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I recently finished reading “Three Cups Of Tea”, the inspiring story of Greg Mortenson a man who traveled to Pakistan where he attempted to climb K2. His failure and the subsequent events which lead him to the small village of Korphe and the direction of his life is changed for ever.

The book is written by Mortenson himself and David Oliver Relin. Its pages are filled with interesting characters and a variety of dramas. There is a very strong focus on the people in Pakistan and Afghanistan that helped Mortenson to achieve so much.

One reoccurring theme is the idea that by providing a balanced education to children they are less likely to end up involved in the extremist maddrassas that are known as a breeding ground for terrorists. “Books not Bombs” is one way of putting it.

You get a real sense that the heavy involvement of the local people in the projects is a huge part of the success. They have a great knowledge of the needs of their own community and also of the problems likely to be faced which may be paticular to their culture or location.

The book is very thought provoking. I found that I become more aware of the importance of respecting culture as much as possible when trying to help communities. This can be very tricky, there is a tendency for people to think that just because they have stronger economies and better health that everything is better. It seems important to find ways to help people to change the things they want to change, this is where the development of relationships with the community are very important.

Obviously not all of us are going to go and live in poor communities to better understand their needs, however what we can do is look for charities that have people who do this kind of thing and respect local culture and traditions while bringing in changes for the better.

Gapminder has to be one of the coolest ways I’ve seen to look at data you can view loads of variables and animate the graphs to show changes over time. You can see how various things are interlinked like income and infant mortality for example. Check it out here.

There is so much data in there that it can be hard to know what to look at, Hans Roslings gives a great demo of the technology here.

Here’s a cool talk I found on Ted.com from 2005 where Bono speaks about aid in Africa. He speaks in a very passionate and engaging way. Perhaps my favourite line is when he speaks of the terrible problems in Africa saying “it’s not a cause, it’s an emergency”.

Imagine a TV show based on reducing poverty in the developing world. People need to see the problems others are facing (some news channels do a good job of this) but perhaps even more important is that people see that something can be done about it.

I find it quite amazing that there isn’t a TV show about reducing poverty. Perhaps there is in other countries but New Zealand certainly doesn’t seem to have anything like this. There are a few advertising campaigns and a few depressing documentaries but very little focused on action and progress. Imagine a weekly show that includes stories at the personal, community and national level with a balance of information between what is going well and what will work better in future.

A while ago when watching “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”, I thought this is kind of cool but what if they helped the people in greatest need? Probably going for a more reasonable quality of life rather than trying to give them the lifestyle of millionaires.  This could be called “Extreme Makeover: Village Edition”.

Is there already a TV show about reducing poverty in your country? Do you think this is a good idea? Let me know in the comments.

Mwangi over at The Displaced African recently had a question and answer session. So I took that opportunity to ask the question “In your opinion, what is the best thing we can do to help prevent poverty in the world?”. A tough question to answer but his thoughts were very interesting.

My attempt at summarizing Mwangi’s main points:

• Support free and fair trade.
• Consume resources in a sustainable manner.
• Support the World Social Forum.
• Help people like the South African Shackdwellers.
• Improve foreign aid programs.
• Don’t try to force western ideals on other cultures.
• Let people lift themselves out of poverty where possible by removing the barriers.
• Love your neighbours.
• Take advantage of modern media .

You can read Mwangi’s answer in full on his blog. Here’s a few quotes from his answer and my thoughts on the points he raises.

We can also try to affect policy within Western countries and get rid of subsidies and tarrifs. Aid is a sick pathetic joke. Tell me the day that a compound interest loan, the humiliation of having people of another country be in charge of your destiny and shove their way of life and ideas down your throat is charity and I will show you the day that a shower curtain is the perfect fashion accesory for any season.

- Mwangi

Regarding the loans, it does seem crazy to give compound interest loans to countries that are already struggling with debt. Perhaps a better idea would be to cancel existing debt or at least allowing suspension of loan repayments until the country can get back on it’s feet. Debt cancellation obviously has to be accompanied by a plan to prevent the debt from reaccumulating.

I believe ideas and technology from other countries can be very beneficial for helping countries that have high poverty. However countries generally should not be forced or coerced into adopting new practices, especially when it comes to cultural issues.

Mwangi also raises the issue of people taking responsiblity for the collective good.

Finally, as a species we need to raise our consciousness to a place where we can actually co-exist with each other, without always trying to dominate and control one another on the one hand and with all of us taking responsibility for the individual and collective good i.e. loving ourselves and loving our neighbour just as much and not only knowing that intellectually but making decisions daily that are guided by that principle.

- Mwangi

I think that loving our neighbour is a fundamental part of reducing poverty. If people look at the world more as a whole and love all people then we will make much better progress.

People and governments are too often reluctant to help, or actually do harm because they fear losing “the competition”. I certainly struggle with this at times; on one hand I really want to support charities that I think are worthwhile while on the other hand I’m worried that I will get behind in the little race that seems to be going on in society. You know the race I’m talking about, the one where you feel as if there is a need to amass more material wealth than those around you. This is one race that isn’t worth winning, the costs are just too high.

I would like to hear your thoughts too. Please join in with the conversation by leaving a comment.

Water is the most important resource that we have on the planet. Humans cannot live without water and it is used in all sorts of food production and manufacturing processes. Many people in the world do not have access to clean water.

This is part three of the series Developing The World which looks into the factors required for good quality of life.

Why Water Is Important

Starting with the obvious you need water to survive, with no water at all people cannot last much longer than a week even in ideal conditions (Packer 2008^[1]). In extremely hot weather death can come as quickly as two days, this could be even faster if a lot of sweating is occurring through exercise.

There are also serious health side effects to chronic dehydration.

Water is also essential for food production whether growing crops or farming animals. Nothing will grow in places that don’t have water, you only have to compare a desert and rain forest for evidence of this.

In some areas collecting water takes up a significant amount of peoples time and energy each day. This is time that can’t be spent on education, farming, producing goods for sale.

If the only available water is polluted people will be forced to drink it. Consuming contaminated water can cause many different illnesses and diseases.

Do People Have Enough Water

There are over one billion people in the world that don’t have access to clean drinking water. Africa is one of the worst hit areas (Unicef 2007)^[2].

Sanitation is a huge issue with many people getting sick when they have no choice but to drink polluted water.

Some people have to walk for several hours to get water each day. The amount time and energy spent doing this is time and energy that can’t be used for other important activities like child care, education, producing products for money and farming.

How Can We Improve

In many areas the biggest thing that can be done to increase access to clean water is reducing or stopping pollution. This pollution has many causes factories/mines that dump waste into rivers, innadequate or non-existant sanitation facilities. Anti pollution campaigns are important to prevent the pollution of water in the first place, while water treatment plants can be a great way to remove toxins whether they are naturally present or a result of pollution.

Some places though just have naturally low water reserves and the population has increased meaning there just isn’t enough water to go around any more. What can be done in places like this?

Certain areas have adequate water supplies running underground but people have no way of accessing them, digging wells in these areas can make provide a huge increase in the wellbeing of a whole community.

There is of course a vast water resource in the world … our oceans. Unfortunately the salt in it makes it unsuitable for consumption. This is where desalination comes in. Desalination is the process of removing the salt from water to make it more suitable for drinking. The main problem with desalination is that it is quite costly requiring large amounts of energy and expensive equipment. Hopefully improvements in technology can make the process less costly over time.

Reservoirs are another way to ensure a consistent water supply. There is a lot of debate over where reservoirs should be built and issues with displacement of people in the newly flooded areas, but there has been some success stories.

Take Action

There are a lot of charities that work to give people access to clean water. Many charities look to improve water supply as part of a whole package. Here are a few that focus specifically on water access issues.

• End Water Poverty
• Just a Drop
• Charity Water

References

1. Packer, Randall K. (Accessed 21.7.2008) How long can the average person survive without water?<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-long-can-the-average&topicID=3> ↩
2. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
   Annual Report
   2007 http://www.unicef.org/wes/files/UNICEF_WASH_2007_Annual_Report_18_June.pdf↩

Bono is the leader singer of the band U2 and is highly involved with supporting and promoting charity.

In Jeffrey Sachs’ book “The End Of Poverty” Bono refers to the fifteen thousand Africans the day of diseases that are either preventable or treatable, diseases like AIDS, malaria and TB.

“This statistic alone makes a fool of the idea that many of us hold onto tightly: the idea of equality. What is happening in Africa mocks our pieties, doubts our concern, and questions our commitment to the whole concept. Because if we’re honest, there’s no way we could conclude that such mass death day after day would ever allowed to happen anywhere else. Certainly not in North America, or Europe, or Japan. An entire continent bursting into flames? Deep down, if we really accept that their lives - African lives - are equal to ours, we would all be doing more to put the fire out. It’s an uncomfortable truth.”

This is so well said, most people place a high value on equality or at least they say they do … they might even think they do but the evidence we see in the world just doesn’t add up. If everyone truly cared surely we’d be doing more to help them.

For a long time I didn’t really give much thought to helping people in poverty. I would briefly consider it after seeing world vision ads on TV but usually banished the thoughts to the back of my mind with excuses like “I don’t even know if my money will get to them”. Over time, through friends (thanks Susie) and reading I have learned more about poverty. Becoming more aware of what is happening has caused me to feel a great deal more empathy for needy people. There is still much more for me to learn but I have realized that it’s important to help in the best way I know how. So I have begun contributing and continue to learn.

I’ve only just started reading it but “The End Of Poverty” looks to be a very interesting read. It claims to show how we can end poverty by 2025. If you would like to buy this book use the link below and 4% of your purchases value will go to charity.

This is part two of the series Developing The World which looks into the factors required for good quality of life.

Why Food Is Important

Food greatly improves our standard of living, without it we would not be able to live at all. Amazingly people can survive for about 6 weeks without food as long as they have water, this figure will vary a lot. You would certainly be in very bad shape after a couple of weeks as the body begins to digest your muscles to provide energy for vital functions

So it’s clear that we need food to survive but how much do we need to have a good quality of life? 2000 calories a day is generally considered to be a suitable amount for most people.

What happens when people don’t get enough food? Malnutrition has many harmful effects.

• The immune system is weakened increasing the chance of infections and the lake of ability to fight off the infections makes them much more serious.
• Muscle and other body tissues waste away.
• Bones are weakend.
• Circulation issues are common.
• Swollen stomach - this is due to fluid accumulation in the stomach and a weakened abdominal wall.

Malnutrition is one of the things that keeps people in poverty by reducing peoples ability to look after themselves and learn.

Do People Get Enough Food?

In many countries of the western world people have too much food, this causes obesity and a range of associated health problems. Meanwhile other countries have large areas where malnutrition is prevalent.

This map shows the areas were malnutrition is common. Africa is the worst off but malnutrition is also prevalent in India, Mongolia, Central America, Indonesia and much of South America. Note the brown areas indicate more than 35 percent of the people in those countries are malnourished. That’s more than one in three.

How is malnutrition measured? What does it take for someone to be classified as malnourished? The most common measure is to use body mass index (BMI). Any one with a body mass index of less than 16 is often used to define undernourishment. For a person 5 foot and 8 inches (172cm) tall they would be classed as malnourished if they weighed less than 105 pounds (47.7kg).

How Can We Improve

It really does seem strange that in some parts of the world people are dying of starvation while in other areas excessive consumption of food is killing people. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could take the food that is causing obesity and give it to people who are starving … it sounds good doesn’t it. What stops this from happening?

Give People More Food

In 2002 the world was producing enough food for each person to get 2700 kcal per day (FAO 2002, p.9). I couldn’t find any current information on this but it’s likely there is still enough food in the world for everyone to be well nourished. People say that giving starving people food does not solve the problem because you’ll have to continue giving them food. This may not be entirely true because if you give more food to undernourished people they will become healthier and more able to do things to get themselves out of poverty.

Is there anything wrong with continually giving people food? Food distribution can be a complex issue and can be particularly difficult in countries where corruption is a problem, however it still seems like giving donations of food to people in need can provide immediate benefits for them.

Help Them To Produce More Food

A solution where people could support themselves is preferable. We can help to provide education , equipment and higher quality seeds to increase their food production or work on the other factors that cause poverty so they would have enough money to buy food.

Make Sure There Is Enough Food In The World

As we look to the future it is likely the world will begin to struggle to produce enough food to feed it’s growing population. If we are to meet this need a change to eating a diet with less meat may be required, growing plants for human consumption is a much more efficient use of land than farming animals.

Take Action

To help those people that are undernourished the main things we can do are:

• Provide food - I have not been able to find any charities where you can give money solely to provide food aid. If you know of any charities that do this, please leave a comment.
• Support Education - Room to Read is a charitable organization that supports education in developing countries through programs such as child scholarships, library construction and school construction. Find out more on my supported charities page.

Phrases like “developing countries” are often used to describe poor nations. The truth of course is that all countries are still developing, perhaps the rate of change is slower in some countries. Development in this context means growth or progress, both of these terms imply that things are getting bigger or better.

It’s not a trivial matter to define what “better” means for the human race. David Gordon does a pretty good job of it in his paper “Indicators of Poverty and Hunger” which identifies 8 things that are important for peoples standard of living.

1. Food
2. Safe drinking water
3. Sanitation facilities
4. Health
5. Shelter
6. Education
7. Information
8. Access to services

The first five of these items are not just important, they are required for people to survive. Some additional things commonly thought to improve quality of life are

9. Freedom

10. Love/Relationships

In future posts I will be covering each of items in the list shown above … why they’re important, how the world is doing now and what can be done to improve in the future. Subscribe to the RSS Feed to get notified of new posts.

If you have any ideas about other things that can improve our quality of life please leave a comment below.