Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

,

Commonwealth Games Partners with UNICEF

The 20th annual Commonwealth Games began in Glasgow this week. The sporting competition features athletes from 71 nations and territories in the Commonwealth of Nations. This year, the games began with an opening ceremony unlike any other. The committees planning the ceremony teamed up with UNICEF, the games’ charitable partner, to use the ceremony as a fundraiser for children facing the challenges of poverty.

The Commonwealth Games, formerly known as the British Empire Games in 1930, the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954 and the British Commonwealth Games in 1970, occur every four years. Competitors come from countries in Africa, Asia, South America and the United Kingdom that are included in the Commonwealth of Nations. The games celebrate a common appreciation for sport world-wide in the same way that events such as the Olympics or the World Cup do.

Many of the countries sending athletes to the games are considered developing countries that combat poverty back home. UNICEF is working to provide assistance to people in those countries.

No effort has been more successful or public as the fundraiser created as a component of this year’s opening ceremonies.

The ceremony provided attendees and television audiences with the ability to donate to UNICEF’s Put Children First Appeal. With 40,000 people in the live audience and over one billion people watching on television, the initiative created a widespread call for supporting children experiencing poverty.

The donations received will go toward saving children’s lives in Scotland and the rest of the countries in the Commonwealth.  A $50 donation provides 30 children with life-saving medication, while $75 will give UNICEF the money to donate five safe water kits to families in Africa. Finally, a donation of $150 is enough to fund school supplies for 100 children

Filmmaker Lord Puttnam, one of the event’s organizers, believes that the charitable component of the Glasgow 2014 ceremonies will become a precedent for other major sporting events in the future. Puttnam told reports, “I cannot imagine the next World Cup not finding a means of allowing people to participate in giving to something that FIFA are promoting.”

Puttnam’s comment is extremely topical given the controversy over the most recent World Cup’s effect on global poverty. After expecting more to be done to support Brazil’s economy or the developing world in general through the World Cup, sport enthusiasts and philanthropists alike may be pleased to hear about the Commonwealth Games’ efforts.

The Put Children First Appeal is still accepting donations online, and the 20th Commonwealth Games will continue to support UNICEF throughout this year’s competition. As Puttnam says, hopefully future sporting events will use their power of global unification to combat global poverty.

– Emily Walthouse

Sources: Daily Record, Glasgow 2014 1, Glasgow 2014 2, UNICEF
Photo: Daily Record

The Price of India’s Mission to Mars

In November of 2013, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its first mission to Mars. The achievement was met with mixed feelings.

For many Indians, it was a moment of immense national pride. India proved itself capable of working with and persevering through the technological challenges of the 21st century. For others, it was a source of unmitigated fury. How could a nation with so much poverty spend so much money on something as irrelevant as a space mission?

This is a generalization made for unpacking.

The mission to Mars cost India 74 million dollars. To put this in perspective, this is about 21 percent of the $3.5 billion dollars allotted to Meal Scheme, a project aimed to improve nutrition among school-age children. About the same amount, $2.5 billion, was given to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

The budget for the mission is a significant fraction of all the numbers listed above; it could do a great deal of good in any one of the programs. Though it is important to understand this, it is also necessary to recognize that the space program works alongside other social initiatives; the existence of a space program does not mean that resources for poverty-reduction are lacking.

This mentality is inaccurate because of the utility of many projects run by the agency. ISRO satellites report weather — floods, droughts, cyclones and landslides. They collect information on natural resources; information that is essential to agricultural and conservation efforts. With remote-sensing technology, researchers have even been able to map out prospective groundwater sites.

As to the mission itself, the strongest defense has been anecdotal. When America reached the moon, 13.8 percent of Americans were below the poverty line. When Russia put Sputnik in orbit, the nation was recovering from Stalinist policies. When China sent the first woman into space, 100 million Chinese were living in poverty.

Yes, the money could have been spent elsewhere, but should it have been? Supporters of the mission argue that the presence of poverty should not stop scientists and researchers from making their own mark on their field.

– Olivia Kostreva

Sources: Thomas Reuters Foundation, Exim Guru, The Economic Times
Photo: The Times

Slum Destruction in Venezuela

slum_destruction
After a long-standing 20 years, a would-be abandoned bank in Caracas, Venezuela will be demolished. In most cases, the destruction of an abandoned building is hardly notable. However, this abandoned building, commonly called the Tower of David, is home to 1,145 families.

This unfinished building has become a home to hundreds of homeless people and families, creating a community that fully depends on the existence of this empty 45 story tower.

In Venezuela, few squatters find safety in the slums within the city borders. The Tower of David is a vertical beacon, offering refuge to those seeking a long term way of living in the streets.

The future of the bank tower is unclear, with Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro telling media, “Some are proposing its demolition. Others are proposing turning it into an economic center. Some are proposing building homes there.” Maduro acknowledges the purpose it serves to many, while still acknowledging that this building represents the failed hopes of deceased dictator Hugo Chavez, whose goal was to create a dominant economy within Venezuela.

The building now holds social significance, appearing in multiple films and television shows as the Tower of David, the symbolic slum of Venezuela. Yet this has not coerced leaders into leaving the structure as is; the evacuation of residents has already begun.

The demolition project was suggested after several children were killed falling out of the building, proving it as a safety hazard to Venezuelans. With evacuations beginning on July 22, occupants have agreed to peacefully leave with the promise of homes and aid.

The refuge sought by the inhabitants will not be forgotten, as many reminisce on the solace the tower offered them. One resident, Yuraima Perra, 27, tells NPR, “Necessity brought me here, and the tower gave me a good home,” as the soldiers removed her valuables and belongings from her makeshift apartment.

Parra is one of what many Venezuelans call “invaders” that staked claim in the tower. These “invaders” rigged up electricity and controlled the elevators, essentially turning the abandoned building into subsidized housing for those in need. Due to the fact that there was little internal violence within the tower, civilians respected it, and  thus families were allowed to safely flourish in a protected area.

President Maduro recognizes the tower as, “a symbol of a strange situation, a vertical ‘barrio’.” With regrets of allowing its continuation for so long with little monitoring and even less consideration, Maduro looks to the people for suggestions as to what should happen to this symbolic tower. One thing is clear: the end of the era may have come for the Tower of David, but those who called it home will forge on in search of another safe refuge in the dangerous streets of Caracas.

– Elena Lopez

Sources: Reuters, NPR
Photo: Flickr

Three Years Later: Fukushima Today

fukushima
The Great East Japan Earthquake ripped through Japan on Friday, March 11, 2011 at 2:25 in the afternoon. Within hours, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert that took effect in 50 countries and territories. Japan was hardest hit. In the end, 19,000 people lost their lives.

Later that night, cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant began to fail. Radiation levels steadily rose, and by 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, a nuclear emergency had been declared.

The radiation that seeped from the plant in the first week of the disaster totaled 770,000 terabequerels, which is 20 percent of the radiation emitted from the Chernobyl meltdown. The U.N. recently dismissed fears of ill-effects for the evacuees; their exposure to the radiation was simply too low.

Though thousands were evacuated, not everyone had the luxury of leaving. With three melted reactors and a defunct cooling system, the situation had to be contained, and so hundreds of plant workers stayed on. Even now they suffer myriad health problems, among them burns, radiation sickness and cancer.

Reconstruction within the plant and in affected areas is slow going. The decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi plant may take up to 40 years to complete. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) officials are faced with the disposal of hundreds of thousands of gallons of contaminated waste water. Proposed solutions have included creating an underground “ice-wall” surrounding the plant, as well as treating the water and releasing it into the ocean. This latter proposal has not been popular among the area’s fisherman.

Nearly one-third of an estimated one million displaced people remain in temporary accommodation. The news outlet Asahi Shimbun predicts that as many as 60 percent of the exclusion zone evacuees will not return to their hometowns for at least four years. A nuclear scientist with Green Peace considers the contamination to be too great, in some areas, for anyone to return.

Many of the survivors are receiving stipends from the Japanese government. People who lived within the exclusion zone receive about $1000 dollars monthly. Those who are unable to find adequate housing live in federally constructed encampments.

Contrary to expectation, it is when the bans on their towns are lifted that many residents will find themselves in trouble. People are mistrustful of the government and of TEPCO, which assured them of the safety of the nuclear plants years ago. They dislike the idea of living in such an irradiated area.

When they can officially return home, the stipends will stop. Retired and unemployed individuals will have no choice but to live once again in the shadow of the Daiichi plant.

– Olivia Kostreva

Sources: World Nuclear Association, Earthquake-Report.com, BBC News: Asia, Christian Science Monitor
Photo: Flickr

Poverty in Vietnam

Over the years, Vietnam has made incredible strides against poverty. During the 1990s, the number of people living in poverty in Vietnam was around 60 percent and today that number has dropped to less than 20.7 percent. On July 17, 2014, the nation demonstrated its continued commitment to fighting poverty with the announcement of a joint government and World Bank Group study.

The study will detail policies Vietnam should undertake to continue increasing economic growth. It will also pinpoint the specific obstacles the country needs to overcome in order to ensure sustainable growth, modernization and prosperity for all social classes.

By working with the World Bank Group, the government of Vietnam hopes to increase the country’s economic competitiveness and, in so doing, help its citizens prosper. One way the nation seeks to reduce poverty is by improving the efficiency of the economy in attracting foreign and domestic investments. Increased private sector investments will lead to higher job creation, free flowing capital and innovation, which will be beneficial to everyone.

The study’s aim is to boost Vietnam’s economy to reform policies that widen inequality, and create more opportunities for everyone in the country. Such measures include demanding more transparency from businesses and state-owned enterprises.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim plan to have their agencies finish the study within one year. The hope is that, through observations made in the study, Vietnam will be able to guide its economy to reach the marker of a high-income nation within a single generation.

In addition announcing the study, Dung and Kim finalized plans for five new projects which credit Vietnam with over $876 million. The World Bank Group also loaned about $3.8 billion over the next three years to the country through the IDA, a fund used by The World Bank for the world’s poorest nations.

The financing now makes Vietnam the second biggest IDA recipient to date.

The government will use recommendations from the study to apply these funds in a way that increases private sector investment.

The effort comes as a continuation of the World Bank Group’s investment in Vietnam, as IFC, a World Bank Group member that deals only with private sector development, has contributed $5 billion to the nation’s private sector over the past 20 years.

With Vietnam’s growth rate averaging over 6.4 percent per year for over 10 years, it is hoped that renewed investment in the private sector will increase growth and help bring more individuals out of poverty.

The government of Vietnam and the World Bank Group’s efforts aim to lead the country down the path of economic growth and prosperity for all because, despite the nation’s sustained progress over the past 20 years, income inequality has grown. With this new study and loans from the World Bank Group, Vietnam seeks to foster growth that is accessible to all of its citizens and continue reducing the prevalence of poverty throughout the country.

– Kathleen Egan

Sources: World Bank, Thanhnien News, USAID
Photo: World Bank

,

USAID’s Strategies to End Child Marriages

USAID recently renewed its commitment to end child marriages – as well as early and forced marriage – both by allocating U.S. $4.8 million dollars to be spent over the next year on prevention efforts and by announcing a new set of strategies for combating the practice that leaves so many children (mostly girls) devoid of resources, health, and dignity.

With the support of several key U.S. legislators, USAID will implement new prevention programs in seven nations: Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Tanzania, and Yemen. These prevention programs, which have been updated after analyzing the weaknesses of previous prevention programs, are customized to the needs and features of each of the countries USAID is targeting, making their eventual success very probable.

The advent of child marriage is highly correlated not only with increased rates of poverty, but also with increased maternal and infant mortality and increased incidence of HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases. Ending the practices of forced child marriage, which is “perpetuated by cultural norms, poverty, and lack of access to education,” will re-empower over 10 million girls per year, as well as the families from which they were taken, to make their own choices about their health, education, and futures.

Though child marriage by definition includes all children wed before their 18th birthdays, as many as a third of child marriages occur before the 15th birthday, and some children are married at as young an age as eight years old.

Among USAID’s new strategies for preventing child marriage are improved legislation advocacy measures, increased public awareness of the effects of child marriages and cash incentives to families whose girls have not been married at the age of 18. USAID is setting an influential and inspiring example to other organizations, like The Borgen Project, to continue to promote a change.

USAID’s previous commitment to preventing child marriage was already impressive. Their renewed focus will only serve to keep more children from the bonds of early matrimony.

– Elise L. Riley

Sources: USAID, AllAfrica, The Guardian
Photo: The Guardian

Central African Republic Ceasefire

After a year and a half of vicious bloodshed, Christian militia and Muslim Seleka rebels have drawn up a ceasefire in response to the deaths of thousands in Central African Republic. Requests have been subsided for both groups, with one of the failed demands being that the country is split based on the religious line on behalf of the rebel forces.

The warring groups traveled to the Congo to have the ceasefire initiated by the Congolese president, Denis Sassou N’Guesso, the formal mediator of the conflict. After the signing, President N’Guesso made a statement to the press: “We have taken the first step today. The journey is long, but we have made promises. After what has happened here, I am confident.” Both groups hold hope for future democratic elections to replace multiple informal and interim leaders.

The effects of this violence have not gone unnoticed, with over 1 million people fleeing their homes due to the conflict. While the Central African Republic ceasefire appears to be the first step to a different future, both sides took precautions at the signing ceremony with heavy military representation in case the other forgot their capabilities.

Both sides have shown their willingness to enforce the ceasefire, and those that are caught breaking the truce would face arrest.

Head of the Seleka delegation made a statement after the signing. “We have signed this ceasefire agreement today in front of everyone. Our commitment is firm and irreversible,” said Mohamed Moussa Dhaffane.

Seleka’s violent rule began back in March of 2013 when they rose to power, a group made up of various northerners from neighboring countries like Chad and Sudan. The “tit for tat” aggressions quickly developed the anti-balaka militia and the two warring sides immediately fell into an endless cycle of battle, even after the Seleka government stepped down in early 2014. Since then the violence has continued to affect Central African Republic, causing death tolls in the thousands for both sides.

Both the Seleka and anti-Balaka leadership appear willing to concede to the changes required by a ceasefire, but the amount of work to be done to bring the country together will take much more than a few agreements and a little time. The future of CAR is cloudy as both groups are forced to work with one another again and put on a united front for their people, as well as the rest of the world.

– Elena Lopez

Sources: Reuters, Big Story, The Guardian
Photo: The Guardian

Fighting at Main Libyan Airport

After an attempted ceasefire recently failed, rival militias escalated clashes over the main Libyan airport in the capital city of Tripoli. This renewal of fighting has already caused at least five deaths since fighting resumed on July 20. There have been reports that at least two of these were civilian deaths, as fighting moved from the airport to the neighboring residential area. While only five deaths have been confirmed, the intensity of the fighting and the limited area have prevented government officials from accurately declaring the number of deaths that have occurred. There has not been any official count of casualties released by the government since the start of this conflict.

The fighting over the Tripoli airport started on July 11, causing the airport to shut down indefinitely. The most recent skirmishes have been the most intense since the conflict started, and there have already been reports of missiles, rockets and tanks being used. This is the first time fighting has moved outside the airport into surrounding residential areas. Even if the fighting were to end now, it would take months for the airport to become functional again.

The combatants include a militia from the town Misirata and an Islamist led militia group known as the Libyan Revolutionaries Operations Room. Prior to this conflict, the airport was under the control of a militia from Zintan, a city in the western mountains of Libya.

The recent escalation of fighting indicates an entrenched conflict, and some have called this the worst fighting to take place in Libya since the Arab Spring Revolution in 2011. As Tarek Mitri, head of the U.N. Security Council mission in Libya, said, “As the number of military actors mobilizing and consolidating their presence within the capital continues to grow, there is a mounting sense of a probable imminent and significant escalation in the conflict. The stakes are high for all sides.”

Since Muammar Qaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011, Libya has struggled to maintain control of warring factions and militias. This one battle for control of the Tripoli airport is only one of many, albeit smaller, conflicts taking place all over the lawless country. Multiple governments that have been in power have struggled to keep these militias in check. Tensions are high across the country, considering the serious potential for both sides further entrenching their position and escalating attacks. For now, many inside and outside the country are nervously waiting to see how the conflict will continue to unfold.

– Andre Gobbo

Sources: BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN
Photo: BBC

,

Venezuela’s Black Market

In the last few years, the economic wellbeing of Venezuelans has become highly dependent on their ability to obtain dollars. In a crumbling economy, people’s socioeconomic standing depends not on the job they have or their level of education, but their ability to trade currency.

In no other place is this so evident as in the country’s ports. In the crumbling city of Puerto Cabello, women from all over the country anxiously await freighters carrying sailors who bring dollars into the country. Elena, a 32-year-old prostitute from the western state of Zulia, has taken the 280 miles journey from her hometown to the port city of Puerto Cabello after hearing about the arrival of a Liberian-flagged freighter manned with Ukrainian, Arab and Filipino soldiers.

For prostitutes and many others in Venezuela, the practice of trading dollars in the black market has translated into the doubling of their earnings.

Since President Maduro took office in 2013, after the late Hugo Chavez, the value of the bolivar in the black market has dropped to from 23 to 71 against the dollar. Until recently, the official exchange rate was 6.3 bolivares to the dollar. And as far as basic foods, medicine and other necessities it remains pegged at this rate.

While this practice keeps basic consumer goods at reasonable price, their scarcity makes for a whole different outcome in practice. For over a year now, Venezuelans have had to stand in line for hours to have a access to limited quantities of basic products such as rice, flour or even toilet paper.

However, this is only the case for those who do not have access to foreign currency. For those able to get paid in dollars, such as prostitutes, travel agents and taxi drivers, the dollar shortage holds the key to their ability to overcome shortages and inflation. This gives them the choice of skipping the lines and buying these regulated products at a cost several times (sometimes 9 times) over the regulated price.

This has made Venezuela one of the most expensive countries in the world or expensive; it all depends where do one gets your money. If a citizen is able to tap into the highly demanded illegal and secretive black-market system, his or her odds at succeeding are much higher. Ironically, this has turned Venezuela into a two-tiered society composed of those who can get dollar and sell them in the black market and those who cannot and have to manage with what little comes their way.

– Sahar Abi Hassan

Sources: Bloomberg, NPR
Photo: Quartz

, ,

AME-SADA’s Health Work

AME-SADA
Many churches around the world donate to charities to fight poverty. However, the African Methodist Episcopal Church  created its own agency to support the poor in Africa and the Caribbean. Its Service and Development Agency (AME-SADA) has been providing humanitarian assistance and development aid in Haiti and Africa for decades.

Though AME is an American church, it was founded by those of African descent. The church has three stated purposes, and the third addresses its work through its Service and Development Agency : to “provide continuing programs which will enhance the entire social development of all people.”

AME-SADA was founded 28 years ago, with the aim to “help people help themselves.” However, the church itself has been working in Haiti for more than 125 years. AME-SADA receives financial support from its own church members, the American government, donators and foreign institutions. In 2011, the agency was awarded the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to help their Cholera Prevention Program in Haiti.

In line with its motto of helping people help themselves, the Service and Development Agency provides health, education, and micro-credit programs. However, in emergencies such as the Haitian earthquake in 2010, AME-SADA provides quick relief.

In Haiti, AME’s  Service and Development Agency has a Child and Maternal Health Program that offers services such as pre and post-natal care for women aged 15-49, newborn care, disease and malnourishment care, family planning and counseling. The agency also supports outpatient clinics for treatment, health education and counseling. It provides water purification tablets, cleansers, disinfectants and oral rehydration packets for the treatment of cholera.

SADA-KREDI is closely related to AME-SADA’s healthcare programs. Some groups in the Haitian communities asked the agency for help supporting the clinics, and so AME’s Service and Development Agency brought members from clinic support groups to work at village banks. Three thousand women participate in an orientation for business and group dynamics, which lasts for 9-12 months. Then they are given loans of $500 in local currency for nine months.

AME-SADA also provides health care in Port-au-Prince in Haiti for 30,000 elementary school children.

Though the majority of AME-SADA’s work is in Haiti, the church has other programs in South Africa. AME has had churches and schools in the country since 1896. The agency’s college, Wilberforce Community College, provides higher education and encourages younger students to stay in school.

 – Kimmi Ligh

Sources: African Methodist Episcopal Church 1, African Methodist Episcopal Church 2, AME-SADA 1, AME-SADA 2, AME-SADA 3, Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Our Health Ministry
Photo: Our Health Ministry