Humanitas Global Development Blog

Vulnerability of the World’s Poor is Magnified by Climate Change: The Time to Act is Now

By Tatiana LeGrand, Humanitas Global

2015 was declared the hottest year on record. Ethiopian farmers continue to lose livestock, often their primary source of income, to drought and extreme heat. Climate change impacts on crop yields can occur through changes in weather patterns, natural disasters and relocation of agricultural pests. If a natural disaster strikes unexpectedly, the poor are particularly exposed to losses of food and livestock along with their financial assets in the absence of saving mechanisms and social safety nets. In the aftermath, these communities become more vulnerable to diseases due to shortages in clean water supply and poor or no sanitation at all. With numerous research findings showing how bad climate change effects can be for the environment, human health and agricultural production, it is important to talk about poverty in these realms. 

Recently published by the World Bank, the book Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty highlights that 100 million people could fall back into poverty by 2030. In October 2015, the World Bank updated the poverty line to USD 1.90 per day replacing the previous line of USD 1.25. This decision was made to reflect the changes in the cost of living across the world. Despite the changes in the cost of living, however, over 700 million remained in extreme poverty in 2015. Those communities are particularly exposed to climate-related shocks. Therefore, it is crucial to converge poverty reduction and climate resilience building efforts.

©GMB Akash/UNDP Bangladesh

While poverty and climate change are included in the Sustainable Development Goals, it’s important to understand how the two influence one another to develop stronger responses and action for eradicating poverty and building resilience to climate change. Poor communities are often vulnerable to climate change effects as they are more dependent on the surrounding environment and natural resources as a source of income and livelihood. Extreme drought events, increased flooding and changes in weather patterns can have immediate and devastating effects on such communities. Regions experiencing some of the most adverse consequences of climate change include South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and Pacific. These same regions are home to large numbers of impoverished people.

Shock waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, a report by the World Bank

The key finding of the recent World Bank report is that eradicating poverty won’t be feasible if addressed outside of the climate change realm. According to the report, specific actions are needed to address poverty eradication under climate change conditions. Some of the actions needed include:

• Creating social nets and ensuring that they are robust
• Improving health systems
• Introducing immediate emissions-reduction policies
• Introducing targeted adaptation interventions
• Research and development on health issues, eradication and control efforts targeted at diseases like malaria
• Improving land-use regulations and creating better infrastructure

What else can be done to eradicate poverty? Living just above the poverty line is clearly not a sufficient buffer to poverty, especially with looming climate-related shocks.  But how do we move forward to achieve the SDGs in the realm of climate change?

As much as it is about policy responses, climate-smart technologies and interventions, it is also about community action support and education.  In a way, it is about building resilience in communities.

Learning how to use information

Growing technology use in many developing countries such as cell phones, often used as tools for cash transfers and weather information source, should be utilized to provide context-specific information that can help communities build resilience. Supporting farmers to interpret and implement information they receive via phones is feasible and should be scaled up.

© David Mercado, Reuters

The poor are frequently guardians of diversity, through production of indigenous crops and raising traditional livestock breeds. Building resilience to climate change in poor communities often means utilizing resources that they already have and empowering them through education on sustainable utilization and management.

Building resilience among women, youth and communities

The Greenbelt Movement in Kenya, an environmental organization that empowers communities to conserve the environment while improving livelihoods,owes its success to women. Women have been the primary target group tasked with improving the local environment and community well being through tree-planting.  Women all over the globe have a breadth of responsibilities; making decisions about the food the family will eat, preparing food, collecting fuel and water, safeguarding the health of the children, farming or gardening. Unfortunately, women are also often the first to suffer the consequences of climate change. As women play such a large role in family and community well being, along with being members of both, they should be included more in community development processes. Equity among gender roles is crucial for ending poverty and adapting to climate change! Youth are also a critical group to empower for overcoming and breaking the cycle of poverty and building sustainable resilience to climate change. Youth are quick to learn and can become leaders in initializing actions to fight climate change and poverty and to educate others.

Ending poverty and adapting to climate change includes many challenges and will require complex solutions and sustainable use of available resources. Integrated responses from all levels matter: from community development at the local level to national and international policies and actions. Regardless of the field of work, it is collaboration and integrated action that matter when making sustainable advances to end poverty and combat climate change.

 

World Wildlife Day: is one day enough for celebration?

By Tatiana LeGrand, Humanitas Global

March 3^rd is World Wildlife Day. Established three years ago, this year the highlight is on our involvement clearly demonstrated in theme “The future of wildlife is in our hands”. It is indeed about a collective effort. It isn’t only governments, enforcement officers, and park rangers that need to scale up efforts to protect wildlife. It also demands citizen’s involvement. So, let’s celebrate and raise awareness about the importance of the world’s wildlife!

Wildlife’s countless values

Being able to watch wildlife in its natural habitat is one of those invaluable experiences that shape our perception of nature. We don’t know and probably will never be fully aware of the role that wild species play in providing important ecosystem services. Recognizing the dimensions of value wildlife and natural environments represent, natural parks, biosphere reserves and other protected areas have been created to safeguard them. But we still live in a world where human actions infringe upon and continue to threaten wildlife and their environments. Consider this evidence of human impact on wildlife: according to the Living Planet report by the World Wildlife Fund, population sizes of vertebrate species – mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish—have declined by 52 percent over the last 40 years! New research evidence shows that East and West Africa could lose up to 50% their lions by 2035.

A multitude of human-induced challenges

As alarming as it might sound, endangering or causing the extinction of wildlife species can provide a paycheck. Think illegally imported ivory jewelry and other animal parts used for medicinal purposes, otherwise known as wildlife smuggling. According to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, this industry is worth up to $2 billion a year.  But we can still act: report such sales if observed or suspected and refrain from buying such products, eliminating demand. Ivory trade has caused the endangerment of elephants and while some success has been reached though abandoning the use of ivory for piano keys, for instance, it’s still a long road to reducing the number of animals killed. A recent study suggested that 75% of elephant populations in Africa are shrinking due to poaching. Bushmeat hunting is also still driving wildlife decline (including fish supplies), in West Africa for instance, and in areas where people depend on local wildlife for food security. In response, scientists are emphasizing the urgent need for developing protein alternatives to bushmeat and improving fisheries management. There are also individuals who trophy hunt, which can negatively impact species survival. Everyone knows the story of Cecil the lion! 

Several other human-induced issues emerged rather recently and include, for instance, massive development projects that aim at enlarging road networks in Africa that will likely diminish the pristine wilderness areas and affect migration routes used by wildlife. Or antimicrobial resistance found in wildlife species. And of course, let’s not forget about pollution, or exploitation of natural resources that cause habitat loss for many wild species. All that is being magnified by climate change making wildlife conservation a real challenge.

Conservation as a process

Wildlife conservation is a tricky task. It is not only about the protection of wild plant and animal species but also their habitats. It is a process of improving awareness today for future generations to enjoy, respect and acknowledge the significant role provided by the wildlife we know. While World Wildlife Day is a day to celebrate and a call to action, wildlife conservation and attention to the issues shouldn’t be confined to a single day.

The importance of biodiversity is included in several of the Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted in 2015. Such as Goal 15, which is dedicated to land biodiversity and emphasizes the importance of protection, restoration and promotion of the sustainable use of ecosystems and halting biodiversity loss.

So, let’s celebrate and raise the awareness of the world’s wildlife and let it not fade away beyond just one day.

Room and Need for Action

There is a lot to be done… From cooperation among farmers and conservation specialists on creating wildlife corridors and protecting regions of rich biodiversity, like in the Congo Basin where 39 percent of the region is threatened by severe hunting pressure.

Last but not least, let’s go back to public involvement in the wildlife conservation dialogue. However, is that a dialogue? Or is raising awareness a one-sided issue that doesn’t receive a response most of the time? There should be a focus on finding ways to contribute to wildlife conservation in our day-to-day lives, financially support sustainable management, and improve governance of natural resources.

And what we can do in the meantime, is at least start small! Leave some fallen leaves in the garden to create a habitat for lizards and other native creatures. In the end, some of them are less known and beautiful than others (when’s the last time you saw a Chinese Giant Salamander stuffed animal?), but they still deserve and require protection. But, ultimately, acting and raising awareness should also be about sharing what you know about and your love of wildlife. After all, their future is in our hands!

The Case for Commodifying Nature: Risks, Rewards and Sustainability.

By Savanna Henderson, Humanitas Global 

When attempting to compromise between global priorities like slowing the loss of nature and biodiversity and addressing challenges like fostering the development of human populations while reducing poverty and malnourishment, the strategy of using pro-poor conservation can be alluring. Often, methods of addressing these issues and priorities are based upon a commodification of nature that will contribute to providing valued environmental and socioeconomic benefits to all parties involved (including the global community).  While putting a dollar figure on nature would seem to support an increased valuing of and conservation of the natural world, it can present complications that actually serve to work against the protection of the environment.

An example of one of those complications lies with ecotourism. Ecotourism is a form of tourism channeled specifically towards natural environments with an emphasis on environmental sustainability -- often supporting conservation efforts and local economic and human development. The Tanzanian government created Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) in 1998 for conservation purposes. Included in the creation of the WMAs  was a legal mechanism that allowed rural communities and private land holders to manage wildlife on the WMAs for their own economic benefit.  Wildlife tourism became a source of revenue --which supported conservation of the animals and their habitats -- within the WMAs that endorsed wildlife as a cash asset. In an attempt to increase the revenue derived from ecotourism within the WMAs, some participating communities began developing additional and more elaborate tourism camps with one even discussing construction of an airport to support more tourism. While the local’s interests and intentions started with conservation, development actions like these reflect a quantifiable and detrimental shift away from conservation and towards capital accumulation.

However, not all ecotourism is detrimental to conservation. There are examples of ecotourism benefiting both the local people and the environment. The difficulty lies in maintaining the balance between authentic conservation and income opportunities that support human development. Idealy, the value of nature would be derived from nature itself, with all its variety and provisions, rather than from specific aspects of it which are easily monetizable in the short term.

Recently, a paper (summarized here) was published exhibiting a newly developed formula for computing the price of nature or, natural capital.  The beauty of this formula is that it will allow for policymakers to compare the value of natural capital against the value of traditional forms of capital and therefore make more supportive policies for nature. It has long been a struggle to compare the value of nature, which include ecosystem services provided such as pollination, water filtration or carbon sequestration, because it varies widely across the globe and can be utilized in different ways that impact its value. For instance, soil provides a variety of ecosystem services that extend beyond the simple production of food. Soil acts as a storehouse for carbon, provides flood control, and helps in recycling both water and waste. Putting a price on just a single service doesn't adequately represent the capital soil embodies. By acknowledging that soil, perhaps the most easily ignored aspect of the natural world, is valuable natural capital, more sustainable use policies can be put in place.

Ultimately, this formula is part of a holistic framework that will allow for policy makers to make the most sustainable decisions about conservation. While sustainability is well understood and defined, it becomes difficult to pinpoint when it interacts with interrelated disciplines. It becomes nearly impossible then, to measure sustainability when there isn’t a universal commonality to use for appraisal. Tools such as the formula mentioned above show extreme potential for actually measuring sustainability through commodifying nature and therefore, have the potential to lead to improved environmental conservation and hopefully to improvements in human development.

 

Rewrite the Equation: Closing the Global Gender Gap in Math and Science

By Tracy Pannozzo, Humanitas Global    

We attract whatever we desire or expect, so says the law of attraction.

Based on that, what if businesses and countries around the world desired, even expected the women and girls in their communities to learn and pursue math and science?  I believe the world would experience a knowledge explosion, a global Renaissance that would strengthen economies, fuel invention and solve many of the social ills of our time.

Hunger and malnutrition could be eradicated, infectious disease halted in its tracks, and social and economic inequality undone because more people around the world would be educated in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and be able to use that knowledge to address these issues.

Sound far-fetched? Perhaps to some, but United Nation’s Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and the heads of 169 UN Member States believe we have what it takes to meet these and the other goals in the Sustainable Development Agenda by 2030.

To do this, however, the female half of the world’s population must be allowed access to education (in places where they are not) and encouraged to develop fluency in STEM subjects.

It isn’t a matter of whether or not she is capable - She CAN do it. A worldwide study by the American Psychological Association found few gender differences in math abilities among boys and girls. The study also found that girls will perform at the same level as boys in math when they have the right education tools and visible female role models. This also makes a compelling case for cultivating STEM educators who are willing and able to instruct and inspire female students.

The world needs women and girls to be attracted to careers in math, science and technology. It is the responsibility of men and women already working in these fields to accept new female recruits and provide an encouraging environment in which they can learn and grow. If we don’t, it will hurt us all.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) focused on the issue of gender gaps in STEM jobs both at the 2016 annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland and in its Future of Jobs report. According to the WEF, “leaders must address the chronic problem of getting more women into STEM—science, technology, engineering, mathematics—professions.”

It will take a global effort to attract women and girls from every nation to math and science fields and convince them to stay.  Parents and leaders from community, government and industry all play a critical role in providing access and encouragement. Many have heeded the call, and some for quite a while now.

Last December the United Nations adopted a resolution proclaiming February 11 the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. To commemorate the first observance, a high-level forum takes place today at UN Headquarters.

On the first-ever International Day of Women and Girls in Science, let’s salute some of the many STEM initiatives inspiring and educating women and girls around the globe.

• Australia: Science in Australia Gender Equity, Women in Science AUSTRALIA
• Brazil: Ciência sem Fronteiras (Brazil Scientific Mobility Program)
• Canada: Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology,
• hEr VOLUTION, Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology
• Europe: TechSisters, European Centre for Women and Technology
• Estonia: Digigirls,
• Ghana: Tech Needs Girls
• India: Indian Girls Code
• Finland: Rails Girls
• Malaysia: National Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Malaysia
• Singapore: Destination Imagination
• United Arab Emirates: The second annual Dubai All–Women Hackathon
• United Kingdom: WISE
• United States: 1000 Girls — 1000 Futures, org, Million Women Mentors, The Scientista Foundation, 
• Worldwide: Organization for Women in Science in the Developing World, Girls in Tech, Little Miss Geek, Technovation

Finally, a challenge.  Rewrite the equation.  Make it okay for women and girls to learn and get “geeky” smart. Educate them. Mentor them. Fund them. Hire them. Close the global gender gap in math and science. Then together, we can transform the world we share.

 

Syria’s Lost Decade

By Erika Hernandez, Humanitas Global

The consequences of Syria’s war are disastrous, for which Western countries are not doing enough. Besieged places like Madaya are facing food blockades by the Syrian government and Hezbollah fighters as the town supports the opposition. According to Médecins Sans Frontiers, 23 people have starved to death since December 1 of last year and 250,000 are suffering severe levels of malnutrition. In an article today, the Washington Post interviewed a woman saying that her four children have not had milk nor food for seven months. The last food aid shipment that the town received dated back from October 18 of last year, and, since then, the town has not received any additional aid due to the siege. While estimates on the number of malnourished people and starvation-related deaths in Syria may vary among organizations and news media outlets, the development community needs to take urgent action. Not escalating humanitarian aid would essentially mean that we are withdrawing from our commitment of ensuring universal rights to the people of Syria. Moreover, it would signal that the development community remains interested working with countries capable of paying international loans from multilateral organizations, in exchange of 15-minutes of fame.

Just today, it was revealed that the United Nations managed to negotiate with the Syrian government the transportation of 50 vehicles carrying food and medical supplies to Madaya, whose expected arrival is the next few days. People in the town are looking forward to the arrival of this shipment as their main staples has been soup with grass and household pets. However, with the winter season, no leaves nor grass are left as the last food resources. To make things worse, Russian intervention has also conducted attacks against civilians, not to mention the unwillingness to negotiate with Bashar al-Assad’s regime. For now, this food assistance will serve to feed 400,000 people for only a month.

Starving child in Madaya waiting for food supplies. Source: News Sources.

It is surprising that we are facing a potential case of famine at the midst of the 21^st Century. Not only is disappointing the lack of willingness to negotiate among the different disputing factions and that the international community did not develop a timely intervention to halt the genocidal activities of the Syrian government.* What is more disappointing is that the countries that decided to intervene did so without a comprehensive strategy considering that the Syrian government would probably recur to extreme measures such as besieging opposition towns. History tells us that starvation/famine has been an effective instrument to crush dissent, as well as a byproduct of war and environmental disasters. The Great Chinese Famine of 1958-1962 strikes out for having left 43 million deaths caused by a failed agricultural policy by the Communist government. During 1932-1933, under Stalin’s leadership, peasant farms and livestock were destroyed and taken from them in order to implement the communist collectivization policy. The mass starvation and killings reached 10 million deaths. While protracted famine episodes could be over (it is unknown whether starvation has taken place in other Syrian towns and for how long), malnutrition is still common worldwide. According to the World Food Program, some 795 million of people do not have the enough food intake necessary to live a healthy life.

Some of the effects of malnutrition are irreversible. Symptoms at the final stage cannot be reversed and include reduced cognitive functioning and body damage. The World Bank found that poor cognitive skills in early childhood are highly correlated with lower living standards and the inability to attain higher incomes in adulthood. Physical damage includes teeth decay, bone weakening, hair loss, among others. Such permanent damage is and will continue to negatively impact social, economic and political policies in Syria in the next years. An unfortunate result is that this decade has become a “lost decade” for Syria. Recovery will take several years only if effective development assistance actions are taken by the international community in the near future. Good intentions need to be accompanied by programs that address long-term behavioral change of the Syrian society and build infrastructure. There is also a pressing need to establish comprehensive health and nutrition programs that ensure food access and nutrition security, as well as policies that address widespread stunting. The time is now.

TPP and the Displacement of Small Farmers

 

By Erika Hernandez, Humanitas Global

 

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)* agreement is likely to benefit countries with a highly automatized agricultural sector as well as the wealthy in developing countries. Countries with the largest share of agricultural area and automatized agricultural systems like the United States and Australia will seize the demand of agricultural products from developing countries. While TPP will benefit most income strata, it will negatively affect the most vulnerable and poor: small farmers in Latin America, in the Southeast Asia and Pacific. According to the FAO, Southeast Asian countries have a solid population of small farmers and Latin American countries still have an important rural population. Today, TPP stands for approval in the congresses or parliaments of the signatory countries. Although the agreement promises to better the livelihoods of those population groups capable of buying foreign products, it will stifle the production of small farmers.

Neoliberals often regard international trade as a way of improving living standards of trade participants. Production theory states that one of the benefits is reduced production time as well as lower costs, which increases people’s opportunities for additional spare time. Accordingly, these transactions naturally produce winners and losers, which, in this case, threaten the existence of small and medium farmers in developing countries. While international trade theory sees this cycle as natural, it misses to identify its human aspect: what happens when labor is displaced? Services trade or labor provisions in most agreements do not consider offering training to displaced workers. (One exception is Australia which grants training to its Small and Medium enterprises on how to approach free trade agreements.) This is a highly relevant aspect that trade agreements overlook and demands urgent consideration given the significant displacement that it produces. From 1990 to 2000, Mexican immigration population in the US more than doubled and surpassed average immigration levels (from 4.3 million to up to 9.2 million).

 

Mexican immigrants harvesting organic kale in Wellington, Colorado, October 2011. Credit: John Moore.

 

Trade agreements need to be accompanied by other policy instruments that ensure skills of small farmers are optimally used in places that demand their work. Today, there is a growing niche in countries like the United States and Mexico asking for organic and fair-trade produce. Because current economic theory does not look at these loopholes, national and local policymakers need to minimize the negative social effects of these agreements. One example is my home town, Cholula, a small city in Mexico that has a considerable number of small farmers although their number has been largely reduced throughout the years. Cholula’s local market has a huge variety of organic produce that can be sold in specialized markets and compete with organic foreign produce. In order to do so, a marketing campaign would be necessary to shift consumers’ preferences for local produce. In the end, foreign and local organic produce is all the same.

For some, TPP will become the new NAFTA (North-America Free Trade Agreement). Trade tariffs from the 12 countries under the agreement are now to be reduced. Some tariffs will be immediately liberalized – like soybeans in Japan, others will be gradually phased out – like in Vietnam, while other countries will reduce quotas – wheat in the case of Japan. The TPP will also include investor-state provisions that will allow companies to contest government decisions. While this type of dispute resolution mechanism aims to adopt inclusive policies, large companies able to pay legal and lobbying-related fees, will be the only organizations capable of disputing government decisions. Several small farmers are the most likely losers which, if united, could create a strong coalition that could dispute decisions. However, the spread and lack for coordination of these groups across nations, makes it unlikely to create cross-border coalitions but not impossible.

Although the effects of TPP are not yet clear, NAFTA offers some insights of the possible outcomes. One NAFTA outcome has been labor displacement. It inadvertently forced Mexican small farmers out of business. While some farmers were able to seize jobs in the manufacturing sector, others saw themselves forced into unemployment. This forced farmers and others to join the US agricultural market, causing illegal immigration to scale during the 90s. On the positive side, not only did Mexico’s middle class began to expand, but Mexicans were also happy to buy American products at affordable prices. NAFTA, overall, has been a beneficial agreement for the middle and upper classes of the trade partners. Nevertheless, the price that Mexico paid was out of touch with the needs of the farmers and the poor. A similar and more increased consequence is likely with the entry into force of the TPP: not only will Mexican farmers continue to migrate to the US and Canada, but an increased labor displacement to Australia from other Asian countries is set to happen. Additionally, countries like Mexico and Chile are likely to see greater number of immigrants from both Central and South America. While it may be true that international trade produces winners and losers, is this the kind of economic interactions that we wish to continue fostering? Economic theory and practice requires integrating win-win solutions. In the long-run, social responsibility not only keeps companies but also governments afloat.

Peace and Justice: SDG 16 a Sign of Progress for Global Development

By Abby Davidson, Humanitas Global

The recent adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was a sign of a progress in global development efforts.   The predecessor to the SDGs, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were seen as groundbreaking in forming global consensus and participation but failed to deliver in many regards.   

A major component missing in the MDGs was specific language about peacebuilding.  Despite being ignored in the goals, conflict has clearly been an impediment to sustainable development in the past 15 years.  For example, MDG 2 was to achieve universal primary education, yet in 2011 the proportion of children who left primary school in conflict-affected countries reached 50 percent, or approximately 28.5 million children. 

In response to these challenges, the SDGs include peace and inclusion both as a goal and in the preamble. SDG 16 reads “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”.  Targets under this goal call for reductions in violence, corruption, and illicit arms flows as well as increases in access to information, non-discriminatory laws, and national capacity to combat terrorism and crime.

© UN/Mark Garter

Yesterday, the Conflict Prevention and Resolution Forum hosted a panel discussion titled The Future of Goal 16: Peace and Inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals.  The event provided a platform for discussion about SDG 16, how it was adopted, and its implications for the future.  Some key points included:

SDG 16 Calls for Global, not Just Local, Change

The global development world is ever-transitioning out of the “West versus East” mindset and into one where all participate in the discussion, form policy, and track progress.  While the MDGs were rooted in the traditional “aid” system, the SDGs reflect a more inclusive process.  This evolution of thought is evident in SDG target 16.8: “Broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance”.

Developed Countries are not exempt from Peacebuilding

SDG 16 should not be confined to “conflict” or “unstable” countries, as injustice and corruption are issues in developed countries alike. The US and other high-income countries are developing within the paradigms of equality and security, and inclusive justice is a key to a stable future for any society.

Indicators Matter

The SDGs were more political than technical in their formation, and the more scientific aspects must now be mapped to ensure consensus on accomplishable, measurable indicators.  The conversation is ongoing, and the process can be tracked here.  Further, the question will not be solely concerned with what the indicators will be, but also who will track them.  The current plan is for government institutions to track progress, but this is troublesome for countries which already struggle to compile quality data due to technological, financial, and political constraints.

Participation Will Determine the Way Forward

Setting a goal and determining indicators marks the start and the finish lines, but who will run the race?  While militarized, forceful solutions may be the go-to route for the short term, long term peace can only be secured in identifying root causes of unrest.  Civil society, governments, international agencies, and particularly citizens all have roles to play in tackling the various targets of SDG 16.

Violence, corruption, and injustice threaten the most vulnerable in a society, and these issues are faced by countries on all stages of the development continuum.   Including peace and inclusion in the SDGs is a signal to the global actors that peace, equity, and justice must be integrated into all development interventions. 

Panelists from the event included:

 

Cynthia Clapp-Wincek

Independent Consultant

Andrew Tomlinson
Director, Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO)

Lynn Wagner
Senior manager of Knowledge Management Projects, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

Liz Hume – Moderator
Senior Director for Programs and Strategy, Alliance for Peacebuilding

World Aids Day: Keeping HIV/AIDS on the Global Agenda

By Abby Davidson, Humanitas Global

The world comes together on the first of December each year to recognize World Aids Day, a date set aside to recognize those who suffer from HIV/AIDS and to build momentum around awareness on its prevention and treatment.  

 Since the outbreak of the disease in the 1980s, there has been a whirlwind of activity fighting HIV/AIDS and its effects. The development of treatments which help carriers live longer and happier lives and reduce the risk of transmission, education about how to prevent the spread of the disease, and advocacy for treating carriers with dignity and respect by reducing misconceptions and fears are just a few examples of the noteworthy progress that has been made to put HIV/AIDS on the global agenda.  

 

Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO

And these across-the-board efforts have shown to be effective.  Since the year 2000, new HIV infections have been reduced by 35% and AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 24%.  But despite this progress, the toll the disease continues to take on humanity is staggering, and the heaviest burden is placed on the world’s poor.  37 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and more than 95% of the infections are in developing countries, where health systems are already struggling to meet needs amongst a number of diseases, poor infrastructure, and low funding.  And the effects of the disease are more than a health sector challenge – damage to social morale, human capital, family structure, and many other factors pose a challenge to community and economic development.

 The world is ready to see HIV/AIDS come to an end for good. The recently adopted United Nations Sustainable Development Goals include a target to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, and the UN has developed a Fast Track Approach to ensure rapid progress over the next five years by placing an emphasis on front-load investments, local leadership, critical partnerships, results-driven approaches, and several other focus areas.

A Catalyst of Character: The Role of Local Leadership in War-Torn Community Development

Guest Post by Charles Davidson, Founder and Director of ForgottenSong and PhD Student at The School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University

It is generally understood in the development community that there is a difference between an approach of “relief” and the mindset of empowerment, the former employed during times of great and immediate distress and the latter to sustainably break cycles of poverty.  Issues often arise when systems of relief are employed but not followed by appropriate development-focused transition, causing a long-term dependence on aid.  In many situations, cycles of poverty are often perpetuated not by those who are impoverished but rather by those who are “helping”. 

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world’s war-torn countries. While there is, of course, a desperate need at times for large-scale and immediate relief, we must consider that the transformation from relief to development could be achieved much sooner than what has been previously seen. 

My argument is that one of the keys to sustainable economic development in war-torn communities is local leadership and vision.  The development world in general agrees that poverty is not alleviated unless those trapped in its cycles participate in their own empowerment.  Regardless of the strategies involved, it is the participation in the planning, execution and reproduction of the effort that empowers the individual to take hold of his or her own destiny.  It is then that resiliency is instilled, self-image is transformed, and those who are empowered become the agents of future empowerment. 

Micro-finance meeting of a community association of FVS, a partner group of ForgottenSong in Burundi.

But individuals in war-torn countries are oftentimes not trusted or are simply ignored in the development process, reinforced by the intimidating stories which plague the identities of the world’s war-torn countries.  Only the worst events make the news and are absorbed by the outside world, and after a time, the violent images become the defining story of an entire country.  Iraq is a car bomb, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a teenager with an AK-47, and Colombia is a kidnapping victim.  However, for those of us who have traveled to these locations, I would venture to say that we find quite the opposite.  Humanity and its creative capacity are alive and well, and oftentimes ingenuity and community are heightened from struggle.  Ideas for a brighter tomorrow abound, solidarity is sought by the majority, and the future economic realities do not have to be bleak. 

Over the past 10 years I have engrained myself in the community of people doing “good” in war-torn countries, and along the way I have discovered very little being done with sustainability in mind.   In 2009 I started an organization called ForgottenSong with the mission to start native-led, self-sustainable, and reproducible businesses to help facilitate economic rehabilitation in current and post-conflict countries.  Our vision is to empower the seeds of success that are already in existence in-country, seeking to be a catalyst of existing aspirations rather than to transplant our own vision and plans.  As a result, we feel that we are privileged enough to work among people who exhibit the best in what humanity has to offer.  The resiliency and courage needed to rise to the top in a mid and post-war society is demonstrated by the future leaders of a post-war community. 

I’ll paint this picture by telling a story of Thierry, a former child soldier from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country which has suffered years of civil war and rebel uprisings, resulting in up to six million deaths.  Thierry, at the age of 17, started AJDC (French for “Youth Association for Community Development”) which advocates against the recruitment of child soldiers and provides vocational training to those who have left the armed groups.  As a former child soldier, Thierry has direct access to the areas controlled by militias and, due to his character and peace-focused leadership, has created a space where these militias come together along with the national army and police forces to learn why children and youth do not belong in armed groups. 

AJDC advocacy against child and youth recruitment (photo credit: AJDC).

In many of our Sub-Saharan Africa projects, we work with pre-existing projects to avoid reliance on outside and oftentimes unstable sources of funding.  Upon connecting with AJDC, rather than coming up with a new project or idea to help child soldiers in this region, we have decided to stand behind Thierry and ask how we can make his pre-existing work more financially sustainable, which AJDC and ForgottenSong together determined could best be done with small goat farms which provide a source of protein as well as vocational training for rehabilitating youth and a sustainable source of funding for the organization itself.

Charles meeting with members of the Mai Mai militias, national army, and the national police in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as they learn more about the necessity to release children from armed groups.

There are multiple methods of development, and that variety of perspective is needed for growth and improvement in approach.  But let us not forget to keep the future in mind by actively seeking and celebrating local leaders who already have the vision, ingenuity, and bravery to form new paths for their communities.  War-torn countries are not hopeless, nor are they void of local leadership, and the international development field should focus our attention on acknowledging, supporting, and investing in war-torn countries.    

Diabetes in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: How Rapid Urbanization is Impacting a "First-World" Disease

By Savanna Henderson, Humanitas Global

As the growing population concentrates itself in urban areas, governments find themselves unable to keep up with the pace, failing to provide necessary infrastructure. As a result, one in three urban inhabitants lives in slums or informal settlements. The United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) defines a slum household as “a group of individuals living under the same roof lacking one of more of the following conditions:

1. Access to improved water
2. Access to improved sanitation facilities
3. Sufficient living area – not overcrowded
4. Structural quality/durability of dwellings
5. Security of tenure

Slum © UN

In addition, urban residents, especially those in slums, are faced with issues related to food insecurity, provision of health care services, infectious and non-infectious diseases and poverty. Urban slums often suffer from a lack of health care services. As noted above, governments find themselves unable to match population boosts with an equitable distribution of health facilities and supportive infrastructure. This is especially daunting in countries, often the low- and middle-income ones, where healthcare infrastructure is already weak. In addition to the struggle for governments to provide accessible health facilities is the global shortage of health care workers. A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the world will be missing 12.9 million health care workers by 2035. As the world loses health care workers, its’ urban populations are mushrooming and facing even more health risks that will go undiagnosed and untreated.

Urban Health Camp © The Hindu

Urban areas are more reliant on imported food than rural areas and therefore are more susceptible to shocks in international food prices. High food prices greatly impact dietary diversity and studies  (Download Afsun-1-pdf) in urban Zimbabwe have seen the proportion of urban households with adequate dietary diversity shrink from 87% to 59%. Those studies have also discovered increases in consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods, like potato chips and other fried foods. This change in diet, combined with loss in physical activity as rural residents adjust to the more sedentary lifestyle of urban living, can impact the health of urban slum dwellers.

It is important to keep these urban populations in mind as we approach World Diabetes Day this November 14. Of the 387 million people living with diabetes, 77% live in low- and middle-income countries; the same countries where explosive urban growth is most pronounced. Cities Changing Diabetes writes that nearly two thirds of those living with diabetes reside in cities.  

Diabetes Map © The Diabetes Atlas International Diabetes Federation

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is the most severe form of the disease. Individuals suffering from type 1 rely entirely upon insulin injections to prevent severe damage to their eyes, kidneys, nerves and the heart. Untreated type 1 diabetes can also lead to coma and death. In type 1, the body’s immune system attacks its own pancreas, specifically targeting and destroying the insulin-producing cells found there. These cells are responsible for sensing glucose in the blood. They then release insulin to help convert glucose into energy and normalize blood sugar levels. Without these cells producing insulin, glucose builds up in the blood and isn’t converted to energy. The resulting build-up of glucose in the blood stream, called “Hyperglycemia”, can lead to the potentially severe physical damages that are mentioned above.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes, though the more severe form of the disease, is less prevalent than type 2. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90% of all diabetes cases. In type 2, the body is unable to produce or use insulin efficiently. As in type 1 diabetes, the exact cause is unknown. However, risk factors known to correlate with type 2 diabetes include:

• Obesity
• Poor diet
• Physical inactivity
• Older age
• Family history of diabetes
• Ethnicity
• Gestational diabetes

Unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 sufferers can manage their diabetes with diet and exercise or through taking an oral medication. However, if those methods fail, they will have to use insulin injections to control blood glucose levels.

Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes appears during pregnancy and can lead to health risks for both mother and child. The cause of this form of diabetes is thought to be related to the pregnancy; hormones produced by the placenta can cause insulin resistance. If blood glucose levels aren’t adequately managed, it can lead to macrosomia or, a bigger than normal baby. Built up glucose travels through the placenta to the baby where the baby’s pancreas produces insulin to convert the glucose into energy, causing extreme weight gain.  In many cases, the baby is large enough that it is necessary to perform a caesarean.  Like type 1, gestational diabetes can be controlled with diet and exercise. Oral medication and insulin injections could be needed if diet and exercise fails though.

Challenges

The materials needed to control and treat diabetes can be prohibitively priced in any context, but are often so in developing countries. Blood glucose test strips, meters, oral medication, syringes and insulin can be too expensive for many individuals and families to take on. Novo Nordisk found that the life expectancy for a child just diagnosed with type 1 diabetes can be reduced to less than a year in parts of the developing world. Apply diagnosis of the disease and these costs to an urban slum and it’s hard to imagine a picturesque outcome.

All types of diabetes pose an enhanced risk to urban slum dwellers. Pregnant women with gestational diabetes face increased risk during birth, which is elevated if they cannot give birth with a skilled health worker or in a health facility. Many cases of type 2 diabetes go undiagnosed, with some victims living for years unaware they have the disease. Because the effects of diabetes are insidious and can be misinterpreted or hidden, individuals could potentially never know of their diagnosis if they have no access to health care services. Those who are living with diabetes could face more difficulty in receiving health care, education and treatment. Trying to control type 2 and gestational diabetes in a slum could prove impossible, with little to no access to a variety of healthy foods and safe places to exercise.

World Diabetes Day

This World Diabetes Day, be sure to get involved and advocate for diabetes to be made a priority on health and development agendas. Diabetes is no longer confined to the borders of wealthy and developed nations.  Attention needs to be paid to those most vulnerable populations who lack access to health services, struggle with food security and live in poverty. Learn more about diabetes from the International Diabetes Federation.