Feb 24

Opposing Equality: A Cross Comparison

In 2008, a video of Saudi women’s rights activist Wajeha al-Huweidar driving sent ripples through the internet community. The video was actually done as a protest ofthe Saudi Arabian ban on women driving. She was later arrested during a separate protest when she attempted to cross into Bahrain without the express permission of her legal guardian.

Women’s rights, or lack thereof, in Saudi Arabia are so infamous that there is an entire Wikipedia page devoted to them. Commonly referred to as Gender Apartheid, the international community is critical of Saudi Arabia’s status as a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The “My Guardian Knows What’s Best for Me” (no link available because no website is available) campaign rose up as an express opposition to al-Huweidar, and is designed to refute the idea that men and women are equal, and stop the liberalization and Westernization of Saudi laws and customs. Examined extensively in an article from the New York Times last year, this division in women’s organizing in Saudi Arabia goes unseen by most of the international community because of the strict censorship.

Conservative women’s organizations have historically sprung from inherently feminist Continue reading

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Feb 23

Dharavi – Beyond the Slum

Poverty and Economic Development in Asia’s Largest Slum.

What is it about slum areas that intrigue people? Is it the constricted spaces that some call home while others call hell? Or the vibrant colors that fill the narrow alleys andshops? Slums have always had a certain aura that surrounds them, which makes people take a second glance. Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, is host to over a million people living in an area of 0.67 square miles. From the outside, Dharavi looks like an ordinary slum area– poor sanitation, lack of basic facilities and miniscule houses pressed against each other. But only a closer look into this magnificent area will show that Dharavi is not an area consisting only of substandard housing or insufficient services, but a well-knit economic community.

In an expensive city like Mumbai where real estate prices are skyrocketing, Dharavi provides the cheap alternative that many people seek. Most people come to the city Continue reading

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Feb 22

Beyond Abortion

Last week, the House of Representatives voted to cut federal funding for PlannedParenthood. This was largely targeted at decreasing the organization’s ability to perform abortions. However, there will be a rippling effect if Planned Parenthood is unable to provide their general health care services. For women who suffer from health issues such as Endometriosis, cervical cancer, and fibroids, Planned Parenthood provides an affordable option for ongoing services and check-ups when the insurance companies and traditional health care providers are unwilling to cover medications or additional services. For example, when a relative, who suffers from Endometriosis, was in college her health plan would not cover the birth control medicine that was used to treat her illness. This was not about preventing pregnancy but about avoiding severe pain, bleeding and other symptoms associated with Endometriosis. She was able to receive affordable treatment because Planned Parenthood treats all women regardless of insurance policies or income.

I ran a youth based program that worked with high school students for several years. Teen pregnancy was a major concern and many young people, whether we wanted to talk about it or not, were and continue to be sexually active. Planned Parenthood provided a youth outreach program where other teens provided information to our students on abstinence, contraceptives and sexually transmitted infections. We saw a Continue reading

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Feb 22

Delivering as One

Imagine you have chest pains, you are light headed, you are nauseous and you have aches in all of your joints. In the Emergency Room, a doctor comes out to evaluate you, and then informs you that no less than four doctors will be operating on you for your illness. Each one has staked a claim to your various ailments, which none of the other doctors are allowed to treat.

This example can be easily adapted to what is called the “siloing” of human rights issues in the United Nations. There is a turf war that is sparked whenever one of theorganizations oversteps its bounds into the field of another organization. The UN’s budget is limited, and the best way for the suborganizations to  meet their budget requirements is by targeting single issues and appealing to a wider audience and possible donor base with hot topic themes like “health” or “children.” Also, each organization has set itself up as an expert in its respective field. It is seen as impolite whenever another organization oversteps its territory into the jurisdiction of the other.

This causes some problems when it comes to implementing a domestic program. How can an organization talk about women‘s rights without talking about a woman‘s right to Continue reading

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Feb 21

What You Don’t Know About U.S. Foreign Aid

This week Congress has been debating the upcoming year’s budget, with the new Republican leadership in the House of Representatives vowing to cut spending as much as possible. Included in those spending cuts is US Foreign Aid, or Official Development Assistance (ODA). House Republicans proposed up to 50% cuts in the funding of critical development projects, in areas such as health, hunger and sustainable development. These cuts would be detrimental to the world’s poor.

These cuts are supported under the pretense of reducing our $1.5 trillion deficit;however, cuts in foreign development assistance would do little to rectify our financial woes but much to hurt the poorest people of the world. Americans typically favor cuts in ODA spending, largely adopting the notion that “we have to help ourselves Continue reading

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Feb 18

So What Happens To Health Care?

A Federal Judge in Florida ruled on January 31, 2011, that the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act that was passed last year (known to many of us as the health care law), which extended health insurance to almost every American, is unconstitutional.

According to Judge Roger Vinson, a district Judge in Florida and a Republican appointee, the new law is outside Congress’ commerce clause power and violates people’s rights by forcing them to buy health insurance by 2014 or face a penalty. Prior to this decision, two Federal Judges had upheld the insurance requirement.

In a surprising twist, the Obama administration won a victory in the legal health care debate on Thursday, February 3, 2011, when a Federal Judge in Mississippi partly dismissed a suit challenging the constitutionality of the bill. Judge Keith Starret ruled that the plaintiffs who were suing on grounds that the coming implementation of the individual mandate did not demonstrate sufficient standing for him to take the case. The Judge however gave the plaintiffs 30 days to amend their complaint.

Although Judge Starret did not weigh the legal debate concerning Congress’ ability to force individuals to buy health insurance, he however determined that those filing suit had failed to fully demonstrate that their constitutional rights were being violated.

In the global context, the U.S. is the only developed nation that does not have comprehensive health care for its citizens. I can certainly understand the view that in order for it to continue to maintain its position as a World leader and reference nation, it has to amongst other things, fix the health care system.

One might wonder, why should I care about the health care reform? Well I will tell you! One  of  the benefits of the reform, that affects all Americans, is the provision which mandates all insurance companies cover preventive wellness services without any cost-sharing by the insured. You  have all been there, receiving that letter about co-payment? Well the reform eliminates the idea of co-payment when undergoing one of the approved services and enables consumers to get life-saving health screening at no cost. For younger Americans. the dependent coverage will be extended up to age 26, regardless of the students status. This increases the covered age from 25 to 26 and does not require full-time status as was previously the case. For women, evidenced-based preventive services rated A or B in the Preventive Service Task Force are included. These include breast and colon cancer screening, screening for diabetes, and vitamin deficiencies during pregnancy.

With the attempted repeal of the health care law, which received approval from the House of Representatives collapsed upon the rejection of the proposal by the Senate, it is almost certain that the Supreme Court would have to determine the faith of the health care law eventually. I think it is going to be very interesting to see how the Supreme Court will rule on the status of the law especially because the nine-member court is split four liberals and four conservatives with Justice Anthony Kennedy regarded as the swing vote. For now we must wait!

Ufuoma Barbara Akpotaire is a Program and Research intern with the SISGI Group’s Research Division. To learn more about the SISGI Group please visit www.sisgi.org.

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Feb 17

“Poverty Trap” or “Dead Aid”?

For decades, economists, historians, scholars and the like have studied economic development on the continent of Africa, seeking to explain what factors account for the region’s slow growth. From my own research, two interesting schools of thought have emerged: the concept of the “Poverty Trap” as purported by venerated economist and director of the UN Millennium Project Jeffrey Sachs, and “Dead Aid”, the more controversial argument put forth by Zambian-born economist Dambisa Moyo. Essentially, it is a battle between what the West’s role should be in encouraging economic development in Africa south of the Sahara.

Sachs’ bestselling book, The End of Poverty, became an instant success upon its 2005 release, as he suggested that extreme poverty could be eliminated in Africa during our generation through a few simple actions undertaken by the international community. He juxtaposes the issues of poor governance and poverty in Africa, but instead of suggesting that Africa is poor because of bad government, he asserts that Africa has corrupt leaders because it is poor. This “Poverty Trap”, according to Sachs, is a result of a number of disadvantages that the continent faces, in terms of climate, geography, history and susceptibility to disease. Simple measures such as debt cancellation, investments in health and agriculture, and increases in foreign aid would help sub-Saharan Africa reach the “first rung” on the “ladder” of development, according to Sachs, as evidenced by success stories such as India and China. Continue reading

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Feb 15

Sunday Supper With Marie Wilson

Marie Wilson has been an advocate of women’s issues for more than 30 years and is founder and President of The White House Project. She is also a co-creator of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work ® Day and author of Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World (Viking 2004).

In 1998, she founded The White House Project in recognition of the need to build a truly representative democracy – one where women lead alongside men in all spheres.  Since its inception, The White House Project has been a leading advocate and voice on women’s leadership.

On January 30th, 2011, I had the privilege to be among 250 persons from different Continue reading

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Feb 14

Subsidizing Poverty (Part Two)

It’s not only poor subsistence farmers in developing countries who pay the price for agricultural subsidies—we all do. Literally. The subsidies paid to the agricultural industries in rich, Western countries are funded by we, the taxpayer. In the United States, this amounts to about $286 billion in taxes under the 2008-2012 Farm Bill, or approximately $75.5 billion per year. To put this into more palpable terms, it is estimated that the 2008 Farm Bill costs the average American family an extra $520 per year in higher taxes and the inflated costs of groceries caused by other poor policies, such as import quotas and tariffs.

To put these numbers into perspective, allow me to compare what developed countries spend on subsidies to what they spend on international donor aid. Consider the graph below that displays a comparison (in billions of dollars) between what rich countries spend on subsidies compared to aid. Consider also that, were these subsidies not in place, many developing countries would not even need so much in donor aid because they would be more adept to sustain themselves when they could trade fairly on the global market. Because the economies of developing countries are overwhelmingly Continue reading

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Feb 11

Farm Subsidies in Africa and USA

Following my previous blog discussing how rich-country agricultural subsidies hurt developing countries in Africa, this video provides a picture of the ways some African farmers are struggling to sustain themselves. While Subsidizing Poverty (Part One) discusses how rich-country subsides contribute to poverty through price depreciation, this video explains how subsidies implemented by poor countries actually help them to grow enough food to feed their families. The clip examines how policies being implemented by the president of Malawi are helping Malawian farmers to grow enough food to be self-sustainable and empowering them to decline imported food from rich countries—the very imports that put local African farmers out of work to begin with.

The video further discusses how agricultural subsidies in the United States hurt the average American farmer as well. Contrary to popular belief, agricultural subsidies in the US largely do not go to the small, struggling American farms; rather they are disbursed to million- and billionaire agribusinesses that do not need the funding! In fact, 10 percent of recipients are awarded 74 percent of the subsidies funding; the top 20 percent receive 89 percent! More details in this regard are forthcoming in Part Two, so enjoy this video and stay tuned!


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