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.

Indonesia's reactions to the global economic crisis will affect the next generation's prosperity. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

Economic perils from abroad are encroaching on Indonesia's soil, reports Adnkronos International. The country is considering tightening liquidity and regulating international investments, Voice of America adds.

Around the world, developing nations are vulnerable to the Euro-American financial crisis. If Indonesia, with 100 million residents in poverty, can avert collapse, its actions could be a positive example for other developing nations.

With reporting and writing by Holly McFarland.

Critics say developed countries have broken promises for international aid. Photo: UK Department for International Development (flickr)

With cause for concern about the future of international aid amid the financial crisis faced by rich countries, some developing nations find microfinance playing an increasing role in fueling local growth.

At last week's 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea, powerful advocates including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pressed for continued financial assistance from rich countries and better transparency for aid programs, according to the Washington Post.

But is "continued assistance" enough? Is it the kind of assistance that will lead to actual change? The European head of Oxfam International says the EU failed to take a leadership role at the summit, despite previous promises of aid allocation. Natalia Alonso says “donors are not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals. In 2000, all rich countries recommitted to spend 0.7 percent of their national income as overseas aid by 2015, but a number of EU governments, such as Italy and Germany, are pretty far from this.” Oxfam found that amid the economic crisis, EU overall aid last year was just 0.43 percent of income, leaving a $65 billion shortfall to 56 poor countries.

It may signal more trouble for traditional international aid, the flow of cash or food aid transfers from richer to poorer countries. The economic crisis and criticisms of the summit leave the trajectory of aid in question.

As the world's wealth shifts to developing nations, some Western leaders want to be sure their aid is paying off. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece that “leaders of emerging economies must ensure that they are able to attract high-quality, sustainable investment.”

World Bank president Robert B. Zoellick also points to this shifting paradigm, stating that “the time has come to envision a world “beyond aid” – a world where the shift is from the paradigm of charity to one of mutual economic benefit.”

One way in which some developing countries are expanding local markets in the era of questionable international aid is through successful microfinance programs. While the long-term solvency of some forms of microfinance are in question, other examples point to successes engineered by both developing countries’ governments and private local banks.

Government funded cash-transfer programs in Mexico and Brazil have been recognized as quite effective at reducing poverty and spurring local market growth, The New York Times reports. These programs provide small infusions of capital to low-income residents for both entrepreneurial and cost-of-living expenses, feeding local economies. Indonesia’s state-owned Bank Rakyat has successfully demonstrated similar results in recent years through a mixed savings-credit model, according to Elisabeth Rhyne in her article, “Five countries where microfinance works,” for China Daily.

Rhyne also highlights Bolivia’s BancoSol, a for-profit bank dedicated to serving the poor that operates within a strict regulatory framework. Competition among similarly modeled microfinance banks has spurred growth with low interest rates in Bolivia. Cambodia and Mongolia are two countries where replication of the Bolivia model has allowed microfinance banks to be “market leaders and innovators,” according to Rhyne.

In Columbia, where 96 percent of businesses are small, demand for microfinance has grown fast in the years of the global financial crisis, according to IPS news. Microfinance in Columbia “grew at a steady rate of 15 percent between 2007 and 2010," states a Visión Económica study. Small companies fuel demand for microfinance because "they generally do not meet the requirements set by commercial banks,” Jorge Varón, the manager of the development credit fund of the Colombians Supporting Colombians (CAC) programme, told IPS. And in a country with so many small businesses fueling market growth, this is a divergent route from typical aid pathways.

The financial crisis hasn't killed international aid. But it has people talking about what's next. Microfinance looks like a big part of the answer.

Erik Mandell is a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in public administration and global leadership at Portland State. Read his other contributions to Global Envision.

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.

Community members in Indonesia were asked to rank their own need, resulting in much higher satisfaction in aid programs. Photo: CIFOR (flickr)

Sometimes social scientists measure wealth and poverty by earnings; other times by assets. But the truth is, most people use a much simpler approach. They compare themselves to their neighbors.

It’s the idea of "keeping up with the Joneses"—the perception that to see where you stand in society, you look next door. Turns out this might be good social science, too. A recent MIT research group studying aid distribution found that neighbors comparing and ranking their own wealth relative to others in the community is really the best determinant of who has the most, and who has the most need.

By involving communities rather than relying on empirical calculations of wealth and poverty, the researchers found that aid programs were able to target those who truly had the most need. Neighbors are able to see the complexities of things like illness, single motherhood, earning potential and education level that simple asset calculations can’t account for, Fast Company reported. They also have a better idea of the type of informal work others in the community may do to make ends meet, and thus are better able to see who needs the most assistance rather than simply who fits the textbook definition of poverty.

Asking beneficiaries who's in need has another, perhaps even more important benefit. It increases satisfaction and participation in aid programs, making them more useful to exactly the people who need them.

The lesson, it seems, is easy enough. To determine who in a community should receive aid … just ask.

The Invisible Problem. Photo: carl.jones (flickr)

The world is facing a "global human rights emergency in mental health," says the World Health Organization (WHO) via the Guardian. It's a quiet crisis keeping millions out of the global marketplace.

Mental health problems (including autism, substance abuse, schizophrenia, depression, dementia) account for an estimated 14 percent of all global health conditions, yet receive less than 1 percent of most countries' health-care budget, according to the Guardian. Overall, the WHO estimates a 75 percent coverage gap in many countries with low and lower-middle incomes. One-third of all countries lack a mental health program, and only one of 10,000 UK charities listed on GuideStar is dedicated to international mental health.

Saudi Ali Mufreh exemplifies the problem, having lived in chains for 35 years since developing mental problems at age 15. Ali spends his days alone, hearing little more than the sound of “his clanking iron restraints,” says Al-Riyadh. Ali's brother Omar explained:

I was forced to chain my brother in this small room to protect him and protect others from him. I am searching for a cure to his condition, but I have had no luck yet. If I let my brother go, then he will place the whole family in danger. On two occasions, he tried to burn down the house. Both times we escaped, but the whole house was severely damaged.

Ali is not alone. Dr. Irmansyah, Indonesia's director of mental health services, estimates that 30,000 mentally ill people are restrained in cages, stocks or chains. Some suffering from mental illness are deposited at camps like Indonesia's Yayasan Galuh, where patients live on a hard tile surface surrounded by open sewers, according to PBS NewsHour.

In addition to violating basic human rights, the isolation of those with mental illness also creates an economic burden on developing countries, says the Guardian.

Mental illness adversely affects people's ability to work, creates a potential career burden on their families and generally leads to greater poverty.

But, there's hope.

In 2008, the WHO launched the Mental Health Gap Action Program to improve conditions for the mentally ill, primarily in developing countries. The WHO asserts that “with proper care, psychosocial assistance and medication, tens of millions could be treated for depression, schizophrenia, and epilepsy, prevented from suicide and begin to lead normal lives&emdash;even where resources are scarce.”

Four critical areas for emphasis going forward include:

• Reaching people in the countryside: Many of the developing world's mentally ill live in the countryside, and what few treatment services that exist are likely far away in the capital cities. Large numbers of non-specialist field health workers could be trained in basic mental health care and drug distribution, serving as a first line for treatment and as a conduit for passing more serious cases onto city hospitals.
• Changing Public Awareness and Perceptions: The mentally ill are often hidden from society due to the social stigma and marginalized, so it is little surprise they receive minimal help. The U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals make no mention of mental disabilities, and discussion of mental health is often considered "something of a luxury" among policymakers and the media. Making the topic visible and less stigmatized encourages donations, research and advocacy.
• Preventing illness before it develops: Aiding malnourished or overworked mothers and their newborns is a critical step to preventing mental illness in the first place. According to one WHO report,“improving nutrition and development in disadvantaged children can lead to healthy cognitive development, improved educational outcomes, and reduced risk for mental ill health."
• Seeing the mentally ill as potential workers: In one study from India, the onset of mental illness reduced working hours by 64 percent (from 28 to 10) — not including increased family care — suggesting major economic benefits accruing to countries who get the mentally ill treated and back to work. In other words, there may be only one aid program a family like Ali’s needs: treatment for Ali himself.

Developing countries and NGO's will eventually realize the advantages of treating the mentally ill. However, changing the way the general population perceives the mentally ill may be just as difficult as treating the mentally ill themselves.

A cashew nut farmer on the island of Flores, located in the Nusa Tenggara Timur province of Indonesia. Photo: jasperwiet (flickr)

Indonesia is setting its own poverty line at less than $1 a day. When a country comes up with its own definition of "poverty", can global policy makers trust it.

Indonesia’s equation to measure its own poverty line is based on a series of calculations for what poor people spend money on — including housing, food, education and health care, also accounting for cost differences between urban and rural areas, according to a recent blog post from The Economist. And conveniently, this homegrown equation says only 30 million out of Indonesia's 245 million population live below the poverty line.

What the equation doesn’t account for is more important. From 2004 to 2009, during which Indonesian GDP per capita shot up 38 percent, the World Bank's estimate of Indonesia's poverty rate fell only slightly, from 16.7 percent to 14.2 percent. The Indonesian poverty equation doesn't capture the deep socioeconomic differences between urban and rural areas that has preserved this inequality.

Despite Indonesia's efforts to eliminate statistical poverty, the facts are clear — 100 million Indonesians still live under $2 a day. Considering the World Bank sets the poverty line at $1.25 a day, the Indonesian government's insistence that only 30 million are living in poverty becomes clouded.

Although countries creating their own measurements for the poverty line may be useful, in the Indonesian case it seems wrought with discrepancies. Setting the poverty line below $1 a day may look good on paper, but doesn’t help those who are struggling and certainly can’t be utilized on an international basis.

The rail systems in India carry coal, but are too small and slow to bring in the quantity needed to make the kind of difference that Adani can. Photo: degahk (flickr)

When the government fails to provide, the savvy entrepreneur fills the gaps—but not without criticism.

India’s government has long failed to keep up with its own rapid development, leaving rural regions without electricity despite abundant coal reserves. Gautam Adani, an Indian entrepreneur, stepped up to develop the much-needed electrical infrastructure that encourages India’s growth, says a recent New York Times article.

His operation is far from homegrown. His coal mines are based in Indonesia and Australia and his transport ship is Korean-made. His ability to tap into the global market allows him to do what the government can’t, faster and cheaper than it could.

This global approach allowed Adani to circumvent logistical and political barriers within India. The rail system is ill equipped to transport coal, the New York Times reported, and mining requires uprooting protected forest areas and tribal groups, something politicians are hesitant to permit.

But despite the development, local fishermen argue that Adani may have done more harm than good. He has brought in few jobs and is blamed for the depletion of sea life essential to the region's economy.

India’s rural poor may have electricity now, but many remain skeptical that it came at too high a cost.

At Green School in rural Bali, K-12 students learn not only the staples of a traditional education — reading, writing and arithmetic — but also how to grow organic rice and build with sustainably produced bamboo. Students from the local community, as well as around the world come to receive a "green education." The holistic approach taken by the teachers is intended to develop the "whole person" in students, and helps them adopt a more responsible and sustainable lifestyle, Green School founder and Principal John Hardy explains in his TED talk.

Green school is a place of pioneers — local and global, and it’s a kind of microcosm of the globalized world. The kids are from 25 countries. When I see them together I know they’re working out how to live in the future.

In John Hardy's TED talk below he shares his inspiration for Green School, and what he sees for the school's future.

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.

The G-20 is meeting this week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Chaired by President Barack Obama, the purpose of the summit is to, “review the progress made since the Washington and London Summits and discuss further actions to assure a sound and sustainable recovery from the global financial and economic crisis.” I’ve heard of the G-8, but the G-20? I began to wonder about this alphanumeric soup of organizations. Who are they and what are they concerned with? The following scorecard should help interested followers of this subject keep track of the major players.

The G-6: Organized in 1975 by the finance ministers of Germany and France who were frustrated with the formality and structure of larger international meetings, the G-6 and subsequent evolutions of this body are strictly informal bodies that meet to discuss economic issues of mutual interest. After the creation of the G-8, the term G-6 is now used to refer to the six most populous members of the European Union. The member countries are: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan

The G-7: Formed in 1976, this is an informal forum for the finance members of seven big industrial economies to discuss economic issues and seek agreement. Member countries include: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States. Now also includes the European Union.

The G-8: An evolution of the G-7, membership grew to include Russia. The European Union is a limited member; it cannot host a meeting or hold the presidency of the body. Members are: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, Russia. European Union (limited member)

The G-8 plus Five: Recognizing the growing influence of other countries, the original group sometimes broadens their meetings by including the Outreach Five. As with all meetings, other countries are sometimes invited to attend. Members: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, Russia. European Union (limited member) Plus: Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa.

The G-20: According to their website, “[t]he G-20 was created as a response both to the financial crises of the late 1990s and a growing recognition that key emerging-market countries were not adequately included in the core of global economic discussion and governance.” Where the earlier groups (G-6 through G-8) were organized around the industrialized countries of the world, the G-20 begins to bring emerging economies into the dialog. Their first meeting was in Berlin, Germany. The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the President of the World Bank, plus the chairs of the International Monetary and Financial Committee and Development Committee of the IMF and World Bank, also participate in G-20 meetings on an ex-officio basis.

The G-20 is made up of the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, European Central Bank

The G-33: The name for a group of developing countries that coordinates on trade and economic issues. It was created in order to help group countries which were all facing similar problems and give a unified voice to countries that were traditionally excluded from discussions among the industrialized countries. Members: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Botswana, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guyana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Laos, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Senegal, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

There are other groups variously labeled as G-8, G-20, G-33, and even N-11 (countries which Goldman Sachs considered in 2005 to have a high potential of becoming the world’s largest economies this century: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam).

One of the best, reliable, sources of information about these groups and their members may be found on the websites of the World Trade Organization and the previously mentioned G-20.

You can Track the ongoing discussions of the Pittsburgh G-20 Summit here. But be prepared for slow page loading. It is a very busy website.

By the summer of 2008, the price of rice had increased five times from the average price in 2005. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

The following post is from One Table, a Mercy Corps campaign to fight world hunger by investing in the world's women.

Today almost a billion people worldwide are unable to buy or grow enough food to avoid malnutrition. That's 120 million more than were hungry in 2006.

What happened? Basically, the world saw dramatic spikes in food prices. But there were many underlying causes of what's known as the global food crisis:

• Drought and other climate-related problems that resulted in smaller harvests
• Changing diets — rise of the middle class in India and China and an increased demand for food, especially meat, which requires large amounts of grain to raise
• Diversion of crops from food production to the production of biofuels
• High fuel prices during 2008 — if it costs more to transport food, prices go up
• Declining investments in agricultural productivity — total agriculture development aid to poor countries plunged from $8 billion in 1984 to $3.4 billion in 2004. At the same time, the developing world's cities have been ballooning with people who do not grow any of their food
• Export bans and restrictions last year in several major grain-producing countries like China as governments sought to lower food prices for their own citizens, with the result of reducing the global supply on hand.

While food prices have come down from their highs of 2008, they remain substantially above historic levels. Many economists feel this trend, which most severely affects those who can least afford it, is likely to continue for some time.

The economic, health and societal costs of the global food crisis have been severe. One of the first things Mercy Corps did to figure out how and where to direct our efforts was to survey the communities where we work. We discovered that within communities Mercy Corps serves, roughly 70 percent of income is spent on food, and 80 percent of the population had been affected by rising food prices over the past year. The survey also confirmed something we already suspected: that families were coping with higher prices by eating fewer meals, selling off household belongings, going into debt and removing children from school so that they can work.

In addition to being a record year for food prices, it's also been a record year for our food security team, allowing Mercy Corps to aggressively respond to this crisis. We now have 17 programs in 13 countries designed specifically to respond to this on-going problem. Through support from donors including USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gap Foundation, the Hunger Site, and private individuals, our Food Crisis Response employs a strategy designed to ensure that the groundwork for increased prosperity in the future is laid — even while addressing the immediate problem of accessing sufficient food.

Food distributions, much of which are specifically targeted to improve child nutrition, are taking place in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, in the Central African Republic, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Nepal, Niger, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Uganda and again Zimbabwe, Mercy Corps is helping hungry households to access food by providing employment opportunities, agricultural training and inputs (such as seeds and tools), and helping people establish and grow small businesses.

Combined, these programs are reaching almost 1.5 million individuals who have been directly impacted by higher food prices. Overall, Mercy Corps’ Crisis Response will lead to a sustainable increase in income for these people, leading in turn to greater food security over the long-term.

Biorocks in action. Photo: Rani Morrow-Wuigk

Walking down the beach at Pemuteran Bay provides a glimpse into both the past and future of Indonesia’s coastal communities. One end of the beach serves as the mooring and launching area for the fleet of traditional fishing craft that have so long provided subsistence to the community. At the other is a community-driven reef restoration and conservation project that is changing not only the reef itself, but also the attitudes, livelihoods and economy of the entire region.

At the heart of this transformation is the application of a novel technological innovation known as Biorock for the creation of new coral reefs and fish habitats. The technology, developed by the late Prof. Wolf Hilbertz and his colleague Dr. Thomas Goreau of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, relies on low-voltage electricity to attract minerals through accretion to simple metal rebar structures placed in the water. The structures can be placed in a range of places because they're powered by a range of traditional and renewable electrical sources, including solar and experimental tidal and wave-generators.

There are now 100 Biorocks in use worldwide. Pioneers in eco-tourism such as small dive shop operators and beachfront hotels have been using them for years as unique ways of enhancing snorkeling and diving experiences.

Biorocks were first used to help reefs recover after the devastating coral bleaching caused by El Niño in 1998 and the severe strain on marine resources for income and food generation during the The Asian Financial crisis of the late 1990’s. Use of Biorock technology continues to increase as reef restoration and conservation move to the forefront of global environmental issues.

The first projects were a collaborative effort between community leaders, local businesses and environmental advocates. A local dive shop in Pemuteran, Reef Seen Aquatics, with funding from AusAID, has trained a number of local fishermen to PADI Rescue Diver standards and employed them as “Reef Gardeners”, working from within the community to enhance and protect the local reefs. A champion of the projects has been a local resort operator, Taman Sari Hotel, which has donated facilities and electricity to run the structures, and employed scores of villagers as staff serving the eco-tourists who come to the North Coast.

These relatively small-scale projects have realized immense benefits. A wealth of new economic opportunities have arisen in the case of Pemuteran and surrounding communities as international acclaim and recognition of the projects has ensured a stream of visitors to resorts professing an ethos of sustainability and restoration. The Indonesian government has recognized the project with its highest environmental award, the Kalapataru Adipura Award, while also providing several high-speed boats to be run by a group of community enforcement officers whose duty is to protect the reef from dynamite and cyanide fisherman.

Development pressures, increasing populations and rising demand for seafood have led to the near complete collapse of the health of Indonesian reefs. Indonesia, an archipelago with over 81,000 kilometers of coastline and more than 17,000 islands at the confluence of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, is considered to have some of the richest and most diverse marine ecosystems. Approximately 40 percent of the world’s fish species and 80 percent of the world’s coral reefs are found in its coastal waters. It is also the largest exporter of marine fish and corals in the world. But today only 6 percent of the coastline is considered pristine.

Coastal conditions are vital to Indonesia's economy. Approximately 70 percent of coastal communities depend directly on products from the sea — activities that generate over US $ 1.6 billion a year. A lack of effective management, coupled with the fact that the bulk of Indonesian fishing activity is done by migrant fishermen with limited vested interests in long-term sustainability who utilize destructive fishing techniques such as dynamite fishing and cyanide poisoning to harvest high-value fish species has contributed significantly to the massive losses in diversity and health of remaining reef systems.

But there is hope to be found in the waters of Pemuteran Bay and in the efforts of grass-roots reef conservation and restoration programs that have spread across Indonesia and beyond. Inspired by success and marked improvement in the environmental and economic health of participating villages, and driven by the intense need and internal drive of community leaders in Bali, Lombok and Sulawesi, Biorock installation is now being used not only for small-scale reef restoration and marine protected areas but also for its potential to attract fish for capture from surrounding waters, for use as cultivating platforms for sustainable harvest of marine products (seaweeds, corals, clams, oysters, lobsters etc.), and for erosion prevention.

Increased attention to Indonesia and the Coral Triangle — the 2.3-million-square-mile wedge between the Australia and the Asian mainland — are making a difference. Projects by governments, international academic research programs, and organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and Mercy Corps have provided a catalyst leading to the formation of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security. The future of the millions of people who depend on the marine environment — for sustainable use of marine resources, environmental restoration, and economic stimulation — is at stake.

As the world's euphoria following Barack Obama's election fades (watch VOA's Africa coverage above), what can Africa expect from America's first African-American president — especially when it comes to issues of global poverty?

Many Africans are hopeful that Obama will work to vigorously tackle poverty and disease throughout Africa. Former South African President Nelson Mandela echoed those sentiments in a note of congratulations to President-Elect Obama: "We trust that you will also make it the mission of your presidency to combat the scourge of poverty and disease everywhere."

Are those hopes well-founded? Perhaps. President-elect Obama was a key sponsor of The Global Poverty Act which seeks to cut global poverty in half by 2015. After its passage in February of this year, Obama stated:

With billions of people living on just dollars a day around the world, global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges and tragedies the international community faces. It must be a priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking water. As we strive to rebuild America's standing in the world, this important bill will demonstrate our promise and commitment to those in the developing world.

Some humanitarian agencies, like World Vision, are already strongly urging President-Elect Obama presidency to increase foreign assistance, food aid in order to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals.

But will the current global economic crisis limit these commitments to poverty alleviation? During the Vice Presidential debate, Vice President-elect Joe Biden admitted that given the current state of the economy an Obama administration may need to "slow down" their previous commitment to doubling foreign assistance.

Obama isn't talking about poverty alleviation nowadays. He (and everyone else) is focused on the U.S. economy. So despite the world's hopeful outlook, it's still unclear how Africa — and its poor — will benefit from America's first African-American president.

An example of the "trashion" bags created by XSProject. Photo: XSProject

Used plastics from Indonesia are being saved from landfills. And former waste pickers are turning these plastics into fashion bags to sell in Singapore, Australia and the United States.

The fad known as "trashion" has gained mainstream acceptance with chic, urban designers worldwide now posting big profits by using leftover, discarded and found materials to create jewelry, clothing and housewares.

The type of plastic used in the bags is found in packaging ranging from soft drinks to detergent to toothpaste and is mostly aluminum bonded to plastic. Use of this plastic is on the rise because it costs companies less to produce, but because it's not recyclable, as hard plastic bottles are, it ends up costing the public more in terms of pollution and environmental damage.

So, the XSProject began as a way to recycle these plastics. Ann Wizer is an artist and environmental activist, who while living in the Philippines had the idea to use trash as her primary medium. This art progressed into developing the XSProject, a non-profit organization which buys plastics from trash pickers and trains trash pickers themselves to make the bags, providing much needed wages. Proceeds from sale of the bags go directly to help the trash-picker communities by providing assistance for daily needs, scholarships and health protection.