Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Rebels in Northern Mali Threaten Region’s Stability

The slow and steady recovery that Mali experienced after the extended Islamist occupation by the Tuaregs in the north was recently thrown into jeopardy. A handful of recent clashes between separatist rebels and government forces have begun to increase insecurity and hamper the effectiveness of aid efforts in the area.

What’s worse is that parts of the country have even fallen back into rebel hands.

While some displaced people have begun returning to their homes in the north, many still worry about their safety and security. Some of those who have returned even had to flee again due to rebel activity in their community.

“Tensions within communities and concerns of retribution mean people do not feel safe to return home,” said Erin Weir, Protection and advocacy advisor with the Norwegian Refugee Council. “That the constant power shifts – one day an area belongs to the rebels, the other day it is back in government hands – means people might feel secure one minute, the next they are inclined to flee again.”

This ongoing crisis with rebels in Northern Mali is often ignored by the public as other issues receive more coverage from media outlets. Yet, staff members of the Red Cross were attacked in the area earlier this year, which resulted in the stoppage of food distribution to the regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu. This left 11 percent of the population, or 1.9 million people, in need of food assistance.

Similar attacks have also interrupted food distribution by the World Food Program.

Just under 250,000 people in the north are considered food insecure, and approximately two-thirds of those people are defined as in ‘crisis.’ This is only worsened by the fact that operations in Mali are underfunded by one-third.

“The recent fighting has set back the humanitarian situation and deepened the crisis,” Weir said. “Services in the north are still restricted and access to health care, education and markets are limited, not to mention food insecurity that is affected by recent displacement.”

While there are countless other humanitarian crises taking place around the world, the world cannot forget those that still haven’t been completely resolved.

While progress might be slow, the recent conflicts with rebels in Northern Mali only show how long and hard the road to recovery is. Further work is needed in order to ensure that the hard-won progress is not lost.

– Andre Gobbo
Sources: IRIN, The Economist, The Guardian
Photo: AlJazeera

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Childhood Poverty and Emotional Problems

Childhood Poverty
Over the years, numerous studies have demonstrated the damaging effects of childhood poverty on development. Recent testing helps to unravel how growing up poor causes psychological problems.

The human brain grows the most during the first few years of life. It has been discovered that children from poorer homes are more likely to have psychological disorders in their adult lives. To explain the correlation between poverty and psychological problems, one theory suggests that exposure to high amounts of stress during this early critical time permanently hinders an individual’s ability to cope with stress.

Testing done by Professor K. Luan Phan supports this notion. During her study, scientists examined the brain function of 24-year-old individuals, whose family situations had already been recorded 15 years prior. The participants were asked to try and control negative emotions while looking at a series of pictures.

The ability to suppress and manage feelings is key to helping individuals deal with the stress of life.

From the tests, researchers were able to conclude that the individuals who were the most impoverished at 9 years old scored the lowest on the exams as 24-year-olds. Even if the subject’s living conditions improved over the years, childhood poverty proved the dominating factor for test performance.

The findings connect childhood poverty to a lower ability to control one’s emotions. This connection supports the notion that the high-stress situation of living in poverty as a child directly affects an individual’s ability to handle strains in their adult life.

Other research done by the Washington University School of Medicine helps to explain the phenomena in a more anatomical sense. Their study showed that the psychological effects of childhood poverty are likely connected to smaller brain volumes in areas associated with emotion processing and memory. The researchers examined brain scans of children between the ages of 6 to 12, whose family history had been previously recorded.

From the scans, scientists found that the stress of poverty physically changes a child’s brain; those living in impoverished homes had smaller volumes of white and cortical gray matter. These white and gray areas are associated with the part of the brain that is associated with communication, as well as sensory and emotions. A small amount of matter in this area of the brain suggests that those functions are hampered.

So, childhood poverty has a visible effect on the brain, which reflects an impairment of emotion processing.

Though both studies are still in the testing phase, the connection drawn between childhood poverty and its lasting effects on mental development is alarming. According to UNICEF, over 22,000 children die everyday because of poverty.

Seeing the permanent damage poverty causes to childhood development highlights its severity and the critical need to address it.

– Kathleen Egan

Sources: Spring, US News, Global Issues
Photo: Portside

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10 Quotes About Helping Others

Here is a list of 10 quotes about helping others, compiled by The Borgen Project:

1. “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. “Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.” – Booker T. Washington

3. “When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” – Maya Angelou

4. “Many small people, in many small places, do many small things, that can alter the face of the world.” – Unknown

5. “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” – Audrey Hepburn

6. “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” – Charles Dickens

7. “Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another’s pain, life is not in vain.” – Helen Keller

8. “Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

9. “I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race.” – Voltaire

10. “No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank

– Hannah Cleveland

Sources: GoodReads
Photo: The Motion Machine

Extreme Poverty in India Remains

A recent report from the United Nations detailed the fight against child mortality, poor sanitation and poverty in India. According to the report, one-third of the 1.2 billion who live in extreme poverty around the world lived in India in 2010.

Around one-third of India’s population is believed to be living below the poverty line. A prediction from the World Bank states that by 2015, 40 percent of the 970 million people believed to be living on less than $1.25 a day will come from Southeast Asia.

However, the report also stated that the extreme poverty rate in Southeast Asia decreased from 45 percent in 1990 to 14 percent  in 2010. There are currently more people living in extreme poverty in India than anywhere else in the world at 32.9 percent.

As a result, India also has the largest child mortality rate out of any country around the world. The report said that 1.4 million children died in India before reaching their fifth birthday.

“We don’t have to be proud of what we have done,” said the Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla. “Poverty is the biggest challenge…I am sure when the next report comes, we will have done much better. Sadly, despite paying lip-service to Mahatma Gandhi, we have been unable to fulfill his aspiration, and this is the challenge that our government has inherited and is committed to fulfilling.”

Eight Millennium Development Goals were established in 2000 by the U.N. They advocated for extreme poverty reduction, and called for improvements in maternal care and education – issues which are very prevalent in India.

The report also said that China currently leads the way in terms of global poverty reduction, and reduced their number of citizens living in extreme poverty from 60 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 2010.

“India’s role in global development is the most important in the world,” said Lise Grande, the U.N. Resident Coordinator for India. “The MDGs can not be reached globally if they are not reached here. The new post 2015 framework cannot succeed if it does not reflect the aspirations and does not have the commitment and support of India.”

Grande said that India’s commitment to reach the needed goals has inspired other countries.

However, there is some good news for Southeast Asia, and India in general. The region experienced the largest increase in literacy among young citizens, increasing from 60 percent in 1990 to 80 percent in 2011. The literacy rate among girls is growing faster than the literacy rate for boys.

The region has also improved public schooling and increased school enrollment, according to the report.

– Monica Newell

Sources: The Economic Times, NDTV, The Hindu Business Line
Photo: The Economic Times

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Chemical Toilet Troubles in Cape Town

Because of the wealth that circulates throughout Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Pretoria, South Africa is technically classified as an upper-middle income nation. However, the very cities that contain much of the country’s money are also surrounded by its most extreme examples of poverty.

The townships scattered around the edges of these cities are home to millions of people (the overwhelming majority of whom are “black Africans”) living in overcrowded shelters with little to no sanitation. It’s a recipe for disease, but some are saying that hasty solutions to the problem are not helping – in fact, the chemical toilets installed in townships outside of Cape Town have been explicitly described as human rights violations.

The city of Cape Town has provided chemical toilets – the type of toilet found inside Porta-Potties – to its townships for over a year. An investigation conducted by the Human Rights Commission has found that not only does the city fail to communicate with each township individually to cater to its specific sanitation needs, but it also equips its townships with the bare minimum sanitation services according to a set of “emergency housing guidelines.” The problem? For the people who live in townships, improper sanitation is no one-time emergency. It is their everyday reality.

Accordingly, the Human Rights Commission recommends that the city of Cape Town implement a new approach to sanitation in informal settlements, one that better serves the “rights to equality, dignity, privacy, basic sanitation, and a healthy environment.” To fulfill these expectations, Cape Town must provide its townships with chemical toilets that can service the needs of their entire populations, undergo periodic maintenance, are sufficiently cleaned on a regular basis – measures that are currently not being taken.

If Cape Town follows through with these recommendations and commits to providing proper sanitation, the residents of its townships will experience reduced risk of contracting the diseases and conditions associated with open sewage systems, including diarrhea, parasites and bacterial infection. In a country of nearly 60 million people, successful public health interventions can be difficult. However, Cape Town has its work laid out for it as far as sanitation goes.

Perhaps future sanitation successes in Cape Town’s townships will inspire further steps to improve the quality of life for South Africa’s poor. Townships, which are largely the result of the forced relocation of millions of black and “coloured” people during South Africa’s infamous period of apartheid, typically lack not just sanitation but also food security, safety and educational outlets. Giving people in informal settlements the sanitation measures necessary to prevent disease and protect human dignity is the first step to giving them a hand up and out of poverty.

– Elise L. Riley

Sources: All Africa, UNICEF, World Bank, Telegraph
Photo: International Budget

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Urban Farming Spreads in Latin America

urban agriculture
Latin America is the most urban region in the world. But from Cuba to Mexico to Argentina, issues of food insecurity and urban poverty persist. Several factors contribute to agricultural instability in Latin America. Climate change is affecting crop yields, and urban sprawl has pushed farmland further from cities, into areas with low soil fertility. Additionally, many Latin American countries are shifting their production energy from agriculture to tourism ventures, which means that food imports are now exceeding exports.

A recent report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations examines the progress made in cities pursuing urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) policies. The study surveys 23 countries and 110 cities throughout Latin America, revealing the enormous benefits that urban farming has for city-dwelling populations.

UPA gives poor households access to nutritious foods, generates jobs and extra income, provides fresh local food to city populations, creates more green space within urban landscapes and stimulates local economic production.

Poverty in modern-day Latin America has as much to do with hunger as with obesity. Non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and some forms of cancer, have become enormous health threats and financial burdens for Latin America. In fact, these “lifestyle” diseases kill more people than infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis in every region except sub-Saharan Africa.

The root of this troubling phenomenon lies in the scarcity and high cost of nutritious food options, which denies the poorest segments of society access to a healthy lifestyle. In Latin America, urban farming is breaking down these barriers and bringing fresh, local foods into impoverished homes.

UPA’s potential can be seen in Havana’s 97 organoponic gardens, which use new agricultural technologies involving organic substrates in the face of seed, pesticide and fertilizer shortages. Today, 90,000 residents of Havana practice UPA, bringing sustenance to a population long harassed by food crises and rationing.

Cubans began planting food wherever they could find space after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Economic mayhem ensued, and fertilizer and pesticides were nowhere to be found on the island. Out of necessity, Cubans built small urban gardens and, with strong government support, the practice was transformed from a grassroots response to food insecurity into a concrete national priority.

Although many Latin American countries practice urban agriculture, only half of the 23 countries surveyed in the FAO report have national policies explicitly promoting UPA. Graeme Thomas, author of the report, states, “Where the sector has strong governmental support from national to local level… it has a far greater impact in terms of improving urban food security and contributing to people’s livelihoods and local economic development.”

Leaders in Latin America would do well to invest in the development of UPA initiatives. Urban agriculture has notable health, economic and social benefits as it grants impoverished households access to nutritious, local fruits and vegetables, encourages local economic development and places food sovereignty into the hands of the people who most desperately need nourishment.

– Kayla Strickland

Sources: FAO, Christian Science Monitor
Photo: City Farmer News

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Women of Baghdad Versus ISIS

women of baghdad
ISIS closes in on Baghdad. Streets and homes are emptied of Iraqi men, who enlist to protect their families, their city and their country. They do so out of a new-found national pride, a sense of duty toward the struggling Iraq or simple necessity. But as the front lines are bolstered, “home” is left to the protection of sisters, wives, mothers and daughters.

ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, was formed late last year by Iraqi Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai. Its estimated 7,000 to 10,000 soldiers have a steady cash flow from captured oilfields and territories. Its goal is to create an Islamic caliphate that governs both Iraq and Syria, but its methods are extreme, so much so that even Al Qaeda has renounced any association with the group. Having taken control of towns, oil refineries and even chemical weapons facilities near Aleppo and beyond, ISIS continues to move closer to Baghdad.

Citizens in Baghdad are responding to calls to action made by political and religious officials alike. Tens of thousands of men have volunteered in the anti-ISIS military effort. Men without military experience remain in Baghdad for training, while men with it are sent to the overrun Mosul, Tikrit, the Green Zone and foreign embassies. Military transport vehicles and personnel carriers have become a common sight in the capital city. Everyone is on high alert.

Baghdad is by no means defenseless. The Iraqi military has a force of nearly one million, and many remain. Iraqi officials are aided by foreign advisers, who hope to strengthen the fledgling military’s operations. President Obama awaits reports on the feasibility of drone strikes. Still, the newborn government and its even newer armed forces are being severely tested by some of the best-resourced insurgents in the modern world. That ISIS intends to take Baghdad is certain. But no one is idly waiting to find out if they can.

More than 450 women of Baghdad have volunteered for military training. Most have lost a loved one to the violence of the past few decades, feeling deeply the price of war. They will not be joining their male counterparts on the front lines, but over the course of a five day training period, female relatives of the Badr Brigade are armed with AK-47s and taught both how to shoot and how to defend themselves. Then they are left to return and defend their homes.

These women are between the ages 14 and 60. Ageel Fadhil, 14 years old, trains at the request of her mother. While her parents work, she alone is responsible for the safety of herself and her younger brother. In the event Baghdad]s security fails, her mother hopes she will have a chance.

This hope for safety, security and freedom is echoed by Iraqis across the nation and the city. While hoping for the best, the women of Baghdad are preparing for the worst.

– Olivia Kostreva

Sources: CNN 1, CNN 2, The Washington Times
Photo: Totally Cool Pix

Africa’s Agricultural Potential

The farming industry makes up 30 to 40 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP and 70 percent of the labor force. Africa’s agricultural potential is so great that the continent could become the new bread basket of the world if properly guided. It has all the makings for a green revolution, such as the ones newly developed regions in Brazil and Asia have experienced. One prediction sets agricultural output of Africa at a worth of $880 billion by 2030.

“Agriculture is a proven driver of transformational change,” says Juergen Voegele, Senior Director of the World Bank’s Agriculture Global Practice. Unlocking the potential in the farming industry would have affects far beyond the industry itself. It could be the catalyst for massive social and economic growth.

However, the industry is currently struggling. One reason for the struggle is the lack of enthusiasm in younger generations for farming. The youth no longer want to take over their parents’ farms and, with the average farmer aged 55, the current generation is running out of time.

Sanoussi Diakite is a young man from Senegal whose innovative invention shows that there is more to agriculture than farming. If youth are not motivated to farm as a career, there are other options. Senegal has a high demand for the cereal fonio. Sanoussi noticed the demand, and he also noticed how laborious and time inefficient the process of husking fonio is. So, he solved the problem by inventing a machine to assist the husking process.

Sanoussi’s machine is widely successful, with 20 operating in West Africa. He also has plans to create a factory to produce his machine on a large scale.

Not every young person will be motivated by the same entrepreneurial spirit, but Dr. Katrin Glatzel, Innovation Officer at Agriculture for Impact, suggests actions donors and governments might make to assist the process. She advises financing farm-related business, education in agricultural science, vocational or business management and economic policies to nurture an environment conducive to entrepreneurship.

Other fruitful techniques for overcoming the obstacles of a struggling agricultural industry are seen in eastern Africa. Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are working with the East African Agricultural Productivity Program (EAAPP) to harness the agricultural industry’s powers to contribute to inclusive growth.

A concrete example of what is being done can be seen in Uganda. Cassava is a staple in the diets of people not just in Uganda, but all over eastern Africa. When brown streak disease threatened to deplete the cassava crop to dangerously low levels, the National Crops Resources Research Institute stepped in. They developed a technique that saved the cassava and, consequently, saved farmers and their families from going under.

EAAPP is financed by The World Bank and partners. Makhtar Diop, The World Bank Vice President for the Africa region, speaks of the achievements in the four countries: “These success stories show how science and technology is enabling African farmers to grow more nutritious food and boost inclusive growth.”

– Julianne O’Connor

Sources: Business Fights Poverty, The World Bank, Ventures
Photo: SNV

USAID Takes Over Production of Medika Mamba

In an effort to combat malnutrition among Haitian infants and youth (about 22 percent of Haitian children under five years of age are malnourished), the nonprofit Meds and Food for Kids distributes medika mamba, otherwise known as Plumpy’Nut, a peanut butter-based food that helps provide nutrition for malnourished children.

Medika mamba will soon be distributed in Guatemala as a result of UNICEF programming. However, the good news comes to a halt there.

The World Food Program has announced that they will no longer be buying products from Meds and Food for kids because they are now able to obtain a soy-corn based product from USAID free of charge. This change will cause Meds and Food for Kids to lose half of their yearly income.

Moreover, this decision is having a negative impact on the Haitian community. Ten years ago a factory was opened (spearheaded by pediatrician Patricia Wolff) to produce medika mamba in order to help treat malnourishment through local products. If the budget cuts force the factory to close, about 42 people will lose their jobs and hundreds of peanut farmers will lose one of their main buyers.

The factory had recently been doing very well, increasing the amount of peanuts they were buying from farmers by 50 percent. Wollf claims “that with assured international aid buyers for medika mamba, the factory could boost production year on year, creating economies of scale and a sustainable local loop of supply and demand.”

WFP asserts that while they understand the value in having Haiti use local products to help their own community, because their nutrition related activities are now secured by USAID’s Kore Lavi Food Voucher Program, they are unable to continue purchasing goods from the Meds and Food for Kids organization. While the Kore Lavi program will still provide aid, it will not give Haitain individuals the same ability to provide for themselves like the medika mamba factory has.

– Jordyn Horowitz

Sources: The Guardian, Nutriset, Meds & Food for Kids, WFP
Photo: Drake

The Special Olympics: Helping the Poor

Rhoda Kaittany knew something more needed to be done to help her son. They lived in Nandi, a county in Kenya where children dealing with intellectual disabilities, including her child, lacked the resources to overcome their handicaps.

Working alone, she set out to organize everything required to bring a Special Olympics program to her county. During this process, she discovered children with intellectual disabilities growing up isolated from the world. In one case, a boy had been kept rope-tethered in a sheep’s pen to keep him from straying into danger.

Kenya’s situation is typical for poor countries. In fact, the majority of people dealing with developmental disabilities reside in developing countries. As Kaittany’s discoveries show, these people are often excluded from societies which lack the means to accommodate their special needs. The governments of developing countries are often too poor to devote the necessary social, health and educational resources to assisting the intellectually disabled. Moreover, few eligible families with disabled children receive government benefits in low-income countries. Lacking these resources, the disabled get stuck in poverty more often than those without disabilities.

Kaittany saw how desperate the problem had become in Kenya, one of the world’s poorest countries and home to an estimated 3.9 million people living with intellectual disabilities. She knew that the Special Olympics were part of the solution.

The Special Olympics is defined as a “global, grassroots movement dedicated to empowering the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.” The movement empowers lives first by promoting fitness through sports. A study conducted in The Netherlands found that children with intellectual disabilities tend to have less aerobic endurance and physical strength than other children. Since other research papers have suggested that improved physical fitness leads to improved cognitive and physical development in all children, it is imperative that the intellectually disabled find more opportunities to improve their fitness.

But the Special Olympics does more that just promote exercise. The organization provides health screenings, youth programs and public awareness campaigns for a population typically marginalized. It also believes in the potential of sports to educate in addition to promoting fitness. For example, in Botswana, the organization taught its athletes, who as a group were at a greater risk for contracting infectious diseases, about HIV/AIDS.

Globally, about 190 Special Olympics competitions take place every day—or 70,000 per year. The number is impressive, yet the movement strives to do more. The goal? Reach 200 million disabled people around the world through Special Olympics programs. For example, a relatively new program, the Global Football Initiative, is using the world’s most popular sport—soccer—to bring the organization closer to its goal. Through this program, Special Olympics athletes train with the support of professional clubs: the Italian Inter-Milan and the English Manchester United, for example.

So whether it is developing the bodies and minds of people living with disabilities or teaching communities how to help these individuals, the Special Olympics can play a crucial role in developing countries—as Rhoda Kaittany’s efforts have shown.

– Ryan Yanke

Sources:

Sources: USAID, Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 1, Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 2, Special Olympics, World Bank, KAIH
Photo: Special Olympics