Namibia

In the beginning of this month the Namibia Development Trust launched a Global call to action against poverty.  The idea behind this is to amplify the problem of poverty in the country and to accelerate action against it.  In these terms poverty is defined as hunger, lack of shelter, lack of access to school/jobs, and lack of health care.  Over 30 percent of their population is classified as poor and in the last year that number has risen over 4 percent.  In the cities the poverty rate rises as high as 45 percent.  The inequality in the distribution of wealth is one of the highest in the world here.  Above is a map indicating the percent of children underweight because of the lack of food in the country.  Even though it is a little out dated it gives you a good idea of how badly the country is suffering.  The goal of this program is to make everyone aware of the problems here not just the poor but also the rich.  Hopefully in doing so change can be evoked and the distribution of wealth can be fixed in this country.

World Bank

The World Bank is known for it loans to third world indebted nations across the globe.  South Africa is no different with a World Bank presence there.   There are a couple projects they are currently pursuing there to help better the area.  According to their web site, www.worldbank.org, they are currently developing a renewable energy project to help reduce wasted energy and move away from burning fossil fuels.  By doing this they can also help reduce green house gases from hurting the environment.  Along with this they are developing commercial solar water heating that will help substitute many wasteful practice in energy use.  Another project undertaken in 2005 was to help sustain the Cape Floristic region, one of the smallest and most threatened floristic regions in the world.  There has been over 15 million dollars in grants for this project and it hopes to help protect the regions unique mountains, marine environment and wetlands.  The region is also very important because it contains over 1200 threatened plant species, 148 private nature reserves, 43 conservancies, and 36 natural heritage sites.  In these areas the conservation of water catchments, fishing resources, plant diversity are critical to the areas economy.  By helping preserve this area they are not only protecting the land but also the economy behind it.  The Global Environmental Facilities are run by the World Bank.  It is a program that is designed to provide additional grants and funds for projects like this throughout the world.  Since the 1990’s this program has lent out over 2 billion dollars in funds for projects similar to the ones South Africa has undertaken.  It is interesting though because the site doesn’t go into detail on payment plans and how these countries are able to pay these loans back without defaulting.  The general idea behind many of these plans seems to be for the general benefit of the countries they lend too.  If that is the case it’s hard to believe that so many of these countries can’t get back on there feet after they accept these loans and many are left in the same, or worse, position as before they took them.  Although many of these countries are in need of help it seems that the help they are getting isn’t always positive.  That is why it’s important for these agencies such as the World Bank to make sure they are there for the benefit of developing nations, not just the benefit of themselves. 

Botswana

We all know AIDS is nothing new in Africa, but many people don’t know which countries are hit the hardest by it.  Well the country of Botswana is almost located on the Southern most peak of Africa right above South Africa.  It is a small nation with only 2 million people. For having such a small population there are over 270,000 adults living there with HIV, making about 24 percent of their adult population infected.  This gives Botswana the second highest prevalence rate for HIV in the world.  The average person here is expected to live only until 40, that’s often the same age as us Americans start having our mid life crisis! There is an upside to the problem here and that is how Botswana has been at peace for over 40 years, which makes it much easier to educate and provide the people with ant-HIV drugs. Since there is no cure for this horrible disease the most powerful tool is education.  Since so much of Africa’s population is uneducated many of them don’t fully understand the disease.  According to avert.org, a popular HIV prevention site, the most critical things to be done to stop the spread of this disease are education and awareness, condom distribution, targeting of highly mobile populations, improvement of blood safety, and lastly prevention of mother to child transmission during birth.  Since 2004 HIV testing has been available at most medical centers to go along with routine check ups to help prevent the spreading of this disease.  Since drugs are so expensive to help fight the disease and there is no actual known cure, the best alternative is to educate the young population of how deadly and terrible this disease is.  If the transferring of this disease can be brought down the need for these expensive drugs in the future will too.  Currently the drug distribution has become much better reaching out to more and more of the infected population each year.  Below is a direct link to averts web page where donations are excepted to help fight against HIV in Africa.

http://www.avert.org/help-avert.htm