Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Police Corruption and Preparing for a World Stage in Brazil

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Although the country is preparing to host one of the largest athletic and globally recognized events in the world, attention in Brazil has not been as focused on the upcoming 2016 Olympics as one might think. Between police corruption and brutality, protests and utter violence plaguing the country, it is no wonder that the world is holding its breath to see how the country manages to resolve its issues before the rest of the world gathers there in just a year.

Due to large numbers of cases involving police brutality, protest involving the overthrow of the president and change in the overall political system, the entire country is in an uproar. The number of instances of police violence and even cases of homicide at the hands of police officers in the country have been incredibly high. That being said, many of these cases do not receive the type of attention that such instances would in, say the United States, and many officers go unpunished and victims’ families are left without retribution.

That being said, the most recent concern in Brazil is not focused on police corruption, but much higher up in the political sphere. Recent peaceful protests have people gathering in the major city of Sao Paulo calling for a change in the government, starting with the removal of the current president.

These protests and such controversy mean a few things for the country, at least over the next year. The country and the government have to respond to the people somehow, whether they satisfy any or part of their requests or not. Furthermore, the state is feeling the pressure with the Olympics happening in just about a year, meaning there needs to be an answer to the upheaval in time to create stability for the global stage. Over the next few weeks, and even months, it will be interesting to see how the state responds to the protests and what changes the public will push for leading up to the grand event next summer.

– Alexandrea Jacinto

Sources: CNN, New York Times
Photo: Storify

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Indian Water Mafia: A Necessity’s Black Market

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In the Indian capital, around 20% of a population of nearly 10 million have no access to safe, drinkable water—a resource that is supposed to be freely provided by the Indian authorities.

According to the BBC, there is a dangerous gap between supply and demand which has resulted in the official water supply falling short of Delhi’s water needs by 207 million gallons each day, helping to turn drinking water into a pseudo liquid gold. This is due to the fact that around 60% of water intended for Delhi residents is lost as a result of spillage, theft and failure to collect revenue. Official government-sponsored water tanks are also notorious for arriving erratically (at best) in Delhi’s poorest neighborhoods, such as in Sangam Vihar, where they show up “only… once every 10 days or so,” according to Rupa Jha, a local resident.

In response to the gap between water supply and demand, Delhi’s poorest residents have begun to turn to the Indian “Water Mafia,” an informal network of locals who steal water, and then sell it for a profit.

The Water Mafia business follows a model of simple economics. An association of truck drivers, as well as other mostly ordinary Delhi citizens, source water from illicit boreholes found below the earth’s surface, as well as by siphoning water from the city’s pipe network. Tanker bosses then buy water from the men who steal it, who then go on to sell the water directly to locals for a higher price than the $0 it “officially” costs (in Sangam Vihar, for instance, a gallon costs about one cent.) Employees, assuming they sell around a full tank (or 8,400 gallons), are then looking at a profit of $90 per day, or $2700 a month—a much higher wage than the $185 a worker earns in Delhi a month in minimum wage.

While the Water Mafia business is entirely illegal—sourced with water from illegal sources and sold without testing or treatment—it has nevertheless turned into a burgeoning trade that has come to fill in the gap for thousands of poor Delhi citizens who lack access to safe water. Many of Delhi’s poorest residents, in turn, have found that if they want water, they have no choice but to buy into the Water Mafia trade.

The business of stealing and selling water within Indian cities such as Delhi has enormously negative consequences for India’s future, according to authorities and experts who see the human and environmental toll that the practice is taking on the country. The Water Mafia business, for instance, exploits what are already the poorest citizens in a developing country by forcing them to scramble for funds to pay for a resource that is legally required to be free. The practice of extracting liquid for the ground also has negative environmental consequences for the country, especially as it depletes a scarce resource that has already been over-depleted in recent years as a result of India’s population boom. In 2014, for instance, a government report found that three-fourths of Delhi’s underground aquifers were being depleted, forcing boreholes to dig even deeper beneath the surface where water is more likely to be contaminated.

In order to crack down on the growing Water Mafia trade, authorities in recent years have offered a few solutions. In 2013, for instance, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won local municipal elections on a platform of protecting the average person’s interests, as well as their desire to dismantle the Water Mafia business. However, these efforts have been largely ineffective.

According to Rajendra Singh, a conservationist and a winner of this year’s Stockholm Water Prize, however, greater political will and effort could help the country resolve its water issues. Singh, who helped build rainwater-harvesting structures in the arid northern state of Rajasthan, has claimed that major Indian cities have failed to try anything similar. Adopting similar tactics in Delhi—by purifying local rainwater rather than stealing from and depleting water from the city’s boreholes—is one alternative that could potentially help the city solve its water crisis, according to Shah.

In order to protect India’s most at-risk citizens and the country’s long-term interests, it is imperative that an alternative solution—in terms of strengthening the country’s infrastructure and cracking down on members of this illegal water network—need to be adopted. Otherwise, India’s poorest citizens, and those who are most in need of safe drinking water, will continue to have their livelihoods and access to one of humanity’s most basic rights—safe water—be at the mercy of the seemingly unstoppable Water Mafia.

– Ana Powell

Sources: BBC, Foreign Policy
Photo: BBC

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U.S.-Cuba Relations: A New Future for Cuba

US and Cuban Relations: A New Future for Cuba
After 54 years of severed diplomatic ties, the United States and Cuba, once bitter Cold War enemies, demonstrated their newfound diplomacy by reopening each other’s embassies this past Monday.

It is the most concrete example of the diplomatic thaw since President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced last December that U.S.-Cuba relations would be restored.

In an interview with MSNBC, President Obama said he believed that Proclamation 3447, the embargo signed by President Kennedy in 1962, has served neither people well and that it was time to go in a new direction.

Although Congress has to pass legislation to formally end the embargo — something that will be very challenging to do — Obama is using his executive power to ease travel and trade restrictions.

For the first time in half a century, the United States is able to transparently see the type of living conditions Cubans have been in for the past 50 years.

There is poverty in Cuba, but it’s not traditional poverty. When Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, the government became Socialist and then reformed to become the Communist Party of Cuba. During this time, all aspects of Cuban society became nationalized. For the past 50 years, Cubans have enjoyed access to a free healthcare system that has produced a very healthy populace.

Today, Cuba ranks 61st in the world for life expectancy. Its citizens live roughly to the same age as their American counterparts. This statistic is even more surprising considering that per capita GDP is almost ten times higher in the United States than in Cuba.

Economists have coined this phenomenon the ‘Cuban Health Paradox.’ Normally, countries with low per capita GDPs also have low life expectancies.

Cubans also have access to free education and the government has tried to make housing and nutrition a priority for its citizens.

Based on government numbers, Cuba ranks 48th in the world for poverty. The island nation is one of the least impoverished countries in the developing world

Although 15 percent of the population still lives in extreme poverty, most of the country is poor. Reports of living conditions are less than ideal. The Cuban peso, which hasn’t been convertible since the revolution, has suffered from inflation. In U.S. dollars, the average Cuban worker earns $17 to $30 a month.

Cuba also scores at the bottom of Freedom House’s annual report on civil and political freedoms. Freedom House describes Cuba as ‘not free.’

Since the Castro family has been in power, Cuba has been relatively isolated. This has led to the country’s lack of overall wealth. The fall of the Soviet Union worsened matters as the country lost the financial support it used to have from Moscow.

The country has persisted; however, this has usually caused Cuba to become more self-reliant, therefore poorer.

Recently, Cuba has tried to reform its economic system to open up investment to other governments and private companies to accelerate development.

The United States re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba presents a great opportunity for this to happen. The United States can expand trade markets to one of its closest neighbors, while the influx of capital will raise living standards in Cuba.

– Kevin Meyers

Sources: Procon, Geoba, MSNBC, New York Times, Poverties, Reuters, Rural Poverty Portal
Photo: USA Today

Marathon Stars to Join Kenya Peace March

Marathon Stars to Join Kenya Peace March to End Violence
Aegis Trust hopes to unite the youth of Kenya and to inspire those of Africa to end the violence that is dividing countries. In the last two years, 72 of every 1,000 people in Kenya’s population of 45 million had a mobile device. Also, 39 out of every 1,000 had Internet access. In a country connecting with the world like never before, popular icons are joining a movement and encouraging others to follow in a peace-building opportunity.

The 522-mile Kenya peace march is scheduled to last 22 days as it takes world-famous athletes, their fans and many others through Turkana, West Pokot, Trans-Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Elgeyo Marakwet, Baringo and Samburu. The Walk for Peace began July 15, 2015 and will end on August 6, 2015. Big-name contributors include John Kelai, Wilson Kipsang, Tegla Loroupe, Paul Tergat, Ezekiel Kemboi, Irine Jerotich, Andrew Lesuuda, Alex Kipchirchir, Stephen Kiprotich and Douglas Wakiihuri.

A torch lit to signify peace and humanity is to be handed from walker to walker across 25 miles daily. Halie Gebreselassie, who beat the 5,000-meter world record in 1995 by 11 seconds, is a star from Ethiopia who will join the race on its last day in August. In the meantime, others will be leading the peace march.

Commonwealth Marathon champion John Kelai organized the march. He did so in memory of his three uncles, who were murdered in cattle raids. Armed violence, including theft and cattle rustling, has been dividing ethnic groups in the North Rift Valley of Kenya.

Cattle raids have left hundreds dead and have caused 220,000 people to flee their homes. This growing offense is recruiting the country’s youth. Boys as young as eight are involved in theft, cattle rustling and other conflicts.

About 37,000 school children have seen violence; statistics were provided by the Kenyan National Union of Teachers. Commissioner Peter Okwanyo of Baringo County has recorded that some children between the ages of 12 and 17 possess illegal weaponry and are participating in violence.

This activity is made possible as boys drop out of school and need to make an income. When opportunities are not available, one way to make money is to raid cattle. When cattle die due to lack of sustenance and extensive drought periods, raids replace the loss.

Since northern Kenya lacks a strong police force, residents are armed to reinforce security. Trading weaponry is made possible thanks to Kenya’s neighbors in Somalia and other militants linked to al-Qaeda. The worst attack on police in Kenya’s history took place in 2012, when 32 officers were killed in an ambush.

Aegis Trust helped to organize the march for peace. The charity hopes to raise $250,000 to fund the reconstruction of communities affected by violence. Its hope is to recruit 10,000 youth members who are at risk and to protect the North Rift Valley from further damage.

Aegis Trust unites youth and those with conflicting interests in schools and communities by detailing the consequences of violence. The charity built a mobile exhibition that educates young people about the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. The foundation is committed to preventing genocide by investing in rural communities.

Providing a platform for donations and contributions, Indiegogo.com is the place to learn how to participate, donate and fundraise for the cause. It hopes to extend the message enforced by Aegis Trust and the history of Rwanda. Exchanges between Kenyan and Rwandan youth are taking place.

Peace ambassadors, local workshops and community events are conversing about peace-building and communicating the message to others. Professor Lokapel Elim, the chairman of the Steering Committee and principal of Mount Kenya University, describes the march as a means to “experience forgiveness … The experience of speaking out against hatred, the impact that Aegis has, actually will change the thinking of our people.”

Athletes are also walking for women’s contributions to society and peace advocacy efforts. They hope to attract and hold the attention of religious activists who have the capability to influence peace in their communities. The most important target is the youth of the nation and their capability to sustain peace.

– Katie Groe

Sources: The Guardian, Aegist Trust, Walk For Peace, World Bank, Indiegogo, Reuters, Daily Nation, The Guardian
Photo: The Guardian

Virtual Libraries to Boost Education

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Approximately 4.4 billion people in the world do not have access to Internet and most of them are young. Internet access allows children, especially students, to easily find information and contributes greatly to their education.

In order to help the many students without broad access to information, a company called Outernet is going to build virtual libraries through data that is beamed from satellites. Outernet created a device, the Lighthouse, that plugs into a satellite dish, which allows the user to download information that is available to the Internet for free.

Outernet started the project by launching a Crowdfunding campaign to raise $200,000. After five days, their campaign had raised $215,000.

The Lighthouse has solar panels to recharge the battery, which has a 12-hour life for receiving data and a 4-hour life when the Wi-Fi is activated. It is about the size of a flashlight, sturdy, lightweight and is able to access webpages, ebooks, music and videos.

All of the information is accessed through a mobile phone and the device costs $99. For those who want to save more money, Outernet sells the individual parts so that the consumer can make it themselves and the assemblage is simple.

“Imagine what our world and global economy can accomplish when education is truly universal,” said Outernet CEO Sayed Karim. “If we can provide a Library of Congress in every village in the world, why should we not?”

The World Bank has commissioned Outernet to install the Lighthouse hardware in South Sudan and will sponsor the content being delivered by Outernet. Their company has recently joined Facebook’s Internet.org initiative, OneWeb, O3b and Project Loon from Google.

UNICEF is working with Outernet to have UNICEF’s Twitter feed available through their Lighthouse services.

One downside for the user of Outernet’s satellite service is that it works only one way. The user can download information, but they will not be able to upload any information or pictures. However, this allows Outernet to save money and makes it easier for the company to meet immediate needs in developing countries for more access to information.

In order to provide local information for citizens, Outernet will work with regional radio stations and newspapers to provide news and crop prices in different languages.

Until Internet access is expanded to rural villages and schools, Outernet provides a virtual library to expand the amount of information millions of people can access. It can provide the first look into what a true global network of information will look like and show the demand for Internet access in developing countries.

– Donald Gering

Sources: Crowdfund Insider, Good News Network, Washington Post, Wired
Photo: Flickr

Why Malnourished People Have Bloated Stomachs

Malnourished People
In the United States, we have generally come to associate a bloated stomach with obesity. Counter-intuitively, the same notion applies to undernourished or malnourished people. Many forms of malnourishment – the most widely known of which is Kwashiorkor – are characterized by bloated, distinctively rounded stomachs.

Kwashiorkor: The Bloated Bellies of Malnourished People

Although many forms of undernutrition, as well as malnutrition, can manifest in a characteristic big abdomen, Kwashiorkor is the most commonly known form of malnutrition with this symptom.

To understand the reasoning for this, it is important to know that in malnourishment, the rounded abdomen is not due to fat accumulation. Instead, the water retention and fluid buildup in the body cause the abdomen to expand. This results in a bloated, distended stomach or abdominal area.

The physiological reasoning behind this is the specific lack of certain nutrients, which determine which kind of nutritional deficiency it is. In Kwashiorkor, for instance, the caloric intake of the children affected is fine in that is it is not lacking in the energy needed by the body for metabolic processes. However, the diet is severely lacking in certain nutrients, particularly proteins.

Proteins in the body are responsible for the balance of osmotic pressure in the body, besides their structural roles. Proteins are generally macromolecules, which means that they are sizably large and not easy to transport through cells permeable membranes. The proteins can pass through the membranes only through special mechanistic procedures in the membranes and are otherwise found in the blood serum or lymph.

The presence of proteins in the lymphatic system of the body leads to a higher osmotic pressure in the lymphatic fluid, as compared to the water in the gut. This hypertonicity causes fluid to flow from the gut into the lymph fluid and eventually into the blood stream.

The regulation of water maintains a healthy distribution of water throughout the body. If this regulation is compromised due to protein deficiency, the buildup of fluid leads to distention of abdomen as well as fluid retention or edema.

Another function of the proteins is to act in reverse of the hydrostatic pressure to maintain osmotic pressure in the tissues. The presence of proteins in the bloodstream of capillaries keeps water inundation of tissues in check. Proteins being larger molecules do not seep out of capillary walls like water does. Therefore, the presence of these proteins inside the capillaries creates colloid osmotic pressure.

This regulates the uptake of water back into the bloodstream, so the tissues are not over saturated with water. With a lack of proteins due to malnutrition, this mechanism of regulation is stunted and water builds up in tissues as well.

The buildup becomes more pronounced in the more severe cases, with fluid retention becoming apparent in other parts of the body besides the abdomen as well, such as facial areas.

The cure for edema developed due to malnutrition is to replenish the body with lacking nutrients. It is common practice to deliver simple carbohydrates and fats before administering proteins to achieve a normal blood pressure. The symptoms of malnourishment including distended abdomen may take a few days to alleviate. However, the impact on future growth and physical strength of children affected by this is permanent in nature.

– Atifah Safi

Sources: NIH, AJR
Photo: Indiana Public Media

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How One 18-Year-Old Funds Education for Girls

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Girl code: A universal language spoken by the women of the world. Right down to its core, however, it means that girls are “in this together.”

Mary Grace Henry has been up-to-date with the girl code’s core since before she was a teenager. At the young age of 12, with the sewing machine she requested for her birthday, Henry began creating reversible headbands for purchase and used the profits to help fund girls’ education in Uganda and Kenya.

Henry named her business Reverse the Course, with the hope that her reversible headbands would “reverse the course” of girls living in poverty. Now 18 and a soon-to-be freshman at the University of Notre Dame, Henry’s organization has sold over 16,000 hair accessories to support primary and secondary education for girls living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

The organization has reversed the course of many lives, saving girls from malnutrition, early marriage and female genital mutilation.

Since its founding six years ago, Reverse the Course has supported 66 girls and provided funds for 154 years of education fees, including tuition, textbooks and boarding costs. Henry’s most immediate goal is to reach 100 girls. Next, she’d like to develop an entrepreneurial program for the girls her organization funds to provide them with skills beyond education.

Henry firmly believes in universal quality education and 100 percent of her business profits fund education for impoverished girls. Her hair accessories are affordably trendy and of a worthy cause. Her efforts have reached four countries and 21 schools, and every student who boards is fed three meals a day.

Secondary education prevents early marriages and pregnancies and provides girls with the skills to build a sustainable life. According to UNICEF, child marriage rates in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would decrease by 64 percent with secondary education. Education has the power to change and build lives.

Girls are in this together, and Henry is definitely a veteran to this notion. She provides girls with quality education to lift them out of poverty, giving them the tools they need to build a sustainable life. Who knew that in addition to transforming a hairstyle, a headband could also transform a life?

– Sarah Sheppard

Sources: Take Part, Reverse the Course
Photo: Take Part

Investment Project to Benefit 350,000 in Rural Bolivia

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Six out of every 10 people in rural Bolivia live below the poverty line. In 2011, the World Bank Group launched its Community Investment in Rural Areas (PICAR) initiative in Bolivia, seeking to broaden impoverished rural access “to basic and productive infrastructure.”

Thus far, the project has maintained an effective track record, financing 612 sub-projects as of April 2015, including water and sanitation, irrigation, infrastructure and livestock protection initiatives. These sub-projects have a 75 percent completion rate, impacting 132,219 rural Bolivian inhabitants. The World Bank estimates that the project will surpass all target numbers, impacting more than 35,000 rural households in the country’s poorest communities.

After a successful start, the World Bank Group has extended an additional $60 million credit on top of the original $40 million loan for PICAR’s implementation. The funding increase is anticipated to facilitate the implementation of poverty reduction and rural development initiatives in 750 new communities, also providing 120 communities with a second round of grants.

By increasing funding, the World Bank Group expects PICAR to positively impact an additional 200,000 rural, primarily indigenous Bolivians, bringing PICAR’s number of beneficiaries to an estimated 350,000.

Along with indigenous groups, rural women are most strongly affected by poverty. Impoverished people face greater levels of food insecurity, limited access to basic services and depressed economic opportunities.

PICAR has been designed to take into account the importance of providing economic opportunities and necessary services to rural women, with 40 percent of sub-projects prioritized and implemented under female directive. The World Bank also reports that at the community level, PICAR has helped to develop 660 female leaders.

“We expect that at least 45 percent of PICAR beneficiaries will be women,” World Bank Resident Representative in Bolivia Nicola Pontara said, “with at least 20 percent being female heads of household, the most vulnerable group among the poor.”

Handing over the reins of agency to those most impacted by poverty is a common theme. PICAR functions by providing communities with financial resources to meet the issues the community members identify with solutions they define based on small projects, completed with local labor and materials.

Through direct transfers of resources to the communities in which the funds will be invested, PICAR seeks to give Bolivia’s most impoverished regions the capital and support to not only participate in, but actually manage their own advancement.

Alberto Rodriguez, World Bank Country Director for Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, spoke on this aspect of empowerment: “[Bolivia’s most vulnerable communities] are able to search for collective solutions to their basic and productive needs, lead projects and manage their own resources, enabling them to control their own development.”

Although Bolivia still faces significant challenges — 30 percent of the population lives in poverty — the country has taken strides toward economic growth. With assistance and initiatives like PICAR, substantial poverty reduction promises to continue.

– Emma-Claire LaSaine

Sources: World Bank, UNICEF
Photo: World Bank

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Froggy Sink: Better Hygiene and Sanitation Saves Lives

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Parents know that it can be difficult to get their child to wash their hands or brush their teeth. Sometimes, to get kids to do what is best for them, you have to make it fun.

A new toy can help prevent children from getting sick with diseases or diarrhea. It is a bright green and white plastic box that has frogs and a colorful logo on it.

LaBobo is the newest toy sink produced by nonprofit WaterSHED. It has been launched in Cambodia, where access to basic hygiene and sanitation needs ranks last in Southeast Asia and 110th in the world, contributing to the deaths of 10,000 children per year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that nearly 800,000 children die every year from lack of sanitation, which leads to diseases.

LaBobo sells the frog toy sink at $15, making it a very affordable product, and the sink dispenses 15 liters of water. Instead of giving out buckets and soap, WaterSHED takes an innovative approach to helping solve sanitation problems in developing countries.

“If you give people a bucket and a piece of soap, more often than not you will find the bucket ends up being used for something else,” says Geoff Revell, WaterSHED’s regional program manager.

In one year, WaterSHED has sold 10,000 units in Cambodia. Regular hand-washing and sanitation is a significant challenge in Cambodia, where only 44 percent of Cambodians are able to wash their hands with soap and 60 percent of the rural population defecate in the open.

WaterSHED is working on marketing tools to bring LaBobo to Vietnam, which also has low sanitation standards.

Forty percent of the global population lacks basic sanitation. LaBobo does not help decrease the number of people who do not have access to sanitation, but it does increase the number of children who will wash their hands.

In places like Niger, where only 18.3 percent of the population has access to improved sanitation facilities, there needs to be stronger commitments from the international community to ensure that residents can access proper sanitation.

Diseases are a cross-national threat. But by investing in sanitation facilities and innovative ways to improve children’s sanitation, the large number of deadly diseases these children could become afflicted with can be reduced.

– Donald Gering

Sources: Good News Network, Reuters, Social Progress Imperative, WaterSHED, WHO
Photo: Good News Network

World Food Program Shifts to Recovery Efforts in Nepal

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The United Nations World Food Program announced on Wednesday a shift from emergency response efforts to long-term recovery efforts in Nepal.

The announcement signaled an end to nearly two months of emergency response efforts conducted by both Nepal’s government and multiple allies from across the globe after a large portion of the country was devastated by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 25.

Serving as the largest humanitarian aid agency in the world, the WFP works to assist nearly 100 million people in 75 countries each year and participates in fighting extreme poverty, providing emergency assistance and improving infrastructure and health systems within developing communities.

Richard Ragan, Emergency Coordinator for the WFP’s response in Nepal, stated in an interview this week, “We have started the difficult transition from the emergency period to the early recovery phase – providing cash, employment and rebuilding opportunities for people heavily impacted by the disaster.” Ragan noted that the WFP has successfully provided meals to nearly 2 million displaced citizens since the disaster.

The WFP has implemented a highly effective cash-for-work program in severely affected areas, which pays citizens to build transitional housing and repair agricultural centers and, in turn, revitalizes local markets and economies. The United Nations estimates that 20,000 porters who became displaced and unemployed by the earthquake are now receiving income to repair essential road and trail networks damaged by the disaster, as well as provide vital supplies to isolated communities.

Despite the positive figures offered by this UN program, the WFP warned this week that the operations currently being conducted within Nepal are only 38 percent funded and that they require an additional $74 million in order to continue providing operational assistance until 2016.

In response to questions about the lack of funding, Ragan stated, “To maintain and expand an operation of this scope and logistical complexity, sustained financial support is required.”

– James Thornton

Sources: United Nations, World Food Programme
Photo: Flickr