Fighting Malaria..."Nothing But Net"

Worldwide, an estimated 200 million to 300 million malaria infections occur each year, with 2 million to 3 million deaths. In an attempt to better combat malaria infections, the government of Nigeria will be distributing 63 million mosquito treated bed nets in the year 2010.

The Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin stated that "it was sad that malaria had remained a major contributor to morbidity in Nigeria leading to frequent hospital visitis, absenteeism from schools and low academics performance.

Efforts such as these are in line with Millennium Development Goal #6 - to combat AIDS / HIV, malaria, and other diseases.

- Tiffanie Depew

SOURCE: The Punch

Youth Want In

‘Mera India Bridge the Gap’ is a contest held in India asking young adults aged 18 to 35 to formulate ideas that would help their country reach its commitment of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The contest concluded with some innovative and refreshing suggestions.

The main goal for this project is to increase participation among Indian youth in order for them to play a more active role in reaching out to the poor and aiding them in the use of government programs and services. Katuri Kodanda Pani, 25, won the first prize with her idea of setting up an MDG-Youth Council at national, state and district levels. Other ideas by award winners include forming college teams involved with rural upliftment work and tackling corruption by having a “No Bribes Day” that would gradually evolve into “No Bribes Month”.

These ideas definitely reflect a positive future, with pro-active youth that want a bigger role in helping their country meet the targets of the MDGs. You can check the contest out here.

- Leah Kelly

Source: End Poverty 2015

Progress of first ever malaria vaccine

Last June we blogged about British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline’s trial phase of the world’s first vaccine against malaria. Here’s an update...

The vaccine invented and made by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and formulated with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, appears to show promise in children, producing a 100-fold increase in antibodies.

The efforts being put forth by GlaxoSmithKline and the Walter Reed Army Institute are in line with Millennium Development Goal #6 - to reduce HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases by the year 2015.

- Leah Kelly

Source: Reuters

Designs tailored to fit the rural poor

Years of working on projects for the rural poor in Kenya led Martin Fisher to recognize the need for sustainability. This led him to establish KickStart, a company that creates technologies for small-scale enterprises. Sustainability in turn requires rethinking the principles of design and helping the poor help themselves, instead of merely giving them handouts. Paul Polak, the founder of International Development Enterprises (IDE), supports this notion after years of receiving feedback from the poor themselves.

For both, the most important thing for those experiencing poverty is to equip them with the ability to make a living. Good design for the poor go by three rules: it should increase income, remain affordable and be scaled to fit the size of the project. A great example is KickStart's foot-operated irrigation pump (pictured above).

With these guidelines, it’s encouraging to know that organizations like Fisher’s Kickstart and Polak’s IDE recognize the specific needs of the rural poor in Africa to escape the poverty trap.

- Sofia Nazalya

Source: Heifer

Microfinance Success

Here is a featured piece on microfinance enthusiast Muhammad Yunus. Yunus has done a great deal to help eradicate poverty in Bangladesh. He started a small business loan organization for people too poor to borrow from traditional banking systems.

Yunus went beyond the normal scope of lending money and began uniting the people needing loans into groups. The idea behind these groups was to motivate one another toward success in their enterprises and encourage speedy repayment of loans. The loan groups have proven more than successful with a 98% loan repayment rate in Yunus' bank. The burden of debt weighs heavy on all of us and Yunus makes the load a lot lighter with his unique support groups.

Additionally, micro-lending is becoming easier than ever with sites like Kiva in which you can lend money online and even track the recipient's progress as well as your own repayment schedule. Pretty neat.

-Nick Mohazzabfar

Sources: IndiaMarks.com, Kiva.org

From Trash to Treasure

After witnessing the countless wetsuits that are discarded annually from simple wear and tear, this innovator turned what would have otherwise been garbage into something new and useful. Netherlands based marine biologist, Sander Den Haring is creating laptop sleeves and bottle insulators out of old and discarded wetsuit material.

Smart ideas such as these are the key to promoting sustainability - both environmental as well as economic, because it protects the earth and encourages entrepreneurs to invest in their futures.

- Tiffanie Depew

SOURCE: AfriGadget

Markets Made More Accessible to Small Agricultural Farmers

In 2008, the United Nation's World Food Programme initiated a 5 year project aimed at increasing the purchasing power of small agricultural farmers in 21 pilot countries.

With the help of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the government of Belgium this aggressive program seeks to improve market conditions for agricultural farmers, the majority of whom are women. This program will allow them to produce food surpluses and sell them at a fair market price in order to increase their incomes.

To learn more about this and other programs being initiated under the World Food Programme go to their website: www.wfp.org

- Tiffanie Depew

SOURCE: World Food Programme

Additional Efforts Being Taken to Address HIV / AIDS

In following with his predecessor, President Obama has announced that the United States will continue it's ardent support of HIV/AIDS funding to the developing world.

This additional funding will be announced with the president's 2011 fiscal budget and will include an additional allocation of $165 million to support efforts at malarial infections as well as maternal and child health.

The steps being taken by the Obama administration are in line with the previous strides of President Bush and are on target with goals 5 and 6 of the Millennium Development Project.

- Tiffanie Depew

SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal

Cheers to 2009....Here's to 2010!

2009 was a great year for The Borgen Project. So much was accomplished due to the hard work and dedication of all our volunteers, interns and staff.

Remember that memorable dance scene from the film Pulp Fiction, pretty good eh? The following clip from the film highlights just a few of the accomplishments that were achieved in 2009 with the help of folks like you.

Cheers to everyone involved, and lets make 2010 the year to be beat.

- Tiffanie Depew

SOURCE: YouTube

Obama Leaves Room in His Budget for the Developing World

President Obama's administration is proposing a 9% increase in funding that is directed at the needs of global health in its 2011 fiscal budget.

The proposal being released also sets very ambitious targets to be achieved by the year 2014 that includes getting an additional 1.6 million people into drug treatment programs for HIV/AIDS, cutting the prevalence of malaria by 50%, and reducing the number of deaths of mothers and children under 5 years old.

While the strides being taken by the Obama administration are certainly ambitious, they aren't without their naysayers. There are individuals who argue that more can and should be done by the US government to combat malaria and the spread of HIV/AIDS.

To learn more about what president Obama and his administration are doing to assist in global health initiatives check out the following aritcle by the Wall Street Journal.

- Tiffanie Depew

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal

Actor Isaiah Washington, New Honorary Board Member of The Borgen Project!

Known most notably for his role on the television show Grey's Anatomy, this actor has recently discovered a new passion in life - advocacy for the country of Sierra Leone.

In honor of his ancestry and his multiple visits to the region, Washington was moved to do more. Upon his return to the states, he formed the Gondobay Manga Foundation that "advocates for cooperative planning to achieve positive, timely improvements in the lives of the people of Sierra Leone."

The message of advocacy that is inherent within Mr. Washington's work closely aligns with the mission of The Borgen Project and such a partnership promises to bring increased awareness and involvement to the alleviation of global poverty.

- Tiffanie Depew

SOURCE: Gondobay Manga Foundation & CNN

GSK Helping Fight Malaria

The Borgen Project recently blogged about Britain's large drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, doing good deeds like lifting patent restrictions on HIV advancements. Well, they're at it again. Now, GSK recently released the details of 13,500 chemical compounds that have the ability to fight Malaria in developing countries. Slowly but surely we are seeing an increase in idea-sharing and product synergy in medicine like never before. Hopefully, with efforts from those like GSK, we can develop better medicine faster with world-wide availability.

-Nick Mohazzabfar

Source: Good.is.com

Technology to propel Africa

The World Bank and Microsoft have signed a new agreement that seeks to promote development in Africa. The Memorandum of Understanding signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, aims to reinforce development, both social and economic, by means of advancing information and communication technology (ICT).

World Bank Vice President for Africa, Obiageli Ezekwesili enthuses that with this agreement, they look to “explore the transformational power of ICT to create new economic opportunities in the region”. Another significant component of the agreement includes supporting disaster relief solutions through technology.

This is not the first time the World Bank and Microsoft have teamed up. The two institutions have worked together in an advisory role in support of the encouraging development of the Rwandan government’s ICT policy.

- Sofia Nazalya

Source: The Ethiopian Review

Bill and Melinda Gates Are at it Again...

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During the 2010 World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland, Bill and Melinda Gates announced their dedication to investing 10 billion dollars in the distribution of vaccines to the developing world in order to help combat malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases.

With the help of the Gates Foundation as well as the Gavi Alliance and other non-governmental organizations, immunization against polio and tetanus have steadily increased over the past 10 years and are seeing near eradication in many countries around the world.

But according to Melinda Gates it will take more than these organizations to help eradicate many of the world's diseases - it will take increased global awareness and the intervention and assistance of richer countries and governments around the world if they are see to universal vaccination and immunization against the many diseases that claim the lives of millions of children each year.

- Tiffanie Depew

SOURCE: World Economic Forum