Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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French Guiana: Liberté, Inegalité, Fraternité

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Having become part of France in the 17th century and nowadays administered as part of France just like Aquitaine or Brittany, French Guiana has one of the highest living standards in South America. Interestingly, as a consequent, it is also part of the European Union despite being located in the Americas. In spite of this, the overseas department is one of France’s poorest regions and has long been suffering from youth unemployment.

In the 1990s, street violence with its origin in youth unemployment broke out on the streets. Even nowadays, unemployment in general remains above 20%, while in the rest of France, that figure is, even with the Eurozone Crisis and recent recession, 10.4%, half the regular unemployment rates in French Guiana. The Guianese population has 25 percent of its citizens living below the poverty line, the highest among France’s overseas departments.

The economic situation of France’s overseas departments in the Western Hemisphere, which, aside from French Guiana, also include the picturesque Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, has been the cause of much discontent towards Paris. As living costs rise, the wages remain stagnant and the economies, relying heavily on La Métropole’s subsidization, the people of the overseas departments took to the streets to participate in that most French of activities: les grèves—strikes.

In France, this department also has the infamy of the AIDS epidemic. For every 100 pregnant women, one of them is HIV positive. The department also holds the record for the highest number of children per woman both in France and within the E.U.—four children per woman. Also, terrifyingly, the infant mortality rate of French Guiana is at 11.8 per 1,000 live births, whereas in the rest of France, the average is merely at three.

These are vexing numerical figures for what is supposed to be part of an industrialized and prosperous Western European country.

There is also quite a noticeable discrepancy between the department’s mines and natural wealth and its socio-economics. Despite being peppered with gold mines, rich with natural resources and also being home to the E.U.’s space agency, the aforementioned figures resemble those from certain corners of the underdeveloped world. Perhaps because of the central government’s long negligence due to the department’s distance and its tiny population of only a little bit less than 250,000 people—almost half of that of the much smaller island Guadeloupe—French Guiana has been allowed to languish in poverty and relative underdevelopment.

However, this state of poverty can also be attributed to the department’s own micro-economic character and the fact that its two main economies are the said space agency and gold mining. These two activities can hardly benefit the population at large. Lastly, being part of, though non-contiguous to, a very prosperous nation world-renown for its high quality of life, French Guiana’s abject poverty often gets looked over by the figurative radars of NGOs and aid organizations.

With the large gross domestic product per capita gap between French Guiana and Metropolitan France almost nearing $30,000 difference per annum, the issue of poverty in this overseas department, thus, should demand more attention in order find a solution.

– Peewara Sapsuwan

Sources: BBC, The Guardian, Minorites, Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques, McGill Research Group Investigating Canadian Mining in Latin America, Pan American Health Organization, CNN, World Bank
Photo: Top 10 List

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Afghanistan: Past and Future

Afghanistan_economy Afghanistan is a nation with a turbulent history. It is a nation embattled as a result of the many conflicts that have transpired within its borders. In recent years, Afghanistan has sustained a steady disfiguration of its landscape as a result of the protracted War on Terror, along with the various terrorist activities in the nation which several militaries, the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) most notably among them, have sought to suppress. Before the War on Terror, Afghanistan started to incur devastating losses in a war with the Soviet Union from 1979 to 1989, during which over one million Afghanis were killed. Afghanistan was again challenged by a brutal civil war in the 1990s in which extensive violence led to more casualties and internally displaced persons. Conflict in Afghanistan has thus resulted in enduring regional instability over the past 35 years, much to the detriment of national infrastructure improvement. Consequently, economic development has been difficult to implement as well as sustain. Afghanistan performs poorly in many areas considered benchmarks of human development. On the actual human development index, Afghanistan ranks 172nd in the world out of the 187 countries that were surveyed. The performance of the nation’s economy is consistent with the assertions of its human development index ranking. The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Afghanistan is $1,399 and is ranked 161st in the world by the World Bank. The country’s literacy rate is also among the lowest in the world at 28.1%. In spite of Afghanistan’s persisting limitations, it has seen significant progress over the course of the past decade. Enrollment in Afghanistan’s schools has increased to nearly eight million from its 2002 total of just one million. Access to basic health resources increased from 9% to 60% between 2003 and 2012, and the number of healthcare facilities saw an increase of over 100% in the same period. Significant improvements were observed in the country’s energy infrastructure as well. Since 2004, the number of Afghani homes with access to grid power increased from 6% to 25%. As a result of investment in these areas, especially in the case of healthcare, both employment and the economy at-large have performed well and experienced steady growth. For the entirety of the War on Terror, total GDP exhibited average growth of 9.2% topping out at 11.8% in 2012 as a result of advantageous weather conditions and, as a result, a booming agricultural sector. The agricultural sector in Afghanistan, which constitutes over 70% of the country’s economy, has been aided by the administration of the World Bank’s National Solidarity Program. The National Solidarity Program has also led to the creation of 34,000 Community Development Councils. Many of these councils have garnered further investment from the World Bank totaling $1.12 billion, funding thousands of projects that these local collectives have sought to introduce. With the complete withdrawal of NATO security forces from Afghanistan set to take place in 2014, the economic outlook for the country is riddled with unresolved security concerns. Since 2001, the security apparatus in Afghanistan has been comprised almost exclusively of foreign troops, and their withdrawal is anticipated to have potentially severe implications for future development efforts. Contrastingly, in yet another period of war, Afghanistan has seen unprecedented growth of infrastructure considered necessary for poverty-reduction. In spite of security concerns that will likely take a long time to address, there is certainly cause to be optimistic about the progress that has been forged in Afghanistan since 2002. – Benjamin O’Brien Sources: Transparency International, World Bank Photo: Able2know

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How Foreign Aid Saved the United States

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A common refrain from critics of USAID is the lack of benefits they see would come back to the United States. It is hard to see the longterm benefits of these foreign aid programs, especially when things look so bad when they’re shown on the news. For many, it is easy to write off dire circumstances in distant nations as lost causes rather than potential areas of promise. Many fail to see how the United States was once such a seemingly hopeless region.

If the nations of Europe had the mentality that detractors of foreign aid have today, the United States wouldn’t have had a chance in its fight for independence from Great Britain. This decision took place during an era when it was much more difficult to give support to struggling groups from distant parts of the world.

France was one of the first countries to step up and provide foreign aid for the fledgling United States. While most of that foreign aid was military based, the loans they gave to the United States helped the nation function and get on its feet when it had few options. The loans that France made to the United States went beyond just military help. It also helped with needed supplies for the populace; supplies that kept the nation afloat.

Spain was another country that provided important foreign aid to a developing United States. Spain still had possessions in the Caribbean at the time of the Revolutionary War, making it easy for them to send over supplies to port cities that had been cut off by a British blockade. The goods that Spain was able to supply from such a close outpost helped offset the losses that many Americans were feeling in dealing with the might of the British Empire.

A number of other nations stepped in to help the United States in its struggle. The Netherlands gave some important trade support to help subvert the blockade, and even a number of Indian colonists helped the American cause. This foreign support was a key part to the war, and is arguably undervalued by people today.

While military support is most notable when looking back at this period of foreign involvement in the United States, the supplies and exports other countries provided kept the United States on its feet. It is this type of support for struggling economies that the United States as a superpower should be providing today. The U.S. is in the position to keep others from sinking from the status of a promising democracy into chaos, and organizations like The Borgen Project hope to encourage that type of foreign aid. It just repays the moral debts that the United States benefited from long ago.

– Eric Gustafsson

Sources: History, American Revolutionary War, America’s Library
Photo: Development Diaries

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Women and Modern Day Slavery in Pakistan

Pakistan

According to The Nation, women in Pakistan are forced to make bricks in order to pay off the debt their families have incurred.

“Living without running water, and often trapped by their employers for the rest of their lives, these women are forced to work in brick kilns, agricultural fields and other hard labour industries to clear debts which overshadow their families’ lives,” said the Pakistani news agency.

There is no reliable statistic regarding the number of Pakistanis who are currently enslaved as bonded laborers. However, according to the National Coalition Against Bonded Labour, these individuals exist throughout the country not only in the brick industry, but also the agriculture and carpet industries.

Moreover, the Associated Press estimates that “tens of thousands” of poor Pakistanis work within these industries.

“Bonded labor is the most widely used method of enslaving people around the world,” The Nation said. “The person is then tricked or trapped into working for very little or no pay, often for seven days a week.”

In many instances, the amount of work that debt slaves put throughout their lives far exceeds the amount of money they initially borrowed. But instead of quitting, the victims continue to work because they are constantly threatened with physical violence.

 

Facts on Modern Slavery

 

The Pakistani government, along with the world community, prohibits the practice of debt slavery. However, it is highly inefficient when it comes to enforcing the laws and punishing the people who profit from slavery.

Developed countries and humanitarian organizations are highly critical of modern day slavery. Human Rights Watch (HRW) argues that bonded labor is more common in the southern Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan.

“Bondage in agrarian regions involves the purchase and sale of peasants among landlords, the maintenance of private jails to discipline and punish peasants, the forcible transference of teachers who train peasants to maintain proper financial accounts and a patter of rape of peasant women by landlords and the police,” said the organization.

HRW also ties this issue into poverty by explaining that bonded laborers either work in the agricultural industry or the “informal economy.”

This is a vicious circle in which the landless poor “are denied access to institutional forms of credit and must therefore rely on landlords, moneylenders and employers.”

To end debt slavery in Pakistan, the government can work harder to enforce the laws already banning the practice. With debt slavery, individuals are fooled into working in horrible conditions for the rest of their lives.

– Juan Campos

Sources: AP, The Nation, Human Rights Watch

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PEMEX Announces Record Investment Plan

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Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX,) Mexico’s state-owned oil company, has announced a record $28 billion of investment for the 2014 fiscal year. It is expected that the vast majority of money invested (approximately 85%) will go towards production and exploration for new oil fields.

The $28 billion figure is 10% higher than last year’s level of investment, which amounted to $25.3 billion, of which $19.3 million went to production and exploration of crude oil and gas fields. Despite this increase over last year’s investment level, PEMEX CEO Emilio Lozoya Austin claimed that in order to develop the country’s resources to their maximum potential, a further $32 billion would need to be invested.

In late 2013, Mexico’s legislature passed a bill permitting foreign companies to invest in PEMEX, a groundbreaking move that was not previously allowed since the company’s nationalization in 1938. This permission comes amidst flagging levels of oil production and Mexico hopes the move will boost its productive capacity.

While levels of PEMEX investment have increased steadily from 2008 onward, levels of oil production fell from 2.79 barrels per day to 2.54 million barrels a day in 2012, and levels of gas production fell from 7,030 cubic feet per day to 6,900 cubic feet per day over the same time period.

In 2008, PEMEX reported a production of 43.5 billion barrels per year, while in 2013 it reported 44.4 billion barrels per year. This slight increase can be attributed to the discovery of six new oil fields that added about 180,000 barrels per day at the end of 2013.

PEMEX is responsible for funding approximately one-third of Mexico’s national budget, with much of the revenue going towards social programs that improve education and infrastructure throughout the country.

Additionally, PEMEX hopes to increase exploration of deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico and improve its technological innovation in shale extraction through its newly minted partnership with the Russian oil giant Lukoil earlier this year.

– Jeff Meyer

Photo: Huffington Post
Sources: International Business Times, El Economista, Oil Price

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UNSC Propose Reforms, Russia Exploits Veto Power

Following landmark political shifts in Ukraine during 2014, the scope of international politics has heavily focused its lens upon tension between Ukraine and Russia, and more recently in the eastern Ukrainian region of Crimea.

Popular uprisings in Ukraine have divided the population between western supporters of the European Union and eastern supporters of Russia. Although the majority of Ukraine’s population wants to be in alignment with the European Union, the region of Crimea contains a significant amount of Ukraine’s Russian-supporting population.

Russia has recently received international attention by its military occupation in the region of Crimea. In addition, the parliament of Crimea has even voted to secede from Ukraine. Critics of Russia, such as President Barack Obama of the United States, argue that Russia’s actions are in violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and established international laws.

Deputy Secretary General of the UN, Jan Eliasson stressed that meaningful discourse and dialogue ought to be facilitated within the Security Council in order to reach a resolution to alleviate the problems in Ukraine.

The situation in Russia has consistently been a heavily debated topic in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC); however, extensive use of veto power by Russia has hindered the UN Security Council from reaching any substantial resolutions to alleviating the escalating tension between Ukraine and Russia.

The UNSC contains a body of five permanent member states including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France and Russia. The ability for Russia to block actions that are clearly within the goals and intentions of the UN to “pursue diplomacy, and maintain international peace and security,” and “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” provides significant concern for the institutional framework of the UNSC.

Although the United Nations Security Council accounts for the most powerful UN body, Russia’s ability to exploit its status as a permanent member have produced consequences with their violation of international law.

Moreover, while the UNSC remains in suspension of reaching a resolution, the situation in Ukraine is continuing to rapidly escalate. Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations pleaded to the UNSC in an emergency session to do everything that is possible to end the violation of national sovereignty and invasion of Crimea by Russian military forces.

Failure to make steps to remedy the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is exemplary of some of the weaknesses inherent to the UNSC. However, it has not been the only case of Russia’s exploitation of its permanent status and veto power in the UNSC. Critics have also argued that failure to resolve the conflict in Syria has also been the result of blocked motions by Russia.

Considering the level of power and influence the UNSC has, problems arise when just one nation has the means to restrict action in addressing pressing international problems. Russia has been quintessential in portraying how special interests can hinder the intentions of international law—which is at the root of why international law may need to be reformed in accommodating 21st century problems.

– Jugal Patel

Sources: Reuters, Al Jazeera, UN News Centre, ABC News
Photo: Rianovosti

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5 Things to Know about Sughar

At the age of 25, Khalida Brohi has already made a difference in improving women’s rights. In 2009, she founded a nonprofit organization called Sughar, dedicated to empowering women, giving them opportunities to become future leaders and ending honor killings. Here are a few things to know about Brohi and this organization:

1. It grew out of tragedy

When Brohi was 16 and living in Pakistan, she witnessed an honor killing; more specifically, that of her friend who had decided to marry someone she loved rather than choosing someone her family had approved.

Brohi has said, “In a society where I live, life for a girl is a continued struggle, especially for a girl who chooses to do something ‘different’ – she has to fight the hardest and often has to pay a heavy price.” Brohi decided to stand up against the custom of honor killings in Pakistan and instead promote the honoring and empowerment of women.

2. Its best-known program is the Sughar Women Program

Based out of Balochistan and Sindh in Pakistan, Sughar makes it its mission to created Women Learning and Skill Development Centers in rural communities in the country. Each center teaches a six-month course to tribal and rural women to improve their skills. These women are given access to a basic education, which includes developing literary skills, learning about enterprise development and promoting awareness.

The ultimate goal to enable these women to become better decision-makers, larger contributors to their households and live more successful lives. The women also practice traditional embroidery as part of their Rural Fashion Brand and are marketed across Pakistan. Additionally, every course offers a minimum loan to each woman after she has graduated to both promote entrepreneurship and a decrease in violence.

3. It also works to strengthen women’s land rights and food security in Pakistan

In Pakistan, tribal women especially suffer from a lack of ownership rights, as many are not permitted to own anything in their homes, let alone rights to property. Sughar works to change this societal and cultural norm by encouraging these women to change the way they think about themselves.

Furthermore, Sughar works with the local communities in Pakistan as well as the government and media to allow women to purchase land and act on their ownership rights. These women are also given training on farming innovations, which could have an impact on improving the standard of living.

4.The organization also works to raise awareness on climate change

Sughar’s relationships with local communities extend to its work to educate men and women about climate change. Women are becoming increasingly effected by climate change because they are being forced to deal with extreme weather changes. They also provide information for them about how to cope with the growing number of natural disasters and how women living in rural communities should react.

5. The word “Sughar” is translated to mean skilled and confident woman

Brohi has said, “The future woman is Sughar (skilled and confident) who knows where she is stepping to and what she wants from life. She is aware that in the past there have been women fighting for the rights she is enjoying currently and therefore she would be grateful and willing to contribute to the betterment of society.”

The label “Sughar” is rarely used in Pakistan, but Brohi’s organization believes that every woman is worthy of such coveted recognition.

– Julie Guacci

Sources: Women in the World, Ashoka India, Sughar, The Daily Beast, Forbes
Photo: Sonya Rehman

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Wasting Food Makes Ending Poverty Difficult

According to a report by the World Bank, 25% to 33% of the food produced for consumption around the globe is wasted every year.

The Food Price Watch report argues, “Between one-fourth and one-third of the nearly four billion metric tons of food produced annually for human consumption is lost or wasted.”

The World Bank claims that such waste mainly occurs during the production, transport, retail and consumption stages of food. This is bad news, considering millions of people around the world are dying of hunger, particularly in countries throughout Africa and South Asia.

Sadly, the report also argues that most of the food is wasted in developed countries.

“Overall, some 56% of total food loss and food waste occurs in the developed world; the remaining 44 percent across developing regions,” said the report.

The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, said that the large amount of food wasted around the world is shameful.

“Millions of people around the world go to bed hungry every night, and yet millions of tons of food end up in trash cans or spoiled on the way to market,” Kim said.

Apart from the food insecurity that such waste can create, the World Bank claims that wasting and losing food also harms the economy and environment, and makes fighting poverty even harder.

But, how guilty are Americans when it comes to wasting food?

According to NPR, people in the United States waste around $165 billion worth of food each year. On one of the agency’s radio programs, Jonathan Bloom, author of “American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What we Can do About It,)” said, “We often don’t tend to realize that we’re throwing away perfectly edible food, especially when we’re paying attention to those expiration dates and when we’re thinking of those as the gospel truth.”

He believes that expiration labels are placed on food items for quality reasons, not safety.

But returning to the report by the World Bank, consumers often fall victim to the deals pushed by advertisements. Since consumers tend to buy more food than they need, many perishable items tend to expire by the time they are finally willing to eat them.

It is ultimately up to the consumer how much food to purchase and how long to wait before eating it. However, the consumers can make a big difference in the world if they stop wasting so much food.

This can be achieved by paying closer attention to their own eating patterns and simply buying less food.

– Juan Campos

Sources: NPR, The World Bank, Yahoo News
Photo: Enterra Solutions

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Kashmiri Students Arrested Over Cricket Match

Tension over Kashmir resurfaced in the form of a cricket match, as 67 students were charged with sedition after cheering on a Pakistani team at their university in Meerut, India on March 2. The Kashmiri students, who were attending the College of Swami Vivekan and Subharti University in India’s Uttar Pradesh region, faced life sentences before widespread outcry from other students across the country.

Protesters argued the seriousness of the sedition charges, which many did not feel their actions warranted, eventually succeeding in getting them dropped to a misdemeanor disturbance of public harmony. Prior to the charges being dropped, the students’ defense claimed that they never threatened to bring down the government nor tried to hurt India’s national integrity.

The case quickly gained national attention after the Opposition Peoples Democratic Party publicly demanded leniency and an apology from the University and state officials for their acts of “fascism.” Also, active in demonstrations were the Kashmir University Students Union as well as several chief officials from the northeastern regions of Uttar Pradesh and Jammu. The Pakistani Government who has offered to welcome their own universities to the students at hand.

Many critics feel as though the charges were motivated by ethnic and political discrimination, since the students committed no actual illegal act outside of rooting for the wrong team. The contentious Kashmir region has been the subject of controversy since it was divided between India and Pakistan in the 1947 partition and has prompted two Indo-Pakistani wars in the decades since.

According to the Student Union, the scenario “is nothing new, but a testimony to the fact that we have been in a perpetual state of war with India for the past 67 years.”

Since 1989, popular insurgency has been fighting for either Kashmiri independence or a complete merge with Pakistan. Sentiments of nationalism resonated in the arrested students’ actions, which reports say consisted of cheers of “Long live Pakistan” and “We want freedom.”

Vice chancellor of their university, Manzoor Ahmed, holds the students responsible and supports the sedition accusations, stating “You cannot pass judgments against your own national team. Their behavior was not conducive to peace on campus. It creates bad blood with the local boys.”

However, the students themselves claim the cheers were not political at all, but rather inspired by loyalty to their cricket team alone. Cricket is the national pastime of India, and has enjoyed popularity in South Asia due to the lingering legacy of British colonial rule. Cricket events, like the Asia Cup in which the two national teams were competing at the time of the arrests, are valued as one of the only spaces for tolerance and friendship between India and Pakistan, who both share a love of the game.

– Stefanie Doucette

Sources: Al Jazeera America, Times of India, New York Times
Photo: The Star

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The National Food Security Act in India

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Food has become a right, rather than a luxury, in India. Parliament approved the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in September 2013, requiring the government subsidize food for nearly 800 million people. Success of this program will lead to greater food security for nearly 70% of the Indian population and a political advantage to the ruling Congress Party.

Yet critics fear the program asks too much from an economy “burdened by a weakened currency and a large fiscal deficit.” This monumental step toward food security “relies on an unwieldy network of farmers, buyers, storage facilities, and sellers.” NFSA requires this network to supply an estimated 60 million tons of subsidized grains a year. Individuals receive an average of five kilograms per month. Those occupying the lowest income bracket receive more as well as assistance from state-run programs.

Supporters of NFSA highlight the past success in government food subsidies. In the 2011, more than 500 million Indians benefited from government programs. Delivering 51.3 million tons to those in need, the government provided 10 times more than the World Food Programme.

Those in opposition cite the 2005 incidents of “theft, corruption and difficulties identifying the needy.” In this fiscal year, the government estimates a 60% loss in grain, yet researchers returned to analyze recent government efforts, reporting gradual improvement in food delivery.

This program began at the start of the 2013 fiscal year and will cost the government an estimated $20 billion annually.

Supporters contend this modest increase from past years fulfills the “moral obligation of the government” to protect its people. Sonia Gandhi currently serves as the leader of the Congress Party and stands in staunch support of the program.

More than 100 million children attending school currently receive midday meals and a “take-home ration,” according to the New York Times. NFSA strengthens these entitlement programs, expanding access and improving efficiency. A number of studies support these school-based food programs, pointing to increased attendance and healthier development. The program also proposes revitalized efforts to protect maternal health, allocating 1,000 rupees, or $16.43 per month, for six months.

Maternal health during and following pregnancy directly affects the health and development of infants.

The success of NFSA depends on the strict government supervision and reform. Gandhi understands this and regards access to food as a fundamental right.

“The question is not whether we can do it or not,” she asserts. “We have to do it.”

– Ellery Spahr

Sources: TIME, New York Times
Photo: Commodity Online