Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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The Impact of USG Funding for Ethiopia

USG Funding for EthiopiaDespite Ethiopia’s fast-growing economy, it is one of the most impoverished nations in Africa. However, the United States Government (USG) is making a significant effort to combat poverty in Ethiopia. On April 26, 2022, the U.S. announced that it would provide about $43.7 million in order for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) support along with health, nutrition and food aid to Ethiopians suffering from drought. Overall, USG funding for Ethiopia will help the nation make headway with poverty reduction.

Implementation

According to USAID, drought, flooding, food insecurity, vector-borne disease and minimal access to health services are just a few of the acute shocks that Ethiopian populations routinely suffer. These issues are worsened by continued large-scale violence, conflict and displacement, leading to a complicated emergency humanitarian situation.

On top of these challenges, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have not only brought about health impacts for countries but also economic repercussions. The World Bank predicted that Ethiopia’s poverty rate would stand at 27% by 2019. Like many other countries, Ethiopia suffered economically after the pandemic as its gross domestic product growth shrank from 6.1% in 2020 to 5.6% in 2021. Real wages for Ethiopians in Addis Ababa alone declined by 14% for high skilled workers at the onset of the pandemic.

How Will it Help?

According to the World Bank, Ethiopia is the “second most populated country in Africa” as of 2020. With this comes the increasing problem of water shortages. Besides water shortages, there is a lack of access to clean and safe water, which can lead to water-borne diseases, such as cholera, as individuals resort to consuming water from unsafe and potentially contaminated sources.

In fact, according to an article by Lifewater, “7.5[%]of the global water crisis is in Ethiopia alone” as of 2019. According to USAID, by April 2022, 8 million people in the southern parts of Ethiopia faced the impacts of drought conditions as a result of a third continuous “poor rainy season” in the latter part of 2021, which sparked severe water shortages and increased demand for emergency food aid.

WASH support aims to combat this by supplying safe water and preventing disease outbreaks. Food insecurity is also an issue in Ethiopia. According to the World Food Programme, despite Ethiopia’s progression, there are 20.4 million people who are still in need of food aid. The U.S. will ensure more people in Ethiopia have access to food by “providing assistance to drought-affected populations.”

Aftermath

Ethiopia continues to show effort in slowing down poverty. In fact, according to the World Bank, the government created a 10-year plan based on the 2019 Home-Grown Economic Reform Agenda for Ethiopia. With the intention of moving to a “private-sector-driven economy” and fostering “competition in key growth-enabling sectors” while promoting efficiency and a proper “business climate,” the plan will run for approximately 10 years from 2020/21 to 2029/30.

Ethiopia’s five-year growth and transformation plans aim to achieve “middle-income status” for the nation by 2025 by “sustaining high growth and speeding up structural transformation.” In the meanwhile, the USG funding for Ethiopia is actively lessening the burden on those who suffer from poverty in Ethiopia.

– Frema Mensah
Photo: Flickr

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The Aging Crisis in China

Aging Crisis in ChinaThe aging crisis in China will become a key concern for the country, as “the population aged over 70 years in China is projected to reach [more than] 300 million in 2060.” China is the fastest aging country in the world, but sources show that it struggles to maintain the necessary infrastructure and policies to accommodate its growing elderly population. The World Health Organization reports that an aging population requires different public health and socioeconomic support than a more evenly distributed population does. At the moment, China does not have a well-developed social security net for its elderly. However, studies estimate that the GDP amount spent on services such as pensions, medical care and welfare will need to nearly quadruple by 2050 to meet the needs of China’s population.

The One Child Policy

China’s large aging population is largely attributed to its low birth rate as a result of its one-child policy. The policy, which was in effect from about 1980 to 2015, significantly reduced birth rates. A primary effect of the policy is that the population no longer mirrors a standard age distribution or “population pyramid.” Instead, there are more people who are aged 50-54 than those who are aged 35-39.

Generally, scholars view a youthful population pyramid, where there are more people under age 25, as a better indicator of a nation’s health and longevity. China’s population, however, represents an aging nation, in which a key concern is that by 2050, the working-age population will be less than 60% of the total, leading to severe economic consequences. The aging crisis in China remains a key area of concern for the government, which is forming new policies to combat the issue.

Retirement

Another issue is that many seniors, especially those who are lower income, reach the age of retirement without having enough savings built for retirement. If a person reaches retirement age without a healthy pension or adequate savings, they must either rely on others or, in the worst possible instances, succumb to conditions of poverty.

The same article cites a 2013 study done by Peking University reporting that “only 3% of respondents had a commercial pension and just 0.2% had a private pension.” An aging population can be a sign of increased access to health care and education, but because of China’s current and past enacted policies, a significant revamp of social policies is necessary to accommodate the aging population.

Urban Versus Rural Living

Moreover, limited access to education and rural living is linked to declining cognitive health. Though the World Health Organization reports that across China’s geographic regions, 75% of older people suffer from noncommunicable diseases as of May 2021, China’s poor and low-income populations struggle most with this issue as they have limited access to quality health care.

Research shows that there is significant regional and urban-rural disparity in China regarding economic, social and health issues. Poorer, rural communities have reduced access to care that would enable healthy aging. The COVID-19 pandemic in China has only exacerbated these challenges.

Moving Toward the Future

Once the Chinese government and Chinese academics began to see the long-term impacts of the one-child policy, many groups began prioritizing care for the elderly to begin to repair the aging crisis in China. A study done by Peng Nie and others found that from 2011 to 2015, statistics point to an improvement in healthy aging.

However, there are still significant geographical disparities that groups are seeking to address, such as the link between healthy aging and higher education or the link to higher socioeconomic class.

A positive sign is that China ended its one-child policy in 2015, expanding it to two children, and later, expanding it to three. This is a reassuring sign that China recognizes its aging health crisis, though implementation of policy to help Chinese citizens must be developed as well. Abandoning the one-child policy means that the age breakdown of the Chinese population may even out over the next few decades.

Additionally, the National Center for Gerontology (NCG), established in 2015 and located inside Beijing Hospital, focuses on preventative and control measures related to the aging crisis in China. This manifests in the form of research, training of medical professionals and the prioritization of health services for older people in remote areas.

The NCG published journals and established the National Plan for the Elderly Health Service System (2019–2022), which seeks to solidify a course of action for China. Among other goals, the NCG raises awareness for geriatric issues and encourages people to become involved in geriatric care.

– Lara Drinan
Photo: Flickr

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War Puts HIV-Positive Ukrainians at Risk

HIV-positive UkrainiansThe war in Ukraine disrupted its supply chain of HIV medication and necessary health services. More than 40 health facilities that provided services for HIV treatment and prevention are now closed. What is more, it may not be safe for HIV-positive Ukrainians to leave their shelters to pick up their medications, and even if it is, pharmacies are not guaranteed to have the drugs. People fleeing also do not have adequate amounts of medication. They may have a one-month or two weeks supply, but not enough to sustain them before they have access to more medication. The people in Russian-occupied territories along with those who are unable to relocate to a safe place are currently the most vulnerable.

HIV Medication Explained

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) involves taking a combination of HIV medications daily. Though ARTs are not a cure for HIV, they help prevent transmission and let HIV-positive people live longer healthier lives. ART reduces a person’s viral load, the amount of HIV in a blood sample, to an undetectable level. If a person’s viral load level is undetectable, meaning that a viral load test cannot detect it, then that person cannot transmit HIV to others.

Before the war, approximately 260,000 people were living with AIDS. Of this population, only 58% had access to daily antiretroviral medications. Now, with the war resulting in reduced access to ARTs, UNAIDS reported the possibility of the “resurgence of Ukraine’s AIDS pandemic.”

How PEPFAR Has Been Providing ARTs

HIV-positive Ukrainians are now depending on international support for treatment. The United States President Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) invested $13 million in antiretroviral medications for Ukrainarinas in need. PEPFAR began in 2003 and is the largest commitment by any nation to address one disease. Its funding, which totals more than $100 billion, includes funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund). The Global Fund also provided emergency aid for ART medication in Ukraine.

The first wave of medication from PEPFAR delivered 18 million doses of ARTs to the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health in Ukraine and 100% Life, the “largest organization of people living with HIV in Ukraine” to distribute. This portion of life-saving treatment will cover six months of treatment for HIV-positive Ukrainians, less than that of PEPFAR’s commitment to cover one year, or 51 million doses of ART medication in Ukraine. PEPFAR flew the antiretroviral medications to Poland. From there, trucks transported the medication to medical facilities in Ukraine.

UNAIDS’ Efforts

Civil society organizations are making great efforts to distribute drugs and medical supplies to vulnerable people in locations that are difficult to reach. UNAIDS put forth an initial $200,000 in emergency funds for medical supplies to be distributed in seven cities with large HIV populations: Chernihiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kryvy Rih, Kyiv, Odesa and Poltava. UNAIDS has requested an additional $2.24 million to fund civil service organizations in Ukraine that are providing HIV treatment and refugees in other countries that are experiencing HIV. Civil society organizations that receive support from UNAIDS are helping to get HIV-infected individuals ARTs in the Republic of Moldova and the European Union. In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) helped push Viiv Healthcare, a pharmaceutical company, to provide HIV medication donations to the Czech Republic, Poland and other countries in the European Union that are hosting Ukrainian refugees.

The war in Ukraine has deepened the threat of HIV deaths for positive Ukrainians. Although foreign aid has played a pivotal role in obtaining and dispersing antiretroviral medications throughout the nation and to Ukrainians abroad, there is still a high demand for ARTs in difficult locations and to continue after the one-year investment from PEPFAR concludes. Ukraine’s Public Health Center created a website with more support for HIV-positive people. The website includes information about where individuals can continue ART therapy and provides information about how to find HIV help. It also provides contacts for Ukrainian refugees with HIV. The need to get medication to HIV-positive Ukrainians is urgent, and the threat of another AIDS pandemic is not over.

– Jordan Oh

Photo: Flickr

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Foodborne Illness in Southeast Asia Impacts Poverty

Foodborne illness in Southeast AsiaEvery year, one in 10 people across the world become infected by a foodborne illness, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). These are known to cause a wide range of symptoms from the milder, which may result in a long day in the bathroom, to the more severe, which can cause meningitis, sepsis and even death. Though common throughout the world, foodborne illnesses affect some regions more than others in both spread and severity, with the greatest impact on the poorest areas. The Asian Development Bank estimates that 4.7 million people in Southeast Asia fell into poverty in 2021, making safe food and other necessities harder to access. Due to these factors and others, there is a higher prevalence of foodborne illness in Southeast Asia.

The Current Standing of Foodborne Illness in Southeast Asia

High rates of both population and economic growth among Southeast Asian countries contribute to an increase in demand and production of food. But, higher agricultural output, especially meat production, the advent of foodborne illness has become more likely.

In 2015, the WHO created the first-ever global estimate of the burden of foodborne illness. Based on 2010 data, it estimated the existence of more than 150 million foodborne illnesses in Southeast Asia. These infections proved fatal for 175,000 people in the region, with children under 5 accounting for one-third of global deaths due to diarrhea. These diseases can also be disabling with side effects often including brain disorders, cancer and organ failure.

The four most prevalent causes of foodborne illness in Southeast Asia include Campylobacter species, Shigella species, Enterotoxigenic E. coli and Non-typhoidal S. enterica. Each is estimated to burden more than 15 million Southeast Asian people with bouts of sickness every year. Various forms of Salmonella and E. coli are the most life-threatening while norovirus and hepatitis A contribute to thousands of fatalities as well.

How Foodborne Illness in Southeast Asia Exacerbates Poverty

Diseases caused by foodborne illnesses result in “an annual loss of 33 million years of healthy life,” Felicia Wu, a food scientist who works with the WHO and for Michigan State University, told NPR in 2015. With thousands dying every year, the possibility of children losing one or both parents to a foodborne illness is a real threat. The loss of a parent can do harm to human capital development. For instance, a study by Kathleen Beegle and others found that maternal orphanhood leads to a loss of two centimeters of final height and one year in school.

Even when these diseases do not lead to the worst outcomes, they can still have major effects on the short-term well-being of those in poverty. For instance, while rarely fatal, those infected with the Campylobacter species, the most prevalent foodborne illness in Southeast Asia, will experience painful symptoms for a week on average. A week or more of debilitating symptoms can likely mean time off of the job. With so many people infected with these diseases in the region, this can have broader effects on the economy. In the Southeast Asian country of Indonesia, there is a projected cost of $4.7 to $16.7 million from diarrhea caused by foodborne illnesses alone.

Improving Standards through Multilateral Institutions

In 2016, an estimated 60 million people endured undernourishment in Southeast Asia, making food security high on the policy priorities of countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the intergovernmental body responsible for facilitating cooperation between the nations. Trade between Southeast Asian nations has been an important tool in countering this.

But, with trade, one country’s foodborne illnesses can quickly become another’s. To address this, ASEAN set up a Food Safety Policy in 2015 for better practice and enforcement of food safety standards. Some of the actions that this policy takes include support for small and medium-sized producers to adhere to food standards, a rapid alert system for disease tracing and transparency requirements concerning all new food safety laws.

Improving Practices with the ILRI

While news laws and standards set up an improved framework, especially for producers involved in regional trade, nearly all of the agriculture in Southeast Asia is informal. While these informal producers are more accessible to most, they are also harder to regulate, creating greater potential for hazards.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), an intergovernmental organization based in Kenya and Ethiopia, is working to improve local producers’ practices on the ground in Southeast Asia through a number of programs. In 2017, the ILRI began the SafePORK project to counteract disease from pork in Vietnam. This project has helped teach better pork safety practices and risk communication methods to small-scale producers across the country. With more confidence in the pork supply, the president of one pork cooperative told ILRI that there is more stability in its supply chains and it is making between 10-15% more on sales.

Looking Ahead

Though the incidence of foodborne illness remains high in Southeast Asia, the work of multilateral institutions and international scientific organizations have created frameworks to reduce the prevalence.

– Joey Harris
Photo: Flickr

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US Aid to Help Pay Ukraine’s Health Care Workers

Help Pay Ukraine’s Health Care WorkersOn July 12, 2022, the U.S. and World Bank announced the provision of $1.7 billion in aid to help pay Ukraine’s health care workers and supply “other essential services.”

Ukraine’s Health Care Workers

Despite the ongoing Russian offensive, many Ukrainian health care workers have opted to remain in the country, performing their duties under extreme strain and hardship. These individuals are key to Ukraine’s continued resistance, providing essential medical services for soldiers and civilians alike. Ukraine’s minister of health, Viktor Liashko, expressed that “the overwhelming burden of war” has made it more difficult to pay health care workers, emphasizing the urgency of continued financial support.

Importance of Humanitarian Assistance

The latest aid package brings the total U.S. budgetary assistance to Ukraine, via USAID, to $4 billion as of July 2022. Ukraine has used this aid to maintain essential social services, such as ensuring schools and medical facilities receive gas and electricity, providing basic humanitarian supplies and supporting civil servants. USAID Director Samantha Power expects that Ukraine’s dependence on foreign aid will continue as the Russian offensive continues targeting Ukraine’s public services.

The importance of supporting Ukraine’s hospitals cannot be overstated. Russia’s offensive strategically targets health care institutions alongside other public works. Ukraine noted 269 attacks on Ukraine’s public health institutions as of June 2, 2022. Russia’s strategy has decimated vital supply lines and infrastructure. The recent U.S. aid to help pay Ukraine’s health care workers is a step in the right direction, however, continued international support for Ukraine’s humanitarian services remains essential.

Additional International Support for Ukraine

The U.S. has sent the most aid to Ukraine since the start of the war, however, many other countries have also stepped up to support Ukraine’s humanitarian and military needs in this time of crisis. As of July 4, 2022, the U.K. had committed about $3.5 billion and the European Union had pledged nearly $1.5 billion to the cause. The IMF and World Bank have also sent multiple aid packages worth several billion U.S. dollars since the conflict began. The private sector is also a valuable source of aid for Ukraine, with major corporations such as IKEA, Adidas and Google pledging millions of dollars worth of assistance.

Fund-tracking platforms such as Devex estimate that there are a total of about $100 billion in aid commitments to Ukraine as of July 2022. Unfortunately, only about $8.5 billion will be allocated toward humanitarian aid, with the remaining funds being tied up in military packages or loans that cannot be allocated toward emergency services.

The $1.7 billion in U.S.-World Bank aid to help pay Ukraine’s health care workers and sustain essential services will bolster Ukraine’s health system and public institutions. As Russia’s offensive grows more protracted, the continuance of such humanitarian assistance is crucial.

– Mollie Lund
Photo: Flickr

Energy Poverty in Nigeria

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Nigeria had the largest energy access deficit in the world in 2021. Regarding energy affordability, it can provide itself completely with self-produced energy.  However, according to a report from the World Bank, “as many as four in 10 Nigerians live below the national poverty line.” The report also noted that they lack education and access to basic infrastructures such as electricity, safe drinking water, and basic sanitation. The energy poverty issue in Nigeria has put many Nigerians, especially in the rural areas, at a high risk of relying on hazardous and polluting sources of lighting such as candles and kerosene lanterns. Lack of access to energy or electricity is directly related the economic hardship, food crises, health concerns and perpetuation of the poverty cycle.

Overview of Energy Poverty in Nigeria

The rapid population growth in Nigeria has increased the overreliance on fossil fuels that contributed to creating socio­-economic drawbacks.  The massive demand and the lack of an established energy supply chain in Nigeria resulted in acute energy poverty. In 2020, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) estimated that almost 90 million people in Nigeria do not have access to grid electricity and the millions of those connected to the grid have less than 12 hours of electricity every day. The major problem with the energy shortage in Nigeria, regardless of the possession of enough conventional energy resources, is the inadequate supply of distribution, which is not able to meet the basic demand for the increased population.

Energy poverty in Nigeria is more severe in rural areas, where the majority of the population lives with a lack of infrastructure and an unstable and insufficient power supply, according to Environment, Development and Sustainability journal. The effects of energy poverty were worsened by COVID-19 when the household demand and industrial demand increased. The pandemic disrupted the supply chain due to the shortages in the workforce. Since the off-grid sector requires extensive labor, the shortage of workforce due to the safety restrictions during the pandemic stagnated the off-grid businesses. The downfall of the off-grid businesses in Nigeria pushed Nigerians to heavily rely on other nonrenewable resources of energy that also don’t adequately meet the demand.

Energy Disparities in Rural Population in Nigeria

In 2021, according to the World Bank, about 47% of Nigerians are living in rural areas. The percentage of access to electricity in the rural population was 24.6% in 2020, while the percentage of energy access for the urban population in Nigeria was 83.9%.

The large socio-economic disparities between urban and rural areas have enlarged the gap in accessing electricity. Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, CEO of Nigeria’s REA, remarked on the seriousness of the issue in the rural areas in 2021, “…it’s not just a question of having no lights. There are adverse effects on business, social structures and the well-being of people in rural areas.”

Efforts to Address Energy Poverty in Nigeria

To address the energy poverty issue in Nigeria, the Nigerian government and international corporations have put vast investments in building an off-grid clean energy sector and the adoption of clean energy solutions to address the energy deficit in Nigeria.  Accompanied by the donor agencies with financial and technical support, the off-grid market in Nigeria exponentially grew.

In 2021, according to the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), developing the off-grid sector in Nigeria would create a $9.2 billion per year market opportunity for solar home systems that could save $4.4 billion per year for Nigerian homes and businesses. The enlargement of off-grid renewable electric sources in Nigeria has reduced the prices of solar energy over the years. However, David Arinze, a renewable energy specialist and program officer, pointed out during an interview in 2021 with The Cable, that the focal point of reducing energy poverty must be the government’s need to help the local sector scale and promote integrated collaborations with the local stakeholders in the renewable energy sector.

Since the electricity deficit in Nigeria cannot be resolved only with national efforts, international support has been implemented. To elaborate, the Federal Government of Nigeria launched the first off-grid energy system to address the energy deficit in 2018, Electrification Project for Nigeria with financing support from the World Bank worth $350 million. With the help of agencies of the Federal Ministry of Finance and REA, the project has been dealing with increasing electricity services for households, public educational institutions and various enterprises.

Technical assistance in building a framework for rural electrification of upscaling and improvement on building an extended supply chain could amend the energy poverty in Nigeria, especially in the rural areas. With the expansion of the off-grid energy businesses in Nigeria, the prospect of adequate energy distribution is positive.

–Youngwook Chun
Photo: Flickr

The Uprise Enables African Talent to Enter the NFL

The UpriseOsi Umenyiora is a former NFL player of Nigerian descent and a two-time Super Bowl champion. Now retired from the field, Umenyiora seeks to use his influence to uplift African youth by providing them with the opportunity to receive formal NFL training. Umenyiora began actualizing his vision in 2020. With support and funding from the NFL, he co-founded The Uprise, a talent-scouting and training program, with the Nigerian former NBA player Ejike Ugboaja.

NFL Africa and The Uprise

Umenyiora first conceived of an NFL talent-finding program targeted toward African youth upon noticing a sizable increase in the amount of NFL African players during the past decade. The trend reminded him of Ugboaja’s initiative in 2014; the basketball star had approached Umenyiora for help with sponsoring young Nigerian basketball players.

At the same time, Umenyiora noted that many African youths have the physical traits essential for success as a football player, which would give them a natural advantage over other hopefuls while making a career out of football. Furthermore, competition is comparatively more fierce in basketball and soccer, seeing as the two sports are popular worldwide. American football would provide the scouted youth with more opportunities with regard to potential to sign onto professional leagues.

In this way, Umenyiora solidified his idea for The Uprise. Due to his position as an NFL ambassador at that time, he easily secured support from the league and founded The Uprise camp.

Current Impact

The Uprise has already helped three African athletes get signed to NFL rosters, after holding training camps in multiple African countries and selectively sending promising players to Arizona for more training. Kehinde Oginni Hassan, Haggai Chisom Ndubuisi and Chigbo Roy Mbaeteka, who have never before played organized football, impressed the general managers enough to receive contracts and the opportunity to travel to the International Combine in London. Beyond this quantifiable impact, The Uprise has also served as a beacon of hope for many African youths by providing them with a viable and accessible pathway out of poverty, which is extremely valuable, given the 70% poverty rate among youth in sub-Saharan Africa in 2016.

Future Plans

More than securing NFL contracts for players, Umenyiora envisions sending the athletes to high schools and colleges in the United States and the United Kingdom. The former football champion is already working toward this end. For the upcoming NFL camp in Ghana, Umenyiora has organized for both NFL coaches and colleges to be on-site. In addition, he is also planning high-level camps, which sports companies will host, in Kenya, Senegal, Cameroon, Uganda and Nigeria.

Umenyiora hopes for a future where at least 15% to 20% of NFL players are from Africa. He also seeks to increase interest in football in Africa to deepen the continent’s connection with the NFL and foster a sense of communal pride for players of African descent who have already found success in their football careers.

Looking Ahead

As unemployment continues to pose challenges for African youth, Umenyiora’s initiative is a crucial intervention to provide an accessible and sustainable method of lifting oneself out of poverty. The Uprise is seeing tremendous success so far and its impact is projected to increase with the abundance of companies and colleges now recognizing the wealth of football talent waiting to be discovered in Africa.

– Emily Xin

Photo: PixalBay

 

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Repairing Madagascar’s Health Information System Through Singing

Madagascar’s Health Information SystemMadagascar’s exotic flora and fauna belie a broken and underdeveloped health information system. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the probability of dying by the age of 5, per 1,000 live births in Madagascar is 50.24. The problem is not only a lack of access to health care but also lags in timely information, which prevents Malagasy people from taking proper precautions against infectious diseases.

Although 77% of Madagascar’s population is literate and 57% have access to mobile phones, people in the rural areas are still hampered by low literacy rates and a lack of a proper telecommunication system. Consequently, people share the majority of health-related facts orally, leading to the rampant spread of misinformation. In an effort to debunk myths and reform Madagascar’s health information system, a local NGO called Doctors for Madagascar, initiated a project that utilizes a unique tool for its success: singing.

Beginning of the Project

In 2018 and 2019, the measles epidemic in Madagascar caused more than 200,000 cases and over 1,000 deaths. During this time, health workers observed a deficiency of knowledge among rural people in southern Madagascar about measles vaccination.

To dispel the false rumors circulating, Doctors for Madagascar teamed up with local singer/songwriter Ebera to start the “Singing Sensitization” project as a medium of “getting accurate health information to isolated, rural communities in the country’s south.”

Free live music performances took place in places such as markets so that it could reach as many different demographics as possible. The song “The Measles” by Ebera became vastly popular among the rural Malagasy people for its educative lyrics and lilting tune.

The lyrics contained all information from verifiable sources such as the WHO and the Malagasy Ministry of Health. The song warned — “measles — they’re lethal” and advised them to take their children to the hospital if they showed symptoms like coughing, sneezing, vomiting, or diarrhea, instead of bringing them to “a shaman or a witch.” In addition, the song also urged villagers to get the measles vaccination as it would help protect them better against the disease.

Melodies During COVID-19

The success of “Singing Sensitization” during the measles outbreak in Madagascar encouraged the NGO to continue its project during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the first wave in 2020, songs focused on the importance of wearing masks, washing hands regularly with soap and water as well as social distancing. The productions also placed emphasis on the origin and spread of the virus.

According to the WHO case study, these performances were conducted sporadically “at eight to nine locations each month (or bimonthly in each village) in Ampanihy until August 2021.” The infrequency was a result of compliance with social distancing rules proposed by the government.

The Song of Victory

Conveying facts through songs sung in local dialects has proven effective especially since the performances conclude with an informative Q&A session, where health workers address additional questions and concerns.

This created trust between the villagers and the health workers. The project members often held focus group sessions and informal interviews with “community leaders, health care workers, and local health authorities” to understand how much the villagers had learned and retained as well as identify what was lacking in their knowledge, WHO case study reports.

The team modeled additional performances based on these discussions, focusing on filling the “knowledge gaps” and denouncing any inaccurate information.

Additionally, these discussions helped the “Singing Sensitization” team infer that the reach of their performances was approximately 60–70%, with “a positive uptake of the initiative by the local population,” WHO case study reports.

Making it Large Scale

“Singing Sensitization” has greatly helped in improving rural Madagascar’s health information system. As of now, the biggest challenge is getting funding, recruiting more local performers and expending time and energy on translating lyrics into different local languages.

Nonetheless, the team wants to expand its project and take it to other “hard-to-reach” rural communities. One of their goals is to introduce a radio network for easier and wider transmission of information.

– Anushka Raychaudhuri
Photo: Flickr

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Cash Transfers in Government Policy

Cash Transfers in Government PolicyIn recent years, humanitarian organizations have recognized cash transfers as an effective way to pull children and families out of poverty. In the early 2000s, just a few UNICEF country offices experimented with cash transfer initiatives to reduce child poverty. After a few years, these initial projects and several cash transfer programs implemented by UNICEF in Latin America showed promising results. For this reason, cash transfers form an integral part of UNICEF’s Framework. In fact, as of 2015, more than 70 countries globally are implementing cash transfer programs. These programs show the importance of including cash transfers in government policy.

Conditional Cash Transfer Initiatives

Cash transfers prove to be a simple and efficient way to provide low-income families with access to food rather than providing the food itself. Research shows that families struggling to make ends meet will likely spend cash transfers on pure necessities. However, critics still remain concerned over the misuse of cash transfers given to poorer families.

This is why cash transfer programs often rely on pre-agreed conditions. For example, for a family to be a beneficiary of a cash transfer program, they must agree to send their children for regular health checkups and must ensure school attendance.

In a study conducted by Bastagli et al. (2016), monitoring and assessing 56 cash transfer programs across 30 countries, households noted significant positive impacts from cash transfer programs. In a vast majority of cases, cash transfers led to an increase in household food expenditure, a reduction in the poverty rate and a positive local economic impact.

The Hidden Benefits

Despite the effectiveness of cash transfers in pulling people out of poverty, governments rarely use these programs or do not at all. Why? The short answer would be politics. Voters are not likely to vote for a party that requires higher tax payments from individual citizens but is far more likely to support a “free-school lunch” project. That is because to the average citizen, free lunches to low-income children do not feel like a cost coming from their own pocket while a cash transfer does.

Further, many fail to consider that cash transfers address financial limitations to basic social services, such as education and health care, and thereby, are able to reduce multidimensional child poverty. For many, the cost of school supplies, stationery, health service costs and prescription fees is not within the realm of what is financially possible.

An evaluation of cash transfer programs finds that 13 out of 20 reporting studies note a rise in school attendance rates. Furthermore, nine out of 15 reporting studies witnessed a rise in beneficiaries’ utilization of health care services.

Argentina’s Cash Transfer Program

In 2009, the Argentinian government implemented the Universal Child Allowance (AUH) Programme, a conditional cash transfer program with the goal of breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty. The program targets individuals younger than 18 who reside in financially unstable households, including households facing unemployment or households headed by workers in the informal economy sector.

The individual that qualifies for the program will receive 80% of a specific allowance monthly. The individual will receive the remaining 20% and future payouts on the condition that they satisfy certain school attendance requirements and attend health check-up appointments. By 2018, the program had benefited 3.9 million children since its implementation, equating to 0.6% of the nation’s GDP.

In agreement with the importance of cash transfer programs, the chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham, has argued that countries should ensure a “minimum layer of protection”  via free school meals and sufficient cash transfers in government policy as a part of a long-term poverty reduction campaign.

– Pauline Luetzenkirchen
Photo: Flickr

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Doctors Without Borders Helps Ukraine

Doctors Without Borders Helps UkraineDoctors Without Borders is an international, non-governmental group that cares for people affected by conflict, disease, natural and human-made disasters and exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries. Since the war’s beginning, Doctors Without Borders helps Ukraine in many different ways.

Doctors Without Borders Helps Ukraine

Since Russia launched a large-scale military operation against Ukraine in February 2022, millions of people have fled their homes, 7 million remaining displaced in Ukraine and 5 million fleeing to various neighboring countries.

Doctors Without Borders has maintained a presence in Ukraine since 2014, working to respond to the needs of HIV and tuberculosis patients. As the war has escalated over the last couple of months, the organization has halted its normal activities and launched emergency projects in Ukraine, tending to the current residents as well as the refugees in surrounding countries.

Doctors Without Borders teams are making every effort to help in Ukraine. Working with Ukrainian railways, the organization constructed a two-car medical train to transport patients from the east side of the country– the most affected side– to medical facilities on the west side of the country in April 2022. Doctors Without Borders is also setting up mobile clinic teams around the country.

Since implementing these teams at the war’s beginning, the organization has carried out more than 800 medical procedures in the subway stations, where Ukrainians are taking shelter against Russian bombing, according to its website. A team in Southwestern Ukraine has started tending to the needs of displaced people who need mental health care, and those who were receiving treatment for injuries and illnesses before the war broke out.

Helping Ukrainian Doctors

Due to the lack of trauma training that many Ukrainian doctors have, Doctors Without Borders has employed trauma specialists to teach those working in the hospitals how to assess and deal with trauma cases. A large effect that Doctors Without Borders has had on helping in Ukraine is the donation of medical supplies to the already-existing clinics and hospitals in the country.

Prior to the war’s outbreak, supply lines around the country were already extremely insecure, and the effects of the war have heightened the uncertainty of the lines even more.

Ukrainians have been in desperate need of medical equipment since the war’s beginning, having to make do with a very limited supply of first-aid kits, surgical tools, general resources and funds to administer vaccines. In March 2022, Doctors Without Borders delivered its first shipment of medical supplies to the Ukraine Ministry of Health and has continued to donate on a regular basis, according to its website.

COVID-19

Before the war, around 35% of Ukrainians had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. As the conflict continues to rage, a surge of COVID-19 cases is taking place as a result of the disruption to testing and vaccine administration. As of August 2022, there are currently more than 4,000 active cases of COVID-19, and very limited supplies to help.

Doctors Without Borders teams around the world have been responding to the pandemic since 2020 and make no exception in Ukraine as the war brings up other pressing health issues. COVID-19 activities are remaining at the forefront of health care within the organization’s emergency activities, as Doctors Without Borders is providing Ukrainians with regular testing and vaccinations.

In addition to medical supplies and treatment, Doctors Without Borders has also donated a large supply of cold-weather clothing and tents to support the large population of homeless Ukrainians, according to its website. As the war continues to rage, Doctors Without Borders, in conjunction with other global aid organizations, is doing everything possible to provide relief to those who are unfairly facing displacement and danger.

– Ava Lombardi
Photo: Unsplash