(07-24-2006) Big Changes in Poor Villages -- Philadelphia Inquirer*

[dsmith2904]

Big Changes in Poor Villages: Special Program AIDS Sub-Saharan Africans

In a destitute village in Africa, people talked with me recently about the droughts, diseases and other conditions that endanger their lives. They don't have electricity or safe drinking water. Only a few have bed nets to protect them from malaria. The nearest clinic and public school are more than an hour's walk away.

A drought left them hungry and dependent on relief agencies until a few months ago. One of the men said: "We want to forget about this Stone Age existence."

Yet Mwandama, Malawi _ a cluster of brick shacks in one of the world's poorest countries _ is brimming with hope because it has been chosen as a "Millennium Village." These special villages in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where almost half of the people exist on less than $1 a day, are meant to show how smart basics can bring dramatic change.

At an outdoor meeting a few weeks ago, dozens of villagers shared their dreams while the project leader, Rebbie Harawa, 34, translated. "I am expecting to get fat from this," Foustino Machemba, 56, said as the crowd laughed. Josephine Smoke, 41, said she hoped that homes with grass roofs would get metal ones and that she could get braided hair like Harawa's. More laughter.

They want things we take for granted: food, security, safe water, a paved road, a clinic, a school. To get there, they are customizing a five-year plan drafted by experts led by globe-trotting economist Jeffrey Sachs. The cost _ about 30 cents per person per day _ is coming from philanthropists, foundations, corporations and the government of Japan.

The effort to turn Mwandama around started with agriculture late last year because drought had seriously damaged the nation's staple crop: corn. Malawi's rain came back in time for a decent harvest several months ago, but in Mwandama and other Millennium Villages nearby, the farmers were superstars: They produced more than five times as much corn per acre as they did the year before.

They excelled because the project gave them free fertilizer and Monsanto Co. gave them hybrid corn seed for free. Experts also helped them with plants that replenish the soil, and better methods to store their harvest.

Villagers proudly showed me a field where a new health clinic will be built, so that their sick don't have to walk about four miles to line up outside an overcrowded clinic. Two preventable, treatable killers _ malaria and AIDS _ will be priorities. With a population of 12 million, Malawi has almost 3 million cases of malaria a year. About 1 million citizens carry the AIDS virus, and the vast majority of them don't know it.

We walked up a nearby hill where a new school will go, so that youngsters don't have to hike more than four miles on rutted dirt roads to a school whose classrooms have rocks where the desks and chairs should be. Making school more convenient and comfortable _ including a midday meal _ is expected to boost attendance and discourage dropouts.

The Millennium Village model is simple: Ensure that folks are nourished and healthy, upgrade their children's education, get full participation by women and girls, and help some folks shift into better jobs than subsistence farming. This strategy has transformed villages in Kenya and Ethiopia that started sooner, and it is poised to succeed in Malawi and elsewhere.

Good news from these villages raises the question: Instead of helping the fortunate ones in dozens or even hundreds of villages, why not extend such life-changing help wherever folks are trapped in poverty? Indeed, Sachs and his sidekicks designed the villages to drive home this point.

Granted, it is a difficult, complex challenge for poor nations to achieve economic growth and to spread the benefits broadly. What's more, affluent nations are still making the challenge harder in some ways, such as unfair policies that block poor nations from increasing their exports.

Yet there are plenty of reasons for hope. On the economic fundamentals, Adam Smith is in, Karl Marx is out. Major foreign debt has been canceled. Aid for development is rising. Official corruption is getting squeezed. Warren Buffett and the Gateses are flexing their billions to save millions. Thanks to Bono, Live 8, and The ONE Campaign (www.one.org), the public is tuning in.

And in the middle of nowhere in Malawi, Josephine Smoke is reaching toward a better life at a weekly cost of a Starbucks coffee. By succeeding, she and her neighbors can embolden the world to keep its promise for 2015: to help half a billion people escape extreme poverty.

___

For more information about the Millennium Villages, visit www.millenniumpromise.org.

Douglas Pike writes occasionally for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Readers may send him e-mail at pikestuff@aol.com.

--Philadelphia Inquirer

 

[Jamila]

The Millenium Villages Project is co-ordinated with the assistance of Prof. Jeffrey Sachs from the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

To learn more about the EXCELLENT work that Jeffrey Sachs does through the Earth Institute, please click on this link:

http://www.earth.columbia.edu/

 

[Jamila]

In fact, check out this article by Prof. Sachs in the August 2006 edition of Scientific American:


July 24, 2006

Virtuous Circles and Fragile States

Want to promote stable democracy in struggling nations? Send timely packages of food, seeds and medicine

By Jeffrey D. Sachs

If U.S. leaders better understood the politics of impoverished and crisis-ridden countries, they would more effectively protect American national security by advancing the causes of economic development and democracy. Although the administration of George W. Bush has often stated its commitment to the spread of democracy, partly to combat the risks of terror, it relies excessively on military approaches and threats rather than strategic aid. Timely development assistance to places hovering between democracy and disarray can yield enormous benefits.
For nations in a deep crisis, the greatest danger is a self-fulfilling prophecy of disaster. Consider Liberia, just emerging from a prolonged civil war, and Haiti, which has suffered decades of intense political instability. Both nations have recently elected new democratic governments, but both face con-tinuing possibilities of internal violence and disorder.


When the public thinks that a newly elected national government will succeed, local leaders throw their support behind it. Expectations of the government's longevity rise. Individuals and companies become much more likely to pay their taxes, because they assume that the government will have the police power to enforce the tax laws.


A virtuous circle is created. Rising tax revenues strengthen not only the budget but also political authority and enable key investments--in police, teachers, roads, electricity--that promote public order and economic development. They also bolster confidence in the currency. Money flows into the commercial banks, easing the specter of banking crises.


When the public believes that a government will fail, the same process runs in reverse. Pessimism splinters political forces. Tax payments and budget revenues wane. The police and other public officials go unpaid. The currency weakens. Banks face a withdrawal of deposits and the risk of banking panics. Disaster feeds more pessimism.



By attending to the most urgent needs of these fragile states, U.S. foreign policy can tilt the scales to favor the consolidation of democracy and economic improvement. To an informed and empathetic observer, the necessary ac-tions will usually be clear. Both Liberia and Haiti lack electricity service, even in their capital cities. Both countries face massive crises of hunger and insufficient food production. Both suffer from pervasive infectious diseases that are controllable but largely uncontrolled.

But if each impoverished farm family is given a bag of fertilizer and a tin of high-yield seeds, a good harvest with ample food output can be promoted within a single growing season. A nationwide campaign to spread immunizations, antimalaria bed nets and medicines, vitamin supplements and deworming agents can improve the health of the population even without longer-term fixes of the public health system. Electric power can be restored quickly in key regions. And safe water outlets, including boreholes and protected natural springs, can be constructed by the thousands within a year.


All these initiatives require financial aid, but the costs are small. Far too often, however, the U.S. response is neglect. Rather than giving practical help, the rich countries and international agencies send an endless stream of consultants to design projects that arrive too late, if ever. They ignore emergency appeals for food aid. After a few months, the hungry, divided, disease-burdened public begins to murmur that "nothing has changed," and the downward spiral recommences. Pessimism breeds pessimism. Eventually the government falls, and the nascent democracy is often extinguished.


By thinking through the underlying ecological challenges facing a country--drought, poor crops, disease, physical isolation--and raising the lot of the average household through quick-disbursing and well-targeted assistance, U.S. foreign policy makers would provide an invaluable investment in democracy, development and U.S. national security. Liberia and Haiti are two important places to begin to make good on the Bush administration's pledge to spread democracy.



http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?colID=31&articleID=00071E10-B04F-14C0-B04F83414B7F0000



Wise words from a man who is at the forefront of making poverty history.

 

[Carek1230]

I am pleased to read this information. Very promising. Sachs is a very wise man.

 

[guill]

Monsanto Co. gave them hybrid corn seed for free.

Wonderful..........

 

[Teta040]

Let's just hope that Monsanto officals are aware of the diverse local system of domesticated and undomesticated plant life that the region no doubt has, and does not encourage the conversion of diverse local ecosystems into monocultural crops developed with ONLY Monsanto seed, and fertilized ONOY with Monsanto chemical fertilizers as oppoed to traditional manure-based/organic fertilizing systems. This company does not have a very good rep in various parts of the world (such as the poorer, non-"New" parts of India) when it comes to destroying local ecosystems to convert local farmers into successful agribusiness markets. Um..did that make sense? You know what I mean.

I hope Monsanto is genuinely driven by nobler sentiments here. But all in all, wonderful stuff....

Arrgh!! WHY can't this stuff share the Nightly News on TV every night...I think now more than ever, I despise the concept of "If it bleeds, it leads." We need to SEE this stuff on TV every night.....