# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT - Read only first two article sections

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.
It's not how many would want to spend a Saturday morning: digging deep into piles of wet sludge, garbage and human waste clogging the drainage paths that snake through the narrow streets and alleyways of a Nairobi slum called Kibera.

But that's what a group of volunteers united under the banner of Weather Mtaani - Village Weather - do each weekend. They are a band of climate warriors trying to make the impoverished slum more resilient when the floods linked to climate change come, as they do more and more.

"When it rains and there is a lot of flooding, the water level sometimes reaches here," said Faith Ondieki, one of the group's team leaders, pointing to just above her waist.

It is difficult work. The smell is hard to bear, and protective gloves and rubber boots are scarce. When the plastic gloves the volunteers have brought run out, some of the women use the bags they came in to cover their hands as they scoop waste onto the shovels and rakes used to hoist the sludge into wheelbarrows.

If they don't do it, the water turns stagnant and finds alternative pathways, often seeping into fragile tin shacks that make up the shantytown, which stands little chance of surviving a flood.

"People [have died], especially in this area that we're standing in," said Ondieki, pointing to a small river nearby.

Four people in Kibera lost their lives in torrential floods last spring. Hundreds of people lost homes or saw them inundated with water.

Rains can 'sweep you off your feet'

Weather Mtaani began as a pilot project called DARAJA run by the Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa with U.K. funding.

It paired the Kenyan Meteorological Society with activists who learned how to interpret weather forecasts so they could translate them into Swahili and Sheng, a local slang, before texting them out to residents.

"When we send the messages that there's going to be rain, we emphasize clearing the drains so to avoid flooding to the houses," said Ondieki. The volunteers also remind parents to keep their children away from drains and the river.

Kibera is one of the largest slums, or informal settlements, in Africa. There are an estimated 250,000 people living in an area of just under three square kilometres.

Ondieki says the rains coming through are both more frequent and more powerful.

"It can even sweep you off your feet," she said.

The group decided to keep it up even after the project ended, adding in their weekly clearing sessions. They believe it's making a difference in the community.

Support for those already affected

The idea is simple, but effective. It's also the kind of project many African aid groups watching the UN's recently concluded COP26 climate summit in Glasgow say they could benefit from - if better and more transparent financing mechanisms were in place.

"I was expecting to hear a lot more in terms of support to people that are already affected by the impacts of climate change," said Asha Mohammed, secretary general of the Kenya Red Cross, who attended the conference.

Developed nations have already failed to fully deliver on a 2009 pledge to provide $100 billion US a year in climate financing for poorer countries suffering the most from the effects of climate change while having contributed the least to it in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

In a speech to vulnerable nations in July, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said 21 per cent of climate financing went toward adaptation and resilience.

"Yet current adaptation costs for developing countries are $70 billion US a year," he said. "And this could rise to as much as $300 billion US a year by 2030."

The Glasgow deal struck over the weekend offers to double financing earmarked for adaptation by 2025 compared to 2019 levels. It also promises to report on progress toward delivering the overall undelivered funds.

WATCH | Countries reach climate deal at COP26:

Mohammed is concerned about the details and implementation.

"So what are those mechanisms that are going to be used?" she said.

"It's also a question of can we ensure that local actors, local organizations, are also included in some of these mechanisms to ensure that resources actually can be channelled much closer to the communities that are affected."

In addition to experiencing heavier flooding in both urban and rural Kenya, other parts of the country are also enduring severe drought.

"There are more than two million people that are affected, and they need food," said Mohammed. "They need water. They need pasture for their animals. Children are malnourished and need supplements and all this kind of issue. So, how quickly can this support get to this kind of people?"

Climate financing a 'neo-colonial tool'

Mithika Mwenda, executive director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, a consortium of more than 1,000 organizations from 48 African countries, accuses the developed world of turning climate financing into a "neo-colonial tool."

"More community access to green climate fund money is like a camel passing through a needle hole," he said.

"It is not aid to Africa. You know, it is not a favour to Africa. It is what we need as the global community solving the climate crisis."

PACJA sent more than 40 climate activists from across Africa to Glasgow. But both Mwenda and Mohammed of the Kenyan Red Cross say they don't feel their voices were heard.

Another disappointment for developing nations at COP26 was the failure to agree on a fund for climate-related losses and damages.

A 'moral responsibility'

Many Kenyans, young and old, see it as another refusal of Western nations to acknowledge liability for years of unbridled emissions.

"We have [developed nation] global leaders who have taken a stand on global warming in a conversation right now and yet they are the biggest contributors," said Patrice Ajwan Otieno, a 22-year-old student at the University of Nairobi.

Otieno was one of a group of students who met with CBC News to talk about climate change.

"It begs the question, should a country let its citizenship be poor or, you know, [go hungry] because of global warming?"

That reflects concern that Kenya might be less inclined to continue down an already well-developed path toward renewable energy sources if developed nations can't agree on meaningful emissions cuts scientists say are necessary to stop the planet from warming.

About 70 per cent of Kenya's connected energy supply comes from renewable sources, including hydroelectricity and geothermal power generation. Kenya has also built Africa's largest wind power farm at Lake Turkana in the Northern Rift Valley.

Off the grid, individualized solar power kits are increasingly found in remote villages.

But many in Kenya will argue that that's not enough for the country to develop industry to its full potential and pull people living in slums such as Kibera out of poverty.

WATCH | Why we need to set climate targets even if we miss them:

Kenya at a crossroads

At a recent Africa Oil Week conference in Dubai, Kenya's petroleum and mining minister said the country should be able to develop its resources just like countries in the West have done.

"Much of Kenya is renewables. We just want to tap into what God has given us: hydrocarbons," said John Munyes.

For some, Kenya is at a crossroads. And it's a worry for the generation that will be expected to inherit the results of decisions being made today.

Engineering student Grace Kamau says it's frightening. But she also says the failure of developed nations to understand the urgency of the climate crisis shouldn't let countries such as Kenya off the hook.

"When we as African countries complain that we feel the impact yet we do not set aside enough funds or research into renewable energy, we are at the greatest risk for experiencing more of those troubles," she said.

Kamau also believes individuals can make a difference.

"You don't have to study engineering to be an engineer," she said. "In Kenya, I think there's lots to be done, and perhaps I'd appeal for us as young people to start looking for smaller strategies and to just make ourselves engineers."

A little like the Weather Mtaani volunteers in Kibera.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Nairobi slum vulnerable to flooding is engineering its own climate solutions and not waiting for the West | CBC News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In one of Africa's largest slums, the Kibera district of Nairobi, climate change brings unenviable tasks such as clearing waste and sludge out of drainage paths in order to make the community more resilient against flooding. Activists there say the West has a moral obligation to do more to protect their communities.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Tale of Two Slums in South Africa as residents seek to upgrade lives

# data[].attributes.subject
The Tale of Two Slums in South Africa as residents seek to upgrade lives

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The tale of two slums in South Africa as residents seek to upgrade lives

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In Cape Town, the slums of Flamingo Crescent and Santini are just 20 kms apart but the gap in the standard of living in these two settlements is being hailed as an example of how residents can actively upgrade their own lives.

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tens of thousands of people are fighting to leave Mahul, a heavily industrialised neighbourhood in the western Indian city of Mumbai, saying the toxic pollution there is adversely impacting their health. BBC Marathi's Mayuresh Konnur and Janhavee Moole report on the residents' battle to be relocated.

Anita Dhole, 38, was forced to move to a "transit camp" set up by the civic authorities in Mahul in May 2017 after the illegal slum she was living in was demolished. Since then, she says, she has been suffering.

"I have breathing trouble and high blood pressure, and the pollution has also affected my eyesight," she says.

Hers was one of more than 5,000 families - estimated to be between 30,000 and 50,000 people - that lost their homes in the demolition drive and were offered temporary housing in Mahul. They were told they would be given homes in another Mumbai suburb later but, residents say, Mahul is not fit for living, even for a short time.

A former fishing village, it's now close to oil and petroleum refineries, chemical factories and fertiliser plants.

A report in 2013 by the King Edward Memorial Hospital said that around 67% of people living in Mahul complained of breathlessness several times a month and around 84% of them complained of eye-irritation. In 2015, India's environment court National Green Tribunal said there was "a perceptible threat to [the] health of residents" in Mahul because of the "prevailing air quality in the area".

But local municipal authorities say three different surveys by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board show "that the pollution levels in Mahul are not different from other areas of Mumbai".

Yet residents blame breathing issues, asthma, skin diseases, tuberculosis and blood pressure-related problems on poor local conditions.

Ms Dhole says her parents fell so sick in Mahul that they soon left for their village.

Shamdas Salve, who also moved to Mahul last year, says his two-year-old son has had a persistent skin infection for the past five months.

"He doesn't sleep the whole night and keeps scratching. I've consulted several skin specialists and changed his medication but he has had no relief. He cries and keeps scratching. He now has marks on his face too."

His words are echoed by many of his neighbours - 10-year-old Sahil suffers from TB and so does 17-month-old Anshul Tusambad; Maya Goswami, 55, struggles with asthma; and 18-year-old Kavita Subramanyan has low BP and breathing problems.

Besides pollution, residents say they have no access to clean water and sewage facilities and that electricity supply is far from regular. There are also no hospitals or schools nearby. The area is poorly connected with other parts of the city and, as a result, many women have been forced to quit their jobs and stay home.

The transit camp where Ms Dhole lives is actually a block of apartments that goes by the official name of Eversmile layout.

It has dozens of buildings and each is home to 300 congested one-room apartments. The complex is filthy - sewage pipes are broken, gutters are overflowing; electric wires are dangling everywhere; the air is stuffy, mosquitoes abound and rats scurry past us as we walk around the neighbourhood.

Most of these low-cost homes are meant for families who have been relocated because of demolition of unauthorised slums.

Every year, tens of thousands migrate from rural India to Mumbai in search of livelihood and most end up living in illegal shanty towns that often encroach on roads or other city infrastructure.

Most of those who were relocated to Mahul, including Ms Dhole, used to live in a slum along the Tansa pipeline - the 160km (99 miles) long water pipeline that runs through Mumbai, carrying water from Lake Tansa. It's a major source of water for the city.

Just over half of the pipeline is overground and, over the years, unauthorised houses came up alongside it and, in some places, on top of it.

In 2006, a petition was filed in the high court in Mumbai asking the court to order the government to relocate those living in the slums to "ensure that the water, which is used by the citizens of Mumbai, is safe, and that these pipelines do not become a target for persons to attack the citizens of Mumbai".
Read more stories about pollution and the environment:

Why does India's air look different from space?

Delhi's air pollution is triggering a health crisis

Why is India's Chennai flooded

In 2009, the court ruled that there must be a 10-metre gap between the pipeline and the nearest home, which meant that thousands of families had to move out. Their homes were subsequently demolished and they were told to relocate to Mahul.

Many initially refused because of the pollution, but were forced to move as the demolitions continued.

The fight to leave

Ms Dhole has started an online petition demanding that they be moved out of Mahul. She and other residents have also petitioned the high court.

In August, the court said the civic authorities could not force people to move to Mahul and that they must find alternative housing for them or pay rent for those families that did move out.

The protests have intensified in the past two months with many residents of Mahul's transit camp demonstrating at the site where their homes once stood.

They have also launched a campaign on social media with the hashtag and Twitter handle MumbaisToxicHell - demanding that they are relocated again, this time to a safer and healthier environment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The 'toxic hell' where poor are forced to live

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tens of thousands of people are fighting to leave Mahul, a heavily industrialised neighbourhood in the western Indian city of Mumbai, saying the toxic pollution there is adversely impacting their health. BBC Marathi's Mayuresh Konnur and Janhavee Moole report on the residents' battle to be relocated.

# data[].attributes.headline
2017  Tomorrow's Cities A Day if the Life of a Smart Slum

# data[].attributes.subject
2017  Tomorrow's Cities A Day if the Life of a Smart Slum

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tomorrow’s Cities: A day in the life of a smart slum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How slums are offering low-tech smart solutions to common city problems.

# data[].attributes.headline
2022 Surviving extreme heat in the slums

# data[].attributes.subject
2022 Surviving extreme heat in the slums

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
How people in low-income communities are coping with heating cities could set the example for future heat-stressed citizens to follow.

As the world's cities and towns heat up, authorities and governments often tell people to shelter indoors or use active cooling like electric fans or air conditioners.

But how do you follow this advice when your home is made of scrap metal and wood, your access to electricity averages around four hours per day, or your modest income is already spent on food and simply can't be extended to cooling?

By 2050, more than one billion people, including those living in some of the poorest parts of the planet, could face extreme heat stress unlike anyone in recorded human history. , along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are asking: how will these populations adapt?

An international team of anthropologists, geographers, engineers, urban planners, architects and epidemiologists are finding some answers by how people are coping with hot conditions in Karachi, Jakarta, Hyderabad, and Douala. In these cities, many people effectively live 'off-grid' with unreliable access to quality housing, water, electricity, shelter and shade. The pandemic only left them more confined, forced to deal with heat-related illness, even during periods of cooler weather.

In a survey of 4,564 low-income residents, only seven people reported having or using an air conditioning unit; and only 34 percent of respondents reported using an electric fan as their primary cooling method when it was hot. Some 40 percent of all respondents had less than 12 hours of electricity per day. The lack of readily available water, which in some cases was further reduced during COVID-19 measures, was also closely correlated with symptoms of heat related illness, such as blurred vision.

Surveyed respondents in Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Cameroon with metal roofing were 43% more likely to go outside to escape the heat than people with other roofing.

How they coped could set the example for future heat-stressed citizens to follow, from obvious, well documented practices, like increasing airflow or ventilation, to using incidental shade provided by street trees or urban infrastructures like flyovers.

Other informal strategies included visiting neighbours or relatives and using water, not for hydration, but bathing and wetting down the interior surfaces of homes. Many of these practices are rarely present in urban heat-action plans developed by city authorities or governments.

These cooling strategies don't occur in a vacuum. They are enabled by a range of social, cultural, technical and economic structures that make them possible or permissible. For example, women often have less access to shade and cooler public places due to cultural norms and safety concerns about being outside, particularly when high-density informal housing means 'outside' is a public domain.

Water is used very differently in response to heat across Karachi, Jakarta, Hyderabad, and Douala. Bathing was the most common strategy in the Pakistani city of Karachi (used by about a fifth of the population), yet not mentioned at all in the Indian city of Hyderabad - pointing to the need to carefully consider resource availability and cultural norms for how water is used.

Survey respondents in Karachi, Pakistan were more likely to cool down with a bath or shower than respondents in other surveyed places. The difference suggests that local customs and water scarcity play a part in how people respond to extreme heat.

Policymakers can identify, recognise and assist low-tech, energy-efficient and water-efficient strategies already being used across low-income communities. Some of these can be supported through tweaks informed by the latest science - for example, considering when using a fan helps, when it hinders heat loss, and when small amounts of water or ice can help effectively cool homes and bodies.

There is an assumption that basic access to electricity, water, and shelter is always available - they aren't. Policy focus should not only be on the emergency provision of water, electricity and shelter during extreme heat events. This is a very expensive band-aid for an arterial bleed. Extreme heat is not only a short-term event - in the global tropics, populations are also exposed seasonally, or all year-round. Ensuring basic access to water, power and shelter all the time - or at least much more of it - is crucial.

In rapidly developing parts of the world, policies that assume a standardised built environment, occupied by geographically stable, atomistic households with reliable incomes don't reflect reality. They also overlook opportunities for novel solutions to managing heat in a warming world. For example, informal electricity connections (either directly to the grid, or via a neighbour) have played a crucial role in providing energy and reducing heat stress for the lowest income groups. Rather than malign 'illegal connections', city authorities need to support community connections that maintain safety while providing flexible access.

Low-tech interventions are not a panacea to climate change. The shade of a tree, appropriate use of fans, or improved ventilation of homes only works as long as outdoor conditions remain survivable. This might not be the case in many regions by 2050.

We can still feasibly protect the global poor from the heat at the current 1-1.5°C limit, but not so at 2°C when temperatures will become too much for the human body to bear. Staying under 1.5°C means low-tech responses have a higher chance of working. Beyond that, their efficacy drops off rapidly.

Adapting to extreme heat isn't new - communities have a range of localised responses that are deeply embedded in their social and cultural circumstances. Paying attention to everyday strategies is a foundation stone for reducing heat-health risk now and in the future. But it's a foundation on unstable ground - only limiting warming to 1.5°C will give the house a chance of standing.
Dr Elspeth Oppermann is a senior researcher at the Rachel Carson Center, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich. Professor Jamie Cross is Chair of Social and Economic Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, and Director of the Edinburgh Earth Initiative. This research was funded by UK Research and Innovation and the Global Challenges Research Fund through the Economic and Social Research Council, with support from the Scottish Funding Council, as part of Cool Infrastructures, a multi-disciplinary project into life with heat in global cities. This article has been republished in the wake of heatwaves in India, China and Europe. It first appeared on March 11, 2022.
Editors Note: In the story "HOTTER AND HOTTER" sent at: 23/02/2022 12:13.

Photo credit correction.
Updated with new data chart.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Surviving extreme heat in the slums - 360

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How people in low-income communities are coping with heating cities could set the example for future heat-stressed citizens to follow. As the world's cities and towns heat up, authorities and governments often tell people to shelter indoors or use active cooling like electric fans or air conditioners.

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Multidimensionality of urban poverty and inequality should be at the centre of interventions to create an inclusive and equitable urban future globally, the report said

Poverty and inequality are increasingly becoming pervasive in cities globally, a recent report by UN Habitat has said. Urban poverty and inequality trends differ significantly between cities of developed and developing countries, the report released June 29, 2022, said.

In developing countries, slums and informal settlements are the most enduring spatial manifestation of poverty and inequality. Residents of slums and informal settlements experience multiple levels of deprivations, the report noted.
Read more: Rapid urbanisation: Where do urban poor stand?
Millions of households lack access to basic private infrastructure such as clean water and sanitation facilities, sufficient living spaces and secure housing conditions.

Like poverty, urban inequality has economic, social and spatial manifestations. Urban inequality is marked by differential access to income and wealth, urban services and infrastructure, technology, public health, social security and education.

Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa are off-track from ending poverty by 2030, according to the report. The region has the highest incidence of urban poverty with about 23 per cent of the urban population living below the international poverty line and 29 per cent experiencing multidimensional poverty.

Current projections suggest that the number of people living in extreme poverty will remain above 600 million in 2030, resulting in a drastic rise in global poverty rate.

The report also noted that the migrants, refugees, women, the elderly and others who live in overcrowded and risk-prone informal settlements, bear the burden of environmental risks because of their physical, social and economic vulnerability.

Not only does climate change make it difficult for people to escape poverty, but it also creates a vicious cycle of deprivation.

The report stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had reversed years of remarkable progress made in the fight against poverty. The pandemic had resulted in the emergence of newly poor people.

Such people are those who would have exited poverty in the absence of the pandemic but remain poor as. Newly poor people also include those who have fallen into poverty on account of the pandemic. In 2020, the pandemic-induced newly poor stood between 119 and 124 million.

According to the report, inequalities between developed and developing regions have become worse. The average income of people living in North America is 16 times higher than sub-Saharan Africa.

South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. The poorest 40 per cent there have annual incomes of less than $1,000 per person, while the richest 10 per cent earn more than $39,000 per person.

Maimunah Mohd Sharif, under-secretary general and executive director of United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat) said:

"The New Urban Agenda provides a holistic framework for urban development that encourages the integration of all facets of sustainable development to promote equality, welfare and shared prosperity.

"Our cities and towns must mainstream these commitments in their local development plans with a deliberate focus on tackling inequality, poverty and climate change, among other challenges. Sustainable urban futures remain a cornerstone of the fight to ensure that cities are better prepared for the next crisis," Sharif said.

The report highlighted the adoption of a multi-dimensional approach to address urban poverty and inequality. It stressed on adopting urban sensitive social security measures as a potentially powerful policy tool for redistributing wealth and addressing poverty and inequalities.

It suggested urban leaders to participate with grassroot civil society and private sector efforts to build local alliances to deliver more effective strategies of addressing poverty and inequality.

We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Poverty and inequality a threat to urban poor: UN report

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Multidimensionality of urban poverty and inequality should be at the centre of interventions to create an inclusive and equitable urban future globally, the report said Poverty and inequality are increasingly becoming pervasive in cities globally, a recent report by UN Habitat has said.

# data[].attributes.headline
International Women’s Day: ‘Time is now’ for gender equality

# data[].attributes.subject
International Women’s Day: ‘Time is now’ for gender equality

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Senior UN officials joined women activists, artists, politicians and others from around the world, for an online event to mark the day, observed annually on 8 March.

While recognizing women's leadership across all walks of life, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that "in too many areas, the clock on women's rights is moving backwards", with COVID-19 a prime example.

'The time is now'

The crisis has kept girls and women out of classrooms and workplaces, and contributed to rising poverty and violence, among other setbacks.

"We cannot emerge from the pandemic with the clock spinning backwards on gender equality," Mr. Guterres said in a video message played at the event. "We need to turn the clock forward on women's rights. The time is now."

Progress towards a more gender-equal world is being undermined by multiple interlocking and compounding crises, according to Sima Bahous, Executive Director at UN Women.

War must stop

"Currently, we are witnessing the horrifying situation in Ukraine where the impacts on women and girls, including the hundreds of thousands displaced, remind us: all conflicts, from Ukraine to Myanmar to Afghanistan, from the Sahel to Yemen, exact their highest price from women and girls," she said. "The Secretary-General has been clear, War must stop."

Meanwhile, climate change and environmental degradation are increasing insecurity, for individuals and countries, with women and girls disproportionately affected.

Ms. Bahous said the international community has the chance to put them at the centre of planning and action, and to integrate gender perspective into global and national laws and policies.

Re-think and re-frame

"We have the opportunity to re-think, re-frame and re-allocate resources. We have the opportunity to benefit from the leadership of women and girl environmental defenders and climate activists to guide our planet's conservation. We need indigenous women's inter-generational knowledge, practices and skills," she added.

International Women's Day provides an opportunity to renew commitment to gender equality as the strong foundation for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), said the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed.

"It is only with women and girls at the centre of our efforts that we have our best chance to succeed in addressing our current, and pressing, global challenges - from the climate emergency, to political divisions, to a sustainable recovery from this global pandemic."

The President of the UN General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, noted that a sustainable future is possible because governments have adopted frameworks such as the SDGs, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Remove the barriers

Earlier, he had pointed out how despite their contributions, women remain "under-represented, under-supported, and unrecognized" in the social, economic and political fields needed for sustainable recovery.

"We must strengthen mechanisms that provide pathways and support for ingenuity, ambition, and creativity, from all people who have the skill and the drive. And we must remove the barriers that prevent women from engaging," said Mr. Shahid.

Next week, the UN Commission on the Status of Women ( CSW) begins its annual session, which will also examine gender equality in climate change, environmental, and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes.

"For a sustainable tomorrow, the gendered impacts of climate change must be confronted decisively and urgently," said Commission Chair, Ambassador Mathu Joyini of South Africa.

She underlined commitment towards realizing "a robust set of agreed conclusions which will place women and girls firmly at the centre of climate and sustainability solutions."

Worth fighting for

American poet and activist, Amanda Gorman, was among the artists who contributed to the UN commemoration.

Now 24, she gained international acclaim for her poem 'The Hill We Climb', delivered at the inauguration of US President Joseph Biden in January last year.

In her poem 'Earthrise', played at the UN event, Ms. Gorman emphasizes how "Climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time", and everyone has a role in protecting the planet.

"All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before/For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core/To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
International Women's Day: 'Time is now' for gender equality

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Senior UN officials joined women activists, artists, politicians and others from around the world, for an online event to mark the day, observed annually on 8 March. While recognizing women's leadership across all walks of life, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that "in too many areas, the clock on women's rights is moving backwards", with COVID-19 a prime example.

# data[].attributes.headline
Library in Police Station for Kids in Slums

# data[].attributes.subject
Library in Police Station for Kids in Slums

# data[].attributes.body
In India Just Right

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
NEW DELHI: Books are not what one usually expects to find at a police station. But this one at RK Puram has lots of them. And these are meant for the children of nearby slums so that they can utilise their time in educating themselves instead of straying to a path of crime. The 'Delhi Police Public Library' provides space to students coming from economically weaker sections to study peacefully.

"Schools have been closed for almost a year and the students, especially those living in nearby slums, are struggling to focus on studies as they don't have a personal and peaceful space to study. Our idea was to set up a library with thousands of books, from fiction to those for competitive exams," said Rajesh Sharma, station house officer, RK Puram PS.

"Due to lack of support and facility, these youngsters get into bad company and take to a wrong path. We have not just set up the library but also tied up with an NGO that provides counselling and free coaching for competitive exams." The library is equipped with a smart classroom, computers and internet connectivity. It has about 2,300 books, more than 1,900 magazines and 15 newspapers.

The library is open on all days from 10 am to 6 pm. About 100 students can sit and read at a time. "I live in a one-room accommodation with four members and did not have any facility to attend online classes. Now, I attend classes here and the police uncles also help us in clearing our doubts," said Sonal, a student of Class VIII.

This is the second library to be opened by Delhi Police after Jamia Nagar PS. SHO Sharma and the library recently received a certificate of appreciation for innovative education from Asia Pacific Chamber of Commerce, Goa.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Police station turns library for slum kids finding it hard to pursue studies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
NEW DELHI: Books are not what one usually expects to find at a police station. But this one at RK Puram has lots of them. And these are meant for the children of nearby slums so that they can utilise their time in educating themselves instead of straying to a path of crime.

# data[].attributes.body
JR/STRETCH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Brazil

Social entrepreneurs across Brazil are working to help the country's most vulnerable Image: Photo by Leo Wallace on Unsplash

Programme and Engagement Lead, Europe and Americas - Schwab Foundation, World Economic Forum

Editor, Folha de S. Paulo

Stay up to date:

Brazil

Follow

Discover

What is the World Economic Forum doing to champion social innovation?

Show more

Social Entrepreneur of the Year Brazil awards 2022" featuring Pavitra Raja and Mariano Cenamo, Founder of Idesam Image: Folha de S. Paulo

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
See how Brazil's social entrepreneurs are transforming lives

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Brazil Social entrepreneurs across Brazil are working to help the country's most vulnerable Image: Photo by Leo Wallace on Unsplash Programme and Engagement Lead, Europe and Americas - Schwab Foundation, World Economic Forum Editor, Folha de S. Paulo Stay up to date: Brazil Follow Discover What is the World Economic Forum doing to champion social innovation?

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT/STRETCH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
At least 17 people - including children - have been killed in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, and many more injured after a huge mound of rubbish collapsed, officials say.

The pile of waste, some 15m (49ft) high, gave way in heavy rains at 03:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Monday.

The dump is known to be home to some of the city's poorest residents, who build makeshift camps amid the rubbish.

Five homes on the edge were also crushed in the disaster.

Rescue workers are continuing to search for survivors.

Mozambique country profile

Africa Live: More on this and other stories

A spokesman for the emergency services, Leonilde Pelembe, warned it was likely there were more victims under the waste.

"The information we received from local authorities is that the number of people living in those houses exceeds the number of deaths recorded," Mr Pelembe said.

The Hulene district of Maputo is one of the most deprived parts of the capital. Many, including children, have little choice but to make their homes either on or next to the dump.

The dump not only provides them with food but also goods to sell, our correspondent Jose Tembe explains.

An accident waiting to happen
Analysis by Jose Tembe, BBC Africa, Maputo
The dump was here when I began living in the area in the 1980s. I saw the buildings being erected around it.

The municipal authorities have tried to clear it. Each time the rainy season comes, they remove people and give them plots of land.

But when there is no rain, people move back to the rubbish dump. It is where they can be close to the city and collect things that have been dumped - things like outdated food to either eat or sell.

The government keeps on promising and promising to close the dump for good but they never do it.

They never close it, and so people continue to pile garbage in the same area.

The authorities said they had previously asked residents in the area to leave because their homes were constructed illegally, Reuters news agency reports.

However one local resident whose son was injured in the landslide, Maria Huo, said: "I live in this neighbourhood because I have nowhere to go. Had the government told me to go to another place to live, I would have left here."

The city of Maputo has experienced heavy rainfall since Sunday, which has damaged homes and flooded roads.

In the poorer suburbs of cities such as Maputo, people sometimes live on land they do not own in the hope of finding work. The dwellings can be built on land that is unsafe.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At least 17 people - including children - have been killed in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, and many more injured after a huge mound of rubbish collapsed, officials say. The pile of waste, some 15m (49ft) high, gave way in heavy rains at 03:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Monday.

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT/STRETCH

# data[].attributes.headline
New initiative to improve nutrition standards for school meals

# data[].attributes.subject
New initiative to improve nutrition standards for school meals

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In many countries school meals represent a significant portion of children's daily diets, the partners said, and it is vital that they directly contribute to nutrition needs.

"Through this comprehensive toolkit and technical support to improve school meals, the broader school food environments and procurement processes from local food systems, FAO aims to support governments and institutions in providing healthier school food to children and adolescents, therefore marking a step forward towards ensuring their Right to Food," said Nancy Aburto, Deputy Director of the agency's Food and Nutrition Division.

Guidance and strategies

The project, School food nutrition guidelines and standards for safeguarding children and adolescents' right to food, is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).

The partners will also produce guidance for schools to implement hands-on food education strategies, including on how to use school meal menus as learning materials in the classroom.

Other interventions will also be promoted, such as restricting the marketing of sugary beverages in school premises.

Furthermore, national bodies will be supported in efforts to integrate the new nutrition standards into legislation.

Far beyond food

Community ownership is another key part of the project, the UN agencies added, including through strengthening mechanisms where students and parents can report non-compliance with nutrition standards.

"We have a global consensus now around the need for school meals and its benefits to various sectors. School meals go far beyond the plate of food - they can impact education, nutrition, health, agriculture and food systems," said Carmen Burbano, Director of the School-based Programmes Division at WFP.

"For these programmes to unfold their full potential we need to work on a next generation of school meal programmes - programmes that contribute to sustainable food systems and ensure that children receive healthy and nutritious meals."

The methodology and guidance package will be piloted in Cambodia and Ghana. They will then be adjusted and finalized through regional and global workshops.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
New initiative to improve nutrition standards for school meals

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In many countries school meals represent a significant portion of children's daily diets, the partners said, and it is vital that they directly contribute to nutrition needs.

# data[].attributes.body
COMFORT

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT/STRETCH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
unicef kids children human rights charity not for profit non-profit development earth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Drawing a solution to the world's learning crisis | UNICEF

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
121 million children and adolescents are out of school around the world. How can we change this picture? Subscribe to UNICEF here: http://bit.ly/1ltTE3m Investing more and investing better in education to reach every child.

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT/STRETCH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
RIO DE JANEIRO * High on a hill in South America's largest slum, Ms Samantha Almeida was startled by the latest volley of gunfire. It was close. Too close. She knew she had to get her girls moving.

The shoot-out had woken them an hour before.

Killings in Rocinha, once the showcase shanty town in Brazil's showcase city, had quadrupled in less than a year. In recent weeks, the town had taken on the feel of a war zone as drug traffickers battled with police.

Suddenly, the bullets were buzzing just above the roof.

The family members had started sleeping in one room because they felt safer together, and Ms Almeida, 33, had drilled her girls on an escape plan - when she gave the sign, they would move fast, keeping low, to a windowless, bunker-like terrace.

Another shot rang out, and Ms Almeida rose, telling the girls to follow, she later recalled. Eight-year-old Natasha moved quickly, but Nicolly, her painfully shy 16-year-old, was still struggling to her feet when they heard the window crack. And then blood was seeping through Nicolly's pink tank top. "Mama," the girl said before slumping. "I've been shot."

Rocinha, Rio's largest favela - or hillside shanty town - was once a symbol of rising fortunes in a nation that finally seemed on the fast track to greatness. Its hive-like streets were even portrayed in the animated Hollywood movie Rio. But a little more than a year after hosting the Olympic Games, that optimism is disappearing in a wave of urban violence.

Across Rio, at least 120 police officers were killed last year. Through December, 6,590 people were slain - the highest rate in nearly a decade. Crippled by corruption scandals and economic woes, the "Marvellous City" is floundering.

The mayhem in the favela of nearly 200,000 reflects a national plague - Brazil suffered a record 61,000 violent deaths in 2016.

Nicolly was unconscious when her stepfather carried her into a hospital. Medical personnel quickly determined she had a bullet lodged just above her left shoulder blade and wheeled her into surgery. As her stunned mother waited, one gunshot patient after another was rushed in. Fortunately, Nicolly survived.

The outbreak of violence in Rocinha was ostensibly triggered by the execution of three top traffickers by rivals last August. But the bigger culprit, observers say, is the erosion of the state in a nation whipsawed by economic crisis and corruption.

Brazil puts the B in the Brics, an elite club of economies including Russia, India and China once seen as emerging powerhouses.

But Latin America's largest country has been weakened by political and economic crises, and its fragility is extending to places such as Rocinha.

A financial scandal cost then President Dilma Rousseff her job in 2016. Her replacement, Mr Michel Temer, has spent the past year fighting graft allegations.

In the Rio state, former governor Sergio Cabral was sentenced last June to 14 years in prison for his part in the massive corruption and bribery scandal known as Lava Jato, or "Car Wash". The authorities say he got over 224 million reais (S$92 million) related to construction projects, including one involving the government-controlled oil giant Petrobras.

The broader Car Wash scandal has rocked Petrobras, causing it to lose billions of dollars and slash spending, and in turn, the turmoil has ravaged the budget of Rio, which relies heavily on royalties from Petrobras.

The financial squeeze has made Rio police officers - notorious for bribe-taking - even more susceptible to temptation. Last May, evidence surfaced that officers in northern Rio had "rented" an armoured vehicle to drug traffickers for the equivalent of roughly US$300,000 (S$398,000).

In Rocinha, gang warfare became so bad that the state called in the army for a week last September. Since then, heavily armed special police forces have patrolled the favela. With no single group solidly in command, and the police struggling to regain control, a crime wave has broken out.

Homes are being burgled, businesses robbed. Residents of the favela are distraught.

"You watch the battles in the Middle East on TV. Here, it's worse," said Mr Marcos Alfredo Guedes de Oliveira, whose butcher shop was robbed at gunpoint recently for the first time in its 20-year history.

"Rocinha is at war."

WASHINGTON POST

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rio's largest shanty town turns into a war zone

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
RIO DE JANEIRO * High on a hill in South America's largest slum, Ms Samantha Almeida was startled by the latest volley of gunfire. It was close. Too close. She knew she had to get her girls moving.. Read more at straitstimes.com.

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
In one California city, offering free cash helped fight poverty and COVID

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A closely watched urban experiment in “guaranteed basic income” has important lessons for other cities, participants say.

# data[].attributes.body
Stretch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
KARACHI, Pakistan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For Sultana Javed, one of dozens of residents living without proper sanitation on her street in the Orangi Town slum, the final straw came when her toddler daughter fell into the soak pit where the family disposed of their waste.

Since moving to the Gulshan-e-Zia area of the slum in Karachi nine years earlier, Javed had poured waste into the soak pit, a porous chamber that lets sewage soak into the ground and is often used by communities that lack toilets.

Javed, whose son caught dengue fever from mosquitoes near the pit outside their home, began mobilizing others among 22 families on her street to install their own sewerage system.

"We are fed up with stench of wastewater and frequent mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever. So, we have decided to lay a sewerage pipeline in our street on a self-help basis," Javed, 45, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

POPULATION EXPLOSION

Orangi is widely cited as Asia's largest slum and sprawls over 8,000 acres - the equivalent of about 4,500 Wembley football pitches - in the port city of Karachi in northwestern Sindh province.

The settlement's population exploded in the early 1970s, when thousands of people migrated from East Pakistan after the 1971 war of independence, which led to the establishment of the Republic of Bangladesh.

Today, Orangi's population is believed to have reached around 2.4 million although no one knows the exact figure since Pakistan's last national census was held in 1998.

Known locally as "katchi abadis", the first informal settlements emerged in the wake of the Indo-Pakistan war of 1947, which led to a huge influx of refugees.

Unable to cope with the numbers - by 1950, the population had increased to 1 million from 400,000 - the government issued refugees with "slips" giving them permission settle on any vacant land.

Since then, land has also been traded informally, usually through middlemen who have subdivided plots of both government and private land and sold them on to the poor.

By the 1970s, when Orangi's population exploded, the settlements had won a quasi acceptance from the government, which was unable to provide services or enough housing.

A system of upgrading and land titling was introduced, giving some residents a little more security - and community-driven upgrading projects a greater chance of success.

Activists estimate that about 60 percent of Karachi's total population of 15 million now live in shanty towns. Unlike in many other slums worldwide, however, the lack of services - not housing - is the major problem.

In Orangi Town, communities built two and three-room houses out of concrete blocks manufactured locally, activists say. Each house is home to between eight and 10 people and an informal economy of micro businesses has emerged as residents have created a livelihood working from their homes.

As the slum population has increased, residents have been cutting into the hills that surround the settlements, destroying natural bushland around it and creating swathes of barren land.

Despite the poverty, bustling markets dot the streets and surrounding industrial areas offer some employment for unskilled workers.

DO IT YOURSELF CULTURE

In 1980, the development expert and entrepreneur, Akhtar Hameed Khan, observed how many communities were self-organisation to fill the gap in services - from building homes and schools to water delivery - and launched the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP).

Now globally renowned, the project has not only led the DIY sewerage projects which continue to expand to this day, but has built a network to manage a plethora of programs that range from micro credit to water supply, to women's savings schemes.

OPP's director Saleem Aleemuddin told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that when activists began working in the area in 1980, the lack of sanitation was the most "obvious" and "problematic" area for residents.

While it took the OPP around six months to convince local residents to invest and pay for the installation of the first sewerage line on their street, it was not long before people were taking their lead and organizing themselves.

"Since the government gets almost nothing in revenue from the slum, it therefore pays the least interest to its [slum] developments too," Aleemuddin said.

"In fact, people in the town now consider the streets as part of their homes because they have invested in them and that's why they maintain and clean the sewers too."

Nearly three decades on, the OPP has not only managed to ensure that more than 90 percent of Orangi Town's nearly 8,000 streets and lanes have sewer pipes - all installed by residents - but has developed a network of collaborators drawing in skills from a wide variety of other non-government organizations.

Training to map and document drainage channels is provided to young people as are programs that equip community architects, technicians and surveyors to work in the area. So far, say OPP activists, around 553 of the more than 2,700 Orangi Town settlements are documented.

To date, according to OPP statistics, 96 percent of the settlement's 112,562 households have latrines, with residents footing the total bill for the sewage system of 132,026,807 Pakistani rupees ($1.26 million).

'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH'

In Gulshan-el-Zia, Javed and her neighbors decided that to kick-start their works, they needed to choose one person to lead the project and nominated 28-year-old Saleem Khan. He will not only take charge of planning but will collect residents' money and contributions for their new sewer and pipeline.

Khan will then work closely with OPP specialists who provide local communities with expert design advice, as well as the technical and engineering support to install the new system.

"I am sacrificing my time and energy to clean my street of the wastewater and protect people from diseases," Khan said.

"It isn't an easy job but I hope to get it done in the next couple of weeks with the co-operation and trust of the neighbors."

Each household plans to share the total cost of 65,679 rupees ($629) for materials to build the pipeline, which will service the entire street. Everyone in the family chips in to do the digging and laying work, including women and children.

The majority of families are home-based workers who earn around 15,000 to 20,000 rupees ($143-$191)a month selling mainly embroidery and other cloth products at city markets.

With just a handful of local schools, most families cannot afford transport costs out of the slum and many young people work with their parents earning meager incomes from small businesses like weaving and embroidery.

'EVERYONE BENEFITS'

Residents don't just pay for the installation of the pipes, however, they also take responsibility for their maintenance.

Khan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that manholes are to be installed at 30 foot (nine meter) intervals along the street to ensure residents have easy access to connections and can also monitor and maintain their pipes themselves.

Last month, Shahadat Hussain, who lives on a street that installed its own sewerage line in 2003, collected 1,000 rupees from each household on his street to replace some damaged pipes.

Nevertheless, he believes that repair of infrastructure - and the construction of secondary and main sewerage lines - is a job that local authorities should take care of.

Hussein, 29, said the government should grant residents a lease which would provide some security against eviction in return for a small fee. This would encourage them to contribute to maintenance and cleaning in the long term.

Despite repeated requests, however, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), has failed to do this, he said.

"We urge the provincial government to grant a lease and at least provide basic amenities including installation of secondary and main sewerage lines," he said.

"Our homes and streets are flooded with sewage even after a light rain as there is no main line to flush it out."

RAPID GROWTH

According to OPP's Aleemuddin, the city authorities now have a responsibility to step in and support slum residents who have already taken on the DIY construction of internal sewer pipes for their streets.

The sanitation program in Orangi Town has prompted communities in 40 other slums in Sindh and Punjab provinces to install sewerage lines with technical help from the OPP, he said.

OPP believes the city should construct the secondary pipelines which collect sewage from several streets, as well as build and maintain the main trunk systems which collect and flush out sewage from entire neighborhoods.

Nazeer Lakhani, director of Katchi Abadies (shanty town housing), acknowledged that more work is needed but said the KMC has spent 515 million rupees ($4.93 million) to build 107 main and 34 secondary sewerage lines in Orangi Town.

"We know water supply and sanitation are essential for a healthy society and we are working on provision of these basic facilities to people of Orangi Town," he said.

For Javed, encouraging her community to work together and collaborate with the local government has given her a sense of optimism and empowerment.

"We have started feeling the positive impact of it, although our own sewer line is yet to be completed," she said.

"I personally feel empowered and encouraged by the work I helped to initiate to get rid of the wastewater forever."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
water & related utilities (trbc level 4)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fed up with no sewers, Pakistan's slum residents go DIY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For Sultana Javed, one of dozens of residents living without proper sanitation on her street in the Orangi Town slum, the final straw came when her toddler daughter fell into the soak pit where the family disposed of their waste.

# data[].attributes.headline
Character a Better Measure than Grade to Break the Cycle of Poverty

# data[].attributes.subject
Character a Better Measure than Grade to Break the Cycle of Poverty

# data[].attributes.body
Newsela - you choose the reading level.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Hiking the Appalachian Trail, and breaking poverty's grip

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teenagers from Philadelphia went on a long and tough hike along the mountainous Appalachian Trail, and learned something important about themselves.

# data[].attributes.body
Stretch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Highlights

Amid COVID-19, underprivileged girls faced major issues in accessing pads

Varanasi's Diksha & Deepika ensured pads to girls in need through WhatsApp

They also manufactured their own pads and distributed door-to-door

New Delhi: The pandemic has impacted lives of adolescent girls in many ways. Situation was considerably hard, for those girls who were from the underprivileged background. The nationwide lockdown imposed to prevent COVID-19 in the country, only made lives of these girls tougher. While, maximum focus of the relief work during pandemic was on providing food and medical support, sanitary pads was one basic necessity that could get much focus.

With schools being shut, distribution of sanitary pads from schools also came to halt compelling many girls to opt unhygienic methods during menstruation.

However, there were 2 social workers from Varanasi who introduced innovative ideas through mobile apps to extend helping hands and support to hundreds of adolescent girls from underprivileged background during pandemic.

Also Read: Here's How France, New Zealand And Scotland Are Aiming To Eliminate Period Poverty And What Can India Do

Deeksha Singh and Deepika Bhattacharya, who work in the slums of Varanasi city in collaboration with Child Rights and You (CRY)'s partner organisation - Dr Shambhunath Singh Research Foundation, became hope for many adolescent girls during their toughest times amid the pandemic.

As the underprivileged families were facing massive financial crisis during pandemic, buying sanitary pads for girls at home was the last thing to be thought about. This led to major mental stress for many girls in the slum areas where the duo worked.

Deeksha and Deepika not only distributed sanitary pads to the adolescent girls door to door amidst the fear of pandemic, but also worked vigorously on the adolescent health through a WhatsApp group called "Shaktipari Whatsapp Group". The members of the group were adolescent girls from the project area where they work.

While distributing pads door to door we realised these girls were going through a lot during pandemic. Especially, when it came to menstrual hygiene, their situation was heartbreaking. It took us years to sensitise the community and make girls and women aware of using sanitary pads in periods but disruption in the supply of pads compelled these girls to use unhygienic means, Diksha told NDTV.

Also, they were facing a lot of other issues and we realised it was important to connect with them on regular basis to get to know about their issues and finding solutions for them, shared Deepika and added,

Thus, we decided to connect with as much girls as we can through WhatsApp.

Also Read: How Did A Jharkhand District End Up Growing 5,000 Trees Through An Initiative To Promote Safe Use Of Sanitary Pads?
As they were in constant touch with the adolescent girls, they realised financial crisis was a major challenge and buying sanitary pads from market cannot be an affordable option for these girls.

This compelled Diksha and Deepika to think beyond their limitation and they decided to manufacture their own version of sanitary pad, that can be recycled.

We had a few samples of such sanitary pads made of cloth in stock. These pads were provided to us by CRY a year ago and only a few samples were left. We thoroughly analysed these samples to understand how they were made and decided to manufacture our own version of recyclable pads. We collected clean cotton cloths and other things that were needed to stitch pads and distributed it door to door during lockdown. Interestingly, we received good feedback from girls regarding the pads that we made, said Diksha.

However, not every child in their project area had mobile phone and internet. To bridge this gap, Diksha and Deepika started community mobilisation and convinced those people who had smartphones in the slums to give it to the girls who want to attend online classes for an hour so that their studies are not discontinued.
NDTV - Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign is an extension of the five-year-old Banega Swachh India initiative helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. It aims to spread awareness about critical health issues facing the country. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign highlights the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children to prevent maternal and child mortality, fight malnutrition, stunting, wasting, anaemia and disease prevention through vaccines. Importance of programmes like Public Distribution System (PDS), Mid-day Meal Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyan and the role of Aganwadis and ASHA workers are also covered. Only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and become a Swasth or healthy India. The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene.
Despite their family being concerned about their health amid the pandemic, these 2 young women decided to reach out to those in need ignoring the risk to their own health. Thus, changing the disaster into an opportunity. The sanitary pads are now being used and even made by many adolescents' girls by their own. Online counselling provided by them to young girls helped many adolescents to overcome psychological pressure.

World

India

State & District Details

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
International Women's Day 2021: Adolescent Girls In Varanasi Slums Overcome Lack Of Sanitary Pads During COVID-19 lockdown | Women's Day Special

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Highlights Amid COVID-19, underprivileged girls faced major issues in accessing pads Varanasi's Diksha & Deepika ensured pads to girls in need through WhatsApp They also manufactured their own pads and distributed door-to-door New Delhi: The pandemic has impacted lives of adolescent girls in many ways.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Protests in Lebanon continue over worsening poverty, political crisis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Protests in Lebanon continue over worsening poverty, political crisis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lebanese protesters have set up new roadblocks to vent anger over political inaction in the face of deepening poverty, but security forces managed to reopen some to traffic. Demonstrators on Tuesday again cut off some roads in the northern city of Tripoli and the eastern Bekaa Valley region, the state-run National News Agency reported.

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Are There Slums in the Philippines: Tackling Poverty with Social Housing

# data[].attributes.body
Stretch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Children playing feet away from open pools of raw sewage; drinking water pumped beside cracked pipes of untreated waste; human faeces flushed back into kitchen sinks and bathtubs whenever the rains come; people testing positive for hookworm, an intestinal parasite that thrives on extreme poverty.

These are the findings of a new study into endemic tropical diseases, not in places usually associated with them in the developing world of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, but in a corner of the richest nation on earth: Alabama.
Pittsburgh officials may have 'deflected' attention from lead-contaminated water
Scientists in Houston, Texas, have lifted the lid on one of America's darkest and deepest secrets: that hidden beneath fabulous wealth, the US tolerates poverty-related illness at levels comparable to the world's poorest countries. More than one in three people sampled in a poor area of Alabama tested positive for traces of hookworm, a gastrointestinal parasite that was thought to have been eradicated from the US decades ago.

The long-awaited findings, revealed by the Guardian for the first time, are a wake-up call for the world's only superpower as it grapples with growing inequality. Donald Trump has promised to "Make America Great Again" and tackle the nation's crumbling infrastructure, but he has said very little about enduring chronic poverty, particularly in the southern states.

The study, the first of its kind in modern times, was carried out by the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in conjunction with Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise (ACRE), a non-profit group seeking to address the root causes of poverty. In a survey of people living in Lowndes County, an area with a long history of racial discrimination and inequality, it found that 34% tested positive for genetic traces of Necator americanus.

The parasite, better known as hookworm, enters the body through the skin, usually through the soles of bare feet, and travels around the body until it attaches itself to the small intestine where it proceeds to suck the blood of its host. Over months or years it causes iron deficiency and anemia, weight loss, tiredness and impaired mental function, especially in children, helping to trap them into the poverty in which the disease flourishes.

Hookworm was rampant in the deep south of the US in the earlier 20th century, sapping the energy and educational achievements of both white and black kids and helping to create the stereotype of the lazy and lethargic southern redneck. As public health improved, most experts assumed it had disappeared altogether by the 1980s.

But the new study reveals that hookworm not only survives in communities of Americans lacking even basic sanitation, but does so on a breathtaking scale. None of the people included in the research had travelled outside the US, yet parasite exposure was found to be prevalent, as was shockingly inadequate waste treatment.

The peer-reviewed research paper, published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, focuses on Lowndes County, Alabama - the home state of the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and a landmark region in the history of the nation's civil rights movement. "Bloody Lowndes", the area was called in reference to the violent reaction of white residents towards attempts to undo racial segregation in the 1950s.

It was through this county that Martin Luther King led marchers from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 in search of voting rights for black citizens, More than half a century later, King's dream of what he called the "dignity of equality" remains elusive for many of the 11,000 residents of Lowndes County, 74% of whom are African American.

The average income is just $18,046 (£13,850) a year, and almost a third of the population live below the official US poverty line. The most elementary waste disposal infrastructure is often non-existent.

Some 73% of residents included in the Baylor survey reported that they had been exposed to raw sewage washing back into their homes as a result of faulty septic tanks or waste pipes becoming overwhelmed in torrential rains.

The Baylor study was inspired by Catherine Flowers, ACRE's founder, who encouraged the Houston scientists to carry out the review after she became concerned about the health consequences of having so many open sewers in her home county. "Hookworm is a 19th-century disease that should by now have been addressed, yet we are still struggling with it in the United States in the 21st century," she said.

"Our billionaire philanthropists like Bill Gates fund water treatment around the world, but they don't fund it here in the US because no one acknowledges that this level of poverty exists in the richest nation in the world."

Flowers took the Guardian on a tour of Lowndes County to witness the conditions in which hookworm continues to proliferate. One stop was at a group of mobile homes outside Fort Deposit that graphically illustrated the crisis.

An eight-year-old child was sitting on the stoop of one of the trailers. Below him a white pipe ran from his house, across the yard just a few feet away from a basketball hoop, and into a copse of pine and sweet gum trees.

The pipe was cracked in several places and stopped just inside the copse, barely 30ft from the house, dripping ooze into a viscous pool the color of oil. Directly above the sewage pool, a separate narrow-gauge pipe ran up to the house, which turned out to be the main channel carrying drinking water to the residents.

The open sewer was festooned with mosquitoes, and a long cordon of ants could be seen trailing along the waste pipe from the house. At the end of the pool nearest the house the treacly fluid was glistening in the dappled sunlight - a closer look revealed that it was actually moving, its human effluence heaving and churning with thousands of worms.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Ruby Dee Rudolph, 66, noticed her septic tank was slowly sinking unevenly into the ground. Photograph: Bob Miller/The Guardian

"This is the definition of 'Make America Great Again'," said Aaron Thigpen, 29, a community activist who assisted with the hookworm study. "This is the reality of how people are being forced to live."

Thigpen's cousins live in the trailer park, and he has talked to them about the perils of piping sewage from their homes and dumping it in the open just a few feet away. "They are disgusted about it, they're sick and tired of living like this, but there's no public help for them here and if you're earning $700 a month there's no way you can afford your own private sanitation."

He added that people were afraid to report the problems, given the spate of criminal prosecutions that were launched by Alabama state between 2002 and 2008 against residents who were open-piping sewage from their homes, unable to afford proper treatment systems. One grandmother was jailed over a weekend for failing to buy a septic tank that cost more than her entire annual income.

"People are scared. They don't like to speak out as they're worried the health department will come round and cause trouble," Thigpen said.

The challenge to places like Lowndes County is not to restore existing public infrastructure, as Trump has promised, because there is no public infrastructure here to begin with. Flowers estimates that 80% of the county is uncovered by any municipal sewerage system, and in its absence people are expected - and in some cases legally forced - to provide their own.

Even where individuals can afford up to $15,000 to install a septic tank - and very few can - the terrain is against them. Lowndes County is located within the "Black Belt", the southern sweep of loamy soil that is well suited to growing cotton and as a result spawned a multitude of plantations, each worked by a large enslaved population.

The same thing that made the land so good for cotton - its water-retaining properties - also makes it a hazard to the thousands of African Americans who still live on it today. When the rains come, the soil becomes saturated, overwhelming inadequate waste systems and providing a perfect breeding ground for hookworm.

Ruby Rudolph lives just beside the main Selma to Montgomery road where King led the protest walk. On the other side of the road there's a brown history placard to mark the spot where her grandmother, Rosie Steele, ran a campsite for the weary marchers.

After they moved on and the campsite was cleared, Rudolph said, her grandmother's grocery store was set on fire in an arson attack. She was 13 at the time, and can remember the flames leaping into the night sky.

Rudolph, now 66, does have her own septic tank at the back of her house, which she shows us in the sweltering 41C (105F) heat. But it doesn't function properly and when it rains the tank spills over, spreading raw waste all over the yard. "That's better than when it flushes back into the house, and I've had that too," she said.

She's been told a replacement system would cost her at least $12,000, which is beyond her means. She runs through her finances: she gets up at 4am every day to do an early shift at a Mapco convenience store, which brings in less than $1,200 a month. From that amount she has to pay $611 for her mortgage and there's the electricity bill that can be more than $300 a month when it's hot and the air conditioning is busy. There's not a lot left to put toward a new tank.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Perman Hardy, 58, stands with her grandson Carlos near the pipes that carry sewage from a relative's nearby trailer home into the woods, approximately 30ft from the back door. Photograph: Bob Miller/The Guardian

Perman Hardy, 58, lives in nearby Tyler in a collection of seven single-storey homes all occupied by members of her extended family. Only two of them have septic tanks, the rest just pipe raw waste into the surrounding woods and creeks.

Hardy is one of the lucky ones with a treatment system of her own, but like Rudolph's it is often overwhelmed in the rains with faeces washed back into her home. Last year the stench was so bad she had to vacate the property for two weeks over Christmas while it was professionally cleaned.

Hardy has traced her family back to slaves held on the Rudolph Bottom plantation about five miles away. The road that leads to the old plantation from her house is still called to this day by white neighbors "Nigger Foot Road", she said, though she and other African Americans call it Collerine Cutoff Road.

As a child, Hardy worked in the cotton fields after school and, mindful of that and her family's slave history, she's determined to see a better future for her grandchildren. "I don't want the same for my boys. But it's still a struggle. It's the 21st century and we shouldn't be struggling like we still are today."

Trump proposes scrapping Obama-era fracking rule on water pollution

The daily hardship faced by Hardy, Rudolph and fellow inhabitants of Lowndes County is reflected in the Baylor study's glaring statistic of 34% testing positive for hookworm. The sample size was low - 67 people participated with 55 giving stool samples, all of whom were African American - but the results are so stark that the Houston scientists now want to conduct a larger survey across the region.

"We now need to find how widespread hookworm is across the US," said Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, who led the research team along with Rojelio Mejia. Hotez, who has estimated that as many as 12 million Americans could be suffering from neglected tropical diseases in poor parts of the south and midwest, told the Guardian the results were a wake-up call for the nation.

"This is the inconvenient truth that nobody in America wants to talk about," he said. "These people live in the southern United States, and nobody seems to care; they are poor, and nobody seems to care; and more often than not they are people of color, and nobody seems to care."
Topics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hookworm, a disease of extreme poverty, is thriving in the US south. Why?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Children playing feet away from open pools of raw sewage; drinking water pumped beside cracked pipes of untreated waste; human faeces flushed back into kitchen sinks and bathtubs whenever the rains come; people testing positive for hookworm, an intestinal parasite that thrives on extreme poverty.

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
They have been participating in an international conference in Doha, Qatar, focused on how best to support their development and future graduation from the LDC group.
"In the 1970s, when Nepal was first included in the UN list of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), my parents worked as porters carrying food and other items 68 kilometres from the country's only highway to their district of Arghakhanchi.

Back then, people lived on an average annual per capita income of $70 and more than 60 per cent of the population lived in hunger and abject poverty.

Up until the 1990s, my parents could not feed us a full meal a day; and I still vividly remember queueing up at the Sarkari Khaddya Godam - the government food warehouse- to buy subsidized food.

Chasing development aspirations

Fifty years later, the situation in the country is very different. In 2021, Nepal qualified to graduate from the category of "Least Developed Country" having, for the third time, met the threshold levels on two out of three indicators: the Human Asset Index and the Economic Vulnerability Index, which assess the country's health, education, and economy's exposure to natural shocks such as drought, natural disaster, and instability in agricultural production.

Nepal's achievements go well beyond meeting these official thresholds. In 2020, poverty declined to 17 per cent, and in 2022, the level of hunger (assessed by the Global Hunger Index) was reduced from severe to moderate. Improvements to roads and infrastructure mean that rural parts of the country are now better connected.

On issues of gender equality and health, Nepal has also made significant strides, successfully achieving gender parity in school enrolment target in 2019 and significantly reducing under-five mortality to 28 deaths per 1000.

Economic, security and climate challenges

Reaching these milestones has not been easy, especially for a country which endured a decade long armed conflict from 1996-2006 and experienced a challenging peace-building process in the aftermath. In 2015, Nepal also suffered from the tragic 7.8 magnitude earthquake that claimed over 9,000 lives and lowered GDP growth by over 1.5 percentage points from an estimate of 4.6 per cent that year.

Not long after I joined the UN in Nepal in 2010 as a development analyst, the Fourth UN Conference on LDCs was held in Istanbul, marking an important step in Nepal's long path towards LDC graduation.

With the goal of implementing the 'Istanbul Programme of Action', Nepal set out its own 12th national plan to prioritize LDC graduation. Three years later, under the 15th plan, 2024 was set out as the hard deadline for Nepal's graduation, which was delayed to 2026 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the economist at the UN Resident Coordinator's Office (RCO) in Nepal, a key part of my role is to support the Government and other development partners prepare for this critical transition. What impact will it have on communities across the country? How can we work together to mitigate any risks? These are some of the questions which have guided my work in the RCO over the past three years.

In the short term, the graduation is likely to keep Nepal's economy stable. In the longer term however, there are many challenges including supply side constraints of goods, inadequate structural transformation, and the loss of flexibility in promoting Micro, Small and Medium enterprises, (MSMEs) for which we are already supporting the national authorities.

Harnessing potential of Nepal's 'infant' enterprises

Together with my colleagues from the Resident Coordinator's Office we have provided technical support to the Government of Nepal as they formulate the Smooth Transition Strategy (STS). This strategy focuses on accelerating economic transformation by bringing in foreign direct investment, expanding revenue base, accessing development finance, particularly climate finance, and catalyzing private investment.

Engaging with neighbouring LDCs and drawing on UN development system expertise from the country, regional, and global level, has been a key part of the smooth transition process.

Preparing Nepal for this transition requires a broad spectrum of UN support; which is why the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2023-2027) has adopted LDC graduation and inclusive economic transformation as one of the central, cross-cutting pillars to guide the activities of the entire UN system in the country.

All these efforts will help create jobs and enhance the ability of local governments to deliver services and promote Nepal's many Micro, Small and Medium sized enterprises, which make up almost 99 per cent of enterprises in the country. If connected to regional value chains, these MSMEs, or 'infant industries', many of which are women led, have huge potential to propel progress on the SDGs and Nepal's own development goals.

Beyond Doha

The UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal, Hanaa Singer, along with other government officials, and development partners attended the 5th UN Conference on LDCs in Doha to present the country's success in crossing the LDC graduation threshold.

As we approach the finish line and prepare to transition away from the status of one of the world's Least Developed Countries, we must embrace the added responsibility of ensuring irreversible and sustainable graduation, and work together to ensure that no parent ever struggles to feed their family or send their children to school the way my parents, and many others from my generation once did.

This is a proud moment for Nepal, and a proud moment for me personally. Our graduation sends a positive message to the world that Nepal is ready for its next chapter."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
First Person: 'Nepal is ready for its next chapter'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nepal is due to graduate from its current status, as one of the world's least developed countries, in 2026. Subhash Nepali, an economist in the UN Resident Coordinator's Office in Nepal, has seen the economic progress made in the country, where he was born and raised.

# data[].attributes.body
STRETCH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Setting standards: Why updating poverty lines matters in East Asia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The World Bank updated its global poverty lines last month and the number of poor is now significantly different in certain countries and regions. For the EAP region, this changes our view of the number of people who fall below thresholds for middle-income countries.

# data[].attributes.headline
High Cost of Living in Singapore Hits the Poor Hard

# data[].attributes.subject
High Cost of Living in Singapore Hits the Poor Hard

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In South East Asia you don't get much more of a staple food than chicken rice. Found in almost every food court and hawker centre, it is considered one of Singapore's national dishes.

Daniel Tan, who owns six chicken rice stalls, has previously charged $2.20 (£1.60) for a small portion. But Covid has seen the cost of his ingredients rise sharply.

The price of chicken has gone up by 50% and vegetable costs have more than doubled since January 2020, he says.

"We've been absorbing the costs for a significant period of time," he tells me as we meet at one of his OK Chicken Rice stalls in the north of Singapore.

"When the pandemic hit our first thought was this was a short-term emergency - six months, maybe a year - so we held [prices] for as long as we can because we were hoping for the whole thing to be over."

But when his electricity bills also jumped, Mr Tan decided it was time to raise prices. "A thousand dollar electrical bill for a chicken rice store really is not sustainable," he says.

"If I go on any further, either my staff are not paid or I have to close down some stores and that's not what we want to do."

Due to border closures and new employment regulations, Mr Tan has faced staff shortages and higher salaries, which all feed into rising costs for his business.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says global food prices rose 28% in 2021.

"The last time food prices were this high was in 2011, when policymakers were actually warning about a global food crisis," says Dr Abdul Abiad of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

These latest price rises are due to higher energy costs, which affect food and fertiliser production, with global supply chain issues compounding the problem.

Even in a wealthy nation like Singapore, it means that the number of families seeking help has increased.

"What we have seen when we make the door-to-door deliveries is that young families [with] both husband and wife working a part-time job or in the gig economy - these were the families that got impacted when Covid hit and all the part-time work dried up," says Nichol Ng, co-founder of Food Bank Singapore.

It is not just the poorest 10% of the population who now need help, she says: "It has slowly crept to maybe 20% of the population including middle income families that might not even know where to get help in the first place."

And it is also not just higher food prices that are affecting those in need. "Due to Covid, everybody's self-awareness about looking after themselves in terms of hygiene has increased," says Ms Ng.

But higher palm oil prices mean that shampoos, hand soaps and sanitisers have also become a lot more expensive.

"Up to 20% of our requests thus far, especially starting from the second half of last year, has been pivoting towards personal hygiene products," she adds.

Ms Ng is also concerned that the current wave of inflation does not seem to be temporary. "In the past, at certain times of the year, you might see these price surges but it seems that this inflation is going to be persistent - and none of us really have that crystal ball to understand when it is going to end," she says.

Elsewhere in the region the impact of higher prices is even more severe. The latest FAO report shows more than 375 million people in Asia faced hunger in 2020, an increase of 54 million from the previous year.

In 2020, the Global Food Banking Network saw the number of people needing help increase by more than 130% to 40m, with half of them living in Asia.

This is despite the fact that food price increases in Asia have been more muted than in the US or Europe, where inflation has soared to levels not seen in decades.

There are several reasons for this, including a good rice harvest in 2021, says the ADB's Dr Abiad. While maize prices rose 44% last year and wheat by 31% , rice prices dropped 4% . "So rice being the main staple in many Asian economies contributed to a food price inflation being lower in the region," he says.

Asian nations also produce a lot of their own food, which has been sold in domestic markets rather than being exported. Governments have also been working to ensure that food supplies have been stable, says Dr Abiad.

In the Philippines, for example, liberalisation of rice imports has allowed the supply of rice to improve which has kept prices low.

Meanwhile, China has been stockpiling various important food products, which has resulted in it bucking the trend, with the country's food prices falling in 2021.

But it has also led to criticism that the world's second biggest economy, which accounts for 20% of global population, is hoarding supplies as it is estimated to hold 69% of the world's corn reserves, 60% of its rice and 51% of its wheat by mid-2022, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Singapore imports the majority of its foodstuffs, but so far big supermarket chains like NTUC FairPrice have decided not to pass on higher prices to consumers.

To keep the prices of key products stable, the firm says it is employing various strategies including "stockpiling of daily essentials, forward buying and diversifying our import sources to over 100 countries".

NTUC FairPrice also has more than 2,000 own-brand products such as rice, oil, toiletries and cleaning products that it says are at least 10% cheaper than comparable popular brands.

Mr Tan of OK Chicken Rice, who also owns three mini supermarkets, says smaller retailers tend to take their cue from larger rivals when pricing goods.

"They act like a central bank to the rest of the grocery players in Singapore. The good thing about it is that inflation doesn't spike up as much during a crisis but the bad side effect is that entrepreneurship is stifled and only semi-government players can survive," he says.

"The question is, after the whole thing is over how many smaller players are left?" asks Mr Tan.

Global food prices are expected to remain high this year and the FAO's David Dawe says this is of concern for Asian governments because price hikes have not yet worked their way through the system.

"If global prices continue to rise, there will be an impact, especially for lower income families who spend bigger proportion of their income on food."

Economists like Mr Dawe and Dr Abiad remain optimistic that Asian countries will continue to be shielded from double-digit food inflation.

But for those on the ground, like Mr Tan and Ms Ng, the issue feels more acute. They wonder whether higher prices, rather than being transitory, will linger on just as the pandemic has.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How the high cost of living is hitting Singapore's poor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Asia's rising food costs are hitting the region's poor, despite the fall in rice prices in 2021.

# data[].attributes.headline
World Bank Says Poverty Goals won't be met by 2030

# data[].attributes.subject
World Bank Says Poverty Goals won't be met by 2030

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
World Bank says goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 unlikely to be met

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Shocks related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine mean the world is unlikely to meet a longstanding goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030, the World Bank said in a new report released on Wednesday.

# data[].attributes.body
JR/STRETCH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Richer childhood friends boost future income, Facebook data shows

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An analysis of 21 billion Facebook friendships shows that children from poorer homes are likely to earn more later in life if they grow up in areas where they can become friends with wealthier children.

# data[].attributes.body
STRETCH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"We know what can end poverty. But how come poverty never diminish?" - was the reply I received from my friend, Harry, who works as a gig worker in a city in Scotland when we were discussing about poverty. The reason I specify his identity is because it is significant to what I am about to elaborate.

Indonesia's rural poverty has always been higher than urban poverty. In September 2019, urban and rural poverty hit 9.86 million and 14.93 million, respectively. But when the pandemic struck, it has plunged more households into poverty. As of March 2020, urban and rural poverty were 11.16 million and 15.26 million, respectively.

The spike in rural poverty was not as high as urban poverty. Does this mean the urban communities are more prone to external shocks? Maybe. But we should dig deeper, deeper, and deeper.

Based on Statistics Indonesia (BPS) database, there is not much disparity between urban and rural areas in terms of bi-annual poverty trends. Even though poverty is much higher in Indonesian villages than in cities, the pace is quite similar. So, what makes March 2020 different? Both areas were hit by the same pandemic, but why did the spike in urban poverty quadruple the rise in rural poverty?

There might be a lot of plausible reasons behind this, but perhaps we should examine what has been sitting in front of our faces: the unequal geography of the gig economy in Indonesia, which, in the case of COVID-19, protects rural areas from more poverty cases.

The gig economy is mainly concentrated in urban areas, where people are no longer in the process of catching up - they are already there. The urban gig workers, which dominated the roughly 5 percent of total gig workers in Indonesia, were among the main recipients of negative effects of COVID-19.

On the other hand, Indonesia still has much homework to do for its villages. The needs to improve infrastructures, good quality of education, access to health services - which can pave the way to ending poverty. The slow progress in meeting these needs lead to an automatic rejection to - or slow absorption of - innovations in terms of employment or economic activities. The low concentration of the gig economy in rural areas correspond to a small effect of COVID-19 on rural households whose incomes are slightly above the poverty line.

So, what does this figure tell us about the nature of the gig economy and poverty in Indonesia? The answers are threefold.

First, gig economy work in Indonesia is extremely fragile - it exposes its workers to risks of living in poverty after giving them a taste of heaven for a split-second. Gig workers can be independent contractors or contract firm workers at big firms, other forms of temporary workers, or online platform workers. The new poor in urban Indonesia mainly came from online platform workers.

Digital labor platforms, such as ride-hailing services, were supposed to bring more job opportunities to low-income families. And that was at least what we thought what happened. Nevertheless, by seeing the concentration of digital innovation, it looks as if profit always outweighs any social motive.

Second, the disproportionate level of the gig economy between rural and urban Indonesia signifies the low level of innovation in rural Indonesia. Although in the case of COVID-19, the lack of innovation acted as a buffer against poverty, it might also be the reason behind rural Indonesia's slow progress in reducing poverty. Innovation has a blank face.

Whether it turns out to be good or bad, it depends on how we make use of it. Therefore, before intensifying innovation in rural areas, the government ought to design a form of social protection policy for all kinds of gig laborers.

This is our life now. The life we have prior to digital innovation has become a history. We can study it, but we no longer live in that period.

Third, it is time to put an end to stigmatization against rural communities. That they are backward, have low ability to succeed, that rural is poor. Regardless of which province or which country it is located, it seems as if rural is associated with a third-world nation. Looking at the unequal geography of the gig economy, another reason why innovative project rarely wants to target rural areas is because of these prejudices.

Whether we want it or not, temporary and remote workings are becoming the new normal. It will eventually reach all Indonesian villages. However, even if we already know what is going to happen, there is no harm in preparing an elaborate plan. Because odds are, digital innovation in rural areas will intensify inequality of income and deepen poverty.

Local governments in rural areas, while must promote innovation, should also prepare the buffers which will protect gig workers from economic turbulence and smoothen the transition to the gig economy.

To begin with, local governments must build the foundation of knowledge of employment innovation. This includes creating a mechanism which will bring equality between gig and non-gig workers, such as a shared responsibility of social protection between rural governments and the employers if the workers come from poor or low-income families.

Harry's responses, although not entirely accurate, bear some truth inside. We know that education is the key to poverty eradication and access to finance can expand people's mobility and improve their livelihood.

Policymakers know about all these, yet the reason why poverty rate remains high is that the policymakers tend to be forgetful in adapting poverty alleviation policies to contemporary forms of livelihood. Accurate poverty-targeting strategies are not merely about serving those who live below the poverty line; they are about understanding poverty. And the gig economy is one of the many faces of poverty.

The urban gig workers, which dominated the roughly 5 percent of total gig workers in Indonesia, were among the main recipients of negative effects of COVID-19.

***
PhD candidate at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The disparity of gig economy and rural-urban poverty

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The gig economy is mainly concentrated in urban areas, where people are no longer in the process of catching up - they are already there. The urban gig workers, which dominated the roughly 5 percent of total gig workers in Indonesia, were among the main recipients of negative effects of COVID-19.

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT/STRETCH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
At least two low-income single mothers from Aware's Support, Housing and Enablement (S.H.E.) Project experienced this problem. When they applied for their children to attend childcare centres near them, they were placed on year-long waiting lists. Without anyone else to care for their children, they had no choice but to delay seeking employment.

Making high-quality pre-school accessible would be crucial in increasing mothers' labour force participation, as they would not have to worry about their children's safety and well-being when at work.

Additionally, studies have shown that high-quality early childhood education can benefit children in their skill acquisition, improve quality of maternal care, and protect against the development of behavioural problems in children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

We are glad that the KidStart programme provides low-income families with support for child development, such as organising playgroup sessions and helping with pre-school enrolment, in selected neighbourhoods. We hope that the programme can be expanded to be available nationwide so that more families can access it.

We also echo Ms Lam's call to make pre-school free for lower-income households. Access to high-quality childcare services should be a right of every child.

Meanwhile, to address the current shortage of childcare vacancies, we recommend allowing lower-income families to access non-subsidised childcare centres (including private childcare centres) for free until 2023, when an additional 10,000 new full-day pre-school places will be developed. This scheme could be limited to those who have tried but failed to enrol in subsidised childcare, and therefore would be forced to enrol their children into more expensive centres.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Grant low-income families greater access to non-subsidised pre-schools, early childhood education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This letter was originally published in The Straits Times on 29 July 2022. We agree with Ms Lam Yin Yin that pre-school should be made mandatory and provided free for those who are unable to afford it (Consider mandatory pre-school, and make it free for vulnerable children, July 25).

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT/STRETCH

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.headline
Period Poverty and what Governments are doing to help

# data[].attributes.subject
Period Poverty and what Governments are doing to help

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Women's Health

Governments are increasingly taking action to tackle period poverty and pain - but more can be done. Image: UNICEF/South Sudan/2018/Chol

Senior Writer, Formative Content

Stay up to date:

Women's Health

Follow

Better sanitation facilities in schools would help tackle period poverty in low-income countries. Image: WHO/UNICEF

Discover

What's the World Economic Forum doing about the gender gap?

Show more

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The unsanitary truth about period poverty - and how governments are fighting back

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Women's Health Governments are increasingly taking action to tackle period poverty and pain - but more can be done. Image: UNICEF/South Sudan/2018/Chol Senior Writer, Formative Content Stay up to date: Women's Health Follow Better sanitation facilities in schools would help tackle period poverty in low-income countries.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Buenos Aires: Over 700,000 live in Argentina's biggest slums

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Argentinian government is trying to integrate Buenos Aires' teeming slums into the rest of the city.

# data[].attributes.headline
Girls Code in India to Tackle Challenges of Slum Living 

# data[].attributes.subject
Girls Code in India to Tackle Challenges of Slum Living 

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT/STRETCH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Girls code in India to tackle challenges of slum living

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Adolescent girls in the Mumbai slum of Dharavi are battling the daily challenges they face, one mobile app at a time.

# data[].attributes.body
Stretch/ Long Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chengeto Tapfuma, 59, boils water for tea outside the temporary shack she now shares with her four grandchildren. Their home in Budiriro 5, a suburb of Harare, was demolished by bulldozers in December after a court ruled that the residents had built their homes here illegally [Derick Matsengarwodzi/Al Jazeera]

Harare, Zimbabwe - Chengeto Tapfuma, 59, has become accustomed to pain and loss.

Three years ago, she lost her only daughter after a long illness and became the sole provider for her four grandchildren, who are now aged between eight and 13.

The oldest will start secondary school in Harare's Budiriro suburb, close to where they live, next year.

While she was still mourning her daughter's death, her two-roomed cottage, the place she has called home for the past 10 years, was levelled after being declared an "illegal structure", leaving her young family homeless.

As a bulldozer roared into the sprouting suburb on December 8, residents were ordered from their homes with the few possessions they could grab, and then the demolitions began.

Together with 134 other households in Budiriro 5, an extension of Harare's Budiriro suburb which has grown up over the past 10 years as people have built informal structures there, they stood in the heavy rain and watched as their homes were pulled down.

Like councils in other urban areas of Zimbabwe, Harare City Council is facing a rise in illegal settlements which have emerged as powerful businessmen known as land barons have parcelled out land without proper planning and approval.

While many legal housing cooperatives, which are approved and registered by city councils, do buy land in order to help local people build homes, some land barons have set up illegal housing associations and have illegally sold land they do not own to unsuspecting residents.

As a result, Harare City Council has taken legal action to deal with the malpractice, targeting more than 20 housing cooperatives it says are operating illegally.

"Due to the rampant illegal occupation on open spaces of land by land barons in Harare, the Harare City Council took illegal occupants of such land to court," the minister of local government, July Moyo, said on December 16, one week after the demolitions in Budiriro 5. "To date, Harare City Council has secured 23 court rulings in their favour, and 22 are yet to be executed."

The Budiriro 5 demolition was the first of these 23 orders to be executed and the casualties are the local residents, who say they believed they had bought their land plots in good faith from a legitimate housing association.

Waiting in vain and in the rain

After the demolition gang departed Budiriro 5, mountains of crumbling brickwork and rubble remained, a reminder of more than 10 years of investment and sweat by the homeowners gone to waste in an instant. With her grandchildren wailing in the rain, clinging to her arms and legs, Chengeto says the agony of losing her daughter came right back to her.

Her pain and frustration are evident. "It seems like a vital organ was forcibly extracted from my fragile body," she says. "Speaking to anyone, even you journalists, is helpless because nobody is willing to listen and help us anyway."

After the demolition of her home, Chengeto managed to put up a small shack on the site, but all of her personal possessions were lost when the bulldozers came.

At night, Chengeto and her grandchildren shelter in the shack. But when the rain is too heavy, the family tries to stay with relatives in the area. Meals most days are donated by well-wishers.

Feeding a fire to boil water for tea, Chengeto says, "The government promised to bring us food and tents to shelter us, but they haven't come back yet. We have nothing to feed the children, after everything was damaged by the rain.

"We have nowhere else to go, this is our home."

Game of thrones

Chengeto's life - and the lives of her neighbours - has been thrown into chaos because of a dispute over ownership of the land on which their homes were built.

Residents say they bought their plots of land from Tembwe Housing Cooperative in 2010, making them the lawful owners. Members of the cooperative have paid monthly subscriptions for their plots; in total, the 134 members of Tembwe Housing Cooperative say they have each contributed $3,600 since 2010. It is a large sum considering that many families here earn about $50 per month.

They say that Tembwe Housing Cooperative, whose name is derived from the armed struggle against British colonial rule, which ended in 1980, told them it had acquired the land lawfully from the council.

But Harare City Council claims it did not sell the land to Tembwe Housing Cooperative and instead, it announced in 2015 that it intended to sell the land to another cooperative - Events Housing. The resulting dispute has been raging ever since.

In a December 16 statement following the demolitions, July Moyo, the local government minister, said, "While it is a fact that Events Housing Cooperative was in the process of being allocated the said piece of land, Tembwe Housing Cooperative invaded the land resulting in the Harare City Council and the two cooperatives dragging each other to court.

"The occupations are also championed by individuals who are seeking to profiteer from the ordinary peoples' quest for land and housing. These land barons are causing chaos and frustrating orderly development in Harare."

The residents do not agree with this version of events. Jennifer Mtami, 31, a mother of five who has been displaced by the demolitions, says, "We were told by both the city council and the government department that registers cooperatives that our cooperative was legally registered with the government. Every member contributed US$30 per month as subscription fees, and we wanted development to take place. We got water connection that was inspected by the city council."

Land disputes between cooperatives or with the city council regarding boundaries and proper use of an area are not uncommon, particularly where land is of high quality.

Unlike other wetlands in the area - areas where water covers the soil, or is present at or near its surface - this portion of land has attracted a lot of interest from rival developers because of the good quality of its soil, and its suitability for building and habitation. Other wetlands which have been occupied across Harare and neighbouring towns have, by contrast, been frequently flooded.

A 2019 inquiry commissioned by President Emmerson Mnangagwa into the sale of state land by land barons and the city councils in and around urban areas since 2005 observed that "land was either invaded by home seekers, invaded by war veterans for agricultural purposes, which subsequently morphed into urban settlements, or allocation to cooperatives, trusts and land developers by the responsible ministry, who pocketed proceeds".

The report noted, "Aspiring or sitting Members of Parliament created new urban settlements as a way of mobilising political support, and use of names of top ruling party leadership to exert undue influence on government institutions and processes.

"Housing development has occurred on unplanned areas such as wetlands, under power lines, on top of sewer lines or sites designated for schools and clinics."

Who is to blame?

Further complicating the dispute over Budiriro 5, the opposition-controlled Harare City Council, which claims ownership of the land, has denied that it is responsible for bulldozing the houses there. Instead, it blames the ZANU-PF government.

Hostilities between opposition-controlled city councils and the central government date back to the 2000 elections when the new main opposition Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) won an unprecedented 57 parliamentary seats in mainly urban areas, a record for the MDC since independence in 1980.

Currently, the MDC Alliance (a grouping of opposition parties which includes the original MDC) controls 28 of the country's 32 municipalities in towns and cities, while the governing party has much greater support in rural areas, and exists in urban areas primarily as the opposition.

The resulting political feud between the governing ZANU-PF and the MDC Alliance over control of urban councils has caused upheaval for common residents.

The MDC Alliance, in particular, complains about interference from the governing party over the running of council business, resulting in disruption of water and refuse collection services.

The MDC Alliance also says it has inherited chaotic services, inefficient administration systems and a scourge of land barons protected through their political links.

Neither side will officially take responsibility for ordering the demolition of people's homes and the dispute over who exactly is to blame continues on social media channels.

On the day of the Budiriro 5 demolitions, December 8, Information Permanent Secretary Nick Mangwana tweeted: "I am told @cohsunshinecity [the Twitter handle belonging to the City of Harare Council] is going to demolish 134 houses under Events Housing Cooperative in Budiriro. They obtained court order to carry out the demolitions."

Nelson Chamisa, the main MDC Alliance opposition leader, denied his party was to blame. "The heartless and cruel demolitions of citizens' homes is a violation of the dignity and security of persons," he told the media two days after visiting the affected residents. "This command politics based on iron-fisted governance style must be resisted by us all. Those responsible please stop it."

Harare City Council Mayor Jacob Mafume did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment.

In previous statements, however, he has stated that residents will be given the chance to prove ownership of land if they can do so. On December 10, he wrote on Twitter: "I have asked the officials to compile the court orders that are there advertise them on all platforms. Those with a legal basis be allowed to prove. Need to be humane always in Covid-19 times. In the meantime, we hold in abeyance all processes.

"I am sorry for the pain that have been caused to the victims who have been victimized twice. Land barons should be brought to account first. We now have a humanitarian crisis which should have been foreseeable. We need to show empathy in this hard times."

'We have nowhere to go'

Martha Samanga, 43, is one resident of Budiriro 5 who has not yet lost her home. However, she says, the bulldozers could be back at any time. "Ten years since the suburb started being built, we are now called illegal residents by the city council and the court but this is not a wetland compared to some areas in Budiriro [which are waterlogged and not fit for building]," says Martha. "They promised to return and destroy the rest of the homes, including mine, and we are still waiting for them."

At least Martha still has a home, unlike Vimbiso Farasi, 41, and her three children, for whom every day is a struggle, sleeping in the rain in temporary shelters.

"I have three young children, and we have nowhere to go," she says. "We built this temporary structure, but it is not safe for my family."

The met department has forecast more rain in the coming days.

The residents of Budiriro 5 are yet to meet the relevant authorities from the council to discuss the way forward. The government has suggested relocating them to an open ground, far from Budiriro 5. The proposed area is still within Harare, but, while close to shops and schools, has no running water.

"The authorities don't want to come and address us. They must come and meet us, and tell us the way forward," says James Chimeramombe, 46, a now homeless self-employed father of six.

History of corruption

Opposition and ruling party politicians, councillors and officials have been among those who have pounced on vacant land, parcelling it up and dividing it among themselves, or selling it on illegally to home seekers, even land located on top of sewer lines and other reserved amenities on which it is illegal to build.

In a bid to clean up such corruption in urban areas, the late opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, led a purge of corrupt councillors in 2010. But the rot had already set in.

A November 2020 report by Tabani Mpofu, head of the Special Anti-Corruption Unit (SACU) in the office of the president, singled out city councillors. It said: "Corruption has a direct and adverse effect on the society within which it is practised. There is no better illustration of this fact than the dire circumstances that residents of Harare and other urban centres find themselves in.

"Service delivery in Harare has deteriorated to such an extent that garbage collection is almost non-existent in most suburbs with many urban centres going for decades without water," the SACU report added.

In 2005, just as winter began, nearly 700,000 citizens of Zimbabwe were rendered homeless and destitute when then-President Robert Mugabe demolished houses deemed as slums in a campaign said to be targeting illegal housing and commercial activities in a bid to reduce the spread of infectious diseases.

Nearly 2.4 million people were indirectly affected. The directive was viewed by the MDC opposition as retribution towards urban voters for electing them into power in their areas. The United Nations called the episode a "humanitarian catastrophe".

Voices of defiance

As the 2023 general elections draw closer, residents of Harare suburbs like Martha, Chengeto and James anticipate that politicians will flood the area, as usual, canvassing for votes. With the majority of their identification particulars destroyed by rain during the demolitions, their lives are in disarray, though residents of the area are confident they will rise again if they get assistance from charities and government.

"We need assistance urgently to get identification documents for us and our children because they were destroyed by the rain," says Jennifer Mtami, 31, a mother and one of the displaced residents of Budiriro 5.

The residents say they are not going anywhere; that they just want to restart their lives.

"We are ready to rebuild but we are afraid the homes will be destroyed again and bring others in our place," Chengeto says. "Corruption is ruining our lives because we were here for the past 10 years, and they should have sorted the area and given us the first priority. We are prepared to pay the council whatever they want for the land."

Meanwhile, the cabinet has directed the demolitions to stop, for now, until the rainy season is over, by around March.

The word Budiriro means "prosperity" in the prevalent Shona vernacular, but for the affected residents, their neighbourhood has brought them very far from that.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bulldozed: The Zimbabweans losing their homes to a land dispute

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Harare, Zimbabwe - Chengeto Tapfuma, 59, has become accustomed to pain and loss. Three years ago, she lost her only daughter after a long illness and became the sole provider for her four grandchildren, who are now aged between eight and 13.

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT/STRETCH

# data[].attributes.body
JUST RIGHT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Without safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, women and girls are more vulnerable to abuse, attack and ill-health, affecting their ability to study, work and live in dignity. Improvements to WASH at home, school, work and in public spaces support gender equity. Women and girls must play a central role in designing and implementing solutions, so that services respond to their specific needs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Without safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, women and girls are more vulnerable to abuse, attack and ill-health, affecting their ability to study, work and live in dignity. Improvements to WASH at home, school, work and in public spaces support gender equity.

# data[].attributes.headline
Child Tax Credit to reduce child poverty

# data[].attributes.subject
Child Tax Credit to reduce child poverty

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Which country gives the most cash for children? - BBC News