Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

British Jihadists in Syria

british jihadists
A recent video showing ISIS extremists beheading American journalist James Foley has caused global disturbance, not only because of the brutal act but also because the executioner was speaking with a British accent.

The Islamic State—deemed by several experts to be more fanatical than al-Qaeda—has been recruiting British-born militants, and it is estimated that between 400 and 500 British jihadists have traveled to Syria to fight. While dozens have been killed during conflict, half are believed to have returned to Britain.

A video released by ISIS entitled “There is No Life Without Jihad” includes testimonies by three British members. One said, “The cure for depression is jihad…. Feel the honor we are feeling, feel the happiness we are feeling.” Another maintains that jihad is an Islamic duty, and a common thread among militants is a sense of devotion to the “call of duty.” Briton Nasser Muthana elaborated on this devotion to ISIS, saying, “We will even go to Lebanon and Jordan with no problems, wherever our Sheikh (ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) wants to send us.”

Even within the United Kingdom, sentiment for jihad is strong in certain communities and across social media. One British Muslim man admitted to the BBC he was planning to fight with ISIS to fulfill a religious obligation: “God has commanded for the Muslims to go and fight jihad.” He added that to die as a martyr would be a blessing and a victory, and that it would guarantee the “highest paradise.”

But there has been backlash by a majority of the British Muslim community against extremists. Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said Muslims condemned the actions of ISIS. He added that terrorists have distorted the tenets of Islam to justify their gratuitous violence. The Muslim Council of Britain proclaimed similar sentiments.

But how are British jihadists traveling to Syria and Iraq, and why can’t the British government prevent it? The BBC reports that most fly to Turkey and cross over the inadequately protected border into Syria and Iraq. Britons evade suspicion by claiming they are vacationing abroad or participating in humanitarian work, when in fact bogus aid agencies serve as a front to transport funds, resources and fighters in and out of Syria.

Once in the country, Britons can also meet up with organized jihadist networks that have the capacity to transport new militants to fighting zones. Traveling to Iraq and Syria remains legal, but if a British citizen is found to have joined ISIS and participated in violence he can be prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison.

A large proportion of Western jihadists report traveling to the Middle East to join more moderate Islamic groups, but then being coaxed into joining ISIS by well-funded recruiters. Extremist social media also reinforces propaganda of adventure, brotherhood, faith and a fight against injustice. In addition, once involved in a terrorist group such as ISIS, it becomes difficult to extricate oneself physically and psychologically.

Jason Burke, journalist for The Guardian, said, “The environment of a group such as Islamic State, created around a cult of extreme violence and a worldview that dehumanizes all outside the organization, can quickly turn an individual from a misguided insurgent into a pitiless terrorist killer, more than happy to execute a defenseless hostage with a knife, on camera.”

– Mari LeGagnoux

Sources: The Independent, The Week

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Iraqi Christian Refugees in France

Refugees in france
ISIS continues to spread terror in Iraq and Syria as the Islamic extremist group targets non-jihadist Muslims, Christians and all ethnic and religious others who do not agree with the creation of an Islamic state. Millions of Iraqis have been murdered or displaced, many of them seeking asylum in European countries.

Last week, France welcomed 40 Iraqi Christian refugees whose lives were in immediate danger in their home country. The refugees in France flew from Arbil, the capitol of the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Several hundred more Christians living in the Levant – a region including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, the island of Cyprus and part of southern Turkey – are expected to find shelter in France within the next month.

The Islamic extremists have been demanding that everyone convert to jihadist Islam. The alternative is torture or death. An estimated 1.2 million people in Iraq alone, not including the once-residents of contested territory in Syria, have moved from their homes and livelihoods in search of security.

In a recently uploaded Youtube video, an Iraqi man and woman who were transferred to a safer country spoke in anonymity about their fears.

“This is the last chance for us, because we don’t have anything,” the woman said. “We don’t have houses. We don’t have work. I have lost everything. I have lost my job. I was a teacher and now I am nothing.”

The man followed by confessing loss at ISIS’s egregious tactics and mission, then hope for a future in which his family is not plagued with perpetual anxiety.

“They [ISIS] rape women and girls and kidnap people,” he said. “We have Muslim friends who are very nice, but we don’t know why the jihadists are doing this. We’re just Christians is all. We’ll start from scratch. It’s going to be hard for us, but it’s going to be better for us than living under threatened security, always cautious, everywhere in Iraq.”

Shuttling everyone at imminent risk to a haven in France is a priority, but Iraqis who have an ongoing relationship with Europe are being favored by French officials. Iraqis who have relatives in France or who have been to France before will be given preferential treatment.

The planes that bring refugees to Europe have been carrying humanitarian aid items such as foodstuffs and medical supplies to Iraq on their way there. The planes utilize proactive round trips in Europe’s struggle against ISIS; and the round trips will likely continue.

Laurent Fabius, the Foreign Minister of France, said that the total number of  refugees in France could reach “several thousand” by the time ISIS has stopped accumulating territory.

This marks the increasingly active role Europe and the developed world has taken to quell ISIS and end its reign of terror.

– Adam Kaminski

Sources: YouTube, BBC
Photo: GDE-FON

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Limiting Post-Harvest Loss in Supply Chain

 

harvest loss
“Over 30 percent of all food produced in the world human consumption every year—which amounts to a staggering 1.3 billion tons of food—gets lost or wasted,” writes Jessica Ernst, of the Initiative for Global Development.

Consumers and producers at all levels are responsible for the waste. Citizens of higher income countries routinely buy more food than they can eat, while developing countries lose food due to harvest, storage and cooling issues as well as poor infrastructure.

One-fourth of the food lost every year would be enough to feed 870 million hungry people.

Dutch Agricultural Development & Trading Company is one company that is harnessing its power to contribute to a more effective use of crops.

Cassava is a root that is native to South America, but has existed in Africa for centuries. One of the issues in producing cassava is that once harvested, it has a limited amount of time to be processed and “split” before it spoils.

DADTCO introduced a technology called the Autonomous Mobile Processing Unit which travels to villages in sub-Saharan Africa during their harvest season so cassava can be processed on sight. DADTCO’s long term goal is to see cassava being used by national and international consumer and industrial products instead of other higher-priced materials.

Another private sector initiative is financed by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Initiative for Global Development received a grant from the Foundation to investigate the issue of post-harvest loss in agriculture supply chains, specifically in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.

Helen Mant, vice president of the Initiative for Global Development, explains her initiative, “We hope to identify market-driven solutions as well as opportunities for private sector partnerships that have the potential to significantly reduce post-harvest loss.”

As the world population grows, and demand for food rises, it is not production rates that need to go up. Companies are realizing that more effective ways of processing, distributing and consuming food need to be established, and the private sector is in a unique position to do so.

– Julianne O’Connor

Sources: Business Fights Poverty, Initiative for Global Development
Photo: CNN

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Poverty in Film: Kombit

From rooftop beekeeping in Brooklyn to underground tomato growing in Tokyo, the urban farming movement has become a global phenomenon. One recently produced short film, Kombit, looks at how urban farming has benefited one of Haiti’s poorest communes—Cité Soleil.

The film was produced in response to a Sundance Film Institute’s challenge to filmmakers. The institute had partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was looking for short films that showed people overcoming poverty.

Directors Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman traveled to Port-au-Prince and unearthed a story about one community’s successful project in the post-earthquake context.

Of Cité Soleil, one of the film’s interviewees says the common perception is that the area is “hell,” but this perception ignores how people struggling to live there manage to get by. For example, in this “hell” people have developed a community garden, called Jaden Tap Tap, that has “considerably changed the view that nothing can work in Cité Soleil,” according to the aforementioned interviewee.

Initially, some denizens of Cité Soleil had started a soccer club to foster amity in the community, but many young people said they were too hungry to play soccer. Tactics were changed then, and Jaden Tap Tap was started.

First, some community members appropriated a spot that criminals had been using to covertly execute people, clearing the area to make it suitable for gardening. That was in 2006; now, Jaden Tap Tap is the largest urban garden in Haiti.

The garden has become a recourse for those in need. People can notify the garden manager, Blan, of their needs and stop by to harvest greens, carrots, olives or other produce. One interviewee said, “Thanks to the plants in the garden, like the olive tree, we fight malnutrition.”

“Look at my baby,” he continued. “He’s healthy.”

Jaden Tap Tap has inspired many Haitian families to begin growing their own food—thereby improving their food security and reducing malnutrition in a country where malnutrition is the leading cause of death for children five and younger. Even the smallest gardens, which are grown in car tires, help alleviate some of the burden of poverty.

– Ryan Yanke

Sources: Youtube, The Celebrity Cafe, Time, Partners in Health
Photo: Flickr

GlobeIn: Helping Artists in Developing Countries

GlobeIn
Qiyas Ergashev, a carpenter in Arslanbob, Kyrgyzstan, builds houses for a living. In his spare time, he crafts wooden gifts—nut crackers, containers, cups, etc.—for foreigners who visit his city. He aspires to make more money from his woodcraft, but he lacks the means to market his products to a larger audience.

A San Francisco startup called GlobeIn has solved Qiyas’s problem.

GlobeIn is an online marketplace that allows users to buy goods that were handmade by people in remote parts of the world. Chief Executive Vladimir Ermakov has said that his business aims to “bring local artisans to the global market.” GlobeIn’s website has been described as “Etsy with a decidedly international feel to it.”

Site users can search for artisans by region, country or craft medium. Artists from over forty countries are represented on the site, selling a panoply of items that range from musical instruments to jewelry to furniture and more.

GlobeIn’s method is simple but effective. The company employs “Artisan Helpers” who travel to the artisans’ locations. During their meeting with a helper, an artistan gets their photograph taken, tells the helper about him or herself (for marketing purposes) and learns how to use any required technologies.

Afterward, the artisan’s work is posted on the website, immediately introducing him or her into the global marketplace. GlobeIn profits by marking prices up anywhere from 5 percent to 25 percent—a form of commission.

In 2013, the company raised more than $1 million in order to develop new platforms, like its newly launched iOS app, which allows users to quickly search for and purchase crafts from around the world.

Investors included former IBM executive Doug Maine, as well as renowned author and physician Deepak Chopra. This latter investor also convinced Ermakov to shift his company’s marketing strategy away from a more traditional approach toward a storytelling approach. Now, each artisan’s website profile includes both his or her work and a short biography.

Chopra said he chose to invest in GlobeIn partly because of the company’s potential to “eradicate poverty.”

Indeed, GlobeIn seems uniquely capable of improving the standard of living for a traditionally impoverished group in developing countries—the craftspeople.

For example, the poorest denizens of the Indian state of Bihar rely on their “traditional cultural industries” for their livelihood. If these people could access the resources needed to market their cultural products to a global audience, their income could increase substantially. GlobeIn is actively providing these sorts of populations with the requisite resources.

Thus, as GlobeIn’s website suggests, the world is now open for business.

– Ryan Yanke

Sources: GlobeIn, A G & CO, Tech Crunch, Forbes , World Bank
Photo: Barjeel Art Foundation

Food Insecurity Among Syrian Refugees

food_insecurity
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees recently reported that around 74 percent of Syrian families who have fled into Lebanon face food insecurity. With the refugee population in Lebanon expected to increase about 36 percent by next January, aid organizations are moving quickly to secure enough food for each Syrian family.

Conflict in Syria is the problem’s driving force. Heavy bombardments in Syria force refugees into Lebanon out of fear for their safety.

The influx of refugees strains Lebanese host communities, many of which lacked educational and economic resources even prior to the sudden population increase. Since the onset of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Lebanon’s CPI has increased from values in the sixties to the current level of 100.61 Index Points—a reflection of the strain placed on Lebanese consumers. The influx creates challenges for farmers in Lebanon as well, as demonstrated by 2012‘s shortfall of 55,000 mt of cereal.

Despite all of this, the Lebanese government has not broken its commitment to 1951’s Geneva Convention: its borders have remained open. In Lebanon, Syrians can access education and health services, and 70 percent of those families who register with the UNHCR can obtain food vouchers regularly.

But assistance has on the whole been inadequate to ensure Syrians meet their physical needs. Syrians have struggled to make up the difference themselves. Nearly 20 percent of refugees lack jobs, and the average daily income of families has hovered around U.S. $15 per day. It has been estimated that families need $300 a week to meet their needs, so average incomes are far from sufficient at this point.

Food vouchers provide some relief, but rising food prices have reduced their efficacy.

However, even though the food security situation in Lebanon needs improvement, one must recognize the even worse situation in Syria. Speaking of her life in Syria, one woman from Yabroud said, “We couldn’t afford to buy anything, my children were living on bread.” She added, “They used to cry a lot from hunger.”

With such a powerful driving force as hunger, refugees will surely continue to pour into Lebanon from Syria. Since Syrians will rely primarily on organizations other than the Lebanese government for aid relief, now is perhaps an especially effective time to donate to aid organizations working in Lebanon. Organizations to consider are Doctors Without Borders, World Vision, CARE, the UNHCR and UNICEF—along with many others.

– Ryan Yanke
Sources: Trading Economics, World Food Programme, ShanghaiDaily, UNHCR, CNN
Photo: flickr

Combining Vaccines May Boost Polio Immunity

Polio_immunity
New research has shown that the use of two vaccines in conjunction may dramatically increase polio immunity. Children who receive a vaccine shot after taking an oral vaccine show greater resistance to the disease than those who receive no follow-up shot, and even those who take a double dose of oral medication.

The World Health Organization announced that combining vaccines is starting to be used for mass vaccination campaigns in heavily affected regions, as well as for routine immunizations is developing countries. The double-vaccine method is currently being used in Nigeria and will soon be launched in Pakistan.

The fight against polio has been relatively successful. Within the last 26 years, the number of countries regularly affected by polio has dropped from 125 to three.  The number of cases has fallen by 99 percent. But with increased international travel, the threat of polio is resurfacing in countries previously deemed free of the virus. In May, the WHO declared an international public emergency, reporting polio outbreaks in at least 10 countries.

Until now, researchers were unable to determine a vaccination programs that provided optimal results. But trials in India have established that two vaccines used together yielded the lowest amount of virus in subjects’ feces, one of the major ways the virus is spread.

Oral Poliovirus (OPV), the oral polio vaccine, consists of a two-drop dose of weakened polio virus. It induces immunity within the digestive tract, so it has long been used to disrupt person-to-person transmission of the disease. However, this type of immunity diminishes with time, and in certain cases OPV can actually trigger a vaccine-caused case of polio. This is why inactivated poliovirus (IPV), the vaccine shot, has been added to the procedure. IPV provides immunity stronger and more extensive immunity by traveling through the bloodstream, and also protects against potential infections caused by OPV.

“The results that clearly demonstrate that IPV substantially boosts both [intestinal] and [bloodstream] immunity in children previously vaccinated with OPV are historic and have major operational implications for the global polio eradication effort,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari, WHO’s director of polio operations. He added, “It could play a major role in completing the job of polio eradication once and for all.”

Developing countries still favor oral vaccination because it is less expensive and easier to administer. But OPV’s temporary effectiveness makes it necessary for children to receive repeated doses. The injected vaccine is more expensive, but it is deemed by experts to be worth the investment because only one dose is necessary and it eliminates polio in infected areas more rapidly.

Using the combination strategy is also effective when fighting endemic polio in remote and war-torn areas where oral vaccines may not always be safely or routinely delivered. “We want to take maximum advantage of each contact with a child, said CDC vaccine expert Dr. Steve Cochi. “It’s the start of the last stand for wild polio virus, and we’re trying to hit it with both vaccines.”

– Mari LeGagnoux

Sources: Yahoo, Tech Times, Medscape
Photo: flickr

Sanitation in Developing Countries

Sanitation_in_developing_countries
According to joint WHO and UNICEF data, 36 percent of the world’s population lack access to basic sanitation facilities, and 768 million people regularly go without clean drinking water. Sanitation refers to the provision of safe facilities and services for human waste disposal. In other words, toilets or basic latrines.

Inadequate access to sanitation and clean water kills 4,000 vulnerable children each day. This contributes to the cycle of poverty for families and communities in developing countries. Without water, sanitation and hygiene, efficient and sustainable development is unattainable.

But the problem doesn’t end there. Lacking access to clean water and facilities means constant weakness through diarrhea, choosing whether to buy water or medicine, fewer resources to grow crops—in essence not being able to support one’s own livelihood. For girls, an absence of sanitation facilities in schools can deny them a chance at education.

“Too many people still lack a basic level of drinking water and sanitation. The challenge now is to take concrete steps to accelerate access to disadvantaged groups,” said Dr. Maria Neira, WHO Director for Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health. “An essential first step is to track better who, when and how people access improved sanitation and drinking water, so we can focus on those who don’t yet have access to these basic facilities.” She added that those who suffer most tend to be poverty-stricken people living in rural areas.

Sanitation is a crucial element to global health, yet it often suffers from political neglect. The stigma attached to human waste hampers high-profile discussion. This must change if the pattern of ill-health and poverty and sanitation in developing countries is to be broken. Improved sanitation yields approximately $9 worth of economic benefit for every $1 spent. The advantages include saving time, reducing medicine and health costs, improving quality and amount education for girls and protecting water resources.

Sanitation may seem like a nebulous problem, but it can be drastically improved with low-cost infrastructure improvements. Building pipes and pumps around villages can deliver clean water, while building toilets and sewage systems can eliminate unhygienic practices like open defecation. Both physical improvements and more widespread hygiene education can reduce the number of human waste-related deaths caused by cholera, typhoid, infectious hepatitis, polio, rotavirus and others.

Several international agencies and organizations work to ameliorate the problem of poor sanitation. UNICEF is active in more than 100 countries, developing programs to improve water and sanitation facilities in schools and poor communities. The organization also works to spread awareness about safe hygiene practices. “When we fail to provide equal access to improved water sources and sanitation we are failing the poorest and the most vulnerable children and their families,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. “If we hope to see children healthier and better educated, there must be more equitable and fairer access to improved water and sanitation.”

Both UNICEF and the WHO are major proponents of the United Nations Millennium Goals for water and sanitation; that is, to halve the proportion of people without dependable access to water and sanitation by 2015. Although the water target has been achieved, the sanitation target lags behind.

– Mari LeGagnoux

Sources: UNICEF, WHO 1, WHO 2,  Government of the United Kingdom
Photo: flickr

Food Shortages and Smuggling in Venezuela

smuggling in Venezuela
Venezuela’s government continues to battle a food hoarding and smuggling epidemic. It accuses food smugglers of causing national food shortages in the country. The government states that food smugglers hoard goods to resell for profit and smuggle such items into Venezuela’s neighboring countries.

Due to currency controls and a lack of U.S. dollars, Venezuela has found it to be increasingly difficult to import foreign food products from other countries. One of the most popular countries for food smuggling is Colombia, which borders Venezuela. Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos have both acknowledged the problem.

Earlier this month, Maduro stated that smuggling seizure efforts in Colombia have recovered close to $400 million U.S. dollars worth of goods. Due to these smuggling incidents, the Venezuelan government intends to introduce a biometric tracking system that will limit citizens’ food purchases via a fingerprint scanning.

A military spokesperson for the government told El Universal newspaper that the quantity of goods smuggled to Colombia “would be enough to load the shelves of our supermarkets.”

This July, the government seized more than 11 tons worth of fish, chicken and beef.

Last month, Venezuela began to close its border to Colombia at night and deploy thousands of troops in an effort to stop the smuggling in Venezuela from taking place. However, opposition to the plan suggests that the policy will treat Venezuelan citizens as criminals and even breach individual privacy. Many have suggested that the policy leans toward food rationing.

Some watchdog groups have even predicted that those without the biometric cards may not be able to shop at state supermarkets. The Venezuelan government believes up to 40 percent of items purchased within the country are smuggled out of the country. This includes medicines and basic foodstuff.

Even though the government has stated that those who make use of the biometric cards may receive various discounts and other benefits, those against the plan suggest otherwise. Nevertheless, the country has seen inflation rates top 60 percent this year due to food smuggling, which indicates that something must be done.

– Ethan Safran

Sources: The Guardian, BBC, Latin Post, The Guardian
Photo: The London Fog

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RESULTS: Advocates for the World’s Poor

RESULTS_opt
RESULTS is a U.S.-based charity that advocates for the world’s poor. RESULTS uses advocacy to bring the world’s wealthiest governments together to do more to help end extreme poverty.

It relies heavily on volunteers and has partner organizations in four other countries—Canada, Australia, Japan and the U.K.

Thirty years ago, a teacher named Sam Daley-Harris, was inspired by a report from the National Academy of Sciences which stated that ending poverty was possible through strong political will. This led to the creation of RESULTS.

Each national organization has its own campaigns. Canada’s campaigns are nutrition, education, water and sanitation and microfinance. In the U.K., RESULTS is working on campaigns for basic education, child health and tuberculosis.

In the U.S., RESULTS has four main campaigns. The first is appropriation, which works to ensure that Congress continues to fund foreign assistance programs, specifically the ones that are the most effective.

The next campaign works to expand economic opportunities like increasing micro finance and “changing the policies of international financial institutions that hinder development.”

The final two campaigns are ensuring that all children have access to basic education and basic healthcare.

These campaigns are meant to educate communities and individuals as well as congress and the media on global poverty and hunger.

RESULTS U.S. has worked within Congress in support of important legislation like the Education for All Act as well as convincing congressmen to support crucial organizations like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

A clear definitive example of how RESULTS operates and achieves results is their written letter to the president in 2010. The letter was co-written with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and asked the president to pledge $6 billion from 2012-2014 to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

An additional 101 members of congress signed the letter and the result was a $4 billion pledge which was a “38 percent increase over the preceding three-year period.”

There are many more examples of successes like this on their website—examples of how advocacy really made a difference.

Charity Navigator has only reviewed the U.S. based RESULTS organization. According to their website RESULTS has complete transparency and accountability with a 4 star rating and a score of 99 out of a 100.

It shows that 90 percent of their budget goes towards the programs they support. This is legitimate charity that anyone could feel confident donating too.

On the U.S. website they use a fitting quote that expresses how advocacy and education about poverty is the best way to end it.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus said during his acceptance speech, “I firmly believe that we can create a poverty-free world if we collectively believe in it. In a poverty-free world, the only place you would be able to see poverty is in the poverty museums.”

– Eleni Marino

Sources: RESULTS UK, RESULTS Canada, RESULTS USA, Charity Navigator
Photo: Newsday