Informal trash collectors may gain "green" jobs in the formal sector with the closure of the world's largest trash dump. Photo: basmati - authentic help (flickr)

Does your old lunch bag go in the garbage or the recycle bin? For hundreds of thousands of garbage scavengers worldwide who make a meager living by collecting, recycling and reselling trash, that decision is worth its weight in cash.

But at the end of this month, the world’s largest dump will close, leaving many scavengers without a livelihood.

The closure of Mexico City’s Bordo Poniente dump, which will divert nearly 12,600 tons of garbage into recycling and composting plants daily, reports the Associated Press, is a win for environmental groups. It’s also a win for the city’s mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, who announced the closure will take place December 31, the day before he steps down to focus on his campaign for the 2012 presidential race, the LA Times reports.

But trucking the garbage directly to sorting plants leaves out a key player in the waste management system—dump dwellers who for decades have sorted much of the trash and sold the recyclables for income, like freelance garbage collectors.

If the city agrees as promised to negotiate with the guild that the garbage scavengers have organized to voice their concerns, it could mean formal jobs for pepenadores, jobs that pay many times more than what they earn now reselling what they find. After all, living on the dump creates a level of trash expertise and relying on it for an income is quite an incentive to sort it efficiently. They’ve been greasing the wheels of the old system for years; it seems only fair they be part of the new one.

Credit unions reported $80 million in saving account funds after the Nov. 5 'Bank Transfer Day.' Photo tobym (flickr)

Americans chose Main Street over Wall Street on the so-called 'Bank Transfer Day' on November 5. The move to credit unions didn't make a significant financial impact on big banks, but the symbolism wasn't lost.

Credit unions added 40,000 new members with a total of $80 million in savings account funds on 'Bank Transfer Day,' culminating a month of transfers that attracted 700,000 new members, according to the Credit Union National Association.

Credit unions are not-for-profit and therefore do not offer stock or pay dividends to outside stockholders. An exemption from federal income taxes also helps keep fees low, and the groups offer low interest loans and higher interest on deposits.

The financial reform package that passed in July 2010 was expected to hurt banks' bottom lines, according to the LA Times. New avenues to make a profit were sought and imposing fees on customer services that were once free or low cost have become a viable option. Since the passage of the reform, many banks have increased fees on overdrafts, ATM usage and checking accounts, making credit unions especially attractive in this tight economy.

The transfer of tens of thousands of accounts to credit unions didn’t cripple banks. Regardless, a loss of nearly one million customers in the last few months has impact. Banks will need to make up the loss. This likely isn’t the end of fees.

There's no doubt the banking system needs to be fixed. But we also must recognize that we need the services banks provide - a safe place to store our hard-earned money, a loan to buy a car, home, start a business or pay for a child’s education. The outrage we're seeing now at the lack of systemic change in the financial sector doesn't mean we're wiping our hands of lending institutions by any stretch of the imagination. But 'Bank Transfer Day' has shown us that many people are looking to different models to meet their needs, and the financial sector is taking note.

An informal worker sells mobile phones from a street stand. Photo: MikeBlyth (Flickr)

A man selling toys on Sao Paulo’s streets, a woman grilling fish in crowded markets of Lagos and a handbag maker in Guangzhou might not seem to have much in common. But they are all part of the global informal economy, now estimated to be worth about $10 trillion a year.

Economic exchanges that are not taxed, monitored, or included in GDP measurements make up the informal sector. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, more than half the workers in the world make their living this way.

Journalist Robert Neuwirth details the lives and challenges of informal workers in his new book, Stealth of Nations. Speaking of the $10 trillion estimate, Neuwirth says "That's an astounding figure because what it means, basically, is that if the informal economy was combined in one country, it would be the second-largest economy on Earth, rivaling the United States economy."

With innovative relationships and global supply chains, many entrepreneurs are thriving and prefer to stay ‘off the books.’ In Lagos, Nigeria, where 80 percent of the workforce is employed informally, locals call it the ‘economy of resourcefulness’. Street vendors grill fish caught in Europe and sell mobile phones smuggled from China.

Some entrepreneurs earn enough to travel out of Nigeria to purchase products to sell back home. "When you journey to the train station [in Guangzhou, China], you feel like you're in Africa because there's so many Africans located there,” Neuwirth says. “Africans have embedded themselves in society there in very direct ways, and there's a huge [informal] back channel of trade in China and Africa.”

The global scope of the informal economy is staggering. Governments and corporations are noticing traditionally ignored channels for revenue production. A market court in Lagos allows for the settlement of disputes between informal sellers and buyers. And, writes Marc Levinson in his review of Neuwirth's book in The Wall Street Journal, "In Morocco, the consumer-goods giant Procter & Gamble has built an entire network of wholesalers and agents and subagents to sell diapers and soap through merchants in villages so remote that they have no retail stores." Such relationships could indicate a trend in bridging the divide between formal and informal economies.

As informal workers integrate their business globally, many are torn between a desire for added security of infrastructure and support, and the solutions they’ve established. Certainly not all aspire to move into the formal sector with its complications of taxation and regulation.

With such a large magnitude, it’s impossible to ignore the importance of informal exchanges to society's economic survival. Workers continue to forge paths to prosperity through entrepreneurial solutions. For many, that means operating outside the law.

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.

Muhammad Yunus, Bangladeshi Economist and founder of the Grameen Bank. Yunus is credited with popularizing the mircrofinance model. Photo: World Economic Forum(Flickr)

The 2011 Global Microcredit Summit convened last week in Spain amid growing concerns that microfinance might not work as advertised.

The Microcredit Summit Campaign promotes microlending to the world’s poorest familes—and especially to poor women--as a means of poverty alleviation. However, there is a growing global debate over whether microfinance actually lifts people out of poverty, as organizations such as The Microcredit Summit Campaign claim.

Critics point to India’s microcredit crisis and call it a myth that everyone desires to be an entrepreneur. As James Surowiecki argued in the New Yorker, “in any successful economy most people aren’t entrepreneurs--they make a living by working for someone else.” For many, a bank loan will be the best route out of poverty, particularly in the agricultural sector where that loan can help families increase their crop yield or add a new cow to the herd. But others are simply looking for a regular paycheck, like the millions of families making their way in urban area. Furthermore, as Interpress News Service reports, many borrowers feel that they have been taken advantage of by microfinance lenders that charge high interest rates for the small loans, without an additional suite of poverty-alleviation services (like providing business training and financial literacy workshops) to make the interest rate worth it.

Globally, microcredit still remains the most widespread tool in poverty alleviation programs, but more people are beginning to point to its weaknesses and suggest reforms. Others suggest a wider variety of programs aimed at increasing poor people’s incomes and job opportunities.

Microgrants serve the same populations as microfinance lenders, but fund projects that engage whole communities rather than individuals who are unlikely to generate jobs and alleviate pressing social problems. The microgrant accomplishes something different than microloans—social sector projects that benefit whole communities rather than single entrepreneurs or individual businesses, as Marcia DeSanctis reported in the Huffington Post. And microgrant projects are proposed and developed by local people who are intimately familiar with the conditions in the communities they live in—not by foreign "experts."

The global microfinance community is going through a transition as more and more researchers conclude that microcredit is not a ‘magic wand’ against poverty.

Calls to make changes to our international financial system are being heard. Will they be listened to? Photo: itspaulkelly (Flickr)

Mass unemployment, an overwhelming sense of unfairness and a loss of hope need no translation. Even without written demands, the sentiments of Occupy Wall Street have been interpreted through similar protests in 941 cities in 82 countries - and counting.

Global leaders are taking note. And they agree: A lot has gone wrong in the banking sector. While the basic purpose of the financial sector must remain intact, it’s gotten off track. After all, we still need a secure place to store our money, we still need credit and loans, and advice on how to grow our nest eggs. We need banks.

Can we hit the reset button?

The global financial crisis we’re in is incredibly complicated, and it’s not going away soon. And sadly, there’s no reset button. But changes are needed and changes are happening.

In forthcoming posts, we’ll explore the origins of the crisis, key players, innovative solutions, how the decisions made by developed world financial sectors affect the global poor, how local protests affect global politics, and where we go from here. And we hope to hear your thoughts, too.

Our Series Begins:

An historical look at "too big to fail," in four acts:

•      Act 1: The battle over the lessons of the Great Depression.
•      Act 2: The first bailout leads to the next, and the next.
•      Act 3: The value and perils of deregulation.
•      Act 4: Banking crises go global.

Surrounded by financial chaos, developing nations start throwing up barricades

For China, flush with cash, the financial crisis may mean political opportunity

Europe's financial troubles worry its neighbors

Amid financial crisis, China is the new champion for carbon reduction

East Africa seeks to learn from the Eurozone's mistakes

A new model for Middle East economic practices starts with Tunisia, Libya

Bank transfer day: A symbolic move

Related Past Posts:

Microfinance and the Economic Crisis: What to Believe?

A Triple Threat: Food, Fuel and Financial Crises in the Developing World

One Big Deal

The IMF Boosts Financial Aid to Poor Countries

Rural China Could Gain from Financial Crisis

Goodbye Piggy Banks, Hello Working ATMs: Why the Middle East May be More Sheltered from the Global Financial Crisis

Social Workers Getting to the Root of Debt

Mobile phones are increasingly important throughout the developing world. Photo: ICT4D.at (flickr)

Around the world, mobile phone technology is being touted as a life changing path from poverty to prosperity. Instant price data from global markets, mobile banking, credit card transfers on the go, mobile classrooms, remote-control irrigation and even apps that repel mosquitoes are just a few of the ways that mobile phone technology is leading the fight against poverty. But, for the world's rush of new mobile phone users, there's just one problem. Where to plug in and charge?

As mobile technology continues to advance and build pathways out of poverty for many in the developing world, answers to the charging issues are popping up in the developed world.

University of Wisconsin researchers are developing a new technology that could charge mobile phones by harvesting the kinetic energy that humans create when walking, said the BBC. In Kenya, the solution is bicycles. Inventor Pascal Katana and students from University of Nairobi have made this simple, popular mode of transportation into much more. The energy from cycling simultaneously charges mobile phones for a start-up cost of only 350 Kenyan shillings, or $4. And in a few years, a mobile phone or laptop user may be able to recharge by simply pointing the device at the sun, says NPR.

Ideas like these can be a big help in developing countries, where the ever-increasing abilities of mobile phones are in great demand. Nearly 60 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa use mobile phones, according to a 2010 study by Jenny C. Aker and Isaac M. Mbiti. A mobile phone acts as much more than a tool for communication — it strengthens the relationship between impoverished people and global markets and creates new business opportunities for local communities.

To gain access to these income boosting business opportunities, mobile phone technology will be a crucial tool moving forward. And both accessible and affordable ways to charge the devices will be instrumental in poverty alleviation. Check out the video below to see how these opportunities are coming about as the power is flipped on — or, in this case, cranked.

Rags2Riches is helping Filipino women take back control of their livelihoods. Photo:fveronesi1 (flickr)

High-fashion designs are turning impoverished Filipino mothers into living-wage artisans.

The average daily wage for a nurse working in the Philippines is $7, but for women in Reese Fernandez-Ruiz’s Rags2Riches program, formerly impoverished mothers can make up to $12 a day, according to Fast Company. Rags2Riches solicits well-known Philippine designers and pairs them with local craftswomen. Working with the designers, the women produce their products with recycled materials in exchange for a premium wage. Fernandez-Ruiz, president and founding partner of Rags2Riches, was herself a poor working mother in one of the Philippines' worst dump sites (home to over 12,000 families) when she created the organization.

Aware that many women were selling foot rugs made from recycled fabric scraps (sourced from the local dump), and were often the victims of shady middlemen who provided and controlled the materials, Fernandez-Ruiz saw the opportunity for the women to take control. In an effort to gain momentum, she asked prominent Filipino designer Rajo Laurel to participate — to her surprise, he agreed. With such a prominent name attached to the project, more designers soon signed on.

Working with some of the Philippines' top designers has helped women boost their daily earnings from 20 cents to $12, said Fast Company. In addition, many are able to work from home, letting them care for their children while continuing to earn money. The organization also incorporates a "quality of life program," in which a portion of each worker's income is deposited into a bank account for future savings.

In its fourth year of operation, Rags2Riches has helped improve the lives and working conditions of over 450 women. It has improved the environmental conditions in the community with it's up-cycle, eco-ethical business model and has provided an invaluable opportunity to hundreds of women and their families.

To hear more about this inspiring business model, check out the video below:

The Load Carrier has the potential to lighten the loads of laborers around the globe. Photo:Core77

Design competition winners are often futuristic, with complex materials and major price tags. The winner of design site Core77’s first competition is just the opposite.

The submission is by Vikram Dinubhai Panchal, from the National Institute of Design in Ahmadabad, India. Panchal's "Load Carrier" is intended to help laborers in the developing world transport various materials. It is easily constructable, made with inexpensive and easily found materials such as cane, plastic, and metal, and costs about $6.80.

The Load Carrier has three different modes for lifting and carrying, allowing loads to be hauled above the head, on the back, or, for particularly heavy weights, by pushing or pulling.

Essentially, It's a backpack with wheels. It's a pushcart with straps.

Extremely simple in function and construction, devices like this may not be instantly exciting. However, the potential it has to improve working conditions, and to prevent expensive or debilitating injuries for poor workers, is great. For a mere $6.80, life could be made a lot more comfortable for a workforce that needs all the comfort it can get.

A family looks north over the Mexican border near Tijuana. Photo: Nathan Gibbs (flickr)

Is Mexico on its way to becoming the new Land of Opportunity?

Illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States has plummeted, leaving experts scrambling for explanations. Recent statistics are showing an unprecedented drop in illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States, Douglas Massey of Princeton's Mexican Migration Project told the New York Times.

For the first time in 60 years, the net traffic has gone to zero and probably is a little bit negative.

The findings bring an unexpected twist to the heated illegal immigration debate of the past decade.

Life for illegal immigrants in the United States has unarguably become harder in recent years. Government crackdowns on businesses make finding employment without papers a daunting task, and the United States’ current economic situation significantly decreases the financial incentive for prospective immigrants.

However a recent article from the New York Times gave a surprising explanation for the decline. It’s not that the United States is getting worse. It’s that Mexico is getting better. Rapidly improving social and economic prospects in Mexico have made staying home more attractive than immigrating to the United States.

Long-term research indicates several related factors within Mexico that may explain the immigration decline: birth control and education. Birth control efforts have dramatically decreased the fertility rate in Mexico from 6.8 children per woman in 1970 to just two today. Furthermore, government initiatives seem to be having a positive impact on education. “Around half the students now move on to higher schooling, up from 30 percent a decade ago,” according to the New York Times. Fewer workers with more schooling indicates a promising, prosperous future for Mexico, depending on which statistics you rely on.

The findings invite significant debate — many economists diverge over official indicators of Mexico’s economy. Whatever the true figures, though, only time will tell what the full impact of this new trend in immigration will be. A study by the World Bank indicates that Mexico will need to be prepared to compensate for factors linked to immigration such as decreased remittance incomes, or portions of migrant workers' wages sent home to assist their families, that currently account for up to 15 percent of gross state product in the poorer states of Mexico and have a range of positive influences on economic development.

In the meantime, the evidence suggests that for many Mexicans, the grass is no longer greener on the other side.

Soldiers, the traditional actors in a war, patrol in remote Afghanistan. Not shown here are those that provide comforts on the U.S. bases nearby. Photo: The U.S. Army (flickr)

At the end of a movie, the credits run for cast and crew. At the end of a war, soldiers receive Purple Hearts and well-earned pensions. But when is the production crew of a war recognized?

Lacking in grandiosity, working at a McDonald's inside a U.S. military base isn’t going to win you any medals. And yet, you face the same mortar attacks, the same war zone threats, as soldiers.

In a recent article from The New Yorker, Sarah Stillman reveals the rampant deception involved in recruiting these laborers from the developing world and the slavery-like conditions that prevent them from returning home.

The expansion of private-security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan is well known. But armed security personnel account for only about sixteen per cent of the over-all contracting force. The vast majority—more than sixty per cent of the total in Iraq—aren’t hired guns but hired hands. These workers, primarily from South Asia and Africa, often live in barbed-wire compounds on U.S. bases, eat at meagre chow halls… A large number are employed by fly-by-night subcontractors who are financed by the American taxpayer but who often operate outside the law.

In recent years, federal officials have been spurred into action. The Department of Defense (DoD) initiated an investigation in 2006 following several such grievances. According to the Pentagon-issued directive, FRAGO 06-188 [Trafficking in Persons], (pdf) which went into effect later that same year, “an inspection of contracting activities supporting DoD in Iraq revealed evidence of illegal confiscation of worker (Third Country National) passports by contractors/subcontractors; deceptive hiring practices and excessive recruiting fees, substandard worker living conditions at some sites, circumvention of Iraqi immigration procedures by contractors/subcontractors and lack of mandatory trafficking in persons awareness training.”

Based on a yearlong investigation, Stillman discloses that despite the directive against human trafficking and the Department of Defense's efforts to increase subcontractor accountability, poor workers are still being manipulated, swindled, and robbed.

A typical manpower agency charges applicants between two thousand and four thousand dollars, a small fortune in the countries where subcontractors recruit. To raise the money, workers may pawn heirlooms, sell their wedding rings or land or livestock, and take out high-interest loans... Many learned [upon arrival] that they were to earn as little as two hundred and seventy-five dollars a month as cooks and servers for U.S. soldiers—a fraction of what they’d been promised, and a tiny sliver of what U.S. taxpayers are billed for their labor.

Taking advantage of the least advantaged is despicable enough, but these workers not only lose money and freedom but sometimes their lives. Stillman writes that "for the first time in American history, private-contractor losses are now on a par with those of U.S. troops in both war zones [Iraq and Afghanistan], amounting to fifty-three per cent of reported fatalities in the first six months of 2010." Yes, that is more than half of the total fatalities—and, she notes, the true number is probably higher. The official number is based solely on what the private contracting companies report.

According to the Trafficking in Persons Report 2011, the United States is ranked in Tier 1. This means that the U.S. government has identified human trafficking as a problem and is implementing preventative and remedial laws and programs. After reading Stillman's article, you might question the United States' rating.

Protecting the poor's income from corruption is vital to ending poverty. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

A counter-intuitive anti-corruption law out of India may be key to helping the world's poor -- by partially legalizing many bribes.

The grand thefts of rulers may be more infamous, says the New York Times, but the bitter experience of petty corruption is an everyday trial for millions of poor people. So-called “harassment bribes” present a major obstacle to ending poverty by depriving the poor of crucial income and services. Families in some developing countries must bribe nurses to get their own babies, mortuaries for their dead, and various public officials for garbage collection, clean water, medicines, police protection, and admission to public schools.

Professor Kaushik Basu, chief economic adviser to India’s finance ministry, has proposed an innovative solution -- paying a “harassment bribe” should be made legal, while receiving one remains illegal.

Imagine a situation in which corrupt hospital staff demand a bribe in exchange for a newborn. Often, turning in the hospital staff risks prosecution for the parent (if the parent pays the bribe, and reports the incident to the police), or endangers the child (if the bribe goes unpaid).

But under Basu's system, a parent could pay the bribe, recover the child to safety, report the corrupt hospital staff, and walk free.

For the “game theory” enthusiasts amongst you, the following matrix explains how turning in the corrupt hospital staff changes from a bad option to the ideal choice under Basu’s anti-harassment law:

Possible Outcomes Matrix. Credit: Mark Ethen

Basu's anti-harassment law provides a boost to anti-corruption advocates. After all, who would not want to save their money by turning in a crooked official? Still, the model depends on a functional and reachable prosecution to deter corruption.

When lower level corruption diminishes, the biggest winners are the poor. They keep more of their earnings, and have increased access to government services. Furthermore, economies with less corruption often have superior social safety nets due to more efficient tax collection, and more stable job growth thanks to higher investor confidence.

Combining Basu’s proposal with other anti-corruption tactics, such as moving transactions online to reduce personal contact with public officials, will help alleviate poverty by protecting the world’s poorest from predatory officials.

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?

Tunnel workers prepare to lower someone into the tunnels. Photo: Zoriah (flickr)

The tunnels in Gaza were an invention of necessity. They flourished during a three-year blockade of goods from Israel into Palestine. Trade had to come from somewhere. And it did — these underground tunnels were used to import everything from food to building supplies to weaponry from Egypt into Palestine. At its height, the several hundred tunnels provided jobs to thousands of Palestinians. According to the Christian Science Monitor and the Associated Press however, roughly a few dozen tunnels are up and running after Israel eased the blockade in June, and smugglers are taking home only a fraction of what they used to — if they managed to hold onto their jobs at all.

While the ease of the blockade is seen globally as an improvement for the conditions of the Palestinian people, Gazan smugglers find themselves lamenting the days when trade was booming and people had work. "This is my first work day in the past two weeks," Khalil Saleh, 19, told the Associated Press.

In effort to keep business alive in Gaza, some smugglers are working on exporting food and goods now allowed from Israel into Egypt, according to the Christian Science Monitor. The most commonly smuggled exports are scrap metal, as well as Israeli food, which costs more in Egypt where inflation and rising food costs continue to be a problem. But smugglers are still not making what they used to, and the job remains a risky one.

Saber Salem told the Associated Press about the challenges he faces as a tunnel operator:

Life is very difficult and our work faces many risks and obstacles.... Hamas inspects our shipments and tunnels because they fear drug trafficking. The Egyptian security has set up many roadblocks on side roads.

Salem has seen his own business decline drastically. During the blockade, he ran three tunnels and had upwards of 40 employees working for him. Now he runs only one tunnel, and has just 15 employees.

The ease of the blockade, while quieting some of the recent criticism facing Israel, provides little long-term economic relief in Gaza and the West Bank. As long as Israel holds tight to bans on industry-creating goods like building, textile, and agricultural supplies, Gaza and the West Bank will remain economically dependent on the failing tunnels and Palestinians won't see any real relief.

OLPC instructors teach students how to use their laptops in Kigali, Rwanda. Photo: cellanr (flckr)

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame wants to secure a piece of the growing technology market that has already brought so much change to sub-Saharan Africa, and he’s starting young.

Kagame recently announced that he would provide a laptop for every child in his country between the ages of six and 18, reports The Economist. The magazine suggests the move is based on both economic as well as educational motives: The President has made it clear that he intends to have 50,000 computer programmers by 2020 as a result of the laptop program.

To reach that goal, he is working with the American non-profit One Laptop per Child (OLPC), an organization that is the first of its kind to provide durable and affordable laptops to many in the developing world. According to their website they believe (as I do) that a laptop can be a key for children to engage in their own education more fully than traditional rote learning. OLPC claims their laptops offer a way for the user to connect with both their local and greater communities in order to expose them to a world that is often not available.

The more practical economic benefits of such a program are also apparent. The president has already purchased 100,000 laptops from OLPC, according to the Economist, and plans to buy 1.2 million more as early as 2012. Over the long term, the initiative will create more jobs for computer teachers and repairmen.
And Government agencies and businesspeople have already started programs to help educate a computer-savvy population reports The New Times of Kigali.

Understandably, the plan has been criticized by many who think the money would be better spent on more visible and perhaps more necessary projects for the impoverished nation, including food distribution, health care subsidies and infrastructure development. Although the country must never lose focus on these persistent problems, there must also be room for the Rwandan Government to take risks on other fronts. The overall benefits of education are difficult to quantify but are nevertheless unquestionably valuable. Technology markets are on the rise throughout Africa, and President Kagame doesn't seem to want to let this opportunity pass.

A market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

Haiti’s informal economy has begun to flourish despite the destruction caused by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit the country on Jan. 12, the GlobalPost reports.

[D]espite the lawlessness and absence of government, the Haitian people have started to reactivate their street economy amid the ruins, providing a vital lifeline… as the first week since the quake came to a close, Haitians pulled their few resources together to get small shops and market stalls open, rickety buses and motorbike taxis moving and local radio stations on air.

At two weeks after the disaster, many residents are still living and sleeping outdoors. These conditions have contributed to a new street culture in Port-au-Prince, where many are finding new business opportunities. The Miami Herald says barbers, impromptu phone booths and laundry services can be found at almost every street corner.

Even before the earthquake it's estimated that 80 percent of workers in Port-au-Prince operated in the informal economy, according to the Miami Herald. With the city now in ruins, the Herald suggests that many Haitians previously employed in the formal sector are looking for more informal work so they can earn a little money.

Sauveur Celestine, who was once an accountant, tells the Herald that he is now recharging cell phones using discarded car batteries to make ends meet. “This has enabled me to earn some money that is not a great amount,” says Celestine “but at least it is enough for me to buy two meals a day.”