Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

“Big Push” Poverty Solution Program

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In 1981, more than 50 percent of the world was in poverty. In 1990, only 43 percent lived on $1.25 a day. Today, only 21 percent are under the poverty line.

There’s no doubt that poverty is declining around the globe. But almost all of the gains have come from pulling up those just under the poverty line, rather than from those considered “ultra-poor.”

The ultra-poor and the poor, although both suffer from poverty, cannot be compared. The ultra-poor cannot send their children to school because they simply cannot afford it. They can’t take out loans or use banks because they lack the skills to do so. If they receive money or animals for free, they immediately spend the money and savor the food. The ultra-poor are in a trap so deep it’s almost possible to escape.

The ultra-poor have been in need of a new approach, a comprehensive solution that will train, prepare, challenge and ultimately bring them hope of a future with traction and sustainable success.

One such approach offers a viable solution. In 2002, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, an antipoverty group, started a program in Rangpur to help the severely impoverished “graduate” from poverty. The Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative included the following key ingredients: money-making assets such as goods to start a store or land to plant seeds; training on how to use these assets as well as financial opportunities; a small regular grant of food or cash to provide time off from labor or begging to learn new skills; access to basic health services and frequent check-ins.

The program was complex and expensive. It required working with the families intensively for over two years. The results, however, were astonishing and worth the hard work.

Almost all the participating families changed their lives. A year after the program ended 97 percent were considered graduated; they had satisfied most of the basic indicators such as having cash savings, steady food sources, diversified income, a tin roof and latrine, among other things. Three years later the number was 98 percent.

Since then, 1.4 million households have participated in this program.

The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor at the World Bank along with local NGOs in India, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras and Peru have carried out similar, successful programs, focusing on people living on less than $1.25 a day.

Aid groups around the world have been refining the “big push” approach, a burst of intensely focused help for a limited period of time, for over 25 years. This concept isn’t ground-breaking, but the results of this study definitely are, showing that the positive effects of a well-designed “big push” approach can continue even after the program stops.

The most important effect from this study has been the improved mental state of those who participated. Many of the researchers have attributed the continual success of the families to the fact that they have found hope of liberation from the cyclical nature of poverty.

– Alison Decker

Sources: Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times , China Daily, Yahoo News, Futurity, National Public Radio
Photo: Flickr

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Does Global Aid Really Work?

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People living in extreme poverty see an improvement in their living conditions when they earn just a little extra money from farming or raising livestock.

This is according to Dean Karlan, founder of Innovations for Poverty Action, or IPA. The nonprofit researches and evaluates different programs fighting world poverty so as to inform its own poverty-combating program initiatives.

Karlan studied economics in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is now a professor at Yale. He began researching poverty and started IPA in order to answer the question, “Does global aid work?”

Prior to starting IPA, Karlan was displeased with how little research existed on global aid programs and their effects. It was impossible to know precisely how much people’s lives were improving due to aid.

This is an ongoing debate, and today, two polarizing views on global aid prevail. Some believe that the U.S. and other nations need to invest more, while others think that enough money has already been wasted on a fruitless cause. Through IPA, Karlan is working to produce tangible evidence about global aid to dispel the second view and, in turn, combat poverty.

Karlan and his colleagues ran a five-year-long experiment with the poorest families they could find in six developing countries. The team divided the families into two groups. The control group received nothing, while the other group was given a hefty aid package for up to two years. The package included livestock (for raising), livestock training, food or cash, a savings account and physical and mental health aid.

After observing both groups for the duration of the study, Karlan and his colleagues concluded that families who were given aid, made a little more money and had more food to eat than the control group. Moreover, families continued to generate more income a year after they stopped receiving aid.

Karlan reports, “We see mental health go up. Happiness go up. We even saw things like female power increase.”

The measured effect of aid was quite slim. Incomes and food consumption rates in the study increased only by about five percent in comparison to the control group. It is hard to forecast the long-term impact since the families were only observed for a year following the experiment.

Nonetheless, the aid package still has an impact in the short term for the participating families and appears to have promising long-term effects. Giving families an extra boost is exactly what may enable them to begin climbing out of extreme poverty, albeit slowly.

“Moving poverty is hard,” explains Sarah Baird, an economist at George Washington University. “[But] the fact that [Karlan and his colleagues] were able to move it, and it was sustainable after a year, I think is important.” The study supports the conclusion that aid from charities and governmental programs do have a positive impact.

A little bit of money can go a long way for those in extreme poverty. At the very least, it offers hope, and makes a difference for the families who receive it.

– Lillian Sickler

Sources: NPR, American Program Bureau, Innovations for Poverty Action
Photo: Flickr

Roots Up’s Dew-Collecting Greenhouse

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As of June 2014, 2.7 million Ethiopians experienced “Crisis and Emergency” levels of food insecurity according to the World Food Programme. Only a quarter of arable land in Ethiopia is being used for agriculture and the limited technology available to subsistence farmers means many crops rely on rainfall for water. This is an increasingly risky move as droughts the world over get longer and harsher. Yet, a low-tech, self-watering greenhouse designed by the nonprofit Roots Up could help Ethiopian farmers increase their yields.

The Dew Collector greenhouse is designed to collect both rainwater and condensation. As temperatures rise during the day, water evaporates from the plants inside the greenhouse. The farmer can open a flap at the top of the building to allow cool evening air in, which causes the water to condense into dew that is then redirected into a collection tank for re-use. The water collected from the greenhouse’s condensation is so pure that it can be used for drinking and bathing, not just irrigation.

According to Mathilde Richelet, the co-founder of Roots Up, “People have access to very little drinking water all year long… They have a long way to the river, which is practically dry during the dry season, and this water has a very high level of turbidity. So the dew-collector greenhouse has several purposes. First, it will allow farmers to collect the appropriate amount of safe drinking water needed for the body a day. Then, farmers can irrigate their plants.”

Elegant solutions like the Dew Collector greenhouses are going to be vital in the next few years. Ethiopia is facing an ongoing drought and an influx of refugees from neighboring countries gripped by violent conflict. The world at large faces similar problems. The World Food Programme reports that 805 million people are undernourished worldwide, and 2013 saw the world’s population of refugees top 50 million for the first time since World War II. A growing population of displaced people combined with a growing water shortage due to climate change spells trouble for countries in conflict-ridden parts of the world.

Roots Up aims to launch the first of its greenhouses in Northern Ethiopia this year, with support from the University of Gondar. Its long-term goal is to train farmers in northern Ethiopia to use affordable technology to become financially and technologically independent. This training will help wean the community off expensive food aid programs and set them up with a sustainable alternative. Eventually, Roots Up hopes to help farmers in north Gondar establish profitable agricultural enterprises of their own, such as growing fruit trees.

Amazing innovations like the training programs and greenhouse that Roots Up have created are fantastic and will eventually improve the lives of many people. However, these alone will not solve the underlying problems causing these challenges. The international community must continue its efforts to stop climate change and peacefully resolve conflicts if countries like Ethiopia are to continue to grow and thrive. Hopefully the next decade will see progress on all fronts.

– Marina Middleton

Sources: Mic, Roots up, Inhabitat, Fast Company
Photo: Inhabitat

What Are the Root Causes of Poverty?

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To understand the root causes of poverty, poverty must first be defined. Poverty is qualitatively defined as having inadequate access to basic human needs, such as food, water and shelter. The World Bank routinely uses the metric of living on less than $1.25 a day to provide a rough estimation of the underlying financial conditions of poverty. According to the World Bank, around one billion people globally fell under the category of surviving under $1.25 a day in 2011. Poverty is a multifaceted issue that exists based on the interplay between many root causes. But what are these conditions that preface poverty itself?

Food insecurity is one commonly noted characteristic of impoverished societies around the globe.

One reason for the lack of stable food supply is weather, especially extreme weather events. In many countries, extreme weather can wreak havoc not only on crop yields but entire economies. The extreme weather can cause further food insecurities for impoverished individuals via rising food prices as less food is being supplied to the market. Mother Nature can play a critical role in the lives of those in poverty by reducing the ability of a population to feed itself.

Another key factor in the cycle of poverty is lack of education or access to education.

A U.N. report showed that 171 million could be lifted out of poverty if all impoverished students had access to education enabling them to read. Across the globe, those who are least educated tend to most likely be impoverished. The correlation between insufficient education and poverty is a strong one and the reasons are clear-cut. Without education (or access to it), the impoverished face an upstream battle in the labor markets. It is much more difficult to find a higher quality occupation, or trade that pays better wages, when a person is illiterate or lacks other skills learned in school. This lack of human capital creates barriers for those in need of better opportunities and perpetuates the cycle of poverty.

The third root cause of poverty is man-made.

Political strife in the present or recent past plays an important role in the manifestation of poverty. Violence, instability and corruption, brought about by a country’s political divides, contribute to volatile economies and enormous bloodshed. Day-to-day life can be completely disrupted for the population and the conditions of poverty begin to appear: lack of shelter, food and finances. The issues sometimes worsen as poverty can lead to more civil or social unrest, prolonging conflict and instability.

Other common root causes of poverty include insufficient labor rights and discrimination, as witnessed in the “Untouchable” caste system in India. These social injustices further entrench the unfortunate cycle of poverty.

Poverty is the result of insufficient opportunities for a human being to survive, grow and prosper. Knowing what causes poverty and treating poverty are two entirely different dilemmas. Due to the fact that many of these causal factors can be dependent on one another, there is no easy solution to breaking the cycle of poverty. Yet, by attempting to understand the underlying reasons for the existence of poverty, society can make strides in the struggle against it.

– Martin Yim

Sources: World Bank, BBC, U.N.
Photo: Flickr

Does Urbanization Reduce Poverty?

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Urbanization is the process of moving people from rural areas into urban areas. Organizations like the World Bank have found success in this process all over the world. However, there can be some disadvantages to relocating people from slums to cities. Regardless of the cons, urbanization has improved the lives of many in China, Ghana and Latin America.

One benefit of urbanization is increased access to resources like clean water and food. In African rural areas, mothers walk miles for clean water. The World Bank has directly improved lives in Ghana with labor reallocation; the idea of increasing productivity by managing human capital. Moving people to jobs requiring more productivity has contributed to economic growth in Ghana, as well as increases in income for families who typically work in agriculture.

However, without proper monitoring, urbanization does not always work. According to the World Bank, “if not managed well, [it] can also lead to [the] burgeoning growth of slums, pollution, and crime.” This then raises the question of whether urbanization is really a good idea. Much of the world is becoming more urbanized and the U.N. believes this is a good way to reduce poverty.

The United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA, recognizes the growth in urban culture and believes it can help solve many problems in developing countries. Although there is a rise of inequality in urban areas, according to UNFPA, “urbanization has the potential to usher in a new era of well-being, resource efficiency and economic growth.”

Urbanization is a controversial idea and another potential solution is rural development. According to the World Bank, “it can be done with complementary rural-urban development policies and actions by governments to facilitate a healthy move toward cities.” Development of rural areas allows people to stay where they are and adopt certain aspects of urban culture, such as increasing access to clean water and food while improving living conditions.

Whether it is urbanization or rural development, it is vital to implement new ways to help people in developing countries as cities and economies grow. The mentioned solutions above are two of many that could help reach the goal of ending poverty by 2030.

– Kimberly Quitzon

Sources: World Bank, Spy Ghana, UNFPA
Photo: Flickr

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Rohingya Refugee Crisis

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Thousands of migrants are currently stranded in boats off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Several thousand have made it ashore, but the governments of these countries are refusing to allow those who remain at sea to land. Most of the boats are overcrowded and on the verge of sinking. Local fishermen and villagers have rescued hundreds from sinking boats off the coast of Sumatra. It is estimated that 6-8,000 remain stranded at sea.

The passengers are primarily migrants from Bangladesh looking for work and Muslim Rohingya fleeing persecution in Burma. There are approximately one million Rohingya living in Burma, but as a non-Buddhist minority they are denied citizenship and forced to live in segregated ghettos where poverty, disease and starvation are rife. The Burmese government refuses to recognize them and insists they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh despite the fact that many have roots in Burma that go back many centuries.

Over 100,000 Rohingya have fled Burma in recent years as sectarian tensions have increased. Hundreds have been killed in violent clashes. The Burmese military junta was notorious for persecuting minorities and despite a transitional government, this persecution continues. Many minorities flee and refugee camps on the Thai border house thousands of asylum seekers.

But no group has endured the level of persecution suffered by the Rohingya, whom the United Nations claims is one of the world’s most oppressed minorities. Since they live in the western part of the country and are forced into segregated camps, the Rohingya must flee by boat.

They flee alongside Bangladeshi migrants and pay large amounts of money to human traffickers, who frequently abuse them and cram them into unsafe and overloaded vessels, just like in the Mediterranean. As Thailand has recently begun cracking down on human trafficking, many are now fleeing for Malaysia and Indonesia.

But each time they have attempted to land, authorities have turned them away and sent them to another country, which Human Rights Watch has referred to as “human ping-pong.” Most of the ships have been abandoned by the smugglers and left to float offshore. There have been reports of fighting over food, people dying of disease and starvation and even stories of people throwing others overboard to lighten the load and keep the ship from sinking.

Migrants have been fleeing in record numbers this year. Indonesia and Malaysia say they already have too many Rohingya to accept any more. The governments of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are all meeting to discuss the issue. The United Nations and several NGO’s are also involved and are pledging millions of dollars in aid to assist the countries in dealing with the refugee crisis.

Fifteen countries have been invited to a summit in Thailand at the end of the month to discuss the crisis and come up with a solution. Burma has also been invited but says it will not attend and refuses to accept any responsibility for the problem. The first obstacle is finding a place to set up camps to house the migrants. But perhaps the most difficult and lengthy part will be identifying and processing them and sorting out economic migrants from asylum seekers. The former will be sent home, while the latter will be sent abroad to third countries.

– Matt Lesso

Sources: The Guardian 1, Yahoo, BBC, The Guardian 2, The Guardian 3
Photo: Flickr

Ukraine Tries for Debt Relief

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This past March, Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko and Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk succeeded in securing an impressive amount of aid from the International Monetary Fund, but their work to bring Ukraine to financial stability has only just begun. The restructuring that the IMF and Ukraine agreed on calls for Ukraine to save $15.3 billion over the next four years, a number that would only be attainable if some of Ukraine’s creditors forgave a portion of their principle. So far, nobody seems willing.

After the violence last year sent Ukraine’s economy into a tailspin of high interest rates and dwindling federal bank reserves, the international community stepped in to lend Ukraine a hand – and several billion dollars.

Last April, the IMF approved a two-year loan of $17 billion to Ukraine, but soon deemed the plan insufficient to build reform while the government was busy fighting pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.

This March, the IMF approved a loan that would deliver $17.5 billion over the next four years, with $10 billion of the money being delivered this year. An official statement by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde in Berlin called the program “very strongly front-loaded during the first year.” She went on to express optimism about the plan, saying, “Ukraine has satisfied all the prior actions that were expected and required of it in order to start running the program. … We are off to a good start.”

‘Front-heavy’ loans like this are supposed to kick-start the rebuilding process and bring faltering economies out of their downward spirals. That money was combined with an additional promise of $7.5 billion from other international organizations and an expected $15.3 billion in debt relief.

Even with this assistance and the optimism of the IMF, the Ukrainian economy is expected to contract by 5.5 percent in 2015, before rebounding and growing by an estimated two percent in 2016. While the outlook of the IMF and the Ukrainian government is cautiously optimistic, their goal remains lofty. By 2020, they aim to reduce Ukraine’s debt down to $56.1 billion, from the estimated debt in 2015 of $74.9 billion.

Ukraine’s debt can be broken into four very rough categories: there is debt to international organizations like the IMF, which is unlikely to change. There is debt to friendly governments like the United States, which would also be hard to change. The remaining two kinds of debt are Ukraine’s $17.3 billion in sovereign Eurobonds and $31.4 billion in domestic debt. These are the debts the Ukrainian government has the best chance of re-negotiating, but simple interest alterations won’t be enough. To meet its goal, the Ukrainian government will have to reduce the principle of these debts.

This will not be a task for the faint of heart. The largest private bondholder, asset management company Franklin Templeton, has hired heavy-hitting consulting group Blackstone to advise them during talks, a sure sign that they don’t plan to surrender much. However, the toughest creditor is probably Russia, who holds $3 billion of Ukraine’s Eurobond debt, and has proven intractable to negotiation about restructuring so far.

If Prime Minister Yatseniuk and Finance Minister Jaresko can negotiate a manageable plan for debt repayment, Ukraine’s economy has the potential to make an impressive comeback.

– Marina Middleton

Sources: IMF, Bloomberg 1, Bloomberg 2, Reuters
Photo: Flickr

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Malnutrition in Bhutan

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Since the 1990s, there has been great progress in Bhutan’s small, agricultural based economy. With this economic progress, the citizens of Bhutan have seen a decline in poverty, a decentralized government and better access to health care.

In 2007, poverty in Bhutan was well over 40 percent. As of 2014, Bhutan’s National Statistics Bureau reports that poverty is at 12 percent nationally. Dietary diversity has improved greatly since 2007 among poor and non-poor, with households consuming higher amounts of nuts, fruits, oils and fats and sweeteners like sugar and honey.

Still, as more and more of Bhutan’s small population of 761,019 mobilizes out of extreme instances of poverty, there are indications that proper nutrition is a problem for many, especially children. It is estimated that 34 percent of children in Bhutan are stunted as a result of malnutrition and 11 percent show signs of wasting. While malnutrition and stunting is found to be slightly higher in rural regions of western and eastern Bhutan, national statistics from Bhutan show that at least 15 percent of children under five are undernourished.

There are a number of reasons as to why malnutrition and the stunting of children is prevalent in Bhutan. One significant factor is the health and nutrition of mothers who are pregnant or nursing. According to UNICEF, poor practices of infant feeding and a 50 percent rate of anemia among young mothers contributes to the vicious cycle of malnutrition among young children in Bhutan. As a result, one of every 10 mothers gives birth to a low-weight baby. The Bhutan Poverty Assessment said, “the under nutrition problem is prevalent in the eastern part of the country and among children of mothers with no education.”

There is an overall lack of use of antenatal and prenatal care amongst mothers in Bhutan. Few women in rural areas have their births attended by skilled professionals, even though Bhutan offers a system of universal health care to its citizens.

Others point to Bhutan’s reliance on foreign imports of food as being the main cause. This reliance causes the population to depend on foreign sources of food, which sometimes leads to a degree of neglect in subsistence farming and agriculture. Also, imports of certain Western foods, high in sugar content and offering little nutritional value, have led to a disparity in adequate nutrition in Bhutan.

The Kingdom of Bhutan is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals; however, malnutrition remains the main impediment to Bhutan’s development. Though Bhutan fares far better than other nations in Southern Asia, it has recognized that in order to improve the overall well-being of the nation, something must be done to improve the health and nutrition of its young mothers and children.

– Candice Hughes

Sources: Bio Med Central, Global Nutrition Report, National Statistics Bureau, Unicef, World Bank
Photo: Asia News

Energy Poverty in Nigeria

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Nigeria’s crude oil reserves are currently estimated at 35 billion barrels; its natural gas reserves an estimated 185 trillion cubic feet. Though import levels have since dropped dramatically, in March 2007 the United States imported 41,767 barrels of Nigerian crude oil and petroleum products.

Despite this, 44 percent of Nigerian households have no access to electricity.

Indeed, even in Nigerian homes with electricity, the quality of service provided is often intermittent while growing increasingly unaffordable. In an op-ed in the International New York Times, published August 8, 2014, author Adewale Maja-Pearce explained that in February 2014 his monthly bill jumped from $30 per month to nearly $185 per month, despite the fact that he was receiving roughly three hours per day of power. This price increase occurs at a time when 92.4 percent of Nigerians live on less than $2 per day, and 70.8 percent live on less than one dollar per day.

The problem of energy poverty is not exclusive to Nigeria. According to the International Energy Agency, “over 1.3 billion people are without access to electricity and 2.6 billion are without clean cooking facilities. More than 95% of these people are in sub-Saharan Africa or developing Asia and 84% are in rural areas.”

Though the problem is not unique to Nigeria, it does bring to light the global inequality behind the phenomenon of energy poverty despite Nigeria’s status as a major energy exporter. It is seemingly paradoxical for a nation which began exporting large amounts of liquid petroleum gas through Chevron in 1997 to have a per capita liquid petroleum gas usage rate of 0.4 kilograms per second, one of the lowest in the region.

Addressing energy poverty is a key point in the fight against global poverty. Greater access to alternative energy sources will reduce unnecessary deaths, such as the 95,300 Nigerian deaths which occur annually from smoke created by the use of solid biomass fuels. It will enhance the financial capabilities of those nations currently struggling to provide power to businesses. This, in turn, will expand the global community of consumers.

Regardless, the importance of treating energy exporters as nations, and not simply as trade partners, remains a primary challenge moving forward in the fight against global inequality.

– Andrew Michaels

Sources: NY Times, CAI, UNICEF EIA, International Association for Energy Economics, Journal of Public Administration and Policy Research 3.2 International New York Times
Photo: Vanguard

Burundi Protests Threaten Economic Stability

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Violent protests following President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to pursue a third term have left at least 19 dead and pushed over 50,000 out of their homes. With the streets ablaze in Burundi, a landlocked southeastern African country, analysts fear for the region’s economic stability.

A shirtless man, sporting a pink whistle around his neck, screamed at army officials for bulldozing a barricade made of old tires, his French wavering. Mismatched protestors stood behind the man, while police officials slowly closed in on the group, billy-clubs raised.

Days later, tear gas and live ammunition would be used on hundreds of civilians gathered only a kilometer away from Nkurunziza in the country’s capital of Bujumbura.

This political discord follows a decade-long civil war that ended in 2005 with the Arusha Agreement, which set the terms for the presidency. The accord, implemented by the constitution, reads “no one may serve more than two presidential terms.”

Operating on this basis, many Burundians see a third term as an illegal and unjust power grab. For some, however, the issue with Nkurunziza extends beyond these technicalities. For the past five years, the president has muffled the voices of his people – restricting the press and the freedom to protest.

“This present electoral problem is the result of the last five years’ rule of President Nkurunziza,” said Thierry Vircoulon, the project director for Central Africa at the International Crisis Group.

Though economic growth has remained stable in years past, mostly because of coffee exportation and the mining of nickel, the mass exodus of Burundi citizens could have serious monetary implications. According to Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are currently more than 20,000 refugees in Rwanda, 10,000 in Tanzania and 5,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“We are extremely worried,” he said, speaking in Nairobi.

Rwanda, already a haven for 74,000 refugees from the Congo, has been overwhelmed since mid-April. Though a new Mahama refugee camp is capable of holding 60,000, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees predicts this still won’t be enough.

Sitting slightly above Rwanda and bordering Lake Victoria, Uganda will likely feel the heat of the protests. Exporting large amounts of coffee and scrap metal, Burundi currently stands as Uganda’s biggest trade partner, according to a tax analysis report.

“We are expecting if the situation in Burundi gets worse there could some economic effect on Uganda,” said Nebert Rugadya, a business commentator in Kampala.

The instability in Burundi has had a domino effect – compromising trade, straining health care systems and drying up foreign aid in neighboring nations. According to François Conradie from the African Economic Consultants NKC, tension could also foment civil war in the region of Goma on the Congo-Rwanda border.

“A stable Burundi means a lot for stability in the region,” Rugadya said.

Concerns over an overall reduced quality of life are also surfacing. The country’s 67 percent poverty rate, which has been greatly increased by civil conflict in years past, continues to climb.

– Lauren Stepp

Sources: BBC, UNICEF, US News, VOX, Washington Post
Photo: Flickr