Email this page to a friend!

Notice (8): Undefined index:  url [APP/views/blogs/index.ctp, line 43]

Isle of Man funds polio eradication
 

World-changing, if I’m honest, is something that I have always aspired to, but thought was outside the realms of possibility for me as an individual. After all, I am only one of 85,000 people who live on an island in the middle of the Irish Sea. I have done some things such as sponsor a child, sign a petition and live of £1 a day for five days for charity, but could I actually change the world?

However, as a Global Poverty Ambassador with the Global Poverty Project I have seen the truth in the statement from anthropologist Margaret Mead ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’ I have been empowered to understand that grassroots activism is a key component in seeing the world change, in fact, without it world-changing wouldn’t be possible.

As Global Poverty Ambassador on the Isle of Man in 2012 I was not only able to appreciate the great work of individuals and government that had already taken place, but also act as a catalyst for more individuals and key funders to take further action. With the help of other passionate volunteers, we saw the Live Below the Line campaign receive full local media coverage and we ran a campaign to call on the Isle of Man Government to increase their international aid budget in order to work towards the 0.7% target. Recently, we have also seen a landmark commitment being made to the end of polio strategy.

Since 2009 The Rotary Club of Douglas on the Isle of Man has led the way in raising funds for the End Polio Now campaign and in response to this the Isle of Man Government gave a contribution from the international development fund in 2012. But 2013 is an important year for the fight against polio and commitment to funding for the next six years is vital to seeing this disease removed from the world for all time.

Having built relationship with Kevin Kneen, local End Polio Now chair, who recently received the Regional Service Award for a Polio Free World awarded via Rotary International in the USA, as well as the Isle of Man Government International Development Committee, it was apparent that the Isle of Man could play a significant role in the global fight against polio. With the support of the Global Poverty Project it was announced this week that the Isle of Man would become the first 2013 non-traditional donor contributing towards the end of polio strategy by committing £90k over the next three years.

As Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, highlighted in her comment to The Independent on Sunday on 12th April ‘Without global eradication the risk of disease always remains. It will take a concerted global effort with real investment from donors, development banks and foundations.’ The Isle of Man has now made such an effort and we hope that it encourages other governments, donors and foundations to do the same, particularly in the light of the Global Vaccination Summit this week.

However, the response of the Isle of Man Government would not have been possible without the committed and thoughtful citizens, whom Kevin Kneen and myself represent. Individuals who have continued to raise their voices and take action on behalf of those still living in extreme poverty. Each of us can change the world; we merely need to consider what we can do and do it, without delay.
Posted by Kristina Crawford in Polio for column GPP - United Kingdom on Apr 24th, 08:04
Comments: 2 | Post a Comment

Extreme Poverty Falls - now just 1.2 billion
 

The team here at the Global Poverty Project are thrilled to announce that the World Bank has just released an update to their figures on the numbers of extreme poor in the world.

As of 2010, the world had 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty, or 20.63% of the world's population.

That's a roughly 200 million person fall since 2005 - driven by effective aid, increased trade from the world's poorest countries, and improvements in governance and transparency.

This means that the world has definitely succeeded on the headline goal in the Millennium Development Goals of halving extreme poverty between 1990 and 2015, as back in 1990, 41% of the world lived in extreme poverty. This success sets us - as global citizens - to contribute towards ending extreme poverty in the next 20 to 30 years. With the Sustainable Development Goals - the successors to the Millennium Development Goals - under consideration at the moment, this news gives credibilty to their efforts to develop a framework that will help us get to the end of extreme poverty forever.

The figures though, aren't all rosy. Although there's been a reduction in the percentage of the population in extreme poverty in all areas, Sub-Saharan Africa still lags far behind - with 48.47% of citizens living in extreme poverty. This is a big fall from high the 58.78% recorded back in 1996, but it indicated that there's much work still to be done, especially when we factor in population growth. According to the data released today, there are now 413.73 million sub-Saharan Africans in extreme poverty - up from the 388.38 million reported as of 2005.

It's going to take a generation's work from all of us as global citizens to create this world without extreme poverty, and as the figures above attest, it's going to be a long and tough journey. The boom in world trade and the growth of China and India have done much to lift hundreds of millions out of extreme poverty in the last twenty years, but their successes aren't enough to lift everyone out of extreme poverty. As we look to the next 20 years, the big gains are only going to be made when we ensure that our aid is targeted and effective, when citizens all over the world can hold their governments and businesses to account for how money is spent, taxes are paid, and policies are made for the good of the poor, not to their detriment.

This is the story we tell in our 1.4 Billion Reasons live presentation, which after the release of today's figures, we'll be needing to give an update to, including the name - something that our team have already excitedly begun work on, and which we look forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks. For once, we're thrilled that a brand name - 1.4 Billion Reasons - is outdated and irrelevant. For the 165,000 people who've seen the presentation in the last few years, we've got a great story to tell about how some of what we said is now wrong, even down the title.

In the meantime, we hope you join us in celebrating this day, and that you continue to be committed to the long journey to the end of extreme poverty.

 
Posted by Simon Moss (Co-Founder & COO) in Poverty for column Global Poverty Project - International on Apr 19th, 09:09
Comments: 2 | Post a Comment

Live Below the Line for Happy Hearts Fund!
 

My name is Sydney Pedersen and I am Utah’s Live Below the Line Ambassador for 2013.

I chose to be an Ambassador to support Happy Hearts Fund because I met supermodel Petra Nemcova and she inspired me to support her work. Happy Hearts is an organization that helps children who have survived natural disasters by building schools to provide them with a sustainable education and help them get their lives back to normal. I have traveled with my family to developing countries and have spent time working in schools. My experiences abroad changed my whole perspective and helped me to see how much these children loved & need an education. I chose to Live Below the Line so that I can give back. I am committed to live on just $1.50 a day in food for five days to raise money for Happy Hearts Fund. I want to get the word out and challenge as many of my fellow students in Utah as possible to join me and raise money for children who have lost everything.   

I know it wont be easy but I am excited to make a change in the world, and I think if we work together we can make a big one! If just 50 students from 50 schools raise $50 each we could raise enough money to make a difference in thousands of lives and change entire communities around the world.

I would especially like to thank those who are supporting us. Pezauh Printing has been amazing and is printing up nearly a thousand posters for us at no charge! We also have had shirts donated by VOX Marketing Group. Other companies that have been especially helpful are Costa Vida, Halestorm Entertainment, Method Communications and of course Vivint, donated 3 trips to the top fundraising students in Utah to come with me to visit Happy Hearts Schools in Indonesia.

To find out how you can be involved go to https://www.livebelowtheline.com/us-hhf and join me by signing up to support Happy Hearts Fund this April 29th – May 3rd. Lets see how much change we can make with $1.50!

 
Posted by Sydney Pederson in What Can I Do? for column Live Below the Line on Apr 16th, 06:54
Comments: 0 | Post a Comment

The 'nameless' poor
 

This guest post comes from Dr. Haseeb Md. Irfanullah, who leads the Reducing Vulnerability and Natural Resource Management Programme of Practical Action in Bangladesh.

In good old days, there was something romantic about poverty! Just think about the emotion, passion, enthusiasm, desperation that could be seen in the world literature on poverty. And I am not only talking about poems like "O poverty, thou hast made me great./ Thou hast made me honoured like Christ / With his crown of thorns." (‘Daridro’ or ‘Poverty’ by Kazi Nazrul Islam, the national poet of Bangladesh).

But, we not-so-poor people have harshly taken away that romantic bit out of the poverty. We have smartly designed development programmes to brush away poverty like an unwanted pest. We have identified standards and devices to filter out the ‘poorest’ from the ‘poor’ and the ‘poorer’ ones. We ask them all sorts of personal questions just after entering into their settlement or in their homes for the first time. And we ask a lot more after giving them a piece of information or a bag of seeds or a cow. So, in the business of community development, poverty reduction is a very serious venture; there is nothing emotional about it. (Although some of us may see the campaigns and slogans like ‘make poverty history’ or ‘put poverty in the museums’ expressing strong emotions!)

Over the last decade or so – thanks to the Millennium Development Goals or MDGs – it is the ‘extreme poverty’ we have been talking about a lot. And when talking about extreme poverty in a global context, you actually cannot overlook Bangladesh. As captured by a study on extreme poverty in Bangladesh, an extreme poor woman defined chronic poverty in an unassuming way “We who are always poor are invisible. For those who are always poor, what difference does a shock make − why will it make the leaders feel bad? For us, life is like mending a cloth − sticking patches and stitching − our sorrows and tears are invisible.” Despite being invisible, the extreme poor still make up 17.6% of the total population of Bangladesh and find a position below the ‘lower poverty line’ − as we often call it. (It is the ‘moderate poor’ who stay between the lower and upper poverty lines). The absolute number of extreme poor in this South Asian country is staggering 26 million. If this were the population of a country, that would have fall between Uzbekistan and Ghana as the 47th most populated country of the world!

Be in no doubt that being an extreme poor person of a country like Bangladesh is a very tough job. Of course it is because you have to rely upon much less than $ 1 a day, own no land, hardly have anything you can call an ‘asset’, barely have access to public services or very much susceptible to ill health and all kinds of shock and disaster. But, it is also because you have to prove your distress convincingly enough to be included in a development project for extreme poor or in one of numerous social safety net programmes of the government.

But, if you are a person who sometimes manages to climb just above the lower poverty line, I can assure you, your life is much tougher! It actually means that you are capable enough to push yourself just out of extreme poverty for a while, but may fall back losing what you have gained whenever a shock or disaster comes in your life. You simply swing between extreme poverty and moderate poverty. You do not have the certainty − or a clear identity for that matter − of being extreme poor. And it is bad!

It is bad because aid effectiveness is measured by what changes aid makes in people’s lives. If you cannot be defined, you cannot be targeted and if you cannot be targeted your changes cannot be measured. That is why, does not matter how tough it is, targeting the real extreme poor has been very important in the development projects. Criteria for selecting the extreme poor have, however, evolved with changing context and better understanding of the situation on the ground. But the ground reality often seems quite a ‘small influencer’ to guide the continuous evolution of poverty alleviation attempts; aid money and its governance play much bigger role for that matter. As we all have seen, international development discourses have not been the same since the Christmas of 2010 after Andrew Mitchell, the then British Secretary of State for International Development, uttered ‘value for money’. (I am, however, not sure if a 58-year old British comedy film with the same name has anything to do with this improvement in our development vocabulary!)

I am afraid, people swinging between ‘extreme poverty’ and ‘moderate poverty’ may continue being left out of extreme poverty initiatives. When you are in that group, you are not eligible for any in kind or in cash support provided to the extreme poor, or may not get the technology or knowledge offered to the moderate poor. You do not belong to a recognized economic class that defines you. You do not have a name!

But do we really need to define that group as a separate entity? Will it add any value to our efforts in eradicating extreme poverty now and in the post-2015 era? Or will it just be a mere academic interest?

As a botanist by education, I am very much used to the concept of giving each and every plant species of the world a specific botanical name. To me, rice is Oryza sativa, wheat is Triticum aestivum, potato is Solanum tuberosum. Then I listened to a severely distressed, lone young girl named Robin (played by Juliette Lewis) in the film 'The Way of the Guns' (2000). When asked, which name she called the baby she was pregnant with, Robin replied – "When you think about deaf people, people who are born deaf... who've never heard a spoken word. What do you think they call the sun or their mother... or their own reflection in the mirror? That's what I call it."

I never realized naming someone could be that tough.
Posted by Haseeb Md. Irfanullah in Poverty for column Perspectives on Poverty on Apr 12th, 10:42
Comments: 1 | Post a Comment

I spent an hour arguing over a Dollar
 

Not so long ago, I spent a year living and working in Ghana. It was dusty, the people were frequently confusing, and the local cuisine was a rich source of starch and oil. But it was a lot of fun, and I look back on the time (and the people I met) fondly.

While misunderstandings between the locals and I were a common occurrence, we collectively understood one thing very well: that taxi drivers are scum. There are no meters or fixed prices in Ghanaian taxis, and every discussion commences with an absurdly high initial price offer from the driver, and a similarly unreasonable lowball payment offer from the prospective passenger. Much arm-waving and feigned expressions of shock emanate from both sides, often for minutes at a time. The driver remains adamant that a 10 minute trip takes 30, while the passenger is convinced that peak hour is a myth created by taxi drivers to harm the nation. If you’re merely a bystander, it’s some of the best street theatre around.

After initial reluctance (read: middle class guilt), I took to the sport of bickering with taxi drivers most enthusiastically. There would be pretend walk-offs, raised voices, and allegations that the driver is a “foolish man” (which ranks highly among Ghanaian insults). As the title of this entry suggests, I did indeed spent 15 minutes arguing over a sum of money that was around a dollar. More than once. Unlike your average Ghanaian, the dollar wasn’t of particular significance to me. Food (bristling with starch and oil) would be on my table that night either way.

So why did I have so many bees in my bonnet? Why would a man even wear a bonnet, especially one that attracted bees?

Many times in the past, I had criticised western tourists in developing countries who indulge in haggling with local sellers over sums of money that matter a lot to the seller, and not at all to the buyer. It appeared to be little more than a disposable income power play, bolstering the ego of a tubby idiot with freshly braided hair and fake designer sunglasses. It effectively mocked poverty... sought to entrench it. Whether or not this scenario is a metaphor for quite a number of recent free trade agreements negotiated between a rich country and a poor country is a matter I’ll leave to you.

Back to the taxis and my bees. But I don’t want any more talk about my bonnet.

The economist-in-me-that-I-can’t-always-switch-off was wondering whether giving $5 for the $4 trip would mean that the new baseline price for everyone would be $5. Would my capacity to buy my way out of an argument affect affordable transport for everyone else?

Or maybe it wouldn’t affect cash-strapped local taxi passengers... perhaps the driver was only trying to game me because I happened to be white. If the colours or tables were turned, such a thing would be held up as scandalous racism. Do I want to reward someone’s notion that some people should pay more than others for an identical service, solely based on their appearance? Is it a taxi driver’s place to decide that I must? In my home country, this concept of fairness is legally enforced via the requirement for metered fares.

And so I spent 15 minutes haggling on the side of the road. Haggling to receive access to the same fair price that the locals paid. Haggling to be equal. It’s entirely consistent with the complaints that many developing countries have about the uneven playing field of global trade and protectionism.

But instead of opening up another area of dispute with the driver, I settled for my $1 taxi saving, and was driven to do you thinkthe pub.

What do you think - is it right to haggle over a dollar?
Posted by Michael Jayfox (Guest Blogger) in Poverty, Enterprise & Trade for column Perspectives on Poverty on Apr 9th, 09:22
Comments: 4 | Post a Comment