The use of technology in humanitarian aid planning is on the rise. Photo: Esther Gibbons (Flicker)

2011 is over, but the impact technology had on humanitarian aid planning last year could be just beginning to emerge.

Humanitarian issues demand immediate solutions. In 2011, a lot of solutions to crises placed heavy emphasis on technology. Here are three notable examples:

Disaster prone Bangladesh turned to GPS to provide early weather warnings to fishermen.

Airtel, a private mobile operator in Bangladesh will provide early weather warnings to fishermen using its global positioning system via cell phones in partnership with the Center for Global Change, the Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods and two international NGOs, according to IRIN.

More than half on Bangladesh’s population uses mobile phones. Early weather warnings could prove to be a life-saving tool. "75 percent of the country’s population lives in rural, disaster-prone areas, an ideal environment in which to exploit the potential of mobile phones to mitigate disasters," IRIN reported.

Technology has helped put Kibera on the map, literally.

Finding Kibera, a district of Nairobi, on a map before 2009 was not an easy task because it wasn’t on one. The location of schools, medical facilities, water points and other basic information was simply not available. As a result, The Map Kibera Project was created in order to provide this information. The goal: to train nine Kibera residents in using GPS devices to gather geographical information in a "citizen mapping" project.

Now this information is available on OpenStreetMap, a global map anyone can view and edit. Organizers plan to continue adding information on the map and eventually start mapping other communities.

Mobile phones have turned ordinary people into extraordinary philanthropists.

This past year, one of the worst famines in modern history struck the Horn of Africa. Humanitarian aid and donor government assistance poured in from all over the world. One campaign, "Kenyans for Kenya," set a goal to raise $5.28 million dollars in one month. Within 10 days, the goal was met and a bigger goal of $10.56 million set. By September 1, more than $7 million was collected, $1.6 million through private donations.
Contributions, most of them from Kenyan citizens and organizations, were made through a mobile phone money transfer service operated by telecom firm Safaricom. The money collected has been used to send money to affected areas through the Kenyan Red Cross Society, IRIN reports. This has been one of the most successful humanitarian fundraising campaigns Kenya has ever seen, and its efforts are ongoing.

These are only a few examples of how technology has positively impacted humanitarian responses to crises. Technology isn’t the answer to all the world’s problems, but it’s proving to be an effective tool.

Medic Mobile works with the simplest of cell phones to help provide health care to those far away from their nearest hospital. Photo: Fabiola Coupet/Mercy Corps.

In rural communities around the world, the virtual doctor is in.

The distance between far-flung communities and their nearest hospitals can be fatal. Medic Mobile bridges the gap using a common household item: the cell phone. It’s not the same as a living, breathing doctor, but Medic Mobile comes pretty close, and it does so using a list of platforms that is strikingly similar to what you might find on a smart phone. These seemingly-sophisticated technologies can work on even the most basic of cell phones and computers, just like those found all over the developing world.

Medic Mobile’s Sim Apps, in addition to open-source platforms like FrontlineSMS, OpenMRS, Ushahidi, Google Apps, and HealthMap, allow hospital staff sitting at a computer to communicate with multiple health workers in rural areas. The health workers’ phones are basic, but Medic Mobile uses a tiny parallel SIM card that fits between any GSM phone and a carrier’s cell phone to allow these phones to run the necessary apps. The Medic Mobile website provides a more in-depth description of the many technologies it employs. In a 2009 interview with GOOD magazine, co-founder Lucky Gunasekara described Medic Mobile’s importance:

We can communicate need in real time. Say I am a community health worker in rural Malawi and one of my patients gets really sick. Before this system came along, for a lot of clinics, the patient would die, because even though I have some basic health training as a community health worker, there is nothing I can really do. They're still just as disconnected as the communities they live in. Now with our system clinicians see things in real time and they communicate back.

In addition to saving lives, the program saves time: its website says that in six months, the pilot program in Malawi “saved hospital staff 1200 hours of follow-up time and over $3,000 in motorbike fuel” and cut 900 hours of travel time for antiretroviral therapy monitors by eliminating their need to hand-deliver reports to the hospital.

Since its inception in 2009, Medic Mobile has expanded to Honduras, Haiti, Uganda, Mali, Kenya, South Africa, Cameroon, India and Bangladesh. The platform is adaptable to different situations: it was used in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake to link first responders and locals in need of help. As a result of its successes, Medic Mobile was recently named one of the Top 11 in 2011 mobile health innovators of the year by mHealth Alliance.

The proliferation of cell phones is sparking a revolution in developing-world health care. Innovators from all reaches of the globe have used the near-ubiquitous technology to increase health care affordability and access. By adapting sophisticated platforms to basic devices, they’re turning $15 cell phones into invaluable lifelines.

Editor’s note: For more information on the connection, check out A Medical Lab in the Palm of Your Hand, A Dose of Cell Phone Surveillance Helps Aid Workers Save Lives, and Paging Dr. Smartphone, to name a few.

A foreign domestic worker looks after her elderly client. Photo: Jerry Wong (flickr)

From low-tech light bulbs in the Philippines to microfinance in Nicaragua, our team of young writers covered lots of ground this year.

Here's a rewind on the themes that struck the strongest chords with readers, and the money quote from each piece. As we head into 2012, odds are that these big ideas will keep resonating.

Lack of electricity is a huge barrier to overcoming poverty by
Megan Kelly, Feb. 10:

As long as those hundreds of millions remain in the dark, they will remain poor," and yet bringing electricity to areas that have none lacks global funding and attention. It's not even part of the Millennium Development Goals.

Megan made a sweeping case for attention to energy poverty, a theme we've continued to cover.

Microfinance isn't a magic bullet by Laura Mortara, Jan. 24:

And any situation involving loan and credit is dangerous, especially when people are allowed to borrow irresponsibly. The failure of microfinance in India is largely due in part to MFI's shifting their focus from non-profit to profit-making industries and the corruption that follows thereafter. In addition to this, microfinance in India expanded way too quickly without the experience or infrastructure to support it.

Laura rounded up the previous year's run of bad news about the microfinance sector with a wealth of links to the best coverage.

Used soda bottles light up the world, for free by Brynn Opsahl, Aug. 18:

A used plastic bottle filled with water and a touch of bleach is placed in a hole of a tin roof. For up to five years, 50 watts of light fill up the once-gloomy windowless shack any time the sun is out

Brynn's look at this shockingly simple, effective idea was one of several articles to land in the Christian Science Monitor as part of a partnership we forged with them this year.

Does China's rise mean U.S. decline? by Chris Sharp, Feb. 4:

According to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, 44 percent of Americans believe China is already the world’s top economic power, compared to 27 percent who think it’s the U.S.

Chris's piece rebutted the popular cliche about China's looming global power, drawing on a post by Foreign Policy's Daniel Drezner to argue that the U.S.-China relationship is about interdependence, not domination.

The female remittance economy: A hidden global network of mothers and money by Eliza Slater, May 11:

Remittances are a significant part of an unofficial global aid network, worth $325 billion last year. That’s three times the size of official foreign development aid spending.

Eliza zoomed into the human scale of some staggering numbers, showing how shipping cash to one's relatives abroad has become, among other things, an important part of modern femininity around the world.

As we mentioned last week, Global Envision is planning some big new initiatives in 2012. Stay tuned—we're looking forward to talking with you about whatever comes next.

If you are interested in the health of the world economy, it helps to know a bit about its history. But conceptualizing the global economy over long periods of time can be daunting. Until now.

Check out the above video, in which Hans Rosling plots the "wealth and health of nations" over the last 200 years. Then see his interactive website, gapminder.org, which lets you dig into his data yourself.

This has been reposted from the Mercy Corps blog.

On March 1, I entered Libya from Egypt with the Mercy Corps emergency response team. The situation at the border was chaotic. Thousands of foreign migrant workers were trying to cross into Egypt to escape the violence in Libya. Many of them were stranded in the no-man’s land area between the two countries, waiting for transportation and permission to enter Egypt.

The customs house, the duty free shop — literally every building at the border — had become temporary shelter for the thousands of people who were stuck there. More were camped out on the sidewalks and parking lots. Most of them had only the belongings they could carry by hand and very little money or resources to cope. Fortunately, the majority of the people were Egyptians and so they did not have to travel too far to reach home and the Egyptian government was assisting their people in getting back there.

Since the unrest and violence began in Libya there is the refugee crisis as the migrant foreign workers try to flee the violence. More 170,000 people have fled from Libya — thousands are still stuck in the border of Tunisia without adequate financial resources, shelter or food.

The situation on the Tunisia border, where Mercy Corps has another emergency team deployed for this ongoing regional crisis, is much worse than on the Egyptian side. The people fleeing into Tunisia are also largely Egyptian, but they have to get transportation on planes or boats to get home. The numbers are massive and they are forced to wait several days for transport. There are also reports that, as they come through Libya, they being harassed by pro-Gaddafi forces and some have been forced to pay bribes and give away the few possessions they brought as bribes to pass.

The United States and other governments have sent planes and boats to help the people evacuate, and the border situation has improved in the last day — but thousands are still waiting.

There is also concern if there is an increase in airstrikes and violence in the west of Libya that more people will try to cross the borders to escape. If this happens, the crisis could spiral out of control.

The situation here in Libya is changing by the minute as the opposition advances from the East and then is beaten back by Gaddafi forces, and then advances again. Airstrikes are ongoing and we are preparing for the worst, but hoping for a quick end to this terrible violence.

Some of the thousands stuck at the Salloum border between Libya and Egypt. The situation on the Tunisian border is much worse. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

Women at a microfinance meeting in India. Photo: Mckay Savage (flickr)

Microfinance was once the poster child for poverty alleviation. Hailed as an alternative to dangerous loan sharks, it quickly gained momentum and support from governments and NGO's alike. But lately the microfinance glitter has been wearing off, and this once-globally praised idea has come under intense criticism. Some governments have even encouraged their citizens not to pay back their loans, causing lenders to experience a drop in payback. This is most notable in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where repayment fell from almost 100 percent to a mere 20 percent.

While much of the backlash has focused on India, the same problems could strike any community utilizing microfinance, making India an important lesson to learn from.

Andhra Pradesh, which has a population of almost 80 million people, accounts for one third of India's microfinance loans, reports The Economist. And it is in Andhra Pradesh where microfinance is taking the most heat.

Local governments have pointed the finger at microfinance institutions (MFIs), blaming them for farmer's suicides that occur as a result of severe debt, and castigating them as profiteering loan sharks. The motivations of these politicians, however may be more political than moral. Many of them have utilized the situation to gain votes from the poor, suggests The Economist article. These politicians may also see MFIs as competition to government-installed programs and their own popularity.

Microfinance has also come under fire in Bangladesh where Muhammad Yunus -- the father of microfinance -- was facing allegations of illegal financial transactions. The accusation made by a Norwegian film maker has since been retracted, but the prime minister of Bangladesh still seized the opportunity to damage Yunus' reputation. This is important considering much of her motivation in doing so could have to do with Yunus's proposal to start a political party, despite the fact that this party never materialized according to The New York Times. However, NPR has speculated that despite the attention this case is getting, it will not hinder Bangladesh's use of microfinance loans.

Other Latin American countries such as Nicaragua and Bolivia have also become entangled with the negative side of microfinance. And politicians in these countries have made similar statements to those made by their counterparts in India, encouraging the poor not to pay back their loans in order to gain support from the lower classes.

In truth, microfinance is not a magic wand. Like all financial institutions it is wrought with the ups and downs of the market. And any situation involving loan and credit is dangerous, especially when people are allowed to borrow irresponsibly. The failure of microfinance in India is largely due in part to MFI's shifting their focus from non-profit to profit-making industries and the corruption that follows thereafter. In addition to this, microfinance in India expanded way too quickly without the experience or infrastructure to support it. The boom led to landslide profits for microlenders but disaster for their borrowers.

It's important to remember that microfinance is just a tool that can be used in both positive and negative ways. And as The Economist notes, it is neither miraculous nor detrimental:

In fact, research suggests that it [microfinance] does work — for some people some of the time, as you would expect. It is not a magic bullet, but nor is it intrinsically harmful.

Still there is much hope for microfinance, but it needs strict monitoring and legislation to ensure that corruption and profiteering to not deter it from the original goal of poverty alleviation.

Almost all microfinance borrowers are women who utilize funds obtained to start and maintain small businesses, such as broom making. Photo: Michael Foley Photography (flickr)

Of the three main microcredit models; non-profit, commercial, and regulated full financial services, which is best equipped to help the poor?

The Clinton Global Initiative invited three heavyweights from the microfinance industry to debate this very question: Nobel prize winner and Grammeen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus, SKS Microfinance founder Vikram Akula, and Mary Ellen Iskenderian, the president and CEO of Women’s World Banking. You can listen to Planet Money's distilled version of the conversation below.

Yunus presented an argument against the profit-maximizing, commercial approach, contending that rich investors seeking profits should not be allowed to usurp capital from the interest payments of the poor. He argued:

Grameen Bank is a for-profit organization…We are not NGO, we are a bank. But ownership is the question. Grameen Bank is owned by the borrowers. So we make profit, profit goes back to them. So we protect that part. So what we are opposed to when you say profit or commercialization, it’s money of the poor going out to somebody else.

In contrast, Akula alleged that the only way to extend microcredit opportunities to as many poor people as possible is to follow a commercial model:

Women from more remote areas would often come and say ‘Can you start in our village?’ and we’d always have to say ‘No, you know, it’s grant run and so we don’t have funds,” and we’d have to turn them away and they’d walk away disappointed… I left my NGO and came up with the idea of using a highly commercial model so that you could access capital markets and go back to that [poor] woman or any poor woman anywhere in the world and say ‘Yes, you too can have an opportunity.’

The other panelist, Iskenderian, advocated extending full financial services to the world’s poor. She reasons that the poor need access to regulated, commercial institutions that provide credit but also accept deposits and protect assets. However, she acknowledges the difficulties of becoming a “microbank,” specifically that laws often prevent the formation of such institutions and that it is extremely expensive to run them.

In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith first articulated the notion that firms acting in self-interest and profit-maximization would unintentionally produce socially beneficial outcomes. But is it the best way to prioritize the needs of the poor? You decide.

Belu's eco-friendly, socially responsible bio-bottles. Photo: Courtesy of Belu

There are few things more satisfying than a cold drink of water. But for lots of people in the world, clean drinking water is hard to come by. A UK-based company called Belu is helping change this. Pronounced "blue," the nonprofit sells bottled water in their eco-friendly "bio-bottle," made from compostable corn plastic and capped with a PVC-free top.

For every bottle of water they sell, the folks at Belu provide one person in a developing country with clean water for a month:

In collaboration with Oxfam, WaterAid, and Fresh2O, Belu has thus far funded the installation of wells, hand pumps and rainwater harvesting technology in four countries: India, Mali, Bangladesh and Madagascar. These projects are rated to provide safe drinking water to over 43,264 people for at least fifteen years.

For a bottled water company, that's pretty refreshing.

Thousands of Bangladeshi environmental refugees migrate to Dhaka every year as a result of climate change. Photo: uncultured (flickr)

Big cities are likely to strain under the weight of "environmental refugees" as climate change takes effect, according to a recent story in The New York Times. The story looks at the capital city of Bangladesh where three million people came from rural areas hit by natural disasters.

Dhaka is the last resort for people like Mukhles Rahman, who have lost their homes in floods and other natural disasters. “We are trying to find another place to go, because all the land back home is dissolving,” Mukhles said to the Times, “But there aren’t jobs in other cities or villages.” However, Dhaka's already scarce resources like water, electricity and waste disposal are being stretched by the influx of environmental refugees. Like Mukhles, half of Dhaka's 12 million residents already live in slums that lack basic sanitation and drinking water.

Experts say that climate change is likely to cause more severe and frequent storms over the coming years, says the New York Times. Which means that that that even more people will become environmental refugees.

October's comment of the month comes from James in Portland, Oregon. James commented on our story Poverty Isn't Always Ugly. He reminds us that poverty rears its ugly head in many forms — not just monetarily. For his efforts, we will make a $25 donation to a project of his choice on Global Giving.

There are definitely a few issues to consider and discuss relating poverty. In reading Muhammad Yunus' book "Creating a World Without Poverty". He felt, and I agree, that the definition of poverty isn't going to be the same from country to country. For Bangladesh the Grameen Bank developed there own definition of poverty for their internal purposes and to measure impact over time.

Many organization attempt to place a dollar amount of income/day to determine poverty, we've heard the $2.00 per day used frequently. Income isn't a solid method because it doesn't factor variables outside of money. Location and access to natural resources for instance are variables that change the need for money, or an individuals dependence upon it.

Bottom line, I think it's important to realize that poverty can't be defined the same way in every community we visit. Poverty includes physical need and extends into the mindset of individuals and how they view the world around them. It's also important to be culturally sensitive when working with people around the world. Sure, we have it pretty good here in the U.S. but we have problems too. We shouldn't seek to cookie cut our cultural values everywhere we go.

Keep writing in and share your though-provoking comments for a chance to win $25 towards the well-deserving charity of your choice!

* Lest anyone think $25 is not a lot, consider these figures from our affiliate Mercy Corps: $25 delivers clean, safe drinking water to 50 people in one of eastern Congo's sprawling displacement camps. $25 provides seeds to farmers in cyclone-devastated areas of Myanmar to plant five acres of rice. $25 gives traumatized children in Darfur 12 weeks of activities and psychological care to help them heal.

A Mercy Corps small business loan helped Najeeba expand her successful baby cradle business in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

Over the past decade, Mercy Corps’ microfinance services have lent more than $1.5 billion, reaching more than one million people. Twelve Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) founded and supported by Mercy Corps operate all over the world, with 270,000 active clients — 65 percent of them are women. To better serve those excluded from formal financial services, Mercy Corps is working with these MFIs to develop and offer savings, remittances, and micro-insurance services as well.

I recently sat down with Zhanna Zhakupova and Jim Anderson who were in town for a microfinance conference hosted by Mercy Corps, to find out more about Mercy Corps microfinance programs and how the global economic crisis is impacting microfinance loans. Zhanna is the Executive Director of the Asian Credit Fund (ACF), headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Jim is Mercy Corps’ Financial Services Manager and works from UlaanBaatar, the capital city of Mongolia. Together, they have experience working in countries as diverse as Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Japan, Bosnia, Poland and Afghanistan.

Haley Dillan: Jim, tell me a little bit about Mercy Corps’ use of Microfinance.

Jim Anderson: Microfinance is an integral part of what we’re [Mercy Corps] doing as an agency. Mercy Corps works with a group of well-established MFIs to complement other programming. All these MFIs provide loans to individuals and small businesses, and in Mongolia and Indonesia our MFI affiliates also offer deposits. Many support agriculture and offer consumer loans for purposes like tuition payments and health care costs. A micro-loan can range from $65 to a Guatemalan woman raising chickens or piglets, to $7,000 for a Kazakh businessperson.

Microfinance is a great tool because, when managed correctly, it is sustainable. Projects can be established and continue on a sustainable basis: they don’t require ongoing injections of donor money. As the NGO, you create the legacy, and then it often continues independantly.

Haley: Why are the majority of loans extended to women?

Jim: Typically, women are the more common borrowers. From a broad source of statistics, women are more reliable borrowers. They invest their business profits to support the family — educating, feeding, housing, and providing health care for their children. As of this June, Kompanion in Kyrgyzstan had over 91,000 clients, of whom 98 percent were women. What’s the percentage for Asian Credit Fund, Zhanna?

Zhanna Zhakupova: About 93 percent of ACF loans are to women.

Jim: Yes, and the XacBank in Mongolia has over 63,000 clients, and women comprise about 55 percent of that. However, in certain countries, it’s not always clear that just because the borrower is a woman, she’s the one in charge of the money. In Afghanistan, for example, a female borrower may just give the loan money to her husband, and it’s hard to track that.

Zhanna: Also, men are less interested in small loans. When they think about business, they think about “big.” And after the global economic crisis, group lending has grown significantly, and women dominate group lending. Men are more reluctant to join groups.

Haley: What other impacts has the global economic crisis had on microfinance? Have you changed your lending criteria? Has it affected the ability for applicants to repay their loans?

Zhanna: As I mentioned, our portfolio has shifted towards group lending since 2008. So, yes, the global economic crisis definitely caused a shift in our lending. In Kazakhstan, the crisis has been quite severe. The GDP growth was averaging about 8 percent annually since 2000, from oil and mineral resources. A pretty strong middle class had emerged, especially in the two largest cities Almaty and Astana. The economic crisis really affected this middle class; the crisis led to a sharp decline in real estate and that hit a lot of people. It seemed like everyone had loans that were secured by real estate… and when the real estate bubble burst, MFI loans were under water.

The banks stopped lending, because real estate was the key piece of collateral for most people, and it has continued to fall in value. No one had sufficient assets to meet tougher bank requirements, and so couldn’t qualify for loans after the global economic crisis. Lenders accumulated loan repayments, but refused to relend that money, sitting on it instead of pumping it back into the economy. No liquidity — no lending — no economic development — falling living standards.

In the rural areas, lending was completely frozen. When I recently visited rural areas served by ACF, every village asked us to open a branch. Small loans were in big demand but no one was lending. Now, Asian Credit Fund has about $1 million dollars in group loans, with the average loan size at around $500 per person.

Haley: What's the difference between non-profit and for-profit microlending? Does Mercy Corps work with for-profit lenders?

Jim: Actually, microlending is for-profit in most areas of the world, particularly Latin America and Central Asia. Non-profit lenders are more often located in places like India and Bangladesh. So most of Mercy Corps' microfinance work is with for-profit MFIs, many of which source funding from for-profit socially responsible investors (SRIs).

If these SRI lenders were to calculate the true risk of the loans they’re extending to MFIs, the interest rate would be so unmanageably high — possibly 60 or 70 percent in places like Tajikistan or Afghanistan. But the individuals who invest with SRIs are willing to forgo a certain amount of return because they want to encourage social improvements by lending to developing countries. As a result, SRIs can lend to MFIs at affordable interest rates.

In order to help MFIs attract capital to expand and serve more clients, Mercy Corps utilizes various sources of investment, including equity and debt, typically with SRIs.

Haley: Is there an idea or sentiment that you are taking away from the conference?

Jim: At the conference participants included a diverse group of organizations, culturally, geographically and in terms of business models, yet we all face similar challenges and issues, and it’s great that we have an opportunity to come together and talk about that.

Zhanna: Yes, everyone was talking about development, and long-term goals.

Bangladesh is facing a severe health epidemic due to high amounts of arsenic in the ground water found in wells which are the primary source of drinking water. Photo: Shawn (flickr)

"The largest mass poisoning in history," according to the World Health Organization, is in Bangladesh, where there's arsenic in the groundwater used by more than half of the population.

Arsenic is a colorless and odorless element that can occur naturally in soil. Excessive and long-term exposure can cause various cancers and skin abnormalities. Bangladesh has the highest levels of naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater in the world, reports Al Jazeera. But this wasn't discovered until the mid-90s, after humanitarian agencies dug a lot of wells to prevent locals from drinking water from dirty ponds.

More than 70 percent of the population in Bangladesh live in rural areas and get drinking water from wells.

With more than 30 years of exposure, Bangladeshis are now facing health problems that include skin lesions, lung cancer, heart disease and kidney failure. But these conditions are often undetected because arsenic poisoning isn't always physically visible. Only 30 percent of Bangladeshis have access to basic health care, so the actual measure of the impact arsenic poisoning is likely under-reported. Even without an accurate measure, the WHO considers the scale of the health epidemic even larger than the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, which led to more than 100,000 people being diagnosed with fatal cancers.

The Bangladeshi government and development agencies are investing in water filter systems and trying to spread the word about the dangers of drinking from the groundwater wells. But getting rural communities to stop using their primary source for cool, clean-looking water is easier said than done, reports Al Jazeera. Installing household water filtration systems is not affordable for most villagers. Boiling water is still an option, but it's extremely difficult to change daily practices of people who already have limited resources and are unable to see and understand the effects on their health.

The following trailer from the documentary Arsenic: The Largest Mass Poisoning in History shows the devastating effects of Bangladesh's poisoned groundwater.

The Brooks World Poverty Institute is holding a conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh about adapting cities to climate change. But it's not what they're talking about that's revolutionary, it's who's doing the talking.

Studies, papers, and articles are released everyday discussing the effect of climate change on the world's poorest. Journalists, politicians, academics, bloggers, everyone seems to have an opinion on how, why, and what to do. The only people whose voices aren't being heard seem to be the people most affected.

Well the academics are stepping down from their ivory towers to the streets of Bangladesh. Climate change seems like an appropriate topic for the capital of a country where predictions of rising sea levels put 55 percent of the Bangladesh population at risk. Medical News Today reports Professor David Hulme, Associate Director of BWPI as saying:

"Our engagement with poor people from the outset means that their knowledge and their preferences will help shape the projects designed to improve their lives. In the past, poverty researchers have been guilty of exploring solutions that they believe will work for the poor, rather than listening to what poor people really want."

One project to be discussed at the conference, which is co-sponsored by a Bangladeshi NGO, is a barge for traders in Dhaka's market to use during flood season.

This is the first of an annual conference on poverty that will be hosted by various developing countries. Although discussing city plans with citizens seems like a no brainer, the conference is being hailed as "groundbreaking" for discussing poverty and climate change with the poor. Let's hope the experts won't be afraid to get their feet wet and their hands dirty, and the academics and "the people" continue their conversation.

A group of gypsies on a street corner in Dhaka. Photo: A@Dhaka (flickr)

Photo: Sun Pictures / Lakshman (flickr)

Ever heard of a 13-year-old bank manager?

It’s not an uncommon sight at the Children’s Development Bank (CDB), a unique initiative by the Delhi-based NGO Butterflies that helps street children help themselves. CDB, founded in Delhi in 2001, offers street and working children the opportunity to invest in a different lifestyle.

Fear of theft and lack of future planning have often led working children to spend what little they earn on short-term pleasures, such as cigarettes or cinema tickets. By providing a safe place to hold money, however, CDB encourages them to start a savings habit.

CDB is particularly innovative in the way it is run. It works as a cooperative, in which children are both the owners and decision makers. Rules, membership standards and loan criteria are set by members who are all between the ages of eight and 18. The idea is for kids to "put money aside for themselves without worry that it will be lost or stolen, save for things that they need or want, such as clothes, (and) plan to improve themselves, by saving for education and training."

CDB now boasts more than 8,250 members and operates in 12 locations, including branches in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Microfinance has worked in the developing world, but will it work here? Photo: PetroleumJelliffe (flickr)

A few weeks ago microfinance pioneer Professor Muhammad Yunus was in Queens, New York. No, he wasn’t soliciting funding or international support for his Bangladesh-based microlending institution. He was cutting the ribbon on the brand new Grameen Bank America building.

Thousands of miles away from the original Grameen Bank, the American version will function much like its Bangladeshi counterpart: loaning to groups of women rather than individuals. Like the women who first participated in Yunus’ innovative banking scheme, American borrowers will convene at one member’s house to collect weekly dues. This type of group-lending model increases accountability, since defaulting on your loan affects your peers' access to credit as well as your own.

The Grameen Bank targets women because they're more reliable borrowers. To date, Grameen America has loaned upwards of $250,000 dollars to more than 100 women who are using their $500 to $3,000 loans to establish or expand businesses ranging from floral arranging to house cleaning.

But Yunus has some skeptics to win over. Many question whether the Grameen model will resonate with Americans. Microfinance expert Saiful Islam says "Bangladeshis, Indians, Latinos will follow it, but I don’t know about others." In 1985, a similar program started by Yunus in rural Arkansas at the request of then-Governor Bill Clinton failed due to mistrust among participants, according to Shorebank's Mary Houghton, who helped advise the microfinance experiment in Arkansas.

It does seem somewhat of a strange fit: banking targeted to empower the poorest of the poor in one of the most prosperous countries in the world?

The United States does have its fair share of people living in poverty, however. Immigrants in particular have a hard time accessing credit and are more likely to use predatory lending agencies that charge steep interest rates. What's more, the Center for Financial Services and Innovation, reports that approximately 40 million American households are considered underbanked.

Also, contrary to public perception, microcredit is not aimed at the poorest of the poor. "It’s actually supposed to help those below a certain poverty line who are looking for self-employment as a route out of poverty," says Raj Desai of the Brookings Institution.

In that case, the U.S.-based bank may run into trouble. Approximately 1 out of every 11 Americans work for themselves, while about 1 in 4 in Bangladesh are self-employed.

Yunus will need time to prove that the American model can be successful. It may be that American women need more than greater financial access to climb out of poverty. But Yunus' large following and wide array of awards — including a Nobel Peace Prize — suggest he has a fighting chance.