scholarly journals Pentecostals confronting structural poverty: An ecclesiastical strategy to make a difference in the lives of poor people in sub-Saharan Africa

Author(s):  
Marius Nel ◽  
Author(s):  
Praveen Kumar ◽  
Smitha Rao ◽  
Gautam N. Yadama

Energy poverty is lack of access to adequate, high-quality, clean, and affordable forms of energy or energy systems. It is a prominent risk factor for global burden of disease and has severe environmental, social, and economic implications. Despite recent international attention to address energy for the poor, there is a limited consensus over a unified framework defining energy poverty, which impacts almost 2.8 billion mostly poor people, especially in Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have the largest number of energy poor. India, in South Asia, comprises a significant proportion of energy-impoverished households. There is a continued effort by the Indian government, non-profit agencies, and private organizations to address the needs of energy poor. Social workers have a significant role to play in these interventions addressing energy poverty in India. Emerging research and practice in the energy poverty field in India calls for transdisciplinary collaboration especially between social work practitioners of community development, environmental health, public health, and social policy.


2020 ◽  
pp. 205789112090768
Author(s):  
Gerry F Arambala

Over the past decades, biomedical researchers have made great progress in finding the treatment for many diseases which have been considered in the past as incurable. The struggle for longevity and positive health has been addressed by medical science. People who can afford it are assured by the promise of genetic engineering. But while there has been considerable development in the treatment of diseases, the number of mortalities in poor countries remains high, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. Around 8 million people die each year worldwide due to poverty-related health issues. Despite the advancement in the treatment of diseases, poor people in most of the developing countries worldwide are dying each year. This article will argue that human poverty and the existence of infectious diseases are inseparable social phenomena that affect the fate of the poor in developing countries. Following Amartya Sen, this article will argue that access to advanced health care services should be affordable to all, and should form part of individual freedoms that the national policies of a country must secure.


2020 ◽  
pp. 165-194
Author(s):  
Dan Royles

This chapter describes the work of Philadelphia chapter of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) as it became increasingly involved in the fight against global AIDS, starting in the mid 1990s. Around this time, both white and African American grassroots activists at ACT UP Philadelphia redirected the group’s protest politics to address the structural inequalities driving AIDS rates in poor communities of color, both at home and abroad. ACT UP Philadelphia members situated their local work in the larger international movement against globalization and free trade. In Philadelphia, they focused on issues of concern to poor people of color with HIV/AIDS, including Medicaid privatization, needle exchange, and access to highly effective but expensive HIV drugs. The campaigns they waged at the local level fed into work on a much broader scale, as members joined forces with anti-globalization groups to protest American free trade policies in Africa. Today, the group claims at least a partial victory in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a massive funding package to support HIV prevention and AIDS treatment in sub-Saharan Africa and other countries in the developing world that have been hit particularly hard by the epidemic.


Author(s):  
Edmore Mahembe ◽  
Nicholas M. Odhiambo

Abstract This paper aims to analyses the trends and dynamics of extreme poverty in developing countries. The study attempts to answer one critical question: has the world achieved its number one Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing extreme poverty by half by 2015? The methodology used in this study mainly involves a descriptive data analysis during the period 1981-2015. The study used the World Bank’s US$1.90 a day line (popularly known as $1 a day line) in 2011 prices to measure the level of absolute poverty. In order to analyze the dynamics of poverty across different regions, the study grouped countries into five regions: i) sub-Saharan Africa; ii) East Asia and the Pacific; iii) South Asia; iv) Europe and Central Asia; and v) Latin America and the Caribbean. The study found that in 1990, there were around 1.9 billion people living below US$1.90 a day (constituting 36.9 percent of the world population) and this number is estimated to have reduced to around 700 million people in 2015, with an estimated global poverty rate of 9.6 percent. The world met the MDG target in 2010, which is five years ahead of schedule. However, extreme poverty is becoming increasingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA), where its depth and breadth remain a challenge. SSA remains the poorest region, with more than 35 percent of its citizens living on less than US$1.90 a day. Half of the world’s extremely poor people now live in SSA, and it is the only region which has not met its MDG target.


Author(s):  
Isabelle Musanganya ◽  
Chantal Nyinawumuntu ◽  
Pauline Nyirahagenimana

Many researchers consider microfinance as a tool for poverty reduction. Even more, especially in post-conflict African countries, micro-financial institutions are seen as an opportunity of reconciliation. Lending from microfinance institutions to that from traditional banks and examine their respective effects upon economic growth has been practiced in some sub-Saharan countries. Considerable progress in research has been found that microfinance loans raise growth comparatively to that of traditional banks. A lot of number of researches carried out in sub-Saharan countries even in other developing countries outside of Africa did not find strong evidence that bank loans raise growth. There is, however, some evidence that bank loans do increase investment, whereas microfinance loans do not appear to do so. Differently, other researchers highlighted clearly that microfinance can provide its contribution on poverty reduction and better access to finance needed for startup micro-entrepreneurs along the world. These results suggest that microfinance loans are not primarily invested as physical capital in developing countries, but could still augment total factor productivity, whereas banks may have been financing non-productive investments. Herein, we highlighted the impact of microfinance banks on developing countries economic growth. We also indicate how microfinances system incorporated in rural areas boosted the lifestyle of poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa.


Author(s):  
Emma Mawdsley

This chapter examines the main trends and issues of South–South development cooperation, using India as a case study. Over the last few decades, India has been both a recipient of foreign aid and a provider of concessional loans, grants, technical assistance, peacekeeping forces, humanitarian assistance, debt relief, and so on. The chapter explores how and why India, a country that still has more absolutely poor people than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, gives development assistance to countries in Asia, Africa, and beyond. It first considers the issue of the ‘(re-)emerging’ development actors before discussing India’s development cooperation. It then shows how India and other developing countries are becoming bigger players in the international foreign aid regime. It also analyses India’s South–South relations and suggests that the benefits of India’s development cooperation are shared unevenly, both domestically and abroad.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 533-537
Author(s):  
Lorenz von Seidlein ◽  
Borimas Hanboonkunupakarn ◽  
Podjanee Jittmala ◽  
Sasithon Pukrittayakamee

RTS,S/AS01 is the most advanced vaccine to prevent malaria. It is safe and moderately effective. A large pivotal phase III trial in over 15 000 young children in sub-Saharan Africa completed in 2014 showed that the vaccine could protect around one-third of children (aged 5–17 months) and one-fourth of infants (aged 6–12 weeks) from uncomplicated falciparum malaria. The European Medicines Agency approved licensing and programmatic roll-out of the RTSS vaccine in malaria endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa. WHO is planning further studies in a large Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme, in more than 400 000 young African children. With the changing malaria epidemiology in Africa resulting in older children at risk, alternative modes of employment are under evaluation, for example the use of RTS,S/AS01 in older children as part of seasonal malaria prophylaxis. Another strategy is combining mass drug administrations with mass vaccine campaigns for all age groups in regional malaria elimination campaigns. A phase II trial is ongoing to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the RTSS in combination with antimalarial drugs in Thailand. Such novel approaches aim to extract the maximum benefit from the well-documented, short-lasting protective efficacy of RTS,S/AS01.


1993 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-556
Author(s):  
Lado Ruzicka

Crisis ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Kinyanda ◽  
Ruth Kizza ◽  
Jonathan Levin ◽  
Sheila Ndyanabangi ◽  
Catherine Abbo

Background: Suicidal behavior in adolescence is a public health concern and has serious consequences for adolescents and their families. There is, however, a paucity of data on this subject from sub-Saharan Africa, hence the need for this study. Aims: A cross-sectional multistage survey to investigate adolescent suicidality among other things was undertaken in rural northeastern Uganda. Methods: A structured protocol administered by trained psychiatric nurses collected information on sociodemographics, mental disorders (DSM-IV criteria), and psychological and psychosocial risk factors for children aged 3–19 years (N = 1492). For the purposes of this paper, an analysis of a subsample of adolescents (aged 10–19 years; n = 897) was undertaken. Results: Lifetime suicidality in this study was 6.1% (95% CI, 4.6%–7.9%). Conclusions: Factors significantly associated with suicidality included mental disorder, the ecological factor district of residence, factors suggestive of low socioeconomic status, and disadvantaged childhood experiences.


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