Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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The Impact of COVID-19 On Poverty in Venezuela

The Impact of COVID-19 on Poverty in Venezuela 
The impact of COVID-19 on poverty in Venezuela has been significant in regard to food security and medical care, but food shortages and malnutrition were already rampant between 2015 and 2017 in Venezuela. By the end of 2018, wholesale prices doubled nearly every 19 days due to inflation. More than 3.4 million Venezuelans migrated in search of more stability and opportunity.

In response to these issues, Venezuelans protested against the authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, in 2019. The outbreak of protests demanded a new constitution addressing issues related to economic instability and medical care. Then, on March 13, 2020, the first COVID-19 case occurred in Venezuela.

Since the first case of COVID-19 in Venezuela, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 250,309 confirmed cases and 2,814 deaths. The impact of COVID-19 on Venezuela compounded on preexisting humanitarian issues of economic instability, health and food insecurity. In response, nonprofit organizations and international government organizations began providing aid to people in vulnerable situations in Venezuela.

Life Before the Pandemic

Prior to the spread of the coronavirus, Venezuela’s economy experienced a debt of higher than $150 billion. In addition, the GDP shrunk by roughly two-thirds, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Due to this, Venezuela experienced the highest poverty rates in Latin America, affecting 96% of the people. These issues resulted in a lack of essential products such as medical care, potable water, food and gasoline.

Health Security in Venezuela

In the past five years, over 50% of doctors and nurses emigrated from Venezuela to escape economic instability. This is according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. A declining health system was unable to provide aid for infectious disease, malnutrition and infant mortality. As a result, the spread of COVID-19 resulted in heavily populated hospitals with minimal resources.

Without adequate pay and protection for medical professionals, as well as a shortage of potable water and protective medical gear, Venezuela’s hospitals experienced difficulty in responding to COVID-19. According to WHO, around 3.4% of confirmed COVID-19 cases resulted in death. WHO predicts this number to be much higher in Venezuela. This is because the country’s hospitals lack basic X-rays, laboratory tests, intensive care beds and respirators.

In response to these issues, the National Academy of Medicine in Venezuela, a politically independent medical organization, sought to reduce the impact of the pandemic on existing health care systems. The Academy made a request to the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, James Story, on May 2, 2021, for the U.S. to add Venezuela to its international donor list for millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccinations. Venezuela already received around 1.4 million vaccines from China and Russia.

However, the National Academy of Venezuela stated that to control the pandemic, the country needs to vaccinate 70% of the adult population. The vaccines they received represent less than 10% of what Venezuela needs.

Food Insecurity During the Pandemic

At the end of 2020, with exports at a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, food inflation rose to 1,700%, resulting in a significant increase in food prices. As a result of inflation and international sanctions, the WFP also projected that Venezuela will experience a slow recovery to intensifying humanitarian issues, including food insecurity.

The impact of COVID-19 on poverty in Venezuela has resulted in 65% of families experiencing the inability to purchase food because of the hyperinflation of food products and inadequate income. In order to survive while experiencing food shortages, families in Venezuela reduced the variety of food and portion sizes of meals.

However, those in vulnerable positions, such as children, pregnant women, those with preexisting health conditions and the elderly, experienced malnutrition because of the inability to meet nutritional needs. The World Food Program (WFP) estimated that one of every three people in Venezuela is food insecure. During the pandemic, those experiencing food insecurity continued to increase. The U.N. reported that prior to the pandemic, one in four elderly people, a demographic that maintained the majority of wealth in Venezuela, skipped meals. During the pandemic, more than four in 10 have been skipping meals.

Humanitarian Response to the Impact of COVID-19 on Poverty in Venezuela

In 2020, the U.N. developed the Venezuela Humanitarian Response Plan, which seeks to provide 4.5 million adults and children throughout Venezuela with access to humanitarian assistance, according to OCHA. The plan requires $762.5 million to provide health care, water, sanitation and hygiene, nutrition, shelter and educational support. The plan carries out objectives of providing emergency relief, improving access to basic services and providing protection for the most vulnerable in Venezuela, especially during the pandemic.

Over 129 humanitarian organizations, including agencies associated with the U.N., will implement the Humanitarian Response Plan in Venezuela. It has already responded to emergency relief to COVID-19 and led to the return of tens of thousands of Venezuelan refugees, according to OCHA.

Throughout 2020, the U.N. received $130 million in support of this Humanitarian Plan. This allows humanitarian organizations to reach 3.3 million vulnerable people in Venezuela with basic necessities. This will include humanitarian assistance, per OCHA’s report. Additionally, the Plan allowed for 1.4 million people to receive humanitarian assistance in response to COVID-19.

The global pandemic and humanitarian issues are continuing in Venezuela, leading to a necessity for improved food security and medical care. As a result, throughout 2020, the United Nations, as well as humanitarian organizations, increased their presence in Venezuela. They will continue to encourage additional humanitarian organizations to provide humanitarian aid.

– Amanda Frese
Photo: Wikipedia Commons

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The Need for Aid Toward Vector-Borne Diseases

Vector-borne diseasesDisease and poverty are two deeply interconnected issues affecting many countries across the world, particularly those in Africa. Among the most pressing diseases are those that are vector-borne, (illnesses caused by pathogens and parasites in the human population) such as malaria and dengue fever. Unfortunately, these diseases foster ideal conditions for poverty, given their effects on the working population. Moreover, poverty also creates conditions that foster vector-borne diseases, such as underdeveloped healthcare, a lack of information and poor living conditions.

About Vector-Borne Diseases in Africa

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria is the most deadly vector-borne disease. It leads to approximately 1.2 million deaths annually. A 2017 report from the WHO shows that 90% of the roughly 219 million global malaria cases are found in Africa. Dengue fever is also a particularly concerning vector-borne disease. As of May 2021, dengue is endemic in more than 100 countries. Dengue fever can develop into a lethal form of the illness, called severe dengue.

Impact on Poverty

In order to eradicate poverty, there must be a working population that can sustain itself. With the devastating symptoms of diseases like malaria and dengue, many are forced out of work, unable to sustain themselves. According to a 2019 study in BMC’s Malaria Journal on a farm in Zimbabwe, absenteeism among those affected by malaria was between 1.4 to 4.1 business days during the 5 month study. This is especially concerning given that in 2019, 15 countries in both Sub-Saharan Africa and India carried 80% of the world’s malaria burden. This means that in African countries where malaria is prevalent, millions of workers are unable to sustain themselves as they fight for their lives.

Current Solutions

Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are aiming to combat vector-borne diseases on both domestic and global scales. Initiatives by the CDC and WHO are invaluable ways to mitigate this health crisis. Even with this, one of the most influential solutions is foreign aid. As one of the most powerful and influential countries in the world, the U.S. can distinctly impact the global disease burden.

Malaria is one of the biggest health priorities of USAID, with funding going toward research and the development of vaccines and insecticide tools. USAID also collaborates with other groups and organizations, like the RBM Partnership to End Malaria and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. There is also the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, which is led by USAID and includes 27 different programs in Africa and Asia aimed toward building treatment capacity for malaria and other vector-borne diseases.

Aid Looking Forward

Despite this funding into research, African countries desperately need more aid. As of 2019, nearly 95% of malaria deaths were in Africa. It is evident that current aid is useful, yet the gravity of the current disease burden requires further U.S. commitment. Research funding, treatment capacity building and development in African countries are crucial initiatives. Organizations like USAID are important vessels to create necessary change.

While initiatives solely targeted toward poverty reduction are necessary, they cannot completely eradicate poverty. This is largely because poverty is such a multifaceted issue.

As vector-borne diseases create conditions for poverty, poverty exacerbates vector-borne diseases. Therefore, they must both be approached in tandem, with further aid and support from the United States.

– Samuel Weinmann
Photo: Unsplash

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Updates on SDG 7 in China

SDG 7 in China
Updates on SDG 7 in China show that the country is taking strides to ensure its entire population has access to sustainable energy. U.N. member nations adopted the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, otherwise known as the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in 2015. Altogether, the SDGs comprise 17 goals that countries aim to meet by the year 2030. The seventh of these goals, SDG 7, aims for the entire world to receive access to affordable and sustainable energy. The United Nations has laid out SDG 7 through five different sub-targets by which it will tally and measure world progress.

Divided into numerous sub-targets, the ultimate aim of SDG 7 is to offer the world a mutually cooperative and unified destination for clean and affordable energy by 2030. In particular, it includes universally agreed-upon concepts such as establishing universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services, increasing shares of renewables in the energy mix and improving efficiency as well as international cooperation on energy.

World Progress So Far

Progress on SDG 7 has not been enviable. For instance, one challenging factor has been the low implementation of renewables across various states. The world’s two largest polluters, the United States and China respectively, utilize about 10% and 13% of renewables in their energy consumption. The onset of COVID-19 has only put global progress toward achieving these objectives on hold. However, COVID-19 has also left room for a positive and enthusiastic push toward meeting the SDGs. As of 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, approximately 759 million people did not have energy access. Its unfortunate implications were that during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the worst cases, up to one in four hospitals lacked access to electricity, a sign of the importance of making further progress on SDG 7.

Updates on SDG 7 in China

Many are watching China in regards to both the environment and SDG 7, as it has been a significant contributor to global carbon emissions. Like many other countries, it has made significant progress on some targets while lagging on others.

For instance, China’s progress on SDG 7.1, which is the goal of granting affordable energy access to everyone, has received high marks. Since 2010, it has managed to connect electricity to virtually all 1.4 billion of its citizens and has kept pace with both its growing energy and population needs. However, the country’s reliance on industrialization still means it uses a heavy amount of non-renewable energy.

China’s energy efficiency, which relates to SDG 7.3, has also been improving. An indicator known as National Energy Intensity displays the energy efficiency of an economy by showcasing the amount of energy it has per point of GDP. China has shown a steady and accelerating drop in intensity, a sign of good news about the energy necessary per point of its GDP.

As it relates to the above and with the Paris Agreement of 2016, China has committed to growing its proportion of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to 20% before 2030. It is ultimately aiming to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2060.

China’s Challenge

China is a significant player when it comes to progress on SDG 7; the scale of its economy makes it the largest investor in clean energy, peaking in 2018 with $125 billion in investments. This makes it the de facto leader in many renewables, from solar and to hydroelectric and wind. China’s greatest challenge going forward will be to replace its less sustainable forms of energy generation with more renewables.

With China’s massive rate of economic growth now clocking in at 18.3% in Q1 of 2021, finding a way to accelerate renewable energy use will be a crucial objective. As such a large country, meeting all of its citizens’ needs without non-renewables in the picture is unsustainable as it is difficult. As global climate infrastructure competition heats up, China, along with the rest of the world, should find the enthusiasm to convert post-pandemic recovery into progress the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.

– Marshall Wu
Photo: Flickr

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COVID-19 Vaccination in Bhutan

COVID-19 Vaccination in Bhutan
COVID-19 vaccination in Bhutan began in March 2021. The long-term impact of COVID-19 remains limited to an economic slowdown from the country’s lockdowns. This is allowing the government to smoothly pivot to its long-term recovery goals.

Bhutan’s citizens are responsible for the global pandemic’s minimal impact on the Bhutanese population’s health. There was a consistently high amount of attention toward preparing response efforts. A high level of lower-income communities in Bhutan’s outskirts has expressed the country’s willingness to help its worst-off endure the crisis.

COVID-19 and Vaccinations in Bhutan

Reuters’ COVID-19 Tracker and its latest data from July 8, 2021 indicate that Bhutan’s infection rate stands at an average of 21 new cases each day. Broader statistics are a testament to successful containment efforts. The relatively small country’s 763,000 citizens boast a mere 2,249 infections and only one fatality. Meanwhile, vaccination rates trend at 92 doses per day. However, this is because the Bhutanese government already distributed its vaccine stockpile to an overwhelming majority of its citizens.

As a nation that uses the philosophy of “Gross National Happiness” as a guide, a ready amount of native volunteers answered the call to bring vaccines to those in need. Avoiding a national health crisis means enduring an economic slowdown. However, Bhutan’s most vulnerable citizens can expect a consistent level of support while recovery continues. A hallmark of this success is its sheer rapidity. For example, “…within two weeks, it had reached more than 90% of the adult population eligible for vaccination,” observed The Lancet in its retrospective on how COVID-19 vaccination in Bhutan led to distributing the first of two doses.

Garnering Vaccines

Bhutan did not receive its total Covishield supply all at once. The first shipment of aid from India arrived in the form of 150,000 doses on January 20, 2021. Rather than delivering vaccinations in a staggered fashion as new doses arrived, the Ministry of Health selected March 27, 2021 to begin distribution due to the day’s astrological significance.

This decision left enough doses available to completely sidestep the issue of managing a chain of priority groups for the first wave of COVID-19 vaccination in Bhutan. Combining this with a willingness to confront the challenges of shipping Covishield to rural areas resulted in poorer communities facing relatively insubstantial delays.

Participatory Spirit

While the practical hurdles of COVID-19 vaccination in Bhutan stem from its public servants’ sound preparation, the dearth of registrations is a credit to the government’s ability to mobilize its population. In this respect, further Ministry of Health action in the two months before March 27, 2021 encompassed a campaign to invigorate national spirit concerning the vaccine.

Aside from the publicity of choosing to begin distribution on an auspicious day, The Lancet reports on a series of regular broadcasts by Prime Minister Tshering to provide facts on the vaccine and ward off misinformation that could increase hesitancy to register. “It helps in making rational and well-informed decisions when you have in-depth knowledge of the subject yourself,” says Health Minister Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo on his government’s attention to keeping medical expertise at the center of its strategy.

Bouncing Back

Now that the immediate danger of an unvaccinated population has passed, the long-term benefits of resolving this crisis are apparent. Despite what the Bhutan Times characterizes as “challenging circumstances” over the course of 2020, it nonetheless describes progress toward achieving its development goals as “tremendous.”

A series of initiatives with the United Nations illustrates an optimistic attitude for the future as the economic climate slowly becomes more conducive to attracting young and newly enfranchised demographics to growing sectors of the economy. Plans are in development to a self-sufficient agricultural sector in line with 2030’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the pandemic’s economic impact doing little to slow Bhutan’s process of positive systemic change.

– Samuel Katz
Photo: Flickr

The Gender Wage Gap in Brazil

Gender Wage Gap in Brazil
Despite having the same legal rights as men, Brazilian women continue to fight for equality in the workplace. The gender wage gap in Brazil is one of the largest in Latin America, and women earn an average of 30% less than men.

Today, societal norms and the lack of gender representation in Congress contribute to this gap. As a result, the pay gap affects minority women the most and they earn approximately half the wage of the average white man. Despite the pay gap between women and men, Brazil has made advances toward gender equality in the past few decades.

Gender Inequality in Brazil

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 78% of men hold jobs in comparison to 56% of women in Brazil. Yet, the majority of women in the survey said that they would prefer a paid job to staying at home.

In Brazil, most women have access to the same educational opportunities as men. However, their degree does not necessarily translate into a higher salary. For example, women account for more than 60% of the workforce with college degrees. However, they receive 36% less pay than men with college degrees. Therefore, the gender wage gap in Brazil impacts women of all educational and economic backgrounds.

The Issue

Traditionally, Brazilian culture expects women to stay at home while men support the family. As a result, women who break cultural norms by working outside the home find it difficult to establish successful careers. Though women make up roughly half of the workforce in Brazil, only 16% of companies have a female CEO and less than 20% of women hold middle management positions. These statistics illustrate Brazil’s well-established social hierarchy where women rank second to men.

Women’s underrepresentation in Congress also allows men to hold the majority of political power within the Brazilian government. Women held fewer than 15% of Congressional seats until 2018. The male-dominated Congress failed to pass legislation that would address the gender wage gap in Brazil. Even though women have held 30% of Congressional seats following the 2018 election, women still experience stigma for challenging cultural norms.

How the Gender Wage Gap Affects Minorities

Afro-Brazilian women suffer the most from the lack of female representation in Congress. There are few government officials to represent their best interests. The average income for Afro-Brazilian women is $2.50 per hour. The average income for white women is $4.02 per hour. These salaries compare to the average for white men, which is $5 per hour.

The gender wage gap in Brazil affects women of all socio-economic backgrounds. In 2015, Afro-Brazilians made up 76% of the lower class, and only 17% was among the country’s richest 1%. Even more, minority women with secondary education earn less than their white counterparts with the same qualifications, showing how the wage gap adversely affects minority women.

The Progress

Local organizations are actively working within the Brazilian community to bridge the gender wage gap. For example, the Associação the Comunitária dos Moradores de Mandassaia (Community Association of Residents of Mandassaia) promotes gender equality by empowering women in the small town of Mandassaia, Brazil.

Mandassaia is a rural town where job opportunities are scarce. Typically, Mandassaia women work in sugar cane fields or stay home to raise their children. In 2017, the Community Association of Residents of Mandassaia partnered with the National School Feeding Program to help a small group of women profit off of Mandassaia’s sugar cane production. The Program teaches women cake baking and jam production so they can make money selling baked goods. Through the Community Association of Residents of Mandassaia, these women were able to increase their income by 425% and earn a livable wage.

Mandassaia’s bakers now have a community farming seal, which allows them to expand their business and provide more job opportunities for women. By helping women become financially independent in local communities, the Community Association of Residents of Mandassaia is reducing the wage gap in Brazil.

Looking Ahead

The pay gap has decreased over the last few decades, and the Brazilian government is participating in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to achieve equal pay by 2030. The Brazilian government has also agreed to work toward reducing gender inequality in the workforce by 25% by 2025. Although Brazil continues to struggle with bridging the wage gap in the workplace, the efforts of the Brazilian government and community to eliminate gender inequality represent an encouraging step forward.

– Abby Adu
Photo: Flickr

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5 Ways to Combat Human Trafficking in Azerbaijan

Human Trafficking in Azerbaijan
An Azerbaijani woman called Gulnara took a job in Turkey to support her daughter and her sick father. Upon her arrival, Gulnara’s contact in Turkey took her passport and forced her into prostitution. After a year, Gulnara was able to escape and return to Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani Government Department on Combating Trafficking in Persons referred her to a shelter for human trafficking survivors. The IOM-implemented shelter is part of an initiative that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funds. Azerbaijan has been working tirelessly to combat human trafficking to ensure vulnerable people like Gulnara receive protection.

5 Ways to Combat Human Trafficking in Azerbaijan

  1. Decrease the Gender Gap. Azerbaijan has one of the highest gender inequality gaps of the countries that left the Soviet Union. Women lack the economic opportunities that men have. The women’s workforce participation rate in 2018 was 68.7% in contrast to 73.9% for men, a statistic that has barely changed since 2012. Further, females form 96.6% of people who do not work due to household and caregiving responsibilities. Minimal economic prospects can lead to people being lured into sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Providing women with more and improved economic opportunities could help prevent these situations.
  2. Provide Long-term Assistance. In 2018, the Anti-Trafficking Review published a study in which it interviewed 22 Azerbaijani survivors of human trafficking. The survivors believed that long-term help, including assistance with “job placement and family reunification,” could better help them rebuild their lives. Only nine of the 22 interviewees had full-time paid jobs at the time, while nine others had no paid jobs at all. Secure employment provides a steady income flow to economically empower women.
  3. Reunite Survivors and Families. Victims of human trafficking in Azerbaijan often end up disconnected from their families. By reconnecting with their families, victims can return to some semblance of normalcy. However, there is a stigma surrounding sex work that can impact familial relations. If organizations work to combat this stigma, survivors can repair relationships and gain much-needed emotional familial support that will reduce the chance of victims falling prey to human trafficking again.
  4. Address the Root Causes. People struggling economically, like Gulnara, are prime targets for human trafficking. Using foreign aid to create more programs to combat poverty could decrease human trafficking in Azerbaijan. In a 2020 report, the U.S. Department of State noted that Azerbaijan had increased the funds allocated for victim protection and shelters from $86,760 to $114,530. This is an important increase, but it only helps after the fact. Greater funds could go toward helping people living below the poverty line before traffickers lure them into human trafficking.
  5. Prosecute Human Trafficking in Azerbaijan. The U.S. Department of State encourages Azerbaijan to convict more traffickers and issue harsher sentences as many Azerbaijani judges issue suspended sentences. In 2018, 20 traffickers received suspended sentences. The Azerbaijan government can create a powerful deterrent by more effectively convicting human traffickers.

Azerbaijan’s Progress

In 2020, Azerbaijan remained on the Tier 2 Watch List of the U.S. Department of State. This designation means the country “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.” From 2020 through 2024, the government of Azerbaijan’s National Action Plan on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings will target and address the root causes of human trafficking while improving support services for victims.

USAID Assistance

Since 2015, USAID has supported three shelters in Azerbaijan. These shelters “provided direct assistance to more than 100 confirmed and presumed victims of trafficking” between 2015 and 2018. The shelters also helped more than 1,000 people who were vulnerable to trafficking. The shelters provide “psychological, medical and legal support” services.

Azerbaijan created a human trafficking hotline center to provide information on services and relay necessary information to law enforcement officials. As of 2021, the hotline aims to incorporate an online system to allow workers to screen calls in a more efficient and detailed manner.

Human trafficking in Azerbaijan is progressing in the right direction. With commitment and continuity, Azerbaijan can improve its human trafficking tier ranking, protecting thousands of vulnerable people in the process.

– Alessandra Heitmann
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Generation Equality Forum: Working Toward Gender Equality Around The World

Generation Equality Forum, Working Toward Gender Equality Around The WorldFrom June 30 to July 2, the United Nations Women held a global meeting in Paris consisting of representatives from around the world. This meeting was called the Generation Equality Forum and aimed to assess the progress the world has made in terms of gender equality.

What is the Generation Equality Forum?

The global meeting brought together the U.N. Women, the governments of Mexico and France and a total of 50,000 people in order to create an action plan for the immediate progress for global gender equality. The forum had some target areas that the representatives wanted to focus on discussing. These areas included gender violence, economic justice, autonomy, reproductive health, climate justice action taken by feminists and feminist leadership.

The Beijing Women’s Conference 1995

According to U.N. Women, the World Conference on Women in Beijing 25 years ago marked a “turning point for the global agenda for women’s equality,” as it resulted in the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. This declaration set out goals for the advancement of women and gender equality and included a plan to meet again in 25 years to reassess. As a result, the main goal of the forum this year was to look at how far the world had come since 1995.

The 25-year review showed further global progress can be made to advance gender equality, especially amid COVID-19. In fact, studies found that countries will need to implement significant action to meet their gender equality goals by the target year of 2030. The main reason for this lack of progress: a corresponding lack of funding.

Why Decreasing the Gender Gap is Important

The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting women. This has affected their education, employment and health. As a result, decreasing the gender gap is more important than ever today. By making women a focal point of economic recovery plans, the world can rebuild the economy equitably.

Additionally, women become affected by poverty at much higher rates than men. For example, women do almost three times the amount of unpaid work than men do, which usually involves childcare and housework. Moreover, 62% of women worldwide are active in the workforce compared to 93% of men. As a result, women from the age range 25-34 are 25% more likely to live in extreme poverty. If the world were to close this gap, the global GDP could increase by 35% on average. Helping women around the world and improving gender equality works to help all people around the world.

Looking to the Future

The Generation Equality Forum created a five-year action plan to stimulate change going forward at a quicker rate than before. This involved $40 billion of investments and commitments from various governments and organizations. Some of these commitments include:

  • U.S. government’s commitment of $175 million to prevent and address gender violence
  • Malala Fund’s commitment of $20 million for girls education activists
  • Open Society Foundation’s commitment of $100 million over five years for feminist political mobilization
  • Government of Bangladesh’s commitment to increase women participation in technology to 25% by 2026
  • Implementation of free care for pregnant women in Burkina Faso

The Generation Equality Forum helped countries, agencies and organizational renew global commitments to gender equality goals. While there is still a long way to go to achieve gender equality around the world, the forum has made progress in setting specific, concrete goals for countries to strive toward.

Closing the gender gap will help to raise women around the world above the poverty line and stimulate economies around the globe. It is pertinent that the world continues to fight for equality and make progress as they have with this forum.

– Alessandra Heitmann
Photo: Flickr

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Lockdowns Reduce COVID-19’s Impact on China

COVID-19’s Impact on ChinaAfter its first reporting in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019, COVID-19 spread quickly across the world. COVID-19’s impact on China was initially pronounced as the government struggled to contain the outbreak, suppressing whistleblowers and drawing criticism from the international community. But, Beijing’s ability to reverse its early failures has impressed analysts, showcasing the strength of China’s response system.

Strict Lockdowns

On January 23, 2020, Beijing imposed strict lockdown measures in Wuhan. For 76 days, the city remained in quarantine, and the lockdown eventually expanded to include large swaths of the country. Although some experts greeted these efforts with skepticism, the world eventually enacted similar lockdowns.

However, few lockdowns were able to match the aggressiveness of China. In the United States, lockdowns were met with skepticism and protest, allowing the virus to rage through the country unhindered. But, on the other side of the Pacific, COVID-19’s impact on China was effectively curtailed. Despite the virus originating from Wuhan, China recorded no official daily deaths for multiple months in 2020.

Yet, experts remained doubtful of China’s COVID-19 performance. The CIA questioned the validity of Chinese COVID-19 statistics, seeing the data as a vast undercount of the actual total. But, the issue of undercounting was widespread outside of China as well, presenting itself in countries all over the world. Despite discrepancies in the official counts, a general narrative had taken shape by the end of 2020 that China successfully contained COVID-19.

COVID-19’s Economic Impact

The COVID-19 lockdown slowed the virus around the world but created new issues. Businesses shuttered, and the economy contracted without consumer spending. As a result, the world found itself in the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression. China was hardly immune to these economic impacts. Output took a historic blow during the first few months of 2020, adding to Beijing’s larger concerns about its economic health. Despite its position as the world’s second-largest economy, China faces major obstacles to growth, from an aging population to ballooning levels of debt. COVID-19 lockdowns exacerbated these pressures, with the potential to curtail China’s decades of growth.

Positive Economic Growth in China

The speedy enactment of lockdowns allowed Beijing to repudiate its critics once again. While other great powers, including the United States, saw their economies contract, China was the “only major economy” in 2020 to register positive GDP growth. Far from leading to broader economic collapse, COVID-19’s impact on China appears to be a net positive geopolitically, accelerating the shift in power from the West to the East. China’s economy is now slated to be the world’s largest economy by the end of 2028, five years ahead of schedule.

China’s continued efforts to combat extreme poverty are notable. Before COVID-19, the government had laid out an ambitious pledge to completely eliminate extreme poverty, defined as $600 or less in yearly per capita income, by 2020. In 2019, decades of sustained economic growth led to less than 1% of Chinese people living in extreme poverty.

COVID-19 threatened to derail poverty reduction plans. But, instead of adversely impacting China’s stated objective, the rapid lockdowns engineered by Beijing allowed for a fast economic recovery and the completion of the original objective. By the end of 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping proudly reported that the country had officially eliminated extreme poverty.

COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts

China initially lagged in the area of COVID-19 vaccinations. Pharmaceutical companies in the United States pushed out highly effective COVID-19 vaccines in record-breaking time, quickly inoculating sizable swaths of the population. With this aggressive drive, a return to normal reopening seemed to be within reach.

China initially encountered struggles in vaccinating the population. Its early vaccination program was slow and vaccine hesitancy presented a barrier to inoculation. However, this changed recently as China’s state apparatus manufactured hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccinations for rapid distribution. Now, China is taking the lead in vaccinations as the U.S. lags behind. To date, China has administered more than one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses.

This does not mean that China is out of the woods though. The efficacy of Beijing’s vaccines compare poorly to other vaccines, and many nations that received Chinese vaccines have still seen COVID-19 cases skyrocket. Nonetheless, China’s vaccine efforts are certainly commendable.

As the only economy with positive economic growth in 2020, China’s efforts to curb COVID-19 have proven effective. Aside from its COVID-19 response, China’s efforts to combat poverty have also positively contributed to increased prosperity and stability within the nation.

– Zachary Lee
Photo: Unsplash

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Solving the Food Insecurity Crisis in Somalia

Food insecurity crisis in SomaliaSomalia’s climate consists of sporadic periods of intense rainfall between long periods of drought. So far in 2021, a devastating mix of severe droughts, intense floods and locust infestations in Somalia have devastated crop production and livestock herds, leading to a hunger crisis. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the previously high rates of poverty in the country and have contributed to the food insecurity crisis in Somalia. USAID is aiming to combat the hunger crisis in Somalia by providing food assistance while also targeting assistance efforts to limit malnutrition among children and pregnant women.

Causes of the Food Insecurity Crisis in Somalia

Typically, heavy rains strike Somalia between April and June and again between October and December. During the two rainy seasons, extreme rainfall and flooding regularly displace Somalis across the country. However, in 2021, the rainy season ended in May instead of June. This early end caused intense droughts in Somalia.

Rainfall in some areas of Somalia has amounted to only half of the year-to-date average. As a result, deficit farmers in the south and northwest of Somalia have not been able to access water supplies adequate to plant Somalia’s staple crops. Moreover, pastoral households’ inadequate access to water has decreased the size and productivity of livestock herds. The subsequent meat, milk and crop shortage might surge food prices in Somalia.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network projected that the Somali yield of cereal crops in 2021 will be up to 40% less than the yearly average. The drought has already decreased the food and water intake for farmers and pastoralists across Somalia, and low crop and livestock yields in the late summer harvest will lead to lower incomes for farmers and pastoralists. This will limit the purchasing power of Somalis employed in the agriculture sector. Altogether, the drought and subsequent low-yield harvests could extend the risk of a food insecurity crisis in Somalia past the summer.

The State of the Somali Food Insecurity Crisis

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale is a system that governments, non-governmental organizations and the U.N. uses to analyze the severity of food insecurity situations. The IPC scale ranges from minimal (IPC Phase 1) to famine (IPC Phase 5). By the middle of 2021, the IPC expects 2.7 million Somalis to encounter at least the crisis level of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3). Specifically, the analysis expects 2.25 million Somalis to be at the crisis level of food insecurity while another 400,100 will be at the emergency level of food insecurity (IPC Phase 4).

COVID-19 in Somalia

While the COVAX initiative and the Somali Federal Government have started the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 in Somalia, the virus continues to devastate the fragile economy. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the poverty rate (percent of the population below $1.90/day, 2011 PPP) in Somalia was at 69%. The poverty rate among Somalis in rural areas was at 72%.

Further, the worldwide COVID-19 induced lockdowns have limited employment opportunities for Somalis working in foreign countries. Consequently, Somalis working internationally are not able to send much money back to their families in Somalia, which heavily supports consumption in the country. Moreover, Somali businesses have reduced their full-time staff by an average of 31% since the pandemic first struck Somalia.

Lastly, a global reduction in demand for Somali livestock has decreased Somali livestock exports by 50% since the beginning of the pandemic, which further weakens the income of already impoverished Somali pastoralists. Thus, the global economic downturn resulting from COVID-19 threatens to intensify the food insecurity crisis in Somalia.

US Aid to Somalia

On June 24, 2021, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a pledge of $20 million in assistance to Somalia. USAID’s aid pledge to Somalia was part of a larger USAID plan to provide a total of $97 million to African countries to combat the health and socioeconomic ramifications of the pandemic. The U.S. aid plan will focus on tackling the food insecurity crisis in Somalia and will supply the country with staple crops like sorghum and yellow split peas. The funding also aims to limit the malnutrition of children and pregnant women.

The aid package builds on a U.S. commitment of $14.7 million in June 2021 to provide drinking water, fight malnutrition and support victims of gender-based violence.

While Somalia’s struggle with poverty and malnutrition is a longstanding and complicated issue, assistance from the U.S. and the rest of the global community could prevent a famine in the short term and boost the country’s economic development in the long term.

– Zachary Fesen
Photo: Flickr

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Optimism Regarding Healthcare in Bhutan

Bhutan Healthcare
The Bhutan healthcare system worked wonders during the COVID-19 pandemic, only experiencing one death by January 2021. Its rapid-fire contact tracing, reliance on science and trust in government led to one of the best pandemic responses the world has ever seen. The success of healthcare in Bhutan indicates great progress in a healthcare system that has seen more than its fair share of struggles.

How Does Bhutan Run its Government and Healthcare System?

Bhutan, a Buddhist nation of just over 750,000 people, is between China and India. After a long period of underdevelopment, with legalized slavery until 1958, Bhutan has dramatically progressed through the course of 12 Five Year Plans (FYPs), currently scheduled through 2023. In 2008, the nation adopted a constitutional monarchy.

Bhutan is famous for its use of the Gross National Happiness Index. Every Five Year Plan discusses what changes the nation must make, as well as what priorities it should adopt, in order to maximize the GNH index. Bhutan’s entire government, along with its healthcare system, runs with the goal of promoting nationwide happiness and well-being. Bhutan utilizes a system of universal free healthcare, which it finances with approximately 3.5% of its GDP. There have been many significant health breakthroughs in Bhutan, between the near-eradication of vaccine-preventable diseases and the provision of an equitable healthcare supply. However, the system has encountered and continues to face several difficulties.

Issues Regarding Healthcare in Bhutan

Modern health struggles have accompanied Bhutan’s modernization; instead of malaria and polio, Bhutan now faces addiction, mental illnesses, HIV/AIDs and other serious problems. Specifically, the three most pressing concerns are systemic healthcare problems, noncommunicable diseases and mental health issues. Bhutan’s healthcare system faces challenges itself. Most prominent is a lack of proper recordkeeping, unequal access to care (despite having equal supply) and inadequate providers.

First, Bhutan does not properly record most of its health difficulties. This lack of data leads to increased difficulty in making progress. The Five Year Plans cannot satisfactorily address problems that the Bhutanese government does not know are occurring. Second, facilities face large discrepancies in their quality of care and certain settlement areas do not receive enough information about the nation’s healthcare options. Just because there is equitable supply does not mean that all in the nation have access to or know to utilize the care that Bhutan’s government provides.

Third, Bhutan employs underqualified healthcare workers. While a lack of reports means that the international community is unaware of the exact problems the Bhutanese population encounters, as well as how many in Bhutan die due to dangerous healthcare, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that millions die globally because of unsafe medical care and that around half of these deaths are preventable. A study that the British Medical Journal Open (BMJ) published found that Bhutan’s healthcare system’s most prominent failings have been due to inadequate skills, training and attitudes among providers.

Health Problems in Bhutan

Furthermore, non-communicable diseases account for 53% of all deaths, and they are the leading cause of death across all age groups. Cancer, diabetes and traffic injuries have replaced the falling number of deaths from STIs. Despite working out of a framework dedicated to happiness, Bhutan ranks 20th on a list of countries regarding their rate of suicide. Combined with addiction and other mental health struggles, this is an area where Bhutanese healthcare faces an extreme care deficiency.

Bhutan did not employ its first psychiatrist until 1999 when Bhutan-born and Sri Lanka-trained Dr. Chencho Dorji returned to the nation. As of 2013, the majority of more than 5,300 Bhutanese psychiatric patients have fallen onto the shoulders of Dr. Chencho. As of the 2020 survey, Bhutan only employs 116 in the department of therapy — that is, barely more than 0.015% of its population. To put this number in context, 0.03% of the United State’s population are licensed therapists. Nevertheless, plenty of reasons exist for one to be optimistic about Bhutan’s healthcare system.

Optimism About Bhutan’s Future

Bhutan has multiple ways to resolve the healthcare problems it is currently facing. For example, the BMJ study focused on collaboration, resources and governance, but a better way of looking for optimism could be to investigate what the Five Year Plan prioritizes. Prioritization in the FYPs produced all of Bhutan’s historical healthcare successes, and there is no reason to predict otherwise for current crises. The 12th Five Year Plan, in effect from 2018 to 2023, provides solutions to the struggles of healthcare in Bhutan.

About the 12th Five Year Plan

First, the 12th Five Year Plan addresses problems in data recording as discussed at the 11th FYP’s mid-term review, prioritizing proper data collection for the new term to accurately perceive what problems need attention. Bhutan’s excellent COVID-19 response showcased success in this area. Second, the fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs) worked its way into the forefront of Bhutan’s healthcare policy and is clearly a priority in the 12th Five Year Plan. Bhutan shares the international goal of eradicating tuberculosis by 2035 and recognizes both cures and treatments of NCDs as a dire need. Third, the FYP expanded from its four pillars of a just society to nine domains. The new domains include living standards, education, health, psychological well-being, cultural resilience, ecological diversity, among others.

The plan accounts for other systemic issues in the Bhutan healthcare system as well. One of the central means of progress that the FYP outlined is decentralization. By allocating funding to local governments to more comprehensively provide care throughout the nation, Bhutan will see a rise in equitable access to care — not just supply. Additionally, the 12th FYP details increased provider training.

Some of the new domains, including creating a charitable culture and regulating time allocation between work, sleep and other activities, work directly to combat mental illness. Psychological well-being places focus on providing adequate treatment to those who are still struggling despite those domains. New policies and priorities outlined in the 12th FYP provide hope for one of the fastest developing healthcare ministries globally.

Looking Ahead

There are certainly kinks in healthcare in Bhutan that the country must work out. However, with the changes in the Five Year Plan, the system of healthcare seems to be leading the way to a very bright future.

The only factor holding back this optimism is Bhutan’s limited resources. But, Bhutan underwent a great economic change, raising its GDP at an annual average of 7.5% just two decades after emancipation. As one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, its health services have seen great progress and continued to grow with time.

If a small, underdeveloped country with a great resource shortage can successfully implement a healthcare system that specifically focuses on its citizens’ happiness, perhaps this system could inspire a seismic shift in the way government runs. Bhutan has set a precedent for designing a world where the population’s happiness is the government’s main priority and, with adequate funding, it could more thoroughly achieve these goals. Now, it is time for the U.S., France, Germany, the U.K. and other global democratic superpowers to step up and do the same.

– Sam Konstan
Photo: Flickr