Baylee Konen

Blog Post 2: Emerging Africa

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Question 1

Going beyond what would be considered as ‘whitewashed’ news that westerners usually hear in developed countries, there is good news coming out of Africa.  In Steve Radlets’s  “Emerging Africa- How 17 Countries are Leading the Way”, The “good” News in Africa is defined by these following four factors:

1.The increase of democratic governments throughout the continents.

 Radlet uses the example of Ghana, in where there are movements for the freedom of the press and a democracy. Additionally, since Ghana has shifted to a democracy, the quality of their governments and basic human rights have improved. This is positive shift consistent with all countries who switch to democracies.

2. Government Implementation of sensible economic policies.

Greater economic policies have led to greater economic stability in Africa. Radelet said that progressive African countries have grown 2 percent per capita since 1996.

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Source: The Economist

3.The spread of new technologies.

New technology in Africa has allowed for new business opportunities and education. Access to information is so important in any country, and it is in my opinion a basic human right. More access to information means more knowledge, and knowledge is power.

4. “The Cheetah generation”

The emergence of young activists, entrepreneurs, and policy makers is pushing social change in Africa. Their determination is moving mountains in Africa and is giving each member of the cheetah generation a sense of power  and responsibility to their respective countries.

Question 2

Jeffery Sachs suggests that the time eradicate poverty is now and as soon as possible because day to day life is still a struggle for many. He says that poverty has much to do with sustainable development, so therefore if we are eradicating extreme poverty, we are also being more sustainable in the long run. An example of this is the Millennium Villages Project that is happening in Africa. Their goal is to create communities to get people out of extreme poverty through “agriculture, education, health, infrastructure, gender equality, and business development”. (Source: http://millenniumvillages.org/the-villages/)

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Source: The Millennial Villages Project Brochure

These new projects are sustainable because they are only being built in places that have the national governments support and require community-led decision making so that the communities’ citizens have a say in decision making and therefore power and incentive. In my opinion, I think the villages are a positive move because they are creating opportunities where there wasn’t any before and I think it is spending aid in the right way because it is directly spending the money on the project. I especially favor this project because it is investing money it the country’s citizens and growing an economy from the ground up (citizens to government) versus top down (government to citizens).

 

Two Villages:

Tiby, Mali

(http://millenniumvillages.org/the-villages/tiby-mali/)

The village was chosen in Tiby because of the high child mortality rate, the abundant cases of malaria, and the long 9 to 11-month dry season. The village was chosen because of these problems and their rural geographic destination. So far, the project had constructed 100 new classrooms and eliminated school fees. Mali’s GDP (2002) is 3.l billion USD and its GNP (2005) is 5.12 billion USD, WPI was not found. (source:http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/pageinfo_pays.php3?Pays=MLI&Opt=economy)

In 2012, sustainable solar electricity was introduced to the village to lower the costs of kerosene lamps.

Click Here for solar electricity video

In this way, the village is able to continue growing and become further out of extreme poverty. Mali is one of the poorest countries in Africa, so it seems as though the millennial villages are so far making a positive effect on the Tiby village.

Toya, Mali

(http://millenniumvillages.org/the-villages/toya-mali-2006-11/)

Projects began in Toya in 2006 because of the droughts and extreme heat the area experiences. The main sources of food are irrigated rice and cattle. During the time of the millennial project more than 6,000 cattle where vaccinated, and rice yields were 6.3 tons per hectare. School attendance also increased, HIV/AIDs education was born, and households received cooking stoves. The GDP for Mali is the same as listed above.

Overall, the project ended in 2015 due to its 10-year progression plan. However, the effect of what the project has done is still seen in each of the villages today.

 

 

 

 

Amanda Barner

Post 2: Emerging Africa

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Amanda Barner

Q: What are the factors that classify as good news in Africa according to Radelet?

A: Radelet considers several factors to be indication of “good news” in Africa. Factors include economic growth rates in terms of annual income per capita and overall GDP, as well as rates of trading and return on investments. He also considers the amount of people living above and below the poverty line. School enrolment and completion, as well as literacy rates are incredibly important, especially for young girls, and decreases in child mortality and overall health are signs of good news. Much of this is possible only through good governance, which has changed for the better in the 17 developing countries.

Q: Explore the Millennium Villages. Find retrospectives and critical views, and address the most urgent task (according to Jeffrey Sachs the greatest global challenge) eradicating poverty. 

large_Map_New_MVs
A map of countries where Millennium Villages were created.

A:  Jeffery Sachs describes extreme poverty as “the most urgent priority, because it is a matter of life and death for at least 1 billion people.” Extreme poverty is defined as the daily struggle for mere survival. Sachs approves of the creation of SDGs, the first being to end extreme poverty, including hunger. In 2005, he created villages scattered across sub-Saharan Africa to act as concrete goals towards MDGs. According to their website, Millennium Villages are “fighting poverty at the village level through community-led development,” and that with modest outside support, the villages can “transition from subsistence farming to self-sustaining commercial activity.”

There is, however, criticism as to the effectiveness of these villages. Some economists question the effectiveness of aid, or suggest that aid could better be used elsewhere for less flashy but better conceived projects.  Or for example, if a village like Ruhiira is doing well, is it because Uganda in general is doing better or can Sachs take that credit? Most cripplingly, there are no guidelines to compare the Millennium Villages to other villages in the same area, so it is difficult to accurately measure how successful the villages and aid applied to them have been. Michael Clemens especially has been critical of the villages, first to admit that he admires the goals of the villages, but that because of how the project was created, there is no way to include a follow up and measurement of the success of the villages. And As Beth Duff-Brown points out in her review, there were no baseline comparisons made to other villages in the area so that progress or lack of it could be monitored and tracked.

Q: Choose two villages. Why was that particular village chosen? What is the goal for that village? What successes or failures have been recorded? What do the critics say? Look at the countries’ GDP, GNP, WDI, HDI, etc. to evaluate the village. How are local, national and global issues addressed and involved? And finally, what do you say after reading pros and cons. Is it a viable project towards ending poverty?

A: Koraro, Ethiopia:

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I chose Koraro for its unique approach to income with the use of beekeeping. The goal of the village was to address the problems of “severely degraded soil, high malaria and maternal mortality rates, lack of classrooms, unsafe drinking water, and extremely poor infrastructure.” According to its website, Koraro has seen success in generating income from 1,200 bee colonies, management of dairy cows, poultry production, and trading textiles and grains. There is now access to clean water for an estimated 6000 people, and particular attention has been paid to construction of primary schools as well as the “Girl’s Club” which keeps female students from dropping out.

As of 2016, the GDP of Ethiopia is $73 billion, it’s GNP is $660, and as of 2015 it’s HDI was 0.448. It should be noted that road construction and incentives to workers has been taken up by the local government, so while it may have started as a goal for the Millennium Village, it is only possible with government support.

Ruhiira, Uganda:

The goal for Ruhiira was to difficult travel, very little wood due to deforestation, and “the highest tuberculosis prevalence in southwestern Uganda.” In some ways, the village (according to its own website) has been successful, with children in primary schools receiving meals changing from 5% to 74%, and a School2School program which connects children in Ruhiira to children in Connecticut via internet. Malaria prevalence is “approaching zero”, maize yields are up, and there is better sources of drinking water. Uganda as a whole has a GDP of $24 billion, a GNP of $630, and a HDI of 0.493. Since there is no real method of comparison and monitoring of success of the village it is difficult to accurately track its successes and downfalls.

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I feel that the vision Sachs had for the villages was well-intentioned, and there certainly has been some improvement in the villages, though how much of that is due to Sachs project cannot be known. I am irritated by the lack of measurable goals and quantifiable data compared to other baseline villages in the area. I believe that ideas behind the Millennium Villages are solid: creating local methods of generating income, but the execution was poor.

Additional Resources:

https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2018/04/24/a-look-at-the-millennium-villages-project/

https://www.cgdev.org/blog/why-careful-evaluation-millennium-villages-not-optional

https://data.worldbank.org/country/ethiopia

https://countryeconomy.com/countries/ethiopia

https://data.worldbank.org/country/uganda

https://countryeconomy.com/countries/uganda

 

 

Trinity Adamsel

Blog Post#1: Poverty, Neoliberalism, and Aid

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By: Trinity Adamsel 

a) Jacqueline Novogratz in her TED talks brings up the question on how to define poverty. What is her answer? What is her main message?

Jacqueline Novogratz defines poverty as not only being about income (which can define as making one to three dollars a day), but also about the lack of opportunities that an environment has to promote upward mobility for each individual.

Jacqueline Novogratz main message is centered around the idea of others supporting others in a sense. She talks about how poor environments can be the foundation for new developments in areas such as technology and infrastructure. It is important that if better off countries and citizens in those countries can give aid and help in little ways, they should do it. But most importantly people whether rich or poor, are people and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

b)What is the vision, the goal of the SDGs? What is the effect of neoliberalism (cutting government spending promoted by the World Bank and IMF)?

“The SDGs are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity” (Sustainable Development Goals, 2018). The SDGs have 17 goals plus newly added ones that are all divided in a way to bring focus to particular problems and have clear solutions/ideas for them.

The IMF institutionalized the neoliberalism agenda. Neoliberalism is used to shut out any competition that will go against the IMF’s opinion on economics. “At the political level, the promotion of neoliberalism approached tyrannical levels with some governments, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, seeing any challenge to neoliberalism as a challenge to a national way of life” (Herald, 2016). Neoliberalism effect several things such as an increase in unemployment, an increase in food and fuel prices, environmental degradation and debt crises, just to name a few (Simfukwe, 2018).

c)John McArthur in Own the Goals talks about “Players on the Bench”. Who are they and what does he criticize?

In John McArthur’s article “Own the Goals,” he makes a reference about “Players on the Bench.” The “players on the bench” refers to the United States of America with emphasis on the President George W. Bush administration.

McArthur criticized the U.S non involvement with the MDGs. The U.S launched many plans and efforts such as the AIDs treatment and Millennium Declarations that were very similar to MDGs efforts or even directly linked to the MDGs, but refused to work with them because “the Bush administration views the MDGs as UN-dictated aid quotas” (McArthur, 2013). McArthur believes that the United States refusal to get involved with the MDGs, cost them “missed opportunities to highlight its contributions to development efforts and foster international goodwill” (McArthur, 2013).

d)The article “How to Help Poor Countries” (2005) addresses the question of more aid money. Please elaborate. What are suggestions made by the authors?

Within the article “How to Help Poor Countries,” the idea of giving poor countries more aid was discussed. The article explained how more aid to poor countries can enhance  their healthcare system, which in turn can better the lives of the citizens. The article even further discussed how more aid lowered infant mortality rates, and illnesses such as river blindness has been mostly treated. Having more aid creates a rippling effect in way because having more aid can help to gain “Aids” programs to get Aids medicine to women, which allows them to be able to go to school. Giving poor countries more aid money not only help the healthcare but also reforms and laws. For example, “by giving Polish more aid money, they were able to get out of some debt and had more currency to focus on policy reforms” (Birdsall, 2005).

To better help poor countries, the author suggest many options. One of those options involves wealthier countries giving technological advances to developing countries, which can increase their opportunities for private companies and markets. The author also suggests that pharmaceutical firms should conduct more research on diseases in developing countries rather than focusing mostly on diseases in wealthy countries.  The author explained how the world economy efficiency and the incomes of the citizens from poorer countries can be increased if trade negotiator will better the cross-border mobility of labor for specifically low-skill workers (Birdsall, 2005).

 

Sites

Birdsall, Nancy. How to Help Poor Countries . Foreign Affairs , Aug. 2005.

Deccan, Herald. “Impact of Neoliberalism.” Deccan Herald, DeccanHerald, 12 July 2016, http://www.deccanherald.com/content/557523/impact-neoliberalism.html.

McArthur, John W. “Own the Goals.” Foreign Affairs , Mar. 2013.

Simfukwe, Ricky, and eval (decodeURIComponent(‘document.write(‘KISEMBO NUURU’);’)). “Neoliberalism – Effects Of Neoliberal Policies.” Carbon, Energy, Greenhouse, and Atmosphere – JRank Articles, Net Industries and Its Licensors, 2018, science.jrank.org/pages/10467/Neoliberalism-Effects-Neoliberal-Policies.html.

“Sustainable Development Goals.” UNDP, United Nations Development Programme, 2018, http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html.

Baylee Konen

(Post 1) The Complexity of Defining Poverty

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Author: Baylee Konen

Question A

Jaqueline Novogratz first defines poverty as making less than $1.25 per day, but then states that poverty is not defined by numbers; there are people behind the monetary value. She says that when looking at poverty, it is present along the whole economic spectrum.

Her answer to poverty is to give dignity to the human beings living in it and she conveys the message that it is not the impoverished people that are the reason for why they live in the situations they do: it is because of the broken system in which they live in. Her main message is that in order to fix these systems, we need to provide support, such as confidence and the ability to realize goals in impoverished communities that would ultimately change the statistic of $1.25 per day.

By giving opportunities to those living in poverty, it would turn an often tragic situation into one sprouting in innovation and opportunity: It is turning a negative situation into a positive one. By being positive, it could change the world’s outlook on how other societies view poverty and ultimately ending in an opportunistic perspective instead of an often depressing one.

Question B

The overall U.N. SDG goal is a “universal to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity”  , with 17 separate sub goals following. The goals came into effect in January 2016 and will end in 2030 and will be applied in the U.N.’s 170 countries and territories.

Neoliberalism is the idea that economy should be deregulated and privatized: What works in the private sector will also work in the public sector. The concept may seem ideal at face value because it promotes a free market, but what has happened is that most of the big corporations have taken a large share of the public market. Because of this, its effects are seen in places like the public education system and private sector companies: Pearson, for example, provides textbooks for classes. This ultimately leads to inequality in the education system, which was originally made to promote equality and equal opportunity.

Through a worldwide lens, this makes the rich richer and the poor poorer and makes it impossible for poor contries to compete with rich ones.

Question C

In John, McArthur’s article named “Players on the bench”, he talks about Millennial Development Goals (MDGs) as being the game,  the benchwarmers being the United States government and World bank, and their reason being Neoliberalism. He explains that if the World Bank would have funded the MDGs and if the U.S. wouldn’t have been so hesitant to get involved, they might have been successful.

Because of a lack of resources, the MDGs did not meet their goals, and those might have been the chance the world needed to improve an otherwise plundering situation. Also, because the MDGs were not met, the planet and those who live on it are a more risk than before. Although the standards of living of the impoverished are improving, they are not improving enough to keep up with the rich world or the environment.

Question D

In the article “How to Help Poor Countries” , it explains how monetary aid does not improve the situation in terms of poverty. The reason for this is because the monetary aid is given to the often corrupt governments and the money goes into the pockets of those in political office rather than to the citizens. There is no circulation of the money given and therefore is ineffective.

Instead of giving money to the governments, the article suggests putting  money towards special projects. For example, spending money on bed nets for people in Africa who live in malaria-polluted areas would be more effective than just giving money to the countries’ governing bodies. Another way would be to provide education for certain skills, such as sewing.

Working on social development will help financial development in the long run, while just nurturing financial development is only effective for the short run. In the end, it is not only important to assist impoverished countries financially, but it is equally essential to improve social inequality and help those who need it in the right way.

Amanda Barner

Post 1: MDGs and SDGs

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By Amanda Barner

  1. Jacqueline Novogratz in her TED talks brings up the question on how to define poverty. What is her answer? What is her main message?
    1. In her TED talk, Jacqueline Novogratz defines poverty as the (as of 2005) 4 billion people who make less than the equivalent of $4 a day. She uses this definition to point out that she primarily works with those who make around $1-3 a day. Her examples include Indian farmers who make even less, an average of .60 cents. She also points out that well-off people tend to view impoverished populations as these big masses of people who need the help of foreign aid. The reality is that if given the chance and resources, poor people can and will make their own business decisions and find ways to provide for themselves in their own local economy without the assistance of foreign hand-outs. This leads to her main message, which is that instead of focusing on just helping the poor by sending over secondhand goods or malaria nets, we should instead help impoverished people create their own local businesses. As she states, the question is not “why can’t we help these people?” but rather “how can we help these people do this for themselves?”
  2. What is the vision, the goal of the SDGs? What is the effect of neo-liberalism (cutting government spending promoted by the World Bank and IMF)?
    1. The vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to “guide the world’s economic diplomacy in the coming generation”, to both understand and find a way to solve global problems. Since these problems are large and far-reaching, the SDGs were created to have a better and more defined grasp on how to tackle these overarching issues, such as hunger, gender equality, and climate action both on land and below water. Not only is the world economy massively unequal in resource distribution, but it is also harmful to the earth, and thus the SDGs target not only the world economy but also global society and the earth’s physical environment. As Sachs points out, this also includes good governance, because the SDGs are useless if government and business leaders of countries do not actually work towards these goals.
    2. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were created as well-intentioned way of promoting aid based on pre-existing benchmarks. However, if not used properly, foreign aid can lose its effectiveness. The idea then, is to better help developing countries by creating business opportunities for domestic investors with regards to the country’s politics. With this in mind, it is important to remember that neo-liberalism, defined as the emphasis on free market competition, has led towards a few monolithic companies dominating transnationally, leading to both economic disparity and protectionism in industrialized companies.
  3. John McArthur in Own the Goals talks about “Players on the Bench”. Who are they and what does he criticize?
    1. John McArthur criticizes the hesitancy in Washington DC and especially of President Bush, State Department officials, and the World Bank to embrace the MDGs. By refusing to publicly approve of and work towards the MDGs for so long, the United States missed an opportunity to build political capital in international issues, as well as offer aid in development efforts which could have created more amicable bonds between countries. By trying to avoid any fixed goals of foreign aid, the United States ended up falling short of pledges to developing countries in Africa.
  4. The article “How to Help Poor Countries” (2005) addresses the question of more aid money. Please elaborate. What are suggestions made by the authors?
    1. The authors point out that in some specific circumstances, aid can do quite a lot of good, for instance with the global fight against AIDs and eradication of smallpox. However, while aid can work well, it can only happen if the countries receiving it help themselves and “have the capacity and the leadership to spend the money wisely.” If the aid money cannot be distributed or handled properly then it loses its effectiveness. Historically, some countries like China or India have received little aid from the United States in comparison to countries such as Mexico or Nicaragua, and yet China and India, through their own systems of government and economy, have managed to grow, whereas those with aid but little ability to distribute it still suffer from stagnancy. More effective that simply giving foreign aid money is the act of helping those countries create their own economic policies and businesses, which would generate longer-term and far more stable sources of money.