Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

,

Education in Japan to Favor Business Skills

japan
Japan is rethinking its higher education programs, forgoing liberal arts subjects in cooperation with a business-first society keen on better-skilled graduates.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s aspiration is to change Japan’s government-sanctioned universities into global frontrunners in scientific exploration or vocational training schools. Abe has called on Japan’s higher educational programs to “redefine their missions” and transform their expected criteria.

The 86 Japanese public universities were instructed by the ministry of education to send their plans to restructure their educational format by the end of June to continue receiving their funds contributed by the government.

In accordance with this decision for adjustment, many of the country’s companies have altered their training programs, counting on universities to train more for business skills. The expectation for young professionals with teamwork, managerial and social abilities is higher than ever in Japan.

This change is inspired by Abe’s decision to rejuvenate the country to become a world leader. The Prime Minister wants universities to include innovative schooling techniques that are more demanding of students for the betterment of the Japanese economy.

Despite Abe’s assurance of this success, many feel as though exempting liberal arts subjects will be detrimental to the experience and value of learning in higher education. This debate started long before Japan’s educational reformation, earning a lasting presence in the United States’ arguments over education. Nevertheless, Japan’s critics are worried about the quality of educational instruction because of the miscommunication between expectations of Japanese employers.

The Dean of Temple University’s Japan campus, Bruce Stronach, said that society needs people who contribute to all aspects of humanity, including social issues.

“That’s why those traditional fields like arts, literature, history and social sciences are also—and will always be—important,” Stronach said.

Despite Stronach’s negative reaction to these changes, not all Japanese educators are displeased with Abe’s declarations.

Katsushi Nishimura, a law professor at Ehime University in Japan, said that students need to learn how to work according to society’s expectations.

“We also need to come out of the ivory tower and listen to the real world,” he said.

According to Nishimura, the university’s funding for the humanities and education departments’ courses will be cut and given to an improved business training plan created by a board of business and academic leaders. Originally, according to Nishimura, the teaching staff was in charge of altering education courses.

In addition, Nishimura said that the new programs will highlight training for local industries such as tourism and fisheries.

Like Nishimura, Japanese educators will likely abide by Abe’s decisions. Education in Japan fueled the country’s rapid economic growth and is one of the driving forces toward the production of high technology.

No doubt, even without liberal arts courses, Japan will continue to be a large contributor to the international economy.

– Fallon Lineberger

Sources: Ehime, OECD Observer, The Australian, Wall Street Journal
Photo: GaiginPot

Power Africa Continues to Face Hurdles

power_africa
In 2013, President Barack Obama launched Power Africa, an $8 billion foreign aid program designed to help improve access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. It aimed to provide electricity to the region’s 961 million residents, who currently only use as much electricity as New York City. Two-thirds of sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity.

Power Africa is adding 60 million new electricity connections and is generating up to 30,000 megawatts of power in six countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania. The project works with local and U.S. partners to improve regulations, build capacity and provide technical assistance. However, two years in, research has shown that Power Africa still faces major hurdles in its implementation.

In Kenya, for instance, the power grid infrastructure has rapidly expanded, covering most of the countryside. However, only 30 percent of Kenya, including just five percent of rural households, have power. Building a bigger infrastructure was not going to be a solution, researchers realized, because connecting to the power grid was much more expensive than what many households could afford. Moreover, Kenya lacked people who could design and construct electrical wiring. Even when a household bought a connection, it still took months to actually get electricity. When they finally did get power, it was extremely unreliable. Power outages would sometimes last for weeks at a time.

Power Africa has not brought any electricity to Nigeria at all. Bickering between government agencies, private companies and foreign governments has slowed projects down in a country that is not able to provide electricity to half of its population. Officials say there have only been conversations about potential projects in the future. The Obama administration has boasted of a few closed deals, but they had already been in the works before the Power Africa initiative.

In such countries, only the wealthy can afford electricity, which they get through the use of private generators. It has even become a status symbol to own one. However, private generators add to these countries’ worsening environmental problems.

President Barack Obama said, “Access to electricity is fundamental to opportunity in this age. It’s the light that children study by; the energy that allows an idea to be transformed into a real business. It’s the lifeline for families to meet their most basic needs. And it’s the connection that’s needed to plug Africa into the grid of the global economy. You’ve got to have power.”

The U.N. predicts that sub-Saharan Africans will make up nearly 25 percent of the world’s population by 2060. Ensuring that this generation has access to electricity in order to expand their economy, improve education and enhance living standards is important to mitigate poverty in future generations. Currently, blackouts are costing sub-Saharan Africa 2.1 percent of their GDP every year.

– Radhika Singh

Sources: Reuters, USAID, NY Times 1, NY Times 2
Photo: NY Times

,

The Plight of Chinese Migrant Workers

chinese_migrant_workers
Every year, around the Chinese New Year, China experiences the world’s largest human migration. About 700 million people gather at boat landings, train stations and airports to return home; during this holiday period, 2,265 trains per day will carry this plethora of people across the country.

A majority of these travelers are in fact migrant workers who are returning home after working in China’s crowded but economically thriving cities. For many of these laborers, this will be their only visit home before they have to return to their place of employment for the rest of the year.

Traditionally, life for these millions of migratory workers has not been easy. While many leave their rural hometowns for greater economic opportunities in China’s booming metropolises, they often find more than they bargain for.

A study conducted by Cheng Yu at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou surveyed the mental health of 807 migrant workers from Shenzhen and also saw Cheng discussing personal experiences with 60 of them. The study found that 58.8 percent of participants suffered from depression. Another 17 percent experienced anxiety, while around 4.6 percent had considered suicide.

The issue of mental health among Chinese migrant workers became widely apparent in 2010 after a series of suicides at a Foxconn manufacturing facility in Shenzhen. The company had assembled components for Apple products.

For migrant workers who must transition from rural life to city living without the support of their families, the chance of developing mental illnesses is much greater. They also face greater inequality through China’s hukou system.

The hukou essentially serves as a domestic passport which distinguishes between those of rural backgrounds and urban backgrounds. Unfortunately, migrant workers have to pay more for social services such as healthcare and education, which they could expect for little expense in their rural hometowns. They will frequently experience wage disparities and discrimination.

In 2008, a study found that urban workers earned around 1,000 yuan per month, while their migrant counterparts earned only 850 yuan. Most were expected to work around 11 hours per day for 26 days a month. Another study found that migrant laborers worked 50 percent more hours than their urban counterparts, yet in turn received 60 percent less in pay.

In order to improve their working conditions, laborers have recently taken to the streets in protest. In 2011 the country experienced 185 labor protests and things have only escalated since then: last year, 1,300 labor protests took place.

Even though the Chinese government guarantees workers’ rights under a 1995 labor agreement, workers must seek approval for strikes through the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, a government entity. If they don’t coordinate through the federation, they can face arrest.

Yet these arrests are usually only based on disorderly conduct and not for the actual strikes themselves. Wu Gaijin, a worker representative from Shenzhen, was detained for an entire year without a conviction. The government charged him with disrupting traffic.

However, life for laborers has been gradually improving. China has recently worked towards loosening restrictions on the hukou system in an attempt to lessen the disparity between urban and rural workers. Furthermore, individuals such as Cheng have advocated for required mental health testing at work facilities and for providing employees with a mental health support line to mitigate suicides and depression.

As China grows larger and its cities expand, changes such as these will have to be made in order to make its labor force sustainable and healthy.

– Andrew Logan

Sources: Business Insider, CNN 1, CNN 2, ILO, NPR, PBS
Photo: CNN

,

Successful Poverty Reduction in Peru

peru
Poverty rates in Peru have dropped significantly over the past four years. Specifically, extreme poverty rates among those with non-social assistance-based income have dropped from 32.8 percent to 24.1 percent in the poorest, most rural parts of the country. While Peru has faced its fair share of challenges, progress is being made.

Ana Revenga, the Senior Director of the Poverty Reduction Unit of the World Bank, recently stated that Peru’s economic growth and poverty reduction is one of the best in the region. Revenga explained, “The significant and sustained growth of the Peruvian GDP benefited the poorest, which resulted in a decrease in inequality.”

These impressive economic improvements throughout the country have come as a result of a major collective effort. In particular, a variety of social initiatives have proven to be key in combating extreme poverty and inequality.

Programs like the National Strategy for Development and Social Inclusion — or “Incluir para Crecer” — are working to close gaps in available public services. Perhaps even more importantly, this type of social program works to expand exclusive economic growth that neglects to help those suffering most severely.

As the country strives to continue moving forward, additional programs like Juntos and Pension 65 will be offering support to Peru’s poorest population. These programs will be working to ensure the longevity of recent improvements in the economic and living conditions of the extremely poor.

The Juntos program has directly contributed to the reduction in child malnutrition under the country’s current government. Within the framework of the program, conditional transfers of state subsidy guarantee good health and growth for unborn and young children alike.

Amongst Peru’s rural population, child chronic malnutrition has declined from 37 percent to 28.8 percent. At the national level, it has dropped from 19.5 percent from just four years ago to 14 percent in 2015. This number is encouragingly close to the 10 percent target set for the end of the current administration period.

The country’s Minister of Development and Social Inclusion, Paola Bustamante recently stated that since 2012, there has been over $1 billion invested in these types of social programs.

She explained that all social programs are implemented under a performance-based budgeting framework, which prevents funds from being used for other purposes besides social programs.

However, despite the above mentioned critical steps in the right direction, Peru is still facing its fair share of structural challenges. In early July 2015,  the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development requested that Peru review and reorganize its denomination of rural and urban regions.

Such obstacles have not significantly curtailed the rates of improvement in poverty reduction and inequality, however. In fact, Bustamante Suarez, another government official, has assured the public that current social inclusion policy will most definitely be continued by subsequent administrations.

Strategically targeted social initiatives will continue to level the economic playing field. As explained by Suarez, these programs will continuously work to close basic services gaps, thus improving the living conditions of the poor population. Peru still has a long road ahead, but leaders are confident that it will come out on top.

– Sarah Bernard

Sources: Andina, Peru This Week
Photo: Peace and Hope International

Supporting the Digital Revolution in Africa

How Digital Infrastructure is Supporting the Digital Revolution in Africa
The spread of mobile technology and the Internet to the developing world has been well covered. More and more people acquire mobile phones and gain access to the Internet every day. But what drives this spread of technology?

While technology like this cannot be substituted for better infrastructure in other areas like healthcare, transportation and finances, it can connect and catalyze economic development. Mobile phones allow for farmers to stay up to date on crop prices and broadband has allowed the Kenyan capital Nairobi to become a hub for IT services and call centers.

A study by the World Bank found that if a 10 percent increase in mobile phone adoption took place, a developing nation’s GDP per capita would increase by 0.8 percent. The spread of broadband in a developing country raises this number to 1.3 percent. According to Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang, the author of a World Bank report on the role of information and communication technology (ICT), mobile technology has the potential to change the lives of many in the developing world: “The mobile platform is emerging as the single most powerful way to extend economic opportunities and key services to millions of people.”

Behind this explosion of digital media, mobile money payments, smartphones and Internet is the infrastructure that makes it all possible. East Africa is an excellent example of the importance of infrastructure for the spread of the digital revolution.

In 2010, three fiber optic cables were installed sub-sea. This ensured that East Africa was no longer the only place on the planet without “super-fast” broadband. Rwanda has also used a fiber-optic tech, putting in a 3,200 km network that connects up to 230 government offices across the country.

To go along with broadband progress in the region, Zambia announced back in April that it would invest $65 million in building new telecom towers that can be used by the country’s three major mobile companies. While fiber-optic is important, most people in Africa get their Internet via their mobile phones, which is why these new telecom towers are so important in Zambia.

The number of mobile users in Zambia is around 10 million, a number that lags behind other countries like Uganda and Kenya. The Zambian government hopes that the new towers will increase subscribers and connectivity. The country’s president, Edgar Lungu, said, “Once implemented, the project will reduce the problems of telephone and Internet connectivity in the country.”

Communications infrastructure is extremely important for countries in the developing world. Without strong infrastructure for mobile and broadband technology, which have essentially become prerequisites for business, countries cannot advance in the global economy.

The benefits of investing in the infrastructure are clear. As most of East Africa’s population – 120 million – lives in rural areas, mobile phones are their key to the Internet. Telecom infrastructure enables countries to get ahead in a way by promoting communication through mobile technology.

Today, mobile phones are the first choice for communication and research. Farmers can gather information on seeds and fertilizers, as well as cooperate with other farmers in their area. The infrastructure also incubates international trade. With more investment will come more benefits in the region.

– Gregory Baker

Sources: Vodafone, PC World
Photo: BUSINESSTECH

,

The Poor Find Haven In Monrovia’s Cemeteries

monrovia
Liberia has had a trying past couple of decades. Most recently, it was plagued by the Ebola virus, which killed thousands of people. Before this, it had suffered through a 14-year-long civil war, which had taken place just a few years after yet another civil war ended. Both wars killed hundreds of thousands of people, leaving many homeless and destitute. Lacking housing or money, many poverty-stricken Liberians have turned to living in cemeteries, many of which are in Monrovia, its capital.

Most go to the Palm Grove Cemetery. Many of these dwellers arrived when they were just children and after their parents had been killed. Some had been child soldiers. They were taken there by friends from the street who used the relative peace and security of the cemetery to indulge in marijuana, cocaine and heroin. They used tombs for shelter after smashing them open and throwing out their long-dead inhabitants.

Monrovians look upon the cemetery dwellers with distaste and fear. They are viewed as criminals and drug addicts who disrespect the graves of their families and are deprecatorily called “friends of the dead.” On Decoration Day, a public holiday when Liberians paint and adorn tombs, conflict always erupts between the tomb dwellers and the families of the tombs’ rightful owners.

Rather than provide an area for the homeless to live in, President Johnson Sirleaf simply put up walls around the cemetery in 2007 to keep them out. Just a few months later, however, people had already breached the walls to live in the cemetery once again. Now the walls serve to better hide the dwellers and their activities rather than keep them out.

Prostitution has also become commonplace behind the cemetery’s walls. Some women and girls are only able to survive through sex work. They are afforded no protection from the police, who often rape them themselves. Unwanted births are commonplace.

Many diseases also run rampant. Ebola was just another problem to add to a list of illnesses that included ones such as tuberculosis and diarrhea.

Hope may yet be around the corner for these cemetery residents. Last year, the British charity organization, Street Child, began to work with them, setting up counseling sessions, schools and rehab centers. However, many roadblocks stand in the way of their progress. It is extremely difficult for many residents to even consider weaning themselves off their dependency on drugs. Sometimes, drugs make them aggressive and hostile, which makes it hard for people from Street Child to engage with them.

The outbreak of Ebola also set back efforts. Schools were banned, as were public gatherings. Street Children also started redirecting efforts to the 2,000 children orphaned because of Ebola. Officials have been hostile to Street Children’s efforts in cemeteries, calling their residents a “lost cause.”

Now that Ebola has largely disappeared in Liberia, Street Children is ready to make a renewed effort to help the cemetery dwellers. To the charity organization, small successes have boosted their belief that these people can be saved from a lifetime of poverty and dependency.

– Radhika Singh

Sources: Independent, BBC 1, BBC 2
Photo: Independent

Working Australian Actors Still Live in Poverty

australian_actors
While many consider actors to make a decent amount of money, that couldn’t be farther from the truth for many actors working in Australia.

According to a recent University of Sydney study, 56 percent of actors in Australia earn less than $20,000 a year from their profession. An additional 36 percent earn less than $10,000 annually. One in four actors in the country are currently living below the poverty line.

“Actors as a group are extremely low paid,” Zoe Angus, director of the entertainment industry union Actors Equity told Perth Now. “Most have to earn supplementary income from other sources, but even then, one quarter still live below the poverty line.”

In Australia, the set union pay rate for an “established, experienced performer” on a television show is roughly $600 a day. While this may seem like a highly substantial paycheck, most television actors who aren’t very high-profile are only working around one or two days a month.

What Australian actors are experiencing represents the current plight of actors on a global scale. According to Equity, an acting union based out of the U.K., 56 percent of its members earned less than £10,000 between November 2012 and 2013.

“The industry is driven by dreams,” Macquarie University economics lecturer Dr. Jordi McKenzie told the Courier Mail. “People see actors like Liam Hemsworth, who’ve come through the local industry and go on to become some of Hollywood’s biggest names. Of course, those are the exceptions and not the rule. For every actor who makes it, there are probably 1,000 who don’t.”

– Alexander Khalid

Sources: The Sunday Times, The Courier Mail, The Telegraph
Photo: The Telegraph

What the Pope’s Encyclical Means for the World’s Poor

What the Pope’s Encyclical Means for the World’s Poor-TBP

In June, Pope Francis aligned himself with mainstream science by accepting the truth of climate change. With the release of his 184 page encyclical that calls for immediate action on climate change, Francis has added a moral scope to the biggest problem that humanity has ever encountered.

In it, Francis cites the mindless drive toward monetary gain and economical shortsightedness as the main reasons humanity is this situation today.

While environmentalists around the world applaud the encyclical as a much needed call to action by country and individual alike, the encyclical also revealed who would be impacted the most by climate change: the poor.

Francis says the poorest have been left in the wake of consumerist ambitions of the richest nations. They are being displaced and disregarded.

He also implores that the countries mainly responsible for the climate crisis have an obligation to help the poorest countries.

Numerous studies back the words of Francis’s encyclical. In 2014, the U.N. Climate Panel released a report that found that global climate change, while affecting everyone, would affect poorer countries more and threaten human security.

The report notes the risk climate change presents to agriculture. As some regions become dryer and hotter, food yields will suffer. In an interview with The Guardian in 2014, Princeton Professor Michael Oppenheimer said that even now, the poorest countries are already struggling to adapt their agriculture methods. If climate change is left unchecked, the lack of food will result in higher prices and competition, thus causing violence and the destabilization of poor regions.

Impoverished countries also face heightened potential for natural disasters. Natural disasters are indeed, natural, and every country is at risk for them. However, the wealth of a country plays a pivotal role in how they are responded to.

When a natural disaster goes through an impoverished region, aid response is significantly slower. More people will end up dying from malnutrition and dehydration than from the actual disaster.

Maarten van Aalst, who directs the Red Cross Climate Center and co-authored the report, said that from 2000 to 2009, the number of natural disasters tripled compared to the same period in the 1980s.

This rise is attributed to climate change.

The poorest countries were already at a disadvantage. With climate change, those same countries may have a harder time climbing out of poverty.

Professors Francis Moore and Delavane Diaz out of Stanford published a study earlier this year noting the relationship between poverty and heat.

Impoverished countries, on average, are located in significantly hotter regions than non-impoverished countries. As mentioned by the U.N. report, agriculture in these countries are already struggling with adapting to the changing climate.

Moore and Diaz note that climate change will lower per-capita GDP in poor regions from 3.2 to 2.6%, making it harder to grow economically. This directly supports the findings in the U.N. report.

Wealthy countries are expected to continue economical growth.

With his encyclical, Pope Francis has not so subtly nudged the developed world to action on the environmental crisis. In doing so, extreme poverty may also be confronted as well.

– Kevin Meyers

Sources: The Guardian 1, The Guardian 2, New York Times
Photo: Grist

 

,

Flooding in Pakistan Highlights Need for Stronger Relief

flooding_in_pakistan
Flooding in Pakistan for the fourth consecutive year has put the spotlight on fledgling programs meant to improve infrastructure and humanitarian aid policies. A combination of monsoon rains and melted glacier water convened, causing rivers to overflow into towns, bringing massive destruction in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces as well as Baluchistan and Giljit Baltistan. In the Chitral district, water washed away more than 28 villages, leaving the area completely inaccessible by car and depleted of food, drinking water and communication technology.

More than 500,000 people have been affected and experts report the accelerated spread of disease in affected areas. This is the fourth consecutive year that the country has seen such conditions; in 2010, 20% of the country was underwater and 20 million people were displaced. Though this year’s floodwaters do not pose such grave dangers, Pakistani activists and politicians have been calling for political reform and funding to help lessen the impact of seemingly inevitable annual flooding.

In 2013, the Pakistani government adapted the National Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) policy, which increased funding for disaster management to $1.6 million. The DRR policy plans to strengthen institutions that will work solely to tackle challenges posed by natural disasters and better prepare the country for such occurrences. The policy plans on passing new laws, including those related to fire safety, industrial hazards, construction, land use and building codes. It plans on expanding its Emergency Rescue Service, reviving civilian humanitarian organizations, and partnering with NGOs and local organizations to support disaster-prone areas of the country. The policy will also help pass on information to communities on more resilient innovations in home construction techniques, water and sanitation systems and alternative sources of electricity.

However, critics say the government isn’t working fast enough. The country’s water management system, for example, will continue to be overwhelmed by extreme amounts of water until the system is completely overhauled. A more proactive stance, critics say, that prevents the effects of flooding before they occur, is crucial. Rolling out programs such as the National Disaster Risk Reduction policy will help build stronger, better-informed communities that will cooperate with local organizations to improve technology and design. Doing so will create more sustainable regions that can both use their resources more efficiently and withstand the threat of natural disasters, a seemingly inevitable fact of life these days.

– Jenna Wheeler

Sources: Irin News, Prevention Web
Photo: Flickr

Congressional Thoughts on the Middle East and North Africa

Middle_East_and_North_Africa
On July 22, the Subcommittee on the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) met for a hearing on promoting U.S. commerce in the region. Congressional members of the subcommittee called upon two witnesses from the State Department, Mr. Scott Nathan, special representative for Commercial & Business Affairs, and Ms. Elizabeth Richard, deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Near East Affairs, to give testimony and answer questions.

The hearing largely consisted of a few Congress members inquiring about the state of the MENA economies and the State Department officials responding in optimistic anecdotes. Interestingly, throughout the hearing, certain assertions were made and accepted without dispute.

First, the economic state of affairs in the MENA region is far from ideal. As Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen observed, the MENA region accounts for 5.5% of the world’s total population, yet economic output falls short of expectations, just contributing 4% of the world’s GDP.

Second, poverty facilitates the fostering of terrorism. This assertion was repeated by all Congress members who gave initial statements. For example, Congressman Darrell Issa said “Everyday ISIS is in the frontlines of discussion. When in fact, the areas that have fomented so much opportunity for extremism does not get looked at properly.” He followed up by listing one of the areas that does not get looked at properly as “the opportunity in an entrepreneurial, economic way to go from a lack of prosperity to prosperity.”

Third, U.S. businesses have a role to play in strengthening the economies of these countries. Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen went as far as to say, “Increasing trade with the region will strengthen business, the missing piece of the Arab Spring in the region.”

In all, the Congress members argued that the poor state of the economies of the MENA region allowed terrorism to grow and that a crucial part of the U.S. strategy for thwarting terrorism should be to encourage U.S. business investment in the region.

Analysis of global poverty reveals the Middle East and North Africa, home to roughly 350 million people, are not in a particularly dire economic situation relative to other regions. Of the 350 million, only around 2% live in extreme poverty, on less than $1.25 a day, according to the World Bank in 2010. In contrast, in China that figure is 12%, in India, 33%, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, 48%.

Granted, since the Arab Spring in 2011, holistic data on the economies in the region have been hard to attain. Congressman Gerry Connolly’s line of questioning touched upon that reality and the State Department acknowledged it.

Nevertheless, certain realities are known for certain. Poverty has increased since the Arab Spring in certain parts of the region, notably Syria and Iraq. Since 2011, 4 million Syrians have fled Syria as the civil war rages, of which 2.3 million went to MENA countries. Where there is conflict and turmoil, inevitably the straining of resources and poverty follows.

But even with the worsening of the economic situation in certain areas of the MENA region, areas such as China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa still struggle with much greater extreme poverty.

Yet these regions do not face the specter of terrorism like the MENA region does. Leading to the obvious conclusion, terrorism is a multi-causal phenomenon that cannot be simply attributed to a lack of economic opportunity. But as the Congress members asserted, lack of economic opportunity intuitively does allow for terrorism’s growth as people in poverty have little to lose and less to hope for.

And although reducing poverty in the region will be far from a magic bullet against terrorism, it should not only be pursued for normative reasons but for geopolitical considerations as well.

Maybe the Congress members are right in the importance they place on the role of U.S commerce in the region in hampering terrorism. There is only one way to know, and millions to be helped out of extreme poverty.

– Connor Bohannan

Sources: Congressional Research Service, House of Committee Foreign Affairs, World Bank 1, World Bank 2, UN Refugee Agency
Photo: Flickr