Over the past few weeks I have been mulling over the problems stirring chaos for the innocent citizens of Zimbabwe.  The recent cholera outbreak has been absolutely devastating for this region.  I wonder if this occurance is actually worthy of the term ‘natural catastrophe.’  Looking over the reports regarding the way this country’s governmental and economic issues have been handled over the past decade, Zimbabwe could be far better off to deal with this situation had key problems been resolved properly years ago.  

According to a WHO Jan. 2009 press release, 60,401 people have been affected by the cholera outbreak.  As of January 29, 2009,  3,161 people have died.    Sanitation, food and medicine all cost money.  How is it that the global community can anticipate that a country with the world’s largest number of children orphaned to HIV/AIDS would realistically be prepared to handle any type of medical outbreak based on the current economical crisis?  Is it truly unforseeable to our global specialists that a large community lacking resources to the degree that Zimbabwe has been lacking for years, such an outbreak would not only be possible, but likely? 

BBC News has documented numerous reports dating back to 2000 about the severity of  Zimbabwe’s financial state.  Zimbabwe received threat to have their electricity supplies completely cut in August of 2000.  The Financial Express reported in 2006 that Zimbabwe would be left off of the MDRI’s debt relief list.   In December of 2008, the U.S. decided to discontinue a power-share deal which would have provided American support in the cancellation of Zimbabwe’s 1.2 billion dollar debt.  This withdrawal also results in the U.S. maintaining sanctions against Zimbabwe.  It is very hard to believe that people could not see a problem like the cholera outbreak on the horizon.   It is harder to believe that people do not anticpate this problem to get worse and/or similar problems to arise in the future for Zimbabwe and other collapsing countries placed under this much pressure. 

With that read, TransAfrica Forum is a voice for human rights and justice for the people of Zimbabwe.  They are seeking a constitution to bring an audit of Zimbabwe’s debt, repatriation of stolen assets, national investments in social development, job creation, et al.  The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) have made a recent appeal for additional funding for their operation.  It is feared IFRC may face a program scale down due to lack of money for the Zimbabwe cholera operation.  It is my hope that our leaders will remember majority of the people affected by these life threatening problems are the innocent civilians.    

**Please note that these are specifically the opinion of the author and may not represent those of any other person and/or organization…

My blog usually contains personal thoughts on debt relief.  I have recently been thinking about innovative and fresh ideas for the cause in 2009.  I find myself going over and over in my head with ideas that have already been played out so many times.  Is it a social network page, a petition site, an email group, a website or a blog?  Should we comment, create widgets and/or run our avatars through cyberspace?  Do we need to have a phone conference, youtube or online video networking/radio show?  Is this the one that will create change this year?  Should I take that new site invitation, add the application, advertise the books that I read on-line or simply join a new chat group?  What can I really do this year?  Are we moving forward?   I am aware that I would not have met as many people as I have in my deeply embedded virtual world.  I don’t believe that I would have learned or expressed most of the things that have come and gone across this monitor.  On the other hand,  I still see the problems piling up.  They continue to  hover over us like a dark cloud.  Do we need something new?

It wouldn’t upset me at all if my blog here were done.   According to Dan Restrepo, it would just mean that the Obama-Biden Administration would make  debt relief available to all developing nations in need.   Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden co-sponsored the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation Act of 2007.    People were showing signs of concern as to whether or not our President-elect would actually come through on his promises.  According to the track record, things look pretty good with regard to both Obama and Biden’s opinions on how we need to approach these global issues.  There is clear indication in Obama’s  plan to combat global HIV/AIDS as to what measures might be taken to get these debts cancelled.  Obama also takes into consideration potential for improving upon our current debt relief policies.   It is my hope that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden will maintain the same level of passion on this issue, and are able to make the needed improvements in order to save lives for many years to come.

Well, I’ve been busy thinking of a post on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but without much success. Some questions and disjointed comments come to mind, but nothing that looks like a good, coherent little essay. So, I’ll skip that and just lay out what I’ve been thinking about. Maybe my thoughts will spark some idea you can use or a discussion that leads to an idea WE could use.

I noted this evening (Thursday) that Africa is the area where progress is farthest behind schedule.

http://one.org/issues/mdgs.html

I had been thinking of something that could be done by a small group in DC, alone or with other groups that would be of some use in promoting progress on one or more of the MDGs. That, by itself, is a whole lot to expect! So, the obvious thing to do is to focus. Now, if we want to focus geographically, Africa makes sense. Focus on a project that promotes one MDG in Africa might be even better. But which MDG and where in Africa?

Should we even focus on Africa as such or on motivating people in the DC area to do something? Who would we target? How? What do we want them to do? Whatever we want them to do needs to be specific – donate $50 to Oxfam or do some holiday shopping at Ten Thousand Villages. Encouraging people to pay attention to what is happening in Africa is not specific or useful!

I’m not coming up with any specific suggestions that would (a) help promote progress on one MDG and (b) constitute a realistic project for a small group of DC-area activists. No, those two examples in the previous paragraph were not meant to be serious suggestions.
 

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has indicated that he will represent 170 countries at Saturday’s G20 Summit.   Ban believes we need to ”show solidarity toward the neediest.”  According to allAfrica.com, South Africa will be the only country in Africa to maintain formal representation at this meeting.  There are multiple social movements on arise that will stand up for countries without representation.  They believe there is a definite need for change.  It is noted in many instances that the countries predicted to be most affected by the current economical crisis are already the worlds poorest communities.  Patrick Worsnip with Reuters noted that the UN Millennium Campaign has called on the G20 to provide an additional $300 Billion in aid and debt relief in order to assist  poor countries vulnerable to the loss of gross domestic product caused by the recent crisis.  With hope and anticipation that this powerful group of individuals will come up with strong remedy for the oncoming struggle awaiting so many…

Many people are expressing concern about our current debt relief programs.  The nef (the new economics foundation)  provide various reports and research with regard to our approach.  They give detailed information about the status of development for the debt relief program.  In addition, the nef provide strategic measure that can be made to overcome some of the problems faced.  

In their last report, nef give insight as to why our current debt relief program is not working.  They also provide a list of key components that could help pave the way for a more successful one. 

The world needs an approach to debt management which: 

• is comprehensive and fair (both to creditors and debtors); 
• addresses the deficiencies summarised; 
• guards against unintended adverse consequences (for example, it helps to maintain the flow of new and rollover finance to those that can afford and need it); 
• can take human development needs into account; 
• examines the origin and circumstances of loans; and
• takes account of the need for creditors to exercise due diligence and to take their share of the responsibility for loans which go wrong for a variety of reasons.

Additional debt sovereignty articles and reports provided by nef can be found at jubileereasearch.org

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Poverty is the worst form of violence, and it is the most common form of violence which is committed daily against on quarter of the world’s children. Over a billion people across the globe live on less than a dollar a day, placing them in extreme poverty. Moderate poverty is defined as those living, on $1 to $2 a day, leaving a total of some 2.8 billion people, almost half the world’s population, living in poverty. We live in a society that claims it will not tolerate violence, but we let this injustice continue to plague and haunt the most vulnerable…it is time we took a stand and fought for the victims, that we invested in and worked to protect our future.

See the original here

As time quickly passes by and our daily lives seem to be one endless “To Do List”, the worlds “To Do List”, the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) still has a lot of things to be checked off. Now that we are more than half way to “D-Day” what begun to weigh heavy on most people’s minds is one of wonderment as to if we are on track to get everything done in order to reach the MDGs.  The truth is most countries are failing to meet all or some of the MDGs.

The ability to successfully meet the MDGs is crucial to children across the globe, especially those in the developing world.  A whole generation’s futures teeters in the balance as countries around the world try to win the race of catch-up, however many seem to be dragging their feet. The race for 2015 is truly a team sport, thus many have then been left to question the international community and if they are doing enough to see that reaching the MDGs are in sight. Such gaps were brought to attention in the Oxfam report, The IMF and the Millennium Goals Failing to deliver for low income countries.

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In posts one may find that I often mention the Millennium Development Goals, and if countries are on track to meet them. Thus I wanted to provide background on the MDGs and how they came to be established, in order to give you a better understanding of what they are and what needs to be done to achieve them.

In September 2000 the leaders of 189 UN member states adopted the Millennium Declaration, committing their countries to a stronger global effort to reduce poverty, improve health and promote peace, human rights and sustainable environment. It was with this declaration that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were born, and thus established eight specific, measurable, time-bound targets which would bind countries together in an effort to place a higher focus on inadequate incomes, widespread hunger, gender inequality, environmental deterioration and lack of education, healthcare and clean water. All UN nations engaged to work together to achieve the MDGs by 2015 adapting the goals to country specific development level.

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Tuesday night’s one.org meetup focused on technological innovation and environmental sustainability. Here are some key points from my (Chet’s) notes. I’ve added a couple of links not originally mentioned.

The main focus of Tuesday night’s meeting was technological innovation that supports environmental sustainability. We also delved into the role of technological innovation in supporting the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

As a reminder, here are the specific MDG targets for environmental sustainability:

1. By 2015, halve the number of people who lack sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

2. Achieve a significant reduction in the rate of species loss, by 2015, In response to a question from one attendee, I admit that I don’t know the current estimated rate of species loss. I also don’t know what a “significant reduction” is.

3. Achieve significant improvements in the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.

4. Integrate principles of sustainable development into policies and programs to reverse resource loss (water, soil, forest cover, species, and others)

So, there is clearly plenty of room for technological innovation in getting us closer to all of those targets. Bear in mind that technological innovation can be either the creation of new technologies, or putting an existing technology to wider use. Obviously, a new technology could also be combined with other technologies too.

The best technologies for promoting environmental sustainability need not be modern or sophisticated in any other sense. The best technologies are often, but not always, simple devices that can be built and maintained by locals using locally available resources – appropriate technology to use the common term. Wikipedia contains an entry on appropriate technology, with a long list of examples.

Many poverty-related challenges stand in the way of reaching those sustainability targets Here are some of them:

1. Water shortages – an obvious problem for farm productivity

2. Disease – death and disability are huge economic drains on poor countries

3. Lack of arable land – same as #1

4. Poor quality housing – safety hazard and poor sanitary conditions

5. Lack of access to energy – shortage of access to clean and safe sources

6. Water quality – see #6

7. Education – opens up new opportunities

Those challenges are a cause and a consequence of the conditions that make environmental sustainability an important goal. Lack of clean water is an major contributor to disease.

That brings us to the other MDGs and how technological innovation can support their attainment. Bear in mind that some technologies support two or more MDGs. Bear in mind that I’m not saying that technological innovation will lead to achievement of all MDGs. We anti-poverty activists realize that social innovation will be necessary too! But social innovations can also start with technology. There are bartering systems that use mobile phone minutes as a substitute for currency.

Here are summaries of the other seven MDGs. Notes in parentheses indicate the types of technological innovations that might be most useful.

1. Improve maternal health (?)

2. Create a global partnership for development

3. Combat AIDS, malaria, and et cetera

4. Universal education (One Laptop Per Child, Web applications, PC kiosks)

5. Promote gender equality

6. Reduce child mortality

7. Eliminate hunger and extreme poverty.

Deepti remarked that there is more than enough food being produced. Huge losses due to storage and transportation problems cut into the amount that people can consume. I also noted that some countries use too much of their agricultural land to produce luxury foods for export.

In closing, I wanted to consider what a small group could do to promote technological innovations that support MDGs. I could only suggest that we create a new technology that meets a need related to combating extreme poverty or that we design a program or project (to implement or “sell” to other organizations) or create a plan for speeding up the diffusion of one or more technologies.

If anyone has any specific ideas, we’d love to hear them.

Finally, a couple more links:

For more poverty-fighting technological innovations see worldchanging.com

For a 2008 MDG progress report check out www.undp.org/mdg/