After bringing the crisis under the spotlight over the summer, media coverage has slowed down in the past few months. Despite this, aid is still sorely needed. As of 10 November 2011, 76% of the UN Flash Appeal has been funded. (UN OCHA).
Although international media have mostly focused on East Africa’s doom & gloom, neglecting altogether the positive impact of long-term development programmes in the region would mean providing only a partial picture of the situation. Some examples include the work carried out by Save the Children, UNICEF and Oxfam America. Here is a closer look:
In Kenya, Save the Children has been working with communities to prepare for this drought – for example in Mandera (a heavily affected region) they have been giving 12,000 families cash to help build their resilience to the coming drought (Save the Children).
In drought-affected northern Kenya, a solar powered water pump in Griftu Primary School provides a constant supply of water to a newly built water tank. That has allowed for the construction of segregated toilets for boys and girls, encouraging greater school enrolment and facilitating better hygiene and education (UNICEF).
In 2008, when global food prices skyrocketed, famine swept across Ethiopia, threatening more than 14 million people in the Horn of Africa. Oxfam America, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, organised a two-step response to the crisis. The first focused on 225,000 of Ethiopia’s most at-risk farmers, and got them what they needed immediately: food. The second step was to organise cash-for-work projects that built dams, rehabilitated springs and constructed roads, thereby helping people to strengthen their small farms and improve their resilience to future droughts. When drought returned in 2011, these investments paid off. These kinds of investments not only save lives, improve livelihoods and promote stability, but also save money in the long run. Estimates show that emergency relief in famines costs seven times as much as preventing them (Taipei Times).
A representative from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has kindly provided an interesting first-hand update on East Africa’s crisis. Below is a transcript of the interview. You can click on the questions below to go directly to the answers.
1) Has there been any progress in the region since the famine was declared in July 2011?
About 13.3 million people are affected by the current drought crisis in the Horn of Africa. The situation is particularly dire in Somalia, where famine has been declared in six areas of south Somalia. In Somalia, more than 2 million people have been reached with food aid. From 1 to 14 October, humanitarian partners reached approximately 679,888 beneficiaries with food, and are on track to sustain or surpass the approximately 2,215,634 people assisted throughout September. The Agriculture & Livelihoods Cluster [a group of humanitarian teams which focus on farming and subsistence strategies] plans to assist 2.6 million people by the end of 2011 through multiple interventions including: restoring the crop production capacity of farmers; safeguarding the livelihoods and remaining assets of vulnerable small-scale herders and emergency disease surveillance; and treatment and vaccination of livestock. The WASH sector [a group of humanitarian teams which focus on water and sanitation] aims to reach 3.3 million people with sustained access to safe water, and 1.3 million with emergency sanitation by the end of 2011. As of mid October, the cluster had supported 1,190,016 people with sustainable water access since January. This is a critical area of intervention as due to the onset of rains, the risk of water-borne disease has increased. The challenge remains accessing all areas where affected populations are.
Another issue to point out is that about 750,000 people are at a risk of death in the coming four months if efforts to respond to the famine are not scaled up. Child malnutrition rates in Somalia remain the highest in the world (one third of Somali children are malnourished – 450,000 out of about 1.3 million). Mortality in children under five years of age has reached 15.4 deaths per 10,000 people/day among Mogadishu Internally Displaced Persons, far above the emergency threshold (2 deaths/10,000/day). The ongoing conflict and prevailing drought has internally displaced 1.5 million Somalis and more than 917,000 are living as refugees in the neighbouring countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen, meaning that one in three Somalis has been displaced. Refugee outflows continue, albeit at a reduced rate.
2) Can you give me one or two examples of long-term development programmes promoted by your organisation in East Africa in the past few years, which have had a positive impact in the region?
OCHA is not an operational UN body. It is mandated to work with humanitarian actors in responding to humanitarian needs. OCHA therefore works in emergency situations and situations where extreme vulnerability exists. It is not mandated to implement long-term development programmes for which UN agencies like UNDP are primarily responsible. For sometime now OCHA has been preoccupied with the need for closer collaboration between humanitarian and development programming, particularly in addressing recurrent humanitarian situations that emanate from development shortcomings or failures. An example of this is the recurrent food security situation in the Horn of Africa, with drought as the primary driver. OCHA is working with partners from the Inter-Agency Standing Committee [IASC, a forum involving the key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners] and UN Country Teams in the region to see how sustainable solutions that address the underlying causes of recurrent vulnerability can be implemented in this region. The IASC Horn of Africa Plan of action promotes a comprehensive strategy for engagement with national and regional counterparts to support and strengthen Government-led plans. The Plan of Action aims at strengthening the synergies and linkages necessary to address the continuum from humanitarian actions to long-term development with a three-pronged approach to:
Respond to extreme food and nutrition insecurity of vulnerable people at risk, in the short term;
Promote early recovery strategies, in the medium term; and
Promote livelihood resilience, in the longer term.
3) Is there anything you would change in the way that global media has covered the crisis?
The international media has covered various aspects of the Horn of Africa crisis, ranging from the declaration of the famine in Somalia, the terrible situation faced by people having to walk for weeks to find help, the response by aid agencies and donors, to challenges around the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya, access in parts of Somalia and the impact of insecurity on humanitarian operations. Regional and local media also continue to cover the situation, impact and response, and awareness raising events in the region. As in all major humanitarian crises, the UN, Red Cross/Red Crescent and NGO partners have maintained a steady flow of information and advocacy, including through high-profile visits, summits and regional meetings, as well as press briefings, interviews and web/social media coverage. There are many aspects to the crisis in the region, including political and longer-term development dimensions, which are also of interest to the media.
For further information visit the website for OCHA.
December 3rd is the International Day of People with Disabilities. Lucy Daniel, Policy Officer from CBM Australia, talks about how this day can make a difference in your life and in the lives of others.
One day can make a big difference. A single event or decision can change the direction of your life from that time on.
One of my big “days that made a difference” came when I decided to stop being a family lawyer and work with CBM Australia, advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in developing countries. This led to whole lot more change, as I began hearing many more stories of people who have experienced much bigger changes in their lives than my right-hand career path turn.
One such person is Edwin Kuki.
Edwin Kuki was born in the Solomon Islands in 1942. A big day that made a difference for him was in 1952, when he contracted polio. This left him unable to walk—meaning that for nearly sixty years, Edwin has faced all sorts of challenges, and innovated ways to overcome these.
Hearing this made a big difference for me. Firstly, it showed me how important it is to fight polio – the Global Poverty Project’s campaign to eradicate the disease is absolutely essential to preventing disability.
It also showed me how people with disabilities are often excluded from society, such as when other people discriminate against them because of incorrect assumptions about what they can or can’t achieve. Or when other people simply don’t think about the effect that things they are doing have on people with disabilities—like when the village planned to put a water pipe far away so that Edwin would not be able to access it.
Hearing about this exclusion that Edwin has experienced is all the more powerful when he also describes how the village changed their plans and brought the water pipe close to his house so that he could access it, and how the children help him to the health care centre whenever he asks. This showed me that people with disabilities should not and do not have to be excluded from society– so long as we all think about how the things that we’re doing effect people with disabilities, and make an effort to include them.
This is what International Day of People with Disabilities on 3 December is all about: raising awareness of the experiences of people with disabilities—both good and bad—and celebrating all that they achieve and contribute to society.
One day can make a big difference. And that’s what I’m challenging you to do this International Day of People with Disabilities: Watch Edwin’s story. Find out more about the experiences of people with disabilities in developing countries, and the cycle of poverty and disability. Add your voice to the growing number of people signing the pledge to stand up with people with disabilities for their rights to end this cycle.
Make International Day of People with Disabilities make a difference in your life and in the lives of others.
If you would like to find out more about disability, poverty and development issues, you can visit and sign the pledge at www.endthecycle.org.au or follow @endthecycleaus on Twitter.
Global Poverty Project is an endorsing partner of the End the Cycle campaign.
Today is World AIDS Day, a day for us to celebrate the incredible accomplishments that have been made in the combat against HIV/AIDS, and also a day for us to remind ourselves how important it is to continue these efforts.
UNAIDS has just reported that AIDS-related deaths fell 21% from their 2005 peak, and globally the number of new HIV infections in 2010 was down 21% from their 1997 level.
In sub-Saharan African the progress has been particularly noteworthy. This is an amazing achievement that resulted from the spread of preventive measures accompanied with dedication to long-term treatment.
‘The big point for us is the number of new infections – that’s where you win against the epidemic.’
A main reason cited for falls in both AIDS-related death and new HIV infections is the increase in access to treatment. In sub-Saharan Africa, between 2009 and 2010 there has been a 20% rise in people undergoing treatment.
In particular, The UNAIDS report suggests that Botswana, Namibia and Rwanda have achieved universal access to treatment, which is defined as coverage of more than 80%. Swaziland and Zambia have also achieved coverage levels of between 70 and 80%. In a region that is most affected by the epidemic, this represents a significant milestone in the combat against HIV/AIDS.
An expansion in accessibility in treatment also lowers the likelihood of new infections, propelling an important virtuous cycle. The battle therefore goes beyond the need to development suitable treatments, to improving the health care systems as a whole to ensure more people can not only access the treatment, but also benefit from long-term health monitoring and recovery supports.
With international efforts dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tido von Schoen-Angerer, from Medecins Sans Frontieres, believes that
‘Never, in more than a decade of treating people living with HIV/AIDS, have we been at such a promising moment to really turn this epidemic around.’
However, in the midst of this promising moment and hopeful progress, the news of the Global Fund canceling its Round 11 of grant-making is a grim reminder that commitments from both the public and private sectors are lacking.
This could severely jeopardize the incredible progress that has already been made. Almost one quarter of the money used to fight HIV/AIDS comes through the Global Fund, meaning that a severe funding gap not only threatens new programs that could reach wider communities, but also the effectiveness of existing treatments. This is because if treatments with antiretroviral drugs, or ARVs, are stopped, there is a high chance of viral rebound and immune decompensation, which effectively means the failure of the immune system. Many of the efforts we have made would be in vain.
Never before has the progress been more promising in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and never before have we needed more support to sustain this incredible progress. We cannot afford to lose the grounds that have been gained. As the executive director of the Global Fund Michel Kazatchkine says,
‘Now is not the time to abandon millions of people who are still in need.’
This is why we are asking you to write to your MP, to show the government we support their stance on international aid and ask them to set an example to other governments by doubling their funding to the Global Fund.
It is common for skeptics to question whether we can actually achieve the Millennium Development Goals set by the world back in 2001. In the midst of the current economic downturn, many are even more concerned about the efforts leaders would put in to further the progress that has already been made.
So, we were refreshed in a recent post we saw, ‘Freeing the entire human race from want’, by David Steven from Global Dashboard. Steven effectively challenges the skeptics and points out that the outlook is not as grim as people have imagined – genuine progress has been made, even in the face of global recession:
‘The Great Recession largely spared the developing world (so far at least) and, far from slowing down, the decline in poverty accelerated. According to the GMR, the headline target – halving the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015 – is not just going to be met, it’s going to be smashed.
In 1990, 41.7% of the world’s population lived on less than $1.25 a day. That’s dropped to 25.2% in 2005, less than five percentage points above the 2015 target of 20.9%. By 2015, the IMF and World Bank project it will be down to 14.4% – a reduction of nearly a third.’
But what about the clichéd argument that once we take China and India out of the equation, progress towards poverty eradication is negligible?
‘At this point, it’s more or less obligatory to point out that this is all down to China (with a small contribution from India), and that ‘real’ poverty – in Africa – hasn’t been touched. Except that’s not the whole story.
China has seen an astonishingly rapid progress – poverty was down almost fourfold by 2004, and is projected to be cut 12.5 times by 2015. India is also seeing accelerating improvements and is projected to have reduced poverty by more than half by the target date.
But Africa isn’t expected to do as badly as many people think. Its poverty rate was 57.6% in 1990, had fallen to 50.9% in 2005, and is projected to be 35.8% in 2015. That’s still ten percentage points above the target, but if attained, it would be far from an abject failure (180m fewer Africans in poverty in 2015 than would have been the case with no reduction in the proportion of the poor).’
Of course there will be challenges and much depends on policy decisions made by developing countries, but encouraging success stories suggest that rapid progress is possible.
‘much will depend on the nature and quality of growth that is generated, and whether we will continue to see the worrying divorce of income growth from human development (health, education, gender, etc.).
The GMR has an interesting box on poverty in Brazil, which was one of the most unequal countries in the world in 1990, but has seen both growth and a sharp decline in inequality since 2003:
The 1990s marked the expansion of social safety nets in Brazil. Public social expenditure, including conditional cash transfers such as the Bolsa Família, targeted to poor families rose from 17.6 percent of GDP in 1990 to 26.0 percent of GDP in 2008—an increase of almost 50 percent in education, health, housing, and social security. Recent evidence suggests that this increase in social spending and better targeting contributed much to reducing poverty and inequality.
The Bank and IMF believe that these policies took an additional 17.5 million people out of poverty, bringing the absolute poverty rate down by 9 percentage points more than if inequality had stayed high.’
He goes on to argue that there is no reason why progress wouldn’t continue in the future. Not only should we continue to strive to achieve the MDGs, further commitments also need to be made.
‘In 1990, there were 1.8 billion poor people (in a world of 5.3bn people). If the IMF/Bank projections pan out, by 2015, there’ll be 882.7m poor people left (in a world of 7.3bn). That represents real progress in both relative and absolute terms.
Here’s a thought. In the debate about what should succeed the MDGs, one obvious option is simply to extend the current set of goals and focus harder on the challenges facing the 15% of the world’s population that will still be below the poverty line in 2015.
If poverty does indeed fall by a billion between 1990 and 2015, then there’s no reason why it shouldn’t fall as fast over the next fifteen years, even as the global population grows by another billion. In other words, having halved absolute poverty, leaders could commit to abolishing it by 2030.’
In his conclusion, Steven argues that the world’s leaders should live up to what they have promised in the Millennium Declaration:
‘In the Millennium Declaration, the world’s leaders described the world’s central challenge as ensuring “globalization becomes a positive force for all the world’s people” and promised to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.”
They were committed, they said, to “freeing the entire human race from want.”
With poverty in retreat, I think we should be doubling down on that commitment, and moving from halving poverty by 2015, to ending it by 2030. It’s a stretching target, especially if contagion from the economic crisis finally hits developing countries, and especially as the last of the poor will find it hardest to escape from poverty.
But it also seems to be a target that could be achieved.’
With news on the cuts of foreign aid and the cancelling of the Global Fund’s Round 11 of grant-making, this is an important reminder to all of us of the incredible progress that has been made and that the achievement of the MDGs is very much possible.
The high street represents the realm of the female.
Steely-faced mannequins ooze attitude, mimicking the throngs of self-made style queens passing below. Fashionistas, Super Mums, high-powered businesswomen, savvy hipsters, you name it – even the retail brand directors and global buyers are women. Across the 8 years of my career as a buyer I never worked on a floor with more than 10% of employees being male.
And amongst the hordes of relentless, image-hungry consumers, flitter the next generation. These ever-younger females seek to emulate the mass of images broadcast at them every day – suggesting that to be a success is to be a beauty. To be a beauty one MUST have style. To have style one MUST shop. And what does any woman worth her salt know better than to shop?
Yep us ladies sure rule the high street. This is today’s modern society, where to be female is to communicate power and freedom through our personal interpretation of the trends of our ever-deepening jungle. We pick our tribe and represent it daily through the clothes we choose to wear. We support our faltering economy with feverous solidarity. Queens of the shops, rulers of our domain; we walk to the beat of our own drum.
But there is an irony that escapes us on an almost daily basis. There is a glaring inequality that has been born almost entirely out of the female pursuit of equality over the past 100 years.
The irony that a huge proportion of the garment workers involved in the 46 billion pound a year British fashion industry are, in fact, women. Underpaid, exploited, harassed, and discriminated against, women. They suffer unspeakable violations of their human rights, making products that will be bought religiously on the other side of the hemisphere, by other women.
The cruel truth is that very few people actually benefit from this anxiety provoking 21st Century condition. The economy appreciates the increased purchasing fundamentals and the government enjoys its now increased rate of 20% VAT from each transaction. The business owners and shareholders of the largest retailers can find themselves in the top percentile of rich lists, although the industry is so notoriously fickle even they are running into hard times.
But what of the individual consumers like you and me? Weighing down our precious wardrobes with burdensome items that are incredibly hard to dispose of, but often never worn after the season in which they were bought. For myself these purchases have often made up for 80% of my closet. Do I feel better when I buy them - yes. Does the feeling last, contributing to an increase in my quality of life - sadly, no.
And what of the individual producers like Moni, a woman the same age as myself?
Moni and I share some similarities. We are both women in our early thirties. We enjoy spending time with our family and friends. We often wonder what life would be like had circumstances been different. We feel nostalgic about our distant youth. We aspire to be greater than we are…
Moni started supporting her family at the age of 14. I spend my money as I choose. The longest day I ever worked was 13hours, usually 9. Moni works 18hour shifts regularly and begins her day at 5am. Maternity leave is standard in my workplace. Moni was not entitled to maternity leave. Instead her managers would shout obscenities at her or threaten to fire her for needing the bathroom. I receive a living wage directly into my bank the last day of each month. Moni has no guarantee she will receive her wage if business has been slow. Moni and her family’s only shelter is a fragile shack in a slum that is often flooded, where one toilet is shared between 90 people. My tiny one bed in Tufnell Park is warm and cosy.
A Cambodian garment worker is carried to an ambulance after fainting at a factory in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Samrang Pring/Reuters
OK you get the picture. But it’s not a comparative thing as my beloved boyfriend often tries to tell me. It’s true that Moni is more resilient than I am due to her circumstances. She is undoubtedly capable of working longer hours than I am. She can survive on much less money than I can and would be far more stunned by luxurious clothes, cars or restaurants. But even Moni is aware that the conditions in which she works and lives ARE disgraceful. Not just by our standards, but by hers also. Bangladeshi workers have been revolting against their humanitarian hardship since 2006. Even in their comparable standard of living – this is totally unacceptable.
So why are women funding this frenzy? Why are we comfortable exploiting vulnerable women; women suffering the same discrimination we faced ourselves in this country only 100 years ago?
When we pull on your jeans/ jeggings/ treggings tomorrow, let’s spare a second thought to the worker who stitched them, who, like Moni, works so hard to create the clothes we desire so badly. And let’s hope that for all her hard work and dedication, she’ll be able to feed her family tonight.
Add your name below to hear more about how you can take action to promote more ethical purchasing decisions.
With international efforts dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tido von Schoen-Angerer, from Medecins Sans Frontieres, 
