Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa to Hit 5%

Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa to Hit 5%
Sub-Saharan Africa is often the focus of talks concerning global poverty, but according to the World Bank, growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is set to outpace the global average over the next three years.  The high growth is contributed to higher growth in commodities, increasing investment, and the pick-up of the global economy.   Predictions are that the Sub-Saharan economies will grow by over five percent in the next three years.  Global growth forecasts were only expected to be 2.4 percent this year.

Foreign direct investment into Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to hit $54bn a year by 2015.  The growth of the economies and the increase of foreign investment have led to a significant drop in poverty.  Estimates of those living on less than $1.25 a day have fallen from 58 percent to 48.5 percent and continue to trend downward.

The World Bank is hopeful these trends can be unleashed to reach their full potential and promote more growth and less poverty throughout the region.  One of the keys to continuing this growth is a focus on infrastructure development in the region as well as access to roads and consumer markets.

One challenge Sub-Saharan economies will face is the seemingly constant labor unrest and political instability that can plague the region.  When communities start to lift themselves out of poverty, it has been shown over and over to reduce some of the negative aspects of the community. Hopefully, this will be the case in Sub-Saharan Africa as well.

As the spotlight on global poverty continues to shine, Sub-Saharan Africa will be the region to watch as they are set to achieve high levels of growth and development throughout the coming years. The growth in foreign investment, the technology of the region, and reduction in poverty leads to bright prospects for a once hopeless region of the world.

– Amanda Kloeppel
Source: BBC News
Photo: Jigsaw

UNDP Recognizes Recent Kazakhstan Growth

UNDP Recognizes Recent Kazakhstan Growth
On Monday, a UNDP global report regional presentation was held in Astana at the Kazakh Foreign Ministry. The UNDP is a global development network that advocates giving people a better life through knowledge, experience, and resources. Its main focuses center around poverty alleviation, democratic governance, crisis prevention and recovery, and more.

During the presentation of the report, Adam Oliver, the director of the Bratislava regional center of the UNDP (United Nations Development Program), stated that Kazakhstan is ahead in human development in comparison to other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries and Europe. Oliver went on to add that Kazakhstan is a “transforming country” because it supports other neighboring countries’ economies as well as their own.

Amie Gaye, the chairperson of the UNDP Human Development Department suggested that Kazakhstan has shown “excellent results [in human development] during the last ten years and ranked 17th among 122 countries.” In addition, she also claims that the country is ahead of others in terms of the ratio between education and income levels. Hence, in 2012, it placed 69th out of 187 countries.

– Leen Abdallah 
Source: Azer News

3 Ways Food Trucks Encourage Sustainable Business Models

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Ask anyone who lives within a major metropolitan area to pick their favorite food truck cuisine and you’ll get answers that vary from Kobe beef sliders to Korean BBQ tacos. The recent surge in food truck popularity – thanks in part to Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race as well as a greater interest in reasonably priced culinary creations – has led to scores of artistically painted trucks patrolling city centers in search of hungry office workers and curious pedestrians. But what effect has the food truck phenomenon had on in promoting eco-friendly business models and renewable energy usage? Surprisingly quite a bit, as the following list describes 3 ways food trucks encourage sustainable business models.

1. Less energy consumption – When looking at the amount of energy required to run a traditional sit-down restaurant, the overall net energy expenditure is staggering. From the power used to light the business, the air conditioning and/or heating, hot lamps, stovetops, and dishwashers; the underlying business model of restaurants promotes wasteful energy usage. Unlike restaurants, food trucks encourage sustainable business models by their almost negligible use of fossil fuels required to move them from one location to another, which can be further reduced by their ability to convert to biodiesel, making them even more environmentally responsible.

2. Locally sourced produce – Another way that food trucks encourage sustainable business models is through their efforts in using locally grown fruits and vegetables in their recipes. The amount of energy needed for both the air and ground transport of fruits and vegetable grown out of season is huge, and serves as an enabler of continued energy dependence and fossil fuel waste. By using local growers, co-ops, and farmers, food trucks are able to promote the farm to fork business model of delicious seasonal produce.

3. Low start-up costs – The extremely high costs associated with operating, staffing, and running a restaurant is often prohibitive to local entrepreneurship and economic opportunity. Not surprisingly, food trucks encourage sustainable business models by enabling a wider cross section of the community the opportunity to own and operate their own food truck, which can serve as a form of poverty reduction for many families. And by opening up the market for increased local investment and small business owners, many communities can benefit greatly from the eco-friendly food truck business model.

Food truck business could become a sustainable model in developing countries whose local cuisines can be utilized to create income without incurring the high establishment costs required for restaurants.

– Brian Turner

Source: Mother Nature Network
Photo: Daily Northwestern

Mealmatch: Social Media Fighting World Hunger

Mealmatch: Social Media Fighting World HungerSocial media is a powerful tool and two young entrepreneurs have harnessed its power to fight world hunger. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, around 925 million go hungry each day. In light of that number, Dustin Tessendorf and Joseph Tuson from Arizona developed the social media app Mealmatch.

Mealmatch is using social media to fight world hunger in a very, easy way. The app is downloaded to users’ phones and when they eat or drink at participating restaurants, they can check-in and the restaurant donates $.30 per meal to a charity. While $.30 may not seem like a lot,  it is the average cost of a meal in Africa and it can make a big difference if enough users download the app. Currently, the money from donated meals goes to over a dozen charities in Africa and two in  Chandler, Arizona. All the information about the charities is easily found on the Mealmatch website.

The benefits to restaurants are few other than positive advertising which can go a very long way. Despite this, about 40 restaurants have signed up to participate in the program. When a restaurant participates in a charitable cause, it gains them continued support and recognition. As the founders put it, “Business can no longer get away with exploiting the world for money.”

While Mealmatch is currently limited to Arizona, there is potential for growth across the United States.  Social media is powerful and two young entrepreneurs are proving that with a little creativity, it can be used to fight global hunger with the ease of checking in at a restaurant you are already visiting.

– Amanda Kloeppel

Source: Phoenix New Times

United States Continues Aid to Ghana

United States Continues Aid to GhanaThe United States Ambassador to Ghana, Scott DeLisi, has stated that the United States will not be cutting the foreign aid given to Ghana. Some donor countries have backed out of Ghana after accusations of the misuse of aid money by the local government but DeLisi claims that U.S. aid dollars have not been misused and that the office will continue to stand against corruption in the local government’s use of aid money.

DeLisi said that since U.S. aid to Ghana is not part of a direct budget support system, the money does not go to the local government to spend on anything; the money is easy to track and has not been misused. DeLisi also spoke about raising wages for regional health workers in order to retain well-trained workers.

The United States gives an annual $430 million to Ghana, a country with great potential for growth, especially in the energy sector. Some of the main programs that receive U.S. funding in Ghana focus on treating TB, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. This is a great example of how the United States’ aid money is being carefully monitored as the country’s aid organizations continue to stand against corruption, assuring taxpayers that American aid goes to helping the poor and building national infrastructure. Learn more about our donor history with Ghana. 

– Kevin Sullivan

Source: allAfrica
Photo: Flickr

Great Green Wall in Africa

Great Green Wall in Africa

The Great Green Wall is a wall of vegetation that, in essence, holds back the Sahara Desert with vegetables and fruits. The Sahara Desert is notorious for being dry and arid, having very little ability to support, in terms of nutrition, those that live near it. In Senegal, however, the construction of the Green Green Wall has led to an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables from the arid desert, which has helped to combat high levels of malnutrition and deal with climate changes in the area.

The Great Green Wall project is an initiative to plant a wall of trees from Senegal to Djibouti, which is basically across the entirety of Africa. 11 countries are supporting members of this project, which aims to block desert winds and maintain the moisture in the soil and air by building a wall of trees.

Of course, the green in the Great Green Wall is the end result of the tireless work necessary in planting and nurturing tree saplings. In parts of Senegal, ripe tomatoes and purple aubergines show that the project works, yet, in many other parts, progress has been slow and is still incomplete. This does not mean that these parts have not already begun to benefit; it just means that political commitment and community support is very important to ensure that the trees have the potential to reach their full height.

A woman living in Widou Thiengoli, Khaira Haidara, says “When I was young, there was more water in the village and we produced our own crop of millet. This project has brought positive changes to our lives, giving us different things to eat, and now we worry less about food.”

These are the benefits of the Great Green Wall project and, because of the stage of the project, more benefits are sure to come. Other benefits that are the result of the Great Green Wall project are increased opportunities for occupation within the community as people who used to go into town to find work are now able to work with and cultivate their land. This results not only in work but more food, helping to combat malnutrition that is rampant in many parts of the area surrounding the Sahara Desert.

The Great Green Wall is a step in the right direction for sustainability. It, while still under construction, has already begun to benefit those that live around the Sahara Desert.

– Angela Hooks

Source: AllAfrica
Photo: TreeHugger

Digital Green Strengthens Food Security

Digital Green Strengthens Food Security

With children suffering from malnourishment all over the world, and people hungry for food, it would be amazing if simple tools could be implemented to create substantive change. The incredible reality is that so many researched techniques have now been established, with dramatic benefits. The problem is that most small, rural farmers in the developing world do not know about them.

For example, a fern called Azolla which can be easily cultivated, if added to animal feed can boost the production of cows milk by 15 to 20 percent.  Or a System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which involves transplanting rice saplings, and tending them in a certain way, can produce marked crop increases. SRI is called one of the most important agricultural innovations of the past 50 years, yet it is only known to a fraction of farmers.

For Rikin Gandhi, one of the great paradoxes of today’s world is that information is so easily transmitted, yet efforts share life-saving information to critical people is so ineffective. This was a problem he wanted to solve. An American-born software engineer working in India for Microsoft Research, Gandhi spent six months in villages experimenting with communication formats — posters, TV shows, locally-made videos, public screenings, home screenings. His impactful discovery was that short, 8 to 10 minute videos that featured local farmers (both men and women, as most agricultural work in India are done by women) talking about their experiences was the most effective method of information dissemination. Films were screened locally with a facilitator who engaged discussion, and farmers were finally highly engaged with the new information, and consequently utilized the practices. Gandhi found that when sessions were actively facilitated, people remained and participated, if not, farmers left quickly. Farmers were more likely to adopt new practices if they heard about them from someone of a similar socio-economic background, speaking the same dialect, and without too much formal expertise.

Kentaro Toyama, Gandhi’s boss at Microsoft, set up trials to test Gandhi’s approach. Among 1,470 households in 16 villages, they found that increased adoption of some agricultural practices increased by seven-times, and the cost to get one farmer to adopt one new practice dropped by ten-times (from $38 to $3.70, with this video-based model).

So Gandhi created Digital Green – a platform and process for extending knowledge and influencing behavior. Gandhi and his colleagues established the NGO and The Gates Foundation provided support. It produces locally made videos in India’s rural areas, using locals, requiring only a battery-powered “pico” projector and mini speakers, which can fit in a backpack, then projected onto a wall or sheet – a major logistical advantage. See some here.

Today, Digital Green works in 2,000 villages in India, 100 in Ethiopia, and 50 in Ghana. Working with a variety of partners, it has produced 2,600 videos that have been viewed by 157,000 farmers. It reports that 41 percent of viewers in the last two months have adopted at least one practice. Gandhi now has 60 colleagues working with him and plans to be reaching 10,000 villages by 2015.

– Mary Purcell

Source: NY Times

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s TED Talk on Doing Business in Africa

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s TED Talk on Doing Business in Africa
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a director of the World Bank, was Nigeria’s Finance Minister and then briefly Foreign Affairs Minister from 2003 to 2006, the first woman to hold either position. During her tenure as Finance Minister, she worked to combat corruption, make Nigeria’s finances more transparent, and institute reforms to make the nation’s economy more hospitable to foreign investment.

In her TED Talk, she told many stories about changing Africa and how African people say no to corruption and everyone outside Africa should give more credibility and invest more in Africa.She stressed that we should do more business in Africa instead of just aiding Africa. And also, Africa should pay more attention to expand privatization and the government should increase more financial management and democracy.

– Caiqing Jin

Source: TED Talk

Budget Reforms Could Affect U.S. AID

USAID
Barack Obama has called for reforms to the in-kind American food aid system. If enacted, these budget reforms could dramatically change how the world’s largest donor operates abroad.

The reforms, included in the President’s 2014 budget proposal, would significantly roll back requirements that American food aid is bought and shipped from the US. Instead, more funding than ever would be available for recipients to buy food closer to where it’s needed, or send cash or vouchers instead.

The administration’s proposals would entirely end “monetisation” programs where aid groups receive US food commodities in place of cash, which they then sell in local markets to fund other development projects such as clinics and schools. USAid said the reforms would enable it to reach an additional two to four million people each year. “Rather than limiting the United States to a tied, commodities-only approach, these reforms will enable experts to select the right tool to most efficiently meet the needs of hungry and vulnerable people,” it said.

However, if the reforms are passed, they may take a toll on the maritime unions and US based farmers that depend on the current food aid system. USA Maritime, a coalition of maritime unions, called on Congress to reject the reforms. “The administration’s proposals … will be harmful to our US merchant marine, harmful to our national defense sealift capability, harmful to our farmers and millers and bad for our economy,” said chairman James L Henry.

The administration’s proposal includes $25 million in additional funding for the department of transportation’s maritime administration, which would lose significant business under the reforms. This would support “certain militarily useful ships, and will facilitate the retention of US mariners”, it said.

Congress must now decide whether to fund these programs and accept the proposed changes. Analysts expect months of increased lobbying both from supporters and detractors.

-Kira Maixner

Source: The Guardian

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U.S. AID to Fight Hunger by Sending Money, Not Food

 

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As a way to save money, the Obama Administration is expected to switch from sending domestically grown food to giving cash to USAID recipient countries. Although the administration has not yet commented on its new plans, people close to the decision-makers have confirmed that this new method will be employed as a way to decrease spending without compromising food aid.

There have been many opposing views as to whether this new strategy will help or hurt people living in hunger. Although the food aid budget would drop 25 percent, sending money instead of food is faster and more cost effective. Currently, shipping charges consist of about half of the US food aid costs. This is due to a rule that requires the food to be transported on US shipping vessels, which is more expensive. Groups in favor of cash donations include Care, Actionaid, American Jewish World Service, Church World Service and Oxfam.

However, other groups, like farming and shipping associations, World Vision, International Relief and Development, and Planet Aid, are against the proposed new strategy. Since recipients will be responsible for purchasing food with the aid money, there is the danger that food in that country may not be readily available or of high quality. These opposition groups are also concerned that local farmers may not be able to produce the necessary variety of crops for a healthy diet. Most importantly, they oppose the change because food donation has proven to be effective.

If the proposal goes into effect, this will be the most drastic change to US food aid programs in over 50 years. It may be the case that the administration decides to reduce food donation, but not completely end the program. Twenty-four senators and many other farm and foreign aid groups have written to the Obama Administration speaking out against any changes to food aid policy. However, with the current budget cuts, it is likely that the White House will try to reduce costs as much as possible.

– Mary Penn

Source: GMA News
Photo: Guardian