’s command over the horses.

“So far, Google has captured breathtaking landscapes across five cities and six provinces including Ulaan Baatar, Darkhan, Khenti, Dornogovi, and Selenge,” and they’ve been mapping the area since Oct. 2014. Though falling copper prices and low investor confidence has placed Mongolia in financial difficulties, Google hopes to raise tourism profiles.

“At Khursgul Lake, the second-largest freshwater lake in Asia, the team trekked across its frozen surface on a horse-drawn sled, providing breathtaking views of Mongolia’s landscape.”

Including its projects in Mongolia, Google Street View has also managed to capture remote islands, the Pyramids of Giza and the Amazon Jungle.

– Anna Brailow

Sources: CNN, Sky
Photo: Discovery News

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Needle-Free Alternatives to Syringes for Developing Countries

Vaccination is one of the most successful and potent methods of combating viral and infectious diseases today. In fact, the most effective method of prevention against many potentially epidemic diseases is vaccination.

The administration of vaccines is largely through injection of the vaccine intravenously or intramuscularly. The process of vaccination involves introducing into the body an innocuous form of the infection- certain cellular products of the disease-causing microbe or virus that is not capable of reproducing or spreading. This stimulates the production of antibodies against the particular infection the vaccine is targeting.

As successful as vaccination is, the method of delivery of the vaccine that is a syringe can have notoriously harmful implications. The traditional syringe uses a needle that is injected into the body and therefore comes in contact with the patient’s blood. This contact with blood can be very dangerous if proper precautions are not taken, as blood serum can transfer many viral diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

The proper usage of medical syringes includes their proper sterilization before injecting a patient, which is done by the manufacturing companies. To ensure that the needle is completely free of any microbial or viral agents, the syringe needs to be used right after packaging is removed. Moreover, used syringes should never be used on another individual.

These precautions are vital to ensuring the safety of patients being vaccinated and is standard medical procedure. However, in many developing countries, syringes are reused on other patients, especially where effective regulation is lacking. Illegal businesses have been found guilty of taking used syringes, ineffectively sterilizing them and reselling them for use. This misuse of syringe needles leads to approximately 1 million deaths per year. It is also one of the leading causes of HIV/AIDS, with 10 percent of cases of HIV/AIDS in the United States being the consequence of intravenous drug use with unclean syringes.

One of the solutions to these problems is obviously to enforce tighter regulations, ensuring contaminated syringes are disposed of properly so accessibility to those is reduced. Hospitals can enforce stricter sterilization policies. However, these policies are not very likely to be effective, especially in poorer countries who may lack resources for enforcing these regulations. Moreover, limiting the access to used syringes for drug users can be particularly problematic.

Another solution to this problem is to eliminate the needles in syringes altogether. Recently, needle-free syringes have become popular alternatives for syringes. The needle-free syringe, as the name suggests, does not use a needle to inject the vaccine into the bloodstream. Instead, it uses a high-pressure gradient to force vaccine liquid into the tissue. The vaccine is forced at high pressure through the skin through an orifice of the syringe, which in modern syringes has been made as small as the diameter of a human hair. This method also distributes the medication or vaccine better through the tissue, as the medicine penetrates through the skin into the surrounding tissue. The syringe never comes into contact directly with blood, so the risk of contamination is reduced. Also, the syringe is not suited for substance abuse, as those drugs are administered intravenously.

The needle-free syringes have been quite successful in their delivery of vaccines as well as their safety of usage. Different types of needle-free syringes have been developed for administering different types of drugs with increased efficiency. These syringes are more expensive than ordinary syringes, however. With increasing demand and development, it is probable the needle-free syringes would become as desirable in their cost as they are in their technique.

– Atifah Safi

Sources: Bioject, MIT, WHO
Photo: Path

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Food Companies Leading the Fight Against World Hunger

Food Companies Leading in the Fight Against World Hunger - BORGEN
One out of nine people in the world go to bed hungry according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The United Nations World Food Programme is dedicated to reducing global hunger by offering food aid to developing countries in need. WFP has provided food for more than 90 million people. WFP partners with and receives funding from a few well-known food companies.

Yum! brands started the World Hunger Relief campaign as the largest consumer outreach campaign on the hunger issue. It is the world’s largest restaurant company with more than 40,000 restaurants in 125 countries. It is leading in the fight against global hunger through the campaign, as well as through the mobilization of the 1.5 million employees as advocates for global hunger relief.

Yum! brands’ World Hunger Relief campaign has raised $100 million for WFP since 2007 with the help of global spokesperson Christina Aguilera. Yum! brands include Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnSf2xj6URs

PepsiCo is another partner of WFP. The company is more well known for its food and beverages than for the philanthropic PepsiCo Foundation. PepsiCo Foundation has donated $3.5 million to WFP to produce a food product made of chickpeas to help treat malnutrition in Ethiopia.

Unilever partners with WFP to make people more aware of global hunger through fundraising and campaigns as well as educational plans. They have targeted their consumer base in 13 countries in their campaigns against global hunger. Unilever has also assisted WFP in identifying what are the nutritional needs of the children to better help them.

Kellogg’s, though not a partner with WFP, does important work to fight global hunger. Kellogg’s donates over $20 million per year in food products for disaster relief and hunger. The company also has an initiative called “Breakfast for Better Days.” The initiative is focused on alleviating hunger specifically in South Africa, pledging to feed 25,000 children every school day in 2015. The company will dedicate one billion servings of Kellogg’s snacks and cereal for global poverty alleviation by 2016 and has donated nearly eight million breakfasts to FoodBank South Africa already.

An increase in awareness of global hunger has also increased the number of food companies coming on board to bring global hunger relief.

– Iona Brannon

Sources: World Food Programme 1, World Food Programme 2, Hunger to Hope, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Kellogg
Photo: Flickr

 

 

How El Salvador is Tackling Poverty-Related Gang Violence

gang violence

In March, El Salvador, a country that has been struggling to reinvent itself since its bitter 12-year civil war between Marxist rebels and the government ended in 1993, experienced the highest levels of gang-related deaths in over a decade.

According to the BBC, March was the deadliest month in El Salvadorian history since the end of the civil war — with over 11 percent of the population engaged in some form of gang-related activity. Much of this violence was, and continues to be, perpetrated by gangs such as the Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street Gang, both of which have origins in Los Angeles, where they were founded by Central American immigrants. Following forced expulsion out of the United States and back to their home countries, these migrants then settled back into life in El Salvador — carving neighborhoods into various gang-controlled territories in the process.

In 2012, El Salvador’s main gangs signed a truce in an effort to end gang-sponsored violence, which initially saw a drop in gang-related death by 40 percent. Since then, however, gang activity has picked up again at an increasingly violent pace. Currently, El Salvador is on the path to becoming one of the deadliest peacetime countries in the world, with roughly 15 homicides occurring every day in the country of six million, according to PBS.

However, since March, there has been a slight decrease in the number of violent incidences. This is thanks to the efforts of private companies, which have begun to recruit former gang members as employees in an effort to help stall the surge of violence currently overtaking the country.

League Central America, for instance, is a private company that works stitching logos onto American University clothing, such as sweaters bound for Harvard and Brown. One out of ten employees at League Central America are former gang members, who mainly hail from the country’s most notorious gangs; the 18th Street Gang and Mara Salvatrucha.

According to one employee, who went by the name Jorge, “There are lots of former gang members who want to change their lives but [don’t] have a way out…because of the lack of work, the poverty.”

Company boss Rodrigo Bolanos, however, stated that companies can help improve the situation, saying, “In the process of suffocating the economy and the country the private companies need to take a position to look for a dignified way out.”

In light of this, private companies like League Central America are making important strides in starting to help the country battle against increasing rates of homicide, by helping former gang members find a way out of poverty by offering them entrance jobs with the chance of upwards mobility.

Jorge has stated that he is eternally grateful to the company for offering him a way out of the gangs and gang violence — and a new chance at life.

Jorge, who only recently started working at the company, is now the chief pattern cutter.

– Ana Powell

Sources: BBC 1, BBC 2, PBS
Photo: Flickr

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Malawi: Education Over Marriage

Malawi: Education Over Marriage
A minute is all it takes for 28 young girls around the world to be married off as child brides, adding up to 15 million underage brides per year. One of the main reasons for young marriage is to relieve the bride’s family of having to support her, which some struggle to do. As a result, the cycle of poverty continues with those girls having to abandon school and years later, their own underage daughters get married.

A child’s place is at school learning, making friends and playing. They are usually emotionally and physically unprepared for marriage, making them susceptible to domestic abuse and life-threatening pregnancies and births.

Until Feb. 2015, Malawi had one of the highest rates of child marriage, with 50 percent of girls being married before the age of 18. This changed in Feb. 2015, when President Peter Mutharika signed a law raising the marriage age from 15 to 18. To show the commitment to enforcing the law, 300 child marriages were annulled and kids were sent back to school earlier this month. Despite the progress, there is a loophole where parents can provide consent for 16-year-old girls to marry.

The fight to pass this law has been a process with Malawi’s Stop Child Marriage campaign beginning in 2011 by Girls Empowerment Network (Genet) and Let Girls Lead. They trained 200 girls in the Chiradzulo District of southern Malawi to become advocates. The advocates lobbied 60 village chiefs to change laws and establish by-laws to protect teen girls from marriage and sexual initiation practices.

The bylaws force men who marry girls under 21 to give up land and pay a fee of seven goats, a major economic penalty in the region. The bylaws also imposed social sanctions such as three months of janitorial service in a local health clinic for parents who marry their underage daughters.

Genet had hoped the election of the first woman president, Joyce Banda, would raise the marriage age, but she didn’t. Then in 2014, when Peter Mutharika was elected, Genet advocated extensively with his minister of gender, Patricia Kaliati. Fortunately, President Mutharika believes in the empowerment of financially independent women and signed the law.

Although it is difficult to break cultural beliefs and traditions, especially in rural areas, progress is being made at the government level. The local education campaigns will play a key role in educating and spreading the word about the new law, especially in places where people may be less educated regarding the law.

One strong advocate, Memory Banda, 18, was able to finish school, but her younger sister wasn’t as lucky. Memory’s younger sister was married at 11 to a man in his early 30s. This led her to speak up and help in leading the campaign to pass the law. Memory’s sister is now 16 with three children. In March, Memory spoke at the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women for herself, her sister and the 70 million girls married as kids.

– Paula Acevedo

Sources: Global Citizen, The Guardian
Photo: Flickr

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Zidisha Direct Loans Boosts Entrepreneurship

direct_loans
Big business ideas and economic enterprises are no longer limited to the corporate boardroom. The digitally connected world has provided entrepreneurs from all corners of the globe ways in which to make their concepts known; social media and increased mobile access have given tomorrow’s innovators a voice they lacked in the past. The main issue, however, is that those in developing countries still lack access to funding and capital, no matter how strong their idea.

That’s where Zidisha comes in. Zidisha is a nonprofit micro-lending service that allows potential borrowers to receive direct loans from an online community. The organization’s main goal is to promote economic development by cutting out lending middlemen and local banks that often charge supremely high-interest rates on loans.

The process is quite simple. Potential borrowers need only reliable online access, something that is only becoming more and more available. The borrowers then submit a profile describing themselves and their intended use of the loan. A one-time processing fee of around $12 is charged.

Zidisha is a very small company and merely provides a platform for users to interact directly. “We’ve built a decentralized marketplace that has no offices, no employees or loan officers in borrower countries,” says company founder Julia Kurnia. Zidisha lets borrowers receive funds via SMS straight from lenders at a zero percent interest rate.

Loans are typically small. Zidisha states that the average loan is $200 to $300. Loans have enabled entrepreneurs to buy computers for an Internet café and sewing machines for a village shop. Both have relatively low costs, but a significant impact. According to Wired Magazine, the computers that were funded by Zidisha loans have empowered many, as they have been used to teach office programs like Microsoft Word and Excel.

Zidisha’s purpose is clear in its name. The word means “grow” in Swahili. By charging no interest and only asking for the principal returned, Zidisha enables borrowers’ ideas, which would normally be denied by the typical financial institutions, to flourish.

– Joe Kitaj

Sources: Wired, Zidisha, Venture Beat
Photo: Zidisha

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Engage Emerging Nations, Improve Education Spending

Engage Emerging Nations, Improve Education Spending
Global Education is a hot topic. It has been a part of the Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. There was a recent Education Summit in Olso, Norway, in July. Education was also part of the discussions at the International Conference on Financing for Development.

Education leaders believed that there was a downturn in funding and supporting quality education for boys and girls around the world. However, after this year’s attention to education, this trend may be behind us. Mobilizing donors has had positive results. The financing committees work to enable traditional donors, private philanthropy and emerging nations.

One of the biggest game-changers is the Emerging Nations. They have a lot of potential to improve education standards and bring education to more people. The Global Partnership for Education brings together its developing nations partners and constituents before board meetings. The countries come together and exchange ideas and practices that work or didn’t work for them, allowing knowledge to spread more easily. It also gives the board an idea of how to tackle problems and how to approach education in these areas.

The meetings show that emerging nations are engaging in educational discussions and want to invest in the improvement. That is why it is important to mobilize these nations to spend on education. Show them where and how their money will be most effective.

Developing Nations are said to be growing economically more than developed nations. They will account for 65 percent of global growth up until 2020. It is important to reach out to them on such an important topic such as education. These countries have the resources to better education not just for their citizens, but for all global citizens by donating to global education. They can be the ones to close the $39 billion deficit in global education financing. The emerging nations are the ones that will benefit the most from education spending.

– Katherine Hewitt

Sources: Devex, Global Partnership, ICEF
Photo: Higher Education Development

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African Skills Initiative Receives $60 Million

African Skills Initiative Receives US $60 Million Investment
International Business Machines Corps (IBM) has announced its investment of $60 million in the African Skills Initiative. This investment will fund the development of the next generation of technical experts for the next three years.

With this investment, IBM plans to expand its Africa University Program and the Africa Technical Academy to more than 20 countries.

Dr. Naguib Attia, IBM Chief Technology Officer and VP Technical Leadership MEA says, “With a research laboratory, innovation centers, offices and other advanced facilities in more than 24 African countries, IBM has the highest concentration of technical talent on the African continent. As the leader in science and technology in Africa, we see it as IBM’s responsibility to make a strategic investment in skills development helping to lay the foundations of the Africa of tomorrow.”

IBM is teaming up with the Kenya Education Network to deliver certification courses to students and faculty studying and teaching in the 50 universities already in the Africa University Program network. In such a fast-paced and growing market such as Kenya, the African Skills Initiative will benefit the population greatly.

These courses will develop and enhance the students’ readiness to enter the job market. With a focus on what happens in the work world, students will be prepared and feel more qualified for the technical workspace.

The expansion of the program will benefit IT professionals in Africa. The program focuses on teaching skills in cloud, analytics and huge data technologies. This kind of training is an important step for the next phase of social and economic development in Africa.

It is very likely that IBM may offer employment to students who graduate from these courses with impressive scores. This would give incentive to people in Africa not only to receive an education but to also start their careers as IT professionals.

IBM’s latest project is focused on the next generation of technology and experts than its current business. With its current services such as software development, assistance and software products, IBM foresees that more IT professionals will be beneficial in the future.

With the expansion of the Africa University Program and the Africa Technical Academy, IBM is encouraging individuals to receive an education. With this education, they gain a greater chance of being employed by IBM.

The movement toward technology can already be seen today. As IBM predicts, the world will only become more dependent on technology. With this surge in technology, more IT professionals will be needed.

IBM’s investment of $60 million in the African Skills Initiative will fund the education of the IT professionals of tomorrow. But it will also educate people that are in need of the many jobs to come in the IT world. This initiative will further not only the world of technology but the lives of people.

– Kerri Szulak

Sources: Bidness, KTen
Photo: IT News Africa