Providing better health services for waste workers
Large numbers of people in the developing world rely on other people’s waste to make a living. In the Kathmandu valley of Nepal nearly 15,000 people work as waste pickers and 800 more deal in scrap. These are the poorest of the poor, many are women and they suffer discrimination through social exclusion, religious segregation and political marginalisation. Often they have started this work as children and their lack of education, poor health care and low status leaves them vulnerable with few opportunities to improve their lives.
One of Practical Action’s projects in this area aims to improve the living conditions of these workers and to secure them better social protection. One of the initiatives of this project was a health camp in Sundarighat in the Lalitpur District of Nepal, to raise awareness of health and hygiene issues and to provide general health check-ups.
There was a worrying start to the event for Dr. Bishnu Acharya and his assisting staff nurse as initially very few workers came along and those that did were reluctant to share their health problems. One of the health team noticed a group of women chatting by themselves, so she joined their group and started sharing her own experience of pregnancy. Slowly the women opened up and began to tell their own stories and soon they were persuaded to agree to an antenatal check-up and were given information on nutrition and hygiene.
From then on, everything went smoothly and more and more workers arrived. Many of the women also wanted the doctor to check their children and were enquiring about vaccinations. Each person was helped to complete a health questionnaire and it was a relief to learn that none of the waste workers suffered from major illnesses. The most common health problem encountered was worms. Dr. Acharya emphasised the need of deworming each and every patient. A couple of women had high blood pressure and were advised to consume less salt and fried foods.
Practical Action’s team has put together a check list of what should be provided when running such health days:
1. A comprehensive list of available over the counter medicines
2. Plenty of deworming medicine
3. Vitamin supplements (especially Vitamin B complex) as many of the expectant mothers lack a balanced diet
4. Rehydration salts
5. Contraceptive advice and condoms
6. All free government vaccinations, including polio, for newborns and children
The success of the day ensured that it will be repeated and on the next occasion it will be organised in collaboration with government local health staff. Information to be provided will include a health and hygiene video and government illustrated booklets on safe sex and contraception and basic health issues.
The medical staff learned a great deal about communicating with people who have little experience of health services. They are now better able to put people at ease so as to extract the patient’s medical history, which is vital for a correct diagnosis and treatment.
1 Comment » | Add your commentThe importance of energy
During my research with the PISCES programme in Kenya I investigated the benefits of biofuels for development, and difficulties and politics associated with it.
Working with such a controversial topic, I have learnt that the challenge for development is not only about providing energy, but also about developing knowledge and facilitating policies that ensure technologies will benefit those who need it most. I have seen, for example, how farmers can gain an income and a fuel for lighting from their jatropha plantations, or how ethanol is changing the lives of women that can now cook with a clean, affordable fuel: I have learnt that energy is about livelihoods, possibilities and freedom.
Hanna produces jathopa oil on her farm in eastern Kenya
The Kenyan experience demonstrated the importance of energy, reaffirmed by the UN declaration of 2012 as the ‘International Year of Sustainable Energy for All’. Energy affects all aspects of life and development: livelihoods, access to water, agricultural productivity, health, population levels, education, and gender-related issues. Considering that wood smoke is a cause of 1.5 million deaths a year is enough to realise these strong links. Moreover, the estimation that 900 million people will not have access to electricity by 2030, helps understanding how energy access is also linked with inequality.
Energy goes through all our development work, affecting people from their participation in markets to reconstruction efforts. Thinking about energy in this holistic way places energy access as one of the main challenges for development. Providing energy is not only about delivering appropriate technologies, but understanding needs and facilitating long lasting solutions that can boost development and growth in those places in the world that need it most. Practical Action’s work on energy and the Poor people’s energy outlook 2012 constitute big steps towards a sustainable energy future.
5 Comments » | Add your commentSustainability or quick fix?
Temporary restrictions to energy supply, nationally or internationally are a frequent occurrence. I can recall energy shortages caused by striking miners in the 1970s, the OPEC embargo of 1973, the Iran/Iraq war in 1980, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and last year’s Fukushima nuclear reactor shutdown in Japan to name just a few.
Renewable technologies use freely available resources such as wind, water and sunshine and are not dependent on the fluctuating world price of carbon intensive fossil fuels. It seems an obvious solution to focus our investment on these.
But the prevailing wisdom amongst developed countries is that quick fix high tech ‘geo-engineering’ solutions will solve the problem of global warming.
There is a history of environmental disasters associated with meddling with our planet’s ecosystems in unproven ways. Cane toads were introduced to the sugar plantations of Queensland, Australia in 1935 to control a pest called cane beetles. Over the years, with no natural predators, these toads have become a much greater pest than the original beetle. 
The Nile perch was introduced into Africa’s Lake Victoria for food and sport fishing. It has already eaten its way through 200 native fish species, and is still going. I could go on….
Developed countries already make too many demands on the resources of our fragile planet while a third of humanity lacks access to modern energy. We should surely be concentrating our scarce resources on improving this situation rather than lavishing time, money and scientific expertise on unproven vanity projects. Practical Action has a wealth of experience to show that small scale renewable energy drives development.
2012 is the UN year of sustainable energy for all – we must ensure that is exactly what is does.
2 Comments » | Add your commentTime to Address Energy Poverty
There is an emerging stream of discourse on access to energy today. One discourse is the failure to recognise and act on the fact that energy and development are intricately linked. It is also true that in as much as development and progress are collective responsibilities, they are also personal ones.
These discussions emerging around the possibilities and potentials of equitable access to energy sources now, more than ever, give cause to pause and examine the assumptions that surround this, among them, that society is a homogeneous collective constituency waiting to be mobilised to take action to address the challenge with support from government with development agencies and communities as conduits and agencies to effect it. This notion is something I wish will be kept in mind in discussions about the impact of energy poverty especially among the poor in remote areas as well as those in urban informal settlements on national development policies and strategies.
Our visit to poor rural households in Kisumu, western Kenya; Kerugoya, Central Kenya and Nairobi this week, organised by Practical Action Eastern Africa, put the discussion into focus. The delegation comprising of three Members of the European Parliament (MEP), local partners and colleagues from Practical Action UK observed the magnitude of the problem. Apart from joining women on their tough mission to collect firewood, the MEPs also had a chance to interact with energy entrepreneurs, especially women groups producing improved cook stoves in Kisumu. The reality on the ground and selected interventions being implemented in the area spoke volumes of what needs to be done by different stakeholders to address the issue at hand. Summarily, the visit underlined that fact that increased access to energy is essential for growth and human well-being.
I hope the visit has provided the MEPs an opportunity to reflect on some of the assumptions, presumptions and misconceptions they had on the subject and its extent that is the challenge of the new era. The challenge should be presented as parts of, not separate from, the collective aim for all-inclusive long-term development.
Access to Energy is Essential for Development
Energy is a critical development issue. Just like access to water and other basic services, access to energy is a condition for social and economic development. But as the country’s population grows and energy demand rises, the obstacles to its availability and use loom larger today than ever.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, 1.6 billion people in the world lack access to electricity and over 2 billion people depend on biomass fuels for cooking and heating. This has been worsened by the rising demand for energy that has exploded since the beginning of the 20th century, in tandem with the world’s rising population and economic growth. Energy issues are particularly challenging for rural communities and the urban poor where high energy costs are putting a tremendous amount of pressure on families a majority of whom depend on natural resources for their livelihood. The challenge at present is to supply clean and safe energy in sufficient quantity to everyone while limiting the environmental effects.
Our visit to selected energy actors in Kisumu, Nairobi and Mai Mahiu with a visiting delegation of three Members of Parliament from the European Parliament revealed the energy poverty levels among poor communities living in the areas. The case stories observed made clear the fact that development targets such as the Millennium Development Goals which, though they do not explicitly include energy, are reliant upon energy for their fulfilment.
This is not to say there is no future in attaining the goals. The reality is more needs to be done to realise the required change. Numerous initiatives have been piloted and are being scaled up by different agencies in the energy sector. Practical Action’s energy projects over the last two decades are good examples. Working with communities in rural and informal settlements in urban centres, the organisation has not only pioneered initiatives to light up villages from small micro-hydro and pico-hydro schemes in Central Kenya but also provided alternative and efficient energy saving technologies used for cooking in western Kenya. These initiatives have accentuated the fact that the poor have a legitimate right to and need for increased energy services which are affordable, healthier, more reliable and more sustainable.
One on one learning how to make fireless cookers
They have also highlighted the skewed distribution of energy – with the richest people consuming the largest percentage of energy supply and the poorest using the least – that must change if significant change is to be realised in the sector. Developing and implementing sound national energy development policies together with the right use of technology are areas that have been emphasised over the years. They are areas that require transparent processes that provide for equitable participation from all stakeholders.
Since when did the suffering of 12 million people stop being headline news?
This morning before work I spent my usual few moments educating myself about today’s news on the BBC website.
I was especially interested in reading the latest about the Horn of Africa drought and famine because in five days I will be travelling to Kenya myself to visit a range of Practical Action’s projects. My trip will include four days in Mandera, an area in the very north of the country, and one which is severely affected by the worst drought in 60 years.
However, it took me much longer than I expected to read news about the drought. In fact, it took me four mouse clicks to reach any sort of update about the current crisis. The drought does not even headline the Africa section of the BBC news page.
This horrifies me perhaps even more than I can express. Since when did the suffering of 12 million people stop being headline news?
When reading the comments section underneath virtually every article on Africa and development and poverty on any mainstream news website, there is a worryingly high number of opinions along the lines of “Africa brings its poverty on itself”, “it’s not the West’s problem anymore, we’ve done enough”, “charity begins at home”, “just give them condoms” and a whole host of other ill-thought out, lazy and ignorant attitudes.
Of course development has its problems. But when the lives of 12 million people – and most of these children – are at risk these do not matter.
You have two choices. Bury your head in the sand and ignore the suffering of so many because it has nothing to do with you - which is a very easy choice, as demonstrated by the absence of the crisis from mainstream news.
Or support relief efforts of other NGOs, and the long-term development work of Practical Action.
You can give, and try to help.
Or you can choose not to. And more many innocent girls and boys from Africa will die.
I will be reporting from Kenya throughout my time there. Stay tuned.
No Comments » | Add your commentThe beating heart of technology justice
I have long been a Take That fan. As a child I loved the stickers of the band (my favourite was Robbie Williams) and would spend my precious pocket money on completing my collection. I was nine when the band separated, and I remember feeling that my whole world was falling apart.
So on Tuesday night I – along with around 50,000 others in the West Midlands – was almost overcome with excitement as I made my way to Birmingham’s Aston Villa to watch Take That and their Progress tour.
It was an incredible concert. The atmosphere was electric and the energy of the performances was exhilarating. In the course of about two hours I experienced a myriad of human emotion: excitement, joy, euphoria. I was expecting to feel all this and my heart did not disappoint.
But the one feeling I did not anticipate was anger.
The set for this concert was dominated by this immense sculpture of a human head and torso. In front of this sculpture there was a second slightly smaller sculpture, again of a human figure. As the concert progressed, this crouching figure slowly unfurled its limbs until at the climax of the concert this 100ft high mechanical man, complete with arms outstretched, Christ like, and a red beating heart, dominated the entire stadium and skyline.
And it was at this point – despite previously feeling so much happiness – that I felt angry.
Although this sculpture was somehow strangely beautiful and moving, I couldn’t ignore the Practical Action voice in my head insisting that this mechanical man somehow represents one of the world’s greatest injustices: that the technological innovation used to create it was spent here, on such a spectacle, rather than on giving the 1.1 billion people in the world without clean water access to it. Or on finding a cure for the HIV epidemic in Africa.
We live in a world which is technologically unjust. Technological development is focused on meeting the desires of rich consumers and little attention is paid to the vital needs of people in the developing world. The most frustrating thing is that the technologies needed to feed the world, and ensure that everyone has access to basic services, largely already exist. But the distribution of these technologies, and the right to access them, must change.
Practical Action is dedicated to bringing about a revolution, with ‘technology justice’ as its rallying cry. We envisage a world where there is a balance between meeting the technological needs of poor people, and satiating the technological appetites of those with more. A world where all people, regardless of geography or wealth, can choose and use the technologies that will help them to live the life they value, without compromising the ability of others and future generations to do the same. A world which is technologically just – where the real beating hearts of real people across the world matter more than a red flashing light inside the chest of a metal man.
1 Comment » | Add your commentKnowledge is power
The simple idea behind all of Practical Action’s work is that access to technology can transform poor people’s lives and help them lift themselves out of poverty. But when we say ‘access to technology’ we don’t just mean ‘hardware’ – a hand pump for water or a turbine to generate electricity. Hardware is important, but what’s also important is access to technical knowledge that is appropriate and useful to those living in poverty and which is available in a form which they can access, understand and use.
Practical Action has been providing a technical advisory service, now known as Practical Answers, for more than 30 years. The service takes various forms. Internationally we offer a web based service through which people can get access to short and simple ‘how to’ technical briefs on nearly 400 different topics ranging from small scale commercial production of yogurt to brick making to electricity generation by micro hydro. These briefs are extremely popular with over 1 million of being downloaded last year alone. Take a look at some of these yourself at Practical Answers.
Information on the web is still not widely accessible to poor people in the developing world and this part of our service tends to be used more by development workers employed by local or international NGOs or local government, who have access to the internet. There are some exceptions. In Peru access to the internet is quite high and we have a number of highly used technical websites such as Infolactea for dairy farmers (have a look if your Spanish is up to it!). But in most of the countries where we have a presence on the ground, we supplement any web based offer with an enquiry service in local languages where people can phone, write, e-mail or visit our offices to get technical advice.
We continue to look for innovative ways to get information out of the offices of development professionals and into the hands of poor people who can use it. One method we have used quite successfully in recent years in Zimbabwe is, surprisingly, podcasting – putting step by step instructions in a local language on a particular topic, say how to vaccinate your cow, on to an MP3 player which a farmer can borrow and listen to as he or she carries out the activity itself.
One of our challenges remains getting information translated into languages other than English however. So we’ve been very pleased to team up with the mobile phone operator Orange recently to try to combine technology and people power in the UK to get some of our technical briefs translated into other languages. The idea is to break down this work into bit sized 5 minute chunks that volunteers with language skills could complete on their smart phones whilst, perhaps, waiting for a bus. If you’d like to find out more about this or download the app that will let you join in please go to our website for more information. Knowledge is power, but in this case people power is knowledge!
2 Comments » | Add your commentA hand up or a hand out?
The UK NGO network BOND has published a report called ‘Finding Frames – New ways to engage the UK public in global poverty’ which looks at UK public views on global poverty and development and what influences those views. The underlying message is quite stark – we are not building a movement for change.
Since 1997 around 25% of the UK public have reported being very concerned about global poverty. The Make Poverty History movement in 2005 managed to raise this to 32% but it has since fallen back to 1997 levels. Moreover, the quality of the public engagement on poverty is low. People see the causes of poverty as internal to poor countries themselves (corruption, war natural disasters etc), and the relationship between us and the developing world fundamentally being a charitable one – with the UK as a ‘powerful giver’ and the developing world a ‘grateful receiver’.
The report points out that the UK public has an important role in fighting global poverty – providing a licence for UK public spending on aid; making a difference individually through their own personal actions, whether it’s giving to causes or buying fair trade; and opening up the space for debate on how things need to change in the future to tackle the causes of global poverty.
The report is quite hard on the NGOs themselves as contributors to the current state of public engagement. Certainly, fund-raising literature that focuses only on starving babies or disasters does little to explain the real causes of poverty, or to promote the very real successes that have occurred over the past 20 years – lifting large numbers of people out of poverty, putting children into education, improving health and reducing infant and maternal mortality. Such material also fails to get across the really positive image that is a reality of much aid – people being helped to help themselves.
Recently, Practical Action tried a different tack to communicate more positive messages about development to the general public. We used a spoof video (donated free of charge to us) to reinforce the message that the people we work with in Africa, Asia and Latin America are looking for a hand out not a hand up. Over 75,000 people watched it and then went on to see the follow up message about what we think development is really about. If you are interested you can still do the same by clicking on the following link: Fat of the land
The support of the UK general public is absolutely vital in the fight against global poverty and it is incumbent on all development NGOs, including Practical Action, to find more effective ways of engaging on this. I’d be very interested to hear if you have ideas on how we could do this better.
A hand-up, not a hand-out
I was in good company (approx. 12 million people in fact!) by spending my Friday night curled up at home watching BBC’s bi-annual charity telethon Comic Relief. For the most part, I was entertained by the host of comics and celebrities, moved by the footage of vulnerable families in the UK and Africa, and inspired by the efforts of Comic Relief-funded projects to transform lives for good.
However, I found one video extremely unsettling. This short film showed comedian Jack Dee handing out nutritional bars named “Plumpy’Nut” to malnourished children in Kenya. Now I realise that the children receiving this high-protein peanut paste bar were gravely underweight, and in need of urgent help ultimately to save their lives. And I do believe that R.U.T.F. (or ‘ready to use therapeutic foods’) have their place – in times of famine or disaster, for example. But as an example of how Comic Relief strives to “create a just world free from poverty”, I think it was flawed.
After a bit of research today I discovered that a French company named Nutriset manufactures “Plumpy’Nut” bars and protects its intellectual property fiercely. Apparently the inventor of the product envisaged people making it for themselves wherever they were in the world (developing nations grow the majority of the world’s peanuts) but Nutriset’s patent means that this is illegal – although obviously this doesn’t always stop local producers from making their own versions of “Plumpy’Nut”. Regardless of this, it seems that business is profiting from poverty. Maybe it’s naïve, but to me this seems profoundly unjust.
And furthermore, the eradication of malnutrition and weeding out its roots – poverty – is not as simple as distributing a one stop solution to hunger. The answer is far less flash and glamorous. We need to work together with poor people to ensure that they are not condemned to a life of reliance upon Western interventions. And we do that by empowering poor people around the world to challenge their own poverty. At Practical Action we believe that simple, practical solutions can help poor people escape their poverty forever, and we provide the tools and opportunity they need to drive their own development. Read about our work here.
This is the point that our recent spoof video ‘Fat of the Land’ was trying to make. In my opinion handing out “Plumpy’Nut” is no better than donating fat at the Klaxon Institute. Watch it here if you haven’t seen it yet and tell me, what do you think? I’d be interested to hear other thoughts on this. Because the only one echoing around my head is that to achieve fair, long-term and lasting development we should be giving people a hand-up, not a hand-out.
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