Humanitas Global Development Blog

The Olympic-sized Water Issue Impacting the World

By Nicole Graham, Humanitas Global

The Summer 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro have just concluded, but Rio’s Olympic-sized water issues are not packing up and leaving. The persistent complaint around unsafe water conditions for athletes and spectators shall continue to plague the citizens of Brazil and the waters of Rio long after the tourists have departed.

According to a sixteen-month long study commissioned by the Associated Press, 1,400 athletes faced serious exposure to health risks during the games due to contact with Rio’s contaminated water. The report stated that Olympic and Paralympic venues contained consistently high levels of viruses and bacteria, which could cause everything from stomach and respiratory illness to heart and brain inflammation.  AP reported that athletes would need to ingest only three teaspoons of water to be at extreme risk for adverse effects.

via The Independent

For decades, governors of Rio have promised to clean up the waters and have repeatedly violated the agreed upon timelines. In the 2009 Olympic bid document, Brazilian authorities again pledged to clean up waterways and maintain healthy environments, and again failed to follow-through on the commitment.

Water around Rio

At the beginning of the year, Rio’s State Environment Secretary induced a water quality panic by announcing that the Guanabara Bay would not reach the goal of an 80 percent improvement in cleanliness by the time the Olympic torch reached Rio. With a government well-known for its financial struggles, public officials were quick to point out that targets would not be met due to the instability the country has faced in recent months.

Rio treats approximately 40 percent of its sewage while the remainder is disposed of in the waterways surrounding the city. The World Health Organization (WHO) water tests prior to the Olympics indicated a strong presence of faecal bacteria and viruses. The international body recommended that contamination should be addressed first and foremost at the source, with water quality testing as a secondary priority. Unsurprisingly, diseases related to compromised water are the second leading cause of illness in Brazil for children under five years old.

So what happens when the Olympic Villages are abandoned, repurposed and Brazil’s 300,000-500,000 tourists and spectators return home? Despite the global focus on dire water conditions, Rio remains trapped in a water crisis. Water and sanitation issues are hardly unique to Brazil though. A staggering 2.5 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation globally, and over 783 million people cannot regularly access clean drinking water. Many other countries struggle just as much as Brazil but their issues are not in the limelight and fail to grip the public’s attention.

Ethiopia

The current drought in the Horn of Africa has had devastating repercussions, and most of Ethiopia’s population of 99 million people has been food insecure and suffering from water-related diseases for the last twenty years. Surface water sources have dried up, forcing people to rely on stagnant water sources which easily become a breeding ground for everything from bacteria to mosquitoes. There is not enough water to be used for bathing, cooking and drinking, so the citizens are forced to use water only when they must, with hygiene practices rarely observed to conserve water.

Bangladesh

Both rural and urban areas of Bangladesh suffer from lack of potable drinking water, and only 40 percent of people have sufficient sanitation services. The urban population of the country is increasing at an alarming rate, with rural dwellers seeking higher wages and improved livelihoods in cities. As a result many are forced to live in slum conditions, unable to afford more sustainable living environments and the country unable to match the pace of urbanization. Due to the lack of infrastructure and the overwhelming number of people living in small areas, the residents face low-quality drinking water and poor waste disposal. In rural areas, the ground water contains high levels of arsenic. With few other options, rural inhabitants are compelled to use this drinking water that can cause many health problems including cancer and skin disorders.

Haiti

Only 25 percent of all Haitians have access to a sanitary toilet, and 40 percent do not have access to acceptable drinking water. With most water treatment plants not in operation, Haiti has very few options for the collection and treatment of sewage. Diseases are easily spread, especially cholera, typhoid and chronic diarrhea. Combined, these water-borne illnesses result in more than half of all deaths in Haiti each year.

 

Small-scale solutions, such as the Lifestraw and Solarball, aid in purifying water for personal use, yet these inventions do not address large-scale water contamination as seen in Rio. The Seabin, an automated bucket that collects trash, oil and detergents in oceans has made waves recently, demonstrating in a successful online video campaign how effectively the product can clean the waters. Though solutions exist to clean up water pollution and reduce contamination, the problem lies at the source and cause of pollution. In Indonesia for example, some cities and towns lack basic trash collection infrastructure. As a result, individuals get rid of waste in the surrounding area, degrading the local water quality and sanitation conditions, with the waste eventually making its’ way to the sea.

Indonesia surfing conditions via Huffington Post

With any luck, the media frenzy focused on the water conditions in Rio can be translated into actionable dialogue. Brazil is far from the world’s only country suffering WASH issues, and with climate change exacerbating conditions, afflicted countries will need assistance and an altered strategy to combat unsafe and unsanitary conditions, and the causes encouraging such conditions.

Car-Sharing: Making More Sustainable Cities

By Nicole Graham, Humanitas Global

Car-sharing has surged in popularity within the past decade as an affordable and convenient method of renting a vehicle for a short period of time. Contrary to previous methods employed by companies such as Hertz, Enterprise and Avis, car-sharing tends to cater to those who are living in cities and wish to use a vehicle intermittently for errands, quick trips, or weekend activities.

In an age when Uber and Lyft are now verbs rather than just company names, car-sharing seems like a logical jump. Users are in control of the car instead of at the mercy of another’s driving talents (or lack thereof). Some car-sharing companies require a small membership fee while others require the user to pay only for the amount of time the car is in use. After finishing with the car, there are many convenient pick-up and drop-off locations located around cities, instead of the driver returning the car to one designed location.

While the cars are convenient and low-cost for individuals, the car-sharing companies focus marketing on the environmentally-friendly nature of this means of transportation.. In Paris in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the COP21 agreement, a legally binding agreement to keep the world on track to reduce global warming and protect the planet. A key element of the COP21 agreement was the significant reduction of emissions by the time the Agreement was enacted in 2020.

Last month, UC Berkeley released the first ever North American impact study examining the impact car-sharing companies have on achieving reduced emissions targets. The university’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) conducted an analysis of the effectiveness of car-sharing companies, using car2go, currently the largest car-sharing provider, as their case study.

Researchers examined the proliferation of car2go with 9,500 car2go members in five different cities, Calgary, San Diego, Seattle, Vancouver, and Washington, DC, and came up with the following findings:

• Between two to five percent of car2go users sold their vehicles due to car2go availability throughout the cities;
• Seven to ten percent of the study’s respondents did not acquire a vehicle opting to instead utilize car2go;
• Each individual car2go removes the equivalent of seven to eleven vehicles from city roads;
• One to three private vehicles were sold for every one car2go available within a given city;
• There was a 4 to 18 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the cities included within the population study;
• Estimates suggest car2go prevented 10 to 29 million vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) per year per city.

In total, it is estimated that car2go has removed more than 28,000 cars from the road.. Greenhouse gas emissions were significantly reduced, with 5.5 to 12.7 metric tons of GHG emissions reduced per car2go annually.

The United Nations estimates that 54 percent of the world’s population currently resides in cities, with projections of this number to increase by another 2.5 billion people by 2050. With such a surge projected for urban areas and in light of this report, car-sharing should be utilized and expected to grow as a proven way to navigate the city in a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly way.

Currently car2go operates in 30 different countries in North America, Europe, and China. But car-sharing is not limited to these areas. Locomute cofounders Ntando Kubheka and Tumisang Marope have pioneered Africa’s first car-sharing solution. The result of a project at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Business School, Kubheka and Marope created access to short-term rental cars through a mobile phone app. Users can reserve a car in advance, locate where to pick up and drop off the car, and lock or unlock the vehicle through the app.

Locomute is currently available in three South African cities, with hopes to expand significantly by the end of 2016. The service is the first of its kind in South Africa, catering to the country’s recent economic struggles and the people’s desire to cut living costs while still accessing different parts of the country. The company recently won the Business-Green Economy Initiative award from South Africa’s National Cleaner Production Centre. With projections showing high rates of urbanization in low- and middle-income countries, it is imperative that car-sharing and other environmentally conscious-driven practices are introduced now to pave the way for sustainable cities and populations. These same practices can also help alleviate emissions in developed countries. 

The Convergence of Development and Biodiversity Conservation

By Savanna Henderson, Humanitas Global

In the conclusion of this two-part blog I will examine examples of responses to development and biodiversity conservation.

Current environmental trends showcase the need for immediate action to reverse degradation and damage while simultaneously identifying development solutions that protect the environment. While there is a universal need for sustainable responses to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is no silver bullet solution. Though environmental conservation and sustainability should be inherent in every response to the SDGs, solutions to poverty in a biodiversity hotspot require a much different response than solutions to poverty in an urban environment. Sustainable development requires solutions tailored to local development needs, environment, threats, and existing policies, guidelines, and laws. Below are examples of environmental conservation efforts that complement sustainable development.

Wildlife Corridors

Wildlife corridors are one solution to the impacts of development and urbanization on habitat fragmentation. Basically, a wildlife corridor provides a path of native vegetation between two or more habitats to allow for wildlife to safely travel between the habitats. This is important for migratory animal species, colonization, genetic diversity conservation, and the functioning of ecosystem services. Wildlife corridors can vary in size as seen in the following examples.

Homeowners 75 miles from London have created something of a mini corridor for hedgehogs by cutting holes in the base of their yard fences. Urban and suburban development has forced hedgehogs into human territory where fences prevent travel for food, mating and survival. Holes in the fences allow hedgehogs to carry on with their behaviors with as little disruption as possible.

Expansion of the two-lane Trans-Canada Highway running through the Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada prompted implementation of corridors and safety mechanisms to protect humans, wildlife, and the Park ecosystem. Today, there are six overpasses, 38 underpasses and fencing along the highway that allows grizzly and black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougar, moose, elk, deer, and wolverine to cross safely. A study of bears using the corridor has revealed that they are utilizing the corridor which may restore the previously isolated gene flow between bear populations.  

Flyways are pathways used by migratory birds and insects. Development can destroy nesting grounds, stopover sites for food and rest, and wintering grounds used by bird populations. Protecting and creating habitat along known flyways is crucial to protecting migratory bird species. In Oslo, construction of a ‘bee highway’ aims to give insects, specifically endangered pollinators, food and shelter throughout the city.  

Protected Areas

As the name indicates, protected areas safeguard habitats and ecosystems from degradation and fragmentation.  As defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), these areas are dedicated to the preservation of biological diversity, and natural and cultural resources. They are managed by legal or similarly effective means to ensure conservation. Protected areas are categorized into six types including:

• Nature reserves or wilderness areas;
• National parks;
• Natural monuments;
• Habitat/species management areas;
• Protected landscape/seascapes and
• Managed resource protected areas

Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) are protected areas of habitat set aside for conservation. Often, they are utilized for tourism activities (hunting, photograph, camping, etc.,) to benefit the local community or continued preservation of the park. In Papua New Guinea, WMAs are protected areas of land and water under the Fauna Protection and Control Act. Customary landowners own and manage the land to protect wildlife and its habitat, which can provide a form of income, and support culturally significant and traditional forms of natural resource use.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) focus on oceans and can be practiced in numerous ways. MPAs may be developed and operated by the private sector or a local community, collaborative management systems, government agencies or have international designations.  The Quirimbas National Park in Mozambique includes woodlands, coastal forests, granite inselbergs, mangrove forests, coral reefs and sand flats. Six fish sanctuaries (no-take areas) in the park prohibit all types of fishing, with the protected area growing in size annually. As the fish are protected, the stocks are rehabilitated and eventually spread to unprotected areas, benefitting resident fisherman.

The Way Forward

The examples above are just a few of the many solutions to protecting land and marine habitats and resources with the well-being of society in mind. Of course, there are limitations to the success of these examples. While wildlife corridors show promise in providing safe passage between fragmented habitats, continued habitat loss will make corridors inconsequential.  Animals like the North American pronghorn that travel 150 miles each way during migration, make corridors an unviable solution. Then there are animals such as the endangered Asian elephant (a keystone species). Habitat fragmentation has eliminated or forced traditional migration routes into human-occupied areas leading to conflict and death to both humans and elephants. Providing a corridor to accommodate the size and numbers of elephants using traditional migration routes would require conversion of human habitat and resettlement of often already impoverished people.  

Protected areas, once identified and implemented, provide a safe haven for biodiversity. Unfortunately, animals don’t recognize the commonly invisible barriers of a protected area, and may travel outside the boundaries. Two preserves in India provide protected habitat for roughly 6,300 elephants.  But the 2,200 acres connecting the preserves, frequented by the elephants, are not protected. Several villages in this area agreed to resettle elsewhere, but continued population growth threatens to overtake such vulnerable habitat. In Tanzania, the African Wildlife Foundation resolved such a case by establishing a WMA in an area utilized by wildlife between two national parks

It will take efforts like those noted above, and much more, to achieve the Global Goals and create an enabling and productive environment for future populations.  More research and related endeavors are critical to understanding the trade-offs between development and preservation of biodiversity and to identify steps to ensure that development and biodiversity conservation become convergent goals.  

International Youth Day: Celebrating Young People’s Contributions to the Global Goals

By Nicole Graham, Humanitas Global

The role of the youth is changing rapidly. More so now than ever before, children and teens are seen as change-makers who can positively contribute to improving their environments. The United Nations declared 2011 the International Year of Youth with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sharing, “youth deserve our full commitment – full access to education, adequate healthcare, employment opportunities, financial services and full participation in public life.” With the announcement of the post-2015 agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically call upon youths to aid in implementation and success. Creation of the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth platform has brought together over 5,000 organizations and individuals under the age of thirty to express their voice, contribute actively to the SDGs, and share ideas.

Unfortunately, barriers prohibit youth from participating at multiple levels. Positions of influence are more likely to be employed by adults, resulting in a vicious cycle of youth voices being shut out and participation stymied. Generally, young people are less likely to have experience and knowledge deemed necessary to contribute, and this social marginalization leads to a breakdown in communication between youths and adults. As is seen with adultism, bias is shown towards adults and youths are resultantly discriminated against and excluded.

In 1997, sociologist Roger Hart created the Ladder of Youth Participation, a tool which depicts the degrees of youth participation with an eight-rung ladder. Each rung represents a progression from non-participant youths commonly a result of adultism, to youths that are engaged and considered equal to adults:

1. Manipulation
2. Decoration
3. Tokenism
4. Assigned but informed
5. Consulted and informed
6. Adult-initiated, shared decisions with young people
7. Young people-initiated and directed

In some parts of the world, achieving youth participation is more difficult than ever before. Gangs in Central America and Mexico have grown in power and consistently plague the population, feeding on a youth bulge and the lack of economic opportunities young people have at their disposal. In any country with a youth bulge, such a demographic skew presents  dramatic impacts for economic development. If youths struggle to find a job, they are more likely to form a mass of frustration and feed political instability. This  can be seen on display in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Europe and Central Asia, where youth unemployment rates are generally 20 percent or higher and job satisfaction and job quality are extremely low.

Africa’s youth population has been increasing faster than any other region, equating to roughly 20 percent of the population. This could as act as a liability to development goals throughout the continent, with a large portion of the population acting on feelings of disaffectedness due to unemployment and lack of economic mobility. Or, with proper engagement, this youth bulge could choose to lead the way in social progress, innovation, and inclusive governance such as was seen with youth involvement in the Arab Spring.

Unlike the mindset of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the SDGs are embracing youth as the ideal population to drive forward the post-2015 agenda. This International Youth Day, the UN is calling upon this community to focus its efforts towards the goals of eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable consumption and production. This generation of youths is serving in leadership capacities more than ever before, gravitating up the Ladder of Youth Participation, from manipulation to youth and adult equity. At President Obama’s most recent Young Africa Leaders Initiative (YALI) town hall, he announced a new partnership with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to begin an internship program called “Africa’s Promise”. With 60 percent of Africa’s population below the age of 35, the outgoing president and the MCC hope to have interns supporting large-scale development programs, directly managing, facilitating and contributing to projects involved with WASH, electricity, land rights and education.

Young people will contribute directly to the global goals as critical innovators, creators and communicators. This year’s International Youth Day celebrates this distinction, advocating for youths to claim their voices and participatory roles to partner with their governments towards a better world, instead of fighting against them.

The Contradictions of Human Development and Habitat Loss

By Savanna Henderson, Humanitas Global

In the first half of this two-part blog I will explore the effect of human development on habitat loss and vice versa.

Biodiversity, the variation of life in all forms ranging from genes, to species, to communities, to whole ecosystems, is the backbone of human existence. The provision of breathable air, clean water, medicine, fiber and fuel sources, food, buffers to natural disasters, an equitable climate and aesthetic and spiritual experiences constitute the basis of human well-being.

Within the diversity of ecosystems, any community of living organisms interacting with nonliving elements, are habitats comprised of numerous plant and animal species. These habitats are crucial to genetic, species and community diversity and the supply and capacity of ecosystem services. Wetlands, for example, filter pollutants from water, minimize flood and storm impacts, and provide a home to many plant and animal, including migratory species. A study of a common wetland plant revealed genetically distinct populations within all six surveyed wetlands, demonstrating the value in protecting habitats and ecosystems for species and ecosystem service resilience.

From Greeniacs

Habitat loss, stemming from destruction, fragmentation or degradation, threatens these sanctuaries of diversity and is often the result of human activities. Loss in habitat size, increased isolation of habitats from one another, and increases in negative edge (where one habitat begins and another ends) effects, characterize fragmentation. These elements cause changes to the delicate biological and physical properties of habitats, decrease genetic diversity, introduce pathogens and invasive species, and lead to human-wildlife conflict. A recent study determined that habitat fragmentation reduces biodiversity by 13 to 75 percent and diminishes irreplaceable ecosystem services.  Urban, industrial and agricultural development can lead to habitat fragmentation through deforestation, draining and filling in of wetlands, construction of dams and roads, pollution and more.

Despite advances in providing enough nutritious food, alleviating poverty, identifying and scaling-up the use of clean energy, and improving human health and well-being, it has come at the cost of the environment and biodiversity. Over the last half century, 17 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been lost to human activity such as farming and ranching. Agricultural development and unsustainable logging are the main causes of deforestation. Currently, these threats lead to forest losses equivalent to 48 football fields a minute, further fragmenting and eliminating habitats. Of the remaining forests, 70 percent are within one kilometer of the forest’s edge, vulnerable to edge effects such as changes in moisture, temperature, species composition, predation, and introduction of invasive species and pathogens.

Habitats that provide carbon storage, buffers to natural disasters, biological control, and homes to pollinating insects, birds and bats, have been cleared and fragmented by networks of roads leading to continuously growing urban centers that allow for market access, economic development, and improved access to health services and education. Dams that provide irrigation water, hydropower, a source of drinking water, flood control and make inland navigation possible also cut off fish migration routes, trap nutrient-rich sediment from downstream habitats, host invasive species and cause detrimental changes to the biological, chemical and physical properties of aquatic environments including oceans.

While conservation of biodiversity is included in Sustainable Development Goal’s 14: Life below Water and 15: Life on Land, achievement of many of the other goals is hinged on use of environmental resources. Despite recognition of this in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it is important to note that land and aquatic environments are non-renewable and our population is projected to expand to 8.5 billion by 2030, presenting a challenging contradiction to reach development goals. Today is Earth Overshoot Day, punctuating the moment humanity has consumed all the resources the Earth is capable of regenerating within the year. This ‘event’ arrives earlier and earlier every year. With this in mind, addressing the past and current failures (think industrial agriculture) and shortcomings (think malnutrition and hunger) while striving to accomplish the SDGs, especially the environmental ones, will need creative and innovative solutions from multisectoral collaboration.

Harnessing ICTs for an Integrated Approach to Improve Health Outcomes in Resource-Constrained Settings

By Obaid Khan, Humanitas Global

With a global consensus on the Sustainable Development Goals, there is a renewed focus on ‘Big Data’ to design and implement evidence-based initiatives. In a world with more than 7 billion mobile cellular subscriptions and 3.2 billion internet users around the world, Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) can play an instrumental role in generating data points for cross-sectional, longitudinal studies and much more. The scope of ICTs in helping achieve SDGs is unimaginable. With limitless opportunities associated with communications technology, this blog will restrict focus to employing ICTs to improve health outcomes in resource-constrained settings.

Implementation of ICT-based platforms in low-resource settings presents novel challenges that need cost-effective solutions. Mobile phones are often viewed as useful instruments to improve health outcomes through enhanced accessibility, outreach and efficiency of provided services. Employing cellular phones in the health sector is often categorized under the umbrella of Mobile Health/m-Health. According to one WHO report, the most prevalent use of m-Health is in the categories of health call centers, emergency telephone services and telemedicine globally. The associated initiatives range from screening patients for disaggregated data, monitoring, treatment compliance and surveillance to health education, mobile money, emergency response and feeding real-time data to electronic platforms. There is limited evidence of the impact of ICTs on health outcomes over time due to a lack of longitudinal studies but cross-sectional data reveals improvement in immediate outputs. SMS Reminders have been shown to improve treatment compliance of HIV-infected adults and health workers’ adherence to malaria treatment guidelines in Kenya. HP and mPedigree started an initiative that allows patients to check the authenticity of medicines, a common challenge, with the use of basic cell phones in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. Another example, mTrac, is used in Uganda to track disease outbreaks and keep stock of medicines through a network of community health workers and health facilities. These examples illustrate the effectiveness of ICTs in improving health outcomes within resource-constrained settings. Sustainable change warrants technological initiatives to be coupled with dynamic complementary policies.

There are numerous examples of ICTs being used in the healthcare sector to improve efficiency, outreach and accessibility through m-Health, e-Health and Electronic Platforms. However, one must bear in mind that m-Health and e-Health tools cannot provide standalone sustainable health solutions. A more comprehensive policy framework requires cross-sector collaboration to have a far-reaching impact on the overall well-being of individuals and communities. The essence of SDGs lies in the inter-connectedness of the goals and targets. Aiming for lasting effects on the health of a community necessitates a concerted multi-disciplinary approach.

An unchartered territory in the realm of health-related ICTs is developing a broad-based system of linkage between the financial and health sector. A meaningful collaboration between the financial and health institutions can translate into a tangible solution to address the demand-side budget constraints that prevent vulnerable populations from following through on health care activities and services. The underlying rationale is to incentivize intended health seeking and utilization behavior through conditional cash or credit transfers and ICTs can prove to be a crucial tool in providing an integrated platform to be used by both sectors.   A unified framework that links credit payments to healthy behaviors in low-resource settings can act as a way forward for  improving health outcomes in the long-term through enhancement of capabilities. Tying credit eligibility to better health seeking and providing behaviors through ICTs can be used a social protection scheme. Different tiers of compliance can be linked to different sets of incentives. For example, small cash amounts can be paid to the parents for getting a child immunized for the first time. For timely immunizations, the household becomes eligible for credit. Finally, for immunization completion, the household gets insurance coverage for its basic health needs. ICTs can be used to extract disaggregated data of the households for case detection and notification, monitoring and evaluation, SMS reminders, active surveillance for outbreaks, mobile money for cash transfers and pay-for-performance and credit ratings based on compliance level.

Multi-pronged approaches, that foster collaborative efforts across sectors, may be the active ingredient in achieving the SDGs by 2030. Health of an individual is determined by various micro and macro level factors such as the socio-economic status, educational level, health systems, health coverage, inter-institutional linkages and macro-economic policies of the government. ICTs should not be viewed only as a tool for facilitating procedures, but a portal which provides an avenue for meaningful partnerships that translate into sustainable developmental solutions.