Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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How Poverty Impacts the Environment

Poverty Impacts the Environment
How poverty impacts the environment: Natural resources are being depleted, clean air is growing scarce, climates are shifting, and entire ecosystems are being affected. It doesn’t take long to look around the world and see the ways in which the environment is changing. While mankind, in general, places stress on the environment, poverty in particular has played a major role in environmental degradation across the world.

 

Poverty Impacts the Environment: Effects and Solutions

 

One of the biggest ways that the environment is affected by poverty is through deforestation. Forests provide the world with clean air, in addition to working as “sink holes” that help reduce the drastic climate changes seen in the world today. With the increasing level of deforestation taking place, the environment is taking a heavy blow and finding it difficult to recover. Impoverished communities, unaware of the errant, harmful ways in which they use natural resources, such as forest wood and soil, are continuing the destructive cycle that spirals the environment further downward.

Air pollution is another way in which poverty contributes to environmental degradation. As mentioned above, poor communities lack the proper knowledge when it comes to production techniques. Thus, the ways in which they use resources to help them survive are harmful to the resources around them, and ultimately the world at large. Air pollution is one of the major consequences of poor production techniques while water pollution is a result of poor water management, once again due to lack of knowledge. Water pollution affects so many things beyond the poor community itself. Water pollution deprives soil of nourishing elements, kills off fish, and is extremely harmful to human health.

Because extreme poverty doesn’t always lend to widespread birth education, many poor women lack the resources necessary to engage in birth control. Therefore, it is common for poor women to continue having children well after they would have liked because of little to no access to resources and education.

The more the global population grows, the more weight is placed on the environment. Every human being consumes their share of resources from the environment, and with so many births originating from poor communities, the burdens placed on the environment grow heavier and heavier each day.

In order to help the state of the environment, we must first help the state of the poor and education is key.

Poor regions need to know what the proper and harmless methods are in which they can dispose of their waste. They must learn how to tend a healthy and sound agricultural system without the reliance on degraded soil, and other unfit resources. There must be more importance placed on water management and protecting fisheries, as those are essential for the livelihood of many people. Re-forestation projects are crucial in replenishing the supply of environmental “goods” that deforestation has destroyed.

In addition, taking action to stop the rampage of deforestation is even more important in order to begin to nourish the environment back to good health.

– Chante Owens

Sources: Teams To End Poverty, Global Issues
Photo: Science Daily

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What are MDGs?

MDG Millennium Development Goals
Curious about this “MDG” phrase that keeps coming up in the global health and development world? MDG stands for Millennium Development Goals, eight poverty-addressing goals set by the United Nations in 2000. Delineating eight specific goals, 189 member states and 23 International Organizations, the MDGs should be met by 2015. Below is a summary of each of the goals.

1. Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Of all the goals put forth by the MGD, the prospect of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger has seen the most progress. In fact, the target of halving the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day was met an impressive five years ahead of schedule. While this is a laudable achievement, the fact that globally, 384 million workers lived below this threshold in 2011 keeps our feet rooted in reality. Moreover, it is estimated that to this day 870 million people are undernourished. While there is work to do, it is important to point out successes where they are due.

2. Achieving Universal Primary Education

Arguably, the number one feature of a developed nation is an educated population. To be sure, equal opportunity to education does not solely benefit the recipient. In order for a state to develop on a technological and social level, it is of ample importance to maintain a strong education network. To date, more children than ever are receiving primary education. The UN reports that enrollment in primary education in developing regions reached 90 per cent in 2010, up from 82 percent in 1999. While progress occurs, estimates show that in 2011, 57 million children were out of school and globally, 123 million youth between the ages of 15 to 24 lacked basic reading and writing skills.

3. Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women

Regrettably, in many nations women are viewed as second to men. What is more, this is not a feature exclusive to underdeveloped nations; Australia’s new prime minister, Tony Abbot, has stated men are genetically programmed to rule over women. While this type of antiquated thinking is laughable and likely a result of poor education, it cannot go ignored. To this day, in many countries women do not receive the same opportunities as men. The UN reports that while “the world has achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys, only two out of 130 countries have achieved the target at all levels of education.” There is a lot more work to do in this sector.

4. Reducing Child Mortality Rates

For underdeveloped and developing nations, the child mortality rate is a strong indicator of development. In fact, children born into poverty are twice as likely to die by the age of five than their wealthier counterparts. According to the UN fact sheet, “despite population growth, the number of deaths in children under five worldwide declined from 12.4 million in 1990 to 6.6 in 2012, which translates into about 17,000 fewer children dying each day. This is principally due to greater access to medication, especially vaccines for infectious diseases such as measles.”

5. Improving Maternal Health

Similar to the child mortality rate, maternal health is another powerful indicator of a state’s development. With the goal of ameliorating the staggering rate of maternal mortality, the UN and NGOs focused resources toward antenatal care in developing regions. With an increase of 63 percent of this care, maternal mortality has been halved since 1990. While much progress has been made, the UN reports “the maternal mortality ratio in developing regions is still 15 times higher than in developed regions.”

6. Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other Diseases

Of the infectious diseases humanity has faced, the two most visible are HIV/AIDS and, to a much greater degree, malaria. Prima facie, it seems that HIV/AIDS rates are going up because more people are living with the disease. However, these are people that wouldn’t be alive were it not for greater access to treatment. With greater education and more comprehensive knowledge, however, transmission rates among young people have decreased dramatically.

Globally, malaria remains the number one killer of humans. With greater access to treatment, however, the estimated incidence of malaria has decreased by 17 percent since 2000. Along with strides in malarial treatment, the UN estimates that treatment for tuberculosis has saved up to 20 million lives between 1995 and 2011.

7. Ensuring Environmental Sustainability

While good news can be reported on each of the other MDGs, the environment is worse off now that it has ever been. According to UN estimates, global emissions of carbon dioxide have increased by more than 46 percent since 1990. Deforestation continues to spread like a cancer, polar ice caps continue to melt, and yet, politicians continue to deny the likelihood of climate change. Despite environmentalist detractors, initiatives have been launched to protect the environment. Since 1990, the rate of protected areas has increased by 58 percent.

For many, this area will be the most important aspect of policy-making moving forward. As far as the environment goes, once damage is done, the prospect of reversing it is fiction.

8. Developing a Global Partnership for Development

The number one goal of this area is to “develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system.” Specifically, this means free trade at a global level. Yet, despite promising rhetoric, protectionist measures continue to effect global trade.

Yet while many aspects of this area remain obscured, there has been cooperation in ensuring the prospect of meeting each of the preceding goals. It is important to realize that this final goal is the least well defined of the goals and, thus, will be most difficult to measure. There is ample work to do, but there has been progress.

– Thomas Van Der List

Sources: United Nations, UNDP, World Health Organization
Photo: Photopin

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Why Technology Won’t Solve World Hunger

Technology Won't Solve World Hunger Kids Using Laptop
Ideas for ending world hunger are the subject of deep contention and intrigue. Conversations about how best to go about ending hunger are held among regular people far removed from the international, sociopolitical arena or non-profit sector, as well as among leaders in national governments and conferring minds within the United Nations.

Duncan Green in The Guardian recently reminded the world of the stark contrasts between those who can afford to eat and the nearly 900 million who sleep on empty stomachs. Progressive efforts underway in Ghana and Brazil have seen initiatives such as cash transfers to the impoverished and an increase in minimum wage. These programs have made strides, but in nations like India that are growing exponentially, the government must address the issue.

Of the myriad of ways to eradicate hunger, is technology perhaps a truly viable option at this point? If so, are the contributions made by technology being overlooked as a way to finally solve world hunger, or is technology simply a tool in this case?

Josette Sheeran, blogging for The Huffington Post, seems to think that technology is something of a cure-all for world hunger. She talks of the electronic vouchers used in Palestinian territories that give people greater access to food. The World Food Programme (WFP) is responsible for that, and other projects, such as the one in the Philippines that uses texting to feed workers. People participate in work projects and can collect their payment at participating food shops.

The WFP also uses social media with their WeFeedBack initiative that lets the user online select a favorite food and using a special calculator, can see based on its cost how many children would be fed with it. The calculated amount is what WFP encourages the user to donate.

Not long ago, a lab-grown burger patty was cooked and eaten in view of the public, touted as a way to help save both planet and people. A report from The Atlantic posits that the world already produces enough food to feed a growing global population and that new technology won’t necessarily solve the hunger crisis. Three-dimensional food printers are also a new tech tool being developed, but the report makes the case that in-house food printers won’t be an appliance in every kitchen because regular people cannot figure out the technology.

Why, then, would these technologies work in the emergent world? And, even if labs in emergent nations were capable of mass producing meat, consumption would be limited to the middle class and upper classes.

Sarah Sloat for Pacific Standard cites a 2012 paper by CUNY law student Rebecca Bratspies that says food production has grown inversely proportional to the hungry. Better food distribution will help solve hunger more than technological developments. The feeling, then, is that even with the massive amount of resources available to solve the world hunger crisis, the solutions are not dependent upon increased production.

Technology in food production has proven to increase production, but access is still contingent upon how food is distributed and how easily available it is to those who need it. Getting there may not be an issue of widespread production, but rather individual nations doing what they can to feed citizens.

– David Smith

Sources: The Guardian, The Atlantic
Photo: Huffington Post

The Elma Foundation

Elma Foundation Disaster Relief Humanitarian Aid Assistance
The foundation of ending global poverty begins with building a future for the coming generations. The ELMA Group of Foundations, founded in 2005, has seen the potential in youth and grown into one of the world’s largest private foundations focused exclusively on the children of Africa and selected groups in the United States and the United Kingdom.

ELMA’s mission is to improve lives through sustainable efforts to relieve poverty, advance education and promote health. They achieve this by utilizing grant making and investment, and supporting grassroots, community-based and large scale regional, national and international initiatives as catalysts for systematic change for people around the globe.

The group of foundations is made up of four major services arms: the ELMA Foundation, ELMA Relief, ELMA South Africa and ELMA Music. They are located in New York, Cape Town, and Dar es Salaam.

The ELMA Relief Foundation provides humanitarian relief to help people affected by disasters in any region of the world. They pay special attention to the needs of children, who often suffer more in the aftermath of environmental tragedies. They support successful disaster risk reduction activities and work to strengthen the strategic development behind it.

Some of their active grants include Global Fund for Children, Medecins Sans Frontieres UK and Oxfam America. These and other grants have provided support for disaster victims in countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Haiti, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

The ELMA Foundation has a particular focus in South Africa where they provide assistance to both children and adults. These include a Legal Resources Centre which aims to renew ongoing social justice programs with focus on children’s rights and the University of Pretoria, a community-orientated nursing education program for women and child health.

The ELMA Music foundation works mainly in the U.S. and UK. They offer financial assistance to musicians and musical performs, and to established programs seeking to assist the problem of substance abuse and addiction in the music industry. ELMA also supports opportunities for underprivileged children and youth to study and create music.

All in all, ELMA has a large and diverse outreach that tackles social injustice and pushes for relief and education all around the world.

– Janki Kaswala

Sources: Elma, Idealist
Photo: Berkeley

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Literate Women Improve Development

girls_school_ghana
One in every six adults worldwide is illiterate. Most of the world’s illiterate are women, meaning that they are 15 or older and unable to read or write. Literate women add to their country’s development. This is accomplished through their participation in business, government and culture. Moreover, they are more likely to ensure that their children, especially the girls, attend school, guaranteeing a subsequent generation of literate women.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated, “Every literate woman marks a victory over poverty.” Literate women strengthen the development of their country by reducing mortality rates, increasing child and maternal health and ensuring ongoing literacy for girls.

Therefore, governments, donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been encouraged to increase the funding and advocacy to improve literacy rates among the world’s women.

Africa is the only continent where most adults are not able to read or write. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the adult literacy rates are below 50 percent in Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. Due to gender inequality, the literacy rates in these countries are even lower for women.

Below are the literacy rates for the women in some of these countries:

  • Benin: 30 percent are literate, 70 percent of women are illiterate
  • Burkina Faso: 21 percent are literate, 79 percent of women are illiterate
  • Chad: 25 percent are literate, 75 percent of women are illiterate
  • Mali: 24 percent are literate, 76 percent of women are illiterate

With a poverty rate of 43 percent, Mali is one of the world’s poorest countries. Life expectancy is 54 years and girls’ education rate is only up to 7 years old. For these women and girls living in poverty, gaining an education is essential for survival. Through educating women and girls in Mali, HIV infection rates will decrease, incidents of human trafficking will diminish and women will marry and have children later in life. Women will also instill a value for education in their children and will gain more input in their family functioning.

Through increased funding and advocacy to educate the women of the world, global poverty will be diminished.

– Caressa Kruth

Sources: UN News Centre, UNICEF, UNESCO, CIA, The World Bank, World Education
Photo: The Blessing Basket

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How Diseases Lead to Poverty

How Diseases Lead to Poverty

What causes poverty? When looking at the factors that can lead to poverty in a region, there are many things that could be highlighted. One can look at the government, at conflict, at the lack of natural resources, or at the shortage of quality education in a region. However, poverty in a region is not only caused by conflict or inadequate education, but also by diseases. Increasing health in a region can significantly reduce global poverty, in effective and unexpected ways.

People in developing countries face challenges due to diseases that those in developed nations do not. For instance, in a developing country, someone who gets sick may have to sell their possessions to pay for medicine. Parents, not expecting their children to survive, have more children and spend less on education. Tropical diseases, and other health risks specific to a region limit tourism and foreign direct investment, affecting the potential prosperity of a nation.

According to research done in 2011 by The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), more than two-thirds of all people living with AIDS (23 million) lived in sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 1.2 million people died from the disease, accounting for 71 percent of all the AIDS related deaths in the world. Not surprisingly, sub-Saharan Africa is also one of the poorest regions in the world.

But while the problem of AIDS – and the poverty it causes – might seem insurmountable, it only takes around $100 a year to save one AIDS victim.  To put this amount in perspective: the United States spends roughly $600 billion annually on its military, nearly twice as much as the second highest spender, China.  How different would the world be if the United States decided to trim the amount it spends on its military, and use that to help other countries eradicate diseases?

People from poor countries need help to get healthier. Unfortunately, most developing countries simply do not have the resources to provide healthcare for their people. The richer nations need to make an involved effort in helping these countries eradicate diseases such as AIDS and malaria. By increasing the amount of aid that the United States and other developed nations give to combat diseases, the world will see a decrease in death from preventable diseases, and, as a result, a decrease in global poverty.

– Travis Whinery

Sources: WHO, UN AIDS, Economist
Photo: China Daily

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Thousands of Migrant Workers Expected to Die in Qatar

Qatar FIFA 2022 World Cup Migrant Workers Exploited
The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be hosted in Qatar and the construction on hotels and stadiums has already begun. This internationally-renowned sporting event will boost Qatari infrastructure, economy, and national spirit. However, groups like the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) claim that thousands of migrant workers will die before construction is finished, and have called for policies that will prevent the exploitation of these workers.

Many migrant workers from countries like India, Nepal and Sri Lanka have been entering Qatar for employment, joining the already 1.2 million migrant workers present in this country. Although many migrant workers are needed to prepare Qatar for the World Cup, the current system of employment may mean that many of these workers will never return home.

Unless reforms are made, 600 migrant workers a year could die on building sites due to harsh working conditions and lack of safety protocols.

Recently, 30 migrant workers fled to the Nepalese Embassy in Doha, Qatar to escape these conditions. They reported having their passports withheld in order to prevent them from fleeing, being denied water and a salary, and being forced to work in intolerable heat. Some equated such hardships with modern-day slavery. In addition, workers have been found living in unsanitary and crowded conditions, resulting in illness.

Employees that complain are often fired, with no means of returning home or finding more work. With passports and salary withheld, most migrant workers have no choice but to continue to work in such conditions.

Nepalese migrant workers aren’t the only workers turning to their embassy for help. Thousands more have complained to the Indian embassy in Qatar. According to the Indian ambassador, more than 700 Indian workers have already lost their lives in these deleterious working conditions.

The ITUC stresses the need for significant changes in workplace sanitation and safety. Otherwise, the organization estimates that at least 4,000 migrant workers will lose their lives by the 2022 World Cup.

These working conditions come as a surprise to many, as Qatar is the world’s richest nation in regards to income per capita. The country is expected to spend over $100 billion on infrastructure, hotels, and other facilities for the World Cup alone.

The ITUC has also commented on the need for FIFA to send a strong message to the Qatari government on how this system of modern-day slavery is unacceptable.

– Rahul Shah

Sources: Middle East Online, Opposing Views, The Guardian
Photo: BBC

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5 Republican Foreign Aid Quotes

Top Five Republican Foreign Aid Quotes Condoleezza Rice Marco Rubio Mitt Romney Global Development
Not all Republicans are opposed to foreign aid, and even those who are, have much to say regarding its usage in the American budget. The following are five quotes from various Republican politicians regarding their views on foreign aid.

1. “It has been hard to muster the resources to support fledgling democracies–or to help the world’s most desperate… yet this assistance–together with the compassionate works of private charities–people of conscience and people of faith–has shown the soul of our country.” – Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice (2012 Republican Convention)

2. “But too often our passion for charity is tempered by our sense that our aid is not always effective. We see stories of cases where American aid has been diverted to corrupt governments. We wonder why years of aid and relief seem never to extinguish the hardship, why the suffering persists decade after decade. Perhaps some of our disappointments are due to our failure to recognize just how much the developing world has changed. Many of our foreign aid efforts were designed at a time when government development assistance accounted for roughly 70 percent of all resources flowing to developing nations. Today, 82 percent of the resources flowing into the developing world come from the private sector. If foreign aid can leverage this massive investment by private enterprise, it may exponentially expand the ability to not only care for those who suffer, but also to change lives.” – 2012 Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (in an address to the Clinton Global Initiative, 2012)

3. “For development to play its full role in our national security structure, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) must be a strong agency with the resources to accomplish the missions we give it. But during the last two decades, decision-makers have not made it easy for USAID to perform its vital function. Even as we have rediscovered the importance of foreign assistance, we find ourselves with a frail foundation to support a robust development strategy. I believe the starting point for any future design of our assistance programs and organization should not be the status quo, but rather the period in which we had a well functioning and well-resourced aid agency.” – Senator Dick Lugar (Statement on Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act, 2009)

4. “Foreign aid is also an important part of America’s foreign policy leadership. While we certainly must be careful about spending money on foreign aid, the reality is that it is not the reason we have a growing debt problem.” – Senator Marco Rubio (Foreign Policy address at the Jesse Helms Center, 2011)

5. “But I would just tell my fellow citizens and people from South Carolina, I want to shape the world the best we can rather than just follow the world and if you don’t believe military force is the answer to every problem, which I don’t, then we need an engagement strategy, and sometimes investing in a country at the right time can pay dividends.” – Senator Lindsey Graham (in a hearing, 2008)

– Samantha Davis

 

Read global poverty quotes

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Vote Smart, USGLC
Photo: Flickr

Slum Rising Offers Shift in Thought about Slums

Slum Rising Challenges Concepts of Slums
Slums, the vast range of informal housing settlements in developing countries, are largely the result of rapid urbanization, weak housing institutions, and increasing urban poverty. Though often marked by harsh living conditions, lack of sanitation, and no clean water or electricity, popular perceptions of slums tend to reflect misconceptions about and prejudices against the urban poor.

Abby Higgins, a travel writer and journalist, is working to change this one sided discussion on urban slums and their dwellers. After living in Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum, for two years, Higgins was moved by the way her pre-conceived ideas about Kibera vastly differed from its reality. In Kibera, she found a thriving, unified community, rich culture and strong innovative techniques used to negate the constraints of living in a slum.

Her three-part series, Slum Rising, attempts to shift the conversation about slums from “objects of pity to complex parts of a global economy.” Brought to life through a combination of writing and photography, Kibera’s stories are told in three parts. Part one tells the tale of Higgins’s introduction to Kibera and ends with reflection on outsider perceptions versus realities in today’s slums. Part two highlights slums as centers of innovation and creation. Part three tells the stories of unsuccessful government housing plans and helpful alternatives to relocation.

Slum Rising has been featured in the Seattle Times, One’s blog and Good Magazine. You can read the series and experience the movement here.

– Tara Young

Sources: UN Habitat, World Vision, Share the World’s Resources, Seattle Globalist
Photo: Kickstarter

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Serengetee Shirts: Fighting Poverty in Style

Serengetee Shirts Fighting Poverty Style Fashion Africa
What happens when activism and fashion unite? Serengetee, an apparel company with a good-humored name, was created last year by five college students with an innovative goal in mind.

The company’s tagline, “Wear the world,” certainly rings true. Serengetee currently has 32 partners to whom it donates 13 percent of its proceeds for every shirt or pair of shorts sold. Each piece of clothing comes with a unique pattern representative of the country it benefits, juxtaposing the clothings’ all-American style.

For instance, sales of “Azul Calavera,” which feature smiling decorative skulls amid a floral backdrop, go toward Soles4Souls, which collects and distributes shoes to impoverished people around the world.

“Kruger,” meanwhile, showcases sunset hues and adorable sketches of elephants, tribal warriors, and gazelles, and benefits the TLC Children’s Home—an organization that provides free care and support to abandoned South African children.

Other buyers can purchase “Managua,” a popular rainbow-striped pattern inspired by the natural scenery in Nicaragua, which benefits Pencils of Promise, a non-profit group dedicated to improving access to worldwide education.

 

The Future of Serengetee

 

Since its recent beginnings, the company has donated over $30,000 to causes in over 28 developing countries. The company has even been briefly overwhelmed from the support it has received – following immense social media buzz,  orders were backlogged earlier this spring.

Serengetee founders are now prepared for future surges in sales as their public profile continues to rise. They have reached back to their undergraduate roots by employing college representatives from campuses nationwide to promote the Serengentee vision.

With a plethora of trend-setting designs and charitable causes to choose from, it is hard not be charmed by the idea of making the fight against global poverty a primary fashion statement.

– Melrose Huang
Sources: Serengetee, Forbes, Yahoo
Photo: Serengetee