Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Flooding Persists in Myanmar

The Aftermath of Floods in Myanmar
Flooding is usually just a normal part of life in Myanmar. With every annual monsoon season comes the floods, yet this year has been different.

Since June, this Southeast Asian country has experienced some of its worst flooding in decades. In total, the natural disaster has critically affected almost 1 million people and killed at least 103. There has also been an agricultural toll; water has flooded more than 1 million acres of rice fields and destroyed more than 150,000 acres.

The floods have had a widespread impact on Myanmar with all but two of the country’s 14 states affected by rains. However, some are worse off than others.

Four regions in particular, Chin, Sagaing, Magwe and Rakhine have experienced the worst of the floods. The national government stated that all four had become natural disaster zones.

Sadly these regions were also some of the most impoverished and vulnerable in “a country where nearly 70 percent of people live close to the $2/day poverty threshold,” according to UNICEF. These states face what the UN has dubbed a ‘double catastrophe,’ both extreme poverty and natural disaster.

Children comprise a substantial 34 percent of Myanmar’s population and are among the worst victims of this disaster. According to UNICEF Deputy Representative in Myanmar Shalini Bahuguna, “The floods are hitting children and families who are already very vulnerable, including those living in camps in Rakhine State…Beyond the immediate impact, the floods will have a longer term impact on the livelihoods of these families.”

Of the four most devastated states, Rakhine seems the worst off. In addition to floods, the Cyclone Komen touched down causing even more destruction. Currently 140,000 children and families have been forced to out of their homes and must live in camps designed only for short-term use.

However, even these numbers are not entirely comprehensive. UN officials have struggled to access townships in the region due to the destruction of infrastructure.

The Myanmar government in tandem with UNICEF and other UN agencies has worked recently to mitigate the damages caused by natural disasters. They have sent teams of officials to survey the destruction and to provide water purification, hygiene and health supplies to those in need.

Shalini Bahuguna also added that “We are working with the Government to get emergency messages out to local communities through radio, to tell people how to prevent water borne diseases.”

In one of the most devastated areas, Chin State, UNICEF has worked to provide stranded refugees with access to latrines constructed from local resources.

So far UNICEF has requested $9.2 million in funds for humanitarian aid for children in Myanmar. While this sum is by no means worthless, it pales in comparison to the region’s aid requirements even before the disasters. Early in 2015, the organization requested $24.9 million to assist children in Rakhine state but only managed to garner a mere $5.6 million. With this taken into account, Myanmar still needs far more foreign aid than it has received.

Though perhaps operating on a tight budget, UNICEF has still accomplished a substantial amount. They have provided 860,000 water purification tablets, which are enough for 57,000 people for just over two weeks. Similarly, they have distributed 6,000 hygiene kits for 30,000 people. Of course, much more funding is required in order to meet the needs of all of Myanmar’s people.

– Andrew Logan

Sources: Unicef 1, Unicef 2, Reuters, BBC, Al Jazeera
Photo: Stuff

Kenya’s Geothermal Energy Revolution

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Once the cradle of humanity several millennia ago, Africa’s rift valley is again about to give birth to something new. Nestled amongst the cliff walls that formerly contained a prehistoric lake, a seemingly primordial vapor rises, pungent with the smell of sulphur.

This is Kenya’s Hell’s Gate National Park, the doors to which open to a much needed energy oasis for this developing African country. As famous for its Maasai heritage as it is for its abundant thermal springs, Hell’s Gate has recently become a hotspot for sustainable geothermal energy development in east Africa.

The burgeoning Olkaria geothermal plant located within the park has spearheaded this effort to tap Kenya’s ideal thermal resources. With assistance from the World Bank, the power plant has dug into the earth to provide carbon-free power to Kenyans. Annually, the plant drills more than 40 wells, each of which can provide 18 megawatts per year in clean energy. The plant hopes to reach 580 megawatts in the coming years.

Energy efforts such as these could not have come at a better time for Kenya. Currently only 16 percent of the population has access to electricity. For those who do, the rationing of power has become a regular nuisance, as electricity is both undependable and inefficient.

Fortunately, Kenya has the geothermal potential to turn its energy crisis around. A report by the Geothermal Energy Association noted Kenya as “one of the fasted growing geothermal markets in the world.”

It predicted that “Kenya will lead the world with substantial additions to their geothermal infrastructure over the next decade and become a center of geothermal technology on the African continent.”

In total, the east African Rift Valley has the capacity to power 150 million homes, a World Bank report estimated. Geoffrey Muchemi, the geothermal development manager for the Kenya Electricity Generating Company claimed that, ideally, in 10 years’ time Kenya could rival the entire US energy capacity at around 3,000 megawatts.

For Kenya, geothermal represents a more reliable and sustainable energy option in comparison to other popular sources. Hydro-electric power, once a staple of the Kenyan power grid, has begun to dry up. Due to often unpredictable rainy seasons, it frequently fails to provide enough energy and runs 42 percent below capacity. Another main power source, Diesel, runs at only 60 percent of its capability and needs constant maintenance.

In comparison, geothermal runs almost always at 100 percent. While geothermal represents only 13 percent of Kenya’s energy capacity, it contributes nearly a quarter of the grid’s power. It is already carrying more than its fair share of Kenya’s energy needs.

However, geothermal has its faults. Unlike other power options, it requires highly skilled technicians. In a developing country such as Kenya, geothermal training programs are hard to come by.

Fortunately, the UN identified this problem decades ago and established the first Geothermal Training Programme in Iceland in 1979. Every year, Kenya’s Electricity Generating Company sends eight employees for training.

Despite its complexity, geothermal power has the potential to change millions of lives in Kenya. After the creation of the power plant, people could work longer hours allowing business owners like Elizabeth Kyalo, the owner of a hair salon, to send her children to school. With electric streetlights, residents fear less about nighttime muggings and experience a greater sense of security. From the sulfurous springs of Hell’s Gate national park, safety and success are just beginning to rise.

– Andrew Logan

Sources: The World Bank 1, The World Bank 2, Geothermal Energy Association, The Guardian
Photo: Power Engineering International

Recovering from Natural Disasters: Japan

Recovering from Natural Disaster
Water, wind, fire and earth are four key elements which, when combined properly, create a perfectly harmonious world. But if one decides to go slightly awry, disaster can strike.

When disaster strikes, media coverage of the event and its aftermath is extensive and intense. After all of the tragic glamour of the disaster subsides, however, the public rarely hears any more about the victims, who are forced to rebuild their lives for years.

Water strikes in the form of a tsunami, one of which hit Japan rather brutally in 2011 and whose mark can still be seen four years later. While Japan is rather used to getting hit with natural disasters, as it has been home to some of the worst disasters in the 21st century, according to the Japan Times, it still has around 230,000 people living in temporary housing four years after the tsunami. Recovery has been slow partially because of the involvement of another element, earth: Soon after the tsunami hit, an earthquake followed. This came as a result of Japan existing within the “Ring of Fire,” which is the area of the world most susceptible to earthquakes due to tectonic plate positioning. The combined damages from the earthquake and the tsunami totaled to around $300 billion.

This earthquake caused a crack in a nuclear reactor close to Japanese water supplies, and this small, fiery crack led to a whole host of issues. Contaminated water was only another issue on a long list of things that needed to be fixed after this collection of tragic events. To repair the damage, Japan enacted a seven step plan, which has been slowly making progress and is almost complete. But none of this would have been possible without the aid of foreign nations and the support systems they have in place.

In the United States, there are organizations such as the Red Cross and FEMA, which allocate money and volunteers to help in the event of an emergency. Internationally, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies act to help nations develop and carry out their disaster relief plans. While the IRFC has developed several guidelines and regulations, few states have followed these regulations without contradicting one another. Recently, the organization has strived to perfect its work by releasing guidelines that strictly adhere to those adopted by state parties at the Geneva Convention, and have also created model acts and disaster law databases to permit governments to ensure that they are getting the best help possible.

Disaster can strike without warning and the side effects can lasts for years afterward. It is imperative for the global community to understand the old economic theory of the butterfly effect — when one problem occurs, even if it is halfway across the world, it will have repercussions for everyone. By helping each other grow and recover we preserve industry, trade and the lives of individuals who do not have a place to call home. Disaster can ruin lives, but that does not mean that we should let it.

– Sumita Tellakat

Sources: IFRC, Live Science
Photo: The New York Times

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What We Fail to Mention About Foreign Aid

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1. Foreign aid remains essential for developing nations. Providing healthcare, clean water, food, shelter, vaccines and schools can create opportunity. The catch we must avoid is generalizing these methods. Aid projects succeed when they target regions’ specific needs and histories.

2. We need to actually invest in the communities we serve. This requires “patient capital” which, according to CEO of Acumen, Jacqueline Novogratz, is “money that is invested in entrepreneurs who know their communities and are building solutions…thinking of low income people not as passive recipients of charity, but as individual customers, consumers, clients, people who want to make decisions in their own lives.” Patient capital is an inclusive approach to uplifting people out of poverty. While it requires risk, experimentation, and patience, the social impact can be enormous.

Journalist and activist, Andrew Mwenda, also advocates for wealth-creating “agents” that also give way to systems of productivity. “Wealth,” explains Mwenda, “is a function of income, and income comes from you finding a profitable trading opportunity or a well-paying job.” So, what is the solution? Entrepreneurs.

3. Economic gains in foreign aid investment beats the stock market. Paul O’Connell is the president and partner of FDO Partners, LLC, which is an investment management and research firm managing upwards to US$2.3 billion. O’Connell’s TedTalk, “Investments in the future: A new approach to foreign aid” talks about the economic gains from investing in poverty-related issues like vaccinations, education, and clean water, versus investing in the stock market. Investing in each category earns two to even six times the return in comparison to investing in stocks. O’Connell urges private investors to take the reigns on these investments because the payouts will be enormous.

– Lin Sabones

Sources: TED 1, TED 2, TED 3, Wall Street Journal, Oxfam America
Photo: USAID

Are Memes the Future of Social Change?

Are Memes the Future of Social Change?
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you know that memes are simple and often hilarious images with text superimposed on the picture. This text can be witty, sarcastic, crass or even rude. Regardless of the meaning behind memes, there is no doubt that they are found almost everywhere on the Internet.

Currently, there are several databases that exist to hold the plethora of memes, all different and diverse in nature. Sites where you can create your own meme are in the dozens, giving the creator complete freedom to do what they want with the medium.

While the freedom of the medium is liberating, it has also been put to use in several egregious ways. Racism, misogyny and homophobia, for example, are a few harmful ideas that memes have been used to perpetuate.

However, where there is darkness, there is light. There are many positive and supportive memes to counteract the bad. Memes that convey happiness, hilarity and positivity all exist and are spread over the Internet.

While the freedom that memes permit can lead to negative messages or outcomes, it is important to realize that the same freedom allows for creativity and expression. This expression, paired with the flexibility and easy accessibility of the Internet, allows a popular meme to become viral in a matter of hours.

Memes usually are used as a mechanism of social commentary, and recently there has been an outcropping of them that have been purely political in nature. These memes can still be designated as satire, but never before has a medium of satire been so widely spread and altered to comment on the political and social standing of the world around us.

If this trend continues, the possibilities for potential positive social change are endless. It can all happen with the creation of a simple image and text.

– Alysha Biemolt

Sources: Smithsonian, Huffington Post, Know Your Meme, About, Political Memes
Photo: Nieman Journalism Lab

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The CERIA Project Targets Early Childhood Education

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In the Indonesian district of Malaka, children are finally being provided with an opportunity to create a better future for themselves. Save the Children has partnered up with the H&M Conscious Foundation to improve educational conditions for children within this impoverished region of the world.

Malaka used to be part of the Belu district in East Nusa Tenggara province. It was so severely underdeveloped that the government decided to establish Malaka as its own district in 2012, hoping to finally spur development. Unfortunately, the district’s citizens are still fighting to break out of the poverty cycle.

Malaka contains 15 elementary schools filled with children seeking a quality education. Most children cannot afford to wear shoes to school. When they finally arrive on foot to their classrooms, they typically face deteriorating walls, lack of access to water and collapsing roofs.

Poor personal hygiene and health combined with the schools’ poor physical conditions often results in prolonged student sickness. To make matters worse, children are oftentimes juggling a language barrier as well.

Hailing from places like East Timor and belonging to ethnic groups that rely on different languages, many of the students do not speak Indonesian. The people of Malaka use five local languages representing the region’s indigenous tribes. Regardless of lack of comprehension, however, the material is taught primarily in Indonesian.

Primary school teachers often employ physical punishment as they deem necessary, causing many students to live in fear. In lower grades especially, it is not uncommon for students to fail their studies or have to repeat a grade due to some combination of the aforementioned factors.

In August 2014, Save the Children pledged to embark on a three-year project focused on improving education for around 2,850 children in the area. Since then, the charity has been working side by side with the H&M’s Conscious Foundation to build 15 new preschools and renovate the 15 existing Malakan schools.

Like Save the Children, the H&M Conscious Foundation seeks to improve children’s education. In addition, the independent organization works to empower women and provide access to clean water in developing countries.

The Conscious Foundation teamed up with STC to launch the Children in Early Grades Reach Incredible Achievements (CERIA) Project three years ago. CERIA also doubles as the Indonesian word for “cheerful.”

The CERIA project is targeting early education in order to achieve long-term effects. It aims to increase enrollment and attendance at quality preschools, improve teaching methods and school readiness for young students and reduce first-grade repetition rates.

The program is targeted at a total of 30 poor rural communities scattered throughout Malaka. Within each early childhood education center, there will be two classrooms able to accommodate 20 to 30 students. Some students are already benefiting from the progress made on renovations last year.

CERIA also offers free teacher training programs to improve the quality of education. Since the majority of teachers in Malaka are volunteers lacking a background in education, this has been an especially effective tool for improvement.

By its conclusion in 2017, the CERIA project is expected to benefit Malaka’s 2,400 elementary school teachers, 450 preschoolers and 180 primary and preschool teachers. There is no telling what accomplishments these properly educated children and teachers will be able to achieve in the long run.

– Sarah Bernard

Sources: Jakarta Globe, H&M
Photo: Compassion International

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The Child River Trade Workers in Brazil

The Child River Trade Workers in Brazil
In Brazil, home to the world’s largest Amazonian rain forest, an ever-increasing number of young children are joining the workforce as so-called “river children.” These river children make a living and help support their families by canoeing up to the side of larger barges and tourist boats, where they climb on board and attempt to sell goods such as ingas, an elusive jungle fruit that is particularly popular with ferry passengers.

Following a process of bargaining, the children then climb off the boats with the few rials earned in their pockets, only to have to canoe back home for the entire length of the river that passed beneath them while they were above deck.

An Al Jazeera documentary created in 2011 and reviewed in the past week, titled The River Traders of Brazil, helped shed light on the shadowy lives of Brazil’s “River Children.” The documentary focused on the life of Jesse, an 11-year-old boy who lived along the narrowest stretch of the Tajapuru River in the Amazonian basin in northern Brazil.

Jesse, like the other river children working on the Tajapuru river, made a few rials for his family of 12 adults and 16 children by engaging in the river trading business. As the beginning of the documentary illustrates, Jesse and the other river trader children were initially tolerated and even treated warmly by crew members on the barges. The opening scene pans to an image of Jesse and a young girl sharing a plate of pasta in the underground cabin of a boat, with the narration smoothly announcing over the image “on the boat, there is always food set aside for the river children.”

However, as the documentary progresses, noticeable friction between the river children and the adult crew workers grows more and more. A captain, who claims that he always takes down the names of the river children, tells the camera that the information he has been taking down in his notebook has been increasing in recent years, with an ever-increasing number of stray children climbing aboard.

Further on in the documentary, it becomes obvious why.

Jesse, like his fellow classmates, attended school—which was an hour away by canoe—sporadically at best (the documentary claims he never went for longer than one month at a stretch). A scene with Jesse and his teacher films them on opposite sides of an argument: the teacher, trying to encourage the children to come to school more often, argues, “You are already so good on boats. Think about how much better you could be if you knew how to read and write.”

But Jesse, who comes from a family where the existence of daily food depends upon the pennies brought into the house each day by river-trading activities, counters that making the one-hour canoe journey in search of an education is ultimately futile.

Later in the documentary, the friction between the crew and the children reaches its breaking point, with the crew becoming openly more hostile to the swarms of young children tying their canoes to the sides of their boats.

The viewer discovers that part of this hostility lies in the fact that young river children, frustrated with the instability that a river trade life has to offer, have begun to turn to piracy. Jesse, along with his brothers and some of his cousins also turned to crime, only to come to a fatal end shortly thereafter following an attempted heist where he was killed by an angry crewman.

The fate of Brazil’s river children is little known outside of the small Northern Amazonian river communities directly affected by river trade activity. Yet the Al Jazeera documentary, initially filmed in 2011, and reviewed more recently within the past week, marks an important first step in unearthing the dangerous lives lived by so many desperate and juvenile Brazilian children. The young individuals risk everything, rowing against raging and intolerable currents and facing intolerance, even violence, at the crew members who await them, in the hopes of earning a few pennies for their families a day.

– Ana Powell

Sources: Al Jazeera, Huffington Post
Photo: Ultimate Journey

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How Online Marketplace is Reducing Food Waste

Millions of tons of food are wasted every year in developed countries and the United States is one of the worst offenders, with more than 40 percent of the food supply ending up in dumpsters and landfills rather than on people’s plates. Sadly, the problem has only been getting worse. In 2012, the United Nations was responsible for 35 million tons of wasted food, representing a 20 percent increase from 2000. In 1980, food accounted for 10 percent of U.S. total waste, but today, it accounts for over 20 percent, with Americans wasting more food than plastic, paper, metal or glass.

The issue of food waste is worse in developed countries, where many see food as expendable. But even in wealthy countries, people struggle with hunger. Over 805 million people worldwide suffer from food insecurity, yet enough food is produced to feed everyone on the planet. Furthermore, wasting food is both economically and environmentally unsustainable. Efforts that provide food that could have been wasted to those who truly need it are becoming increasingly important.

Feeding America is making a concentrated effort to eliminate food waste in the United Nations. They are the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States, with a nationwide network of 200 food banks. Feeding America provides over 3.3 billion meals to 46 million people a year through its 600,000 food pantries and meal programs. Their latest initiative, Online Marketplace, is specifically intended to prevent food waste.

Launched in Feb. 2014, Online Marketplace utilizes technology to safely, quickly and effectively recover excess food from local food service outlets. By doing so, Feeding America hopes to reduce food waste while simultaneously providing more meals to people in need. It is primarily geared towards businesses like restaurants or bakeries, which handle perishable food in smaller quantities, therefore producing lots of waste while donating very little.

Online Marketplace directly connects potential donors to meal service programs and food pantries. First, new donors are educated on donation protocols, such as food safety guidelines and standard operating procedures. Next, they are connected with their nearest food bank, which directs them to local food pantries and meal programs to which they can directly donate. Distributors can then pick up food from the donor and transport it to local people in need as soon as possible, sometimes even making deliveries on the same day.

Currently, Online Marketplace is projected to recover 740 million more meals per year for people in need. Feeding America recently received a $1.6 million Google Global Impact Award for using technology to fight hunger. This money will allow the program to expand and feed even more people.

The Online Marketplace program could easily become a model for other developed countries to follow. If such programs catch on, redirecting food waste from the landfill to the dinner table could benefit millions worldwide. Educating those in the food service industry about food waste and simplifying their donation process will encourage more people to get involved in the ongoing battle against world hunger.

– Jane Harkness

Sources: Feeding America 1, Feeding America 2, Feeding America 3, New York Times, Washington Post
Photo: City Fruit

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Backpack PLUS Project Empowers Health Workers


The Backpack PLUS project was established in 2013 with the purpose of empowering community health workers (CHWs). These CHWs are the front-line workers of health delivery; they are often unpaid, volunteer workers that carry out the goals of a given health project.

When it comes to making a difference in global poverty, CHWs are absolutely vital. According to the Backpack PLUS research, a well-trained, well-deployed CHW can decrease child mortality of a community by 25 percent.

The purpose of Backpack PLUS is to “create a reference framework to gather the best practices, assess gaps and align partners to scale up existing and future CHW initiatives.” The project is more than just a tool kit for the workers; it is a system of solutions to real-world problems.

Backpack PLUS has two faces: physical and structural. The physical backpacks that CHWs receive contain key drugs, commodities, diagnostics and tools. The structural side of the program has to do with training, efficiency and thoroughness. This aspect of the program is deeply researched to maximize their results.

In 2013, the project launched into its design phase, where technical partners, policy makers, suppliers and other initiatives collaborated in search of a solution. Since 2013, the project has been focused on field research in Uganda and Senegal where they work to find the most efficient system for CHW aid relief.

The next phase of the project will be developing country plans, mobilizing resources and sharing tools, with a focus on collaboration between workers and between countries.

As of now, Backpack PLUS has partnered with UNICEF, MDG Health Alliance, Save the Children, PSI, the One Million CHW Campaign and Frog Design. This project aims to attack global poverty by empowering workers.

This project is large scale. The purpose is widespread, systematic change that will have a huge impact. Undeniably, the current health delivery system is fragmented, which is why Backpack PLUS’s goal is to unify the process.

– Hannah Resnick

Sources: Backpack PLUS, One Million CHW Campaign, UNICEF, UNICEF
Photo: Frog Design

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Growing Investment in Africa Spurs Domestic and International Growth

Investment in AfricaRecently, international investors have turned their sights to Africa, whose expanding consumer class and abundant natural resources make it the next prime location for development and innovation. According to the Africa Attractiveness Survey, investment in Africa totaled $128 billion dollars in 2014, up 136 percent from the previous year. Investment reached $174 million per project, an increase from $67.8 million in 2013. This vast increase is largely spurred by several megadeals on the continent rather than many smaller ones. Although this “big money” form of investment may crowd out smaller investors, it paves the way for future funding from all types of businesses.

According to Charles Brewer, managing director for DHL Express Sub-Saharan Africa, an update in the way investors perceive the continent has been the source of increased funding. Economic growth, coupled with an improved business environment and strengthened infrastructure, has caused foreign investment to hit a historic high. Sufficient infrastructure is key to successful development because it lowers the expense of logistics. In the past, supply chain costs were nine times greater in Africa than in other continents. Deals, such as DHL Express’s, not only expands the frontier for international corporations but also lends to growth within Africa as well. Brewer predicts millions more in investment dollars from his company alone in 2015.

“With increased Foreign Development Investment and macroeconomic growth, I believe that Africa will become an economic powerhouse in the future. The region is abound with untapped opportunities and has much scope for growth,” says Brewer.

With more and more people benefiting from international aid and earning money, the consumer base in Africa has grown rapidly. This provides immense opportunities for companies to move into these countries and provide previously undeveloped services. Brewer lists 18 countries where his company has planned major projects. Such economic development will also provide more jobs to African workers and increase spending across the economy, leading to even more economic growth and future foreign investment. Companies such as DHL Express will help reinforce the business environment and create opportunities for African businesses all over the world. In this way, Africa is not a market to be cornered by the rest of the world; the world is a market soon to be cornered by Africa.

– Jenny Wheeler

Sources: IT News Africa

Photo: Flickr