Self help for poverty

Normally, banks won't look at providing funds or financial services to people who have little or no income, but in many cases these are the people who need them most.  One of the better ways to help people out of poverty is by microfinance.  By this I mean a small, sometimes tiny, loan to help someone, very often a woman, start up and maintain a business, helping them to help themselves.  It is a stepping stone out of poverty. But microfinancial organisations are much more than this: they envision "a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers". (from Finanacial Institutions with a Double Bottom Line - pdf file).

Photo from Grameen

One of the women who have been supported in this way is Zeinab, who borrowed $45 to set up a business to make wooden pots and kitchen utensils.  She now provides employment for three of her children and owns her own workshop.  Her business has grown and she has been able to take out larger loans to continue the growth.  Her last repayment was $700, more, she says, that a local civil servant would earn in two months.

But none of this would be possible if it weren't for microfinance organisations and the people who run them.  In this case the organisation is Al-Tadamun based in Egypt and a partner of the Grameen Jameel Pan-Arab Microfinance Ltd.  Under the leadership of Reham, it has been able to lift thousands of women and their families out of poverty.  Reham herself was set on a career in the finance sector.  She realises how blessed she is to be able to use her financial training and skills in a job where she can help people survive.

Grameen Foundation has a network of 55 microfinance partners and has touched the lives of 34 million people.

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UPDATED to add that my great blogging friend, RennyBA, actually met Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen, when he and the Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize. That must have been amazing Renny!  Read about it on Renny's blog, and while you're there, have a look around because it will be well worth your while.

Wet rice

My mental picture of rice growing is of paddy fields and water, plenty of water.  I thought all that water was an essential requirement for its growth.  Well, it is, but not too much.  Apparently as much as $1 billion worth of rice is lost each year in south and south-east Asia as a result of flooding.

Photo from IRIN/Jason Guttierez

When rice grows in the normal way, it tries to outgrow the water, to rise above it.  When there are floods, this elongation continues until the plants run out of carbohydrates, causing tissue damage and death.  But scientists at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines have discovered some naturally occurring  rices which can tolerate flooding.  The plants become dormant, and while they can't stay in this state for ever, they can survive under water well enough in most flood conditions.

Using natural breeding methods, the flood tolerance has been bred into existing strains of rice.  The three new new strains are just as productive as established ones so there is no penalty in using the flood-tolerant varieties.  People tend to become complacent when there is no existing problem -  so the new must be every bit as good as the old to encourage their use.

The scientists have produced the strains of rice but the problems now lie more in distribution:

• producing a sufficient quantity of seed quickly
• distribution of the seed to some very remote areas

The initial breeding work was supported by the German government, and the Gates Foundation is helping with distribution and further development.

The areas most likely to suffer flooding are also those where poverty tends to be a major problem.  The new varieties could make a substantial difference to places like Bangladesh where there is an annual shortfall in rice production.

Kiva revisited

In September my good friend janeway sent me a link to Heidi Swanson's 101 cookbooks which has in the region of one million visitors a month.  Heidi had decided to set up a Kiva Lending Team and invited her readers to join her in lending to entrepreneurs in developing countries.  An excellent idea.

Then, only a day or two later, I spotted a post on Carl Galloway's blog to say that he was having great difficulty in finding an entrepreneur who needed a loan.   He did eventually manage to find one refreshing constantly.

I found it hard to believe, but sure enough a day or two later (speedy is my middle name) I went to the Kiva site and saw this.

All loans funded!  One loan made every 24 seconds!

Whether this was the impact of an influx of new members on the 101 Cookbooks team, I really don't know.  I do know that for a few weeks I was seeing widgets displaying 100% funded around the blogs I was visiting. 

Then things changed again.  As I write this there are 12 people looking for loans of various sizes, though at the current rate of one loan every 29 seconds, it won't take long for them to be filled. Nevertheless the rate of lending has decreased and there seem to be more people with loans not yet filled.

I'm wondering about the timing of this.  Were people put off by the fact that there loans are being filled so easily?  New projects are being continuously added, so it shouldn't be an issue.  But could it be the economic situation?  I hope not.

Alternative libraries

I can't imagine life without easy access to books, and libraries have always been part of my life, as a child, as a student, and as a parent. Whenever I go into one, I look around at all the shelves, all those books, and feel a sense of delight and wonder at all of them there waiting for me.

Ideally everyone should have the same opportunity of access to books, to widen their horizons, to learn, to be entertained while learning. But many live in remote areas where it's just not possible. In most western countries we have mobile libraries and the internet to fill the gap, but what of developing countries? The gap has been filled ingeniously.

Today my friend janeway sent me a link to an article in the International Herald Tribune telling about Biblioburros. Every weekend for the last 10 years, a mobile library looking remarkably like two donkeys sets out for remote villages in Colombia. This particular project is run single-handed by a primary school teacher , Luis Sorian, in La Gloria Columbia.

A very similar project is running in Venezuela, there called Bibliomulas. In this case it is run by a Venezuelan univerisity, the University of Momboy, and it's being extended to carry laptops and projectors. Miles and donkeys are essential when it comes to the steep slopes that need to be climbed in order to bring reading material to the more remote communities.

In Kenya a different approach is needed to bring books to nomadic communities.  A static library would be of no use, so instead the library follows them. Ships of the desert are the best way to travel in the Garissa area, 400km from the capital, Nairobi.

Books are important to the people in the area but they can't afford them.  There is a very high rate of illiteracy, partly because of the nomadic way of life and partly because of poverty.  Any spare money has to be spent on food.

BookAid has had a programme in Kenya since 1965 and providing books for the Kenya Camel Library is just one of the areas they support.

International Literacy Day

A little late, but better late than never.

I wouldn't know you, and you wouldn't know me, if neither of us could read. We take it for granted, you and I, that we can gather information, serious or trivial, educational or entertaining, wherever we are. Whether or not we do is up to us.

But think of all the people in the world who haven't had that opportunity, who don't have that choice. People who haven't been able to go to school. All the children in the developing world or in war-torn areas who still can't go to school.

It doesn't stop at not being able to read a book. How are they to lift themselves out of poverty, to learn about the world, to find out how to protect themselves against diseases such as AIDS? Children who don't learn to read are defenceless. Yes, there are radios, even theatre groups who tour to spread information, but how easy it is to forget the detail. To acquire information for ourselves we need the ability to read.

From UNESCO:

Research has repeatedly demonstrated the direct correlation between people’s level of literacy and their chances to maintain good health. For instance, a study conducted in 32 countries shows that women with secondary education are five times more likely to be informed about HIV/AIDS than women who are illiterate. Another example: the rate of infant mortality is higher when the mother can neither read nor write.

There are 163 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who cannot read. We should do something about it.

International Literacy Day

Who owns science?

Fields of Science from Flickr/ImageEditor. Creative Commons licence.

In July two Nobel prize winners, Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Professor Sir John Sulston launched a debate on the commercialisation of science. Prof. Stiglitz is well known for his criticism of World bank and IMF policies. Prof. Sulston is firmly opposed to the privatisation of scientific information after keeping his own data on the human genome in the public domain.

Image of molecules from Wikipedia.

In an article in the New Scientist, Prof. Stiglitz outlines the current situation:

• Rich corporations have exclusive rights to their intellectual property and the profits coming from them.

• Access to affordable drugs is effectively denied to poor countries.

• This amounts to a death sentence for poor countries which cannot afford their own research programmes, and who are denied access to the knowledge base.

• Drugs are not developed for diseases which predominantly affect poor people.

• Profit takes precedence over need.

The basic framework of the intellectual property regime aims to “close down access to knowledge” rather than allowing its dissemination,

He puts forward the idea of giving prizes paid for by industrialised nations, rather than patents for innovative cures and vaccines, with the largest prizes being given to those that will benefit the largest number of people. He doesn't suggest that innovation shouldn't be rewarded - it must be encouraged because it is at the heart of the success of a modern economy - but that the focus on profit at the expense of the developing world must be changed.

With modern tourism, some neglected diseases are now being imported to the developed world. According to a UCL report, there were about 10,000 cases of "imported malaria" in the 10 years up to 2006, with 1% being fatal, and this in spite of effective malaria prevention. So we may yet find that these so far neglected diseases making their way into developed nations, eventually driving further research which has been so sadly lacking so far.

By chance today I came across this ad today, for Malaria Hotspots, sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline. I wonder why?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Sulston argues for open medicine
• Nobel laureate to chair science and ethics institute

I dare you

From the Girl Effect and the Nike Foundation

I dare you to rethink what it means to look at a girl and see

not a burden,
not an object,
but the answer.

Addis

Another video from Girl Effect and the Nike Foundation.

Addis, a beautiful 18 year old from Ethiopia, was married at the age of 11 to a man from her village. He wouldn't let her continue at school.

She is no longer married so she's returned to school, along with her son.

Kidan

Kidan, 13, would like to go to school, her dream would be to become a doctor.

She can't go to school, she is engaged to be married. In exchange for cattle.

My instinct has been to favour smaller charities, such as the one I mentioned some days ago, Friends of Tafo. They do admirable work, with much more immediate effect than some of the larger charities. But they can't even begin to address a problem such as child marriage.

There has to be a place for much larger charities who lobby on such issues. There will be no immediate result, and any money donated won't be going directly to the benefit of someone in the developing world. Because of that they may not appear to be efficient, but someone has to take up the cause, and address questions such as child marriage.

The Nike Foundation, which produced the video above through girleffect.org, is dedicated to investing in adolescent girls as a force for change. It funds new approaches and makes girls a priority for institutions. It works to get girls on the international agenda. And they aren't even asking you to buy anything.

The subject of what we as individuals can possibly do to help has been, and is being, considered by my friend Yummy Biscuits [and I can't tell how difficult it is to admit I know anyone called Yummy Biscuits], and has led to some interesting discussion.

Commitment to development

Image in public domain from Wikimedia Commons.

Africa is the poorest continent but how committed are wealthy countries to developing countries in Africa? Foreign aid is often used to compare the help given by the developed world but there are other factors as well as aid to take into consideration:

• trade
• investment
• migration
• environment
• security
• technology

David Roodman of the Centre for Global Development compared 21 wealthy nations on all seven factors and created a chart demonstrating the commitment to development.

Interesting points:

• Sweden came out on top because of high levels of aid and commitment to security.
• Ireland came second thanks to high levels of aid and a large peacekeeping force in Liberia.
• Portugal came sixth because of an openness to Africa migrants.
• The UK is strong in investment and security.

In spite of these, all countries could do much more to help development in Africa.

The full report can be downloaded from the Centre for Global Development.

Kiva

A quote from Thomas Szasz:

The proverb warns that 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself.

There is a real need for direct aid in many circumstances such as the aftermath of war or natural disasters, but we can also help people help themselves. One was is to use micro-finance enable real people improve their lives and it can be done through an organisation called Kiva. Kiva lets you "lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world - empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty".

I first learned of Kiva through Grateful Guy. His blog is worth a visit in itself, if only to put your own day into perspective. Every day he writes a list of things he is grateful for - coffee seems to figure quite highly - and really it does make you sit back and think. So now you see, I'm grateful to him.

Updated to add the link to Grateful Guy - why didn't someone tell me! :)

A small world

If the world were made up of 100 people:

• 61 would be from Asia
• 13 from Africa
• 12 from Europe
• 8 from North America
• 5 from South America/Caribbean
• 1 from Oceania

• 42 would have no basic sanitation
• 18 would have no improved water source

• 6 people would own 59% of the community's wealth

• 14 cannot read
• 7 have reached secondary education
• 12 have a computer
• 3 have an internet connection

• 18 struggle to manage on US $1 or less a day
• 53 struggle to manage on US $2 a day

And if we saw, for instance, any of the 18 who were struggling to manage on $1 or less a day, would we not help?

Just a few of the figures from The Miniature Earth video which I found via Things I am Grateful For (a very interesting read, for which I am very grateful ;) ).

Using software in the forests of Cameroon

Photo by Flickr user strollerdos. Creative commons licence.

Helveta is a company which has developed software used in managing and tracking timber assets. A lecturer from University College London, Dr Jerome Lewis, has been collaborating with them and NGOs to help local forest communities in Cameroon to monitor logging in their forests.

The forests of Cameroon are subject to extensive illegal logging and the timber pirates often destroy vital resources for local people. The team has adapted GPS units using icon-driven software so that the local communities themselves can monitor the forests.

Under agreements that are being made with the European Union, governments must ensure they allow only legal logging and to operate in a way that respects the rights of indigenous communities. This system, which sends data directly to the website, will be able to demonstrate that these promises are being kept and so allow the timber to be sold on the European market.

Both the local forest communities and the government will gain from the system: the forests will be protected from illegal logging and the timber can be sold to the lucrative European market. They hope in the longer term that the system will be used in other countries of the Congo basin.

It's a wonderful example of how modern technology can help the survival of low technology communities.

Further details

Fruits of Africa

The National Academies (in America) yesterday published a report on the native fruits of Africa. It is the third in a series, the previous ones having looked at native grains and vegetables.

Their suggestion is that tropical fruit production in Africa has been dominated for centuries by species imported from Asia and the Americas. Bananas and pineapples are examples. These fruits were already improved by selection and breeding programmes over the years and gradually displaced native fruits.

As a result native species have been neglected and forgotten, but if they received the attention of horticulturalists, they could contribute both to nutrition and the economy. Some are already cultivated while others are wild. They include fruits with intriguing names such as chocolate berries and gingerbread plums.

Photo by Flickr user ElRabbit. Creative Commons Licence. 

Baobab fruit pulp can dried into a nutritious powder high in protein, vitamins, and minerals and used in drinks, porridge. It can be dried in flat pancakes and last for months or years. The leaves of the tree can be eaten too.

Photo by Flickr user Sanctu. Creative Commons Licence.

Ebony, above, has bright red fruits which are sweet and juicy and not unlike persimmons which are from the same family. Some varieties have edible seeds too.

Photo by B.navez. Wikimedia Commons.

Tamarind grows wild in Sudan. It was introduced to India so long ago that it is often thought to be native to there. It moved from India to Asia and gained the name tamarind from the Arabic "tamar hindi" meaning Indian date.

It is a fascinating report, and you can find the full 380 pages online.

Sisal

From Business Daily.

In 1972 the sisal research station in Thika, Kenya, closed because prices for sisal had dropped considerably as everyone turned to the plastic bag as a cheap replacement. Nowadays, with the environmental impact of plastic bags being so well known, the sisal industry should be recovering.

Unfortunately it hasn't yet, but there are signs that prices are rising. In a more recent article there are reports that sisal and burlap bags are becoming fashionable. The Kenyan government has banned the use of thin plastic bags which should help the recovery.

I went out to buy myself what I thought was a sisal bag, but has turned out to be a jute one.

When I looked at it more closely, I was dismayed to see what I think is a plastic lining, but after a visit to the Jute Expo site, I have to believe it is biodegradable. Other jute bags are available from Canby, and sisal ones from One World Projects.

Savings for migrant workers

From le journal développement durable.

The amount of money sent by migrant workers in France back to their families is roughly the same as the aid France donates for development. In an effort to make the most of this money, so increasing its productivity, the French government is promoting "co-development savings accounts".

The transfer of this money is often a major source of foreign currency for the most underprivileged regions. According to the World Bank money sent, for example, by Malians living in France has enabled 60% of the building done in the Kayes region of Mali. However 80% of the money sent home is used by families for their day to day needs.

To encourage the use of these new savings accounts, savers will have a 25% tax exemption as long as they are reserved for future investment (eg micro-credit, enterprise start-up) in their country of origin.

A study in the UK during 2005 revealed that up to 40% was sometimes charged by banks for the transfer of money overseas, leading to the set-up of SendingMoneyHome, supported by the Department for International Development. The French government will be setting up a similar website showing comparisons of charges so that people can make their decisions. Assuming of course that they have internet access.