Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Labor Reforms to Reduce Migrant Poverty in Qatar

Poverty in Qatar
Ever since the International Federation of Association Football’s (FIFA) announcement that Qatar would host the 2022 World Cup, migrant flows to the country have exploded. Since 2010, Qatar has sought to bring thousands of workers to its shores in order to assist in the construction of stadiums, hotels and other infrastructure necessary to facilitate the tournament. To meet this demand, migrants from all over the Persian Gulf region, as well as South Asia, have flooded into the country. Migrants hoped to escape dire straits in order to find a stable job and a stable income. In fact, 700,000 workers came from India alone. However, migrant poverty in Qatar has become a significant issue.

Migrants in Qatar

According to Human Rights Watch, the migrant labor force has reached more than 2 million, making up approximately 95% of the labor force. However, despite being the second richest country in the world with a GDP per capita of $124,500 in 2017, a lack of labor rights has created widespread poverty in Qatar, especially among migrants.

The reason poverty persists among workers is the kafala sponsorship system. Migrants have to apply for visas from employers, often incurring costs through recruiters to do so. Even if workers do manage to pay enough to get access to a job, employers have broad controls over what workers can do. Employers often take passports from workers, preventing them from escaping brutal conditions. Additionally, some workers have gone with little to no pay. This has led to hundreds of thousands of people living in labor camps, where disease and poverty are rampant.

Solutions

In 2017 and 2018, Qatar’s government passed policies intended to reduce migrant poverty in Qatar. In October 2017, the government established a temporary minimum wage for migrant workers in the hopes of improving the conditions of laborers. One year later, in October 2018, Amnesty International reported that Qatar implemented a support and insurance fund in order to protect workers from lost wages.

However, Human Rights Watch has reported that both of these reforms were implemented unevenly, and thus have not had much of an effect. Employers still have a lot of control over workers, and poor enforcement has meant that the kafala structure is still in place.

On August 30, 2020, Qatar announced two new reforms in order to rectify this issue. The first was an increase in the existing minimum wage. The law will take effect in January 2021, and also requires employers to pay workers a stipend for food and housing. The second was a law to allow workers to leave their jobs without having express permission from their employers. This mobility could allow workers to escape dangerous conditions and find better work.

Such reforms could even save lives, as even the lowest estimates indicate that at least 1,200 people have died working on World Cup stadiums due to harsh conditions. International watchdogs have applauded these reforms. Amnesty International has argued that these small steps provide some hope that migrant poverty in Qatar, as well as worker exploitation, will soon be on the decline.

– Thomas Gill
Photo: Flickr

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Women’s rights in the United Kingdom

Women’s Rights in the United Kingdom
When analyzing the issues that are prominent regarding women’s rights in the United Kingdom, one that catches the eye is the dominant source of inequality between men and women, the wage gap. Through research, it has become evident that the gender wage gap has caused some tremendous strife when it comes to women’s rights in the United Kingdom. In fact, the country has worked for many years to try to tighten the gap with little luck.

The Wage Gap and the Equal Pay Act

According to an article that the Independent published, 78% of the United Kingdom’s biggest companies have widened the gap in favor of men as of 2020. However, it is evident that the movement for equal pay in the United Kingdom has actually regressed in the most recent years.

Historically, the United Kingdom saw a tremendous decrease in the wage gap in 1970, which marks the official passing of the Equal Pay Act. According to a journal by authors Peter Dolton, Donal O’Neill and Olive Sweetman, there was much development that went into the Equal Pay Act. Their discoveries have led to the conclusion that within the workforce there were many, “gender-specific forces” that drove the United Kingdom legislature to pass the Equal Pay Act.

However, this act proved to solve so few of the problems for women’s rights in the United Kingdom, as companies simply did not believe in the idea of equal pay. As found in the graphs within Susan Harkness’ essay, the year 1977 showed a tremendous spike in the wage gap that ultimately stayed consistent from then on. Overall, with proper legislation in place, the U.K. is still struggling with a wage gap issue even in such revolutionary times.

Defining the Wage Gap

When looking at data, it is appropriate to ask how much this gap truly is. Now, according to an essay by authors Claudia Olivetti and Barbara Petrongolo, they mentioned that men’s hourly wages are between 27 and 33 log points higher than that of a woman.

More specifically, in the Independent article, by Sophie Gallagher, she spoke to a handful of women who have struggled with this issue first hand. Gallagher wrote that “head chef Kay Collins didn’t have to go digging to find out she was being paid £6,000 less than her male colleague,” which allows readers to fully understand how big this gap is based on a yearly salary. Though the issue is still very prominent, people are working hard at minimizing the gap.

With this information, women in the U.K. are not settling for this type of inequality. Gallagher went on to explain how many women who are falling victim to the gender gap are challenging the legality of their personal situations. As written in the same article, “… the BBC’s former China editor Carrie Gracie won her unequal pay claim after it emerged she was being paid around £100,000 less than a male comparator,” which proves that the fight is still being fought for women’s rights in the United Kingdom 50 years after the Equal Pay Act.

Fawcett Society and YESS Law

However, in contradiction, recent numbers show that as of 2019, the gap among employees has dropped 0.5% and continues to drop as the years go on. Though the issue is still very prominent, people are working hard at minimizing the gap. Working through many setbacks that have appeared in the past, many charities have been working in favor of women when it comes to receiving equal pay. For example, Campaign group Fawcett Society and legal charity YESS Law started the Equal Pay Advice Services, which supports women when speaking out about the wage gap that they have fallen victim to.

What the two organizations are doing is educating women on what the gender gap is and how large it has become in more recent years. They want to advise lower-paid women on equal pay in order to raise awareness of the issue. According to Fawcett Society, 40% of women are unaware that equal pay is a right. The organization also created a “Right to Know” petition to help raise awareness.

These charities are great examples of how an outsider can help the movement for equal pay in the U.K. By showing support for these groups, one can express their own support of women’s rights in the United Kingdom.

Simply by becoming more educated on the topic, women are discovering that more and more are fighting for what is truly theirs. The U.K. is following the notion that there is no need for the prevalence of a gender gap in current society. In fact, many are using protests, facing legal challenges and speaking to policymakers as a means to get what they truly deserve, that being equal pay.

– Sophia Cloonan
Photo: Flickr

4 Facts About Hunger in Italy

Hunger in ItalyAround the world, people commonly associate Italy with their favorite foods: pasta, bread and warm, baked goods. We imagine music playing on the streets and see photos of the beautiful and historic sites of Rome, Naples and Florence. However, Italy struggles with internal issues just like any other country, especially hunger. Each day, more than 1.5 million people go without enough to eat.

The U.N. defines food security as every person having physical, social and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food to meet and sustain dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. “Hunger,” on the other hand, describes periods in which people experience severe food insecurity where they go days without eating. This occurs because of the lack of money, access to food, or other resources. Here are four facts about the situation of hunger in Italy:

Four Facts About Hunger in Italy

  1. Food insecurity in Italy rests around a rate of 22%. This is a relatively low percentage compared to other elevated rates around the world and even in parts of Europe. However, Italy’s total population is 60.4 million. With this considered, 13.29 million people are subject to food insecurity each day.
  2. Roughly one in 12 Italians are living in absolute poverty, meaning they lack the income to ensure access to food, housing, education and health care. This rate has risen in recent years alongside increasing inflation in Italy and is higher than the average rate of poverty for EU citizens. Furthermore, this phenomenon disproportionately affects young Italians, 1.27 million of whom live in absolute poverty today, and they can become stuck in a cycle of poverty without being able to pull themselves out. Living under such conditions, it is challenging for Italians to afford adequate access to nutritious food, and they can thus become susceptible to hunger.
  3. The Italian government has taken action against hunger, beginning a new welfare program for its underprivileged population in 2019. Italian citizens who qualify must be earning less than 9,360 euros ($9,870) per year, which is less than half of the national average. The welfare program has a pre-paid debit card to use for groceries, bills, medicines and other necessities. Also, able-bodied residents must enter a job-finding program or a training program. Furthermore, Italy has been a strong partner of international efforts like the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to promote food security and improve food systems at home and abroad.
  4. The U.N. includes hunger in its seventeen goals it hopes to achieve by the end of 2030. Zero Hunger recognizes the 735 million people struggling with chronic hunger around the world in 2022 and works toward food security and an end to hunger for every global citizen. Global food security has seen a worrying trend since 2015 and was only exacerbated by the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.N., however, combats this phenomenon and fights for hungry areas, even those in rural parts of developed nations like Italy, to have access to nutritious food options, escape poverty and learn solutions for more efficient and nutritious agricultural techniques in the future. 

While not commonly known, hunger exists in Italy and is worsened by the state of unemployment and poverty under which many Italians live. However, through government efforts as well as global commitments to combat food insecurity, there is hope for a future where hunger in Italy is no longer a major concern.

– Rebecca Blanke and Cole Zickwolff
Photo: Pikist
Updated: November 21, 2024

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5 Benefits of Diva Taxi: Uganda’s Female-Run Rideshare

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Akola_women_in_Uganda.jpgDiva Taxi, an all-female transportation company, recently launched in Uganda. As Uganda’s female-run rideshare, it is distinct because of its strict rule of hiring only female drivers. Diva Taxi hopes to alleviate the demand for taxis in the Ugandan capital city, Kampala while providing women with a safe method of transportation. While the company expects to thrive in the rapidly developing capital, Diva Taxi also hopes to expand to other regions in Uganda. Its emphasis on female entrepreneurship, strict screening and affordability will positively affect the transportation sector in the Ugandan economy. Moreover, it will employ women struggling financially. Here are 5 ways in which Diva Taxi will positively influence Ugandan women.

5 Benefits of Diva Taxi: Uganda’s Female-Run Rideshare

  1. Hiring Women. Diva Taxi focuses on hiring women, a demographic typically overlooked on other driving applications. Gillian Kobusingye, one of the managing partners of Diva Taxi, observes that other companies are male-dominated. She estimates that men make up 80% of transportation companies in Uganda. Because of this, companies are less likely to hire women drivers, favoring the status quo. This gender disparity is not restricted to the transportation sector alone: 14.4% of working-age Ugandan women are unemployed. This, compared with 6.2% of men. Diva Taxi eliminates this selection bias as Uganda’s female-run rideshare.
  2. Affordability. Becoming an employee of Diva Taxi is completely affordable. For women struggling financially, the need to purchase technology or equipment often restricts access to desperately-needed jobs. Like Uber and Bolt, Diva Taxi is an application, which means office registration and other bureaucratic red tape is avoidable when joining. Employees only need a functioning car to join the team. Diva Taxi drivers note how the company’s flexibility provided them the opportunity to quickly make money for their families. This is critical during the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. Since the onset of the pandemic, jobs shrank in Uganda, enhancing the significance of jobs that remain open to female employees.
  3. Employee Safety. The application prioritizes safety for its employees. New hires are taught basic self-defense skills to guard themselves against potentially dangerous clients. One precautionary measure for drivers includes “Panic Alerts,” a protective in-app function that safeguards employees from potential thieves. Additionally, employees and customers receive a unique registration number when they create their profile. This enables their tracking if things go awry. Lastly, customers must book rides two hours in advance so no relative trip requests can occur that may endanger the driver.
  4. Client Safety. Diva Taxi offers a safe ride home for girls and women. Despite newly-passed laws and policies to protect victims and survivors of abuse, violence against women increased by 4% in Uganda. According to the Uganda Police Force’s annual report, as of 2016 — 22% of Ugandan women between the ages of 15–49 experienced some form of sexual violence. This percentage is equivalent to more than 1 million Ugandans. A safe, female-run company like Diva Taxi is an essential form of transportation for women. This group is among the vulnerable in the bustling streets of Kampala, especially at night.
  5. COVID-19 Precautions. Diva Taxi takes the necessary precautions against COVID-19. All drivers must clean their cars routinely, as well as wear a mask to maintain the safety of the customer and themselves. As of August 2020, Uganda has 2,362 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which means these precautions are still necessary.

By Women, For Women

Diva Taxi was created by women, is run by women and protects women. Although Diva Taxi was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic (an uncertain era for transportation companies) it is a positive influence on female Ugandans which will hopefully keep it afloat.

– Faven Woldetatyos
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Kala Azar Disease of the Poor

Kala Azar DiseaseKala Azar, the second-largest parasitic killer in the world after malaria, is quite deadly. Known as Kala Azar, Black Fever and visceral leishmaniasis, the disease kills 95% of its victims if left untreated. This “Poor Man’s Disease” can be very hypocritical. While this disease infects the poverty-stricken, the treatment is hard to come by, if not impossible. Even if the patient finds a doctor that can treat the disease, the price is astronomical. And sometimes, there is no stopping the contraction of the Black Fever.

The Spread

As the disease transmits through a sandfly bite, Kala Azar preys on the vulnerable. More than 1 billion people are at risk. East Africa, India and even some parts of the Middle East are endemic to Kala Azar. Poor housing conditions and lack of waste management in these countries cause an increase in the bloodthirsty sandflies’ breeding sites. This specific culprit is the female, Phlebotomine sand fly. While just one bite from it can put someone on bed rest for weeks, malnutrition only worsens the situation. For example, low vitamin D, iron and zinc can cause an infection to progress into disease much quicker. If Kala Azar killed the equivalent number of people in the U.S., it would be the third-largest killer, killing more citizens than those who die from strokes.

OneWorld Health

The real fighting began in 2003 with a collaboration between OneWorld Health, the WHO and a 4.2 million dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With this grant and WHO’s resources, OneWorld Health was able to start its final testing to find an affordable cure for Kala Azar and the disease it causes. They are reinventing an old medicine and turning it into the treatment now called paromomycin. “It’s not every day one can say an affordable cure for a deadly disease may be imminent and we believe our approach will be successful,” said Dr. Victoria Hale, founder and CEO of OneWorld Health. It is to be a 21-day treatment and it will be readily available in every Indian clinic and, hopefully, one day, everywhere.

Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi)

Unfortunately, nothing came of the OneWorld Health drug, paromomycin until February 2019. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) is fighting to change that. In a press release on the DNDi website, they share that Wellcome, a U.K. based foundation aiming to improve health for everyone, committed 12.9 million dollars for the development of drugs for Kala Azar. They are essentially funding a program that will test pre-existing drugs (that never made it to the world) and choose one to put on the market. DNDi is hoping it to be an oral drug as the drugs taken to fight Kala Azar can be painful and “require patients to take toxic and poorly tolerated drugs — often over a long period and through painful injections,” as said by Dr. Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director of DNDi.

The Impact

There is an estimated 50,000 to 90,000 new cases each year. Most families of the infected do not even go to the doctor, knowing that they will not be able to pay for the treatment. While there are many organizations funding drugs to treat Kala Azar, the cure is not coming fast enough. The current treatment for this parasitic disease is not reasonable. How can a family that can barely provide for themselves spend thousands of dollars on treatment?

The prevention and an end to Kala Azar lie in our hands. Organizations need funding to take preventative measures like spraying for these deadly sand flies, monitoring the epidemics and educating the communities affected by the disease.

– Bailey Sparks
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Food Poverty and Agriculture in Guadeloupe

Hunger in GuadeloupeGuadeloupe, a territory of France, is a small archipelago found in the Caribbean. Food poverty in Guadeloupe has a complicated history involving the archipelago’s relationship with France.

In 2008, Guadeloupeans began to fear a major food crisis was on the horizon. This fear was due to its neighboring countries like Haiti experiencing the effect of rising food prices. With the archipelago’s long history as an overseas region of France, Guadeloupe depends on food imports from the European country. Suddenly, people in Guadeloupe feared that French imports would follow suit in rising food prices.

Fortunately for Guadeloupe, the archipelago’s long-standing trading relations with France actually became a major source of relief for the French-Caribbean territory. France was able to provide Guadeloupe with food imports that helped them avoid a food crisis like in Haiti. In fact, the prevalence of malnourishment within the Caribbean actively decreased from 19.9% in 2010 to 17.7% by 2016. By all means, this is seen as a major victory in the eyes of many, especially for the people of Guadeloupe.

Reliance on French Imports

Yet, such news only signified a greater ongoing problem within Guadeloupe. France’s role in warding off food poverty in Guadeloupe showed just how powerful and influential the European country still was to the French-Caribbean territory. In fact, around 90% of Guadeloupe’s food in 2013 came from imports, a majority of which have historically been from France.

In terms of what this means for food poverty in Guadeloupe, it has now led to a reliance on food imports that have negatively affected Guadeloupeans’ nutrition and diet. In addition, as Guadeloupe is trading away much of their healthier crops, the archipelago must accept unhealthier and more processed food in return. As a result, the problems Western countries have faced in recent years regarding diabetes have translated into Guadeloupean society.

According to Rapid City Journal, by 2017, Guadeloupe was listed 38th in countries with the highest diabetes rates. The prevalence of diabetes from ages 20 to 79 was at 13.56%. While such a number may not seem like very much, it is in fact 42.58% above the global prevalence for diabetes. Hunger in Guadeloupe has, as a result, become an issue of diet rather than malnourishment. Such is the state of food in Guadeloupe. Many have now accepted these westernized diets into their cultures and backgrounds. This makes changing to a healthier lifestyle much harder.

Food Sovereignty

Fortunately, there is a glimmer of hope. Many Guadeloupeans have begun to advocate for their fellow citizens to utilize the diverse and healthy natural agriculture found in their own territory. Unfortunately, many Guadeloupeans seem to have grown out of touch with the traditional food of their own territory. This is evident since Guadeloupeans export much of their crop. Yet, this new move toward what some call “food sovereignty” could signal a monumental change for Guadeloupe’s future. Such a move would not only help to improve diet and lower diabetes rates for Guadeloupe but also be a symbolic gesture of independence from France’s economic and cultural grasp on the small archipelago.

Though the territory seems to be doing well on the outside, Guadeloupe still finds struggles with hunger and diet. A great trading relationship with France has covered the cracks over the archipelago’s issues with health and diet. In fact, much of the problem comes from such a reliance on France for food imports. The reliance on imports has caused Guadeloupeans to fall into unhealthy dietary habits. Yet, there is still hope with the food sovereignty movement. In the end, Guadeloupe shows how global poverty and struggle can take shape in many forms.

– Colin Park
Photo: Flickr

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The Situation Regarding Hunger in Iceland

Hunger in IcelandIceland is a Nordic island nation in the Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of approximately 364,134. Furthermore, the majority of the population lives in the capital city, Reykjavik. Iceland is a member of the European Union and many know it for its rocky, volcanic landscapes. As the nation is an island, Iceland must import and produce enough food to support its population. While Iceland receives most of its food as imports, it also has a thriving fishing industry. In addition, it has one of the lowest hunger rates in the world. Here are five facts about Iceland’s hunger and how the nation maintains such low hunger rates.

Natural Disasters

While Iceland imports most of its food, its local fishing industry provides food for locals and exports. The population’s food insecurity is very low, around 1.3%. In addition, natural disasters are the leading cause of food insecurity in the country. Natural disasters affect Iceland’s farmable land and interrupt the island’s ability to import and export food.

Government Action

Iceland has taken a stance on fighting world hunger. In 2013, the former President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, stated that the best way to fight world hunger is to “preserve what we already catch, raise and grow, rather than increasing production.” As a result, Iceland is now preserving its fish through geothermal heat rather than drying it outside as it formerly did.

Food Preservation

Iceland preserves its food effectively. Furthermore, it exports the food it produces to countries struggling with higher hunger rates. Iceland freezes fish and meat to preserve food. However, many countries need more electricity to keep products frozen. As a result, former President Grímsson advocates for drying food products because this preservation method does not require electricity. Food preservation has not only helped reduce hunger in struggling countries, but it has aided the economy. The imported food makes up a portion of the food sold and distributed in local marketplaces.

Imports and Exports

Iceland relies heavily on imported food. Thus, a danger exists that the country will face higher hunger rates if its import methods are blocked. Many suggest Iceland keep stocks and stores of preserved food to counter this. However, the nation has not taken any steps or implemented such measures. The government exports most of its preserved food instead.

Ending World Hunger

Iceland partnered with the United Food Nations Program (UFNP) in 2016 and committed to ending world hunger by 2030. This agreement states that Iceland will provide funds for the UFNP that are not specifically designated to one specific country.

Iceland’s ability to feed its population depends on its ability to import and supplement food with locally sourced food. As a result, Iceland does not stock and store preserved food sufficiently. The nation is vulnerable to hunger if a natural disaster were to occur. Iceland also works to end global hunger. In addition, Iceland achieves this by promoting food preservation rather than increasing food production. Also, it has partnered with UNFP to provide funds to countries struggling with hunger. Although many issues surround hunger in Iceland, the nation is taking steps in the right direction.

– Elizabeth Meyer
Photo: Flickr

Updated: October 22, 2024

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Lady Gaga’s Coronavirus Relief Concert: Fighting Global Poverty

Coronavirus Relief Concert
Lady Gaga’s coronavirus relief concert, “One World: Together at Home,” raised $127 million to provide the world’s poorest countries with personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essential supplies to fight the spread of COVID-19.

Performance for A Greater Good

In partnership with the World Health Organization and the United Nations, the organization Global Citizen released performances from artists including Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Alicia Keys and many more. The concert aimed to raise awareness of countries that could not afford the proper equipment needed for essential workers.

Global Citizen says that Lady Gaga’s coronavirus relief concert aimed to “celebrate and support healthcare workers and others on the frontlines, and the World Health Organization (WHO) as they lead the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.” Around the world, poor countries disproportionately feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic — more so than countries like the U.S.

What Did “One World: Together at Home” Accomplish?

Lady Gaga’s coronavirus relief concert raised support and awareness for the COVID-19 crisis all around the world due to the high-profile guests and musicians featured in the program.

As a result of the large-scale, global support, Global Citizen raised $127 million for PPE and other supplies to provide to people around the world. Specifically, they were able to supply “[more than] 700,000 surgical masks, 51,000 N95 masks, 727,000 gloves, 85,000 gowns, nearly 14,000 goggles, and [more than] 20,000 face shields.” Funds went to 120 countries, including 39 countries in Africa, 20 in the eastern Mediterranean region and 29 in the Americas.

Global Citizen is an organization that aims to end extreme poverty by 2030. The organization’s methods include posting, tweeting, messaging, signing, calling and voting on issues that are pertinent to extreme poverty around the world.

COVID-19 & Global Poverty

But what does COVID-19 have to do with global poverty? Overall, productivity growth, a large contributing factor for lifting people out of poverty, is at a low due to the virus. From past illnesses and financial depressions, some speculate that this low rate of productivity growth will decrease further, the longer the pandemic lasts.

Without financial stability and the necessary protective equipment for essential workers, it is clear that those in poverty will suffer greatly as a result of the pandemic. Without access to important protections, those in poverty will continue to go on with life as they had before. Unfortunately, these activities come with an increased risk of illness as well.

Areas in which there is extreme poverty are often overcrowded. This, in turn, leads to more exposure to the coronavirus when no protections like masks or face shields are present. Additionally, the hospital space quickly becomes overwhelmed with rising numbers of cases. If patients do not receive proper care and if necessary protections are not used, cases will likely continue to rise.

Hospitals in impoverished areas are frequently unlikely to have the capacity to afford PPE and  other vital supplies. Patients will not be able to afford care, nor will the hospitals be able to supply the proper care needed in these situations. All of these factors combined, lead to more deaths as a result of COVID-19. For these reasons, any activities like Lady Gaga’s (and other artists’) performance that promote the global use of PPE and provide critical funding toward purchasing these supplies are beneficial.

– Natalie Belford
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Alleviating Poverty With Solar Energy in Rural Madagascar

Solar Energy in Rural Madagascar
Tech companies Groupe Filatex and Bboxx are teaming up to extend their solar panel services to rural Madagascar. The companies aim to install 170 megawatts of new solar capacity by 2022. In a country that receives about 2,800 hours of strong sunlight every year, implementing solar energy in rural Madagascar can be a “viable way to go.” Roughly 85% of Madagascar’s population has no access to electricity and they do have a national grid. Providing solar energy in rural Madagascar can give the people of Madagascar electricity, thus improving their way of life and reducing poverty.

Solar Energy Versus Fossil Fuels

Some argue that implementing solar energy can help alleviate poverty. Providing “access to a small amount of electricity could lead to life-saving improvements in agricultural productivity, health, education, communications and access to clean water.” Some consider it a better alternative to the current option of expanding electricity. The current option involves fossil fuels, which can be impractical and expensive.

Also, solar energy can be a cheaper option compared with fossil fuels. Many villages in Africa use kerosene lamps as a source of light. Kerosene can cost a household from $40 to $80 per year, compared with solar lamps which can cost between $27 and $35. Kerosene can also emit pollutants proven to be dangerous to health. Examples of these health hazards are respiratory and eye infections, kidney or liver problems, and house fires.

Solar Energy Benefits

Solar energy in rural Madagascar can be the first step out of poverty by providing new skills and sources of income. An example of this is Barefoot College’s program for “solar engineers.” These engineers are from rural areas and are taught to install, repair and maintain solar lighting units to promote rural solar electrification. Consequently, this boosts incomes for poor villages.

Solar energy in rural Madagascar can help reduce current poverty levels. About 75% of the population lives below the poverty line. This is higher than the regional average, which is 41%.

Growth in Economic Development

Despite the high poverty rate, Madagascar has experienced a growth in economic development. During the past five years, Madagascar’s economic growth increased to around 5%. This was due to a peaceful transition after years of political instability and economic stagnation. The peaceful transition was considered “instrumental to this economic revival.” It contributed to “restore investor confidence, reopen access to key export markets, reinstate flows of concessional financing and encourage structural reforms.”

Implementing renewable energy is not new to Madagascar. In 2014, the Madagascar government decided to take on intensive reforms. With the help of the World Bank, the government started the Electricity Sector Operations and Governance Improvement Project (ESOGIP). The objective of the project is to increase production capacity and reduce energy loss. It also aims to expedite progress on renewable energies to provide a reliable, more affordable alternative to expensive and environmentally unfriendly diesel generators. The goal is to provide energy access to 70% of households by 2030.

The World Bank offers many solutions to reducing poverty in Madagascar. One of the main solutions is providing electricity. The more affordable, electrification in rural areas — the better the quality of life will be for citizens of Madagascar.

– Jackson Lebedun
Photo: Flickr

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Anti-slavery Efforts in Mauritania

Anti-slavery Efforts in Mauritania
Mauritania, described in a CNN documentary as “Slavery’s Last Stronghold,” was the last country in the world to formally abolish slavery. Arrests for protesting slavery and lax punitive practices have shown Mauritania’s long list of subsequent anti-slavery legislation to be merely lip service. Still, recent attention and a growing frequency of successful prosecutions hint at incremental progress and intersectional anti-slavery efforts in Mauritania.

The Situation

Since outlawing slavery in 1981, Mauritanian officials have publicly denied any presence of the practice in their borders. In spite of these claims, data that independent observers collected shows that slavery is still prevalent: the Global Slavery Index (G.S.I.) estimates that 90,000 Mauritanians live in modern slavery, a figure likely lower than reality because the government obstructs all efforts to study the practice.

Mauritania ranks sixth on the G.S.I’s Prevalence Index, behind North Korea, Eritrea, Burundi, the Central African Republic and Afghanistan. Other estimates, from local sources, claim that as much as 20% of the population lives in slavery.

Because the Mauritanian government has categorically denied the existence of slavery, efforts to measure or sanction the practice have made slow progress. Major sites like the Washington Post claim that there are no reliable statistics on how many people are enslaved due to government obstruction and cultural norms that make measurement difficult. In fact, Mauritania’s census does not count enslaved people. Slavery did not receive criminalization until 2015, and Mauritanian courts have largely neglected to prosecute individuals accused of enslavement.

SOS-Esclaves and Anti-Slavery International

Still, anti-slavery efforts in Mauritania have seen small victories of varying impact. SOS-Esclaves, joined by Anti-Slavery International, filed a successful lawsuit in 2016 that served two former slave masters a five-year prison sentence and forced them to pay significant compensation to two victims. They won a similar conviction in November 2019, but the defendants appealed their sentence and remain free. The most recent win came on July 9, 2020, when courts served two former slave masters 10 and 15-year sentences and ordered the state to assist them in attaining citizenship. Because a lack of citizenship is one of the greatest obstacles to former slaves’ self-sufficiency, NGOs have touted this latest ruling as a significant victory.

The increasing frequency of these legal wins suggests incremental but steady progress in anti-slavery efforts in Mauritania. Other wins highlight the intersectionality of the issue. Alongside the first two successful convictions in 2016, successful appeals downgraded the charges of two anti-slavery activists who peacefully protested slavery, allowing them to walk free. According to the think tank Freedom House, convictions like these are common obstructive tactics that the government uses. Mauritanian courts frequently convict individuals for activism and inhibit a free press: “journalists risk arrest for reporting on sensitive topics,” and the government “continues to arrest antislavery and antidiscrimination activists.”

The Challenges

Non-governmental organizations’ efforts to stop slavery are beholden to a political system that actively opposes their cause. In turn, Mauritania’s government has resisted international pressure to reform. In January 2019, the United States terminated its trade agreement with Mauritania, citing forced labor practices and government retaliation against peaceful activism.

Further, the Sahara Desert covers 90% of Mauritania’s territory, making only 0.2% of Mauritanian land farmable. In Mauritania’s southern deserts, slavery and poverty deeply intertwine. Masters allow many enslaved families to live and farm on their own but the families have to give up a portion of their harvest each time their masters visit. When people manage to escape, they often gather in desert villages called adwaba where food and water are scarce, and conditions of poverty mirror those of their previous lives. The region’s harsh climate and lack of resources make it extremely difficult to flee abuse or find better circumstances.

Anti-slavery efforts in Mauritania are also battling against ingrained racial distinctions. A majority of slaves are the descendants of dark-skinned people who lighter-skinned Arab Berbers captured centuries before. In interviews, slaves claim that they lack representation in a government filled with lighter-skinned Mauritanians.

Ways to Abolish Slavery in Mauritania

Slavery in Mauritania deeply ties to the country’s cultural, political and geographic roots. The makers of “Slavery’s Last Stronghold” argue that substantively abolishing slavery in Mauritania means addressing the deep poverty that many dark-skinned Mauritanians face. In one interview they conducted, a former slave who had suffered beating and rape by her master nonetheless described him as a benevolent relative because “he also made sure she was fed in a country where many die of hunger.”

The approach that they and local anti-slavery organizations advocate addresses not only slavery but also the issues at its roots: poverty, famine, lack of citizenship or legal rights, obstructions of justice and persecution of activists. Further, slavery rests at the intersection of race, gender, poverty and geography in Mauritania. Successfully prosecuting slave masters brings about slow and incremental progress that inconsistent rulings, which the African Union Court condemned in 2018, still undermine. Anti-slavery efforts in Mauritania encompass improvements in criminalization, but they also extend the other areas mentioned. All they are missing is unity and resources.

– Skye Jacobs
Photo: Flickr