Last Wednesday, October 5th, was World Teachers Day, initially recognized by UNESCO. While I will assume that many people did not do too much to celebrate, coincidentally I happened to attend a conference on international education. Foundation for Social Change hosted the Global Conference for Social Change here in New York City, and Wednesday’s theme …
Category: Economic Development
Sep 30
Are Some Diseases Just Not Sexy Enough?
Anyone having read aid literature is familiar with the stories about underfunded and overcrowded disease clinics throughout Africa. Where patients don’t have the means to pay for treatments, and often medications are in too short supply. These grueling stories tug at the heartstrings of foreign donors, and because they are so far removed from a …
Sep 30
Using the Tourism Industry to Benefit Youth
Today I thought I would talk to you about an interesting twist on responsible tourism that I stumbled upon: the Youth Career Initiative (YCI). The YCI was launched in 1995 in Bangkok as part of a community initiative by the Pan Pacific Hotels Group, and was intended to “give back” to society by teaching disadvantaged …
Sep 27
The Upcoming Elections in DRC, not looking good
On November 28th 2011 the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is set to hold their next Presidential elections, and despite having ten candidates vying for the position, current President Joseph Kabila is set firmly as the front-runner. Kabila has been in office since 2001 after his father Laurent-Désiré Kabila was assassinated. The platform that Kabila …
Sep 22
Unknown and Unwanted
What if your home was no longer yours? What if you were a guest in a place you once called your own? As I prepared for a fact-finding trip to Colombia in May 2010, I tried to do my homework. I looked up demographic and country data, information on the people I was meeting with …
Sep 22
Arab Spring Economics
It’s officially fall now, which means the Arab Spring has now entered its third season, and, unfortunately, the economic situation that partially contributed to the uprisings in many of the countries has not improved at all. In many cases it is even getting worse. Institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the European Investment Bank, …
Sep 22
Social Good Summit Recap – Day 3
Once again day three of the summit brought amazing stories, ideas and statistics from around the globe. The crowd size is smaller, but the speakers are no less interesting or engaging. Key Takeaway – Big Ideas, Big Challenges and a Need for Collaboration and New Strategies The issues of child and maternal health were once …
Sep 20
Migración rural en México
Read this post in English Se calcula que en México, alrededor del 50% de la población es urbana. Desde 1940, la población urbana empezó a crecer exponencialmente porque hubo una falta de apoyo a la población rural. En los últimos 50 años, han habido decisiones económicas y políticas que han cambiado la distribución de la …
Sep 16
Penang’s Economic Revivial
The state of Penang, Malaysia, has stumbled upon an interesting economic growth device: hospitals. The region boasts numerous private hospitals and those hospitals draw an impressive number of medical tourists each year, which boosts Penang’s economy, as well as Malaysia’s as a whole. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, medical tourists are pretty …
Sep 09
Country Over Party
As a college senior, Areeba’s latest post really resonated with me. My friends and I, at the cusp of graduation, are about to get thrown to the wolves. Hundreds of thousands of us will be vying for jobs with much fewer available positions. Some of us will hide ourselves in grad schools, some may take …