03.15.06
Create a Village Phone programme
Guide on creating sustainable access to affordable telecommunications for the rural poor.
It draws on Grameen’s experience in both Bangladesh and Uganda and establishes a template for creating sustainable initiatives that simultaneously bring telecommunications to the rural poor, create viable new businesses for microentrepreneurs, and expand the customer base of telecommunications companies. The authors point out that no two implementations of the Village Phone programme will be exactly alike. Each country will have unique variables, participants, and environments. However, it is expected that there will be common structures, applications, and processes.
01.24.06
WTO Hong Kong Meeting Analysed by Oxfam
“The final ministerial declaration contained some minor gains on agriculture, such as setting a 2013 end date for export subsidies, and providing developing countries with extra flexibility to protect their small farmers. There was some progress on preventing the abuse of food aid as a disguised form of dumping, but on cotton, the steps agreed fell short even of those required by the cotton panel ruling against the USA.
Developing countries successfully fended off some of the attempts to force open their markets to Northern industrial and service sectors. However, even the toned-down text on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and services is inimical to development. The offer of duty-free, quota-free market access to the poorest countries contains sufficient loopholes to rob the agreement of almost all value. An ‘aid for trade’ deal was agreed consisting largely of recycled money, and there was no progress on other ‘development issues’.
When talks recommence in early 2006, rich-country negotiators cannot simply turn up and carry on where they left off in Hong Kong. They need to go away, examine their consciences, and make a New Year’s resolution to turn this into a development round for the world’s poor.”
Oxfam Briefing Paper 85: What happened in Hong Kong?, Oxfam Briefing Paper, December 2005 (pdf-document)
01.13.06
Poverty Compared
Adamash noticed an article on the Economist, contemplating the difference between poverty in the North and in the South. Is poverty relative? A poor US citizen, Mr Banks is better off financially (even when the difference in the cost of living is taken into account) than Dr. Kabamba in DR Congo, but still feels poorer than the Congolese?
In Autumn, I had a debate about the subject with an American friend of mine. She was offended by my comment that “eventhough there’s poverty in the US, it can not be compared to “real” poverty in the South”. The subject has been in my mind eversince and I’m glad that I found Adamash’s post about it.
…Dr Kabamba earns enough to feed his children, but not as well as he would like. The family eats meat about twice a month; Dr Kabamba calls it “a great luxury”. In America, poor children eat more meat than the well-to-do. In fact, they get twice as much protein as their government says is good for them, which is why the Wal-Mart near Mr Banks sells such enormous jeans…
While reading, remember the fact that nothing lies as much as statistics used in a misleading way. I don’t mean that there are fouls in the article, just that there might be.
…“Poverty” describes two quite different phenomena: utter penury, of the sort experienced by the billion or so souls who subsist on $1 a day or less; and the situation of people in rich countries who are less well off than their compatriots…”
Eventhough the doctor is financially struggling, he is treated with respect by the authorities and doesn’t break his family to fool social security system (the absent one). The poor US man lives in a separate moving-home than his ex-wife to get more support from the government and is considered as typical trailer thrash by the government officials. Is this the much talked about cultural difference? Which one do you prefer?
The article: Adamash: Comparing a mountain man’s poverty in US to a doctor’s poverty in Africa (found via 007 in Africa)
Related reading: Sampsa Daily: Poverty in the US (17/11/05)
