May 21, 2013 | 10:30 AM | By  | 

Skip the Corporate Social Responsibility and Invest Local | 

Building Markets wants corporations to put the breaks on its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and put the money into local investments. Ainsley Butler explains in a blog post today:

Poverty can be beaten when people have jobs. In the world’s poorest economies, 9 out of 10 jobs are created by small business owners. Access to opportunity and capital is the best way to help these business owners create jobs.

Their pitch is to get aid money in circulation in developing countries so that businesses can grow.

Because local spending is where the war on poverty can be won, mining companies should stop thinking about their CSR budget as their community development budget. Increased spending through local businesses can have a far greater economic impact than any CSR budget. By purchasing and spending locally, you are spending your money twice. By buying local, companies obtain the goods and services necessary for their operations while revenues are used to pay and hire local workers, thereby supporting families and communities. Money is re-invested in business, community health, employment, and education sectors.

They make a pretty good case. One company that is doing that is Unilever. The international giant set forward its Sustainable Ling Plan a few years ago. It is comprised of a series of goals and targets meant to improve the lives of its customers and the environment.

So maybe we need to think of businesses as major development players. Thoughts or suggested readings from the crowd?

FILED UNDER: Business
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 21, 2013 | 7:08 AM | By  | 

News Rounds – M23 Clashes in DR Congo, Lack of Contraceptives Access in Poor Countries, Humans Damaging Global Water System | 

Scientists Ponder ‘Epoch’ of Damage to Global Water System (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 11,000 years ago.

Pepsi to march in, as foreign troops leave Afghanistan (Reuters) – PepsiCo will open its first plant in Afghanistan in 2014, its Afghan partner said on Monday, the same year foreign troops complete their withdrawal from the country after 13 years of war. “It will go on stream in 2014,” Hamed Kakar, head of marketing for Dubai-based Alokozay, which has an exclusive bottling agreement with PepsiCo in Afghanistan, told Reuters.

Congo’s army clashes with rebels near eastern city of Goma (Reuters) - Congolese soldiers clashed with rebel fighters for the first time in nearly six months on Monday near the city of Goma, just days before U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is due to visit the troubled eastern borderlands.

Poor Countries Lack Modern Contraception (VOA) - Guttmacher says between 2003 and 2012 the number of women wanting to avoid pregnancy – and in need of modern contraception – rose from 716 million to 867 million. The sharpest increase was seen, it says, in the 69 poorest countries “where modern method use was already very low.”

Uganda’s Daily Monitor raided over Museveni ‘plot‘ (BBC) – Ugandan police have raided the offices of at least two newspapers following reports that President Yoweri Museveni is grooming his son to succeed him. Two radio stations have also been taken off air, the state-owned New Vision newspaper reports. Last week, newspapers reported claims allegedly made by an army general that those opposed to Mr Museveni’s son succeeding him risk being killed.

Council of Europe tells Putin of concern over Russian NGO law (Reuters) - The head of the Council of Europe told Russian President Vladimir Putinon Monday he was concerned a law requiring non-governmental organizations which received funding from abroad to register as foreign agents could have a “chilling effect”.

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 | 11:45 AM | By  | 

NPR: Why spending more on women in global health makes sense even if men are doing worse | 

If all you do is look at the global health statistics for death and disability, it’s clear that men are doing worse than women. Yet women, and children, tend to get most of the focus and emphasis in global health policy. A recent Lancet paper pointed this out. But NPR quotes one of my favorite health experts explaining why, despite these numbers, it still makes sense to focus mostly on women and children.

Karen Grepin, a health economist at New York University, says men are often doing poorly because of unhealthy behavior. Women and children are often doing poorly due to lack of equal access to income, power and health services – often basic preventive care like vaccines and reproductive health.

“Women are politically, economically disadvantaged around the world,” Grepin says. “There are really important consequences for women’s health. They play a large role in taking care of children. When they get sick, there’s a spillover effect in the house — for the next generation.”


On average, men aren’t as healthy as women. Men don’t live as long, and they’re more likely to engage in risky behaviors, like smoking and drinking. But in the past decade, global health funding has focused heavily on women. Programs and policies for men have been “notably absent,” says Sarah Hawkes from the University of London’s Institute of Global Health.

Read more at: www.npr.org

FILED UNDER: Health, Politics
May 20, 2013 | 11:40 AM | By  | 

World leaders look at ending the ‘war on drugs’ | 

The so-called ‘war on drugs’ hasn’t worked, by almost any indicator. Some could make the case that the quasi-militaristic law enforcement strategy has actually made things worse by creating massive cycles of violence – not to mention rewarding cartels by, inadvertently, driving up prices.


European governments and the Obama administration are this weekend studying a “gamechanging” report on global drugs policy that is being seen in some quarters as the beginning of the end for blanket prohibition.

Read more at: www.guardian.co.uk

FILED UNDER: Politics