Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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The Batwa People Face Extreme Poverty

Batwa People Facing Extreme Poverty
Being among the poorest populations in one of the poorest nations, Uganda, the Batwa people face extreme poverty in their everyday life. Once known to live in the depths of the African forests as one of the oldest indigenous tribes in the continent, they now reside in town slums. Many have come to wonder how a population that thrived for centuries started resorting to scavenging garbage cans for their next meal.

The Forest: A True Loss For The Batwa

In 1991, the Ugandan government “reclassified lands of the Batwa” to national parks. This move forced many Batwa people to relocate from their homes, sometimes by gunpoint. A 2008 report indicated that 45% of the Batwa people were landless and lived in poverty.

The Batwa people went from a community that once thrived in hunting and gathering to now struggling to find means of survival. The report also highlighted that many Batwa people are seeking work from foreign people under “bonded labor agreements,” resulting in them experiencing discrimination from “their ethnic neighbors.”

In addition, it is important to note that the Batwa people have lost more than their home; the forest was their place of worship and healing. With strong “spiritual and religious ties to the forest,” Batwa people have lost a significant part of their history and livelihood that provided them with herbal remedies when members became sick. The forest was incredibly significant to the lives and culture of the Batwa people.

The Batwa People’s Current Conditions

As aforementioned, some Batwa work for foreign people who are not part of their tribe. Others make a living from performing for tourists who visit the country. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been limited travel of tourists which means that many Batwa people lost their income, resulting in poverty. Due to these circumstances, many Batwa have resorted to “eating from garbage bins” to stay alive.

Solutions

With the massive displacement that took the place of the Batwa, their community is shrinking more and more as time goes by. With little to no resources to stay alive, extinction is knocking on their door. Furthermore, tourism is a key component to the Batwa people’s survival.

To keep the community going, Uganda is encouraging local tourism where the Batwa people are now giving tours of the Ugandan national parks, a place they once called home. With a keen knowledge of this territory, the Batwa people are the perfect tour guides for the forests.

Additionally, Uganda contains an impressive gorilla population that many people travel to see in person. Having shared the forest with them for centuries, the Batwa tour guides introduce visitors to this impressive species with respect and caution. Such tours, which now target even local tourists, offer a memorable experience that is a “culturally sensitive” visit whose proceeds go to people who truly need them.

The Takeaway

It is incredibly important to bring awareness to the Batwa tribe who live in extreme poverty and could disappear after centuries in the forest. With the modernization of their territory, this community has suffered a great loss of their home and livelihood and now faces extreme poverty and famine.

By supporting their efforts to survive through tourism and lobbying the Ugandan government to aid displaced peoples, this community could find hope again.

– Kler Teran
Photo: Flickr

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4 Ways Global Citizen Helped Reduce Poverty in 2021 

Global Citizen Helped Reduce PovertyIn 2008, Hugh Evans, Simon Moss and Wei Soo co-founded Global Citizen, a movement to reduce global poverty and create lasting change. Global Citizen is working to end extreme poverty by 2030 by mobilizing people around the world to use their “collective voice” to garner change. These are four ways Global Citizen helped reduce poverty in 2021.

4 Ways Global Citizen Helped Reduce Poverty in 2021

  1. Global Citizen Live: 24-Hour Concert. Global Citizen helped reduce poverty in 2021 on September 25, 2021, by hosting a 24-hour-long concert to raise awareness on the inequality of vaccine distribution and the extreme famine caused by the increasing spread of COVID-19. Highlights of the event include performances by Billie Eilish, Elton John, Jennifer Lopez, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay. Interestingly, the event’s main aim was not just fundraising but rather using “participation as evidence for world leaders that people support bold action on the issues.” These efforts proved successful as several leaders and companies announced their pledges. USAID Administrator Samantha Power stated the U.S. would pledge more than $295 million to fight hunger and address gender-based violence and other humanitarian issues brought about by COVID-19. Lego and Verizon also committed to donating to the cause of ending global poverty. Global Citizen was able to fundraise $1.1 billion to help fight poverty in the most vulnerable countries.
  2. VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World. On May 8, 2021, this Global Citizen event brought together various “big names,” such as Jennifer Lopez, Joe Biden and Prince Harry, pledging for help to end vaccine inequities in vulnerable countries during COVID-19. However, the televised event was not live, but rather, pre-taped. Fortunately, the event was able to raise $302 million from “several philanthropic and corporate commitments,” exceeding the event’s fundraiser goal. With this money, Global Citizen was able to obtain 26 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for impoverished countries.
  3. Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100. On December 8, 2018, Global Citizen hosted a festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, honoring the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. Mandela’s vision for global peace and equality remains a struggle that Global Citizen is trying to achieve. More than 70,000 Global Citizens, world leaders and music artists attended the festival in hopes of making a difference in the fight against global poverty. At the event, “Global Citizen and its partners announced key pledges across Health, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Food Security, Agriculture, Environment, Education, Finance and Innovation.” In 2021, Global Citizen used about $783 million of $7.2 billion raised through commitments made during the 2018 event to improve the lives of 12.4 million additional people. In total, since the event in 2018, Global Citizen has brought positive impacts to 117.8 million people.
  4. Global Goal: Unite for Our Future. On June 27, 2020, Global Citizen held a benefit concert with music performers and world leaders to help raise awareness about the hardships impoverished countries are experiencing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With Dwyane Johnson as the host, the event included performances by Coldplay, Chris Rock, Shakira and more. This concert was integral considering that the world hunger rate rose to 690 million people in 2020. Fortunately, in February 2021, Global Citizen distributed the $1.4 billion fundraised during Global Goal to support organizations playing an integral role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, such as UNICEF, the Global Fund and the World Health Organization. In particular, the U.S. pledged $545 million at the event, a pledge that is now “supporting COVID-19 response efforts in 120 countries” through USAID and the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.

Looking Ahead

Since its inception, Global Citizen has hosted many events to help the organization reach its goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030. With the help of motivated leaders and individuals using their voices to express the change they want to see in the world, Global Citizen has garnered significant support from the international community to contribute to the cause. Through generous donations, Global Citizen is able to positively impact the lives of millions of people in disadvantaged countries.

– Kayla De Alba
Photo: Flickr

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Child Marriage in Afghanistan On the Rise

Child Marriage in Afghanistan
With limited resources and an absence of income to support themselves, Afghan families may sell their children to make ends meet, resulting in a significant level of child marriage in Afghanistan. To illustrate, the 9-year-old Parwana Malik family sold her to Qorban, a 55-year-old man, for $2,200 in an arrangement of sheep, land and cash. Thinking about what her future holds as a wife to Qorban, Parwana fears her husband will beat her and force her to work in his house. Regrettably, however, Parwana’s family does not have enough money to afford necessities to keep all its members alive and healthy. In fact, before her family sold her, it sold Parwana’s 12-year-old sister.

Background of Child Marriages in Afghanistan

Child marriage in Afghanistan can cause suffering and damage in a child’s life. For example, many child brides experience domestic violence, discrimination, abuse and poor mental health. Child marriage in Afghanistan is common but illegal. The minimum age for marriage is 15 or 16 years old for women and 18 years old for men. In the past, many families opted for child marriages to pay back any personal debts, settle disputes, or create friendships with rival families to decrease their enemy count.

In 2016, the National Ministry of Women and the Ministry of Information and Culture created the National Action Plan to Eliminate Early and Child Marriage, bringing organizations from 90 different countries together to help end child marriage in Afghanistan and ensure the legal age of marriage be 18.

However, this act was short-lived. Now, with the increasing hardships of acquiring money and jobs, Afghanistan families are selling their young daughters “for large dowries from wealthy people, and the husbands are usually much older,” according to UNFPA.

Afghanistan is a country that has always relied on foreign aid, with 75% of its finances coming from grants from the United States and other countries. Unfortunately, when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the country’s economy worsened, leading to difficult living conditions for many people.

Poor Economy Causing an Increase in Child Marriages

When the United States military withdrew, the Western powers and international organizations stopped sending humanitarian aid by blocking overseas equipment and valuables to focus their time on taking the Taliban away from power.

Additionally, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) halted payments. As a result, Afghanistan workers and people are not receiving income to feed themselves and pay for other expenses, leading to families selling their children for money.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), “recent surveys have revealed that only 5% of families have enough to eat every day.” Not only are they not receiving enough money to support themselves, but there has also been an increase in food and cooking oil prices and the country has lost about 40% of its wheat crops.

As winter approaches, WFP mentions that Afghanistan families will run out of food, pushing them further to the brink of starvation. For example, to avoid selling his daughter, Parwana’s father would travel to the main cities of Afghanistan hoping to find a job, but he was always unsuccessful.

In addition, he would ask for money from other family members, while his wife would beg their neighbors for food, but they received little assistance. Having to take care of eight other family members, Parwana’s father felt obligated to sell Parwana to keep the rest alive, according to CNN.

Where Afghanistan is Receiving Help

Fortunately, WFP is helping Afghanistan’s dire situation and improving their nutrition to rebuild their strength. According to WFP, it has “provided 6.4 million people with food assistance, including more than 1.4 million people since the Taliban takeover.”

In September 2021, WFP sent 10 trucks into the country with nutritional supplements for young children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. Currently, WFP has a team of people in the most remote parts of Afghanistan to deliver food to communities they might not reach in the winter months due to blockades of snow.

Not only is WFP asking for $2.6 billion in 2022 in aid for Afghanistan, but the U.N. has made an emergency appeal for $606 million to meet areas that need it the most. Although the United States and other countries are not sending any aid into the country, Afghanistan is receiving relief elsewhere, improving the lives of many and decreasing the number of child marriages in Afghanistan.

– Kayla De Alba
Photo: Flickr

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Reopening Schools in the Philippines

Reopening Schools in the Philippines
The Philippines has had school doors’ closed for almost two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Philippines’ Department of Education is wary of potential spikes in COVID-19 cases. However, it also believes that reopening schools in the Philippines and re-introducing students to in-person education models are beneficial to students’ future education and eventual economic earnings.

Education in the Philippines

The government mandated that all Philippine children receive a minimum of 12 years of education. Students in Filipino public schools must graduate from elementary school, junior high school and high school.

Private education institutions in the Philippines typically produce students with high reading comprehension levels and excellent understandings of basic science and math concepts. In contrast to the quality of private education in the Philippines, public schools fall drastically short of meeting educational goals.

A 2018 study focused on high school-aged students from 79 different nations and found that public Filipino schools rank last for reading comprehension. The gap in educational quality between the Philippines’ private and public schools is because the Philippines’ public schools receive extremely limited funding.

Public schools in the Philippines also struggle to maintain running water and basic hygiene supplies. Many of the issues with school upkeep stem from a lack of funding. In the past decade, the Philippines’ government has spent less than 5% of the country’s overall GDP on public education annually.

Impacts of COVID-19 and Poverty on Education

The COVID-19 pandemic halted education worldwide, and the Philippines was not an exception to this rule. As of January 2022, the Philippines recorded more than 2.8 million positive COVID-19 cases.

To avoid spreading the virus to students, their families and their communities, schools in the Philippines halted all in-person classes. It would be beneficial for them to reopen soon to counteract the damage to education.

The Philippines closed its borders and all public and private businesses made workers operate remotely if possible. Additionally, school plans and teaching methods changed.

The Philippines’ government’s plans for remote public educations were difficult for many families. The plans demanded access to technology and resources many students and their families do not have. Most schools began operating remotely and in some areas, the government and schools coordinated efforts to present lessons on television as the internet is not always reliable in the rural Philippine regions. Even with all the efforts that the Philippines’ government made, Filipino students, four out of 10 at least, do not have proper access to technology to continue with remote education systems.

Many families cannot afford the essential technologies necessary for the new way of learning and working. The average salary in the Philippines is $3,218 per year. With such a low salary, technology updates are not an immediate need in comparison to other essentials. It is not surprising that schools and families have struggled to provide children with the education they deserve. Reopening schools in the Philippines would support the future endeavors of children.

What Does Reopening Schools Mean for Children in the Philippines?

The Philippines had remarkably low records of positive COVID-19 cases for several months, but a spike in cases occurred at the beginning of fall 2021. Since then, the number of positive recorded cases has decreased again. According to the U.S. News, the government believes that it has developed the proper methods to keep the number of positive COVID-19 cases low for most, if not all, public work environments and schools.

In the Philippines, inadequate education has been a clear reason why Filipino citizens live in poverty. Many employers in the Philippines refuse to provide job opportunities to people who do not make it through all mandated education levels. Without education, people may have a challenging time obtaining jobs, resulting in a continuation of the cycle of poverty.

Furthermore, the higher-paying jobs in the Philippines require advanced degrees. The Asian Development Bank has predicted that the pauses in children’s education will decrease Filipino students’ future earnings by $1.25 trillion. Schools in the Philippines are crucial to fixing this expected drop in income.

Returning the children to their education will preserve more opportunities to increase future earnings. Reopening schools in the Philippines is coming at a critical time as Filipino students are not reaching the global benchmarks. Bringing students in on a volunteer basis right now could increase the students’ chances of escaping poverty.

Improving Education Inside the Home

Education is vital to a child’s chances at a future with higher wages than a peer without an education. To stay on this path and continue a children’s education and promote education in the home as well, Filipino-based organizations have been working to bring technology into the hands of children outside the classroom. Not only will this encourage education for children, but should the Philippines deem in-person classes unsafe again, the children will have the tools to continue with their studies and not lose any more future wages. This has been coming about in two major ways: one is with the assistance of Microsoft in the Philippines, but the other is with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Microsoft Philippines and Felta Multi-Media Incorporated

Microsoft Philippines and Felta Multi-Media Incorporated partnered in 2015 to begin an initiative to put technology in the hands of schoolchildren. Their goal was, and still is, to help motivate the children to continue their education both in schools and at home. The partnership designed the technology so that it is safe with children (i.e. waterproof) and has features perfect for exploring outside of the classroom, such as specialized cameras and educational programs. These pieces of technology are the kinds that are best for helping children grow intellectually even if school doors remain closed.

The BEACON Project

The second method to improve a child’s access to technology and enhance their education is with a partnership between USAID and the Philippines’ government, called the Better Access and Connectivity (BEACON) project. The partnership is working to improve internet access across the nation’s rural regions, which will improve the children’s ability to attend classes remotely. The project should take five years to implement. Nonetheless, as soon as the project is in full swing, internet connectivity for children in rural areas will provide access to online education platforms used in the at-home schooling models. The ability to attend classes remotely and improve a child’s chance at a future full of more opportunities will grow exponentially with the increased internet connectivity and the availability of Microsoft and Felta technology.

The two together promise great things for a Filipino child. If schools cannot open in-person, such as is the goal, then they will be able to open remotely with the improved technology access, thus improving a Philippine child’s chances to build a career and avoid poverty.

– Clara Mulvihill
Photo: Flickr

Solutions to Unemployment Rates in Africa

Unemployment Rates in Africa
Rising unemployment rates in Africa have impacted many African nations over the past couple of years. However, certain regions and countries of Africa have taken a proverbial beating to their employment rates. Unemployment rates in sub-Saharan Africa were surprisingly low at 6.6% in 2020. This can mislead some into believing that Africa does not have an unemployment issue. However, in reality, this number is inflated due to the fact that the majority of these workers are underemployed, vulnerably employed and are simply not making a living wage.

Unemployment rates in Northern Africa stood at more than 30% in 2019. This region has a combined 57.4% unemployment rate for women and 37.7% for men. To reduce such massive percentages, unique programs that ensure employment are arising. As of 2021, Africa’s two largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa, have published labor force data indicating that unemployment is at an all-time high with a steady rise. Throughout these most fruitful ends of the continent, close to one in two individuals between the ages of 15 and 34 do not have a job.

7 Programs that Tackle Unemployment Rates in Africa

  1. The African Development Bank’s Coding for Employment Program: The African Development Bank’s Coding for Employment program holds training modules that promote peer-to-peer collaborative learning and expand digital skills to rural African youth. Coding for Employment partners with Microsoft Philanthropies, providing digital ambassadors an intensive three-month program that teaches web design, digital marketing, critical thinking, project management and communication. This boot camp guarantees in-demand skills that employers require. During the peak of the pandemic, the program had a combined total of 130,000 students with a completion rate of more than 80%.
  2. The FAIRWAY Programme: The FAIRWAY programme addresses key sources of work shortages via nationwide interventions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Morocco. The Program also holds these interventions across the Arab States, building on the work of the Fairway Middle East project (2016-2019) that targets low-skilled migrant workers. These interventions work with employers to provide workspaces for African and Middle Eastern people from all regions.
  3. The Egypt Youth Employment Program (EYE): The Egypt Youth Employment Program (EYE) “focuses on economic insecurity, aiming to tackle the root causes of irregular migration, increasing decent employment opportunities for young women and men” as well as increasing the participation of “government and the private sector” in creating employment opportunities in Egypt. Another significant goal this program upholds is teaching Egyptian youth about self-employment skills and financial services. This program could benefit approximately 18,500 young men and women with under-developed working skills.
  4. SIRAYE: SIRAYE kickstarts employment that respects the rights of the individual as well as the rights of workers in terms of conditions of work and safety by promoting inclusive industrialization in Ethiopia. To achieve these goals, the SIRAYE program will focus on further developing local worker’s rights organizations to improve respect for workers’ rights to create greater incomes and compensation, enhanced safety, equality, voice and representation. Beneficiaries of the program include 62,000 workers and employers in factories, officials of government, employers’ and workers’ associations at the national and sectoral level.
  5. Skills Initiative for Africa Project: Skills Initiative for Africa Project concocts Rapid Skills Assessment Toolkits for Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The initiative creates these toolkits after extensive research on imbalances between the demand and supply of skills that contribute to costly economic inefficacies. This will allow member states to anticipate present and future labor demands in their respective nations and to respond with appropriate skill training.
  6. The Promoting Employment in Nigeria (PEN) Project: The Promoting Employment in Nigeria (PEN) Project will analyze Nigeria’s current labor market situation, and in turn, will work with the Federal Government of Nigeria and any relevant stakeholders in revising the national employment governance framework and institutional capacity for the transition to better jobs.
  7. The SKILL-UP Ghana Project: The SKILL-UP Ghana Project focuses on upgrading skills systems for Ghanaian civilians to ultimately include Ghana in trade and economic growth. This program engages institutions to find a better understanding of what career skills are necessary and where to acquire them. As of October 30, 2021, 102 local teachers at the Asuasi Technical Institute have received training from the project to deliver online training to the institution’s students.

All of these projects have recently launched or will be taking place in the near future. The projects have the same goal to help African countries to increase employment rates and become competitive in the international economic arena.

– Fidelia Gavrilenko
Photo: Flickr

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Urban Agriculture Addresses Food Insecurity in Brazil’s Favelas

urban agricultureWith approximately 1.5 million residents, the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have dense populations with locations often on the outskirts of the city. Disproportionately underserved, the communities in these informal settlements deal with issues such as improper waste disposal, gang violence and unemployment. Out of Brazil’s total population of 214 million people, about 23.5% of people experience moderate to severe food insecurity.  Feeding America defines food insecurity as “a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life.” Run by gangs and riddled with violence, large areas of the favelas are often hard to reach and support, which leaves the local population with little choice but to devise their own strategies and solutions to address the issues in their communities. To improve living conditions in the favelas and wider Brazil, organizations are turning to urban agriculture to address food insecurity.

Urban Agriculture and Poverty

Urban agriculture involves the transferring of local food production processes to the urban landscape. Often community-centered, urban agriculture can take several forms, such as rooftop or community gardens. Urban farming provides a space where social bonds and collaborations may be formed within impoverished communities. Additionally, urban agriculture creates organic, affordable, accessible and nutritious food systems to improve food insecurity in the favelas. Not only does urban agriculture provide a reliable supply of food to people who need it most but urban agriculture can also create job opportunities for people in poverty.

Manguinhos Vegetable Garden (Horta de Manguinhos) Project

This urban farming project operating in the impoverished Manguinhos favela is “Latin America’s largest community farm.” In some areas of the Manguinhos favela, the unemployment rate exceeds 50%. According to Al Jazeera, the project is “helping at least 800 families survive” during COVID-19 while “employing more than 20 local workers at a time when Brazil grapples with a pandemic-battered economy.”

Created by Rio de Janeiro’s environment secretary, Hortas Cariocas is the “municipal-led social development initiative” that launched the Manguinhos Vegetable Garden in 2013 in an attempt to reduce poverty and improve food security in the favela. Members involved in the project receive training, equipment and weekly produce to secure the food needs of their families. The project also requires members to deliver some of the produce “to at-risk members.” The project then sells excess produce “commercially to Brazilian distributors.”

The Hortas Cariocas initiative has expanded to almost 50 vegetable gardens across Rio, according to Reuters in December 2021. All of Rio de Janeiro’s urban agriculture initiatives combined allow the city to yield “more than 80 tonnes of produce” to improve food security for more than 20,000 households.

Looking Ahead

Urban agricultural programs and initiatives in the favelas are a step toward providing marginalized communities with some form of self-sustenance and food security. In addition to this, urban farming also creates a potential source of income for communities as well as a green space for people to come together peacefully. As more urban agricultural initiatives form and expand, food insecurity in Brazil’s most impoverished areas reduces exponentially.

– Owen R. Mutiganda
Photo: Flickr

BRAC’s Microfinance Program in Africa and Asia


In the past decade, microfinance has soared as a strategy to alleviate poverty. BRAC International, one of the world’s largest nongovernmental organizations, supports microfinancing in seven countries in Africa and Asia. Importantly, BRAC’s microfinance program supports people to engage in financial activity to overcome poverty.

Microfinancing

Microfinance is a financial practice that lends small sums to people with few means to support their small businesses. The goal is for small businesses to earn a profit and then pay back the loan. The microfinance institution then loans the capital out again. Through this cycle, people are able to rise out of poverty. Microfinancing frames poverty as the deprivation of the ability to participate in economic and political processes. By that logic, if people can obtain microloans, these individuals will engage in financial activity and overcome poverty.

Studies have only found limited evidence of the efficacy of microfinancing at eradicating poverty. However, the practice is far from a failure. Specifically, the capital lent to the impoverished provides stability in their lives, easing the day-to-day anxiety about monetary shortages. In addition, studies have found that people who take out microloans are motivated to invest more time into their businesses. Though not miraculously transformative, microfinancing has achieved overall positive results in reducing poverty.

BRAC Programs

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed founded BRAC in 1972 to help refugees from the Bangladesh Liberation War. Since then, BRAC has created eight programs to empower people suffering from poverty, social injustice, illiteracy and disease. Microfinance is one of the eight programs of the organization. BRAC believes that the financial inclusion of impoverished people and communities is an essential step toward ending poverty.

More than 660,000 people benefit from BRAC’s microfinance program, which operates in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Along with loans, BRAC also provides financial literacy training to the borrowers. This teaches borrowers to be responsible with money and make better financial decisions. In addition to microfinance services, the organization also provides communities with programs like agriculture classes, youth education and health care. When paired with these programs, microfinance has an even greater impact on communities.

BRAC’s Focus on Women

More than 96% of BRAC’s borrowers are women. One female entrepreneur, Kadiatu Conteh from Sierra Leone, exemplifies how BRAC impacts its beneficiaries. Conteh’s sister introduced her to BRAC. At the time, Conteh’s family was struggling to make ends meet and she was trying to earn money by selling drinks with only a cooler. Conteh took out a loan and invested the money in more beverages for her business. Slowly, she increased her profits. After four years with BRAC, she accumulated enough funds to invest in her own store where she now sells household items.

Selina Karoli Fissoo also benefited from BRAC’s microfinance program. With other women in the city of Arusha, Tanzania, Fissoo formed a microfinance group to receive loans and financial literacy training from BRAC. She invested her first loan into her small grocery business, and as her profits increased, she applied for larger loans. After more than 10 years of working with BRAC, Fissoo has a large retail store and even dabbles in poultry farming.

The Benefits of Microfinance to Alleviate Poverty

Conteh and Fissoo are just two of hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs who have prospered from the help of BRAC’s microfinance programs. Microloans provide stability in the lives of the impoverished and can motivate people to invest more time into their businesses. Especially when coupled with other programs, microfinance is an effective method for alleviating poverty.

– Alison Ding
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Energy Poverty in India and Tata Power

Energy Poverty in India
In India, a country with a population of more than 1 billion, almost 700 million people use solid fuels, such as wood and charcoal, as their primary energy source. Solid fuels have health impacts that can lead to adverse respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. The Lancet Global Health report from 2016 on India identified the air pollution from these fuels as the leading cause of chronic respiratory conditions, more than smoking. Squatter settlements are common in major Indian cities and often have informal power lines tapping into larger grids. These serve as an unreliable supply and source of electricity to large portions of the Indian population. Energy poverty in India affects all aspects of people’s quality of life, from health, education, productivity and even income-generating activities.

Renewable Partnerships

Energy poverty in India affects all aspects of people’s quality of life, from health, education, productivity and even income-generating activities. These affected areas strain the already stretched infrastructure in India and work against elevating the 8% in poverty.

In rural areas, dependence on solid fuels for energy requires long trips to forests to fetch these energy sources. According to the Encyclopedia of Social Work, this is a responsibility that women normally have. Because of its time-consuming nature, it prevents women from participating in income-producing activities that may elevate their economic conditions.

In light of the 244 million people experiencing energy poverty in India, Tata Power, India’s largest integrated power company and The Rockefeller Foundation have formed a partnership to address the issue. By utilizing Microgrids, this new initiative will be able to provide renewable electricity to nearly 5 million homes in India’s rural areas. Clean energy through these microgrids is set to assist businesses in Indian states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where 40% of enterprises rely on solid fuels such as diesel.

TP Renewable Microgrid Ltd. will run until 2026 and will deliver clean and cheap energy to rural households and businesses. Its unique microgrid design also aims to create 10,000 job opportunities in the green sector and assist the local farming irrigation systems. It could also make Tata Power the largest microgrid developer in the world.

Conclusion

Addressing energy poverty not only provides people with reliable energy sources but also connects them to the wider world. It backs the running of local infrastructures such as hospitals and schools, advances sanitation programs as well as farming and business techniques making them less costly and more efficient.

With the financial resources of The Rockefeller Foundation and Tata Powers’ ideas, this joint venture is a solid example of how innovation can enhance one’s impact when fighting poverty. Innovative microgrid design creatively uses already available resources and scales them for maximum impact.

– Owen Mutiganda
Photo: Flickr

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Human Trafficking in Turkmenistan

Human Trafficking in Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia that shares borders with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Afghanistan. It became independent after the Soviet Union’s fall in 1991. According to Human Rights Watch, Turkmenistan remains a country that is partially isolated from the rest of the world due to its political and geographical situation. Human trafficking in Turkmenistan is a critical issue that requires urgent attention.

About Human Trafficking in Turkmenistan

Unfortunately, Turkmenistan does not completely satisfy the minimum requirements to eliminate the practice of human trafficking. As such, the U.S. Department of State designates Turkmenistan a Tier 3 country in 2021. According to the U.S. State Department’s annual report on human trafficking, Turkmenistan is among the 22 worst countries in the world for human trafficking. There is no official data regarding the exact number of human trafficking cases in Turkmenistan, but according to the report, trafficking hotlines received close to 8,000 calls from victims in 2019. However, according to Turkmenistan’s government, there were no “formally identified” human trafficking victims that year.

To combat human trafficking in Turkmenistan, the government has tried to solve the problem by implementing a national action plan that runs from 2020 to 2022. This action plan involves the government’s participation in anti-trafficking awareness campaigns while collaborating with international organizations to fight human trafficking within the country.

Preventative Measures

Most of the measures that the state carried out in cooperation with other NGOs have not led to significant improvements in the human trafficking situation. These measures have not stopped the use of forced labor force during the cotton harvest or in public works. Turkmenistan wished to create an anti-human trafficking committee that has not come to fruition yet. While the country managed to reduce some areas of human trafficking, the demand for forced labor still exists.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Turkmenistan government have carried out several campaigns in schools to raise awareness of human trafficking in the nation. Several organizations came together to assess the risk of human trafficking within the country. In addition, these organizations have also made efforts to monitor trafficking.

Measures to Protect Victims

The Turkmenistan government has been training officials in trafficking prevention and victim identification to ensure quicker and more efficient responses to incidents of trafficking. In addition, the government has allocated resources with the idea of eliminating the mobilization of children and adults for forced labor in the annual cotton harvest. The government has also launched several awareness campaigns to eliminate forced labor in other sectors.

Furthermore, the government funded the construction of shelters for trafficking victims, which the International Organization of Migration (IOM) operates. Although these measures have received several criticisms from international organizations for a lack of impact, the measures have served as a resource for local reintegration and job placement. In addition, the government and several NGOs put procedures in place to increase the efficacy and speed of victim identification.

How Victims Can Rebuild Their Lives

For victims, overcoming the trauma of human trafficking requires a lot of public support. Beginning in 2014, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been cooperating with the IOM and other local NGOs to reintegrate victims of human trafficking back into Turkmenistan society through an organization called Yenme. To achieve this, Yenme takes on a comprehensive approach to social reintegration by providing psychological and medical support to the victims along with legal assistance. This helps victims to rebuild their lives with optimism and hope. Data shows that 90% of victims who receive this aid end up becoming self-employed. In addition, victims attend workshops to acquire new skills that are useful in their future work.

Looking Ahead

Even with the new measures that Turkmenistan’s government implemented and the cooperation with various international organizations and local NGOs, ongoing commitments of time and effort are necessary to alleviate human trafficking. Hopefully, through the continued work of Turkmenistan’s government and NGOs, human trafficking in Turkmenistan will one day be a matter of the past.

– Ander Moreno
Photo: Flickr

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How NFTs can Fight Poverty

NFTs Can Fight Poverty
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have taken the world by storm as an efficient way to invest and make a profit. In contrast to the also widely known cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, each NFT is one of a kind, with unique pre-installed code and data. NFTs are not in typical commercial transactions. They are more like art pieces that people can sell, trade or buy. Since bidders and buyers use crypto graphics as displays of wealth and to represent property rights, it might be surprising to think that NFTs can fight poverty.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold his very first tweet as an NFT for $2.9 million with the intention of donating the sum to GiveDirectly, a charity that supplies cash to various communities in extreme poverty around the world. Pioneering this wonderful use of the NFT, Dorsey conveyed his profits to the Africa Relief Charity through GiveDirectly in March 2021.

What is GiveDirectly?

Paul Niehaus, Rohit Wanchoo, Jeremy Shapiro and Michael Faye founded GiveDirectly in 2008. As the name might suggest, this organization provides direct money transfers to families in need worldwide, especially in African countries.

GiveDirectly operates in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Liberia, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, DRC, Togo and the U.S. So far, this program has distributed millions of dollars to 20,000 people within 197 villages and surveyed an extra 100 villages to act as a control group for research purposes.

On top of one-time donations, the charity offers various useful programs and opportunities. One of GiveDirectly’s most beneficial schemes is its Universal Basic Income program, through which willing donors may donate $1 per day per individual.

Donors have the option of supporting one individual, three individuals, 10 people or an entire village. Some recipients will collect ongoing payments for 12 years, making this a great giving opportunity for those who have just scored big with an NFT jackpot.

NFTs, Millennials and Charity

Most, if not all of the time, NFTs sell for large sums of money, leaving the seller with an instant and enormous growth in their wealth. NFTs typically range in price from almost millions to millions of dollars. According to Morning Consult, millennials are the generation most involved in collecting and selling NFTs; a shocking 23% of those involved in NFTs were millennials.

Additionally, millennials suffered the most financially from the COVID-19 pandemic because they also experienced the 2001 recession and the Great Recession. Between the Great Recession and the recession that the pandemic caused, millennials are no stranger to money shortages. They are either on an ongoing job hunt, just lost their job or are unlikely to see a raise. Consequently, it is no surprise millennials swiftly took advantage of the NFT money-making format.

Urging NFT sellers to give to reliable charities like GiveDirectly is thus one avenue through which NFTs could have a significant impact on global poverty. An increasing amount of millennials are telling miraculous rags to riches stories, similar to the stories of the most charitable celebrities and millionaires.

Since competitive bidding systems determine NFTs costs, it is easy to wait for an NFT to reach an exorbitant price. Mike Winklemann sold the most expensive NFT for $69 million. The craziest bids amount to sums the average millennial may never see in their entire lifespan.

Celebrities who come from humble beginnings are the ones who donate the most, most notably Brad Pitt and Kanye West. With this empathy toward the experience of living in a state of prolonged scarcity and uncertainty, along with Jack Dorsey and his sold tweet’s respectable example, more and more NFT sellers may use their gains to aid in fighting poverty.

How NFTs Can Fight Global Poverty

A rapidly increasing number of millennials and zoomers are gaining a keen interest in NFTs, so it is valuable to have conversations with peers about what the funds could go towards, such as charitable endeavors. The young populace in the United States should know that NFTs can help in the fight against poverty.

– Fidelia Gavrilenko
Photo: Flickr