scholarly journals POVERTY ALLEVIATION THROUGH ETHICAL PHILANTHROPY IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA (MENA) REGION

Poverty using the United Nations’ criteria refers to denial of choices, opportunities, and the lack of capacity as a result of low income for a person to effectively participate in society. Poverty creates problems such as ill-health, inability to acquire the basic necessities of life, deprivation of full exercise of civic and political rights, and so forth. In spite of the enormous wealth in both human and natural resources in MENA, many people in the region are living in abject poverty. Using phenomenological hermeneutics and existential critical analysis, the paper argues for ethical philanthropy to be used to alleviate the poverty in the region. Poverty is an ethical issue for it affects the quality of lives that humans can live as moral beings and impacts human behaviour. It is unacceptable that the enormous wealth of the region is not used for the benefit of all. Outside government efforts and the imperative of efficient political leadership, wealthy individuals and non-governmental groups have a moral responsibility to help to alleviate poverty in the region. It is this ethical role of individuals and groups in rendering philanthropic help to alleviate and if possible end poverty in the region that is the thrust of this paper. The paper affirms that abject and other forms of poverty are present in the region. The paper concludes that individuals and groups have an ethical duty in philanthropy to alleviate poverty in the region. The people of the region will become better and achieve a higher level of happiness and peace through the practice of ethical philanthropy.

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-127
Author(s):  
Novi Firmawati ◽  
◽  
Budi Sasongko

This study examines the role of education in improving technology adoption as reflected in technology inclusion, poverty alleviation and efforts to increase community income which is reflected in economic growth. This study uses secondary data from world banks and processed regression using the moving average autoregression method. We found that education investment and technology inclusion were positively related to economic growth. And,negatively related to probability. This indicates that education plays a role in encouraging technological inclusion which reflects technological adaptation and encourages economic growth which is an indicator of the prosperity of the people in Indonesia which is strengthened by a negative relationship with poverty which indicates that education plays an important role in poverty alleviation


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akl C. Fahed ◽  
Abdul-Karim M. El-Hage-Sleiman ◽  
Theresa I. Farhat ◽  
Georges M. Nemer

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region suffers a drastic change from a traditional diet to an industrialized diet. This has led to an unparalleled increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases. This review discusses the role of nutritional genomics, or the dietary signature, in these dietary and disease changes in the MENA. The diet-genetics-disease relation is discussed in detail. Selected disease categories in the MENA are discussed starting with a review of their epidemiology in the different MENA countries, followed by an examination of the known genetic factors that have been reported in the disease discussed, whether inside or outside the MENA. Several diet-genetics-disease relationships in the MENA may be contributing to the increased prevalence of civilization disorders of metabolism and micronutrient deficiencies. Future research in the field of nutritional genomics in the MENA is needed to better define these relationships.


Author(s):  
Sule Maina

The progress of a nation is a function of the level of the resourcefulness of the people which to a great extent, relates to the level of quality of the training and purposeful development of education in that nation. Such progress or development could only occur when an individual in the society is gainfully employed and per capital income is enhanced. This could only be possible when government educational policies are geared towards a functional education that can lead to job creation and also self reliance. Entrepreneurship education is a means through which government could attain such development in the society. Therefore, this paper examines how the role of entrepreneurship education and how it could help in job creation in Nigeria. The challenges of quality entrepreneurship education were also discussed. Finally, the paper advanced some suggestions on how to overcome the challenges so as to reduce unemployment and enhances job creation in Nigeria.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 447
Author(s):  
Markus Loewe ◽  
Tina Zintl

Social contracts and state fragility represent two sides of one coin. The former concept highlights that governments need to deliver three “Ps”—protection, provision, and political participation—to be acceptable for societies, whereas the latter argues that states can fail due to lack of authority (inhibiting protection), capacity (inhibiting provision), or legitimacy. Defunct social contracts often lead to popular unrest. Using empirical evidence from the Middle East and North Africa, we demonstrate how different notions of state fragility lead to different kinds of grievances and how they can be remedied by measures of social protection. Social protection is always a key element of government provision and hence a cornerstone of all social contracts. It can most easily counteract grievances that were triggered by decreasing provision (e.g., after subsidy reforms in Iran and Morocco) but also partially substitute for deficient protection (e.g., by the Palestinian National Authority, in pre-2011 Yemen) or participation (information campaign accompanying Moroccan subsidy cut; participatory set-ups for cash-for-work programmes in Jordan). It can even help maintain a minimum of state–society relations in states defunct in all three Ps (e.g., Yemen). Hence, social protection can be a powerful instrument to reduce state fragility and mend social contracts. Yet, to be effective, it needs to address grievances in an inclusive, rule-based, and non-discriminatory way. In addition, to gain legitimacy, governments should assume responsibility over social protection instead of outsourcing it to foreign donors.


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara Lane-Toomey

Since the late 1950s, both the U.S. government and the general population have acknowledged an immediate need for a deepening of U.S. American knowledge of the people, languages, and culture of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Particularly in the fallout of the events of September 11, 2001, one means for U.S. undergraduates have expanded their understanding of this region has been through participation in Study Abroad (study abroad) programs. Despite the large amount of research on outcomes and educational approaches used in study abroad in general, there is little literature which addresses the relationship between national security concerns and study abroad in the MENA region. The purpose of this study is to examine the ways in which federal legislation has connected higher education to national security interests through provisions of federal funding for Area Studies and study abroad in less common destinations, and to discuss the influence of factors such as career motivations, scholarship support, and concern for U.S. national security on the decision to study abroad in the MENA region


Author(s):  
Murphy Halliburton

The Movement for Global Mental Health has defined the person suffering psychopathology in low-income countries as an abused and suffering subject in need of saving by biomedical psychiatry. Based on fieldwork in Kerala, South India, carried out at psychiatric clinics and a psychosocial rehabilitation centre, this paper examines patients’ experiences of illness, the degree and quality of family support, and attributions made to the role of ‘sneham’, or love, in recovery. The role of love and family involvement may help explain the provocative finding by WHO epidemiological studies that ‘developing’ countries – and India in particular – showed better rates of recovery from severe mental illness when compared to developed countries.


2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW NOCON ◽  
MAGGIE PEARSON

Most published research on informal care for older people focuses on the support provided by relatives. The role of non-kin carers can, however, also be significant in supporting older people in their own homes. In this paper, we report the findings from an exploratory study of the support provided by friends and neighbours who are the main carers of frail older people. It draws on interviews with an opportunistic sample of friends, neighbours and older people, which explored their views about the support arrangements, the reasons why help was provided and any difficulties experienced. Several friends and neighbours provided intensive and frequent help, and some played a key role in co-ordinating other services. One of the main forms of direct support related to older people's quality of life, at a broader level than the practical help provided by statutory services. The flexibility of such support, and the friends' and neighbours' concern for older people as individuals, were particularly important to the people they helped. Nevertheless, such help was not provided without costs to the carers. The study highlights the need for policy-makers and practitioners not to take help from friends and neighbours for granted and, in line with the White Paper Modernising Social Services, to provide the support services they need.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-161
Author(s):  
Christof Heyns ◽  
Charles Fombad ◽  
Pansy Tlakula ◽  
Jimmy Kainja

The effective realisation of the right to political participation is essential for the legitimacy of political systems and for enabling the people to shape, and assume responsibility for, their lives. Although the right to political participation is recognised in article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as in other international treaties, its realisation in practice is often partial, it depends on the extent to which numerous interrelated rights, such as those to freedom of expression, access to information and peaceful protest, have been secured. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, this article examines the right to political participation as set out in national constitutions and in the instruments of the United Nations, the African Union and sub-regional bodies. It also considers the role of social media in this context. The article concludes by suggesting how this crucial right could be implemented more effectively in Africa.


Policy Papers ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (38) ◽  
Author(s):  

Diversification and structural transformation play important roles in influencing the macroeconomic performance of low-income countries (LICs). Increases in income per capita at early stages of development are typically accompanied by a transformation in a country’s production and export structure. This can include diversification into new products and trading partners as well as increases in the quality of existing products.


2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Joanne Verdouw

Theoretically, neoliberalism is acknowledged as a powerful, discursive mode of governmentality, whose key tenets widely influence sociological discourses around the role of money in attaining quality of life and happiness. However, few studies qualitatively reflect in any detail on how neoliberalism is implicated in the making of particular subjectivities. In this comparative study, participants from different income contexts (middle and low income, and downshifters) are interviewed about money meanings with attention to the particular ways of living they narrate. The findings attest to participant adoption of, and/or resistance to, lay forms of neoliberalism in the ordering of their subjectivities around key themes: life values, life goals, monetary boundaries and future understandings. Their stories show the prevalence of the neoliberal subject and clarify the practical limits of neoliberal discourses, as well as demonstrating how moral alternatives to neoliberalism can transform self-understanding and practice.


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