Group 4 - Poverty

[No dialogue]. >> Oyinda: Good evening, everyone. Our topic is Technology and Poverty Alleviation in Africa. My name is Oyindamola Wido. >> Najid: My name is Najid Badou. >> Ranid: My name is Ranid Andruipoli. >> Doug: My name is Doug Nelson. >> Oyinda: I'll start by defining poverty. When I think of poverty, I think of sick children, minors, children, people who don't have access to clean water, people who live in slums and children that are forced into armed groups because they can't go to school. So poverty is a state of being extremely poor, lacking water, nutrition, health, education, clothing, and shelter. Extreme poverty is living on less than 1/25 dollars a day. Moderate is between $2-5, and then poverty robs people of their dignity. The poorest of the poor in the world, they are the sickest. So we'll be narrowing it down to poverty in Africa. Majority of the world's poorest nations today are in Africa. In 1820, the average European worker earned three times the African worker. Today, the average European worker earns twenty times what the African worker earns. Although some nations like South Africa and Egypt, they are not as poor. Well, Africa has a lot of nations and we picked the Democratic Republic of Congo, because it is a nation that is so blessed and so poor. Congo was colonized by the Belgians till 1960. It has a population of about 70 million, it has so far two Civil Wars, and that resulted in about 4 million deaths. It has 30% of the world's cobalt. Cobalt is the raw material that is used in making all the pieces on all the phones. It has 10% of all the copper in the world, gold, uranium, and oil. It has 40 to 50% of Africa's water itself, and has enough arable land to produce all the food that it needs and enough for export. Well, in contrast to all these natural resources, most of the Congolese, they are uneducated and poverty stricken. Congo has the world's highest rate of malnutrition. Women and children suffer the most. The women and the children are the farmer and the fishers, and the men just sit at home and eat whatever they bring. Only 10% of people in the rural area have access to clean water. Only 11, rather. And only half of the Congolese population have access to safe drinking water. Malaria is endemic. One in every five children in Congo dies before the age of five. And Congo is last place in the United Nations Annual Human Development index. It means it is the country where the population grows the least in the world. That's because, yes, people get born there every day, but they die more. Congo is also, as I said, the poorest and one of the most dangerous places in the world. For now you don't want to go there. And the consequences of poverty in Congo. One of it is displacement due to the war and people just scatter around, lose family members. They are not dead, but you don't know where they are. Child recruitment into armed groups, most of these children, they get -- become soldiers at the age of 9. Violence against women and girls is the order of the day, especially *** abuse. Since they are poor and they are barely trying to survive, they have higher level of diseases. They have a very low level of vaccination and brain drain is one of the major problems that they have, they have -- little ones that get education, they leave the country. They just don't want to be there. They want to look for a peaceful place to live. So, Nelson will be telling us about some of the statistics. >> Doug: Well, we found the infant mortality rate to be 83 to 1,000 in the DRC, compared to 6.3 deaths in the US. A life expectancy is about, oh, 24 years less what our life expectancy is. You guys can read the *** and illiteracy is 67%. That just means they can read. Actually, they read three languages, but they only do it at a 67% level. Human trafficking is a really huge issue. 700,000 to 4 million women and children are trafficked annually world wide. This isn't including boys and men. That's just over half the population of the DRC in a ten-year timeframe. In a twelve-year timeframe, that's one-third of the United States, to put it in perspective. 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the US alone, and dispersed among Asian nations, the Middle East, and western Europe. And a lot of the people world wide come from eastern Europe, especially since the -- the free trade agreement got approved. And that's illegal activity. Two-thirds of the 500,000 women are trafficked annually for prostitution. They're -- the Congo, DRC is considered a tier 3 level crisis, got one, which is everybody is involved in changing it. Two is they care a little bit, and three we don't have time for it. They don't even care. Rate -- tier one is rated the best and tier three is the worst. And tier three is where the Congo is, there's no human mandated rules or regulations being followed. The world hunger situation and malnutrition, the total is about 840 million out of 7 billion people go to bed hungry at night. Under five years old, there's 153 million of those that are under five. 40,000 children under the age of five die every day from hunger and preventable diseases. 45,000 people in the DRC in Congo die every month from hunger or malnutrition. The loss of human life from hunger is greater than if an atomic bomb were to be dropped on a densely populated area every three days. So one in every five people in the world is hungry today. And we already went over the 45,000 people. And we got some of the causes. Some of it is protectionism or the ownership of land. The land has been ravaged by various things such as war and lack of water and things like that. The DCR, as far as malnutrition or hunger, is last on the list of 181 nations. As a matter of fact, those four on the end are the worst. 38 out of 100 die from malnutrition or hunger, and they're all in Sub-Saharan Africa. Everything else, of the countries we compared them against, there is no comparison. They're essentially null compared to the DRC. There's Congo exploitation. Ironically, one of the primary raw materials for cell phones comes from DRC, like my co-student talked about. That gives about -- but yet there's only one -- four telephones or telecommunication systems per thousand people in the DRC that have access to those information systems. This begets the illiteracy rate, which is right now sitting at 38% in the Congo. This is where we get all the materials to make information systems and so forth. There are many causes. Human trafficking and armed conflict, no formalized government, indentured servitude and prostitution are among the tops. Lack of life sustaining services, no formalized education system. Most people age 15 and over can read and write, of the 67 of the 100%, that's 67%. 80% are male, 54% are female. There's a huge discrepancy there. And I hand it over to my other student here. >> Najid: Yeah, bad governance is one of the main reasons for the poverty. And bad governance is caused by injustice, corruption, ineffective loss and embezzlement of public funds. In the Congo has enough national resources and minerals they can make a lot of money with that. But it failed to do that, and many private people are transporting the minerals and natural resources to other countries, and government has failed to punish them. And corruption -- corruption is making the rich people richer and the middle class and lower class people are suffering due to corruption. In effort to [Inaudible] the people are doing crime and are put in jail, but they are not punished properly, and they're repeating their crimes again and again because of [Inaudible] loss, and embezzlement of public funds, the government is sanctioning the required amount to the public, but they're unable to utilize for the public. Increased crime rate, poverty is one of the main reasons behind the crimes, and poverty may lead to higher probability of youth spending time on the street associating with gangs. The people want to become rich over night and their joining the gangs, [Inaudible] joining the gangs and spending more time on the streets other than going to school and jobs, and this crime also offering material goods to [Inaudible] material goods rather than getting them in a legitimate way. Environmental consequences, these are causes due to land degredation, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, pollution, conflicts and natural hazards. And child mortality rate under five years old, the people who are less than five years old are dying due to diseases like malaria, diarrhea, measles, ***, AIDS, and this is the statistics showing from 1976 to January, 2008. And it has decreased by a little bit, but still it is a -- rather 170 death per 1,000 people. And this shows the polio, these are the people who are suffering from polio, like, in 2010, they're -- they caused like 300 cases of paralysis and 179 has been dead. Education -- every two out of three people are literate, and this 67 percent of the total population are doing their primary education, but unable to do their higher education, and only just 5 of 100 persons are using Internet. Children are forced to join rebel groups during the age of 9, and till 2008, due to Civil Wars, the data has gone up to 5.4 millions and mostly from diseases and starvation. Continue. >> Ranid: Now, I just want to tell how the technology will use to work on the poverty. That is the basic technology which can be used to work on this poverty, technology in -- the water, they have a lot of water in Congo. But the water is not purified. The simple way to get purify is the boiling of water. It's a simple technology, need a lot of [Inaudible] the purest water so it can be used for drinking and use of chlorine water is one of the way to purify the water, and rain water harvesting. The rain water can be harvested for use -- so that it can be used later. And there is obtainable water filtration. As shown in the figure, there is -- there will be a net in which the impurities will be left and the water can be purified and they test the ground level. So that the water can be purified. And digging of wells and hand pumps are some basic technologies with the water problem -- from which the water problems can be solved. There are some higher technologies like dams and etcetera, but as the countries of [Inaudible] a lot of poverty there is no need for the government to invest more on these things. And next, the whole -- it helps in the farming. Those [Inaudible] are one of the basic things what the farmers need, the farming, and the [Inaudible] farming. As we know, instrument in the [Inaudible] and all, they cost more so they can use cows for the basic farming and the waste from the cows can be used in the place as well. So they can be used many ways. And irrigation things, now [Inaudible] can be split in the -- as shown in the figure, it can be split, and if the farms are beside the lake, the lake water can be passed to the [Inaudible] areas so the water can spread across the farm. So it is one of the ways to irrigate. And technology and education, how technology helps. Free education or subsidized books should be provided to the children, building of more schools, providing means of transportation, and teaching aids like computers should be used for the children to educate and address particular issues of [Inaudible] children, many children are the age of 9, above the age group 9 are forced to enter the civil groups, local rebel groups. So teaching the particular issues so they can -- and the major cause for [Inaudible] in Congo are malaria, diarrhea, measles, malnutrition and polio, and how this technology helps in these diseases, providing of basic [Inaudible] like medicine and [Inaudible] and cheap anti-malaria medication and treated mosquito nets can be used and Google Earth technology, this is technology using the Google Earth. They implemented this in Congo using Google Earth technology. They map the geographical area of the Congo and they found the area of the which was effected with the diseases. And they found that the areas surrounding the Congo [Inaudible] were effected more with diseases, and so it is easy for them to identify what are the causes for the spreading of these diseases. And [Inaudible] programs using media to educate and prevention measures for diseases like diarrhea, *** screening, [Inaudible] and preventive programs can be produced and vaccines against diseases like polio can be used. And technology and electricity are first [Inaudible] is a major problem in Congo in which many people are not getting a chance for education as well. So [Inaudible] energy is the cheapest and [Inaudible] source of energy, so it can be used for Congo people for -- for generating electricity. Thank you. [Applause]. >> Dr. Wafeek Wahby: Any conclusions you didn't say or you want to say now before questions? You have conclusions? Why don't you say that, yes? Just give us a conclusion. Yes. >> So we are saying that Congo is a very poor nation and the more -- the most advanced technologies, they wouldn't be able to afford. So that was why we proposed simple ones, some of which they can design themselves. And also women liberation and the rights of a woman in Congo will be their right not to be abused and forced to labor, as opposed to here where it is what you do your body and how you use it. So if they have a right not to be abused, it's a better life for them. And then with basic access to clean water, nutrition, health, education and shelter, there will be lower level of displacement and more people will stay in Congo than running out. >> Doug: My conclusions are enforce [Inaudible] mandate human trafficking tier one level world wide, especially start with the worst nations first and work our way up. Hunger can be resolved by farming technology, genetic engineering and privatization of land via good governance, and formalize education to solve illiteracy. And I want to add one more thing, geothermal energy. Here we go. >> Najid: Technology can only -- technology can only make [Inaudible] worse. >> Ranid: Presence of clean water, [Inaudible] and mechanized farming, good education, electricity and unemployment can be reduced because the people [Inaudible] industries [Inaudible] attracted to Congo, and then the problems of solving unemployment and the problem of solving human trafficking as well. >> Dr. Wafeek Wahby: Give them a hand, please. [Applause]. >> Question for all of you. You did this research in the heart of hearts, your deep down in your heart, you think that technology and humans using technology can really change this problem, solve this problem? >> Ranid: Yes. >> Honest to God? >> I think it's -- it is more of an internal thing. Most of the problem in Congo was as a result of the Civil War that they had. But then the way of life is degrading. And what we are proposing is a simpler way for the masses to survive. There are rich people in Congo who don't know all those things are even going on. But out of the little people whose voices cannot be heard, how do they survive? So -- >> Dr. Wafeek Wahby: Any other answers? >> Doug: I believe it can. I think it's going to take a stabilized governmental policy. And clean, yeah. Corrupt-free. That's it, thanks. >> Dr. Wafeek Wahby: Any questions? Yes, please? >> Dr. Gustavo Albear: Every one of the diseases that you mentioned up there are water-borne diseases, can be carried by water most of the time. And secondly -- I'll say it again. Every one of the diseases that we looked at there, diarrhea, malaria, etcetera, are all diseases that are in one way or another associated with water. You also state that the major problem associated with these diseases is they're centered around the Congo River itself. So the river traverses most of the Congo, does it not? And it's carrying the majority of those diseases. So if you're looking at water solutions, you cannot just look at them in a small geographic area, because that river is going to carry those diseases throughout. So you know, when you combine questions of -- what do you call it -- unstable government structure, children being put together into gangs associated with inter-tribal warfare, that's correct, right? Hatreds that go back way before they were ever colonized, right? Inter-tribally. And you start taking a look at the situation of the death rate, where would you guys begin what so ever to start some kind of fixing process? >> Oyinda: I think the major problem associated with the deaths, especially children deaths, is water. The Congo River, like he talked about the Google technology, with that technology they found out that most people staying close to the Congo River, they die more, they have more of these diseases. So if the poor people who live close to this river, they can't afford to build good houses and prevent mosquitos from coming in, they can have insecticide-treated nets. >> Dr. Gustavo Albear: Why don't they move away from the river? What's keeping them close to the river? >> The only thing that's keeping them close to the river is still water. But then to stay close to that water, they bathe in it, they cook from it, they even throw their waste back into it. Yes. >> Dr. Wafeek Wahby: Other questions? >> Doug: Probably take an international effort on that one. >> Dr. Wafeek Wahby: Okay, let's take a group [Inaudible] and then [Inaudible] next piece, we have what? One, two, three. [No dialogue].