Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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10 Innovations That Are Changing the Face of Africa

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Although Africa has long been seen as the forgotten continent, it is more important now to the United States and the rest of the world than ever before. Home to 6 of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world, the continent is increasingly in the eye of foreign investors from London, New York, Shanghai and Dubai. Here are some of the innovations that are changing the face of Africa in this rapid transformation from an allegedly “lost” continent to a new growth engine.

1. Start-ups and incubators

Innovation hubs like iHub in Nairobi, Co-Creation Hub in Lagos and the Silicon Cape Initiative in South Africa are now competing with the already well-established initiatives in the start-up capitals of San Francisco, London and Berlin. These communities are giving African start-ups access to capital and the advice they need to take new products to the market.

2. Afro-entrepreneurs

Omidyar Network has highlighted the growing number of “afro-entrepreneurs” that are emerging all across the continent with innovations that are uniquely African. One such example is Bridge International Academies, with over 46,000 students enrolled in their schools across Kenya. This is an initiative that commoditizes schools; pupils pay just $5 dollars a month to study at one of their “Academies-in-a-Box.”

3. Local technology producers

Several African technology firms have begun to design and produce mobile and computing hardware tailored to local needs. In the Republic of Congo, for example, there is VMK’s Way-C, an affordable Android tablet, and in Kenya, the Nairobi-based company Ushahidi developed BRCK, a black box designed to address unreliable power and data connections that has been dubbed the “backup generator for the Internet.”

4. Smartphones built for Africa

Major firms are starting to produce smartphones made specifically for African consumers. The Chinese company Huawei, for example, recently introduced its new product, 4Afrika, an affordable smartphone which will let users benefit from the growing data connectivity across the continent.

5. The maker movement

This trend from the developed world, which has seen millions of people creating and selling self-made products, has officially made it to Africa. The movement’s trademark event, the Maker Faire, took place last year in Lagos. The most notable locally produced product that resulted from this event was a generator designed and built by four teenage girls that uses 1 liter of urine to produce 6 hours of electricity.

6. Greater connectivity

Africa is leading the way when it comes to developing innovative solutions for limited connectivity. By taking advantage of unused radio and TV frequencies, providers are able to widen data coverage to include countless rural areas through white space technology. Microsoft has already partnered with Kenyan regulators and Google with South Africa’s ICASA to show that broadband can be offered over white spaces.

7. Mobile money

Africa is frequently seen as leading the world in mobile money solutions. In December 2012, Visa launched mVisa in Rwanda to serve the unbanked, improve ATM services across Rwanda and promote electronic payments which will contribute to formalizing the economy.

8.  mHealth

Health organizations have started to use mobile technology to address critical medical needs. SMS, in particular, is being used for countless needs, such as sharing vital information with expectant mothers or sending reminders to HIV/AIDS patients about taking their anitretrovirals. In Malawi, Baobab Health is developing solutions to replace traditional paper-based systems.

9. eLearning

Initiatives like One Laptop Per Child, Samsung’s e-learning technology platform, and solar-powered schools are innovative ways to ensure that students across the continent have access to up-to-date information and online resources, and are able to interact with teachers even when geographical obstacles stand in the way. Other organizations such as Wikipedia have teamed up with Orange to provide free access to the online encyclopedia to anyone with a mobile phone in Africa.

10. Social media

The use of social media is rising at astronomical rates in Africa. Besides Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Africans are also creating and using local social media platforms, such as MXit, which has over 50 million users who can use the platform to chat and play games at low data costs.

– Nayomi Chibana
Feature Writer 
Sources: Portland, Center for Global Development
Photo: Education Innovations

African Natural Resources Make the World Go Round

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Countless everyday appliances and gadgets would not exist if it were not for the minerals that come from Africa. From cars to cell phones, laptops, airplanes and batteries, much of what makes the world go round depends on resource-rich African nations that are being fueled by a global commodities boom.

Although much can be said of whether the rising demand for these minerals is actually benefiting those at the bottom of the pyramid, it is certain that emergent African economies are growing thanks to these raw materials. If well-managed, Africa’s mineral resources can lift the continent out of poverty and catapult it toward growth and prosperity for all.

Here are some of the everyday objects that are created with African natural resources.

1.       Cars

The catalytic converters in cars that are made to reduce pollution are made with platinum and rhodium. South Africa alone produces 72% of the world’s platinum and 83% of the world’s rhodium.

2.       Electronics

Devices such as cell phones, laptops, and other electronic gadgets are made from tantalum. Africa provides 71% of the world’s tantalum, with Mozambique leading the region as the source of 24% of the global production of the mineral, followed by Rwanda with 20% of the production.

3.       Jewelry

In 2011, more than 57% of the world’s diamonds, nearly 75% of the world’s platinum and 20% of the world’s gold was found in Africa. Botswana is the world’s second largest producer of gem diamonds, and in 2011, the diamond industry accounted for half of the government revenue.

4.       Batteries

The cobalt used in the electrodes of rechargeable batteries is growing rapidly in demand due to the use of portable electronic devices. In 2011, Africa accounted for 58% of the global production of cobalt, while the Democratic Republic of Congo alone represented 48% of this supply. Mineral mining, however, has been implicated in funding conflict in the country.

5.       Airplanes

Many aircraft parts are made with aluminum alloys, which can account for up to 80% of the jet’s weight. Jet engines also use superalloys that contain cobalt and chromium. South Africa represents 47% of the global production of chromite – used to produce chromium -, while Guinea represents 8% of the world’s production of bauxite, used to make aluminum. Guinea has almost half of the world’s bauxite reserves and is predicted to become a world-leading producer of iron ore in the next decade.

6.       Electricity

Besides coal and gas, Africa produces 16% of the world’s uranium, which is the source of the nuclear fuel that provides 14% of the world’s electricity.

7.       Oil

Last year, Africa produced 10% of all the world’s oil – nearly 9.4 million barrels per day. Leading this production is Nigeria, with 37 billion barrels of proven reserves of oil – enough to keep supplying oil at 2011 levels for the next 40 years.

– Nayomi Chibana
Feature Writer
Sources: African Minerals Development Centre, CNN
Photo: CSMonitor

India’s ‘Hackathon for Humanity’

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A three-day conference designed to bring the interests of women in technology to the forefront of the tech world, the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing is the only of its kind in India. The Conference is composed of keynote sessions, presentations on technology and professional development, a career fair, the Women Entrepreneur Quest, and Grace Hopper Celebration’s crowning glory – the Hackathon.

This year’s Hackathon, held last week in Bangalore, India, brought in around 120 women to code on open-source platforms for three humanitarian causes. In its fourth year of operation, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India was themed “Together We Rise,” to symbolize the collaboration of women from various sectors of the technology industry and their power to create a large network of technology-minded women.

The developers at this year’s Hackathon participated in projects in the fields of financial inclusion, mapping and health. Within the subject of financial inclusion, the women coded for Mifos, a free and open-source platform that enables financial service providers to more effectively deliver their services to the world’s poor. Mifos services microfinance institutions in managing funds, loans, installments, savings, deposits and other accounting reports. By coding at the Hackathon, the women helped to develop the platform and more efficiently manage Mifos’ data.

The second project built onto the framework of the Bachchao Project, an organization aimed at creating open technology tools to ensure user safety. The first of a larger set of technologies to keep women safe, the Bachchao app was first prototyped at the 2012 GHC Hackathon to transform mobile phones into personal security systems. This year, the women at the Hackathon helped to develop a custom crowdsourced map that alerts the user of safe and unsafe areas and displays local locations such as police stations, hotels and NGOs.

The final project worked on by GHC’s developers was a clinical reminder system that allows people to receive alerts about medications, medical tests, immunizations and examinations. This was designed to give people, especially women, greater control of and awareness about their own health.

In the shadow of the male-dominated technology industry, women are working against all odds to establish themselves as strong contenders in the growing field of IT.

– Tara Young

Sources: Mashable, Grace Hopper, The Hindu, The Bachchao Project

Teen Suicides Prompt Change in Rape Laws

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A teenage girl in Morocco committed suicide last month after being forced to marry her rapist. Her death occurred amidst debate over a controversial article of Morocco’s Penal code which allows rapists to avoid a jail sentence if they marry their victim.

The article in question, Article 475, received global attention after a similar case in March 2012 in which Amina Filali, 16, drank rat poison after being forced to marry her rapist. At the time, activist Abadila Maaelaynine said on Twitter, “Amina, 16, was triply violated, by her rapist, by tradition and by Article 475 of the Moroccan law.”

In Moroccan society, a woman who loses her virginity – even by rape – is considered unfit to marry. “There’s a mentality that says that a girl that’s no longer a virgin is worthless,” said Khadija Riyadi, President of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH). She went on to say that families feel like they cannot support an “unmarriagable” daughter and to make her marry her attacker seems like the only solution.

Opponents of Article 475 pressured U.S. president Barack Obama who met with Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Friday to urge the king to repeal the article.

A move to protect women from violence was submitted to the Moroccan parliament earlier this month, a year after the initial idea was proposed. Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid told Al Jazeera, “Until now, it’s still just a law project that’s being considered by parliament but hasn’t been rectified. We have not yet formally edited the article.”

“Delays in legal reform in Morocco are leaving women and girls exposed to abuse,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International. “Unless the gap is closed between the authorities’ rhetoric about improvements to the law and their delivery of these changes, more lives will be at risk.”

– David Smith

Sources: Al Jazeera, The Telegraph, All Africa

Voss Foundation Brings Clean Water to Africa

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At the Voss Foundation’s Women Helping Women luncheon, women enjoyed food, shopping, and good company. Most importantly, they also helped bring clean water to developing nations in Africa. By shopping at a well-curated African bazaar set up in the Dream Downtown hotel, luncheon guests contributed to the cause. The Voss Foundation, a Norwegian water company, works to bring access to clean water to regions in sub-Saharan Africa. At the luncheon, the Voss Foundation spearheaded a bazaar which sold an array of goods such as scarves, jewelry, and woven home goods. The merchandise was created by women whose communities had benefited from Women Helping Women’s work, which includes building wells and latrines and providing sanitation facilities.

According to reports, the event was a success. The event had a big impact on the fashion world as renowned female personalities such as designer Jill Stuart, author Susan Fales-Hill and beauty queen Nana Meriwether, attended the event; their presence alone “underscored an important reality about the water crisis”. In addition, the fact that the attendees were mostly female showed that the water crisis in Africa largely affects females. According to Kara Gerson, the foundation’s director, “women and girls who are responsible for clean water and so they spend hours carrying heavy loads of water on their backs and heads back to their families. There are obviously physical issues with carrying heavy loads of water long distances, there are safety issues when the women are alone and the water that they are carrying might not even be clean”. Model and actress Selita Eban who was honored by Women Helping Women in 2012 for her charity work in Sierra Leone, agrees with this notion.

– Stephanie Olaya

Sources: Voss Foundation, Wall Street Journal
Photo: Action Against Hunger

Tweets Assist Efforts in the Philippines

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p What was learned from humanitarian efforts through the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004? Coordination is critical to effective relief efforts.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) does just that, brings together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to disasters. In this age of technology information, OCHA has been on the lookout for technological supports. Enter the Digital Humanitarian Network (DHN).

DHN is supporting OCHA and the Philippines Red Cross’s joint ongoing rapid needs assessments through geo-mapping. Geo-mapping combines crowdsourcing from micro-mapping with machine intelligence, to filter and categorize information, which is then pinpointed on virtual maps in real time.

How does this actually work? Through collecting tweets, images, and messages, real time data can be distributed to aid workers. With this up-to-date information, aid workers are informed on the needs, gaps, and accomplishments in their area of focus, allowing them to make better decisions as they move forward with their relief work.

OCHA activated DHN one day prior to the category five Typhoon Haiyan reaching the Philippines. Through the persistent work of thousands of digital humanitarian volunteers worldwide, including media monitors, translators, GIS specialists, statistical analysts, emotional support teams and standby task forces, thousands of tweets were collected and automatically filtered down to a manageable size. The filtering process is based on relevance and uniqueness of the information.

As there are more than 30 million social media users throughout the Philippines, the data collected was substantial. For instance, 230,000 tweets were collected during first 48 hours of landfall. Processing this large amount of data can take up to weeks. Through the work of thousands of volunteers worldwide were these tweets processed in a matter of hours.

The data collected is uploaded to web maps that are easily accessible to aid workers. One such map is the Open Street Map. The Open Street Map was updated through geo-mapping 300,000 times in the typhoon-affected areas in the Philippines during the first three days.

DHN relies on Internet availability to function. Thus, lack of Internet can affect the amount of data DHN is able to collect, consolidate, and distribute. However, DHN has contributed to the collaboration of aid workers during conflict, disasters, crisis, and displacement in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Samoa, Syria, and now the Philippines. The typhoon in the Philippines is the largest deployment DHN has responded to.

DHN is contributing to relief work by helping to fill the information gap during conflicts and disasters. Through the social media information gathered by DHN, aid workers can work collaboratively, ensuring the most efficient use of resources.

– Caressa Kruth

Sources: IRIN News, DH Network, UNOCHA, Devex, MicroMappers

Uganda Population at Record High

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Today the nation of Uganda has a population of 27.7 million and this number continues to increase. According to the Population Research Bureau (PRB) the 27.7 million people will reach 130 million by 2050.  Researchers argue that this high rate of growth will surely keep the nation in financial difficulties. Ugandans already have limited resources and with this projected increase, the country will have to find a way to monitor the nation’s population explosion.

The current state of Uganda is largely due to the government’s lack of intervention and unavailable resources for family planning. PRB has stated that merely 20 percent of married women have available contraception. With such a low percentage it is no surprise that the average amount of children per woman is 6.9. This is an alarming amount considering the global average to be 2.7 children per woman. In fact, several have pointed this issue of high birth rates as being encouraged by Ugandan government officials since President Yoweri Museveni has stated that this population explosion is a “great resource” for Uganda.

This increasing population is also attributed to fertility levels which have escalated since 3 decades ago. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has been kept at a high in rural areas compared to urbanized areas. Seeing as Uganda’s Population Report 2013 indicates that 88% of Ugandans live in rural areas, the fertility level is basically high for nearly all Ugandans. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, there has been a markedly low infant mortality rate which coupled with the high fertility rate, has led to this extraordinary population growth.

Most Ugandans living in rural areas face extreme poverty, with poor infrastructure, limited supplies, lack of healthcare and famine in specific areas of the region. Several government officials are concerned whether the current demographic will impede economic growth. Some argue that the large population will begin a transformation, given how countries such as China and India have improved their economies after the pressure of rapid growth. The World Bank argued in a recent report that economic growth in Uganda would rise if fertility rates dropped and households learned to save or invest their money. What is certain is that today’s world population of 6.6 billion is expected to reach 8 billion by 2025 and Uganda will soon find itself having one of the highest populations among China and India.

– Maybelline Martez

Sources: World Watch, UBOS, Daily Monitor

What Has Become of Pol Pot’s Regime?

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Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime is known for the most extreme case of genocide in modern history.  The ultra-communist regime killed teachers, intellectuals, foreigners, business owners, and almost anyone who did not adhere to the Pol Pot ideology.  Nearly two thirds of Cambodia’s population was slaughtered from 1975 to 1979.

In 1994 the Khmer Rouge party was outlawed.  In 1997, Pol Pot was arrested by one of his own colleagues, Ta Mok.  A year later, Ta Mok was arrested by Cambodian officials for his crimes during the Khmer Rouge years.  Mok, “the Butcher,” was notorious for his cruelty as one of the top regime members. Kaing Guek Eav, known by his nickname Duch, was arrested in 1999.  Duch was a prison chief at S-21 prison, where 17,000 Cambodians died.

The UN recommended an international tribunal and truth commission try the Khmer Rouge leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.  The trials began in the early 2000s and are ongoing.  Pol Pot died the night the Khmer Rouge agreed to turn him over to an international tribune.  Whether his death was a suicide or due to natural causes remains debated.

Few major regime members were arrested, and many, including Ta Mok, died before reaching trial.  The most recent trial is of “big brother number two” and former president Khieu Samphan.  Both men are aging and ill, leading many to doubt these criminals will ever face justice.  While the judicial system is ‘fair,’ their trials raise questions over whether the punishment fits the crime.

The leaders of the Cambodian genocide have gone largely unpunished.  A combination of international bureaucracy, corrupt Cambodian government, and residual fears of the regime have prevented justice.  Cambodia remains an unstable country, and some fear that continuing the war crimes trials will only stir up political unrest.

– Stephanie Lamm

Sources: Peoples of the World, Reuters, PBS
Photo: World Without Genocide

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4 Children’s Books on Global Issues

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Children are the future. Today, our youngest generation has the ability to learn about global issues through reading. Check out the educational books below:

1. Clean Water for Elirose by Ariah Fine

This book tells the story of Maria and her friends who love all kinds of different drinks. When they learn about a girl their age who doesn’t have clean water to drink they set out to help her find access to what she lacks. Literature review site goodreads.com describes it as a “[…] children’s picture book about the lack of clean drinking water in the world and how we can help.” All profits from this book go to support clean water projects.

2. Little Things Make Big Differences: A Story About Malaria by John Nunes and Monique Nunes

Little Things Make Big Differences: A Story about Malaria, is a story about a young Tanzanian girl named Rehema. The story focuses on Rehema’s battle with one of the world’s most fatal diseases, malaria. When she was a baby, Rehema was infected with the disease but survived because her parents were able to get treatment for her. In the book, Rehema describes what children in rich countries can do to help fight malaria.

3. The Secret River by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

This book depicts how poverty affects families, with a focus on kids. Rawlings’ children’s book tells the story of a girl poet named Calpurnia and her family who worry that they will go hungry because there are no fish left in the river. Luckily, Calpurnia meets a medicine woman in the forest who helps her find the way to a secret river, teeming with catfish, which appears only when desperately needed and disappears when the heart and belly are full. The ending teaches kids that there is always a way to help aid those in need.

4. The Can Man by Laura E. Williams

Laura E. Williams provides a sweet but direct lesson about poverty in today’s society. Williams tells the story of a young boy named Tim who fantasizes about getting the skateboard of his dreams. But Tim’s parents can’t afford to buy him the skateboard for his birthday, so he puts on rubber gloves and starts collecting cans in a quest for cash. Soon he finds himself racing a homeless can collector to gain access to the best spots in the neighborhood for cans. As he gets to know “The Can Man,” Tim learns there are things in life more valuable than any object.

– Stephanie Olaya

Sources: Good Reads: Clean Water for Elirose, Good Reads: Global Issues for Kids, One, Huffington Post
Photo: Clean Water for Elirose

5 Books by Eastern European Authors that you should read

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One of the best ways to begin the fight against global poverty is to immerse yourself in another culture.  Eastern Europe is region rich with folklore and literary tradition.  Whether you are looking to become further acquainted with Eastern European culture, or have an interest in promoting development and human rights in the region, curling up with some of Eastern Europe’s best works is a wonderful place to find inspiration.

1. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Kafka was one of the foremost existentialist authors in the world.  Czech by heritage, Kafka wrote many novels and short stories, but none more famous than his novella The Metamorphosis.  The novella is the story about a salesman named Gregor who wakes up one day and discovers that he has transformed into a giant insect.

2. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Taking place during the Prague Spring of 1968, this novel is a classic story of a man torn between his love for a young woman he has just met and his old playboy habits.  But much more than that, it is an exploration of our choices as humans and chance events that influence our lives.  The “unbearable lightness of being” is when we forget the weight of what happens in our existence.

3. Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Although Patrick Leigh Fermor was a British author, Between the Woods and the Water is a story about the Balkans and Eastern Europe at its core.  It is a memoir about Fermor’s attempt to cross all of Europe on foot.  Stories about crossing the Danube, Budapest, and the mystical landscape of the Balkans and Carpathian mountains all abound in this exciting journey.

4. Café Europa: Life After Communism by Slavenka Drakulic

This work is a collection of essays by Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic.  A humorous, but always poignant work, Café Europa is an exploration of how former U.S.S.R. states are dealing with post-Communism.

5. The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek

This piece is a biting satire on war and politics.  Written by Czech author Jaroslav Hasek, the book tries to piece together the devastation of World War I by creating a fictional story about a well-meaning Czech man in the Austrian army.

– Taylor Diamond

Sources: Good Reads, Rick Steves