With mobile money, Haitians are able to complete transactions like this one wirelessly. Photo: Karl Grobl for NetAid.

This article was republished by The Christian Science Monitor.

In Haiti, cash is escaping from wallets and savings accounts are breaking free from brick-and-mortar banks.

Two years after 2010’s devastating earthquake, mobile money has taken off in the island nation. While the country has seen setbacks in many areas and continues to struggle, one bright spot is the transformation of the country’s traditional banking sector. Physical banks were wiped away by the quake and subsequent hurricane, and a mobile banking network that uses cell phones has grown up in their place.

Toting your money around on a cell phone might sound scary, but for many Haitians it’s more secure than carrying around a wallet, which isn’t protected by a PIN. The handy infographic to the right shows how a mobile money transaction works.

How a mobile wallet transaction takes place in Haiti. Infographic courtesy Mercy Corps.

In the months following the quake, both Mercy Corps (our parent organization) and The Gates Foundation sponsored separate Haitian cell phone companies, Voilà and Digicel, to help mobile money take off, with the Gates Foundation offering monetary incentives for the first company to get a program off the ground and for continued improvements in order to get entrepreneurial engines revving.

For many Haitians, mobile money can open a door to personal choice. Mercy Corps has used mobile money to distribute food aid to families across Haiti and deliver payments from its cash-for-work programs. Instead of spending hours waiting in line for a cash payment or a food ration, Haitians receive a wireless money transfer on their phones once a month.

The technology holds promises for the future, too. Long-term, mobile money could be expanded so that it’s accessible to everyone for all of their personal purchases. Haitians could use mobile money to send remittances to family members in other parts of the country, according to AudienceScapes. And after visiting with Mercy Corps staff in Haiti in 2010, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote about the way that mobile money is creating a way for the poor to save money like never before. Most banks won’t accept very small deposits, but now a mobile phone could double as a savings account. It could blow the microsavings sector wide open.

Mobile money could also help make Haitians healthier. Even before the earthquake hit, Haiti’s public health indicators were the worst in the Western hemisphere, according to the U.S. Department of State, and those problems were only compounded by the disaster. In Kenya, one of the first countries to adopt mobile money, customers can use it to pay - and save up for - health services. Expectant mothers use it to save for health care, and in rural communities Kenyans have used the service to pay for access to clean water, reports USAID. Looking forward, a mash-up of mobile health and mobile money technologies in Haiti could lead to new insurance plans and health voucher programs, according to Health Unbound.

With mobile money quickly gaining widespread use, the developing world is leaps ahead of the developed. Mobile money launched in Kenya in 2003, according to The National Archives, but Google Wallet’s similar service in the U.S. wasn’t released until September of last year and has yet to truly take off. Maybe it’s time for American company executives to start taking a few pointers from Haiti.

Mercy Corps made cutting down trees for cooking fuel more sustainable through a reforestation project in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Photo: JGrant for Mercy Corps.

A new program in Brazil is turning tragedy on its head by paying the poor to preserve their natural surroundings.

Resource depletion and environmental degradation are common echoes of poverty. Desperate to get by, many rural poor turn to the only income source around: the natural environment.

That's why Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff outlined a new program called Bolsa Verde (green allowance) to promote environmental protection and decrease deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, according to mongabay.com. The program will provide BR $300 (US $180 US) every three months to extremely impoverished families living in national forests and sustainable reserves. Recipient families must currently have monthly incomes of less than BR $70 (US $40) to qualify.

In exchange, residents pledge not to deforest illegally or to poach timber. It’s a huge jump in income for the poor, and in one of the world’s most rapidly growing economies, it's a small price for the public to pay.

“Incentive is important because we assign an economic value to nature. It's as if it were compensation for conservation," said Manuel Cunha, president of the National Council of Extractive Populations of Amazonia.

The program is modeled after Brazil’s existing and widely respected Bolsa Familia (family allowance) program, which has helped reduce poverty and inequality over the past several decades, according to The Economist.

Bolsa Verde seeks to expand these successes, reducing the strain of poverty on ecosystem services as well. And when the environment is protected, the poor lead better, healthier lives. So Brazil plans to increase people’s income so they take better care of their environment and themselves.

The government, however, isn’t trying to stop resource consumption that people depend on. "It is an incentive to have sustainable use of natural resources. [Residents] have the right to use biodiversity, but in a sustainable manner," Roberto Vizentin, Secretary of Sustainable Rural Development of the MMA, told Globo News.

If effective, this could mean both improved financial livelihoods and reduced vulnerability for Amazonian residents. And the environment and the rest of the world get something from the deal as well.

Candles provide a light in the dark for those without access to electricity. Photo: Sara Y Tzunky

Is microfinance the solution to energy poverty? If partnered with renewable energy, it could prove to be true.

Energy poverty—a lack of access to electricity, fuel and more efficient cooking technologies—affects over two billion people, according to the United Nations' Rebeca Grynspan, making it a huge development priority.

Living without electricity simply makes you poorer. Kerosene lamps are expensive, ineffective and fill a home with hazardous fumes. But without a lamp, it's impossible to work or study after sunset. Cooking over an open flame pollutes the lungs and requires hours of wood-gathering, a huge loss of productive time. This is where simple solutions (like more efficient cookstoves) can yield huge impacts.

As a weak economy shrinks international funding pools, countries need to be increasingly wiser and more creative in their resource management. It’s worth noting that a lack of infrastructure presents the rare opportunity to build right the first time. By funding sustainable energy initiatives through microfinance, two things can happen: (1) Programs aiming to reduce energy poverty can work closely with locals and make more informed decisions by relying on indigenous knowledge; and (2) Money stays in the local economy, creating avenues for future investment and wealth generation.

Mercy Corps is combining these two endeavors to address energy poverty. The organization's Energy for All (E4A) program, funded by the European Commission, began in May 2011 in the country of Timor-Leste. It's primarily focused on lighting, cooking fuel needs and natural resource management. Because the population of Timor-Leste heavily relies on crops for fuel, food and income, they are especially vulnerable to shocks. Without access to energy, their problems are exacerbated, true for most poor people in developing countries.

Mercy Corps utilizes a market-driven approach to address energy poverty issues: By remaining external to the market, they strengthen the local economy and seek to create linkages where gaps in service exist. Simply donating materials or stoves undermines local businesses and acts as a disservice to the community. But upfront costs of adopting new technologies is often a major barrier, so Mercy Corps is partnering with microfinance institutions in Timor-Leste to initiate loans.

Mercy Corps' comprehensive survey compiled and assessed the needs of local households, to paint a clear picture of the specific needs and challenges of the community. The outcome is a program design that will implement solar power, improved cook stoves, seed storage and sustainable forestry initiatives.

And a performance tool developed by the Grameen Foundation, the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI), will help local microfinance institutions determine whether the services they provide are effective or not.

Additionally, the E4A program is establishing alternative energy centers that will demonstrate their sustainable business models to the local market, with a special focus on rural off-grid areas.

I had the opportunity to visit Soft Power Health in Kyabirwa, Uganda, an organization testing an improved community cook stove. Access to a seemingly simple cook stove not only improves the health of the user but requires less fuel and reduces cooking time. By easing access to tools like this, the group is educating the surrounding community with hands-on instruction and use, the first step in technology adoption.

The concept of energy poverty received international attention last year when the UN announced that 2012 is the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. They are seeking opportunities to scale up efforts that will achieve universal access to modern energy services. As part of the Millennium Development Goals, the UN has set a target date of 2030.

That's an ambitious timeline for getting electricity to everyone, and it's unlikely to happen without the for-profit sector. This makes it imperative that governments, lenders and non-governmental organizations implement market-based solutions that allow communities to lift themselves out of poverty through developing a robust local economy. Microfinance-backed renewable energy can be the first tool in this process.

Many organizations are taking the lead in implementing energy innovations where the need is great. What other programs and innovations d you know of that address the needs of people without energy access?

More consumers are choosing products that are both hip and support a cause. Photo:mariahfleming (Flickr)

This article was republished in The Christian Science Monitor.

We already know that good marketing does not equal good aid. Tom’s Shoes has earned a fair amount of criticism for its “One for One” model—a pair of shoes is donated to a child in need for every pair bought by the consumer—but, after seeing the marketing benefits, more and more for-profit businesses are using a similar model to donate goods in developing countries.

Here's the basic problem of the “One for One” model: when everyone in a community can get a free pair of shoes, the local shoe vendor goes out of business. Not only does it hurt the local economy, but it is also a short-term solution that creates long-term problems. Tom’s model may also encourage poverty tourism, as the company allows people to pay to travel along with distribution trips as shoe fitters. Niharika Jain writes more in-depth about the unintended consequences of charitable giving for the Harvard Crimson, and Peace Corps volunteer Zachary Mason discusses Tom’s Shoes from a public health perspective, questioning the cost-effectiveness of the model for reducing disease.

Despite the unintended consequences of its “One for One” program, Tom's has a cult following. Chances are if you don’t already have a pair, you know someone who does. Is Tom’s merely a fashion statement, or are consumers drawn to the company for its cause, creating an atypical status symbol? It’s hard to know what motivates individual purchases of Tom’s products, but a 2010 Cone Cause Evolution study shows that 85 percent of consumers surveyed feel more positively about companies that support a cause they care about. When price and quality are equal, most consumers choose the product supporting the cause.

If we want to be socially conscious consumers it’s important to understand the impact of Tom’s and similar products. We can learn from Tom’s marketing success, but to alleviate poverty in the long-term we need to promote sustainable programs the support local economic development.

Warby Parker, another for-profit enterprise that donates its product in developing countries, is getting a lot of attention for the innovative way that it sells eyewear to the consumer and sends glasses around the world to people who can’t afford them—earning them the B Corp status. Like Tom’s, they are popular among the fashion-conscious and have a hugely successful marketing campaign.

Warby Parker partners with a non-profit called Vision Spring in order to donate their glasses abroad. Vision Spring is in tune with how local economies function and what kind of products are culturally appropriate—something that Warby Parker itself may not have the resources to know. Vision Spring receives funding and glasses from Warby Parker to train low-income local entrepreneurs to start their own businesses selling glasses at affordable prices.

Warby Parker uses the same “buy one, give one” strategy as Tom’s, which is successful at attracting consumers, but is sensitive to the impact donations have on local economies. Warby Parker and Vision Spring’s mission is to help entrepreneurs sustain a business and to create jobs—not create a dependency on unpredictable donations which unintentionally creates economic stagnation.

As socially conscious consumers, we should reserve some skepticism for businesses that claim to do good. Transparency and randomized studies are need in order to assess their impact. A recent randomized control trial by the University of Michigan found that people who bought Vision Spring glasses earned 20 percent more, but more research is needed. It is also promising that Vision Spring is continually learning and evolving its strategy to increase its impact, as recognized by Duke's Fuqua School of Business Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship.

This partnership between a for-profit business and a non-profit looks promising and solves some of the problems with Tom’s “One for One” model. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” is what we’re told. It’s an excellent example of the ability of corporations and non-profits to do what they do well and team up to do good. Hopefully, organizations that inform consumers—like B Corp—will make this kind of partnership more attractive.

Have you bought or would you buy Warby Parker glasses and Tom’s Shoes? What drew you to the brand?

Monica Gerber is a 2011 graduate of Reed College. Read her other contributions to Global Envision.

Women farmers in Africa produce over 60 percent of all food crops. CIMMYT (flickr)

Women comprise 43 percent of the world’s farmers. In Africa, it’s 80 percent. Women plant, harvest, process and sell their crops, but men continue to dominate agricultural science and research. This may be about to change.

African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) is trying to close the R&D gender gap. Their program fast-tracks female science careers in agriculture, empowering them to contribute more effectively to hunger and poverty alleviation in their own communities - a model that could be replicated internationally.

Although African women produce 60 to 80 percent of food crops, they receive significantly less (5% as of 2008) of the agricultural training and tools available to men, says the United Nations. A 2010-2011 research report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization shows that women could produce 20-30 percent more if they had equal access. This creates a subsequent increase in household income, health, and community food supply. The East Africa Report emphasizes that research is also pivotal in fostering innovation. Without a seat at the table, women cannot influence practices. Who better to innovate than the farmers themselves?

Women in Ghana conduct business. Photo: IITA Image Library (flickr)

This article was republished in The Christian Science Monitor.

Ghanaian women are mothers, daughters and wives. Add entrepreneurs to the list. Female entrepreneurs are flourishing across Africa, but Ghanaian women are leading the pack.

Education, national stability, and microfinance have spurred their success.

Ghana’s government recognizes the important role women play in reaching the country’s development goals. “No nation can move on without emphasizing the education and emancipation of women,” said Vice President John Dramani Mahama.

One result of that attitude is an increase in women’s education, and the cornerstone of further education is literacy. The literacy rate among females between the ages of 15 to 24 is 78 percent, according to UNICEF, up from 16.6 percent in 1970. This is an impressive jump in the time span of one generation and demonstrates how many more Ghanaian women today can access the kind of skills needed for running a business, like accounting, marketing and management.

Ghana’s stability has also helped catapult its business environment forward. It was the first nation in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve independence in 1957. In the 1970s and 1980s, political instability took its toll on the country. But since then, Ghana has regained political stability and goodwill from the international community, providing an environment ripe for business growth and development. As a result, investor confidence has increased. Rising investment has influenced Ghana’s economic prosperity, and the country is currently the fastest-growing economy of 2011, growing 20.2 percent in the first half of the year, according to Economy Watch.

Ghana's natural resources also boost its per-capita GDP, which International Entrepreneurship reported is twice that of its poorer West Africa neighbors.

Finally, for decades Ghana has been reaping the benefits of microfinance, a tool that may be especially effective in empowering women. As described by the Economics Web Institute, Ghana provided subsidized credit in the 1950s, established an Agricultural Development Bank in 1965 for fish and farm loans, and required commercial banks to set aside 20 percent of their portfolios for agriculture and small-scale industries in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The result? Today, the female labor force participation rate in Ghana is estimated at 50.1 percent—and women account for about 50.2 percent of the entire population of Ghana. With improved education, the prosperity of the country, and a stable microfinance sector, the women of Ghana are making an impact in the entrepreneurial world that cannot be denied.

PepsiCo and Cambridge University recently unveiled the i-crop, a web-based system that could reduce agricultural water waste by 50 percent. Photo:zekasaur (flickr)

This article was republished in The Christian Science Monitor.

"More Bounce to the Ounce.” In the 1950’s, it was a cola slogan; thanks to a new partnership with Cambridge University, it could become the catch phrase of PepsiCo’s i-crop, a web based program that helps farmers reduce water waste.

Here’s how it works: data systems collect information on local weather conditions, farming activity, and soil moisture from underground probes and compiles them online. With a few keystrokes, farmers can eliminate the guessing games about water consumption, resulting in more precise and environmentally-friendly farming. In October, PepsiCo publicly announced its goal of reducing carbon emissions and water usage from their largest UK farms by 50 percent in five years. So far i-crop is testing well: preliminary reports from 22 farms in the UK show farmers have achieved 90 percent efficiency in water usage.

"Farming is in the DNA of our business - we rely on fresh produce everyday," said Richard Evans, President of PepsiCo UK and Ireland, according to PR Newswire. "Finding ways to produce more food with less environmental impact is essential to our future." He added, "i-crop has the potential to revolutionize the way we farm, enabling our farmers to save costs and [reduce] water and carbon consumption, while at the same time improving their yields.”

PepsiCo’s potential to revolutionize water efficiencies in farming is sizable. Netting approximately $43.3 billion annually and employing more than a quarter million people, PepsiCo is the second largest food and beverage business in the world.

Ever enjoyed Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Lay's, Gatorade, Tropicana, 7Up, Doritos, Lipton Teas, Quaker Oats, Cheetos, Ruffles, Aquafina, Tostitos, Sierra Mist, or Fritos? If the i-crop can deliver as hoped, those products will soon be made with less water waste than most competitive grocery items (and who doesn’t want something positive to hold onto after downing a bag of Cheetos?).

Although the i-crop is only accessible to UK farmers, PepsiCo hopes to introduce its technology to farms in India, China, Mexico, and Australia by 2012. However, speculation about i-crop’s availability has raised some eyebrows and provoked the question: Will the i-crop technology, owned privately by PepsiCo, be withheld from those who most need it?

Brain Pickings editor Maria Popova argues that owning such coveted technological rights will put PepsiCo in the middle of an often tense relationship between profiteering and humanitarianism. “The technology is currently only available to PepsiCo-affiliated growers, which raises interesting questions about the relationship between corporate interests and social good in innovation, as well as bespeaking the disconnect between the value of open-source software and the fact that the best-funded research initiatives, most competent scientists and highest-grade technology tend to be subsidized by private corporations.”

If, how, and with whom PepsiCo shares i-crop technology has yet to be determined. In any case, PepsiCo has taken corporate social responsibility by the horns, hopefully luring other influential corporations to recognize that being green is achievable. "Every Generation Refreshes the World," Pespi ads claim. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that PepsiCo can do so for the next generation’s water supply.

Even in the driest of deserts, there’s a hidden water source: the air.

That's the insight of this year's Dyson Award winner. The annual prizes call on “design and engineering students from 18 countries to create innovative, practical, elegant solutions to some of humanity's greatest challenges,” according to The Huffington Post. This year the award went to Edward Linacre for his groundbreaking solution to agricultural catastrophes caused by drought. He won £10,000 for his invention—the Airdrop—and so did his school, Melbourne's Swinburne University of Technology. The Airdrop pulls air into a network of tubes underground, where it is cooled to extract moisture and then funneled down to plants’ roots. See his “elevator pitch” for the project below:

Harvesting water from the air isn’t a new idea; National Geographic reported on the ancient technique of fog harvesting back in 2009. Linacre told the Daily Mail that his design is a unique solution for agricultural issues because “other systems of harvesting water from the atmosphere usually require massive amounts of energy, as they run refrigeration units. Airdrop simply uses the temperature difference between the air and the cool earth beneath the surface.” The Airdrop, he says, is a good solution for rural farmers because it’s low-tech: they can install and maintain it themselves.

Whether or not this design can practically translate to the developing world is still up in the air and probably depends largely upon its cost. Still, the simple idea of tapping into the water that’s present in the air in even the driest of environments could be very promising for increasingly parched areas of the globe.

Margo Conner is a senior at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, majoring in international affairs. Read her other contributions to Global Envision.

Well-maintained cars like these are now private reserves of wealth for their owners. Photo: Ben Osborn for Mercy Corps

Starting today, Cubans can buy and sell property for the first time in over 50 years. Yet while most are excited to escape the cage of government restrictions, others fear being kicked out in the cold.

Many Cubans haven't paid for rent, health care or education since 1959, when Fidel Castro seized power and began nationalizing private property in one of the staunchest socialist experiments in world history. While the results were far from perfect, many of Cuba’s poorest undeniably benefited.

During the heyday of the Revolution, most Cubans had job security and guaranteed food rations. The Cuban government tinkered with novel programs and ideas, and where those programs failed, the Soviet Union often stepped in, checkbook in hand, to balance the books. While Cuba severely limited its citizens’ rights and freedoms, it also ensured a basic economic safety net below which no Cuban would fall. For the most part, success was more a function of loyalty to the government than it was a measure of personal skills. This is the government that many older Cubans identify with.

But after decades of stuttering progress, the fall of the Soviet Union brought an end to the heavily subsidized years of Cuban socialism, and a so-called “Special Period” of austerity began. For most young Cubans, these years of recession and stagnation are all they know of the Castro regime.

So the reforms of the past five years are evoking mixed emotions among Cubans. The loosening restrictions on property and trade will finally allow a burgeoning entrepreneurial class to openly improve their lives. Cubans can now buy and sell homes and cars, private businesses can be established, and skilled workers can offer their services freelance. These reforms are part of an effort by the government to wean its bloated public sector off of government assistance and flood the private sector with cash.

Suddenly, Cubans can earn more on their own initiative. As the New York Times reports, the iconic and ancient cars that sputter through Havana can be traded or sold, transforming old clunkers into a private reserve of wealth.

But as Cubans are given their own paddles to navigate capitalism, some fear the loss of the government life jacket. "What happens if I sell my home and then I can’t find another one to buy? Where do I sleep?” laments Félix Méndez, a 47-year-old hospital technician quoted in the New York Times.

Another risk inherent to the reforms is a widening rift between the richest and poorest Cubans. People can now sell their homes and move elsewhere. This newfound mobility is expected to lead to segregation, as wealthier Cubans (and their money) leave poorer neighborhoods in search of better living. "Thousands of Cubans have been waiting for this signal, like runners crouched at the starting line waiting for the gun to go off,” writes Yoani Sánchez, a prominent Cuban dissident blogger. When the gun goes off, existing inequality will likely be increased as money is drained from some neighborhoods without the government around to replenish it.

Spectators on both sides of the ideological aisle call the reforms necessary. Capitalism's enthusiasts see the changes as inevitable; the end of an anachronism. Those farther to the left view the reforms as necessary concessions amidst tough times; concessions to ensure the survival and restoration of one the few remaining self-proclaimed socialist regimes in the world.

As Ms. Sánchez writes, “a house, for 40 years an anchor, will become a set of wings.” It remains to be seen, though, who will sink and who will fly.

Ben Osborn is a 2011 graduate of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Read his other contributions to Global Envision.

Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria. Scientists have genetically modified a mosquito that could potentially stop the spread of malaria. Photo:Gravitywave (flickr)

This article was republished in The Christian Science Monitor.

Bloodthirsty? Yes! Pesky? Absolutely! Malaria transmitters? Possibly not anymore.

Mosquitoes are getting a genetic makeover, which could potentially halt the endemic spread of malaria, according to a group of Johns Hopkins University researchers.

Mosquitoes have been nibbling away at birds, reptiles, and humans for nearly 30 million years. They hold primary responsibility for infecting approximately 300 million people with malaria and causing 1 million deaths a year in more than 100 countries. Scientists have been able to activate a gene that blocks these tiny insects from developing the malaria parasite in their guts. While this discovery seemed promising initially, researchers struggled to design a mosquito that could out-survive their malaria-infected counterparts.

The answer, they discovered, lies in controlling a protein called SM1 peptide. When this protein was activated, studies found that “after nine egg-laying cycles, the mix of genetically-modified (GM) mosquitoes and wild had changed to 70/30,” according to How Stuff Works?.

In spite of the promising findings, scientists remain leery of releasing the GM mosquitoes into the wild. These tests have only been done on malaria-carrying mice; the long term effects on humans are still unknown. Releasing tens of thousands of mosquitoes into the wild has never been done before, and there is a possibility that the GM mosquitoes could eventually develop immunity to the malaria parasite.

Perhaps the most compelling argument against releasing these mosquitoes comes at the heels of recent findings of an anti-malaria vaccine, largely funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. When 6,000 African children were tested with the vaccine, “it reduced the risk of infection with severe malaria by 47 percent during the year after the shots,” reports the New York Times.

As President Obama stated earlier this year, “Africa’s future is up to Africans.” Finding an end to malaria has the potential to lift African nations out of poverty by spurring educational advancement, market productivity, and economic growth. And ending malaria would certainly hold great promise for Africa’s future by cultivating healthy young minds of students who can sustain their educational development. In fact, studies done in Kenya by the World Health Organization found that the “disease kept children out of school for 11 percent [of the school year]."

While the long term impacts of GM mosquitoes and vaccines currently elude us, dispersing these scientific discoveries could save the lives of millions of impoverished people. The end to the means has yet to be uncovered, but these findings could pave the road to a usable solution. And that is something to buzz about.

On Monday, the world welcomed its 7 billionth person. The implications of population growth are similarly staggering in number, but here are five of the more important things to know about the growing world community.

There might not be 7 billion of us. Yet.

The October 31st date was chosen by the United Nations Population Fund, and it’s somewhat symbolic. "There is a window of uncertainty of at least six months before and six months after the 31 October date for the world population to reach seven billion," UN population estimates chief Gerhard Heilig told the BBC. However, the crux of the matter—the ever-increasing world population and the problems that come with it—stands.

Human being No. 7,000,000,000 is probably poor—and it's likely the parents didn't plan the pregnancy.

The developing world acted as the engine for most of the last decade's population growth. It’s home to the world’s seven fastest-growing cities, according to Foreign Policy. As such, it’s attracting the attention of policymakers and crystal-ball-gazers alike. Many, like the Worldwatch Institute’s Robert Engelman, propose extending access to contraceptives and encouraging smaller family size to curb population-related problems, though a recent Economist article says that this would only have a modest effect in the face of scarce world resources.

Sure, resource scarcity is a problem, but maybe it doesn’t have to be.

Not all commentators are equally pessimistic about continuing population growth. Some of the most basic problems, like access to food and water, might really be problems of efficiency rather than scarcity. Global Envision contributor Ben Osborn recently wrote about a study by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research that showed that given proper integration and storage of water resources, no one would have to go thirsty. On the food front, a scientific study published in Nature showed that proper agricultural reforms “could increase global food availability by 100–180%,” more than enough to meet the needs of our growing population.

The antidote to population could be migration.

Ensuring good quality of life for the earth’s inhabitants goes beyond just food and water. The UN’s State of the World Population 2011 report identifies migration as a trend that can be used to help aid in economic development. Wealthy countries with declining fertility rates could provide job opportunities for workers disenfranchised in their overpopulated home countries. At the same time, migration is a hot-button issue for developed nations that may not be so keen to open their borders. The report also cites increased access to education as a key factor in reducing population growth and providing better opportunities for youth in developing nations.

Maybe we should all just learn to stop worrying and love the population bomb.

Many fear rapid population growth in a world with limited resources, but given the proper policies it might not have to be so scary. Since there’s no “undo” button for world population, perhaps the best question to ask in light of the 7 billion marker is “How can we make the best of it?”

Want to know where you fit into the 7 billion? Check out The BBC’s “What’s Your Number” tool.

Margo Conner is a senior at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, majoring in international affairs. Read her other contributions to Global Envision.

A Victorian stained glass window depiction of the "Good Samaritan" story from the Gospel of Luke. Photo: Lawrence OP (flickr)

This article was republished by The Christian Science Monitor.

The Good Samaritan of Biblical lore was different than you and me: he was able to help without the fear of being sued.

Disturbing footage of an unattended Chinese girl being run over twice and ignored by 18 witnesses has shed unflattering light on China’s civil society. Two-year-old Xiao Yueyue (which translates as Little Joy in Chinese), daughter of two migrant worker parents, died on October 21st in a Guangdong hospital, eight days after the horrific incident.

Disapproving fingers are being pointed in various directions: from the disintegration of society’s morality to the government’s neglect of protecting civil liberties. Yue Yue’s unexpected death has revived a fierce international debate over Good Samaritan laws.

If you missed the final Seinfeld episode, Good Samaritan laws protect people who assist victims of injury or crime. “They are intended to reduce bystanders' hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death," as Wikipedia puts it.

Prior to the broadcasting of Yue Yue’s tragedy, several sensational lawsuits had embittered the public toward performing heroic deeds for strangers. Specifically, in 2007 an elderly woman sued a young man by the name of Peng Yu for escorting her to the hospital after she had fallen and broken her leg. Mr. Peng was ordered to pay the damages to the elder woman under the judge’s logic that the man wouldn’t have helped her unless he was guilty of injuring her in the first place. Some litigators suggest that lawsuits of this nature create legal disparity between the affluent and the less privileged. Perhaps had the woman not belonged to the poorer class, in need of money, no such lawsuit would have been filed.

A recent China Daily poll reveals that approximately 87 percent of Chinese citizens are unlikely to aid an elderly person who has fallen in the street because they want to avoid being blamed for the accident. “The public's lack of a sense of trust has been made obvious by recent media stories that have looked at the hesitation people feel before they come to someone else's aid," Xie Jing, a communications professor at Fudan University, told the newspaper.

While Good Samaritan Laws in the United States are not federally imposed, the largest jurisdictions in the United States—New York, California, and Texas—have statutes that shield voluntary assistants from liability in the case of an accident. Yet “Good Samaritans” in California and Vermont may be prosecuted if they don’t act in the medical interest of the victim. In 2007 a woman who pulled a friend out of a wrecked car, leaving the friend paralyzed, was liable to civil damages in California because “the perceived danger of remaining in the wrecked car was not "medical," the court ruled.”

One explanation for not imposing more collective responsibility on individuals: separation of morals and law.

"Our common law has always refused to transmute moral duties into legal duties,” Virginia Law Professor Charles O. Gregory noted to Time Magazine in 1965, when the killing of a woman within earshot of dozens of her neighbors prompted a national debate about civic duty. Today, every state has some form of Good Samaritan law protecting people from liability for trying to save a life, according to HeartSafe America.

In Canada, too, each province has its own set of laws concerning Good Samaritan acts. Quebec’s Charter of Rights gives citizens a "duty to rescue:" individuals must assist anyone in jeopardy, unless there is reasonable evidence that it would cause danger to himself or a third party. Abstaining from helping someone is not considered a criminal offense, since it comes from the provincial level. Yet the majority of provinces have adopted a version of the Good Samaritan Law, most of which provide some form of protection for voluntary passers-by from liability for the victim’s damages, unless it can be proven that the damages were caused by the gross negligence of the person.

In France, witnesses to a person in distress can be arrested for not intervening. A Frenchman who fails to help another when he can do so without risk is liable for up to five years in prison and fined several thousands in Euros. The French logic follows that a witness is a participant in the crime if he/she does nothing to prevent it.

In spite of the outrage bubbling in China over society’s apparent moral decline, the majority of the population is reluctant to follow in France’s footsteps. According to one online poll, 77.7 percent of Chinese respondents disagree with the idea of establishing a 'duty to rescue' law. Most claim they don’t want moral acts to be legally enforced. With restrictions on individual freedom already so tightly monitored, the Chinese appear weary to have one more government mandate imposed.

It took the death of a two-year-old girl to bring greater awareness to what it means to do the right thing. Perhaps what is most disturbing about Yue Yue’s death is the realization that an underlying current of fear has become inherently attached to what should be a visceral reaction of compassion. Had the Samaritan described by Luke in the New Testament been bound by today’s laws, perhaps he would not have been so good.

A $5 donation with your morning cup of coffee could be the first step to job creation. Photo: rohobit (flickr)

Would you like to create a job with that latte?

Starting today, this will be the question you’re asked the next time you step into a Starbucks for a cup of coffee. November 1st marks the beginning of the Create Jobs for USA program created by Starbucks chairman and chief executive Howard Schultz. Starbucks is partnering with the Opportunity Finance Network and community development financial institutions (CDFIs)—lending institutions that work with populations ineligible for traditional bank loans—to empower every customer to make a difference through small sum donations.

The $5 donations will provide the funding for affordable loans to small U.S. businesses that are selected by local CDFI’s to have the greatest potential to create and sustain job growth.

With nearly 7,000 stores in the US, the potential donation base is huge. And as concerns about the economy are higher than ever, the Create Jobs program is a huge step toward taking the jobs issue out of the hands of politicians and putting it in the hands of those most affected, one cup of coffee at a time.

Much needed food aid being distributed in Sukkur, Pakistan. Photo: Rob Holden, UK Department for International Development (Flickr)

Malnutrition, which prevents children from reaching their physical and intellectual potential, is falling. The most significant cause? It's becoming a politically important issue in its own right.

Today, 925 million people do not have enough to eat. About 98 percent of those people live in developing countries and 60 percent are women. In sub-Saharan Africa, one third of all child deaths are caused by hunger.

But these rates are lower than they have been in the past. In Brazil and Peru, malnourishment in some regions has been nearly eradicated. A likely cause for these improvements is economic development: as economies grow, people should have more money for food.

But a recent study found no such correlation in many parts of the world. In Peru, a mining boom occurred that boosted the incomes of certain regions. But these regions were not those that saw the most dramatic drop in malnutrition rates. In Southeast Asia, where economies have been growing rapidly, hunger rates have not seen a corresponding drop. As the World Bank’s chief economist for South Asia describes it, "For a region that's clocked something like 6 percent growth on average over the past decade, the statistics on malnutrition are just truly astonishing and unacceptable.”

Growth hasn’t exactly led to glut for much of the developing world. But many regions have seen a sharp decline in hunger rates.

Children in Haiti waiting for food and school supplies to be distributed. Photo: UN Photo/Marco Dormino (flickr)

What caused the plummet? Proactive politicians. Increasingly, politicians are seeing tackling malnutrition as a means of getting elected. The humanitarian news and analysis service IRIN reports that malnutrition has been a neglected issue in the politics of many developing countries. One researcher from the Institute for Development Studies recalls being told by Indian journalists that hunger was a difficult issue to get past editors “because it’s not an election issue.” Looking at the figures for global poverty, it is easy to note that the world’s poorest tend to be the most politically neglected. This may be changing.

The study attributes this attitude shift to civil society networks that are getting better at lobbying governments, and to governments that are themselves becoming more responsive amid democratization of the developing world. According to the World Health Organization, “disparities in health outcomes between the poor and the rich are increasingly attracting attention from researchers and policy-makers, thereby fostering a substantial growth in the literature on health equity.” More attention has led to more action in many parts of the world.

Former Peruvian president Alan Garcia was elected on his “5x5x5” campaign, which pledged to reduce malnutrition for children under age 5 by 5 percent in 5 years. After his election proved it to be a popular issue, he raised the figure to 9 percent.

Some leaders learn the hard way that hunger is something to be taken seriously. In Niger, former president Mamadou Tandja all but banned the subject of hunger from the press. A growing hunger crisis led to his ouster in a military coup. Knowing that its power rested on a promise to provide food, the interim government acted quickly to coordinate relief efforts.

For most countries that have reduced malnutrition, success came after national governments began coordinating and implementing broad anti-poverty campaigns. In Malawi, the federal government began coordinating its own programs with those of non-profits operating in the country to increase efficiency and monitor what worked and what didn’t. Cash transfer programs that were established to incentivize behavior in the community best pulled people out of poverty. While international groups have been doing good work in Malawi for quite some time, it was the government’s engagement of the issue that proved crucial to increasing efficiency and providing real results. “The government’s remarkable engagement and leadership on fighting hunger and undernutrition cannot be overstated,” according to reports from Tripode Proyectos, the research group that conducted the study.

So malnutrition is being elevated in importance around the world. But it is still a huge problem. In Asia, Latin America, and Africa, despite recent improvements, malnutrition remains a leading cause of death for children. As many developing countries head for economic growth, this study should remind us that bigger GDP does not always mean healthier people. But prosperity should mean more money and resources to fight hunger, and politicians are learning that healthy voters are more likely to be happy voters.

According to one Peruvian governor, “In the past, politicians didn’t care about issues like nutrition, because children don’t vote. But now they have realized that their mothers do.”

Ben Osborn is a 2011 graduate of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Read his other contributions to Global Envision.

Last year's devastating quake in Haiti created a pressing need for new, durable housing structures. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps.

Part of a Global Envision miniseries about Portland State University's effort to become the "Consumer Reports" of developing-world technology. Read the introduction.

With the specter of Haiti’s hurricane season looming, everyone involved in the 1000 Homes for Haiti project wanted to get the sustainable, earthquake-proof shelters to the island nation as soon as possible.

But there was a catch: when the houses got wet, they leaked.

The story begins with Charles Fox of Portland’s Pacific Green Innovations (PGI), who came up with the idea for the project after a trip to Haiti in 2010, when he recognized the country’s need for low-cost, sustainable and permanent housing, according to the Portland Tribune. “If you give someone a transitional house, it becomes permanent,” he told the paper. As of August, more than 600,000 Haitians were still living in makeshift housing and tent camps, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

PGI bought building panels of resin-soaked recycled paper from a German building-material manufacturer called SwissCell, which PGI's website bills as earthquake-resistant, fire resistant, weather and temperature resistant.

In June 2010, PSU students actually assembled one of PGI's model homes in a campus park. This was partially to demonstrate another of the homes’ aspects that made it seem perfect for Haiti and the developing world in general: the building panels are modular and can be assembled quickly and simply. PGI says all of the houses’ materials can be produced in Haiti by Haitians.

Things went swimmingly until a curious detail caught the eye of a PSU researcher: the home had water damage. If sitting outside in Portland made the house leak, how would it hold up amid Haitian squalls, humidity and hurricanes? To test it, they tossed some of the panels into PSU’s state-of-the-art Thermotron, a device that, according to Senior Fellow Sergio Palleroni of PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, "can create any environment on earth, any weather condition." They cranked up the heat and humidity to Haitian summertime levels, and let the panels stew for a couple of weeks.

The results confirmed their initial suspicions: Palleroni says that on average, the material lost 60 percent of its structural capacity to resist breakage. In high-wind, high-humidity conditions, the houses could actually fall apart. And for a Caribbean country far more prone to hurricanes than earthquakes—there were four in 2008 alone, according to The Guardian—that’s a big problem.

PGI stands by their product despite Palleroni's criticism. PGI’s manufacturer, Magnum Building Products, wrote in an email to Global Envision that PSU's testing may not have been reliable.

"When installed properly and finished per the guidelines also found on our website, Magnum Board structures will be in use far longer than most any other building product on the market today,” wrote Daniel Armstrong. His full response can be found below, in the comments section.

PSU researchers don’t say the houses have no use, but they don’t think they are a good permanent solution for Haiti. Palleroni pointed out that while the building materials may have passed the manufacturer’s test, they were tested as separate components; the problems showed up when they were fully assembled. PGI disagrees, with its manufacturer arguing that PSU made “no distinction as to what elements of the assembly were the primary contributor(s)" to the homes' failure.” PGI has already implemented their housing program in Haiti.

While there’s no consensus over the houses’ suitability for Haiti’s climate, the fact that there’s a debate at all is unusual. Intensive testing like the kind done at PSU is not often performed on products for the developing world. All too often, potential design problems aren’t identified until after a product is in use. Sending flawed products abroad wastes money and other resources, and in some cases the products might even hurt those that they are intended to help. Improved technologies and testing procedures allow for a longer revision period and result in better products that do more for people in need. And since that’s really the goal of humanitarian design, hopefully intensive product testing will become the norm.

Margo Conner is a senior at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, majoring in international affairs. Read her other contributions to Global Envision.