We're selling a cook book at work called "Discovery of a Continent: Foods, Flavors, and Inspirations from Africa" by Marcus Samuelsson. It makes my mouth water. I've flip through it at every non-academic opportunity. I can't wait to find time to cook something from it.
I bring it up because it reminds me that Africa is a real place with real people, which I think is important to note in a blog about poverty. Maybe its just easier when you talk about poverty (and other complex and depressing global issues) to talk about numbers and proportions of population than about unique individuals and cultures. On the other hand, I find myself trying to explain to people why we should care about poverty with the numbers, but it really doesen't communicate necessity, passion, purpose, heart, etc. I don't think the numbers account for the rich cultural history that's not able to contribute to global well-being. So, how about this:
Let's fight poverty so we can have berbere, roti and bobotie in restaurants instead of being forced to approximate in our own kitchens. And if that works out, maybe we can recognize that Africa (and other poverty afflicted regions) is part of the global team, and that we need Africa's (and other poverty afflicted region's) cultures to be healthy and safe, so they can better contribute to the collective dialogue about the complex and depressing global issues.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
World Development Report
Peter sent me a copy of the World Bank's report: World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty. Its awesome. I'm even more baffled about the protests against the World Bank now than I was before. I have read a mere thirty pages, and already there are so many things worth sharing. Here are two:
1) The report discusses many many ways of calculating poverty. It discusses the ways in which some methods are useful and where they have their limits. In light of my first post of this blog, I am relieved to see that these issues are being considered at this level.
2) Peter was also kind enough to send me to the World Bank's Voices of the Poor project, a survey in which they did just that. The Report references this project to understand "poverty's multiple dimensions." They include income poverty, deprivation in the dimensions of health and education, vulnerability, and voicelessness and powerlessness.
1) The report discusses many many ways of calculating poverty. It discusses the ways in which some methods are useful and where they have their limits. In light of my first post of this blog, I am relieved to see that these issues are being considered at this level.
2) Peter was also kind enough to send me to the World Bank's Voices of the Poor project, a survey in which they did just that. The Report references this project to understand "poverty's multiple dimensions." They include income poverty, deprivation in the dimensions of health and education, vulnerability, and voicelessness and powerlessness.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
San Jose State Professor part of IPCC!
A professor at my school won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with the other participants of IPCC. Although, according to the article, like other scientists, "he refuses to take credit for even a tiny sliver of the prize," I still think it deserves mention. Go Dr. Hamill!!
Coming soon; what does the environment have to do with poverty?
Coming soon; what does the environment have to do with poverty?
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Industrial Ecology Topical Summary
I wrote the following for my environmental studies class. When I get it back, I'll post the in-class essay I wrote connecting industrial ecology to poverty.
Topical Summary Assignment
Industrial Ecology
INFORMATIONAL ABSTRACT
The discipline of Industrial Ecology has created a systemic, interdisciplinary, solutions-based look at the environmental crisis facing our planet. A review of available literature highlights an overwhelming number of solutions to a problem that seems insurmountable. These solutions can be broken down into two categories: the first is a new way to think about things, while the second is a collection of ideas to help designers, policy-makers, and manufacturers develop and evaluate ideas within the industrial ecology lens. Although the issues facing our planet are overwhelming, industrial ecologists manage to create practical solutions to global problems at local levels. (#101)
KEY ISSUES AND FACTS
1. The world’s population will grow to 9 billion by 2050. Schmidheiny notes that much of this growth will take place in the least developed countries (LDCs), further reinforcing the cycle of extreme poverty.
2. “The last few decades have witnessed an accelerating consumption of natural resources – consumption that is often inefficient and ill planned. Resources that biologists call renewable are not being given time to renew. The bottom line is that the human species is living more off the planet’s capital and less of its interest. This is bad business” (Schmidheiny 2).
3. “As ecosystems are degraded, the biological diversity and genetic resources they contain are lost. Many environmental trends are reversible; this loss is permanent” (Schmidheiny 2).
4. “This overuse and misuse of resources is accomplished by the pollution of atmosphere, water, and soil – often with substances that persist for long periods. With a growing number of sources and forms of pollution, this process also appears ot be accelerating. The most complex and potentially serious of these threats is a change in climate and in the stability of air circulation systems.”
5. “Both population growth and the wasteful consumption of resources play a role in accelerating the degradation of many parts of the environment” (Schmidheiny 2).
6. The current system operates under six faulty assumptions:
a. “increasing indiscriminate growth of financial transactions will produce benefits and prosperity for all.”
b. “Natural resources are believed to be unlimited, and they can be exploited unconditionally; the environment is also unlimited in its capacity to withstand human activity in all its forms.”
c. “Capital-intensive manufacturing is universally more efficient and productive than labor-intensive repair and reconditioning services.”
d. “Earning a living is inevitably a demanding activity. All that is needed to satisfy workers is an adequate financial reward; the nature of the work required is of no great importance.”
e. “People have an unlimited hunger for possessions. So long as they conform to fashion they are an acceptable mark of social status and the principal means for personal satisfaction.”
f. “So long as growth and/or a good return can be obtained on savings, people are in general not concerned who invests them nor what purpose they are intended to serve” (Bennis 312-313).
7. “’Away’ does not exist” (McDonough 12).
8. It is not apparent to politicians and business people that it is in their and their constiuents’ best interests to act. Schmidheiny notes, “It is a hard thing to demand of political leaders, especially those who rely on the votes of the living to achieve and remain in high office, that they ask those alive today to bear costs for the sake of those not yet born, and not yet voting. It is equally hard to ask anyone in business, providing goods and services to the living, to change their ways for the sake of those not yet born, and not yet acting in the marketplace” (11).
KEY TERMS AND PHRASES
1. Business Ecology – “a systemic, comprehensive rethinking of business… emulating natural systems design, it presents mindware for the new millennium – values based, close-looped models for organizational management, which integrate profitability, stakeholder relations, life-cycle thinking, and environmental performance” (Abe 2).
2. Cradle to Cradle (c2c) – a design concept, which teaches designers and manufacturers to think of the end of the product, and to design it with reuse or remanufacturing in mind (McDonough).
3. Ecology – “the branch of biology which deals with the mutual relations between organisms and their environment. Ecology implies more the webs of natural forces and organisms, their competition and cooperation, and how they live off one another” (Ausubel).
4. Industrial Ecology (IE) – “an interdisciplinary framework for designing and operating industrial systems as living systems interdependent with natural systems. It seeks to balance environmental and economic performance within emerging understanding of local and global ecological constraints. Some of its developers have called it ‘the science of sustainability.’ IE supports coordination of design over the life cycle of products and processes. It enables creation of short-term innovations with awareness of their long-term impacts. It helps design local solutions that contribute to global solutions” (Indigo Development Homepage). Jesse Ausubel further describes IE, “Industrial ecology asks whether Nature can teach industry ways to go much further both in minimizing harmful waste and in maximizing the economical use of waste and also of products at the ends of their lives as inputs to other processes and industries.”
5. Industrial Systems – “includes service, agricultural, manufacturing, military, public operations, such as infrastructure for landfills, water and sewage systems, and transportation systems” (Indigo Development Homepage).
6. Sustainable Development – “a complex idea, which from a business point of view, can be described as something that: uses renewable resources in preference to nonrenewable; uses technologies that are environmentally harmonious, ecologically stable and skill enhancing; designs complete systems in order to minimize waste; reduces as much as possible the consumption of scarce resources by designing long-life products that are easily repairable and can be recycled; and maximizes the use of all the services that are not energy- or material-intensive, but which contribute to the quality of life” (Bennis 329).
SOLUTIONS
1. Much of the literature calls for ethically appropriate work, for the good of the individual, community and world at large. Abe, et al recommend beginning with “values-based organizations.” They note, “business ecology, as a values based organic model for organizations, creates an inner core of community, continuity, and resiliency. This social DNA which defines [the] organization’s identity also selectively filters value-creating flows and relationships that sustain it within its environment” (190). McDonough and Braungart also recognize the importance of values-based organizations, and refer constantly to ecologically sound building designed improving employees’ well-being. The need for this kind of work is also supported by Bennis, who disdains the idea, “Earning a living is inevitably a demanding activity. All that is needed to satisfy workers is an adequate financial reward; the nature of the work required is of no great importance.”
2. The literature also calls for closed loop strategies. Ausubel discusses zero emission strategies. There are “chances and ways to move from leaky to looped systems, and plausible scenarios for the transition from leaks to loops, especially for energy.” Abe, et al note that “leading companies are already applying systemic, close-loop thinking to create enduring success and competitive advantage” (193). Indigo Development is one such company; helping communities create eco-industrial parks, designed to eliminate the concept of waste.
3. Many are also calling for the development and use of “a new language for success” (Abe 198). This would enable business people and their stakeholders to communicate about concepts affecting their business and the world outside of the numbers on their bottom line. It would also support communication between scientists, politicians, business people and the public about what should be encouraged and what should not be.
4. Ausubel and McDonough examine the idea of a “functionality economy.” Ausubel suggests, “Conceiving industries anew as satisfying wants (e.g.. floor coverings) rather than selling goods (e.g., carpets).” McDonough’s homepage includes a space for c2c Certified products that can be shipped back to the manufacturer when the user is finished with them. This concept closes a loop and eliminates the concept of waste.
5. Abe, et al encourage organizations to learn from “the organizing elegance of natural systems, the success secrets that have accumulated over 3.5 billion years of evolution.” (211).
6. Abe further recommends “putting the community back in business” (212). He describes communities as “the heart of a healthy, life-sustaining business or organization, and it’s the essence of our spiritual well-being.”
7. Supporting the community might also lead to supporting locally grown and manufactured products, which would further the goal of dematerialization. Dematerialization would allow the “delivering of equal or more services with less stuff” (Ausubel).
8. Material substitution provides “opportunities for changes in material properties to reduce environmental burdens and the time scales for improved or new materials to occupy markets (Ausubel).
9. Ausubel also recommends decarbonization, an “evolution of the energy system for more service while burning less carbon, through more low-carbon fuel (natural gas) or non-carbon fuel (hydrogen) and through more efficient generation, distribution and use.
10. “Instead of fine-tuning the existing destructive framework, why don’t people and industries set out to create the following: buildings that like trees, produce more energy than they consume and purify their own waste water; factories that produce effluents that are drinking water; products that, when their useful life is over, do not become useless waste but can be tossed onto the ground to decompose and become food for plants and animals and nutrients for soil; or, alternately, that can return to industrial cycles to supply high-quality raw materials for new products; billions, even trillions, of dollars’ worth of materials accrued for human and natural purposes each year; transportation that improves the quality of life while delivering goods and services; a world of abundance, not one of limits, pollution and waste” (McDonough 90-91).
CONCLUSIONS, ANALYSIS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
At first glance, the planet seems in dire straits. The global party has an expected attendance of 9 billion by 2050. Most of those people will be born in LDCs; these people, like their parents, will be looking to the MDCs, and perhaps wishing different lives for themselves. More and more people will want to live the good life, and that will require environmental resources that we might not have. It also means more people will throw more things away, but as McDonough and Braungart teach, there is no such thing as away. As things stand now, we are using up non-renewable resources, and using renewable resources faster than they can be renewed. The environment is degrading. As a result, the current way of thinking about the economy no longer makes sense.
Industrial Ecology (IE) is a discipline that teaches business people, product designers, manufacturers and consumers that there is a way to promote economic growth, while preserving the environment. Ideas in this discipline fall into two groups. The first requires achieving one goal: we need to reframe the way we look at the material goods we interact with everyday. We need to eliminate the concept of “away” to eliminate waste. We need to reconsider the concept of ownership, which is not as important as function. We need a new way of talking about success. We need to return to our communities, and we need to create values-based, ethics-driven organizations. Achieving this goal will be a breakthrough for humanity; the way we work together and perceive one another will be revolutionized with its achievement.
The other set of ideas stems from this philosophical ideal. IE thinkers propose specific ideas for improving the situation. We can use less and use what we do use more effectively. We can create better products with less energy. We can close loops, with better design, recycling, reusing and repair, in order to eliminate the concept of ‘away’ and reduce, if not eliminate, waste. We can use things until we are done with them, send them back to the company for reuse, and use something else. We can use energy more efficiently, and recapture what is lost in the release of heat to be reused in another way. These principles simply require thinking the design and manufacture of products through before their creation.
Although the situation seems overwhelming, IE provides a practical, hopeful philosophy in support of a better future. In Business Ecology: Giving Your Organization the Natural Edge, Joseph M. Abe and coauthors write, “Life is the real bottom line and those organizations able to grasp the implications of sustainable development, embrace its values, and transform themselves into sustainable enterprises will have a clear, competitive advantage in the next economy” (Abe 189).
REFERENCES
Abe, Joseph, et al.
1998 Business Ecology: Giving Your Organization the Natural Edge. Boston:
Butterworth-Heinemann.
Ausubel, Jesse H.
1998 Industrial Ecology: A Coming of Age Story. The Rockefeller University. Electronic document, accessed on October 13, 2007. http://phe.rockefeller.edu/RFF_IE/.
Bennis, Warren, et al.
1996 Beyond Leadership: Balancing Economics, Ethics and Ecology. Cambridge: Blackwell
Publishers, Ltd.
Indigo Development
2007 Homepage. Electronic document, accessed on October 13, 2007.
http://www.indigodev.com
McDonough, William and Michael Braungart
2002 Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press.
Schmidheiny, Stephan
1992 Changing Course. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Topical Summary Assignment
Industrial Ecology
INFORMATIONAL ABSTRACT
The discipline of Industrial Ecology has created a systemic, interdisciplinary, solutions-based look at the environmental crisis facing our planet. A review of available literature highlights an overwhelming number of solutions to a problem that seems insurmountable. These solutions can be broken down into two categories: the first is a new way to think about things, while the second is a collection of ideas to help designers, policy-makers, and manufacturers develop and evaluate ideas within the industrial ecology lens. Although the issues facing our planet are overwhelming, industrial ecologists manage to create practical solutions to global problems at local levels. (#101)
KEY ISSUES AND FACTS
1. The world’s population will grow to 9 billion by 2050. Schmidheiny notes that much of this growth will take place in the least developed countries (LDCs), further reinforcing the cycle of extreme poverty.
2. “The last few decades have witnessed an accelerating consumption of natural resources – consumption that is often inefficient and ill planned. Resources that biologists call renewable are not being given time to renew. The bottom line is that the human species is living more off the planet’s capital and less of its interest. This is bad business” (Schmidheiny 2).
3. “As ecosystems are degraded, the biological diversity and genetic resources they contain are lost. Many environmental trends are reversible; this loss is permanent” (Schmidheiny 2).
4. “This overuse and misuse of resources is accomplished by the pollution of atmosphere, water, and soil – often with substances that persist for long periods. With a growing number of sources and forms of pollution, this process also appears ot be accelerating. The most complex and potentially serious of these threats is a change in climate and in the stability of air circulation systems.”
5. “Both population growth and the wasteful consumption of resources play a role in accelerating the degradation of many parts of the environment” (Schmidheiny 2).
6. The current system operates under six faulty assumptions:
a. “increasing indiscriminate growth of financial transactions will produce benefits and prosperity for all.”
b. “Natural resources are believed to be unlimited, and they can be exploited unconditionally; the environment is also unlimited in its capacity to withstand human activity in all its forms.”
c. “Capital-intensive manufacturing is universally more efficient and productive than labor-intensive repair and reconditioning services.”
d. “Earning a living is inevitably a demanding activity. All that is needed to satisfy workers is an adequate financial reward; the nature of the work required is of no great importance.”
e. “People have an unlimited hunger for possessions. So long as they conform to fashion they are an acceptable mark of social status and the principal means for personal satisfaction.”
f. “So long as growth and/or a good return can be obtained on savings, people are in general not concerned who invests them nor what purpose they are intended to serve” (Bennis 312-313).
7. “’Away’ does not exist” (McDonough 12).
8. It is not apparent to politicians and business people that it is in their and their constiuents’ best interests to act. Schmidheiny notes, “It is a hard thing to demand of political leaders, especially those who rely on the votes of the living to achieve and remain in high office, that they ask those alive today to bear costs for the sake of those not yet born, and not yet voting. It is equally hard to ask anyone in business, providing goods and services to the living, to change their ways for the sake of those not yet born, and not yet acting in the marketplace” (11).
KEY TERMS AND PHRASES
1. Business Ecology – “a systemic, comprehensive rethinking of business… emulating natural systems design, it presents mindware for the new millennium – values based, close-looped models for organizational management, which integrate profitability, stakeholder relations, life-cycle thinking, and environmental performance” (Abe 2).
2. Cradle to Cradle (c2c) – a design concept, which teaches designers and manufacturers to think of the end of the product, and to design it with reuse or remanufacturing in mind (McDonough).
3. Ecology – “the branch of biology which deals with the mutual relations between organisms and their environment. Ecology implies more the webs of natural forces and organisms, their competition and cooperation, and how they live off one another” (Ausubel).
4. Industrial Ecology (IE) – “an interdisciplinary framework for designing and operating industrial systems as living systems interdependent with natural systems. It seeks to balance environmental and economic performance within emerging understanding of local and global ecological constraints. Some of its developers have called it ‘the science of sustainability.’ IE supports coordination of design over the life cycle of products and processes. It enables creation of short-term innovations with awareness of their long-term impacts. It helps design local solutions that contribute to global solutions” (Indigo Development Homepage). Jesse Ausubel further describes IE, “Industrial ecology asks whether Nature can teach industry ways to go much further both in minimizing harmful waste and in maximizing the economical use of waste and also of products at the ends of their lives as inputs to other processes and industries.”
5. Industrial Systems – “includes service, agricultural, manufacturing, military, public operations, such as infrastructure for landfills, water and sewage systems, and transportation systems” (Indigo Development Homepage).
6. Sustainable Development – “a complex idea, which from a business point of view, can be described as something that: uses renewable resources in preference to nonrenewable; uses technologies that are environmentally harmonious, ecologically stable and skill enhancing; designs complete systems in order to minimize waste; reduces as much as possible the consumption of scarce resources by designing long-life products that are easily repairable and can be recycled; and maximizes the use of all the services that are not energy- or material-intensive, but which contribute to the quality of life” (Bennis 329).
SOLUTIONS
1. Much of the literature calls for ethically appropriate work, for the good of the individual, community and world at large. Abe, et al recommend beginning with “values-based organizations.” They note, “business ecology, as a values based organic model for organizations, creates an inner core of community, continuity, and resiliency. This social DNA which defines [the] organization’s identity also selectively filters value-creating flows and relationships that sustain it within its environment” (190). McDonough and Braungart also recognize the importance of values-based organizations, and refer constantly to ecologically sound building designed improving employees’ well-being. The need for this kind of work is also supported by Bennis, who disdains the idea, “Earning a living is inevitably a demanding activity. All that is needed to satisfy workers is an adequate financial reward; the nature of the work required is of no great importance.”
2. The literature also calls for closed loop strategies. Ausubel discusses zero emission strategies. There are “chances and ways to move from leaky to looped systems, and plausible scenarios for the transition from leaks to loops, especially for energy.” Abe, et al note that “leading companies are already applying systemic, close-loop thinking to create enduring success and competitive advantage” (193). Indigo Development is one such company; helping communities create eco-industrial parks, designed to eliminate the concept of waste.
3. Many are also calling for the development and use of “a new language for success” (Abe 198). This would enable business people and their stakeholders to communicate about concepts affecting their business and the world outside of the numbers on their bottom line. It would also support communication between scientists, politicians, business people and the public about what should be encouraged and what should not be.
4. Ausubel and McDonough examine the idea of a “functionality economy.” Ausubel suggests, “Conceiving industries anew as satisfying wants (e.g.. floor coverings) rather than selling goods (e.g., carpets).” McDonough’s homepage includes a space for c2c Certified products that can be shipped back to the manufacturer when the user is finished with them. This concept closes a loop and eliminates the concept of waste.
5. Abe, et al encourage organizations to learn from “the organizing elegance of natural systems, the success secrets that have accumulated over 3.5 billion years of evolution.” (211).
6. Abe further recommends “putting the community back in business” (212). He describes communities as “the heart of a healthy, life-sustaining business or organization, and it’s the essence of our spiritual well-being.”
7. Supporting the community might also lead to supporting locally grown and manufactured products, which would further the goal of dematerialization. Dematerialization would allow the “delivering of equal or more services with less stuff” (Ausubel).
8. Material substitution provides “opportunities for changes in material properties to reduce environmental burdens and the time scales for improved or new materials to occupy markets (Ausubel).
9. Ausubel also recommends decarbonization, an “evolution of the energy system for more service while burning less carbon, through more low-carbon fuel (natural gas) or non-carbon fuel (hydrogen) and through more efficient generation, distribution and use.
10. “Instead of fine-tuning the existing destructive framework, why don’t people and industries set out to create the following: buildings that like trees, produce more energy than they consume and purify their own waste water; factories that produce effluents that are drinking water; products that, when their useful life is over, do not become useless waste but can be tossed onto the ground to decompose and become food for plants and animals and nutrients for soil; or, alternately, that can return to industrial cycles to supply high-quality raw materials for new products; billions, even trillions, of dollars’ worth of materials accrued for human and natural purposes each year; transportation that improves the quality of life while delivering goods and services; a world of abundance, not one of limits, pollution and waste” (McDonough 90-91).
CONCLUSIONS, ANALYSIS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
At first glance, the planet seems in dire straits. The global party has an expected attendance of 9 billion by 2050. Most of those people will be born in LDCs; these people, like their parents, will be looking to the MDCs, and perhaps wishing different lives for themselves. More and more people will want to live the good life, and that will require environmental resources that we might not have. It also means more people will throw more things away, but as McDonough and Braungart teach, there is no such thing as away. As things stand now, we are using up non-renewable resources, and using renewable resources faster than they can be renewed. The environment is degrading. As a result, the current way of thinking about the economy no longer makes sense.
Industrial Ecology (IE) is a discipline that teaches business people, product designers, manufacturers and consumers that there is a way to promote economic growth, while preserving the environment. Ideas in this discipline fall into two groups. The first requires achieving one goal: we need to reframe the way we look at the material goods we interact with everyday. We need to eliminate the concept of “away” to eliminate waste. We need to reconsider the concept of ownership, which is not as important as function. We need a new way of talking about success. We need to return to our communities, and we need to create values-based, ethics-driven organizations. Achieving this goal will be a breakthrough for humanity; the way we work together and perceive one another will be revolutionized with its achievement.
The other set of ideas stems from this philosophical ideal. IE thinkers propose specific ideas for improving the situation. We can use less and use what we do use more effectively. We can create better products with less energy. We can close loops, with better design, recycling, reusing and repair, in order to eliminate the concept of ‘away’ and reduce, if not eliminate, waste. We can use things until we are done with them, send them back to the company for reuse, and use something else. We can use energy more efficiently, and recapture what is lost in the release of heat to be reused in another way. These principles simply require thinking the design and manufacture of products through before their creation.
Although the situation seems overwhelming, IE provides a practical, hopeful philosophy in support of a better future. In Business Ecology: Giving Your Organization the Natural Edge, Joseph M. Abe and coauthors write, “Life is the real bottom line and those organizations able to grasp the implications of sustainable development, embrace its values, and transform themselves into sustainable enterprises will have a clear, competitive advantage in the next economy” (Abe 189).
REFERENCES
Abe, Joseph, et al.
1998 Business Ecology: Giving Your Organization the Natural Edge. Boston:
Butterworth-Heinemann.
Ausubel, Jesse H.
1998 Industrial Ecology: A Coming of Age Story. The Rockefeller University. Electronic document, accessed on October 13, 2007. http://phe.rockefeller.edu/RFF_IE/.
Bennis, Warren, et al.
1996 Beyond Leadership: Balancing Economics, Ethics and Ecology. Cambridge: Blackwell
Publishers, Ltd.
Indigo Development
2007 Homepage. Electronic document, accessed on October 13, 2007.
http://www.indigodev.com
McDonough, William and Michael Braungart
2002 Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press.
Schmidheiny, Stephan
1992 Changing Course. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Give One, Get One
The October 1st issue of Newsweek rocked an article about the fate of the $100 laptop. They're finding difficulty with funding in the last stages of production, so they've opened the program up a little bit. In November, you can buy two for $399: you get one and a kid somewhere else gets one. Check out xogiving.org. They're so cool.
I looked at the specs, and they have a preview of how the interface interacts with the user. When I had heard of these things before, I hadn't realized it was not just an inexpensive, shock resistant computer, but a breakthrough in technology and the way we view computers. Instead of a filing system, the computer journals what the user does with it, so the student and teacher can track progress, etc. Its open source code too, so if the kid wants to modify the thing, they can. It also all looks very collaborative, which is important in this day and age.
This is such a neat solution. It puts the tools to solve problems into the hands of children they affect. I look forward to seeing how it plays out.
I looked at the specs, and they have a preview of how the interface interacts with the user. When I had heard of these things before, I hadn't realized it was not just an inexpensive, shock resistant computer, but a breakthrough in technology and the way we view computers. Instead of a filing system, the computer journals what the user does with it, so the student and teacher can track progress, etc. Its open source code too, so if the kid wants to modify the thing, they can. It also all looks very collaborative, which is important in this day and age.
This is such a neat solution. It puts the tools to solve problems into the hands of children they affect. I look forward to seeing how it plays out.
Monday, October 15, 2007
ONE Campaign
This Wednesday, the ONE Campaign is holding rallys across the world, attempting to break a world record. There is an event in San Francisco. I might attend. I might even purchase a t-shirt.
I'm interested in their campaign because it is consciously a meta issue. They're campaigning to end poverty in our generation by working to make it an issue in the 2008 U.S. elections. They even have contests between university campuses to see which campus is the most committed to ending poverty.
I find three things fantastic about this organization:
1) it is committed to doing what it can from the activists' perspectives.
2) it doesn't provide western solutions to non-western problems.
3) it uses the forces of globalization to manage the effects of globalization.
The ONE Campaign should be super cool. If they succeed in putting global poverty on the list of issues instead of abortion or gay marriage issues, it might be an interesting election.
I'm interested in their campaign because it is consciously a meta issue. They're campaigning to end poverty in our generation by working to make it an issue in the 2008 U.S. elections. They even have contests between university campuses to see which campus is the most committed to ending poverty.
I find three things fantastic about this organization:
1) it is committed to doing what it can from the activists' perspectives.
2) it doesn't provide western solutions to non-western problems.
3) it uses the forces of globalization to manage the effects of globalization.
The ONE Campaign should be super cool. If they succeed in putting global poverty on the list of issues instead of abortion or gay marriage issues, it might be an interesting election.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Poverty Topical Summary
I wrote this paper for my Enivronmental Studies class. Much of it is thanks to Peter Stephens, friend of the blog, who agreed to let me call our chat an interview and who reviewed a draft of the paper as well. Sadly, the time frame and scope of the paper didn't leave me much room to look deeply into the particular solutions I discussed, so I hope to use it as a launching pad for further study and discussion.
INFORMATIONAL ABSTRACT
Extreme poverty is a global crises which is often both a cause and effect of other global issues. A review of available literature and a discussion with Peter Stephens, advisor for the World Bank in East Asia, illuminates several key issues and provides five clear solutions that will help impoverished people take the first step onto the ladder of economic development. These solutions include achieving the Millennium Development Goals, providing debt relief to highly impoverished countries, encouraging the use of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers by local communities, researching environmentally sound design, and creating a better quality of life for women.
KEY ISSUES AND FACTS
1. According to the World Bank, 1.1 billion people survived on less than $1 a day in 2001. The validity of this statistic is often questioned, for example by Sanjay Reddy and Thomas Pogge in their article “How Not to Count the Poor.” Reddy and Pogge argue that this failed statistic may have led the Bank “to understate the extent of global income poverty and to infer without adequate justification that global income poverty has steeply declined in the recent period.” Jeffrey Sachs, in The End of Poverty; The Economic Possibilities of Our Time compares this method of counting the poor with an approach which examines “the proportion of a region’s population in extreme poverty” (21). These approaches are often debated, but Sachs goes on to say that “the general picture remains true in either case: extreme poverty is concentrated in East Asia, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa” (24).
2. Poverty is “rising in Africa in absolute numbers and as a share of the population, while it is falling in both absolute numbers and as a proportion of the population in the Asian regions” (Sachs 24 and Stephens).
3. In “The Poverty-Environment Nexus in Africa,” the authors note that “as the process of development inevitably involves the use of natural resources in economic activities, it has become increasingly clear in recent years that for any poverty reducing growth strategy to be sustainable, it must address environmental concerns and ensure efficient and sustainable utilization of generally limited natural resources.”
4. Debt relief is another major issue associated with poverty. “Excessive debt was hindering poor countries’ development. Since these countries spent all their funds repaying their debts, it was impossible for them to allocate money for health and education. In other words, these countries couldn’t earn their way out of debt and needed help to start again” (YouThink!)
5. Policy makers debate the idea that impoverished countries are safe-havens for terrorism. On the one hand, the “President of the UN General Assembly, Han Seung-Soo, called the world's poorest countries ‘the breeding ground for violence and despair” (Poverty).
On the other hand, in The Terrorism to Come, the Hoover Institution points out that, “these roots [of terrorism] are believed to be poverty, unemployment, backwardness, and inequality. It is not too difficult to examine whether there is such a correlation between poverty and terrorism, and all the investigations have shown that this is not the case. The experts have maintained for a long time that poverty does not cause terrorism and prosperity does not cure it. In the world’s 50 poorest countries there is little or no terrorism.” In Global Crises, Global Solutions, a contributor proves that terrorism, AIDS and heroine manufacture all thrive in lawless or impoverished places (129).
6. Lack of education contributes to the poverty cycle. Zou Hanru notes in his article “Education can break vicious poverty cycle,” that “Official explanations are difficult to find but it is common knowledge that the illiterate are more likely to remain poor, and the poor are more likely to be illiterate (or uneducated and unskilled). It is a vicious cycle. The poor cannot afford education, and the illiterate cannot hope to earn enough to overcome poverty… For the poorest group of children, poverty is both a cause and a result of inaccessibility to education. Poor children are less likely to be enrolled in schools or to complete the basic level of education. For, even if schooling is free (a goal of the Chinese Government), uniforms, stationery and transport are not. And these may still be well beyond the means of a poor family.”
7. Access to drinking water is another key issue. “If the current situation can't be improved, at least 17 African countries will suffer from a severe water shortage by 2010. The water shortage could also lead to clashes between some countries in the region, the report warned. Africa has abundant water resources amounting to 5.4 trillion cubic meters, but only 4 percent of them have been developed and utilized because of the lack of funds and facilities” (One-Third).
8. Extreme poverty contributes to the spread of communicable diseases. The World Health Organization notes that, “Although environmental factors such as drought or floods or insect invasion play a role, food shortages generally occur due a complex combination of factors. Conflict and civil strife, economic and social change resulting in or aggravating poverty or leading to collapse of basic infrastructure and systems, poor governance, inequalities, as well as inappropriate land management and farming methods can contribute to both short and long term food shortages” (World Health Organization).
9. Effects of poverty are often causes, further perpetuating the cycle. “The argument for a "poverty trap" is that Africa's current poverty leads to very low national savings which, given population growth, generate low or even negative growth in real incomes per head. In this situation… no plausible action by African countries alone can start the sustained rapid growth on which Asia's success has been built” (How To Help).
10. In absolute terms, everyone’s lives have gotten better in the last 100 years. As the rich have gotten richer, the poor have become slightly better off as well. This proves that economic development is not a zero-sum game, but rather something we can all participate in (Reckmeyer).
KEY TERMS AND PHRASES
1. Debt Relief - a “comprehensive approach to reduce the external debt of the world’s poorest, most heavily indebted countries” (YouThink!).
2. Extreme Poverty - living on less than $1 a day. In 2001, an estimated 1.1 billion people live in extreme poverty. In other words, “poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom” (Understanding Poverty).
3. International Monetary Fund (IMF) – “is charged with promoting international monetary cooperation and exchange rate stability. It offers ecnomic policy advice, technical assistance, and, perhaps most importantly, emergency loans for countries in financial trouble… [and often] a lender of last resort.” (Adams 62).
4. Moderate Poverty - living on less than $2 a day. In 2001 an estimated 2.7 billion people lived in moderate poverty (Understanding Poverty).
5. Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) – completed at a national level, these ideas are created to improve people’s lives. The ideas are designed and implemented at the local level. (Stephens). “Critics argue that the criteria used to judge PRSPs by the World Bank and IMF are actually used to impose neo-liberal policies along the lines of the Washington Consensus, and that these policies tend to increase poverty rather than decreasing it” (Poverty Reduction). Countries who participate become eligible for debt relief.
6. Poverty trap or poverty cycle – often the effects of poverty are the causes, which further propel the next generation into poverty. For example, if a child cannot attend school, she will not have the education necessary to secure adequate employment as an adult, and will not be able to educate her children. Further, neither she nor her children will be able to save money and other resources for future generations.
7. Structural Adjustments - “conditions for getting new loans from the IMF or World Bank, or for obtaining lower interest rates on existing loans. Conditionalities are implemented to ensure that the money lent will be spent in accordance with the overall goals of the loan” (Structural Adjustment). Peter Stephens of the World Bank describes structural adjustments differently, focusing on how structural adjustments are simply adjustments that need to be made in a country to improve its economy and competitiveness. He highlights Singapore as an example; Singapore changed their economic strategy intentionally after the bust of the dotcom boom in order to embrace the new reality of a world increasingly influenced by trade within Asia, especially with China.
8. UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. They are to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger,” “achieve universal primary education,” “promote gender equality and empower women,” “reduce child mortality,” “improve maternal health,” “combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases,” “ensure environmental sustainability,” and “develop a global partnership for development.” (Millenium).
9. World Bank – the World Bank was created after WWII, along with the IMF, “in order to bring some semblance of order and stability ot the global economy, while encouraging international trade” (Adams 62).
10. World Trade Organization – an organization which replaced the “loosely structured treaty known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade” and is made up of 149 member states. The WTO can “attack many kinds of protectionist measures that infringe upon free trade, whether it is in the form of government subsidies, health rules that serve only as import barriers, or trade preferences. It can also impose a variety of penalties and trade sanctions” (Adams 63).
SOLUTIONS
1. Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals would mean “eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,” “achieving universal primary education,” “promoting gender equality and empower women,” “reducing child mortality,” “improving maternal health,” “combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases,” “ensuring environmental sustainability,” and “developing a global partnership for development.” These goals alone address many of the solutions to extreme poverty .
2. Debt relief may be another effective solution. The IMF notes that, “maintaining a sustainable debt position while seeking the additional financing needed to make progress toward the MDGs remains a serious challenge, even after debt relief under the HIPC Initiative. The IMF and World Bank are looking for solutions, with poverty reduction as the central focus.” They also note that “the HIPC Initiative, even supplemented by the [Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative] MDRI, is not a panacea. Even if all of the external debts of these countries were forgiven, most would still depend on significant levels of concessional external assistance, since their receipts of such assistance have been much larger than their debt-service payments for many years” (IMF).
3. PRSPs are another often considered solution to global poverty. Stephens works with people in local communities to help them develop these projects and to arrange resources. People who live in such communities are responsible for fulfilling their own ideas for improvement and are able to hold one another accountable against corruption. Further, these programs create stakeholders in rural areas who know that their ideas and their desired way of life can be achieved.
4. Designers like William McDonough work to create objects that can be reused without being downgraded. Solutions like these will reduce the negative impacts of ‘waste’ on the environment; these technologies will support further improvements in developing countries, and may create jobs all over the planet.
5. The UN MDGs indicate that one of the best ways to improve conditions in a place is to improve the quality of life and education for women. Stephens discusses that previously, men in local communities dealing with the Bank made poor decisions. Once the Bank required half of all ideas come from separate meetings with women, more useful, effective projects came to the table.
CONCLUSIONS, ANALYSIS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Understanding this issue and possible solutions is extremely important: poverty is no longer an acceptable and describes the worst possible human experience. Issues surrounding this problem are complex and interconnected, and must be carefully considered to limit unintended consequences. Unfortunately, many people view the issue from their own perspective and are unable to consider alternatives. I will examine the merits and weaknesses of five possible solutions; achievement of the MDGs, debt relief, PRSPs, C2C, and improved quality of life for women. After, I will recommend a course of action.
The World Bank notes that, “poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.” We can also see that poverty is hopelessness about your own future and future generations.
Further, poverty affects everyone because issues surrounding it are interconnected. The poor are often at the mercy of the environment, which in turn is threatened by the misuse of natural resources. They are unable to receive medical attention, which creates the perfect climate for epidemics such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Perhaps, as the Hoover Institute points out, poverty does not create terrorists, but impoverished governments cannot police their borders. Yet Lomborg indicates, terrorism, heroine manufacture and disease often thrive in such places. Further, extreme poverty affects people in Africa, East Asia and Southeast Asia. People from different countries and different cultural backgrounds will have different approaches and attitudes to such problems.
The complex nature of these issues means that one solution will not be enough. The global community must adapt its practices to meet the needs of individuals and situations, instead of attempting to apply a panacea. Sadly, many people in developed nations still presume to understand what is best for others, and do not consider the consequences of their actions on individuals in impoverished circumstances. Consider, for example, the boycott of sweatshops several years ago. For many poor people, sweatshops represented a step up from prostitution or fieldwork. Protests in the west destroyed their chance to join the Industrial Revolution (Scientific American).
Four of the five solutions: accomplishing the MDGs, providing debt relief for Highly Impoverished Poor Countries (HIPCs), the use of PRSPs to allow communities to own their projects, and improving the quality of life for women. I believe that combinations of each of these solutions need to be applied as appropriate for individual countries and communities. Other solutions that were beyond the scope of this paper, such as creation of infrastructure and support of intellectual property rights, may also help alleviate effects of extreme poverty in certain situations. In order to achieve these goals, the developed governments would need to increase aid, while individuals would need to think more carefully about their impact on these issues.
The fifth solution, designing products in the West, which do not need to be down-cycled at the end of their lives, will need to happen soon for environmental and economic reasons in the developed countries themselves. They, in turn, will be able to share these ideas and processes with developing countries, and the question of whether or not there will be enough natural resources for everyone will be answered with a resounding yes.
REFERENCES
Adams, J. Michael and Angelo Carfagna
2006 Coming of Age in a Globalized World: The Next Generation. Bloomsfield: Kumarian Press, Inc.
Africa Development Bank Group
2007 The Poverty-Environment Nexus in Africa. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.afdb.org/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/ADB_ADMIN_PG/DOCUMENTS/STATISTICS/GE07_ARTICLE_0.PDF
BBC News
2007 World Factbook. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1886617.stm
China Daily News
2007 Education can Break Vicious Poverty Cycle. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005 09/23/content_480262.htm .
Columbia University
2007 How Not to Count the Poor. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.columbia.edu/~sr793/count.pdf
Global Issues
2007 Causes of Poverty. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp
Global Issues
2007 Poverty and the Environment. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Development/PovertyEnv.asp
Globalization 101
2007 Development. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007.
http://www.globalization101.org/issue/development/
Hoover Institution
2007 The Terrorism To Come. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3437231.html
International Monetary Fund
2007 Debt Relief Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.imf.org/external/
Lomborg, Bjord, ed.
2004 Global Crises, Global Solutions. New York: Cambridge University Press
McDonough, William and Michael Braungart
2002 Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Noticias.info
2007 One-Third of Africans Lack Drinking Water. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=147075&src=0
Reckmeyer, William Emerging Global World. Lecture given on September 24, 2007.
Sachs, Jeffrey D.
2005 The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of Our Time. New York: Penguin Press.
Scientific American
2007 Does Globalization Help or Hurt the World’s Poor? Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=0004B7FD-C4E6-1421- 84E683414B7F0101
Stephens, Peter
2007 Interview by author, September 25.
United Nations
2007 Millenium Development Goals. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
Washington Post
2007 The Persistently Poor. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/07/AR2006120700427.html> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/07/AR2006120700427.html
Wikipedia
2007 Poverty Reduction Strategy. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_Reduction_Strategy .
Wikipedia
2007 Structural Adjustment. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_adjustment
World Bank
2007 Understanding Poverty. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:20153855~menuPK:435040~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html
World Bank
2007 YouThink!. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://youthink.worldbank.org
World Health Organization
2007 World Factbook. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.who.int/malaria/docs/CDs_severe_food_shortages.pdf
Yale Global Online
2007 How to Help Africa Escape the Poverty Trap. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=5128
(edited to include hyperlinks)
INFORMATIONAL ABSTRACT
Extreme poverty is a global crises which is often both a cause and effect of other global issues. A review of available literature and a discussion with Peter Stephens, advisor for the World Bank in East Asia, illuminates several key issues and provides five clear solutions that will help impoverished people take the first step onto the ladder of economic development. These solutions include achieving the Millennium Development Goals, providing debt relief to highly impoverished countries, encouraging the use of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers by local communities, researching environmentally sound design, and creating a better quality of life for women.
KEY ISSUES AND FACTS
1. According to the World Bank, 1.1 billion people survived on less than $1 a day in 2001. The validity of this statistic is often questioned, for example by Sanjay Reddy and Thomas Pogge in their article “How Not to Count the Poor.” Reddy and Pogge argue that this failed statistic may have led the Bank “to understate the extent of global income poverty and to infer without adequate justification that global income poverty has steeply declined in the recent period.” Jeffrey Sachs, in The End of Poverty; The Economic Possibilities of Our Time compares this method of counting the poor with an approach which examines “the proportion of a region’s population in extreme poverty” (21). These approaches are often debated, but Sachs goes on to say that “the general picture remains true in either case: extreme poverty is concentrated in East Asia, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa” (24).
2. Poverty is “rising in Africa in absolute numbers and as a share of the population, while it is falling in both absolute numbers and as a proportion of the population in the Asian regions” (Sachs 24 and Stephens).
3. In “The Poverty-Environment Nexus in Africa,” the authors note that “as the process of development inevitably involves the use of natural resources in economic activities, it has become increasingly clear in recent years that for any poverty reducing growth strategy to be sustainable, it must address environmental concerns and ensure efficient and sustainable utilization of generally limited natural resources.”
4. Debt relief is another major issue associated with poverty. “Excessive debt was hindering poor countries’ development. Since these countries spent all their funds repaying their debts, it was impossible for them to allocate money for health and education. In other words, these countries couldn’t earn their way out of debt and needed help to start again” (YouThink!)
5. Policy makers debate the idea that impoverished countries are safe-havens for terrorism. On the one hand, the “President of the UN General Assembly, Han Seung-Soo, called the world's poorest countries ‘the breeding ground for violence and despair” (Poverty).
On the other hand, in The Terrorism to Come, the Hoover Institution points out that, “these roots [of terrorism] are believed to be poverty, unemployment, backwardness, and inequality. It is not too difficult to examine whether there is such a correlation between poverty and terrorism, and all the investigations have shown that this is not the case. The experts have maintained for a long time that poverty does not cause terrorism and prosperity does not cure it. In the world’s 50 poorest countries there is little or no terrorism.” In Global Crises, Global Solutions, a contributor proves that terrorism, AIDS and heroine manufacture all thrive in lawless or impoverished places (129).
6. Lack of education contributes to the poverty cycle. Zou Hanru notes in his article “Education can break vicious poverty cycle,” that “Official explanations are difficult to find but it is common knowledge that the illiterate are more likely to remain poor, and the poor are more likely to be illiterate (or uneducated and unskilled). It is a vicious cycle. The poor cannot afford education, and the illiterate cannot hope to earn enough to overcome poverty… For the poorest group of children, poverty is both a cause and a result of inaccessibility to education. Poor children are less likely to be enrolled in schools or to complete the basic level of education. For, even if schooling is free (a goal of the Chinese Government), uniforms, stationery and transport are not. And these may still be well beyond the means of a poor family.”
7. Access to drinking water is another key issue. “If the current situation can't be improved, at least 17 African countries will suffer from a severe water shortage by 2010. The water shortage could also lead to clashes between some countries in the region, the report warned. Africa has abundant water resources amounting to 5.4 trillion cubic meters, but only 4 percent of them have been developed and utilized because of the lack of funds and facilities” (One-Third).
8. Extreme poverty contributes to the spread of communicable diseases. The World Health Organization notes that, “Although environmental factors such as drought or floods or insect invasion play a role, food shortages generally occur due a complex combination of factors. Conflict and civil strife, economic and social change resulting in or aggravating poverty or leading to collapse of basic infrastructure and systems, poor governance, inequalities, as well as inappropriate land management and farming methods can contribute to both short and long term food shortages” (World Health Organization).
9. Effects of poverty are often causes, further perpetuating the cycle. “The argument for a "poverty trap" is that Africa's current poverty leads to very low national savings which, given population growth, generate low or even negative growth in real incomes per head. In this situation… no plausible action by African countries alone can start the sustained rapid growth on which Asia's success has been built” (How To Help).
10. In absolute terms, everyone’s lives have gotten better in the last 100 years. As the rich have gotten richer, the poor have become slightly better off as well. This proves that economic development is not a zero-sum game, but rather something we can all participate in (Reckmeyer).
KEY TERMS AND PHRASES
1. Debt Relief - a “comprehensive approach to reduce the external debt of the world’s poorest, most heavily indebted countries” (YouThink!).
2. Extreme Poverty - living on less than $1 a day. In 2001, an estimated 1.1 billion people live in extreme poverty. In other words, “poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom” (Understanding Poverty).
3. International Monetary Fund (IMF) – “is charged with promoting international monetary cooperation and exchange rate stability. It offers ecnomic policy advice, technical assistance, and, perhaps most importantly, emergency loans for countries in financial trouble… [and often] a lender of last resort.” (Adams 62).
4. Moderate Poverty - living on less than $2 a day. In 2001 an estimated 2.7 billion people lived in moderate poverty (Understanding Poverty).
5. Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) – completed at a national level, these ideas are created to improve people’s lives. The ideas are designed and implemented at the local level. (Stephens). “Critics argue that the criteria used to judge PRSPs by the World Bank and IMF are actually used to impose neo-liberal policies along the lines of the Washington Consensus, and that these policies tend to increase poverty rather than decreasing it” (Poverty Reduction). Countries who participate become eligible for debt relief.
6. Poverty trap or poverty cycle – often the effects of poverty are the causes, which further propel the next generation into poverty. For example, if a child cannot attend school, she will not have the education necessary to secure adequate employment as an adult, and will not be able to educate her children. Further, neither she nor her children will be able to save money and other resources for future generations.
7. Structural Adjustments - “conditions for getting new loans from the IMF or World Bank, or for obtaining lower interest rates on existing loans. Conditionalities are implemented to ensure that the money lent will be spent in accordance with the overall goals of the loan” (Structural Adjustment). Peter Stephens of the World Bank describes structural adjustments differently, focusing on how structural adjustments are simply adjustments that need to be made in a country to improve its economy and competitiveness. He highlights Singapore as an example; Singapore changed their economic strategy intentionally after the bust of the dotcom boom in order to embrace the new reality of a world increasingly influenced by trade within Asia, especially with China.
8. UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. They are to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger,” “achieve universal primary education,” “promote gender equality and empower women,” “reduce child mortality,” “improve maternal health,” “combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases,” “ensure environmental sustainability,” and “develop a global partnership for development.” (Millenium).
9. World Bank – the World Bank was created after WWII, along with the IMF, “in order to bring some semblance of order and stability ot the global economy, while encouraging international trade” (Adams 62).
10. World Trade Organization – an organization which replaced the “loosely structured treaty known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade” and is made up of 149 member states. The WTO can “attack many kinds of protectionist measures that infringe upon free trade, whether it is in the form of government subsidies, health rules that serve only as import barriers, or trade preferences. It can also impose a variety of penalties and trade sanctions” (Adams 63).
SOLUTIONS
1. Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals would mean “eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,” “achieving universal primary education,” “promoting gender equality and empower women,” “reducing child mortality,” “improving maternal health,” “combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases,” “ensuring environmental sustainability,” and “developing a global partnership for development.” These goals alone address many of the solutions to extreme poverty .
2. Debt relief may be another effective solution. The IMF notes that, “maintaining a sustainable debt position while seeking the additional financing needed to make progress toward the MDGs remains a serious challenge, even after debt relief under the HIPC Initiative. The IMF and World Bank are looking for solutions, with poverty reduction as the central focus.” They also note that “the HIPC Initiative, even supplemented by the [Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative] MDRI, is not a panacea. Even if all of the external debts of these countries were forgiven, most would still depend on significant levels of concessional external assistance, since their receipts of such assistance have been much larger than their debt-service payments for many years” (IMF).
3. PRSPs are another often considered solution to global poverty. Stephens works with people in local communities to help them develop these projects and to arrange resources. People who live in such communities are responsible for fulfilling their own ideas for improvement and are able to hold one another accountable against corruption. Further, these programs create stakeholders in rural areas who know that their ideas and their desired way of life can be achieved.
4. Designers like William McDonough work to create objects that can be reused without being downgraded. Solutions like these will reduce the negative impacts of ‘waste’ on the environment; these technologies will support further improvements in developing countries, and may create jobs all over the planet.
5. The UN MDGs indicate that one of the best ways to improve conditions in a place is to improve the quality of life and education for women. Stephens discusses that previously, men in local communities dealing with the Bank made poor decisions. Once the Bank required half of all ideas come from separate meetings with women, more useful, effective projects came to the table.
CONCLUSIONS, ANALYSIS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Understanding this issue and possible solutions is extremely important: poverty is no longer an acceptable and describes the worst possible human experience. Issues surrounding this problem are complex and interconnected, and must be carefully considered to limit unintended consequences. Unfortunately, many people view the issue from their own perspective and are unable to consider alternatives. I will examine the merits and weaknesses of five possible solutions; achievement of the MDGs, debt relief, PRSPs, C2C, and improved quality of life for women. After, I will recommend a course of action.
The World Bank notes that, “poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.” We can also see that poverty is hopelessness about your own future and future generations.
Further, poverty affects everyone because issues surrounding it are interconnected. The poor are often at the mercy of the environment, which in turn is threatened by the misuse of natural resources. They are unable to receive medical attention, which creates the perfect climate for epidemics such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Perhaps, as the Hoover Institute points out, poverty does not create terrorists, but impoverished governments cannot police their borders. Yet Lomborg indicates, terrorism, heroine manufacture and disease often thrive in such places. Further, extreme poverty affects people in Africa, East Asia and Southeast Asia. People from different countries and different cultural backgrounds will have different approaches and attitudes to such problems.
The complex nature of these issues means that one solution will not be enough. The global community must adapt its practices to meet the needs of individuals and situations, instead of attempting to apply a panacea. Sadly, many people in developed nations still presume to understand what is best for others, and do not consider the consequences of their actions on individuals in impoverished circumstances. Consider, for example, the boycott of sweatshops several years ago. For many poor people, sweatshops represented a step up from prostitution or fieldwork. Protests in the west destroyed their chance to join the Industrial Revolution (Scientific American).
Four of the five solutions: accomplishing the MDGs, providing debt relief for Highly Impoverished Poor Countries (HIPCs), the use of PRSPs to allow communities to own their projects, and improving the quality of life for women. I believe that combinations of each of these solutions need to be applied as appropriate for individual countries and communities. Other solutions that were beyond the scope of this paper, such as creation of infrastructure and support of intellectual property rights, may also help alleviate effects of extreme poverty in certain situations. In order to achieve these goals, the developed governments would need to increase aid, while individuals would need to think more carefully about their impact on these issues.
The fifth solution, designing products in the West, which do not need to be down-cycled at the end of their lives, will need to happen soon for environmental and economic reasons in the developed countries themselves. They, in turn, will be able to share these ideas and processes with developing countries, and the question of whether or not there will be enough natural resources for everyone will be answered with a resounding yes.
REFERENCES
Adams, J. Michael and Angelo Carfagna
2006 Coming of Age in a Globalized World: The Next Generation. Bloomsfield: Kumarian Press, Inc.
Africa Development Bank Group
2007 The Poverty-Environment Nexus in Africa. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.afdb.org/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/ADB_ADMIN_PG/DOCUMENTS/STATISTICS/GE07_ARTICLE_0.PDF
BBC News
2007 World Factbook. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1886617.stm
China Daily News
2007 Education can Break Vicious Poverty Cycle. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005 09/23/content_480262.htm .
Columbia University
2007 How Not to Count the Poor. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.columbia.edu/~sr793/count.pdf
Global Issues
2007 Causes of Poverty. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp
Global Issues
2007 Poverty and the Environment. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Development/PovertyEnv.asp
Globalization 101
2007 Development. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007.
http://www.globalization101.org/issue/development/
Hoover Institution
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(edited to include hyperlinks)
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