A new mapping tool ties climate change to humanitarian issues including conflict and displacement in countries like Somalia. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

The U.S. military is targeting an unorthodox foe in the battle for political stability in Africa: climate change.

That’s the goal of a new $7.6 million joint military project with the University of Texas, focused on developing a new mapping tool to show where “vulnerability to climate change and violent conflicts intersect throughout the African continent,” according to Scientific American.

The Climate Change and African Political Stability Project (CCAPS) compiles data on civil unrest and other violent conflicts in Africa dating back to 1996. The program also “visualizes multiple dimensions of climate vulnerability and risks in a single map,” Fast.Co.Exist reports, and overlays this with data about conflicts and ongoing climate-related aid initiatives.

The result, project managers hope, will be a tool that shows how climate change causes droughts and food insecurity, which in turn can drive violent local and regional clashes over limited and dwindling resources.

The mapping tool is “a starting point for a conversation … about how we prioritize resources" Joshua Busby, project researcher and assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Texas, told Scientific American.

Climate change impacts can slow economic growth and damage livelihoods. Clearly violent conflict does as well.

Knowing how and where these intersect can help governments and international agencies best allocate limited resources to head off and alleviate impending disasters.

"It is not enough to say ‘Ethiopia is vulnerable’ without explaining which parts of Ethiopia are particularly vulnerable and why," states CCAPS’ research document. “Decision-makers need research that is evidence-based and detail-oriented to help them target aid in the most effective way possible.”

A look at the document’s ‘composite vulnerability’ maps (composed of both climate-related and socio-political indicators) show particularly high risk in troubled countries such as Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But even within each of these, risks vary by location, and a micro-scale understanding is essential for appropriate responses.

The military might not be on the verge of winning the war against climate change. But it’s hopeful that weapons like CCAPS will aid in the battle against its ugliest side-effects.

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For too many dads, hitting the village bar takes precedence over their child's education. Photo: andré thiel (flickr)

One source of poverty often overlooked is the manner in which the poor choose to spend their money. Many, particularly men, divert limited funds to buy beer, prostitutes, tobacco and other nonessential items, rather then invest in the education of their children.

The consequence of these poor financial decisions is that many children never receive the education they deserve, not due to lack of access, but because of unpaid tuition fees. Children are forced to drop out, repeat grades, or suffer expulsion, while their fathers hit the village bars for a few liters of beer.

These priorities are not limited to the developing world. The average American spends approximately 7 percent of their income on entertainment, alcohol, and tobacco, while spending only 1.9 percent on education, according to a 2008 survey conducted by the U.S Department of Labor. Though everyone, including the poor, deserve to engage in entertainment and the purchase of pleasure items, the lower a family’s income gets, the more devastating its effects on a families overall well-being become.

Investing more in education could be exactly what is needed to lift poor families and future generations out of poverty. Around the world, approximately 103.5 million primary school age children are not enrolled in school, with about 57 percent of these education deprived children being girls. The lack of an education, or an insufficient one, leads to fewer choices and opportunities later in life. Children who receive a well rounded education are provided with the skills to prevent disease, address issues of maternal health, and navigate the world efficiently with skills that will serve them their entire lives.

If families could redirect even a slight percentage of the money spent on tobacco or alcohol, and this applies to all families around the world, their situations could be transformed dramatically, says New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof. In addition, Kristof advocates that women take on greater responsibility for the household budget, as they have consistently been found to be more financially responsible than men and more apt to allocate funds towards family needs, rather then individual ones. Female monetary empowerment has long been advocated for, but day by day, the case grows stronger.

To hear Kristof’s thoughts on this somewhat controversial and overlooked subject, check out the video below.

Electronic companies say it is impossible to trace the source of minerals used in products. But, a dealer in Eastern Congo shows minerals from a rebel-held mine and non-conflict minerals. Photo: Grassroots Group (flickr)

To cut costs, some U.S. companies source and assemble materials overseas, which can make it hard to track a complex global supply chain. It also means that a product designed by a U.S. company but manufactured in China could be considered a Chinese export. For example, take the iphone, designed by the California-based company, Apple. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on findings from researchers at the Asian Development Bank that estimate the iPhone contributed $1.8 billion to U.S. trade deficit with China last year because technically, the iPhone is a Chinese export.

The problem, according to the Asian Development Bank researchers, is that the trade imbalances are determined through an outdated measurement system that doesn't really work for today's globalized economy. "[T]raditional ways of measuring global trade produce the number but fail to reflect the complexities of global commerce where the design manufacturing and assembly of products often involve several countries," they explain to The Wall Street Journal. According to the current measurement system, American products manufactured overseas can be categorized as as U.S. import.

Going back to Apple's iPhone, The Wall Street Journal explains how the current system gives China full credit for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, even though Chinese labor only accounts for 3.6 percent, or $6.50, of the total $178.96 estimated wholesale cost. Even WTO director-general Pascal Lamy agrees that the concept of country of origin as a way to measure exports has become "obsolete," according to The Wall Street Journal. Lamy adds that using a value-added approach would be more appropriate for today's globalized economy.

Mr. Lamy said if trade statistics were adjusted to reflect the actual value contributed to a product by different countries, the size of the U.S. trade deficit with China—$226.88 billion, according to U.S. figures—would be cut in half...If China was credited with producing only its portion of the value of an iPhone, its exports to the U.S. for the same amount of iPhones would be a U.S. trade surplus of $48.1 million, after accounting for the parts U.S. firms contribute.

But, the lack of transparency and inability of U.S. companies to accurately track their supply chains, prohibits a value-added approach from being used. This can create real-world consequences, explains The Wall Street Journal article, because political battles are waged on the basis of these trade figures.

Ambiguous supply chains are exacerbating other hot-button topics like human rights and fair labor issues. Consider Coltan, or tantalum, which is a metal used for various consumer products. Around 80 percent of the world's known coltan deposits are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is deeply entangled in a violent civil war that has claimed over 4.5 million lives since 1998 and is the deadliest conflict since WWII, according to The Calgary Harold. Militias fight for control of a number of resources to sell and use the profits to continue the violence. And utter lack of a system to track where minerals are coming from is a problem. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said it's challenging and problematic to trace origins of minerals to determine which are conflict minerals. In an effort to help companies better understand where their materials come from, Apple and Research In Motion (maker of Blackberry) recently met to discuss a program to help identify conflict-free smelters. This dialog shows that there is some action on the part of industry, albeit slowly, writes the The Calgary Herald.

If companies and their suppliers were able to keep better track their complex global supply chains, trade experts like Pascal Lamy from the WTO would be better positioned to follow a value-added approach to calculate accurate trade statistics.

It seems that with the incredible amount of innovation and design going into technology, surely someone could come up with a viable system to track these very complex supply chains? Isn't there an App for that?

A government deeply in debt is limited in it ability to implement public programs that would benefit the young and old by providing services such as education and health care. Photo: Matthew DeGalan/Mercy Corps

Recently, international creditors forgave almost $20 billion in foreign debt amassed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The debt was mostly accumulated under the former president, Mobutu Sese Seko, and is considered odious debt as the money was used for the President's personal amusement rather than for the benefit of the populace.

The timing of Congo's debt relief is fortuitous as the country's economy needs as much help as it can get. The country consistently lands near the bottom of the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” rankings and is plagued by persistent internal conflict.

But maybe the DRC just got its big break: escaping the chains of debt may allow the country to take the first steps towards economic development and progress. The head of the central bank and monetary policy committee, Jean-Louis Kayembe wa Kayembe, certainly thinks so.

[The] cancellation of the debt which have a positive impact on central bank reserves and will also allow the state to create budgetary space...for the battle against poverty and for infrastructure, given a durable growth for the wellbeing of the population.

There are some concerns about corruption, governance and human rights abuses in the DRC. Critics argue that debt cancellation should have been used as leverage to encourage reform in the country. However, debt relief should allow for some improvements in the government's ability to implement more progressive and pro-poor policies.

Everyday life on the Congo. Photo: Julien Harneis (Flickr)

The River has seen everything: poverty, political chaos, violence. It has been mythicized in great stories of expeditions (see Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness) and exploited by outsiders. Its winding white-water rapids symbolize the struggle of the people that live along it, who have always depended on it for their livelihoods. These people transport goods and food up and down the river, creating a "floating market" that brings life to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Learn more about the "lifeblood" of the Congo in NPR's latest in-depth feature on the river that sustains one of the poorest countries in the world.

China's attitude towards Africa was apparent in a slogan at a summit on Africa in Beijing. Photo: stephenrwalli (flickr)

Deborah Brautigan doesn't argue with critics who call China's interest in Africa self-serving. But she may be one of the first American academics to declare that China's deeds will be good for Africa, too.

It's an argument she expands in The Dragon's Gift, a new book analyzing the development of China's Africa policies over the last few decades.

Brautigan asserts that China's investments are integrating African countries into the global economy more quickly because, unlike Western countries, the nation invests in an array of industries. In Angola, for example, China has built roads, schools, hospitals, and irrigation systems in the country's interior — even though its oil wealth is far offshore. Brautigan also cites a telling remark by a Nigerian diplomat: "The Chinese are trying to get involved in every sector of our economy. If you look at the West, it's oil, oil, oil and nothing else."

And on a continent rife with corruption, China's style of development actually leaves less room for embezzlement than does the World Bank model, points out a book review in The Morning Star. Rather than funneling money through potentially corrupt government officials, China pays Chinese companies to head up infrastructure projects.

Brautigan acknowledges that China's behavior in Africa is sometimes far from saintly. Some have complained that Chinese companies do not respect local labor laws, as happened at a mine in Congo, and others worry that Chinese companies will have a negative environmental impact on the continent.

While not negligible, Brautigan sees these violations as small in comparison to what China's investments could mean for Africa, and in comparison to the failed promise of other foreign aid there. As an AidWatchers review noted, this "book seeks to compare Chinese aid to Western aid as it really is, not as we wish it were."

Kamwi Alphonse, 65, lives in the Bulengo displacement camp and makes charcoal primarily for his family, but occasionally sells it as well. He sells a plastic bag for 600 Francs — about a dollar. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

This has been reposted from the Mercy Corps blog.

Most people have heard of conflict or "blood" diamonds, but fewer may be aware of conflict charcoal. The charcoal trade in Congo's North Kivu Province is primarily controlled by a long-standing rebel group. Much of the charcoal in Goma is produced from trees in Virunga National Park.

While in Goma recently, Balemba, an employee of the park service (ICCN), came to speak to Mercy Corps about activities in the park. The ICCN patrols the park regularly, both to protect the gorilla population, but also to discourage charcoal production in the park. Balemba works with communities that live on the borders of Virunga National Park and strives to find ways to increase revenue for the local population in an environmentally friendly way.

Currently it is common practice for communities to engage in the charcoal trade as a way to make money. As an alternative, the ICCN is distributing biomass briquette presses to local associations. The associations receive training on how to make the briquettes and are responsible for collecting the biomass (which includes dried grass, sawdust or paper) needed to make them.

One press can produce approximately 500 briquettes per day. The briquettes can be used to cook with and are a cleaner energy source than charcoal. Mercy Corps is currently distributing briquettes to 700 beneficiaries for use in fuel efficient stoves.

Balemba warned that while the briquettes are largely a positive development, there are negative consequences to offsetting the charcoal trade. Briquette presses may be destroyed by the rebels that control the charcoal trade, or community members may be forced to produce or transport charcoal for them.

As with most things in Congo, it's a complex situation.

A young girl walking on the outskirts of Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. Photo: subcomandanta (flickr)

More than $50 billion of foreign aid is given to African countries every year to address poverty on the continent. Although this may seem generous, and to some a solid strategy to treat Africa’s ailments, Dambisa Moyo — a Zambian economist with a background that includes Harvard, Oxford and Goldman Sachs — says just the opposite.

In her new book, Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is Another Way for Africa, Moyo claims that foreign aid has been "an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.”

In a recent op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Moyo writes that although she isn’t completely against humanitarian aid, she doesn’t believe "charity-based aid" can provide long-term sustainable development for Africa. Her biggest issue is with “government-to-government aid,” and funds from large monetary institutions like the World Bank. Moyo says the $60 trillion of this aid that's been given in the past 60 years is not working, evident from the fact that the number of Africans who live on less than $1 day has doubled in the last 20 years. And most foreign government aid, she argues, has been pocketed by corrupt politicians.

Trade, foreign investments and microfinance opportunities can provide a better future for Africans, Moyo said in an interview with the New York Times.

As expected, Dambisa Moyo’s claims have come under fire. In an interview with Newsweek, ONE Campaign co-founder Jamie Drummond says “Dead Aid” is “a poor polemic, with nothing new of substance, filled with anecdotal micro examples which ignore mountains of evidence." Madeleine Bunting from the Guardian calls Moyo’s claims “poorly argued” with “frequent pre-emptory glib conclusions.”

I wanted to get another perspective on Dambisa Moyo's assertions regarding the effects of foreign aid on Africa. So I asked Laura Miller — Program Officer for Central Africa at Mercy Corps — to respond to some of Moyo's claims based on her experience in the international-aid business, including stints in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A Congolese woman recovers at a hospital in Goma, DRC. Photo: Endre Vestvik (flickr)

Congo has the world's biggest deposits of gold, copper, diamonds, and tin. Its dramatic mountain landscapes once inspired Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn’s romantic saga in The African Queen.

But that was before Congo’s internal conflicts drove foreign investors and tourists out of the region, dramatically reducing economic output and government revenue.

In the last decade, more people have died in the DRC than in Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur combined. Political initiatives by Africa, the West and the UN — including the deployment of more UN peacekeeping troops than any other nation in the world — has failed to stop the fighting and protect the lives of Congolese civilians.

If there's a bright spot, it's that humanitarians are highlighting what UN officials call the "worst sexual violence in the world."

In the last ten years, hundreds of thousands of women have been raped. But it received little recognition from the government and there were few prosecutions. Now, European aid agencies and the UN are spending millions of dollars building courthouses and prisons to punish rapists. Mobile courts are holding rape trials in the hard-to-reach villages. And the government is paying for Congolese investigators to travel to Europe to learn "CSI"-style forensic techniques.

The results are seen in towns like Bunia, where rape prosecutions have increased 600 percent in five years. There are organizations like Women for Women, which teaches rape survivors how to read and write, cook, make soap and other skills that could empower them to be financially independent. Grassroots campaigns are encouraging rape victims to speak out in open forums.

These signs provide some hope that amid Congo's chaos, there's at least a chance for positive change.

In some parts of Africa, cell phones are becoming essential tools for economic growth, bringing both information and prosperity. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), however, cell phone technology is helping fuel a deadly, decade-long civil conflict that has sharply escalated in the past week.

There are plenty of examples of how cell phone technology benefits national economies. A 2007 study suggested that a country's economy grows 1.2 percent for every 10 percent increase in the number of cell phone users. An analysis from Niger reports that cell phones triggered a fall in grain prices and a 20 percent reduction in geographical differences in grain prices after they were introduced in 2001. The researcher concludes that cell phones allow grain traders to collect information about market prices without the time and expense of travel, allowing them to respond to market shifts cheaply and efficiently.

The war in the Congo, however, illuminates the dark side of this technological success. Part of the battle is over resources, including a rare mineral called coltan used to manufacture small electronics. Eighty percent of the world’s coltan is in the DRC, and the world's rabid demand for things like laptops and cell phones has made coltan extremely valuable.

According to OneWorld.net:

Armed militias from Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi, along with local militias from the DRC, are exploiting most of the reserves and selling the product to multinational corporations that produce cell phones and other electronic devices.”

This battle over resources has led to rape, torture and death in the Congo. In introducing the history of this conflict, a reporter for The Independent admonishes, "No, this is not only a story about them. This — the tale of a short journey into the long Congolese war we in the West have fostered, fuelled and funded — is a story about you.”

The endangered mountain gorilla calls the Virunga National Park in the DRC home. Unfortunately so do soldiers, poachers and the illegal charcoal trade. Photo: Ramon Azofra (flickr)

It was about this time last year when four gorillas were murdered in cold blood in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A photo of the 530-pound Senkwekwe, head of the massacred gorilla family, being carried to burial by Congolese villagers, ignited international outrage and garnered the public’s attention, if only for a moment. Almost a year later, National Geographic has published a magnificent piece examining the gorilla murders in the Virunga National Park.

Poachers were quickly dismissed as suspects due to the intact remains of the animals, leaving soldiers from the Congolese military or two other rebel factions as the likely culprits. Soldiers on all sides of the conflict have wreaked havoc on local communities, killing indiscriminately and raping women, including children as young as three years old. Despite such acts, soldiers insist they are under strict instructions not to harm the gorillas.

So who — or what — explains the murders?

"Follow the trail of charcoal," Emmanuel de Merode had said at the WildlifeDirect office. "Charcoal is the biggest threat to the park."

Charcoal, as we discover over the next few days, is the main source of energy, and evil, in North Kivu. Charcoal is used by 98 percent of the households for cooking, boiling water to make it potable, and also for heat. In the city of Goma, a constant pall of charcoal smoke smudges out the sun and makes the rough streets, rumpled with hardened lava from the 2002 eruption of Nyiragongo, appear to be pathways to hell.

Hardwood charcoal is the economic prize in the DRC and it comes from old growth hard wood trees found within Virunga National Park — home to half the world's population of mountain gorillas.

A sack of charcoal sells for $25 on average. Doing the math De Merode estimates that in 2006, when gorilla tourism brought in less than $300,000, the Virunga charcoal industry was worth more than $30 million.

It is estimated that at the rate that charcoal is harvested from the park, the entire southern portion of the park will be gone in ten years. An area considered to be perhaps the most biologically diverse and best of its kind, may soon vanish.

Aware of these facts, and the local implications, neighboring Rwanda has banished the internal production of charcoal. However, this approach does nothing to mitigate Rwanda's own internal demand for the product. They just buy it from the Congolese.

But what does this have to do with the death of four gorillas in July 2007?

Writer Mark Jenkins met with Paulin Ngobobo, chief warden of the Virunga National Park, to hear his story. When Ngobobo worked for the National Parks he quickly realized that all sides were profiting from the charcoal trade, from the Congolese military to Hutu militias and local chiefs — even the park rangers. In a struggle for conservation of the gorilla's home, he realized that the charcoal trade had to be stopped in its tracks.

At this point Paulin Ngobobo was detained and beaten, allegedly by men directed by the former chief park warden, Honoré Mashagiro, who was actively involved in the very trade which was destroying the park he was charged with protecting. To discredit Ngobobo's anti-charcoal trade efforts it is alleged that Mashagiro had the gorillas killed and blamed their murders on Ngobobo. Despite Mashagiro's efforts, Ngobobo has been cleared of the accusations and remains free. Mashagiro, on the other hand, has been imprisoned in Goma and awaits trial for the killings of the Virunga mountain gorillas.

The story of the DRC's illegal charcoal trade is a difficult one. Who is to blame? A culture of corruption which ensures that park rangers and soldiers will smuggle charcoal to supplement a non-existent salary? Citizens of Goma and neighboring Rwanda who demand the charcoal for cooking?

One thing is for sure: along with peace, the DRC is also in desperate need of alternative energy sources.

Photo: Swiss.frog's photostream (flickr)

Working Villages International (WVI) is an NGO with a unique take on how to eliminate poverty in Africa. Their new initiative, Village Reliance, aims to combat poverty directly, rather than dealing only with its effects. They want to give people the skills and tools to take control of their own lives and bring themselves out of poverty.

The goal of this program is to build a village that will be environmentally and economically self-sustainable for people living in the Ruzizi Valley of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

They are building from scratch a model village which will have full employment, private ownership of small farms and businesses, zero carbon footprint and total 100 percent recycling. This project is a practical demonstration that it’s possible to profoundly increase living standards in rural Africa without hampering local culture and ingenuity.

In the future, WVI hopes to spread these villages across the DRC and the entire continent.

Can the mining industry brighten Congo’s economy? Possibly, says NPR’s Gwen Thompkins. The corrupt dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko and years of civil war have all but destroyed the economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While political stability has increased since the DRC held its first free elections in 2006, weak infrastructure and continued regional violence still hinder any kind of substantial economic growth.

In the past, the profits gained from the country’s vast mineral resources have largely gone into the pockets of middlemen and corrupt government officials, with little benefit to the average Congolese. Yet the DRC sits atop what remain the world’s largest reserves of copper, tantalum, and coltan – minerals that are used in everything from cell phones to jet engines. Investors are showing increased interest in gaining access to these minerals: state-owned China Railway Group is set to fund $2.9 billion joint investment project in partnership with Gecamines, the DRC's state mining company. If carried out correctly, the excavation and sale of mineral resources could jumpstart the DRC’s economy and help get it back on its feet.

Could mining boost DRC's economy? Photo: FredR (flickr)