Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

How the US is Providing Aid During Argentina’s Economic Crisis

Argentina’s Economic Crisis
Despite being one of the richest countries in South America per capita in 2020, Argentina is currently grappling with poverty and an economic crisis. Argentina’s economy has been dramatically up and down for decades but the COVID-19 pandemic and the war with Ukraine and political instability have recently worsened it. Because of these combined factors, Argentinians are currently dealing with rising energy and food prices, state bankruptcies and reduced wages. Inflation is above 70% and could reach 90% before the end of the year. Today, 40% of Argentines live in poverty and about 10% of them could not afford “a basic basket of only food” in 2021. Here is some information about Argentina’s economic crisis as well as how the U.S. is providing aid.

An Alliance

The United States and Argentina have an alliance based on trade and shared priorities. These priorities include “democracy and human rights, counterterrorism and rule of law, improving citizen security, science, energy and technology infrastructure, people-to-people ties, and education.”

In recent years, the U.S. has been assisting with COVID-19 recovery, renewable energy development and promoting women-led small businesses. These measures aim to address as many factors as possible that led to the economic crisis and tackle them one by one.

Since the pandemic broke out in 2020 up until April 2021, the U.S. military has given $3.5 million in recovery aid to Argentina. According to U.S. Southern Command Admiral Craig S. Faller, this aid includes “protective equipment, medical supplies, and monitoring and screening tools.”

National Security

Another way the United States is improving Argentina’s economic crisis is by improving national security. In 2020, the U.S. Department of State gave $3.1 million to Argentina for counterterrorism efforts, including military education and training, improved worker’s rights, reduced child labor and job creation. The U.S. also helped develop the Western Hemisphere Counterterrorism Ministerial (WHCM), an alliance dedicated to reducing terrorism in western hemisphere countries and Argentina has been “a leading participant” and hosted a second ministerial in 2019. In the same year, Argentina became the first country in Latin America to declare Hizballah a terrorist group. In 2020, the U.S. made plans to strengthen security in Argentina through “legal, financial and law enforcement tools,” the U.S. Department of State reported.

Women in Business

Having more women entrepreneurs is critical to the well-being of the economy. In 2019, a “high-level U.S. interagency delegation” came to Argentina to support and grow women-owned businesses, which are “essential for creating economic growth and security,” the U.S. Department of State reported. This visit sparked the launch of the Academy of Women Entrepreneurs in 2021, an online and in-person program that focused on helping 30 Argentine women expand their businesses.

Through poverty, pandemic and inflation, the United States is improving Argentina’s economic crisis by extending COVID-19 relief, improving national security, expanding job opportunities and training and empowering women. In fact, Argentina’s poverty rate dropped by about three percentage points from the first half of 2021 to the latter half of the year. There is still a long way to go, but this alliance has been making progress.

– Ava Ronning
Photo: Unsplash

Everything to Know About Poverty in Ethiopia

Poverty in Ethiopia
Ethiopia is the only African nation to never have experienced colonization, excluding the brief occupation by Mussolini during WWII. This rich lineage goes back further than any anglo-sphere country. From the images of the 1980s-90s famine to the current genocidal crisis in the Tigray region, Westerners may see poverty in Ethiopia, along with most of Africa, through a calamitous lens. While this view threatens to tokenize the pain of a people, it also has the potential to prompt radical change.

In recent years, Ethiopia has made headlines with its record economic growth and industrial advancement. Still, Amnesty International reports that more than 5.2 million people are currently in need of food aid in Tigray, the province at the epicenter of news coverage. Alongside the charges of human rights violations, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the already challenging situation. More than 22 million people are living below the poverty line with a 27% poverty rate expected only to rise. The fear of Ethiopian suffering being ignored on a global stage is what resonates in most reports from the area. However, unification through global affairs makes room for a conversation about geopolitical positions. Civil War, poor health services and global shelving continue to hurt Ethiopians and keep the country in constant economic struggle.

Growth in the Private Sector

The widespread famine of the mid-1980s shocked the world with images of Ethiopia’s hunger-ridden communities. As the country developed in the aftermath, the rate of poverty reduction in rural areas remained mild, moving from 30% to 26%. In contrast, urban development led to poverty falling from 26% to 15% in the same period. From 2004 to 2016, the blooming of business and subsequent decrease in urban poverty ensued. By 2015, the Ethiopian government was following economic leaders like China and South Korea in expanding government policy to encourage private business and development. As the private sector expands and more companies look to Ethiopia for cheap labor, poverty has started to drop. The country sought to meet China’s jaw-dropping achievement of lifting more than 800 million people out of poverty and decided to expand infrastructure, education and health through borrowing from state banks and foreign aid.

For a decade the economic growth rate was 10%. Buildings were cropping up all over the country’s capital, Addis Ababa. Ethiopia’s proximity to global markets in Europe and Asia makes it a realistic option for manufacturers of textiles that have started to set up shops in the region. This made Ethiopia one of the fastest-developing African nations and sparked global recognition of the country’s goal of reaching middle-income status for its citizens by 2025.

The Situation in Tigray

A racialized civil war occurred after president Abiy Ahmed postponed the election due to take place in August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tigrayan government said this was fundamentally unconstitutional, Abiy responded by withdrawing funding to the region and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) answered with violence. Ethiopian and Eritrean militaries saw this as a political opportunity to get back at Tigrayians for an age-old border dispute.

As a result, ethnic cleansing has devastated communities. Alongside the brutal harm inflicted on the Tigrayan ethnic group, an 18-month-long internet blackout followed in the Northern part of Ethiopia, which is home to more than 7 million people. On November 28 and 29, a massacre of 800 people occurred in Aksum but was underreported due to the communication disconnect. Even the Tigrayian language is becoming a barrier as it is nonexistent on Google Translate. Silos have burned down and mass rapes have already become history.

War deprives people of basic resources that are essential to survival. In a country already struggling to win the fight against poverty, a fight among brothers is not helping anyone. Yet, in a hopeful twist, the Tigrayan rebels released a statement this week saying they are ready for peace talks in a rush to find diplomatic answers to the crisis. This came after last month’s fighting left many marred; again violence erupts and those responsible vacate the spotlight leaving the people without a solution, only scars.

Solutions

Spreading awareness of poverty in Ethiopia is one way to get acknowledgment that leads to holding people accountable. The media does not always cover countries like Ethiopia, but they are important. To help showcase Ethiopia and other countries on the global stage, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez proposed the Ethiopia Stabilization, Peace and Democracy Act in 2021. This Act will allow the U.S. to help end the civil war and may help the country thrive through financial, technical and diplomatic support, while also seeking accountability for crimes against humanity in Ethiopia.

– Shane Chase
Photo: Flickr

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The Gender Wage Gap in Kenya: An Overview

Gender Wage Gap in Kenya
The gender wage gap refers to the “difference between average gross hourly earnings of male-paid employees and female-paid employees as a percentage of average gross hourly earnings of male-paid employees.” It exists because some men and women receive a different amount of money for work of comparable value. This wage gap is both the “cause and consequence” of gender inequality. There are many reasons for the gender wage gap in Kenya, and although they exist in other nations around the world, it is more acute in developing countries. The East African nation is more gender unequal than its counterparts in the developed world, meaning that most women are employed in lower-paid work where they work for longer hours. This is before they have to go home and complete the rest of their daily domestic and childcare responsibilities.

The Kenyan Context

Over the last three decades, efforts have occurred to close the gender wage gap in Kenya, representing a struggle within the East African nation. In 1993, the government Task Force for the Review of Laws Relating to Women originated to help foster women’s equal participation in society and economic empowerment. In 2007, the government enacted the Employment Act, which promised all employees fundamental rights,  basic working conditions and pay.

Nevertheless, this legislation has not been fruitful in achieving pay parity for women. In 2019, Equileap published a report on gender equality in Kenya, finding that on average, women earn 32% less than their male counterparts, compared to 23% globally. This disproportion means that the country sits at the 20th position on the Global Gender Gap Index of 2020, behind the other East African nations of Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Compared to the rest of the world, Kenya ranks 109 out of 153 countries, a 33-position drop compared to 2018.

The informal economy in Kenya is a significant employer for women, with 87% being employed within it. Despite this importance, the sector lacks standard employment contracts, social protection and adequate pay, meaning that women are unable to obtain a decent livelihood, let alone have the same level of income as men.

Reasons Why the Gender Wage Gap Persists in Kenya

Here are the three main reasons why the gender wage gap is prevalent in Kenya.

  1. The Inability of Women to Effectively Negotiate Their Pay. Women tend to misunderstand or underestimate their own value, compared to men. This means that even if they are successful in the pay negotiation process, they often shy away, being happy with less than what men have satisfaction with.
  2. Gender Insensitivity Persists in Workplaces. Like the rest of the world, organizations and businesses in Kenya operate in a structured way. As a result, women often join at the bottom of the scale, while men join at the middle or top end. Women also experience disadvantages due to child-rearing responsibilities, pregnancy and maternity leave, all of which can set them back on the career ladder.
  3. The Presence of Bias in Workplaces. Small and medium-sized enterprises provide formal employment for a large proportion of the Kenyan population. Regardless, less than 5% of these companies have female chairs. Furthermore, in the 1980s, women did not receive benefits as authorities assumed that their husbands would provide their insurance and allowance, a view that many still accept today.

The U.N. estimates that closing the gender wage gap in the East African nation is an essential way to achieving gender-related SDG commitments.” Many organizations have grasped this reality to tackle this issue. They include:

Womankind Worldwide

 In 2010, the Kenyan government passed a new constitution which was the first in its history to recognize gender equality. Key statements as part of this included:

  • Every person is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law.
  • Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and fundamental freedoms.
  • Women and men have the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres.

Womankind Worldwide started working in Kenya after the promises created in this constitution remained unmet; women are still unable to make key decisions that impact their lives and communities. The organization has vowed to support women’s rights activists in the country so that the barriers that women and girls are facing can reduce.

In reference to the gender wage gap in Kenya, Womankind Worldwide has urged  ‘gender responsive’ action for businesses. This includes reviewing existing activities (such as pay and promotion) that undergird institutionalized forms of gender inequalities.

Kenya Female Advisory Organisation (KEFEADO)

In 1994, Dolphine Okech and her daughter Dr. Jane Okech, both of whom were educationalists that committed themselves to gender equality, founded KEFEADO in Kisumu, Kenya. The NGO exists to “promote gender equity, equal opportunities and rights for all” so that it can change cultural attitudes towards issues such as sexual abuse, gender-based violence and employment equality. It is working to develop gender rights policies that bridge pay inequality gaps along with ensuring that institutions respond to the specific needs of special interest groups, namely women and youth. It is also aiming to end disparities in education, health and work.

Regarding the gender wage gap in Kenya, KEFEADO has advocated for gender-responsive budgeting (GRB). In 2020, the organization organized a three-day training for members of the Kisumu county assembly as a way of advocating and fighting for employment equality between men and women. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the event. Overall, the training was a success as this budgeting was fast-tracked.

National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC)

In 2011, the National Gender and Equality and Commission Act established the NGEC, following Article 249 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. As a Constitutional Commission, the NGEC focuses on promoting constitutionalism, democratic values and principles, and protecting the sovereignty of the people, especially in relation to the marginalized. This includes women, youth, children, minorities and older members of society.

According to this mandate, the NGEC has successfully mainstreamed issues of gender and women in national and county policies, laws and administrative rules. Gender mainstreaming is a core function of this, and they use it to ensure that the concerns that both men and women experience are frontal in all spheres such as economic, political and societal. One way that it has achieved this is through raising awareness. As per the 2019-2024 Strategic Plan for Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination, the organization proposes that educating and partnering up with the public is a good way to raise consciousness on such issues (including the gender wage gap).

Over these last few decades, the gender wage gap in Kenya has appeared to have worsened. Although this is true to an extent, there is now much more awareness and understanding of the issue. Furthermore, the ascent of organizations fighting for pay parity in Kenya presents an optimistic future, one where pay is gender equality and women are obtaining the same financial remuneration as their male counterparts.

– Harkiran Bharij
Photo: Flickr

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5 Charities Operating in France

Charities Operating in France
Many charities are organizations with the aim of helping and raising money for those in need. About 1.3 million of these operate today in France. These represent a budget of €113 billion, equivalent to 3.3% of the French GDP. Even if the right of association is a fundamental public freedom, its status has evolved. The last law of August 2021 aims to consolidate the respect for the principles of the French Republic: indivisible, secular, democratic and social. Here are five charities operating in France.

5 Charities Operating in France

  1. Le Secours Populaire français: Le Secours Populaire français has a global approach to combating poverty. SPF helps people victims of social injustice, natural disasters, misery, hunger, underdevelopment and army conflicts in France and the world. Pierre Kaldor created the organization in 1945. The charity had about 80,000 volunteers in 2020 and has already helped more than 3 million persons in need, making it one of the largest organizations in France. One year after the passage of Hurricane Irma on September 6, 2017, which destroyed 95% of the island of Saint-Martin, the charity remains committed to the population. Beyond the emergency aid of the first months, SPF continues to support the association Saint-Martin Santé (SMS) to support people that Hurricane Irma affected psychologically by offering stress management and wellness workshops.
  2. Apprentis d’Auteuil: Apprentis d’Auteuil gives every young person the chance to access education or training to help them find their place in society. It is a Catholic charity of public utility in France that educates and professionally trains more than 25,000 young people who experienced challenges, about 6,000 families are benefiting from it in 2022. The organization has 200 établissements in metropolitan and Overseas France as nurseries, schools, colleges, vocational high schools, training centers and boarding schools. Today, about 5,000 volunteers and as many employees work in 54 countries. Launched in 2013 by the charity with the support of the L’Oréal Foundation, the hairdressing professional apprenticeship of Tihais welcomes 15 young people aged 15 to 23, offering them rewarding training. A real application salon set up by L’Oréal in high school allows young people to fully invest. The success of this first apprenticeship led L’Oréal to open the second one in the 2014 school year at the Lycée Saint-Joseph in Blanquefort, near Bordeaux.
  3. La Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer: La Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer optimizes the efficiency of sea rescue and coastal monitoring using innovation, prevention and training. It aims to make people aware of navigation’s risks to ensure a safer and more respectful practice of the sea. On average, 400 persons die at sea per year in France. La SNSM has 218 stations along the metropolitan coast and in overseas France. The number of volunteers increases each year. The organization currently has about 1,200 rescuers. During the sanitary crisis in 2020, many means of transport between island and continent have operated in Bretagne. In Quiberon, Groix and le Conquet, a small crew of volunteers equipped with masks, charlottes and suits, masks transported patients suspected of having COVID-19.
  4. La Croix-Rouge: La Croix-Rouge is the largest French organization. It brings together 97 million people in France and overseas around seven principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, volunteering, unity and universality. Created in 1864, volunteers give humanitarian assistance to people touched by an army conflict or in a situation of armed violence. The charity also raises awareness of the rules that protect victims of war. More than 1 million French citizens have received first aid training to help 3.6 billion around the world. Following the attacks of 2015, la Croix-Rouge has evolved its action by integrating the learning of techniques and the use of new material to best respond to these exceptional situations. Parisian local units have also multiplied the initiations to first aid, training hundreds of people in the gestures that save, especially during the campaigns Paris qui sauve and Samedi qui sauve in the City of Paris.
  5. Les Restos du Coeur: Les Restos du Coeur is the most popular of these five charities operating in France. It provides voluntary assistance for people, notably in the food industry. It gives people access to free meals and assists them in social and economic inclusion. Created by Coluche in 1985, this organization mobilizes 75,000 volunteers. In 2020-2021, the charity distributed 142 million free balanced meals to 1.2 million welcomed people. Food aid is an emergency aid but mostly a central contact point to accompany people to independence. An extensive national food collection occurs every year in March in hypermarkets and supermarkets. About 1,915 Restos centers then distribute throughout France. The people helped go there once or several times a week. They are also places of welcome, meeting and exchange where one can drink a coffee, spend a moment in the warm, establish contacts and, thus, go further in the social insertion.

Looking Ahead

These charities’ scope of engagement is very diverse. In France, the four main fields of activity are social, health, sport and culture. Many volunteers are involved in charities, which increases by 4.9% per year in France. Furthermore, the creation of organizations leads to an augmentation of wage employment. More than 1.8 million persons are full-time or part-time employees representing an increase of 2.4% between 2011 and 2017. In addition to these five charities operating in France, more and more charities should be able to emerge internationally, to continue helping people in need.

– Olivia Roy Fritsch
Photo: Flickr

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Powers and Pitfalls of Statistics on Poverty

Statistics on Poverty
Statistics is an essential piece of the policy-making puzzle. From polls to censuses to studies, data is one of politics’ few truths, an impartial measure of the approval or success of any action. In the fight against poverty, the positive results of a policy are often used to justify its implementation in another country, often with mixed results. Although statistics can be incredibly useful for suggesting and tracking anti-poverty efforts, these numbers on poverty carry a series of caveats and assumptions that one cannot overlook.

The Difficulties Behind Statistics

A clear example of this is an experiment run in 1987 by Sally Grantham-McGregor in Jamaica. Looking for a correlation between malnutrition, cognitive development and income, she found that supplementing the meals of malnourished children raised their income over 20 years by 25% compared to the average. Although seemingly indisputable from her evidence from Jamaica, her experiments saw dramatically less success when implemented on a larger scale in Colombia and Peru, with Grantham-McGregor saying that “there is no way to know what caused the impact.”

Much of this uncertainty has to do with the way researchers define terms and the way seemingly unimportant assumptions end up affecting results. A study from 1970 to 2000 focusing on the connection between economic growth and inequality across 26 U.S. states found no correlation, but the correlation between economic growth and inequality of opportunity was extremely strong. Another study by Patrizio Piraino in 2015 found that race-based inequality accounted for around 70% of inequality in South Africa, a figure that is not visible when using the traditional measure of income, GDP per capita, as representative of individuals in a society with a high degree of race-based inequality.

This problem is particularly prevalent in studies on low-income populations. Because questions regarding salary and living situation are sensitive, asking about these topics in questionnaires often yields incorrect data. Low-income groups tend to face underrepresentation in studies, meaning policies meant to alleviate poverty often work with a flawed understanding of the overall improvement objective.

Researchers also present another key difficulty in using statistics in the study of poverty. A study by Lyberg and Kasprzyk in 1991 found that interviewers stood as a large source of error when conducting studies. Language barriers as well as “socioeconomic and demographic characteristics” inhibit accurate responses and interpretations, increasing the margin of error in those studies.

The Benefits of Randomized Studies

However, data science is improving and researchers are beginning to apply the lessons of these studies to improve the accuracy of statistics on poverty. Randomization, or randomly choosing a group as a test for a particular policy, has become an increasingly popular method of policy analysis. A successful example of this process occurred in Indonesia where researchers wanted to test whether identification documents (IDs) carrying information on “program eligibility and entitlements” improved access to a social assistance program. Indeed, researchers found that these social assistance ID cards increased access to Raskin, Indonesia’s rice subsidy initiative that began in 2012. Leaning on the results of this research, the government of Indonesia decided to scale up the distribution of these IDs, reaching more than 15 million poor households in 2013.

Many academics in the field of poverty research remain opposed to randomized studies, but there is an increasingly vocal group advocating gradual implementation based on the past successes of randomization. Particularly in education research, experts have criticized the high costs, overly general results and unorthodoxy of randomization, but policy research has shown it can be effective on a large scale.

The PROGRESA Pilot Program

In Mexico, the social conditional cash transfer program PROGRESA, launched in 1997, is an example of a successful randomized evaluation that informed future policy. PROGRESA first began as a pilot program tested across 506 communities in Mexico. The evaluation showed promising outcomes for children from households receiving conditional cash transfers. As such, the Mexican government decided to implement PROGRESA on a wider scale. Other countries conducted similar randomized studies to evaluate the benefit of “PROGRESA-like programs on their populations before scaling up.” Poverty Action Lab indicates that by the year 2014, 52 nations “had implemented PROGRESA-like programs.”

Each statistical method comes with its own advantages and drawbacks, but researchers are increasingly aware of how to balance the usefulness of statistics with its limitations. By improving the quality of these statistics on poverty, statistics can become an essential part of the reduction in global poverty.

– Samuel Bowles
Photo: Flickr

International Efforts To Expand COVID-19 Vaccine Production In Africa

COVID-19 Vaccine Production In Africa
Low-income countries have faced extremely disproportionate rates of COVID-19 vaccinations in comparison to the world’s higher-income countries. “High-income or upper-middle-income countries” have received more than 87% of the world’s administered vaccines and low-income countries have received only 0.2%. Around the world, more than 700 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. Reports have stated that 25% of the 700 million doses administered went “into the arms of Americans.” On the other hand, Africa has the lowest vaccination rate of any continent in the world. Only 11% of the entire African continent received doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and 5% received both doses. With a population of about 1.3 billion, the solution to the continent’s low vaccination rate might be through developing the capacity for COVID-19 vaccine production in Africa.

The Solution

The U.S. is one of many countries that has offered support for the vaccination effort in Africa. As of November 2021, the U.S. delivered more than 60 million vaccine doses to African countries. Despite outside help, the majority of Africa’s population still remains without their first dose. One source asserts that “a lack of manufacturing is one reason that only 11% of the continent’s people have been fully vaccinated.” So far, 99% of the vaccines distributed in Africa came from outside the continent. With such a low vaccination rate, Africa faces pressures to expand vaccine manufacturing at home. There were many international efforts to help address this challenge. Governments, international organizations and private companies are offering funds and other resources to support the development of COVID-19 vaccine production in Africa.

Funding From the US and Other Countries

In July 2021, The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) approved a $3.3 million grant to help develop “a vaccine production hub that will serve Senegal” and other West African countries. The money is a “technical assistance grant” to Fondation Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD), a Senegalese vaccine manufacturer, according to International Development Finance Corporation. The DFC would partner with USAID and “receive [additional] grant financing from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the French development agency, AFD and the European Investment Bank (EIB).” This grant intends to expand the vaccine production capacity of IPD and promote the development of a production hub in the West African region.

In June 2021, the U.S. government partnered with the French and German governments, investing $700 million in Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited, South Africa’s largest pharmaceutical company. This investment intends to support the South African company “produce up to 500 million doses” of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by 2022. 

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Technology Transfer Hub in South Africa

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the opening of a technology-transfer hub in South Africa in June 2021. It established this hub to support “low- and middle-income countries… produce mRNA vaccines” by providing technical knowledge and other resources, such as “training and financial support.” The establishment of this hub directly aids African countries in obtaining the “necessary human capital” to produce vaccines at home. The technology-transfer hub “is located at Afrigen, Cape Town, South Africa” and the research being used will be shared with local manufacturers. In recent news, researchers at one local manufacturer, Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, have succeeded in producing “very small quantities” of a COVID-19 vaccine “based on Moderna’s data.” 

Intellectual Property (IP) Rights

Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines was able to produce its own version of the vaccine after the WHO “advised them to copy Moderna’s vaccine in part because the company… has said it will not enforce its COVID-19 patents during the pandemic.” In accordance with Moderna’s statement, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is reportedly discussing an agreement that would “waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments during the pandemic.” This waiver will be crucial to countries that “lack vaccine manufacturing and research” by providing them with the necessary tools to immunize a greater number of people.

India and South Africa initiated this agreement and it received support from more than 100 countries, including WHO and UNAIDS. If this waiver comes to fruition, it will allow low-income countries with low vaccination rates, like many regions in Africa, to potentially produce their own and distribute a much greater number of doses. As of May 2021, the U.S., Russia and China all issued their support for an intellectual property waiver on COVID-19 vaccines.

Large Pharmaceutical Firms Building Facilities in Africa

In addition, a few large pharmaceutical companies have agreed to build manufacturing plants in different areas of Africa. Companies such as BioNTech and Moderna have made recent strides to support COVID-19 vaccine production in Africa. The German company BioNTech worked with the U.S.-based company Pfizer to produce its mRNA vaccine, and it has announced plans to build vaccine production facilities in Rwanda and Senegal. In March 2022, Moderna signed an agreement with Kenya’s government. The plan is to build a vaccine manufacturing plant in the country, which is to be Moderna’s first plant in Africa. The biotech company also stated that its landmark goal is to “produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines a year” which will go specifically to the continent of Africa.

Investments from the African Development Bank (ADB)

To offer more support for COVID-19 vaccination production in Africa, the African Development Bank announced “plans to invest up to $3 billion to support the pharmaceutical industry over 10 years.” It stated that funds will go towards improving transportation and infrastructure, medicines regulation and pharmaceuticals manufacturing (which includes vaccines). Additionally, African Union member states made a commitment to producing 60% of “routinely used vaccines” at home within the next 20 years. 

– Ashley Kim
Photo: Flickr

Eradicating Polio Through Polio Vaccination in Tajikistan

polio vaccination in Tajikistan
In recent years, vaccine misinformation has arisen rapidly, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic; this has become a serious health concern. Polio vaccination in Tajikistan was successful for decades, but the country experienced a sudden outbreak in 2021. With the help of UNICEF, the country immediately responded to the crisis and introduced mass polio vaccination in Tajikistan which helped approximately 1.4 million children in the country. The community health centers and healthcare workers of the country played a major role in the success of this vaccination program. Their efforts provide a great model on how to combat vaccine misinformation through community and education.

Polio in Tajikistan

Polio, also referred to as poliomyelitis, typically impacts children under 5, and can spread either through people or contaminated water supplies. Since 1988, cases of polio globally have been reduced by 99.8% and the only countries that are still endemic are Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although there is no cure for the disease, effective vaccines for polio exist and are the primary way of fighting it.

Tajikistan, a country that had been free of polio for decades and was certified polio-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020, experienced a sudden emergence of the disease in 2021. That year, 34 children contracted polio and became paralyzed, while 26 more tested positive without developing paralysis. For diseases like polio, even one case could be an outbreak and thus, necessitates an immediate response. The type of polio detected in Tajikistan was the vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2).

Organized Response to the Crisis

Response to the polio outbreak was swift and effective. UNICEF coordinated with the Tajikistan government and provided 4.6 million doses of an oral polio vaccine and a mass immunization program began quickly. The Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population increased poliovirus surveillance, conducted a thorough risk assessment regarding the scale of outbreak and kind of vaccine response required and was quick in verifying the preparedness of the immunization program.

The first wave of polio vaccination in Tajikistan began in February 2021, with a second round beginning a few months later in June and lasting until September 2021. With both waves, an extensive program of social mobilization began to reach groups most at risk of infection such as internal migrants and unregistered children, according to WHO.

Community health centers played a critical role in the success of the immunization program by providing the necessary vaccine education to the population. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the centers thrived and helped to foster an organized response to the health crises.

Learning from Tajikistan

Since the immunization program began, 1.4 million children got their vaccine against polio, and Tajikistan once again became a polio-free zone in April 2022 according to WHO. Healthcare workers and community health centers played integral roles in the success of the immunization program by reaching the most vulnerable segments of the Tajik population. Moreover, the government of Tajikistan did its part by responding to the polio crisis in a timely manner. Tajikistan’s eradication of polio is an illustrious example of how governments and global organizations can work together to end polio.

– Umaima Munir
Photo: Flickr

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The DOLE Graduation Program In the Philippines

DOLE Graduation Program
Many developing countries suffered the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with the Philippines being one of them. The past few years left about 19.99 million Filipinos below the poverty line recorded in 2021. Not only did the pandemic affect families but projections also stated that the Philippines’ GDP would decrease by about 11.5% during the timeline of the pandemic. The DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) Graduation Program in the Philippines, whose purpose is to lead participants into self-sustainability and out of poverty has taken place and proved to be positive even among those latest struggles.

Needed Aide For the Philippines

The Philippines had initiatives and organizations set up even before the pandemic that was working on poverty reduction. UNICEF is one organization with several efforts already in place in the Philippines. For example, it teamed up with CERF (United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund) and Plan International to push the WASH initiative which helps with hygiene and healthier living conditions.

However, even with programs like that, there was still a need for assistance in other ways. Among hygiene health, resources and training for the Filipinos to learn how to manage their livelihoods themselves seemed like the next step.

DOLE Graduation Program

Fortunately, a pilot program called the Graduation program that BRAC started in 2002, was yielding positive results. More than 2 million households had graduated from the program and were out of extreme poverty as a result.

The purpose of the program is to give support and aid through various means like cash transfers. The program also helps find health resources and provides training or mentorship for financial management and long-term resiliency skills. Not just economically but also socially; the program has coached for the participants to learn how to navigate and gain resources through city links or their government.

This type of program is what the people of the Negros Occidental municipalities could benefit from. So, the DOLE had been partnering with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and BRAC UPGI (Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative) to instill this working program in their community. The goal was to help their people become self-stainable and work their way out of poverty like the others in the initial pilot program.

Graduation Initiative in the Philippines

The DOLE Graduation Program for the Philippines began in 2018, reaching about 1,800 participants. The fundamental goal was to put these beneficiaries on a path toward sustainability and have long-term effects even after it would end. According to the BRAC’s country brief, the program ended in September 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic had made many wonders if the program’s desired effects were able to sustain throughout and after it.

Adaptability

For the DOLE graduation pilot to survive during the epidemic they had to adapt. Coaching and peer meetings had to become remote or change in frequency or size. The program included many other measures to ensure safety for all those involved including digital monitoring, and strong communication between workers/participants. Workers also used PPE and participated in training on safety protocols like reporting symptoms and rescheduling meetings if needed or conducting them from a distance.

Through the hygiene training that was already being implemented, the participants were able to quickly handle the COVID-19 pandemic more effectively. There were even cases where participants with food assistance from the initiative were able to feed themselves and other neighbors too during the pandemic.

Results

The results of the DOLE Graduation pilot program and its adaptability have been positive for the participants. In the ADB assessment of the Graduation program households receiving the interventions along with government help, fared better during the COVID-19 pandemic than regular households. Other results from the assessment showed specific numbers, “The pilot project’s regular monitoring system found that, on average, 71% of households met each of the nine criteria under the four pillars of graduation—social protection, financial inclusion, livelihoods promotion and social empowerment.”

BRAC had also started its Rapid Diagnostic Assessment to monitor the participants even during the quarantine and mark down assistance or data. Through this, the pilot participants used the training and resources they received to find government assistance when necessary like the 96% who were able to go and find cash assistance from the government or two-thirds (67.15%) of participants able to keep up earnings and their occupation/livelihoods compared to a smaller amount in April (48.72%), according to BRAC’s bulletin.

The financial literacy training given displayed pilot participants withstanding the financial hardships during the pandemic. Seventy-five percent of the participants had savings to even use at this time compared to the 29% that originally reported in the beginning, according to the bulletin.

The Future

The Philippines DOLE Graduation pilot program has shown long-term impact and resilience during the COVID-pandemic for the Negro Occidental municipalities. This in turn has made the Philippines Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), adopt the learnings of the pilot and instill the full Graduation program in other provinces of the Philippines, according to the country’s report. BRAC also has a worldwide goal to reach around 4.6 million more households by 2026.

– Marynette Holmes
Photo: Flickr

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Global Gender Equality Progress

Global Gender Equality Progress
World Vision reports that 689 million people endured extreme poverty in 2021 and research shows that women make up a majority of the world’s impoverished. One trend that is common among countries with high poverty rates is a lack of gender equality. In some of these countries, women make less money than men, have limited access to education, or have fewer rights than men. Fortunately, in recent years, the world is noting global gender equality progress.

New Female Leaders Worldwide

In recent years, gender equality movements have reached government offices as countries around the world have made the progressive change of appointing women to leadership positions. In 2021, Albania appointed 12 out of its 17 total cabinet seats to women, a 70% majority. By giving the prime minister a new, primarily female cabinet, Albania could begin to go in a new direction that could further empower women in the nation. Albania ranks 25th out of 156 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report of 2021.

Honduras also made a significant change to its government in January 2022 when Xiomara Castro became the first female president in the country’s history. Castro has already voiced her intentions to tackle social injustice and help women. This should be encouraging to the citizens of Honduras, particularly its women who have faced numerous challenges such as femicide and reproductive rights restrictions.

Like Castro, in December 2020, Maia Sandu became the first woman to hold the presidency in her country, Moldova. In Moldova, almost 27% of people lived in poverty in 2020 and gender inequality is prominent as women face high rates of gender-based violence and less than half of Moldovan women participate in the workforce. Despite the challenges that Sandu has faced due to gender biases, there is hope for the women of Moldova to reach equality through Sandu’s efforts.

New Female Leader of the World Trade Organization (WTO)

In 2021, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala became the first woman to lead the World Trade Organization (WTO) as director-general. She is also the first African to lead the organization. The WTO is focused on the “global rules of trade between nations.” Its goal is to help nations efficiently conduct trade with each other. Having Okonjo-Iweala as the WTO new leader could be promising in terms of reducing global poverty as Okonjo-Iweala is a “firm believer” in using trade to help raise countries out of poverty. Furthermore, being an African woman, Okonjo-Iweala has experienced the struggles of the African continent first-hand. Africa holds a large majority of the world’s poor, most of whom are women.

New Constitution in Chile Strengthens Equality

In 2021, Chile voted to elect an assembly made up of 155 citizens to construct the country’s newest constitution. This is the first constitution in the world that men and women wrote equally. Many believe that this will help women in Chile make significant progress toward equality.

The previous constitution had a number of flaws as it was drafted, primarily, by one person during a time when Augusto Pinochet ruled Chile with an iron fist. One of the main issues is that men had more rights than women. The new constitution heavily prioritizes gender parity in the country. With more people having input on their country’s laws, Chile can better address the issue of inequality.

Chile’s new constitution could create a new standard for gender equality movements around the world. Because the world’s impoverished mostly consist of women, improving gender equality could reduce that poverty. If more countries adapted governments to promote gender equality, more women worldwide would have the same rights as men. This could be a driving force behind eliminating inequality between men and women as well as eliminating poverty for both.

Continued global gender equality progress will ensure that more women rise out of poverty across the world.

– Tyshon Johnson
Photo: Unsplash

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TODOC Provides Affordable Cochlear Implants 

Affordable Cochlear Implants
A South Korean tech startup is pioneering a more affordable cochlear implant through automated production. TODOC specializes in making these implants, which use surgically installed devices to help those with severe hearing loss improve their hearing by bypassing damaged portions of the ear. Without the devices, hearing-impaired people are more likely to experience lower economic status, poorer education and more, especially in parts of the world where resources dedicated to people with disabilities are scarce. 

The average cochlear implant costs more than $20,000, putting it firmly out of reach for many in the developing world. At the same time, 80% of people that could benefit from having cochlear hearing live in the developing world.

With higher rates of hearing impairment and limited resources, TODOC’s more affordable cochlear implant poses a possible solution to an issue that is costing the world billions of dollars and pushing many into isolation and poverty.

How Deafness and Hearing Loss Contribute to Poverty

Hearing loss and deafness can create numerous barriers to success, especially when those living with them do not receive sufficient support. One study published in the journal Disability and Society showed that those in the United Kingdom living with hearing impairment on average had lower household incomes, greater difficulties making ends meet, struggled more with unexpected costs and had higher jobless rates than their unimpaired counterparts. 

Compared to those living in the U.K., which boasted an impressive Human Development Index of 0.932 in 2018, people with hearing difficulties are even more likely to face disability-related consequences when living in developing countries. A 2005 study published in the BMJ posited that though children with hearing issues are just as likely to see a doctor, 80% did not receive a hearing aid. As a result, children with hearing impairments on average saw their education delayed until they were more than 10 years old, putting them at a considerable disadvantage to their unimpaired peers. 

Barriers to Distributing Hearing Aids and Other Treatments

Throughout the developing world, similar situations are commonplace. One study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health demonstrated that the distribution of hearing aids to families living in proximity to Guatemala City, Guatemala significantly increased household incomes. Another study from BMC Health Services Research demonstrated that children living with disabilities in Sub-Saharan African countries faced numerous barriers, such as widespread poverty, cultural stigma and inadequate healthcare systems, to receiving diagnoses and treatments for their issues, which ultimately decreased their quality of life.

The economic consequences of unaddressed hearing impairment and the lack of affordable cochlear implants in the developing world has received wide documentation. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that lower- and middle-income countries have contributed 57% of the $980 billion lost to healthcare costs, educational costs, loss of productivity and societal costs stemming from unaddressed hearing impairment. The number that WHO provided excluded the exorbitant amount of money spent on hearing aids. 

TODOC’s Plans to Improve Hearing For the Poor

Kyou Sik Min, who has previously worked for Samsung Electronics’s healthcare technology division and at other cochlear implant companies, started TODOC with the mission of expanding the cochlear implant market globally. To further this point, Sik Min named the company after the Korean word for the sound made when someone pats another’s shoulder “to create a company that comforts people with hearing loss by ‘patting’ the shoulders of people in difficult situations.” 

The company specifically focuses on creating high-quality, affordable cochlear implants for those who could not otherwise afford them. It also creates nerve stimulation and neuromodulation devices to help researchers and help with nerve pain. To reduce costs and increase output, TODOC has developed a system to manufacture its devices using automation. 

Currently, TODOC does not list a price for any of its devices. There are also questions of if and/or how the company plans to address the issue of the costs and accessibility to the surgery required to implant the devices and the therapy typically required to use cochlear implants.

At the same time, the company lists numerous innovations and improvements attached to its SULLIVAN model of affordable cochlear implants. This includes brain-machine interfacing and what the company calls “superior Neural Interface Technology,” which both have the potential to streamline the device’s implementation and use.

Looking Ahead

The company was invited to the Consumer Electronic Show in January 2022 to show its first line of implants and further advertise its products. In 2021, Min’s pitch for making a more affordable cochlear implant won the company $500,000 in funding at the Entrepreneurial World Cup Finals. Investors have also provided the company with more than millions of dollars in funding, including $3.5 million from the South Korean government. 

Overall, the investments demonstrate the international community’s confidence in TODOC’s ability to deliver on its promise to bring a solution to the developing world’s hearing problems and fight inequity within the cochlear implant industry.

– Ryan Morton
Photo: Wikipedia Commons