Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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10 Facts on Global Road Safety

10 Facts on Global Road Safety
According to the World Health Organization’s new report titled “Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013: Supporting a Decade of Action”, approximately 1.24 million people die every year on the world’s roads. Another 20 to 50 million sustain nonfatal injuries as a result of road traffic crashes. Road traffic injuries are estimated to be the eighth leading cause of death globally with an impact similar to many communicable diseases. Current trends suggest that by 2030 road traffic accidents will become the fifth leading cause of death unless urgent action is taken. Road traffic injuries are estimated to cost low- and middle-income countries between 1–2 % of their gross national product, estimated at over US$ 100 billion a year. Hence this is a serious problem that gets in the way of poverty eradication.

The following are findings from the report about worldwide road safety:

  1. Of the 1.24 million global road traffic deaths, young adults aged between 15 and 44 years account for 59% of it.
  2. 92% of road traffic deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. These countries have only 53% of the world’s registered vehicles.
  3. Vulnerable road users account for half of all road traffic deaths globally. Pedestrians, cyclists, and riders of motorized two-wheelers and their passengers are collectively known as “vulnerable road users.” The proportion of road traffic deaths in vulnerable road users is greater in low-income countries than in high-income countries.
  4. Controlling speed reduces road traffic injuries. Only 59 countries, covering 39% of the world’s population (2.67 billion people), have implemented an urban speed limit of 50 km/h or less and allow local authorities to reduce these limits. A 5% cut in average speed can reduce the number of fatal crashes by as much as 30%.
  5. Drinking alcohol and driving increases the risk of a crash. Above a blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05 g/dl, the risk of road traffic crash increases dramatically. 89 countries, covering 66% of the world’s population (4.55 billion people), have a comprehensive drink-driving law enforcing the WHO-recommended blood alcohol concentration limit of 0.05 g/dl or less.
  6. Wearing a good-quality helmet can reduce the risk of death from a road crash by 40%. Wearing a good-quality helmet can also reduce the risk of severe injury by over 70%. 90 countries, representing 77% of the world’s population, have a comprehensive helmet law covering all riders, all roads and all engine types, and apply a helmet standard.
  7. Wearing a seat-belt reduces the risk of death among front-seat passengers by 40–65%. Wearing a seat-belt can also reduce deaths among rear-seat car occupants by 25–75%. 111 countries, representing 69% of the world’s population, have comprehensive seat-belt laws covering all occupants in a car.
  8. Infant seats, child seats and booster seats can reduce child deaths by 54–80% in the event of a crash. More than half of all countries have implemented a law on child-restraint use in cars.
  9. Prompt, good-quality pre-hospital care can save the lives of many people injured in road traffic crashes. 111 countries have a universal national access emergency number, but only 59 countries have ambulance services available to transport over 75% of injured patients to hospital.
  10. Since 2007, 88 countries have reduced the number of road traffic deaths. This suggests that progress can be made if there is sufficient political commitment. However, in 87 countries the number of road traffic deaths has increased, while at the global level the number of deaths has remained stable. The pace of legislative change and enforcement need to be hastened and more attention paid to vulnerable road users to reduce the number of road traffic deaths.

– Maria Caluag

Source: WHO
Photo: Facebook

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Neglecting Environment Prolongs Global Poverty

Neglecting Environment Prolongs Global Poverty

The actions and decisions of humans have had negative effects on the environment and the world’s natural resources. However, research suggests not all humans deplete resources unnecessarily; the poor are often best at sustaining the environment because they recognize its direct connection to their survival. According to The Centre for Science and Environment, wealthier nations are to blame. The Centre speculates that if impoverished nations developed and consumed at the rate of the West, two more planet Earths would be needed to produce enough resources and absorb the waste.

So, if wealthy nations are consuming at an alarming rate while poorer nations excel at sustaining their environment, why is the latter suffering economically?

The answer is simple, but sad; industry frequently exploits less developed countries. They send their most environmentally unfriendly ventures to the Third World to circumvent the high cost of doing such work in the developed world. As a result, large-scale deforestation occurs to make land available for lease to international companies. Prime agricultural land is damaged by harsh pesticides and fertilizers to produce cash crops for wealthier countries and ten times the amount of water a typical Indian family should consume in one day, if they get water at all, is used for meat breeding for richer nations.

Disregarding the environment when addressing poverty leads to an incomplete solution because the two are directly related. The natural resources needed to lift people out of poverty, though sustainable, are not unlimited. Thus the environment can only sustain us for as long as we sustain it.

– Dana Johnson

Source: Global Issues
Photo: UN

Duflo Talks Social Experiments to Fight Poverty


Esther Duflo is the founder and director of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a research network that evaluates social experiments to fight poverty. It’s concerned less with wide-ranging policy than with specific questions. Esther Duflo takes economics out of the lab and into the field to discover the causes of poverty and means to eradicate it.

In Esther Duflo’s TED Talk, she brought up three specific questions people care about:

  1. The “last mile problem” of immunization.
  2. Should we donate lots of bed nets to solve malaria?
  3. What do we do about education?

When you ask the general question of whether millions dollars of aid are good or bad for Africa’s development, no one seems to be able to produce an exact answer. No one knows and no one can do the control experiment to prove his or her point, because Africa is a singularly unique continent whose development cannot be so easily compared to other regions of the world. But when you specify that big idea into small questions, social experiments, in some areas, may answer these questions. This may not answer people’s big questions like whether or not donating to African charities is a good or bad thing, but they definitely can tell us what we should do to help make Africa a more stable and prosperous continent.

– Caiqing Jin (Kelly)

Source: TED Talk

Richard Crespin Joins USGLC

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Richard Crespin has joined the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) as the Director of Business Outreach. He will be responsible for working as a USGLC ambassador, engaging Americans about the importance of international affairs programs in strengthening markets for U.S. goods and services. He will convey how investing abroad creates jobs in the United States and helps to keep the US secure.

USGLC is excited that Crespin has chosen to join their team. USGLC believes Crespin’s experience as a business leader with experience in corporate opportunity and corporate responsibility will mesh incredibly well with their organization’s goals and mission. Crespin provides the USGLC a unique opportunity to demonstrate how U.S. engagement abroad is good for business at home.

Crespin’s resume boasts substantial experience working in the private, public, and civil sectors. He was worked as the Executive Director of the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association. He has also worked with noteworthy companies and organizations including the American Red Cross, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Department of Defense.  He attended George Washington University and Harvard Business School. Currently, he works for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Editorial Board for the Sustainable Business Forum and on the Board of Directors for the Society for International Development among others.

Crespin has stressed the importance of investing in foreign economies. He has said that American presence in these markets is a, “surefire way to grow our own economy and create quality jobs across the country.” As the new Director of Business outreach, Crespin says he is excited to work with businesses to build support for new tools of development and diplomacy.

The USGLC provides an excellent platform for outreach. The USGLC is a broad-based network of 400 businesses and NGOs, national security and foreign policy experts and business, faith-based, academic and community leaders. Members support a smart power approach that elevates diplomacy along with defense, in effect building a better and safer world.

– Caitlin Zusy 
Source USGLC
Photo Twitter

Smart Consumers Can Help Poor People

Oxfam Fair Trade
Coffee is the second most-traded commodity and one of the most consumed drinks around the world. The consumption of coffee is a universal business within its own, for its demand is incredibly high worldwide. Drinking coffee has become almost second nature to many who can afford it. American author and journalist, Sarah Vowell, says that she realized that drinking a mocha, although seemingly trivial, was in fact “to gulp down the entire history of the New World.” She continues on to say that the modern mocha is nothing less than a “bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top.”

Taken into consideration how big of a role coffee plays in people’s lives today, one would think that people would know where their coffee was coming from and what kind of conditions it was produced in. However, the truth is to the contrary because many people have no idea what conditions coffee producers undergo. Approximately 25 million farmers depend on coffee production/sales to make their living, and many of them live in poverty. The coffee market is prone to severe fluctuations due to changes in climate which in turn affect the growth patterns of coffee plants. Due to the longevity of the growth of coffee plants, producers cannot react quickly to changes in coffee demand. Thus, this is where smart consumers can help poor people, and in particular, coffee producers.

As smart informed consumers, people can buy certified fair trade coffee which basically means that farmers and coffee producers are paid a fair and stable price regardless of changing conditions. A recent Oxfam Australia survey reports that more than 85% of consumers want more fair trade products in their supermarkets, and 60% believe that their consumer decisions can make a difference in the lives of producers and farmers in less-developed countries. Marcial Valladolid, from CACVRA, which is a small producer organization in Peru, expressed how coffee cultivation used to disappoint him because the money he made was not remotely close to cover the cost of his coffee production. CACVRA uses its fair trade premium to “support and improve organic cultivation and certification.” By joining this cooperative, Marcel is content that he was able to receive some profit, and he is hopeful for a future with more fair trade.

It is no wonder that coffee was once described by Neil Gaiman as “sweet as sin,” taking into account all the producers and farmers horribly affected by our enjoyment of their produce. Majority of coffee producers live in developing countries including Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Mexico. Luckily, our enjoyment can come as a better price as the conditions can change because certified fair trade products are becoming increasingly available and accessible through independent grocers, major supermarkets, and retail stores. Thus, making the switch to becoming a smart consumer could not be any easier today. Make the switch today and change people’s lives.

– Leen Abdallah

Sources: AU News, Good Reads
Photo: Google, Google

World Partnership Walk to End Poverty

walk-to-end-world-poverty
In Vancouver, Canada on May 26, 2013, the World Partnership Walk attracted thousands of participants hoping to raise millions of dollars in a walk to end global poverty. In 2012, the World Partnership Walk raised more than $2 million on behalf of the Aga Khan Foundation and its fight to end global poverty.

A regional campaign manager for Aga Khan Foundation, Zahed Lalani said that the donations raised this weekend will go towards future generations and people associated with Bangladesh’s garment factories. Usually, women are recruited to work at the factories and their newborn children are left with family members that are ill-equipped to care for them. Due to malnutrition, many of these infants don’t live past the age of five. The money and awareness raised last weekend will go towards the 50 factory daycare centers opened by the foundation to care for the children of the factory workers.

Another participant in the World Partnership Walk is Derek Gent, the current executive and director of the Vancity Community Foundation. Gent first came in contact with the often times illiterate and innumerate villagers in rural Bangladesh in 1996 and hoped to pass on his knowledge of Western economics. Gent was surprised at the sophistication one particular villager could apply to business without Western tools. On Sunday, Gent hopes others can learn from and connect with people from developing nations just as he did.

– Kira Maixner

Source: Vancouver 24hrs
Photo: Science Daily

Affordable Solar Irrigation System

Affordable Solar Irrigation SystemWatering crops has traditionally been a massive burden on poor farmers, requiring hours of hauling buckets from the nearest water source. Solar pump technology presents an opportunity for these farmers to harness the energy of the sun and pump water to their crops. But this technology is still too expensive to impact rural poverty.

By cutting the cost by 80% small farmer incomes would be transformed, tens of thousands of jobs could be created, and carbon emissions would be significantly reduced. If solar water pump was affordable at $2-a-day, small plot agriculture could become more profitable and many farmers could be raised out of poverty in India and Africa. But, how can this feat be achieved?

Through the work of iDE and their small farm drip irrigation systems, this cost-cutting has already been drastically reduced. By using thin-walled, lay-flat hose to convey irrigation water from sources to rows of plants and using filters to improve water flow, reducing pressure on the system, the cost of a drip irrigation system goes from $1,200 per acre to less than $600 per acre.

The greatest challenge is the reduction of the cost of the pump motor combination from $7,000 to $2,500. Traditionally diesel-powered pumps are utilized to transport water form the source, through the pump, and into the crops in unlined channels. Water is delivered to the plants by flooding the field with a loss of 60 to 70 percent of the water lost to seepage before it even gets to the plants.

By using a zero-based design, one where everything begins from scratch as if it were the invention of new technology, iDE is able to create SunWater,an  affordable PV solar irrigation system. A motor that is powered by electricity generated through photovoltaic panels would replace the diesel motors and efficiency is achieved by utilizing mirrors, which are much cheaper than photovoltaic. They are able to generate 2,000 watts off 10 – 15 mirrors. The water is then delivered to the plants via the thin walled, drip irrigation system already in place.

This simple, affordable change in the way water is delivered to plants will allow more diversification of crops by giving farmers a way to irrigate through the dry season. This means they can sell their high value crops when prices are highest (dry season) to sustain them through the wet season when farming is much more abundant and prices significantly drop. Educating farmers about how to optimize their incomes is the second phase of this valuable, life changing project.

– Shawn D. Ross

Source: Business Fights Poverty
Photo: Reeep

5 Lessons Game of Thrones Teaches About Poverty

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HBO’s Game of Thrones is escapist fantasy at its finest. The sprawling world of Westeros has a rich and complicated history, scores of characters, and enough intertwining storylines to make Greek mythology look simple. The show has been lauded for its ability to transport an audience away from their current lives and immerse them into Martin’s fantasy world.

At the same time, behind the direwolves and dragons, much of the success of Martin’s series lies in the fact that it resonates so strongly with our own world. From love to loneliness to injustice, the personal feelings of the characters, which so strongly push forward the plot, hit close to home. It reflects the failings we see around us, in our own lives, in politics, and perhaps most disturbingly in our social system.

Game of Thrones, for the sharp viewer, has important messages to be sent about what it is to wield power and how to do it, lessons that could be applied to the most powerful nation in the world.

 

[dropcap3]1[/dropcap3]The importance of the poor for security. In Game of Thrones, the greatest threat to the throne is not the various potential usurpers who are vying for it. Rather, it is far more insidious; it is the threat of the people the King tramples and abuses through neglect. The main motivation for one of the potential rivals, often repeated, is that she has the support of the people. The raw power of the populace is seen in the scene where the royal family ventures out of the castle, and is set upon by a starving, angry mob. The only thing that saves the Lannister family from their misrule is the arrival of the charitable Tyrells, who floods the city with food, resources, and much-needed PR for the royal family. Though intangible, a good reputation image can be as powerful as military muscle. This is why top military leaders like former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stress the importance of international humanitarian assistance by USAID.

 

[dropcap3]2[/dropcap3]Past injustices become present day tragedies. Old grievances have a way of resurfacing. Throughout the series, we are told more and more of the backstory, because so much of it is relevant to the present events. Theon’s capture and subsequent service to the Starks came full-circle in Theon’s betrayal, despite how well he had lived as a steward. There are lessons to be learned from this; bad deeds live longer in memory than good ones. George W Bush’s legacy, for example, will not be his HIV program, but instead, plunging the nation into Iraq.

 

[dropcap3]3[/dropcap3]The rags-to-riches story is largely a myth. It is a tenet of the American belief system to place a lot of power in an individual’s determination to change her or his own circumstance. It is easy (and comfortable) to blame lower classes for their own misfortune; either through laziness, carelessness, or a simple lack of worth. It is a natural – though erroneous – human reaction to assume that those who have, deserve and those who do not, have not earned it. There are a number of social climbers in Martin’s series who are smart, savvy, brave, determined – and are crushed. Roz, the plucky girl from Winterfell, endures indignity, torture, and abuse only to meet an untimely end. Mance Rayder, the brave and charismatic leader of the Wildlings, has been exiled to lead a bare and miserable existence. The elite in Martin’s world are often the most despicable, with the bravest and best – Osha, Tyrion, Arya, Bran and Jojen Reed, for example – being the crippled, the overlooked, the downtrodden, and the poor.  For the 2.6 billion people across the globe living on less than 2 dollars a day, the only way to significantly improve their well-being is with a helping hand from people and governments in more privileged positions.

 

[dropcap3]4[/dropcap3]Equality is not a simple matter. While followers of the show who have not read the books will not yet be aware, Daenerys Targaryen’s noble campaign to end slavery does not go as smoothly as planned. Though well-intentioned, her somewhat blind rush to right all the wrongs she saw in front of her bears little fruit, and she quickly loses her way in politics, poverty, and a lack of foresight. Aid is not simply a matter of giving, and it cannot be left unplanned or unsupervised. The story bears similarities to the current restructuring of Afghanistan and Iraq; after a bloody decade in the countries, US citizens are demanding withdrawal of troops, with US Generals stating the grave dangers of leaving such a large job unfinished. Sieges and wars are dramatic and make good stories, but the most important work lies in the far less flashy and far more tedious affair of slow and steady empowerment.

 

[dropcap3]5[/dropcap3]Poverty begets violence. Poverty does not stay a problem of the poor. It seeps into all parts of a society in the form of crime, violence, and corruption. In an increasingly globalized world, the importance of stability cannot be understated. The seeds of terrorism are in poverty; its strength lies in the desperation of the most downtrodden. The most powerful governments, France, Russia, and most recently the Arab Spring – have all fallen in the face of the power of those they previously deemed unworthy of consideration.

– Farahnaz Mohammed

Sources: Global Issues The Borgen Project
Photo: HDW

95% Discount on HPV Vaccines for Girls in Poverty

95% Discount on HPV Vaccines for Girls in Poverty

HPV vaccines costing an average of $130 a dose in the United States will now be offered in poor countries for as low as $4.50 a dose, a monumental step made possible by the generous and focused work of the GAVI Alliance. These vaccines help prevent strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, that cause almost 75% of cervical cancers.

According to GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, the two pharmaceutical companies offering these deeply slashed prices, more than 85% of cervical cancer deaths occur in the developing world. “We hope that this will help reduce the burden of cervical cancer and positively impact future generations,” said GSK President and General Manager Christophe Weber in a press release. GSK already supplies 80% of its total vaccine volume to developing countries.

The GAVI Alliance, formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, was launched under a generous donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 1999; the Alliance works to partner charitable donations with private pharmaceutical companies by negotiating significantly lower vaccine costs for countries in need. This model has allowed over 370 million children to receive immunizations since GAVI’s founding.

In the next few months, GAVI will provide support to countries worldwide by carrying out demonstration programs that raise awareness among the vaccination target group — pre-adolescents — which will allow countries to incorporate the vaccine into their own immunization programs.

– Naomi Doraisamy

Sources: GAVI Alliance, Merck
Photo: Polifaso

Birth Rates Decrease As People Rise Out of Poverty

Birth Rates Decrease As People Rise Out of Poverty
Many people argue that deaths resulting from poverty are an unfortunate solution to overpopulation. They assume that raising families out of poverty will only give them more resources to support ever more children. However, the evidence actually shows that birth rates decrease as people rise out of poverty. This is because parents are often forced by high child mortality rates to have several children to ensure that they will have someone to care for them as they age. When these families are no longer living in extreme poverty, they can be more confident that their children will survive, allowing them to have fewer children. According to the World Health Organization, both the actual death and the fear of death of a child results in higher fertility rates, regardless of a family’s size or income level.

Over the last two decades, reduced levels of extreme poverty in numerous countries, including Guatemala, Cambodia, and Namibia, has coincided with a decrease in average family size to about half. Since the 1960s, Latin American women’s fertility rates have decreased from about 6 to between 2 and 3. This has resulted from decreased child mortality rates, as well as improved maternal health and family planning education in many areas. USAID has been instrumental in helping many Latin American countries, such as the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, start family planning programs. Most of these programs have become self-sustaining and are preparing for USAID’s gradual departure.

While poverty is an extremely reliable indicator and contributing cause of high birth rates, a society’s treatment of women must also be considered. In societies where women are disenfranchised, birth rates tend to be high and inflexible. This shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise, given that in these societies girls are taken out of school at a young age, females are often victims of multiple forms of violence, and most women have minimal knowledge of or power to enact family planning strategies. Many women are essentially forced into prolonged motherhood, which can be incredibly damaging to their health, as well as their children’s. With improved family planning education around the world, the lives of 1.6 million children under five could be saved each year.

A woman’s education level is an excellent indicator of her fertility. Well-educated women are much more likely to have smaller families. It is important to note that the education of women does not necessarily cause lower fertility rates. Instead, education is just one aspect of improved social standing for women, and it is likely that this improved status leads to smaller families, not to mention improved women’s health in general.

It is essential to recognize that decreasing levels of extreme poverty will also help minimize the problem of overpopulation. When families no longer live in fear of unacceptable child mortality rates, they decrease their fertility levels. Part of this effort to decrease birth rates also includes family planning education for both men and women and improved societal standing for women.

– Katie Fullerton

Sources: USAID, USAID Blog, Population Institute, Global Issues
Photo: Hatter