Basics

Food, water, shelter. This is about the basic determinants of health and welfare.

Key topics in this category:

RECENT POSTS

May 21, 2013 | 12:05 PM | By  | 

New website continues poverty porn debate | 

A group of NGO workers and activists are hoping to ramp up the conversation about how poverty is depicted. Their new platform, Regarding Humanity, seeks to foster dialogue about poverty porn, but to bring together practitioners, educators, journalists, and students in the question: “How do we as a community dedicated to social impact maintain local agency, partnership, and relevant, respectful narrative as core values of our work?”

“From multiple photos of rape victims in the Congo used to raise funding in annual reports, to repeated images of squatting South Asian women looking up at Western aid workers, to pictures of naked and emaciated children lying in the rubble after Haiti’s earthquake, to initiatives that seek donations of used underwear to send to Africa, a group of us saw that questionable instances of framing and narrative were rampant,”  writes Regarding Humanity co-founder Lina Srivastava.

Srivastava is joined by co-founders Linda Raftree and MJ Broadbent for the project with the backing of  an array of individuals with experience in humanitarian aid, transmedia storytelling, journalism, service design, academia, ethnography, visual art, and mobile technology.

“The Re: Hum website will source content from a diverse set of authors and creators in order to bring a global perspective to the issue. It will serve as an educational resource and discussion forum to teach visual literacy, the importance of ethnography, and ways to maintain narrative integrity. We will be expanding to a discussion series, research, and an educational curriculum over time and as resources permit,” explains Raftree.

The launch of the website and platform was proceeded by last week’s Salon on poverty porn in New York City (read my summary of the discussion here).

FILED UNDER: Basics
May 21, 2013 | 10:00 AM | By  | 

Earth’s Forgotten Nations: the least visited countries in the world | 

Travel GuidesRoughly 79.5 million people make a trip to France each year making it the world’s most visited country. The least visited country is a Pacific Island nation of Nauru. For those of you who may have guessed North Korea, you could not have been more wrong. The reclusive state that likes to launch missiles into the ocean garners 35,000 tourists a year, placing it 15 spots from the Nauru.

Never heard of it? That’s OK, only 200 tourists traveled to see the 21 square kilometer island that can lay claim to the world’s smallest country, only one airport and the only capital-less nation in the world.

A list of the 25 least-visited countries from Gunnar Garfors uses mostly UN data to determine where tourists don’t go. Turns out that people do not like going to small island nations they never heard of, nor do they like traveling to countries beset by conflict, such as Afghanistan (10) and Somalia (2), and then there are the nations where it is plain hard to get a visa (ie. North Korea).

Without further ado, here are the 25 least traveled countries in the world:

1. Nauru: 200 tourists (2011, Crikey)
2. Somalia: 500 tourists (2012, estimate based on news articles)
3. Tuvalu: 1,200 tourists (2011, UN)
4. Kiribati: 4,700 tourists (2011, UN)
5. Marshall Islands: 5,000 tourists (2011, UNWTO)
6. Equatorial Guinea: 6,000 tourists (2012, estimate based on World Bank figures)
7. Turkmenistan: 7,000 tourists (2007, UN)
8. Sao Tome & Principe: 8,000 tourists (2010, UNWTO)
9. Comoros: 15,000 tourists (2010, UNWTO)
10. Afghanistan: 17,500 tourists (2012, New York Times)
11. Solomon Islands: 23,000 tourists (2010, UNWTO)
12. Federated States of Micronesia: 26,000 tourists (2008, UN)
13. Mauritania: 29,000 tourists (2008, E Turbo News)
14. Guinea-Bissau: 30,000 tourists (2011, UN)
15. Libya: 34,000 tourists (2008, UN)
16. North Korea: 35,000 tourists (2011, Koryo Group)
17. Bhutan: 37,000 tourists (2011, UNWTO)
18. East Timor: 40,000 tourists (2010, UN)
19. Tonga 45,000 tourists (2011, UNWTO)
20. Sierra Leone: 52,000 tourists (2011, UN)
22. Liechtenstein: 53,000 tourists (2011, UNWTO)
23. Central African Republic: 54,000 tourists (2010, UNWTO)
24. Chad: 71,000 tourists (2010, UNWTO)
25. Dominica: 73,000 tourists (2011, UNWTO)

FILED UNDER: Basics, list
May 21, 2013 | 9:00 AM | By  | 

China’s Colonizing Africa? Not so Much | 

When people take a break from debating whether Africa is or is not rising, they like to talk about China. The emerging economic powerhouse is making its mark on Sub Saharan Africa by support port projects in Kenya, mines in Zambia and standing behind the Sudanese government.

The activities mean China is slowly becoming a development player and does have an impact on the other big donors. A project from AidData and William & Mary University estimated that China has committed $75 billion for aid and development projects in Africa.  That is less than the $90 billion committed by the US during the same period. However, some fear that China is using its money to not only wield influence over the continent, but impose a sort of neo-colonial rule over some countries. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Africa, Banda, China, Economist, Guardian, Malawi
May 20, 2013 | 12:00 PM | By  | 

The promise and pitfalls in efforts to reform US foreign food aid | 

Haitians Receive Boxes of USAID Food Aid
Haitians Receive Boxes of USAID Food Aid
USAID

Food aid reforms came under the spotlight last month when the Obama Administration announced its Fiscal Year 2014 budget.

The changes are important to humanitarian response. Oxfam America estimates that reforms to food aid procurement laws could speed up crisis response by 14 weeks and reach an additional 17.1 million people. For a crisis like the 2010 drought in the Horn of Africa, that improved response time could have saved thousands of lives.

“The current approach to food aid can become, at times, an impediment to its very own mission,” said USAID Administrator Raj Shah.

Humanitarian groups were mostly supportive in response and contractors were unhappy that changes would affect their business. What looked like positive momentum for reform is starting to slow down as both houses of Congress take a look at the Farm Bill and food aid reform both in and out of the United States.

“The agriculture industry in the Midwest sees this as a threat to exports, which is ridiculous,” said former USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios to Businessweek, a supporter of food aid reform during his tenure with the Bush Administration. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Africa, agriculture, drought, Feed the Future, food aid, food for peace, Horn of Africa, Oxfam, Raj Shah, reform
May 20, 2013 | 11:50 AM | By  | 

Guardian map of people displaced by climate change, disasters | 

I’m not sure I totally buy the claim that nearly all of these displacements are due to disasters driven by climate change, but it’s still an interesting map. As the Guardian reports:

More than 32 million people fled their homes last year because of disasters such as floods, storms and earthquakes – 98% of displacement related to climate change. Asia and west and central Africa bore the brunt. Some 1.3 million people were displaced in rich countries, with the US particularly affected. Floods in India and Nigeria accounted for 41% of displacement, according to the International Displacement Monitoring Centre and Norwegian Refugee Council

disaster displacement map

FILED UNDER: Basics
May 20, 2013 | 11:30 AM | By  | 

A rebuttal to the tired old refrain of useless humanitarians in Haiti | 

This is a nice, reasoned rebuttal by to a recent NY Times column by a former aid worker in Haiti who complained about how unproductive her work there had been.

The NYTtimes op-ed repeats a popular, and increasingly tired, refrain that tends to accompany the standard story line about how screwed up Haiti is thanks, in part, to the humanitarian ‘industry’ having swarmed the place. Jennifer Lentfer of Oxfam, who is always perfectly willing to call out worthless humanitarianism, felt compelled to respond and point out that some of the aid and development projects in Haiti are actually doing good.


I don’t know what Nora Schenkel was talking about in the New York Times on Wednesday in her personal essay, ” I Came to Haiti to Do Good…,”. The former aid worker argues that Haitians are stuck in a cycle of dependency, fueled by inequalities perpetuated by the aid industry.

Read more at: politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org

FILED UNDER: Basics
May 20, 2013 | 11:23 AM | By  | 

News Rounds: Global water threat, Iraq bombings kill scores, the flaw in the humanitarian argument for war and more | 

Water under threat globally (VOA) – Scientists say a new geologic epoch has begun whereby humans are causing major damage to global water systems. They warn of a planetary transformation comparable to the retreat of the glaciers more than 11-thousand years ago.

Iraq car bombs kill dozens (BBC) – At least 60 people have been killed and many others injured in a series of car bomb attacks in central and southern Iraq, officials say.

The Flaw in Many Humanitarian Arguments for War  (Atlantic) – An interesting if perhaps somewhat unconvincing argument against intervening in Syria.

Before You Buy That T-Shirt  (NYTimes) – The deaths and injuries of thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh raise the question of how American and European consumers might assert their power to change appalling factory conditions half a world away.

Activists bristle as India cracks down on foreign funding of NGOs  (Washington Post) – Amid an intensifying crackdown on nongovernmental groups that receive foreign funding, Indian activists are accusing the government of stifling their right to dissent in the world’s largest democracy.

Rebels and army clash in DR Congo’s Goma (Al Jazeera) – Congolese soldiers have clashed with rebel fighters for the first time in six months in the city of Goma, on the border with Rwanda and just days before the arrival of the UN Secretary General.

FILED UNDER: Basics
May 17, 2013 | 2:08 PM | By  | 

Being Nick Kristof | 

Welcome to the Humanosphere podcast, our weekly look at the world of global health and development. Tom and I begin with a discussion on the headlines – from the UN asking us to eat more bugs to the refusal of most American retailers to sign a pact improving worker safety overseas.

Our featured guest this week is Nick Kristof, a Northwest native (grew up on a farm in Yamhill, OR), prize-winning columnist for the New York Times and, for many, the voice of the humanitarian movement. Tom talked with him by phone earlier this week, before he spoke in Seattle.

FILED UNDER: Basics, Podcasts, podcast