Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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“The Drinkable Book”

When Theresa Dankovich began researching the sanitizing potential of silver nanoparticles in 2008, little did she know that her work would contribute to “The Drinkable Book.” The book is actually a filtration kit equipped with a filter box and a book with pages that offer sanitation advice and function as filter sheets.

Designed by researchers at the University of Virginia, Carnegie Mellon University and WATERisLIFE (a nonprofit dedicated to providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene services worldwide,) “The Drinkable Book” operates as a cheap purification kit that eliminates 99.9 percent of bacteria found in water — comparable to the quality of tap water in the U.S. Each page from the book can filter up to 100 liters of water, and each book has 20 sheets of paper. That’s enough clean water to last one person’s needs for four years, WATERisLIFE claims.

But how does it work exactly? The book is printed like any other, except the pages are lined with silver nanoparticles, which costs only a few extra cents. As needed, one can rip out a half-sheet of paper from the book, place it in the filter box, which also serves as the book’s cover, and allow the silver ions to attach to and kill harmful bacteria. The water seeps through the paper, leaving it safe to drink. Tips for clean drinking are also printed on every sheet with food-grade ink.

Dankovich, the chemist who conceived the idea, says the product is one of the cheapest ways to make water safe to drink. “It doesn’t require power and it’s very intuitive,” she said.

Last year, Dankovich field-tested the product in South Africa, and she now plans to take it to Ghana for more tests. “Our main goal is to reduce the spread of diarrheal diseases, which result from drinking water that’s been contaminated with things like E. coli and cholera and typhoid,” Dankovich said.

For the 3.4 million people who die each year from water-related diseases, the innovative product offers renewed hope. It’s cheap to produce, inventive and one of the niftiest products WATERisLIFE has seen in recent years.

“The Drinkable Book” has the potential to enhance the lives of an untold number of individuals worldwide. But the implications don’t stop there. Women spend a collective 200 million hours a day to find and collect water that is safe to drink. If those same women had access to “The Drinkable Book,” millions of hours would be saved — hours that could be used for work, education and social activities to enrich and extend the lives of family members.

– Joseph McAdams

Sources: Wired, NPR, Adweek, Water.org
Photo: Wired

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Poverty in Kazakhstan

While Sacha Baron Cohen may have put Kazakhstan on the map with his fictitious role as a journalist in the movie “Borat,” Kazakhstan today stands as a country that continues to face hurdles despite consistent economic growth over the past few decades.

A Central Asian country of nearly 18 million people, Kazakhstan is no stranger to economic uncertainties. Since gaining independence in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has experienced relatively steady economic growth, thanks in part to its expanding oil sector.

The country’s poverty rate declined by more than 50 percent between 1999 and 2004. Between 2004 and 2013, the nation’s GDP increased by more than 500 percent.

Nevertheless, nearly half of the country is considered to be in a low income class. Roughly 47 percent of the population maintains a monthly income of approximately $70.

Arguably most frustrating to many Kazakhstan citizens are the disparities in gross regional product (GRP.) Because some parts of the country are more resource-rich than others, inconsistencies in wealth have affected some Kazakhstanis more than others.

Even though the country has seen substantial economic growth in recent years, specifically in the oil, gas and minerals industries, employment levels in these industries have not matched the nation’s economic growth.

Following the turn of the century, much of the nation saw considerable gains in employment and labor productivity. Yet, the agricultural region of Kostanay and North Kazakhstan did not experience the same growth as others parts of the country. West Kazakhstan saw significant economic gains in the late 1990s following the introduction of an oil pipeline stretching from the Caspian Sea to China.Perhaps surprisingly, Kazakhstan’s oil-rich areas have also become the nation’s most impoverished.

The minimum income level below the subsistence minimum in Kazakhstan is $35 per month. Any amount below the minimum is considered as poverty. Between 1998 and 2003, the number of people living in poverty in the country fell from 5 million to 3 million.

According to a recent U.N. Development Programme report, unemployment and low income remain the primary causes of poverty in Kazakhstan.

Yet, it is hard to overlook the respectable economic gains the country has seen over the past two decades. Kazakhstan has made considerable headway in its attempts to cement its standing on the world stage. Last month, President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a new law to lift to visa restrictions, enact tax exemptions and help stabilize tax rates to interest foreign investment, especially with the United States and other Western powers. These moves, among others, will help the country in the long-term as it continues to make strides against poverty.

– Ethan Safran

Sources: The World Bank, World Health Organization, CNBC, IRIN, USAID
Photo: Breitbart

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Jay-Z to Headline Global Citizen Festival

global citizen festival
Extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.25 per day, consumes 1.2 billion people of the world’s population. Fortunately, awareness of this problem is beginning to penetrate the mainstream and even many celebrities are starting to take action. Jay-Z, Carrie Underwood, Tiesto, and other well-known artists are set to headline the Global Citizen Festival on September 27th at Central Park in New York City. This festival is aimed to highlight the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.

In regards to the festival, Jay-Z stated, “Change only takes place when and where there is action. I’m joining the 2014 Global Citizen Festival because I believe through actions, whether it be by raising awareness, getting involved or educating ourselves, the goal to end extreme poverty by 2030 is possible.”

The Global Poverty Project has taken the initiative to create this festival not only to raise awareness about the issue, but also to increase the number of people participating in poverty-reduction efforts. In order to maximize attendance and participation in such efforts, 45,000 tickets will be distributed free of charge for participating in Global Citizen’s online platform.

Many may argue that a concert, even with such famous artists, will not do much to alleviate extreme poverty around the globe, but the statistics show otherwise. In the past two years of Global Citizen Festivals, with performances by John Mayer, Alicia Keys, The Foo Fighters, and Kings of Leon, actions taken by concert attendees generated $1.3 billion to put toward poverty reduction programs, as well as commitments from 35 world leaders to aid the poor. Although much more funding and aid is needed to eliminate extreme poverty, $1.3 billion has saved lives.

In terms of participation, exposure, and timing, the Global Citizen Festival has been very strategically organized. This festival is set up to reach the widest audience possible by having iconic artists from three completely different genres of music come together to perform at the same concert, attracting people from many different backgrounds. The festival has also established partnerships with mainstream media outlets, such as NBC and MSNBC in order to reach people on a national level as well.

September 27th is a very important date for the festival to be held because it coincides with the United Nations General Assembly, where leaders from all over the world will gather to discuss public policy and international affairs. The fact that this festival is on the same day will give added inspiration to these leaders to commit to providing even more funding from their nations for international aid development to reduce extreme global poverty.

Besides eliminating extreme poverty by 2030, the main goals of this years’ Global Citizen Festival include bringing vaccines to the world’s poor, expanding education to the 60 million adolescents who are not provided the opportunity to learn and increasing conditions of sanitation to prevent disease and other problems.

In the fight against global poverty, it is extremely helpful and important that celebrities like Jay-Z and Carrie Underwood use their spotlight of fame toward a worthy cause in order to raise awareness. The combination of high-profile figures, established media partnerships, and strategic methods of participation in poverty-reduction, has set this years’ Global Citizens Festival at an unprecedented reach.

– Lucas Vazquez
Sources: Inquisitr, Rolling Stone
Photo: radio.com

Famine in South Sudan Looms

On July 9, South Sudan celebrated its third anniversary as a country. However, that celebration was marred by predictions that the country may soon be facing famine-like conditions if its food crisis continues to worsen in the coming months.

As of now, 1.2 million South Sudanese receive emergency humanitarian assistance, but another 2 million who need aid are unable to receive it, as roads have become inaccessible due to armed conflict. That conflict began in December 2013 when government and rebel forces began to clash. To date, more than 1 million people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the fighting. It is estimated that over 300,000 of those refugees have fled to neighboring Ethiopia and Uganda, considerably decreasing the host countries’ resources and planting the seeds for future tensions.

Further exacerbating the food crisis is the fact that a large number of displaced farmers have been unable to harvest crops due to the fighting. Their absence, coupled with dwindling funding for humanitarian groups in South Sudan, has created a dire need for intervention.

On July 5, the International Red Cross conducted its first air drops of supplies since 1998 in Afghanistan. The air drops occurred in Leer where 40 tons of seeds and emergency food supplies were provided — enough to supply 1,100 families. However, this assistance can only be viewed as a temporary fix to a long gestating problem. It is estimated that there are 3.7 million people in South Sudan at risk for acute food insecurity as the threat of famine in South Sudan lingers.

The delicate nature of the country’s economy has hindered South Sudan’s ability to help itself. An oil exportation dispute with Sudan in 2012 led to South Sudan ceasing its oil production for an extended period, essentially toppling its opportunity to reach the expectations of economic improvement the international community sought. Now, with the civil war raging on, oil production has again been interrupted in parts of the country as its currency continues to be devalued and inflation remains on the rise.

South Sudan is in dire need of aid. The Red Cross’s support has been helpful, but only temporary. The instability of the country has repeatedly thwarted its efforts to develop. As the country’s food supplies continue to dwindle, only time will tell how this crisis will be resolved.

– Taylor Dow

Sources: United Nations Development Programme, BBC News, The Guardian, NBC News
Photo: FAO

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The Power of 12 Dollars

12 dollars
Before the 1990s, many people disapproved of giving unregulated cash to the poor. People feared that handing out checks would lead to corruption, waste and an increase in drug and alcohol abuse among the impoverished.

However, the increasingly popular cash grant programs that have appeared in countries such as Brazil and Mexico are disproving these stigmas. Those in extreme poverty receive invaluable benefits from cash grants of as little as 12 dollars per month. When desperately needy individuals get small monthly cash transfers, research shows that better health, education and smarter overall life decisions will follow.

Michelle Adato has studied the impact of cash transfers for many years. She reveals, “Cash grants are now being seen as a part of a comprehensive development strategy as opposed to just a safety net.” What was previously thought of as a short-term solution is proving to have longer, more sustainable results.

When individuals and families receive grants, such as South African child support grants and those from The Transfer Project led by UNICEF, they can buy things they really need such as food, clothes and an education for their children. Extended grants to adolescents have proven to decrease risky sexual behavior, thereby reducing the chances of teen pregnancy and HIV, by 63 percent.

John Hoddinott, a deputy director at the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Unit, argues that cash grants not only give the poor a means to buy necessary survival items, but they “give beneficiaries a base from which to make longer term investments.”

“The research shows that in the vast majority of cases, poor people use their money well — the evidence is unambiguous.”

The Transfer Project, which runs programs across Sub-Saharan Africa, operates on the premise that income poverty has highly damaging impacts on human development, and that cash empowers people living in poverty to make their own decisions on how to improve their lives.

Those receiving grants from The Transfer Project in Zambia, Ghana and Malawi “all reported being happier with their lives, and research showed that recipients in these countries were eating better too.”

The child support grant in South Africa has expanded to include 17-year-olds, and now reaches 11 million children. The U.N. reports that a total of 20 African countries have social protection programs like these and both the number of countries and size of the programs are growing, with Kenya, Zambia, Lesotho, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Zimbabwe all expanding their programs.

In many ways, the initial skepticism of cash grant programs have only served to increase scrutiny and research, in turn strengthening them. Handing out cash rather than food and supplies empowers the impoverished to make their own choices and invest the stipends wisely. The widespread success of programs like The Transfer Project and the South African child support grants is a testament to the power of a small amount of money on lifting the poorest of the poor out of dire living conditions and into a brighter future.

– Grace Flaherty

Sources: CPC, IRIN News
Photo: Poke

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Medical Aid To Palestine Due to Violence

The World Health Organization warns of the critical medical situation within Palestine and the Gaza Strip. The four days of rocket attacks from both Palestine and Israel has left those in Gaza in a critical state.

The recent violence has increased medical emergencies, and the Palestinian healthcare system is struggling to cope with the new burden. WHO reported that large amounts healthcare debt, in addition to medical and fuel shortages, have severely crippled health services in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Unless the international community takes immediate action, Palestinians will not be able to have their basic medical needs met.

With the most recent strikes by Israel on Gaza on June 11, 2014, the death toll in Palestine has reached nearly 100. Over 570 people have been injured since the conflict started on July 6, 2014. Those in Gaza continue to fight back, and it appears that the conflict will only continue to escalate.

The fighting has weakened the already inadequate medical system in Palestine, and especially in Gaza. WHO is now making an international plea for funding and medical aid to help Palestinians receive urgent medical care.

To make matters worse, the hospitals in Gaza only have 10 days worth of fuel left to run the buildings. The lack of fuel is alarming, as the fighting continues to interrupt electricity. In an effort to conserve money, the hospitals are only performing operations on those in life-threatening conditions. Those with less threatening, but still serious, medical problems cannot receive treatment.

The Israeli airstrikes damaged a hospital, three clinics and a water sanitation facility in a refugee camp in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The organization reports that hospitals in East Jerusalem are struggling financially because of unpaid referral services, and there is a shortage of medications in both the West Bank and Gaza.

While the attacks on Israel have left multiple civilians injured, the poorer and militarily inferior Palestine is grappling to provide essential services for those injured and affected by the conflict.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health, with backing from WHO, is making a pressing appeal for $40 million in aid, enough to provide critical medical supplies for six months. The United Nations has also stepped in to help organize the relief effort.

The hope is that with numerous aid agencies involved in bringing the severity of the situation in Palestine into the international spotlight, hospitals will receive the supplies they need, and victims of the fighting will receive the care they desperately require.

– Kathleen Egan
Sources: The New York Times, WHO, Ma’an News Agency
Photo: The New York Times

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Hunger in Senegal

Summers are hungry times for the poor of Senegal, who must endure an annual “lean season,” lasting from June to September. Food insecurity caused by fluctuating food prices and unpredictable cereal harvests can leave hundreds of thousands of Senegalese malnourished and ill. Though Senegal’s economy relies mainly on the success of its agricultural sector – nearly 80 percent of the country’s people are employed in the industry, that success does not always translate to adequate nourishment for its 13 million people.

This year, underwhelming crop outputs are largely to blame for the food shortage Senegal is currently facing. Cereal harvests typically produce 20 percent more food than they have this year. As an added effect, the lean season started even earlier than usual this year, extending the period of chronic food insecurity for over half a million people.

Hunger has the power not only to kill and make ill, but also to disrupt families and throw individuals further into poverty. In Senegal, men often leave rural areas to seek food or employment in urban centers, forcing women to bear the burden of childcare at home. Many women, failing to obtain adequate food and water supplies for their families, resort to selling many of their possessions to make ends meet. Still, that is often not enough.

What’s the good news? Senegal is one of the most stable countries in Africa and has been since its independence from France in 1960. That makes it much easier for humanitarian agencies to work with the Senegalese government to implement effective aid programs. Currently, the World Food Programme of the United Nations is collaborating with Senegal to bring food to 675,000 of its people during the lean season.

The food aid strategy Senegal employs is based on a voucher system, in which households receive a monthly voucher they can use to feed their families. The program is very popular among the Senegalese people; one voucher recipient noted that, “from today forward, I will be able to feed my children, prepare rice the way I like it, and also save money to pay back my debts.”

With successful, targeted food aid programs like World Food Programme’s, the people of Senegal may be able to weather what is already the worst lean season of the last five years. Additional foreign aid aimed at Senegal would only extend that effect to even more people.

– Elise L. Riley

Sources: World Food Programme, The Hunger Project, Action Against Hunger
Photo: Global Post

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Prosecuting Organ Harvesters in Europe

organ harvesters
The international community awaits the European Union’s unveiling of a special tribunal for allegations against illegal organ harvesters in Kosovo in the late 1990s. Working for the EU, U.S. prosecutor John Clint Williamson will likely finish his investigation of the claims within this year. The government of Kosovo disapproves of the investigation, as many of its officials are former guerrilla members.

The renewed interest in long-awaited justice provides a grim reminder of a black market system responsible for the illegal global sale of approximately one organ every hour, according to the World Health Organization. In Europe alone, 120,000 desperate patients on dialysis and 40,000 patients awaiting organ transplants continue to buy organs from inhumane origins. Illegally obtained organs derive from a variety of methods including kidnapping, fraud, murder or seizure. The victim is ultimately unaware of the process.

In April of 2013, Serbia arrested five of its citizens involved in an illegal kidney ring serving wealthy patients in North America, Germany and Israel. Lutfi Deruishi, the leader, received an eight year sentence after the court convicted him of luring victims – often from Turkey, Moldova and Russia – to his clinic with the promise a large payout. The organ harvesters removed organs with little or no compensation and abandoned victims at the airport, which is how authorities eventually discovered the group. The prosecutor on the case, Jonathan Ratel, called the crimes a “..cruel harvest of the poor.”

The 2009 arrest of a Brooklyn man, Levy-Ishak Rosenbaum, resulted in the first federal prosecution of organ harvesting in the United States. He brokered sales to New Jersey patients of organs harvested from the poor of Israel and Moldova.

Impoverished Eastern Europeans find traffickers via the internet and believe the price of selling their organs will solve their desperate financial state. Traffickers often transport their victims across borders and threaten violence if the donor refuses to continue with the operation or reports the crime to police. These criminal organizations profit as the middleman between dying patients and impoverished donors, both willing to adopt extremes to survive. On the black market, organs can fetch tens of thousands of dollars – lungs and hearts selling for hundreds of thousands. The 15,000 to 20,000 kidneys trafficked each year account for 75 percent of all annual illegal organ sales.

The 2008 summit in Turkey of the Transplantation Society and International Society of Nephrology produced the Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism. This document focuses on the state’s responsibility to protect the vulnerable poor. Governments, according to the Declaration, should reinforce programs on kidney disease prevention and proper medical care for donors. Experts believe legislation against organ trafficking will need increased enforcement; additionally, donor pool regulations will need to be reexamined in order to end the exploitation of the world’s impoverished.

— Erica Lignell

Sources: The Guardian, Seattle Times, NBC, WHO, NY Times 1, NY Times 2, NY Daily News 1, NY Daily News 2, Telegraph, Reuters, Medscape

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How to Start a Nonprofit

Have you ever wondered what it takes to start a nonprofit? Extensive questioning and research are, unsurprisingly, pretty important, but such large steps can be daunting. Such steps can be intimidating, too; with a hasty research phase, a commendable mission may falter underneath shoddy business planning, or maybe a solid business plan is built only to support a redundant, unspectacular mission. The roads to failure are numerous.

This is not meant to disappoint anyone. Although failure is easy, scrupulous work and copious help make starting a nonprofit feasible. There are a myriad of nonprofits that role model this success story-The Borgen Project included. To help you begin thinking about starting a nonprofit (or simply to inform anyone interested in the nonprofit thought process), here is a compilation of imperative questions to aid you in your research, with a little Borgen flare.

 

Key Questions:

 

1. You’re not flying solo, are you?

The answer should be simple: no. It is unrealistic to rely on a single committed person (presumably yourself) to carry the nonprofit (to carry it very far, that is). Before any nonprofit takes flight, there must be a team (the more, the merrier) of enthusiastic and inspired people to propel the project forward. If your passion is contagious, you’re off to a good start.

2. What resources do you think you will need, and why are they important?

While starting a nonprofit, having a detailed business plan and outline is integral. It allows you to establish a few practical points, examining both the efficacy and the originality of your nonprofit before it’s too late to reverse a bad decision.

For example, if there are similar organizations to your proposed one, instead of forming another, try what is called “fiscal sponsorship.” This means that your initiative becomes umbrellaed by a larger veteran nonprofit. Basically, this tax-exempt organization serves as the recipient of charitable donations to your organization, which would not yet be recognized as tax-exempt. It allows your project to grow (maybe one day allowing it to branch off on its own) without competing with identical nonprofits.

The second, just as important, benefit of a thorough business plan is that it gives you a comprehensive (and requisite) understanding of fiscal resources. If this sounds boring, sorry, but, too bad. Although establishing your goals, structure, budget, marketing plan and resource development/fundraising aren’t flashy, they are all important. This gives you time to think about partnerships as well – they can keep your nonprofit alive.

The Borgen Project has teams dedicated to working the logistics of the nonprofit. Clint Borgen may be the face of the organization, but without fundraisers, organizers or even interns, The Borgen Project would not be very effective.

3. What’s that avalanche of paperwork doing over there, and who can I go to to get rid of it?

Paperwork can be both dull and frustrating, and filing to become a registered nonprofit is no different. It is necessary in order to secure recognition at the state level and to become tax-exempt at the federal level. If you do at any time need help finding your way through this process, go to both friends and professionals. Friends can be supportive and offer helpful advice, but ultimately you will want to consult experts before making any serious decisions. Finding lawyers who specialize in tax-exempt organizations or nonprofit law will, in all likelihood, prove to be a rewarding course of action.

– Adam Kaminski

Sources: Grant Space, National Council of Nonprofits, About.com
Photo: Mashable

SA Fly Farms Help Protein Production

Fly larvae (or maggots, as they are so affectionately called) are considered some of the most disgusting forms of life on the planet today. Nevertheless, they are instrumental for fish and animal life, and are therefore important to all humans, in some way. Or at least, that’s the theory behind AgriProtein, a startup business based in Stellenbosch, South Africa that’s looking to create protein feed from an army of maggots.

The start up recently began building the world’s largest commercial fly farm near Cape Town this week, and the project will house over 8.5 billion flies in the coming years to produce dozens of metric tons of protein meal, oils and fertilizer. The business capitalizes on one of nature’s most economical bottom feeders, and hopes the venture will lead to a more sustainable system of protein production and waste recycling.

But how does the business “harvest” the money maggots? The business extracts protein feed, extruded oil and fertilizer from the engorged larvae in a process (and industry) they call nutrient recycling. The idea is simple: you gather a large group of flies, collect their eggs (leaving three to four percent of the eggs to hatch to maintain the population of the flies), put them in a pile, and let them eat to their hearts’ (or whatever organ they use) content.

The startup feeds fly larvae unwanted waste from animal byproducts, food scraps and manure (basically anything you can think of that’s absolutely revolting and useless) to produce metric tons of wet, engorged larvae—insects the business can use to produce a variety of nutrient stuffs. Jason Drew, a member of the startup’s executive team, says AgriProtein plans to convert 110 metric tons of waste per day to 17 metric tons of larvae by October 2014. “It’s about cleaning up waste locally and making the food chain sustainable,” Drew Said.

This past May, the business “broke ground” on its first industrial scale factory and was even awarded the $100,000 Innovation Prize for Africa, a prize sponsored by the United Nations and the African Innovation Foundation. The award continues a recent stretch of international partnerships as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the German government and the University of Stellenbosch, a premier South African research institution, partnered with the budding startup.

Currently, AgriProtein has received much of its startup capital from international donors, and has attracted the interest of 43 different countries. Drew remains optimistic that the business will see tremendous success in the coming years, and cites returns of over 20% on initial investments.

With plans to build 38 fly farms, AgriProtein has ambitious goals to revolutionize global agriculture. Although the start-up is in its nascence, its inventive approach to the waste-loving insects shows promise for South Africa and the world over. It has the potential to provide animal feed at a lower cost (thereby increasing the ability of farmers worldwide to increase food production and reduce food insecurity) and offer a more sustainable replacement for traditional animal feed that can reduce global waste.

– Joseph McAdams

Sources: Agriprotein 1, Agriprotein 2, RawStory, The Guardian, Pub, Bloomberg
Photo: Rawstory.com