Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Why 30 Million African Kids Aren’t in School

According to two U.N. agencies, progress getting African kids to primary school has faltered. Around 30 million children in Sub-Saharan Africa have been kept from the classroom due t0 a combination of conflict and poverty, and international aid must be increased if the region hopes to get more kids a primary education.

In 1999, UNICEF reported 106 million kids were out of school globally, and since then the U.N. Millennium Development goals have made childhood education a priority. Since the implementation of this push by the U.N., the number of kids kept from the classroom dropped to 60 million.

However, “declining international aid since the global financial crisis and an increase in conflicts have hindered efforts,” says Yumiko Yokozeki, a regional education adviser for UNICEF in West and Central Africa.

Household surveys reveal that more than 23 million kids in West and Central Africa who should be in primary school are not. Surveys in eastern and southern Africa report 19 million kids lacking a primary education.

Schools are closing due to threats from violence and out of safety concerns for the children. In particularly conflict-ridden areas, like the Central African Republic, families are fleeing their homes in fear.

Dangerous episodes in schools, such as the hundred of Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram while taking exams, further discourage families from sending their children to get an education.

Conflict isn’t the only thing keeping children out of school. Poverty continues to be the driving force behind kids dropping out. Children who have to work to support their families and themselves are much less likely to attend school, because getting food on the table is a higher priority than getting an education.

Any progress made in countries like Mali and Burkina Faso is difficult to maintain. Military coups bring chaos and instability, and education programs are difficult to maintain as well. In order to keep children in school, governments must commit more money to education budgets. This money is used to pay teachers, purchase classroom materials and reduce the burden of fees on families. In addition to these monetary necessities, grassroots efforts are required to “convince parents that education is accessible and worth it.”

Although help from agencies like the U.N. spurred an increase in support for primary education, the fact remains that one out of every five kids in sub-Saharan Africa who should be in primary school is not. Without increased aid from foreign countries like the United States, this number could easily rise.

 — Grace Flaherty

Sources: web.worldbank.org, nytimes.com, flickr.com

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Hunger in Pakistan: Famine or Inadequate Policy?

Hunger in Pakistan has killed many people and affected the lives of many more, especially children. After a drought hit the Tharparkar district of Pakistan’s southern Sindh Province earlier this year, at least 132 young children died, many as a result of malnutrition.

The problem of hunger in Pakistan is not limited to Sindh Province, however. While Sindh certainly has the highest rates of malnutrition and least access to food, Pakistan’s National Nutrition Survey reported that 58 percent of all Pakistani households were food-insecure.

Malnutrition is also widespread; the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey found that 24 percent of Pakistani children under 5 exhibited “severely stunted growth.”

Why is hunger such a prevalent issue in Pakistan? Some of it has to do with past inflation of wheat prices in the late 2000s, as it was more difficult for people to afford domestic grain. Infrastructural difficulty, such as providing electricity to flour mills, also poses a problem.

Still, the largest factor causing food insecurity in Pakistan is the nation’s own government and its policies that hinder food production and distribution.

Take, for example, the deaths from the drought: the government did not work to distribute food until after the crisis. As the Pakistan Dalit Solidarity Network reports, “the government didn’t act until [it received] reports of children dying” last December, even though animals had been dying since October and rainfall was decreasing. Moreover, government-run hospitals and clinics in the region have been constantly understaffed, making it difficult to get medical care to those who needed it.

Other government policies affect all of Pakistan, not just Sindh. Under the Corporate Farming Ordinance, the Pakistani government leases large tracts of land to foreign investors looking to stockpile crops for their own countries. This takes valuable land away from local farmers while keeping the food away from Pakistani citizens that need it.

The government of Pakistan seems to prioritize profits over its people. During the inflation of wheat prices in 2008, the government increased its wheat exports, depriving many hungry people of food. Even today, much of the wheat that large corporate mills produce leaves the country.

In reality, Pakistan should be capable of providing its citizens with enough food to survive, and there should not be as much food insecurity as there is now. Arif Jabbar Khan, Oxfam’s Pakistan director, affirmed that “missing public policy action and persistent economic inequalities are the main causes of malnutrition,” not droughts or famine.

How can hunger and malnutrition be reduced in Pakistan? Foreign aid providers may be able to earmark funds for the redistribution of grain to poorer areas, and this aid could be cut if the government does not comply.

Nevertheless, political pressure to change food distribution policy must come from within Pakistan itself. The citizens of Pakistan must demand change and hold elected officials responsible for their actions in the polls if the system is to be fixed.

 — Ted Rappleye

Sources: The Guardian, South Asia Masala, Triple Bottom-Line
Photo: Tribune

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Katra and India’s Women’s Rights Problem

Two 12 and 15-year-old girls were lynched last week in western Uttar Pradesh in India after being abducted, gang raped and hanged by their attackers. The Indian village, known as Katra in the Badaun district, is one of the world’s most impoverished areas.

Most of its citizens work as tillers or take up small, part-time jobs in order to make a living. With hardly any money, most cannot afford a functioning toilet, so they relieve themselves in nearby fields.

Yet this is exactly what would lead to the death of two young cousins after being abducted by three men in the fields of their village. Their attackers hanged the two girls on a tree in the village, which would be on display for the entire community.

Thought by medical experts to have been hanged alive, many are wondering how and why these gruesome attacks could have taken place in a day and age where feminism is, in most parts of the world, on the rise.

India has had a history of women’s rights problems for years. After the gang rape case of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi in 2012, in which four men were all found guilty and given the death penalty, India has been making a concerted effort to tighten their rules regarding violence against women.

Yet this has by no means actually prevented or improved cases of violence against women in the country; in most cases, police insensitivity has been proliferated by patriarchal attitudes of those in governmental power.

The Samajwadi Party is just one example of misogyny’s power in Indian politics. The senior Samajwadi Party leader, Ram Gopal Yadav, spoke of the most recent incident, stating, “[In] many places, when the relationship between girls and boys come out in the open, it is termed as rape.”

Two months ago, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav claimed that “boys will be boys” and vehemently opposed the death penalty as punishment for acts of rape.

The three men responsible for the two teenage girls’ deaths in Katra have been arrested, and two policemen are being held on suspicion for trying to cover up the crimes.

This is not an uncommon occurrence: while a rape is reported every 21 minutes in India, law enforcement failure often results in crimes not being reported or investigated fully. Yet as the case rises in power, world officials are continuing to speak out against these acts of misogyny.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who stated that he was “appalled” by these recent acts, is just one of many to have spoken out. “We say no to the dismissive, destructive attitude of ‘boys will be boys,’” he said. As the government continues to crack down on these acts, many hope its citizens will listen.

 — Nick Magnanti

Sources: The Diplomat, ODT, Scroll, Times of India 1, Times of India 2
Photo: The Story Exchange

Rape as a Weapon of War

Rape and sexual violence are used as weapons of war because they are inexpensive and have longer lasting effects than guns or other weapons. UNICEF has noted that sexual violence “erodes the fabric of a community in a way that few weapons can.” Sexual violence and rape not only have negative, long-term impacts on women, but also their children, their families and their communities.

The effects are far reaching. Women suffer both psychologically and physically, as well as socially and economically.

When women are victims of sexual violence, they often suffer physically from persistent pain, fistula and infertility. Women can also contract HIV or other STDs, that put them at a severely disadvantaged position for the rest of their lives. In instances where women are injured so severely that they are unable to work, they suffer economically as well.

Psychological effects can emerge years later and have a long lasting impact including depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), low self esteem and suicidal thoughts.

During conflict, women are at risk for being victims of sexual violence, and in post-conflict societies, women are at risk of the social impacts resulting from being raped or experiencing sexual violence. Using rape as a weapon of war causes long lasting impact on the lives of the victims.

Due to the stigma of rape, women are often forced from their families or divorced by their husbands. This can be extremely problematic in societies where a woman’s economic security depends on marriage. When women are isolated, they are often forced into a life of poverty.

In instances where women become pregnant after being raped, they are isolated from their communities for birthing an “enemy child.” This is detrimental to a woman’s well-being in a multitude of ways, as they are cut from communities that once helped support them. The mental impact is equally severe, while it is even further enhanced by the economic impact of having to raise a child.

On the other hand, societies where a woman’s value is dependent on her ability to have children, infertility as a result of being raped or a victim of sexual violence can seriously affect a woman’s social standing and perceived worth.

Sexual violence and rape as  weapons of war damage entire families and communities whether women stay within them or are outcast. As women are isolated, communities are broken. If they stay, men are affected as they feel they have failed in their role as “protector.” The physical, mental, social and economic impacts felt by women, men and children can last decades and even multiple generations.

— Kim Tierney

Sources: Harvard, The International Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict, ODI
Photo: Woodmark

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Chemists Develop Solution to Water Crisis

water_crisis
If you think back to your days as a kindergartner, you may remember the first time you learned the water cycle. Equipped with a blue crayon, you replicated what your teacher described in a simple picture: rain falls, people drink it, the water evaporates and the whole thing repeats. You learned that water is renewable.

But renewable does not mean unlimited, a fact constantly recognized by the 780 million people who lack access to clean drinking water.

Freshwater, the largest source of our drinking water, makes up only 2.5 percent of the planet’s water. Only 1 percent of freshwater is actually available, as most of it is frozen. This leaves 0.007 percent of the Earth’s water left for an ever-growing population that exceeds 7 billion. This is a water crisis.

“Why can’t we use ocean water?” one might ask. The answer is, well, we can.

Desalination, the removal of salt from saltwater, makes the use of ocean water possible. But breaking the strong bonds that salt forms with water molecules requires a lot of energy, and this energy is expensive.

As Peter Gleick, president of the environmental think-tank Pacific Institute, says, “It can cost from just under $1 to well over $2 to produce one cubic meter (264 gallons) of desalted water from the ocean.”

Considering that 99 percent of water-related illnesses occur in developing countries, desalination is simply an unrealistic option for most who suffer from the water crisis.

But what if there were some way to desalinate without such steep energy requirements?

A team of scientists believe they know how to do so.

Martin Bazant and Daosheng Deng of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a process that they believe will more efficiently and effectively desalinate water. They call it “shock electrodialysis.”

Today, the two cheapest methods of desalination are reverse osmosis and electrodialysis.

Reverse osmosis works by pumping water through a membrane that does not allow salts to pass. Although it requires less energy than older methods, it works too slowly.

Building on reverse osmosis, electrodialysis tried the opposite: pumping salts through an electrified membrane until only pure water is left. This process is significantly cheaper than reverse osmosis but is not without shortcomings. It fails to decontaminate water of dirt and bacteria without additional filtration methods.

Bazant and Deng say that shock electrodialysis can produce clean, bacteria-free drinking water in one step. How? They placed an additional filter made of porous glass near the electrified membrane. Based on Bazant and Deng’s observations, dirt particles and bacteria are unable to fit through the tiny pores in the glass material.

If it turns out that this MIT development can be produced at a low cost on a large scale, shock electrodialysis could provide millions of people with access to drinking water.

– Shehrose Mian

Sources: UNICEF, National Geographic, Scientific American, Technology Review
Photo: Technology Review

New High Commissioner For the UN

Prince Zeid al Hussein, longtime Jordan diplomat, ambassador and former U.N. peacekeeper, has been nominated to replace Navi Pillay as the new high commissioner for human rights for the U.N. Currently serving as the U.N. Ambassador for Jordan, Zeid has built a strong career rallying behind such issues as international justice and sexual violence. If appointed, many hope his position will help bring a voice to the Middle East, specifically at a time where many individual rights in the area are under strain.

Zeid will be replacing Navi Pillay, a South-African born woman who was the first female to have started a law practice in her home province of Natal in 1967. Pillay has additionally served on the South African High Court and for the U.N. General Assembly for a total of eight years.

Pillay, whose four-year term was extended for two years, has worked to fight against domestic violence, and to improve economic, social and cultural rights.

Many hope Zeid’s new position will work to give answers to some of the injustice happening in the Middle East, and Zeid seems to be obliging. Showing interest in addressing horrific abuses in the three-year conflict in Syria, Zeid’s future position may bring as many burdens as it does advantages.

“Obviously a challenge is that he has to be willing to speak frankly about the record of silencing civil society, crushing peaceful protests, which is endemic in that region at this stage,” said Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.

Jordan, with help from Luxembourg and Australia, has been working on a draft which would provide humanitarian aid into Syria through four border crossings without government approval. Hopeful that the new position will explore new possibilities for the U.N., fellow diplomats have continued to offer praise for Zeid’s nomination. “Great choice,” said France’s Gerard Araud, via Twitter. “A committed defender of human rights and international law.”

Zeid has appointed Dina Kawar as Jordan’s new representative to the U.N.

— Nicholas Magnanti

Sources: Fox News, DW, DNA India
Photo: Free Beacon

The Timbuktu Renaissance

In 2012, Jihadist forces invaded and occupied Northern Mali, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians into exile. Among these individuals were musicians, artists and scholars.

Timbuktu is a city in the country of Mali, a western African country. Timbuktu is historically important as a trading post on the trans-Saharan caravan route. It was also the center of Islamic culture from 1400-1600. In 1988, the city was designated as a World Heritage Site.

Extremists invaded and immediately targeted Mali’s culture, notably music, including the world-renowned Festival Au Desert, as well as historic manuscripts that document Timbuktu’s position as the center of Islamic civilization in Africa during the Renaissance period.

The established culture is especially crucial in Mali, as it provides a guard against fundamentalism and the rigid Sharia law that outsiders have attempted to impose on the Mali people.

In an attempt to snuff out Mali’s culture, Islamic Jihadists sought to gain increasing levels of control. The extremist’s work to break down Mali’s culture was a strategic move, as culture is necessary for collective identity. When the collective body breaks down, a culture loses its cohesive nature — which is exactly what the extremists were trying to achieve. Due to the strength and perseverance of the Mali people, however, they were unsuccessful.

Invaders sought to silence the musical Internet for much of Mali, destroyed unique mud-brick shrines and tore down UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Despite Jihadist efforts, the Malians continued to blend music in hiding and in exile in neighboring countries. Under the leadership of Abdel Kader Haidara, a scholar and member of the Timbuktu Renaissance Action Group, individuals saved thousands of precious historical manuscripts, risking their lives to transport hundreds of cases on donkey-back.

Luckily, French forces worked to assist Mali in expelling the Jihadist takeover in the North. Now, as the country is working to re-unify the North and South, the current course of action comes in the revival of the Mali culture.

Mali’s President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, speaks openly about the crucial role culture plays in reunifying the country. The president spoke of Timbuktu’s symbolic importance as a major center of Islamic history during the concert of Malian music held during the UN General Assembly last September.

President Keita leads distinguished members of the Timbuktu Renaissance Action Group to revive and strengthen Mali’s rich cultural environment. This effort is for more than historical preservation, but works toward harvesting the potential for unity. Mali culture has the capability to promote peace, spur economic growth and attract tourists back to the region.

The Timbuktu Renaissance is alive and in full swing — and as the movement continues to grow, so does the potential for peace.

— Caroline Logan

Sources: Britannica, Brookings 1, Brookings 2
Photo: Flickr

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Team UNICEF: Playtime at its Best

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation,” said Plato. Playing is something that every child should be able to do, no matter the race, gender, language or religion. Playtime is not only something that every child wants to do, but it is necessary that children get the chance to play every day. It enhances a child’s learning ability, social skills and overall childhood enjoyment.

Many children in third-world countries do not have the chance to play because they do not have time, due to child labor.

Team UNICEF was built to help improve children’s lives, and was launched this past fall. Team UNICEF’s goal is to “amplify its existing sport-related programs and partnerships to improve the lives of children globally.”

UNICEF has partnered up with other major organizations, UNICEF ambassadors, and celebrities to make Team UNICEF a success. Athlete celebrities are great to have as ambassadors in this program, because they are very influential and are very well known. Some of the sport-related UNICEF ambassadors that have taken part in Team UNICEF are Serena Williams, David Beckham, Leo Messi and Yuna Kim.

Team UNICEF is trying to get everyone involved. 

UNICEF believes that playing a sport that involves everyone will stop exclusion and discrimination. It is believed that through sport, a sense of community and union will be built.

Here are a few points about what good play could do for children:

– Increases self-esteem, self-respect and self-awareness
– Improves and maintain physical and mental health
– Gives them the opportunity to interact with other children
– Increases their confidence by developing new skills
– Increases their imagination, creativity and independence
– Mixing with children off all backgrounds
– Develops social skills and learning skills
– Helps them learn about their environment and community

Playing should not only be a privilege; it is a right that every child should have, no matter the background, ethnicity, language or religion. Team UNICEF has successfully gave children this right, and will continue to do so.

-Priscilla Rodarte

Sources: UNICEF ,Planning With Kids ,Play England

Poverty in Austria

As of 2010, 16.4 percent of the European population, 80 million people, was considered poor and lived below the poverty threshold.

The definition of being impoverished (or at high risk of being impoverished) is: households where the household income is less than 60 percent of the total median income.

According to the EU Social Report 2012 statistics, 1.2 million people were at risk of poverty in Austria, meaning that 14.4 percent of the Austrian population was in danger of poverty.

The report also declared that about 1.5 million people were either at risk of poverty in Austria or were in danger of being debarred from society (about 18.5 percent) in Austria. In the European Union, 124.5 million people (24.8 percent of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

This 18.5 percent all fit at least one of the following conditions: not able to afford basic expenses, not able to pay their monthly bills, not having funds to eat meat or fish every other day, not able to afford a holiday, not able to pay for a car, not able to afford heating costs, or those who cannot pay for items such as a TV, telephone or washing machine.

Single-parent families are predominantly at risk of poverty, especially single women without an income. 36.9 percent of single-parent households were affected by poverty in 2010. The significant amount of poverty in single-parent families is because of their resources being based on only one income.

In the European Union, the poverty rate of women is higher than of men: it is at 17.1 percent against 15.7 percent for men. Austria has one of the highest gender gaps of poverty in the European Union.

The elderly in Austria are also at a great risk of poverty. 15.9 percent of Europeans 65 years or older are living in poverty. Austria has a significant gap between the general poverty rate and the elderly poverty rate.

Those who are not citizens are also at risk of poverty in Austria. The poverty rate of immigrants born outside the European Union is at 26.9 percent, versus 14.8 percent for those Europeans living in their country of origin. These differences can be due to many different factors. In some countries, some jobs may be forbidden for foreigners or immigrants.

-Colleen Moore

Sources: Austrian Times, Inequality Watch
Photo: Spiegal

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Modern Slavery in the Globalized World

Modern slavery is a major concern for our developing world. Modern slavery exists as a person being deprived of their freedom and rights. This is the right to leave a current job or workplace and the control over one’s own body. There are over 28 million people trapped in modern slavery.

Modern slavery can take the form of forced labor and human trafficking. All of these are forms of slavery and must be stopped. Countries like Russia and China have over 76 percent of the population trapped in some form of modern slavery.

The Walk Free Foundation is a driving force to end modern slavery in this generation. The foundation uses research and the help of businesses to gain a solid ground on the subject of modern slavery. The Walk Free foundation will look at the countries with high numbers of people in slavery and enlist partners to identify strategies to make a lasting impact on slavery.

New information provided by The Guardian states that it is possible that store-bought shrimp that lands on dinner tables across America is employed with forced slave labor. The shrimp is sold by major companies like Wal-Mart and Costco.

 Thailand’s forced slave market is connected to the global shrimp chain. These ships enslave many unsuspecting workers by beating them and at times even ending up in death. Most of the shrimp slave workers are captured to work without pay, and threatened with violence and death. There is no escape when at sea on these ships.

The slaves are forced at sea for years with shifts lasting over 20 hours. At times these men witness horrific and brutal execution-style killings of other slaves. These workers are coerced with hopes of finding work in factories, but are sold to boat captains, most likely to never return.

One victim states to The Guardian that at one time “20 workers were murdered in front of him.”

Aidan McQuade, director of the Anti-Slavery Movement, states that “if you buy shrimp from Thailand, you are purchasing a product of slave labour.”

Over half a million people are trapped in globalized slavery, even sex trafficking at Thailand’s borders. 300,000 of these victims of modern slavery are migrant workers tricked into the slave trade for fishing boats. The demand and pressure for cheaper fish and prawn from America and Europe creates a drive for even cheaper labour: slavery.

The possibility that Thailand’s sea port industry relies so much on forced slave labour that without it the industry would collapse. Wal-Mart and Costco both agree to require audits and proper corrective actions to be in effect towards the ending of the supplier’s slave trade.

Thailand’s fishing industry will be soon forced to change with new audits and anti-slavery actions taking place. The International Labour Organization will be conducting changes to ensure slavery free supply chains, especially those from Asia countries.

There are several companies that have been placing workers in unsafe working conditions and slavery. It is not just Thailand’s fishing industry committing these unethical practices. Companies compete for cheaper prices as the market grows for consumers. The correct process is on companies and consumers alike to make ethical decisions for workers around the world to receive humane and fair treatment.

– Rachel Cannon

Sources: Walk Free Foundation, Global Slavery Index, The Guardian
Photo: Eureka Street Australia