Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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The Health Impacts of Poverty

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There is a substantial relationship between poverty and health. Long-term poverty and economic insecurity have broad-reaching long-term ill- health consequences. In addition to creating stress, which causes a myriad of health problems, poverty also results in low levels of sanity, high incidences of infectious disease and mental health issues.

Prime indicators that poverty directly affects health are life expectancy, prevalence of chronic or communicable diseases, behavioral and self-control issues and high levels of long-term stress. Long-term poverty imposes a huge burden of stress on the impoverished. The hardships of finding permanent work, taking care of children, finding affordable food and clean water can all take an enormous toll on physical and mental health.

Long-term stress also creates hormones that compromise the immune system, opening the door for communicable diseases. Women who experience high levels of stress during pregnancy are more probable to have children who are predisposed to developing diabetes.

Children are especially susceptible to the health consequences of poverty. Bernard Fuemmeler, associate professor in Community and Family Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, says that “poverty during childhood not only appears to affect child development, but can have lasting effects on the types of health choices made during adolescence and early adulthood.” His research finds that economic insecurity in the home during childhood can permanently affect the way people make decisions and their ability to self-regulate.

Urban poverty is characterized by crowded, unsanitary conditions that lead to higher incidences of communicable disease. Transmission becomes very easy for highly-infectious diseases the closer people are to one another. Dirty water, unclean food and cook spaces and improper waste disposal are common in crowded areas.

Poor countries as well have high public health obstacles to overcome. Lack of funding, stigma and myth, bureaucratic complications and limited infrastructure all contribute to a reduction in capacity to deal with health crises and public health issues. Low access to vaccines and medication is a particular public health nightmare for poor countries because it creates not only drug resistance but also black markets for hard-to-get medicine.

– Caitlin Huber

Sources: Think Progress, News-Medical, Jama Network, NAS, UN, Wisconsin-Madison
Photo: TIME

Global Climate Change: Will India Follow?

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The breakthrough collaborative announcement by the United States and China on curbing greenhouse gases has sparked a global movement on climate change. For many years, international climate talks have been ignored by those who caused the problem of climate change. The United States and China remain the two largest emitters of carbon dioxide, and have now pledged to reduce emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030. With India on board with the global change, the movement would spark continual momentum.

A critical question is whether India will join the United States and China’s side in climate talks. India has become the third world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The world needs India to join many other countries to help alleviate climate change; without India, efforts to tackle global climate change will be difficult. India must consider its investment in developing clean and renewable energies, and reconsider its investment on coal.

India and China share a common domestic problem; fossil fuels that cause climate change also create major air pollution. Over the years, air pollution has risen to harmful levels. The World Health Organization monitors for air pollution, and has stated that China and India’s cities failed the organization’s test for satisfactory levels of airborne particulate. This microscopic matter is believed to be one of the most deadly air pollutants for the human health. More than half of these cities also fail to uphold to their own specific standards.

The pollution shortens lives and is costly to China and India’s economic growth. As a result, many Chinese citizens have called for change. China’s leaders have responded by taking big actions on the global climate change, and should motivate India to do the same before the problem poses a bigger threat.

India could possibly follow China. India’s Prime Minster, Narendra Modi, has publicly acknowledged the recognition of the country’s severe pollution problem. Modi made a public announcement on his objectives to make air quality data accessible to the public. India has a reputation for investing huge amounts on coal. In the last five years, India has increased its coal power capacity by 73 percent. Moreover, India plants to double domestic coal production to one billion tons a year, by 2019, to fuel new plants and boost imports.

India’s air is among the world’s dirtiest, with largely unregulated and unmonitored coal plants. Unfortunately India’s decisions to invest big on coal plants kills up to 115,000 Indians a year, and costs the Indian people about $4.6 billion annually.

Many climate change advocates in India have expressed doubts following India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s, choice to not attend the United Nations Climate Summit to speak about the change.

The Green Climate Fund, which operates to redistribute money from the developed world to the developing world in order to assist developing nations in adapting to climate changes, have risen close to $10 billion in funds. Pledges to the fund come from the government of 22 countries; four developing countries were among the contributors.

If India makes amends to follow other nations in pledging towards helping the change, this will make its mark in history as one of the largest movements in confronting climate change.

– Sandy Phan

Sources: WHO, UNFCCC, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
Photo: LA Times

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The Causes of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis

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In 2013, five percent of global tuberculosis cases were known as multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. MDR TB is a form of tuberculosis that does not respond to the standard first-line drugs of Isoniazid and Rifampicin, which are used to treat TB.

Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is on the rise around the world. There are 27 high MDR TB burden countries. A large majority of these are also high burden countries for regular TB as well. MDR TB rates are extremely high in Eastern Europe, where as many as 28 percent of new TB cases are MDR. Two countries, India and China, carry the most incidences of MDR TB.

Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is a man-made problem created by inadequate or improper administration of TB drugs. Because of the length of treatment required for TB, improper drug use is common. As patients start to feel better, they stop taking their medication. The TB bacteria are still not eradicated from the body so the TB builds resistance to the first-line drugs that the patient has already taken. When the patients fall ill again, their TB strain will not only not respond to first line drugs, it will be highly contagious.

Weak TB control programs at the country-level contribute to drug resistance because they allow for improper TB treatment. Because of the risk that patients will not finish the TB treatment cycle, TB control programs are designed to create a system of observation by health professionals that insures proper treatment. However, countries with low health infrastructure and limited resources cannot follow the progress of every TB patient.

A growing concern is not the new instances of MDR TB cases but the infectiousness of the people who already have it. Because TB disproportionately affects the poor, who live in crowded, unsanitary conditions, the threat of contagion is much greater. This is especially true in high-burden countries like India and China, where the living conditions of the poor are extremely crowded.

The treatment for MDR TB is extremely expensive and much harder to access. The treatment cycle can last upward of two years and includes a daily injection for a period of six months, increasing the risk of patients not finishing the treatment even more than regular TB treatment. Patients who do not finish treatment create resistance to the second-line drugs.

A new phenomenon emerging is an extremely drug resistant, or XDR, strain of TB. XDR TB cases only make up five percent of MDR TB cases. XDR TB is resistant to any fluoroquinolon, at least one of three second-line drugs and both first-line drugs. Research and infrastructure dealing directly with XDR TB are very limited and resource consuming. For least-developed and developing countries with limited medical resources, XDR TB is almost impossible to treat.

– Caitlin Huber

Sources: E-Medicine Health TB Alliance, WHO
Photo: The Guardian

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Obstacles in Water and Sanitation Goals

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Currently, approximately 2.5 billion people around the world do not have access to basic sanitation services, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

On November 19, the UN released a report highlighting the gaps in water and sanitation progress. “Water and sanitation are essential to human health. Political commitment to ensure universal access to these vital services is at an all-time high,” said WHO Director of the Department of Public Health and the Environment, Dr Maria Neira. “International aid for the sector is on the rise. But we continue to see major financial gaps at the country level, particularly in rural areas.”

Ninety-four countries were surveyed in the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water report. Data revealed that over 80 percent of these countries have enacted national policies for drinking-water and sanitation, with over 75 percent enacting policies for hygiene as well. The report also recognized that international aid for improved water and sanitation conditions is increasing. Aid rose from $8.3 billion to $10.9 billion between 2010 and 2012- an increase of 30 percent. Most recent increases in international aid have been the result of strives toward the Millennium Development Goals.

However, WHO points out the major gaps in the MDGs. Approximately 748 million people lack access to clean drinking water sources while a billion people have no sanitary system in place and are forced to practice open defecation.

Still today, hundreds of millions of people lack clean water and soap to wash their hands. This leads to transmission of diarrhoeal disease which is the second largest killer of children under five. Lack of clean water can cause many other water-borne diseases as well, including cholera, typhoid and hepatitis while poor sanitation can cause debilitating diseases like blinding trachoma, intestinal worms and schistosomiasis.

WHO reports that the key obstacles which inhibit progress to water and sanitation development include insufficient funding and weak national capabilities to carry out water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) initiatives. While statistics show that international aid is increasing, 80 percent of countries have declared that their current financial resources are too low to meet WASH targets.

The funding gap is even more extreme in rural areas which represent the majority of people in need of sanitation and water systems. According to the new report, less than 10 percent of WASH financing goes to improvement in rural areas. Additionally, the report cites challenges in implementing WASH programs in national institutions like schools and health facilities. Fewer than 30 percent of surveyed countries have institutional WASH plans that are being fully carried out, funded and reviewed.

Despite these obstacles to WASH and Millennium Development Goals, many are still hopeful that countries will get back on track to achieving their targets.

“Now is the time to act,” says Michel Jarraud, Chair of UN-Water and Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization. “We may not know yet what the post-2015 sustainable development agenda will look like. But we do know that water and sanitation must be clear priorities if we are to create a future that allows everyone to live healthy, prosperous and dignified lives.”

 – Meagan Douches

Sources: UN, UNHCR, WHO
Photo: U.S. Chamber Foundation

Pakistan Mobile Bus Library Program

mobile bus library
Last month, the Pakistan Reading Project launched its first mobile bus library program at a government secondary school to promote reading habits for young students.

The program is set to run over the next two years in Sindh and Islamabad Capital Territory with plans to bring reading materials directly to communities as part of a larger mission to improve the quality of education.

It’s all part of the USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project, a five-year initiative that supports the country’s provincial and regional Departments of Education to improve the reading skills of four million children.

The project does this by improving the quality of primary education, teacher education, policy reforms and community engagement. This includes making supplemental instructional materials more widely available to primary school teachers as well as providing a model that ensures sustainability of the initiatives even through permanent policy changes.

The result? At least 2.5 million children who can read at levels commensurate with their grade standards.

The mobile bus library program is an effort to see this vision come true by bringing age-appropriate reading materials directly to communities that don’t have established libraries.

In addition, trained librarians will be aboard each bus, conducting storytelling sessions in each community that they visit. They will also issue books for students to take home to read. It’s an initiative to help reintroduce and reestablish a national culture of reading that once existed in Pakistan.

At the program’s official inauguration, the Assistant to the Administrator of USAID, Donald “Larry” Sampler, and the President of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), David Miliband, were present to speak on the occasion.

“The Mobile Library Programme is just one element of the USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project which will help Pakistani children to start their own journeys in the world of books,” said Sampler. “Through this partnership between USAID, our implementing partner – the IRC and the Government of Pakistan, we are taking a multi-pronged approach to help increase literacy.”

The Pakistan Reading Project is a $165 million project that has launched several campaigns as well as television and radio episodes with complimentary print material that highlight the importance of reading to all communities.

With the addition of the mobile library bus program, this project anticipates that they will fulfill their vision in seeing improvement in classroom learning and the reestablishment of a national reading culture.

– Chelsee Yee

Sources: Pakistan Reading Project, USAID, Pakistan Today, Zee News
Photo: PBS

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10,000 Girls Empowers Senegal

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In the moment of need she had to decide whether she will rise to the occasion or fall under the pressure. After the very sudden death of her 26-year-old daughter who left behind five grandchildren – Viola Vaughn was left searching for the pathway to peace. A native of Detroit, Michigan, she spent had much of her life working in Africa. Sensing a need for a return to Africa, her husband and the five grandchildren headed to Kaolack a small town in Senegal.

With a hopeful heart they moved, little did Vaughn know another sudden tragedy, the death of her husband would occur shortly after the move. Lost in her grief Vaughn devoted all of her time to home-schooling her grandchildren ages four to 12.

Word of Vaughn’s success with her grandchildren began spreading and more and more children wanted to have Vaughn as their teacher. Mothers approached her with stories of their children not doing well in school, within two weeks her classroom went from five to 20 students eager to learn from their teacher. Vaughn became more aware of the increasingly low statistical rates of girls getting an education because of the high demands that are put on them on the home front. Most young girls would only fail because they would not be able to make it to classes and exams leading to high dropping out rates and failed classes. In 2001, Vaughn decided to make it official and turned her grandchildren’s bedrooms into classrooms.

She conducted a system of teaching them how to teach and support one another. Within a mere two years the group grew from five to 20 to now 80 girls who are thriving in school. She received a grant and has hired teachers, she had set a limit to 100 but the enrollment rate is exceedingly increasing. The girls are especially ambitious, wanting to take it to 10,000 students.

In order to raise money to reach their goal of 10,000 students, the girls learned to bake. Vaughn taught them and they are now selling their goodies for profit towards the school. With the rapid fundraising of money the girls were able to buy books, supplies and to support more students. The most amazing part is that they are becoming fully self-sufficient, learning skills beyond math and science.

The girls now have a catering, baking and sewing businesses. More than 1,500 girls are now enrolled in Vaughn’s program in six different locations and the waiting list of 1,000 continues to increase. Growing up some of her students were told they would never make it to high school are now earning their college degrees. She hopes that her girls will help revolutionize the region, and she slowly has done just that. The original school started in Senegal, in the city of Kaolack and has since spread to Kaffrine, Kaymor, Koungheul, Maleme-Hoddar, Ndoffane and Kedougou, all small to mid-size towns in Senegal.

10,000 Girls is empowering, uplifting, motivating and encouraging girls all across the globe that they do have the right to an education and they were born with a purpose.

– Charisma Thapa

Sources: Daily Good, 10,000 Girls
Photo: Inter Press Service News

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Poverty Reduction in the New Congress

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The recent shakeup of the U.S. Congress could prove to set different standards when it comes to dealing with poverty. In the past, Republicans and Democrats have been at odds about how to handle Americans living in poverty.

Historically, the main difference between the two parties stemmed from a difference in opinion about the funding of social services intended for the lower classes. Republicans contend that spending on social services creates a feeling of entitlement among the poor.

Many social services providers are wondering how their organizations will be affected by the newly elected Republican majority. Democrats and Republicans remain staunchly divided on issues including raising the minimum wage and increasing support for Medicaid and others. Both parties want to help the 45 million Americans living below the poverty line. The problem remains that there are vastly different views on how to tackle this issue.

The economy negatively affects the middle classes as well. Senator Tom Harkins of Iowa supports a bill that raises the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour. He says, “The sluggish recovery has left us with chronic unemployment and a middle class in crisis. For the vast majority of American workers, incomes have stagnated for decades.”

As prices on goods and services rise, American jobs pay relatively the same amount to their employers. The inequality between the upper and middle classes is growing and it seems that corporations and businesses are the only ones who are benefiting.

Marge Clark, a lobbyist for poverty alleviation in the U.S., notes the main reason why poverty in America is growing without a large public response; It is the indifference of of the middle- and upper-class Americans. Inequality and poverty do not garner nearly as much attention as hot button social issues.

Senator Dave Camp (R-Michigan) states that jobs are primarily what lift people out of poverty. So they shift the focus to creating jobs and that regulations should be lifted off companies so that they are better able to produce more jobs. Some say President Obama has stymied job creation. According Senator Camp, taxes and environmental regulations only inhibit job creation.

Whether or not the new GOP majority congress will cut social spending or continue to provide financial services that benefit the poor remains to be seen. What is likely is that anti-poverty groups will seek bipartisan support in congress now that the Democrats are no longer the house majority.

Anti-poverty groups expect a fight. In the past Republicans have sought to cut spending on government subsidized food stamps and other programs many Americans rely on to buy food. In the coming months it will become more evident about how a GOP-led House will respond to this increasingly important problem.

– Maxine Gordon

Sources: Washington Post, USA Today, NPR
Photo: The Nation

Dance Education Through Movement Choirs

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Movement is freedom, flow, connection to oneself. Dancing can be a beautiful form of self-expression and can help you in more ways than one. Studies show that any type of movement improves our creativity, fitness, mental health, relationships with others and ourselves. The Laban Dance Movement Choir is aware of this and opens up the teachings of dance and movement to any human being no matter their size, age, gender, appearance or experience level.

A movement choir’s main goal is for participants to touch and enhance their inner being. Focusing on the simplicity and beauty of the movement, as well as connecting with oneself and others. The union is formed around dance, not designed to perform to an audience but to perform for those participating. Movement choirs are very easily accessible within a community and are known to boost a sense of community morale, brightening moods, forming bonds and increasing the quality of life in an area.

In a typical movement choir, large group of people will typically meet up for a couple hours in the scheduled date and work together to create a beautiful piece of choreography called a “choir.” The idea of a movement choir originated in the 1920s by Rudolf Von Laban, who was a choreographer and performer originally based in Germany and then moved to the UK.

In these days of short conversations, electronics, and everyone in a rush, movement choirs focus on self-expression in the present moment. The connection with the music, people and movement results in a successful movement choir.

No matter the skill level, a movement choir is worth a try if you are looking for a new way to connect with people, establish relationships, do some physical fitness, or learn how to dance in general, no matter what the movement choir is always open to participants.

Currently, movement choirs are most popular in UK and Germany and are slowly but surely becoming a global trend.

– Charisma Thapa

Sources: Positive News, Movement Choir, Laban Guild
Photo: Movement Research

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CDA Improves International Efforts

cdaCDA Collaborative Learning Projects is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the effectiveness of international actors who provide humanitarian assistance.

Working off the premise that experience is a good teacher, CDA facilitates collaborative learning processes to analyze the experiences of international efforts.

With this vision comes a mission to encourage communities to engage in peace practice and to support sustainable development.

CDA works with agencies and organizations to identify patterns and lessons across different contexts in order to improve effectiveness. So far its core staff has worked in over 90 countries with local and international partners.

Below is the implementation process of these CDA lessons that often produces new focus questions for improving effectiveness:

Step 1: Development of Training and Awareness Materials

The findings from a collaborative learning process are translated into a form that can be used in different briefings, exposure workshops and extended training events in order to make such findings accessible to other field practitioners.

Step 2: Building Individual Capacity

CDA training programs work not only with organizations but also with individual practitioners to develop the skills needed to implement CDA lessons into their own practices. Mentoring can play a big role in this area when it comes to knowing how to apply specific tools surrounding the framework of a specific organizational setting.

Step 3: Organizational Accompaniment

CDA works directly with partner organizations to incorporate the tools and concepts from its lessons into their routines so that the tools and concepts become a day-to-day practice. This may require training and various forms of coaching to ensure sustainability.

Step 4: Support for Improved Program Design

CDA lessons often require changes in the ways that programs are designed. Thus, it works with partner agencies to promote improvements that will result in better quality programming through design and implementation.

Step 5: Monitoring Progress and Impacts

CDA works with its partners to track the implementation of its skills, tools and concepts gained from CDA programs. This feedback ultimately tells if the application of CDA materials makes a positive difference in the effectiveness of programming.

Step 6: Implications and New Questions

When everyone comes together to share their experiences, new focus questions arise that add to the learning processes — and the cycle repeats!

Since its launch, CDA has been grounded in field experience rather than following a specific theory or model and develops the above process through which organizations learn with each other rather than relying on their experiences alone.

CDA is currently home to the Corporate Engagement Program, the Do No Harm Program and other peace practice programs. For more information, please visit the CDA website at www.cdacollaborative.org.

– Chelsee Yee

Sources: CDA Collarborative, ALNAP, Relief Web
Photo: Flickr

Is the Eurozone Out of Crisis?

eurozoneThe European Union has been in an economic recession for the second decade in a row. Some speculate that growth in the more stable economies such as Germany could pull the other countries out of turmoil.

However, the German economies’ growth rate recently shrunk to 0.1 percent. This is an unwelcome figure because it was projected to be much higher.

The problem remains. The European Union has yet to bounce back after the 2008 financial crisis. Many countries are still lagging behind with slow growth rates. The European Central bank is at the forefront of the problem.

It is often cited that the European Central Bank fails to boost economic growth. Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commissioner, recently revealed a new plan to pump 300 billion Euro into the EU member states in order to stimulate growth.

France and Italy are two big countries that run large deficits and decrease economic growth within the EU. The French government was able to boost their economy through spending, which has propped it up for the time being. However, France’s private sector has continued to perform dismally and bring down the economy.

One of Europe’s major issues continues to be trade. Because the EU relies heavily on exports for revenue, decreased commerce with trading partners has negatively affected their economy. Policymakers believe that the low price of gas will drive down energy costs and have consumers buying more goods.

Germany champions austerity measures while other EU member states and policymakers cringe. Strict control over the financial markets of other countries has done little to benefit the economy. Meanwhile, some people look toward investment as the way the EU could escape from the current economic turmoil.

Lack of private investment in businesses is also a major problem for the EU, and it is something the ECB is looking to address with the 300 billion Euro investment plan.

For the time being, it does not look like the ECB has the ability to pull the EU out of its long-standing recession. Economic growth could be possible with the new spending measures to boost investment; however, the diversity of the Northern economies versus the Southern member states’ economies remains to be a distressing issue for the EU.

Strong economic growth in the U.K. and the U.S. means these countries will be more likely to buy EU exports, which will benefit the EU economy greatly.

– Maxine Gordon

Sources: The Guardian, Bloomberg, DW
Photo: Flickr