Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Climate Change and the World’s Poor

Climate Change and the World's Poor
The individuals and families of developing nations that have contributed little to climate change will nonetheless experience its greatest hardships. The World Bank warns that Earth’s rising temperature is undermining economic development in poor countries. Droughts, floods, heatwaves, rising sea levels, and powerful storms will cause severe devastation in areas that are already poor or were coming out of poverty.  Within just two decades, climate change is expected to cause food shortages in these same areas.

An increase of at least 2°C, the limit set by scientists that marks a catastrophic and irreversible change to the climate, is inevitable if current trends continue. Although some refuse to regard climate change as anything other than a future problem, many parts of the world are already experiencing extreme challenges due to rising temperatures.

Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, warns that: “The scientists tell us that if the world warms by 2°C—warming which may be reached in 20 to 30 years—that will cause widespread food shortages, unprecedented heatwaves, and more intense cyclones.”

In Southeast Asia, catastrophic events such as the floods in Pakistan in 2010, which affected the lives of 20 million people, could become the norm, while changes to the monsoon season could be detrimental to Indian farmers. In Sub-Saharan Africa, researchers found that food security will be a major challenge, accompanied by dangers from droughts, flooding, and shifts in rainfall. It is predicted that farmers of this region will lose 40-80% of current farmland used primarily for growing their most stable crop: maize.

The World Bank plans to increase funding to countries currently without the capabilities to adapt to the consequences of climate change. Its aid has doubled from $2.3 billion in 2011 to $4.6 billion last year. An additional $7 billion a year is used to help poor countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions and work towards an environmentally sustainable economy. The bank is calling for rich countries to increase their efforts in cutting current greenhouse gas emissions. The need to avoid 2°C of warming is being emphasized, which scientists say is possible if countries cut their emissions in the near future.

According to Kim, “At the World Bank Group, we are concerned that unless the world takes bold action now, a disastrously warming planet threatens to put prosperity out of reach of millions and roll back decades of development…in response, we are stepping up our mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk management work, and will increasingly look at our business through a ‘climate lens’.”

– Ali Warlich
Source: The Guardian, World Bank, Huffington Post
Photo: Business Insider

Push and Pull Strategy in East Africa

Push and Pull Strategy in East AfricaDeveloped by Kenya’s International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), the ‘Push-Pull’ strategy may sound like something from Dr. Dolittle, but it is actually an effective technique for increasing crop productivity without relying on expensive and damaging fertilizers and pesticides.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports that a quarter of the under-nourished global population lives in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of these people are small-scale farmers, so most methods to increase their productivity would lead to massive gains in the fight against global hunger.

The ‘Push-Pull’ strategy is a technique that utilizes intercropping to increase yields by improving soil quality and protecting against pests. The concept is simple. Two of the primary threats to crops in sub-Saharan Africa are stemborers and Striga weeds. Stemborers are a type of moth that lay their eggs inside the stems of crop plants. This pest has been known to destroy up to 80% of small farmers’ crop yields. The other main concern for farmers in the region is the Striga weed. This weed is parasitic and stunts crop growth, which can mean a loss of 30-100% of yields.

The combination of these two threats alone can lead to $7 billion annually in damages from lost crops. Rather, though, than turn to expensive pesticides and herbicides to neutralize these threats, ‘Push-Pull’ focuses on more sustainable methods. In order to reduce damage from stemborers, repellant plants are interspersed within the primary crop. One such example is the plant desmodium, the presence of which discourages stemborers from the crop. Additionally, a plant that attracts the pests, such as Napier grass, is planted in a border around the field. Thus, the stemborers are simultaneously repelled from the actual crop while being attracted to the border. Along with serving to deter stemborers, desmodium also has the added benefit of producing a substance that interferes with the germination of Striga seeds, effectively eliminating this weed from crop fields.

Benefits of the ‘Push-Pull’ technique go beyond those of just natural pesticide and herbicide. Desmodium, being a cover crop, can be plowed back into the soil after harvest, raising the nutrient content of the soil. Meanwhile, Napier grass can serve as a feed crop for livestock as well as assisting in erosion control via its root system.

To date, more than 50,000 East African farmers have implemented the ‘Push-Pull’ system. Remarkably, this change has resulted in triple-the-average maize yields of previous practices. ICIPE plans to expand the practice throughout sub-Saharan Africa, educating and training farmers to take advantage of this revolutionary technique.

– David Wilson

Sources: Push-Pull, Food Security, Christian Science Monitor
Photo: Flickr

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Digital Divide Data: Incubator of Human Capitol

Digital Divide Data: Incubator of Human CapitolDigital Divide Data (DDD) recognizes that many young men and women around the world who do not have access to good jobs or higher education still possess the motivation and talent for employment. DDD empowers their staff with the skills and experience needed to escape the cycle of poverty.

Once identifying and recruiting qualified youth, they are trained and employed with a fair wage and offered scholarships to attend university. DDD alumni eventually move on to high-skilled positions where they earn four times the average regional wage. Not only are these individuals able to escape poverty, but also they are equipped with the resources to send family members to school while raising their household’s standard of living.

DDD has data management locations in Cambodia, Laos, Kenya, with sales and client support in the United States. The workers are connected to the world market and trained to produce the outstanding quality of work and meet client requirements. Since 2001, DDD has pioneered the ‘Impact Sourcing model’, which works with young people in countries with untapped talent and ambition. They are given employment opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach, creating better and more secure futures. Through this Impact Sourcing model, clients are provided with quality services, while lives are changed.

The world is taking notice of the work DDD is doing and the organization was ranked at #25 in The Global Journal’s Top 100 NGOs for 2013. 450 organizations were evaluated on three criteria: impact, innovation and sustainability. DDD was recognized as an “Incubator of Human Capital” which combines the mission of an NGO and the profitability and sustainability of a business enterprise. The Global Journal ranking falls alongside additional recognition by international media and opinion-makers.

The mission of DDD has made them a more responsive partner to clients such as Stanford University, Ancestry.com, and Benetech. Their Impact Sourcing model has been recognized by Boeing, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, and the United Nations Development Programs, among others. Donor support from individuals and institutions makes it possible for DDD to provide training and educational scholarships to their staff. To donate to the cause of DDD, visit: https://npo1.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1199.

– Ali Warlich

Sources: DDD, The Global Journal
Photo: Flickr

Malaria Tool Tracks Insecticide Resistance

Malaria Tool Tracks Insecticide ResistanceThe fight against one of the major hindrances of Malaria prevention, Insecticide Resistance (IR), has recently gained a major asset, the IR Mapper. As an interactive online mapping tool, it tracks IR in malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

The IR Mapper “consolidates reports of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors onto filterable maps to inform vector control strategies.” Collected through the cooperative efforts of Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the information was brought together by Vestergaard Frandsen, a Swiss company. Lastly, the design for the interactive map came from ESRI Eastern Africa.

Today, insecticide plays a valuable role in the prevention of malaria. Spraying a house with insecticide ensures mosquito prevention within homes lasting from 3-6 months. Similarly, insecticide-treated bed nets are extremely valuable and, as the CDC found, these bed nets reduced deaths of children under 5 from all causes by roughly 20 percent.

Yet, the successes of insecticide are in danger if insecticide resistance is not combated. IR has been found in two-thirds of malaria prevalent countries. This large percentage of countries hindered by IR displays the importance of the IR Mapper.

Estimated that 26 million more new malaria cases might occur if the action doesn’t occur against IR, this interactive map will provide the needed knowledge to health-care workers on the ground.

These IR Maps provide a new means of knowing where insecticide is facing confrontation with IR strains of malaria. This new map of information allows users to “guide the deployment of insecticidal tools to ensure the right tool is used in the right place at the right time,” according to IR Mapper’s homepage.

With maps that are armed with data spanning 1954 to present with detailed information on the current susceptibility situation with the mapped pinpoint.

To gain the information necessary to fill the maps the team acquired data from scientific articles and reports and from the IR focused database IRBase.

With this information public, more policies will be constructed with better knowledge and more research will be widespread to excel the deterrence of malaria.

– Michael Carney

Sources: CDC, IR Mapper, IRIN
Photo: Flickr

3 Foreign Policy TED Talks Worth Watching

“On Being a Woman and a Diplomat” – Madeleine Albright

Highlight Quote: “From some people, I think they thought [women’s rights] was a soft issue. The bottom line is I decided women’s issues are the hardest issues, because they are the ones that have to do with life and death in so many aspects.”

Madeline Albright was the first woman to hold the post of Secretary of State. Both amusing and straightforward, she uses this Q&A session to address the need to place women’s rights in the States’ top priorities in foreign policy, as well as increase the role of women in the political sphere as a whole.

Albright’s draws from her vast experience to illustrate her points. She explains how women leaders are better at communicating across ideological barriers, from weapons debates with Finland to reconciling Hutu and Tutsi leaders after the Rwandan genocide. Finally, Albright speaks of women’s tendency to hinder their own progress by criticizing powerful women in the workplace.

 

“The Global Power Shift” – Paddy Ashdown

Highlight Quotes: “Suddenly and for the very first time, collective defense, the thing that has dominated us as the concept of securing our nations, is no longer enough. It used to be the case that if my tribe was more powerful than their tribe, I was safe; if my country was more powerful than their country, I was safe; my alliance, like NATO, was more powerful than their alliance, I was safe. It is no longer the case. The advent of the interconnectedness and of the weapons of mass destruction means that, increasingly, I share a destiny with my enemy.”

Ashdown has had a long and illustrious international career, serving in MI6, then as a member of Parliament and after as the Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 20 minutes, Ashdown delivers us more food for thought than we can chew on at once.

Ashdown discusses the global shift in power, a phenomenon we are witnessing as it becomes ever more globalized and shared. Unlike the past, where a single superpower has risen, Ashdown projects a globe with multiple powers. Thus, co-existing will depend less on dominance and more on cooperation.

He points out that the interconnectivity of the world has a far deeper effect than what we imagine. Our future, our safety, our resources increasingly depend on each other, and with the world evolving the way it is, the idea of a nation no longer being able to bully its way to dominance is a novel one. This is an idea that sounds encouraging, but will take much getting used to. For global powers, the implications of a world where willingness trumps will is going to take adjustment.

 

“Time to End the War in Afghanistan” – Rory Stewart

Highlight Quote: “Because the worst thing we have done in Afghanistan is this idea that failure is not an option. It makes failure invisible, inconceivable and inevitable. And if we can resist this crazy slogan, we shall discover – in Egypt, in Syria, in Libya, and anywhere else we go in the world – that if we can often do much less than we pretend, we can do much more than we fear.”

Rory Stewart, a British MP, offers a refreshingly honest talk about the reality of the war in Afghanistan. A war that was so well sold to the public – wrapping philanthropy, revenge, idealism, and power into one – has ended up being a bloody, costly disaster, leaving both America’s psyche and Afghanistan itself irreparably wounded. Stewart compares intervention in Afghanistan to intervention in other countries asks the question: why didn’t it work here?

In answering, Stewart says the unsayable – that America’s arrogance and self-interest ultimately undermined any possible chance it had of improving the situation of the Afghan population at the cost of the lives of American soldiers. Stewart focuses not on pumping money or destroying dictators, but working with those who fully understand and comprehend the complexities of foreign intervention, and can deal with the challenges and frustrations it may bring.

– Farahnaz Mohammed

Source: TED Paddy Ashdown, TED Madeline Albright, TED Rory Stewart
Source: The Self Employed

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6 Ways to Bring an End to World Hunger

6 Ways to Bring an End to World Hunger
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates nearly 870 million people are suffering from chronic malnourishment despite the world producing more than enough food to feed everyone. Nearly all of these people, 852 million, live in developing countries. What can be done to solve world hunger?

1. Prevent Land Grabbing: The ugly truth of the future food supply scarcity issue is that wealthy, land-poor countries, including those in the Gulf and South Korea, are obtaining tracts of land in developing countries to use as allotments. Many African countries, including Ethiopia, Sudan, and Madagascar, have already been targeted. A reported estimate totaling an area the size of Spain has been taken from these countries leaving many families unable to feed their children. The push to end land grabbing is the main campaigning focus of the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign.

2. Reform and Regulate: Large amounts of investment funds have flooded into the commodities markets since the 2008 financial crisis. The automated trading systems, which exploit the tiniest of flaws in the market, encourage volatility. This makes it extremely difficult for traditional traders to keep prices stable and capable of hedging against spikes in the market. Though this was a topic much discussed in the G20 and G8, an international agreement to reform and regulate the commodities markets has not yet been reached.

3. Produce Less Biofuel: With the pressure to reduce carbon emission from fossil fuels, wealthy countries have been turning sugar, corn, and other crops into ethanol and biodiesel. Burning large amounts of food in our cars reduces the amount available to eat and results in much higher food prices. If that does not sound catastrophic enough, evidence shows that many biofuels actually release more greenhouse gasses than fossil fuels. More greenhouse gasses means hotter, drier seasons, dying crops, and even more hungry people.

4. Support Small Farms: Many African farmers are less productive today than US farmers were 100 years ago. There is an agreement between NGOs and governments that supporting small farmers is the smartest solution for future food security. With a combination of aid, education in better farming methods, and the introduction of better seeds and fertilizer, a green revolution could soon be within Africa’s reach.

5. Target Infant Nutrition: Many companies and wealthy nations are backing an African government-led plan to eliminate malnutrition, and large improvements have already been made. The solution is education on good feeding techniques and getting the proper nutrients to the mother and child at the beginning of pregnancy. This aid is key because malnutrition is responsible for an 11% decrease in GDP in affected areas.

6. Reduce Poverty: No surprise here; economic growth is the key to reducing hunger. More trade, financial liberalization, and open markets will aid in the flow of food. Successful poverty-reducing methods in China have led many economists to believe that hunger in the country will be eradicated by 2020. As for the rest of the world, the UN’s Millennium Development Goals aim to end extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. If each UN-member state does its part, these goals can be achieved.

– Scarlet Shelton

Sources: The Guardian, World Hunger

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HelpAge USA Fights for Elderly Rights

HelpAge USA Fights for Elderly RightsThough the eldest members of society are believed to be the wisest, they have also been revealed as the poorest and most neglected age group in the world. HelpAge USA formed in response to this travesty as a way to help the elderly claim their rights, challenge discrimination and overcome poverty.

Though many aid organizations set their sights on helping young, vulnerable children, HelpAge USA recognizes that the elderly are often just as vulnerable as the youngest members of society. HelpAge USA, therefore, works with partnering organizations to spread awareness about elderly people’s roles and value in communities.

HelpAge USA is an affiliate of the broader HelpAge international movement that builds awareness of global aging issues around the world. As a branch of this successful parent group, HelpAge USA spreads awareness of elderly rights among U.S. audiences while simultaneously urging them to advocate for the empowerment of the elderly in the developing world.

At the infrastructural level, HelpAge USA has outlined specific goals for improving communities’’ ability to help its older members, such as enabling older men and women to have secure incomes, quality health care, and support in emergency situations.

In addition to building up infrastructure, HelpAge USA works directly with the elderly to build a global and local movements that teach older men and women how to stand up for themselves in the face of discrimination. This is an important tool for the young and old alike, especially in impoverished regions with lower access to widespread employment, resources, and education.

The most innovative part of HelpAge USA is that it involves older men and women in “program design, implementation, and review.” That is, HelpAge USA relies on the input of the elderly themselves to drive the movement’s goals and ambitions. What better way to empower and properly gauge the needs of a deprived group of citizens than to place them at the heart of the movement itself?

For all they have done for their neighbors and communities, HelpAge USA believes that society owes the elderly their share of healthcare, social services, and economic and physical security in return.

In the fight against global poverty and affronts to human rights standards, one cannot forget to fight for the rights of the older men and women that have contributed so much to their communities’ social, economic and cultural development during their lives.

– Alexandra Bruschi

Sources: HelpAge USA, Idealist
Photo: Flickr

Brazil’s Development Success

Brazil's Development Success
Former Brazilian president Inácio Lula da Silva, during an international conference in Addis Ababa last week, claimed that hunger can be eliminated in African countries by 2025. However, he said, in order to do so subsistence agriculture must be abolished.

Lula’s claim is based on the success of his own country enjoyed through the Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) program. Under his eight-year presidency, the economy of Brazil averaged an annual growth rate of 5%, whilst simultaneously reducing poverty levels drastically with 20 million brought out of extreme poverty, and creating 20 million jobs. Small-scale farmers were given access to seed and credit, and 50 million people benefitted from a cash transfer scheme.

In order to replicate this success, Lula says that national policy will have to change to reflect the commitment to eliminating hunger and poverty. This means a change in the approach to support given to those in poverty. This support must be viewed as an investment rather than an expense. By giving subsistence farmers access to modern technology and machinery, and educating and encouraging them to produce, small-scale farming can be transformed to create excess crops for farmers to sell.

In speaking of the potential to emulate the Brazilian model, Lula targeted African leaders for designing good policies on paper but failing to implement them and truly improve the quality of life of their citizens. He said, “We failed to include the poor in our national budget. Any financial support to politicians and the rich in society is regarded as an investment yet when funds are geared towards the poor and the eradication of hunger, it is christened as spending.”

Lula’s remarks were made at a conference entitled “Toward African Renaissance: Renewed Partnership for a Unified Approach to End Hunger in Africa by 2025.” The conference concluded with a declaration, reaffirming government commitments and encouraging greater partnership between governments, the private sector, and civil society. Additionally, a commitment was renewed to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), an initiative that calls for African governments to commit 10% of their budget to invest in agriculture and increase agricultural productivity by 6%.

– David Wilson

Source: The Guardian, My Joy Online

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What Does BRAC USA Do?

What Does BRAC USA Do?
BRAC USA is part of the largest international development program in the world, BRAC, which aids the world’s extreme poor through sustainable solutions to poverty. Though the program focuses on an American audience, its effect is felt globally. By raising awareness in the United States and other developed nations, BRAC USA allows Americans and others to invest in their own future, as well as the futures of those in extreme poverty.

BRAC is an international development organization that focuses on alleviating poverty and issues related to poverty in 11 developing nations across the globe. Their organization model concentrates on empowerment of the poor through local, community-based programs, such as “barefoot lawyers,” a project that increases awareness legal rights and delivers services to the doorsteps of the poor. This program helps impoverished individuals recognize and defend their legal rights, including vital property rights.

Most important to its continued success, the international organization takes an approach mindful of establishing self-sustainable programs to better equip target communities, both women and farmers, to continue to address the causes and symptoms of extreme poverty and take matters into their own hands. The organization’s micro-financing program offers micro-loans to women to promote economic entrepreneurship in local communities and revitalize local economies, while also addressing issues related to gender inequality.

BRAC USA, a sub-group of BRAC, reaches out to Americans to encourage support for the global program in three ways: public education, strategic and program services, and grant-making. In the context of public education, the United States-based BRAC branch employs social and traditional media, as well as speaking engagements and word of mouth initiatives to increase American awareness of global poverty and the organization’s work. Some of the strategic and program services supported by BRAC USA include assistance with design and implementation of international development projects in developing nations, alongside enabling access to financing that makes these projects feasible. This assistance also takes the form of grants, made possible by the American program.

Programs like BRAC USA that encourage sustainable development in developing nations actually give back to developed nations, like the United States. By promoting development abroad, the program increases the likelihood that target nations will foster a market for developed-world goods. That is, by creating sustainable markets, we also create sustainable consumers that are historically proven to direct their newly-acquired purchasing power toward the nation providing initial development aid. To encourage investment in our own economy, we have all the more reason to encourage market development and a sustainable economy in developing nations abroad.

– Herman Watson

Sources: BRAC USA, The Borgen Project

The Story of Iraq’s Baby Noor

The Story of Iraq’s Baby NoorA few days before Christmas in 2005, a home was raided in Iraq’s city of Abu Ghraib. Within the home, Col. Kevin Brown and his soldiers discovered an infant. That child was Baby Noor.

Baby Noor was found at only 3 months old. She had been born with a severe case of Spina Bifida, a spinal cord defect. Without medical treatment, the defect would certainly kill her. In war-torn Iraq, proper medical care would be next to impossible to find.

The soldiers immediately wanted to move her to a place where she could find the care she needed. Col. Brown urged the U.S. Army to help the child. His persuasion worked. Soon Noor was on a C-130 transport plane with her father and grandmother en route to Atlanta, Georgia. It was there where doctors successfully operated and treated Noor’s Spina Bifida. During her stay in the United States, Baby Noor charmed the world. Photos of her smile were soon spread across television screens and newspapers. “Iraq’s Miracle Baby” enthralled the country.

Noor returned to Baghdad six months later in June 2006. While life may have seemed blissfully hopeful in Atlanta, reality soon set in. For a poor family, caring for a child with special needs was extremely difficult. Noor was paralyzed from the waist down. She was prone to urinary tract infections, and she had headaches caused by the shunt doctors inserted into her brain to collect fluid buildup. Noor was also quickly running out of medical supplies, and her family could not afford to repurchase them.

In addition to the challenges of raising a special needs child, Noor’s family also faced retribution for their association with Americans.  Her father claims that he was kidnapped and accused of spying by men associated with Al Qaeda who demanded a ransom from the poor family.

While Noor was growing up, Col. Brown never forgot about her, wondering what happened to the child he had rescued. Then one day, Brown saw CNN’s story “The Unfinished Miracle of Baby Noor.” As it turns out, readers had responded to the story of Noor by donating money to Childspring International, the very same charity that helped Noor stay in the US the first time. With the money collected, Childspring was able to purchase a two-year supply of medical equipment, including a wheelchair and many children’s toys.

Seeing this as the perfect opportunity to reconnect with Noor, Brown stepped in to help ship the large package to Baghdad. Through his connections with the U.S. Embassy, Brown was able to enlist the help of USAID’s Iraq Access to Justice Program and the Iraqi Alliance of Disabilities Organization. Along with CNN staffers, these groups coordinated to bring the shipment to Noor’s home in Baghdad.

Is Noor’s story finished then? Certainly not, Noor will continue to need medical supplies for the rest of her life. However, the story of Iraq’s miracle baby is not only special because she was saved once; it is truly a miracle because her story continues today.

– Grace Zhao
Sources: CNN, Viral Nova
Photo: Flickr