Microfinance - Grameen Bank under Threat

VSL meeting in a suburb of Accra, Ghana/Fjona Hill

Writing about development and humanitarian issues, I am well aware of the importance of microloans and how non-profit lenders and savings and loans associations can help change lives (see my recent post and article in the Economist on Village Savings and Loans Associations. Also, if you want a clear explanation of how microcredit works, see the excellent graphic at the end of this post).

So, I was alarmed reading this recent appeal from the global campaigning group Avaaz that the Grameen Bank is under threat.

The Grameen Bank is very different from traditional banks. They loan money to 8.4 million people, mostly women from the poorest villages in Bangladesh, so they can buy assets like cows or sewing machines and start earning money. These women borrowers also run the bank -- they are not only the majority shareholders, 9 out of 12 seats on the board are held by village women in saris.

I haven’t had time to verify Avaaz’s claims and I know that the Grameen Bank has come under criticism over the past few years for tax evasion. There were also accusations that microcredit can bring communities into debt from which they cannot escape and that the Grameen Bank was linked to exploitation and pressures on poor families to sell their belongings.  (That’s why I prefer the Village Savings and Loans model in which the money comes from the community itself.)

I don’t know what is behind the Bangladeshi government’s decision regarding the bank, but here is what Avaaz says:   “Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina wants to end Grameen Bank as we know it.  She first stripped Dr. Yunus’ position as the bank’s managing director, and now just passed a law that would allow the government to bypass the people-elected board and handpick his successor. We fear that the government may use its newfound power to manipulate millions of members for votes in next year’s election.

“Grameen's downfall would be a disaster for Bangladesh and the larger microcredit movement that is working to improve lives across the globe.”  Avaaz is asking people to sign their urgent petition to PM Hasina.

Here is a very good graphic, which explains clearly the process of microloans and how microlending, if done correctly, can help millions of people around the world. The graphic is produced by CreditScore.net, a personal finance blog by a team of experts focusing on all things credit and debt related.

 

Transformational Media – Can the media be a force for good?

As I write about human rights, social justice and development, my stories are often about hardship, injustice and abuse.  These stories are depressing. They are hard on my readers and on myself.  I believe these stories need to be told,  but there might be another way to tell them. Increasingly, I’ve tried to look for the positive, even in the most depressing stories, to seek solutions instead of just outlining problems. We all need hope.

So, I was intrigued when I found in my mailbox an invitation to attend a Transformational Media conference at Sadler's Wells in London on 27-28 Sept.  The conference’s website describes Transformational Media this way: “Transformation Media may be focused on inner qualities, inspiring stories or on practical solutions. It is transformational in the sense that its goal is to transform conflict into peace, to unite rather than divide, and transform environmental destruction into living in harmony with the natural world.”

Just what I was looking for!  

It could have been a lot of hot air – and there was some of that, but on the whole, the summit was inspiring and exciting. Over two days, journalists, film-makers, musicians, publishers, web designers and other creative people focused on how the media could bring solutions to cultural, social, environmental and economic problems.

My favourites included a wonderful story-telling workshop with Dara Marks, a leading Hollywood script consultant, exploring the power of myths, and a talk by former BBC and ITV national news anchor Martyn Lewis, in which he argued for the media to achieve a fairer balance between the positive and the negative, and analyse success and achievement as well as failure and disaster.

Gilles Vanderpooten told us why he created Reporters d’Espoir (Reporters of Hope) to encourage the media reframe problems in term of solutions and help mediatise positive innovative initiatives.

Actor Felicity Finch, who plays Ruth in the Archers and worked on radio dramas in Rwanda and Afghanistan, explained how radio soaps can be used to convey important messages , such as HIV and domestic violence. Journalist Catherine Gyldensted has developed a “positive news” module to teach in journalism schools. She said journalists needed new heroes - not just muckrakers and war reporters, but reporters of positive changes. Musician and TV & radio presenter Clemency Burton-Hill talked about what happens when people listen to music together and how music can change lives.

Other speakers included Greg Barrow from the UN World Food Programme; BBC World Affairs Producer Stuart Hughes; Jarvis Smith, founder of Green Magazine; Julie Mollins from Reuters AlertNet; Anna Coote, head of Social Policy at the New Economic Foundation and  Beadie Finzi, foundation director of BRITDOC.

“The vision is for the event to become an annual global gathering exploring emerging trends and how media can be a force for good in the world,” says Jeremy Wickremer, founder of Ideal Media, who organized the summit.

I truly hope something will come out of this…

Women’s rights heroes wanted

Do you know someone who has made a significant difference on the ground in promoting women's rights? If yes, please nominate them for the upcoming Trust Women Award 2012.

The Trust Women Award 2012 is part of the Trust Women Conference, a joint venture between Thomson Reuters Foundation and the International Herald Tribune, dedicated to forging real solutions to challenges faced by women worldwide.

The award seeks to celebrate an innovator whose bold thinking and high-impact work has helped women defend and advance their rights. Another award will be presented to a journalist who has made a significant contribution to the coverage of women’s rights in 2012.

Nominees will be judged on the groundbreaking nature of their work, its impact and scalability. The winner will be acknowledged through Reuters and IHT channels, including a profile in the IHT, and will receive a cash prize of $5,000 to help further their work.

The closing date for entries is Monday, 8 October, 2012. Shortlisted nominees will be notified in late October. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, 4 December 2012 in London.

You can download an application form from this website.

Poverty in the UK – Save the Children launches first domestic appeal

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Save the Children is best known for its work with starving children in Africa or Asia, but this time, the international aid charity is turning its attention to the UK – the world’s sixth richest country.   

The charity is launching “It Shouldn’t Happen Here”,  its first-ever domestic appeal to help children across the UK have hot meals, adequate shoes, winter clothes and other necessities they cannot afford because their parents have been hit hard by budget cuts and the recession.

The charity is hoping to raise £500,000  - a modest goal compared to its international humanitarian appeals – but its symbolic impact is huge. It shows the failure of the coalition government to tackle mounting poverty and inequality in the UK.

 "It is shocking to think that in the UK in 2012, families are being forced to miss out on essentials like food or take on crippling debts just to meet everyday living costs,” says Chris Wellings, Save the Children's UK head of policy.  "Poverty in the UK is different to some of the poorer countries in the world. It is more nuanced and poses different problems. But it does not mean that we cannot stand up for children's rights in the UK."

According to a survey of 5,000 UK adults commissioned by Save the Children:

• Nearly two thirds of parents in poverty (61%) say they have cut back on food and over a quarter (26%) say they have skipped meals in the past year.

• One in five parents in poverty says they cannot afford to replace their children's worn-out shoes, while 80% of parents in poverty say they have had to borrow money to pay for food and clothes over the past 12 months.

• Some 44% of families in poverty say that "every week they are short of money", while 29% say they have "nothing left to cut back on".

Not surprisingly, financial worries are taking a toll on parents’ physical and mental well-being, triggering arguments and other signs of family stress, the survey indicates. 

Save the Children is calling on the government to stick to its 2020 child poverty targets, to encourage more employers to give the current living wage of £7.20 to  £8.30 an hour, provide extra childcare support for low-income parents and allow parents to keep more of their earnings before benefits are withdrawn. 

The charity's Shouldn't Happen Here report is the second high-profile study by an international aid charity to focus on domestic poverty in recent months. Oxfam's Perfect Storm, published in June, said that cuts and rising living costs were threatening to return the UK to levels of inequality not seen since Victorian times.

Thousands sill missing in Balkans

The beautiful Mostar Bridge has been rebuilt, but elsewhere the scars from the Balkan wars are still visible and raw/Veronique Mistiaen

I’ve recently travelled through Bosnia and Croatia, and was shocked to see that two decades after the Balkan wars, the scars are still so visible and raw: many buildings are still in ruins or poked with bullet holes. People are suspicious and deeply divided, and many children are growing up without ever meeting a child from another ethnic group. Across the Balkans, thousands of people are still missing.

Today, some 14,000 people remain unaccounted for in the countries that make up the former Yugoslavia – nearly half of the total number who disappeared in the decade since war broke out in 1991.

Between 1991 and 2001, a total of 34,700 people were reported missing due to enforced disappearances or abductions in the region. The majority of their relatives are still waiting for justice.

In a briefing published yesterday on the International Day of the Disappeared, The right to know: Families still left in the dark in the Balkans, Amnesty International calls on the authorities in the Balkans to investigate enforced disappearances – crimes under international law – and to ensure the victims and their families receive access to justice and reparations.

Not far from the Mostar Bridge, many buildings are still in ruins/Veronique Mistiaen

Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director, Jezerca Tigani, said:

“People living in the Balkans have not closed the chapter on enforced disappearances. They are a daily source of pain for the relatives still waiting to learn the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones, still searching for truth, justice and reparation.

“The victims of enforced disappearances come from all ethnic groups and from all walks of life. Civilians and soldiers, men, women and children – their families have the right to know the truth about the circumstances of the enforced disappearance, the progress and the result of the investigation and the fate of the disappeared person. For families of the disappeared, having the body returned for burial is the first step towards achieving justice.

 “The lack of investigations and prosecutions of enforced disappearances and abductions remains a serious concern throughout the Balkans.  

“The major obstacle to tackling impunity and bringing the perpetrators to justice is a persistent lack of political will in all countries of the region.”

The briefing highlights cases of enforced disappearances and abductions in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia and Kosovo. All six governments have failed to abide by their international legal obligations to effectively investigate and prosecute these crimes.

Some perpetrators have been brought to justice by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), but the Tribunal is nearing the end of its mandate.

Domestic courts are slow to abide by their responsibility to seek out, identify and prosecute the remaining perpetrators.

Ikal Angelei fights giant dam

Ikal Angelei/courtesy of Goldman Environmental Prize

 In my work, I come across numerous projects designed to bring progress and development to developing countries across the world. Often, these projects affect the environment and clash with human rights of local populations – sometimes violently so.   I often wonder how to strike the right balance?

I’ve recently spoken with Ikal Angelei, a remarkable young Kenyan whose fight to save Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake from Africa’s biggest dam project, has thrust her at the forefront of one of the most polarizing environmental and economic battles in Africa.

When built, the Ethiopian-led Gibe III Dam will nearly double electrical output to Ethiopia, and Kenya is expected to purchase a third of the power generated from it. The Ethiopian and Kenyan governments believe the energy is vital to fuel development, and the project had the backing of China, the World Bank and other major investors.  But Angelei worried that the giant dam would deprive local communities from vital water and cause more bloodshed in an already volatile region.  “The dam will cause further scarcity of resources and exacerbate conflicts in an already fragile region. Communities there are in need of water and food much more than electricity.”

She made it her mission to stop the dam. She founded Friends of Lake Turkana and worked tirelessly to inform local chiefs and elders about the implications of the project. She also approached academics, politicians and influential people across the world in person and through social media.

Angelei addressing villagers on lake's shores/courtesy of the Goldman Environmental Prize

Amazingly, she has succeeded in stopping the dam in its tracks through effective campaigning of the Kenyan parliament and UNESCO.  For her work and courage, the 31 year old has been awarded the 2012 Goldman Environmental Prize – a sort of Nobel Prize for grassroots environmental activists.

When asked what she would tell her critics who argue that her campaign is blocking much needed development in Kenya and Ethiopia, she replied:

“We are witnessing governments destroy the environment to increase their GDPs.  While we appreciate the need to develop, meet Millennium goals by 2015, and agree that we all have to solve the current problems of access to energy and employment, we cannot achieve these at the expense of the environment, especially with the availability of alternatives and the reality of climate change."  She pointed out that both Kenya and Ethiopia have wind and geothermal energy resources.

"Progress cannot leave people or the Earth worse off. We are not against development: we can develop in a sustainable way, in a way that would not violate human rights and destroy the environment."

 Read my article about Angelei in the summer issue of the New Internationalist here.

England riots one year on – Hackney’s youths reflect on freedom and safety

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Freedom/Lydia Noura, 16

To mark the anniversary of the devastating riots, which spread across the country last summer, Art Against Knives is hosting an exhibit exploring notions of freedom and safety in London’s Hackney’s diverse community.

Through film, audio, photography, painting and writing, the exhibition showcases the community’s response to the riots, police’s stop-and-search and freedom. The work is the result of collaborations between established photographers and young people from the borough.

The exhibition, which opens on Thursday 9 August at the Art Against Knives Gallery in Shoreditch and runs until the end of the month, kick-starts ‘STOP AND TALK’, a nationwide campaign that calls for better and fairer relationships between the police and young people.

The exhibit’s opening night also features a talk on journalism and the riots with award-winning Guardian journalist Paul Lewis, as well as a preview of Pagan, a short film about Kes, a 18-year-old from Hackney caught between the police and rival gangs. The film opens to the public on 31st August at Dalston Eastern Curve/V22.

For many young people, the borough is a haven of arts, culture and fashion, but for Kes and thousands who grew up here, most of the area is off-limits.  Large parts of Hackney have been claimed by one gang or another, and though most people have no idea where the borders lie, for Kes these invisible lines dictate where he goes and what he does in the place he calls home.

Instead of being able to turn to the police, young black people like Kes are 30 times more likely to be stopped-and-searched than white people, so the presence of officers on the streets only makes them feel less safe.

Stop and Search/Ondre Roach, 18

Hackney has been simmering with discontent as young people find themselves on the wrong side of the police and increasing social inequality. Last year's riots saw the borough reach boiling point.

The 'STOP AND TALK’ campaign is asking the police to try to better understand young people, connect with them and protect them rather than automatically see them as suspects.

Art Against Knives is a youth-led charity, which works to reduce the causes of knife crime through art initiatives and providing an alternative to violent gang culture.

The charity was born from the tragic and unprovoked stabbing of Oliver Hemsley, a 21-year-old student from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design. The attack, which has left Oliver in a wheelchair, took place in Shoreditch, East London in August 2008. Art Against Knives decided to create something positive from this terrible experience.

WHAT DOES FREEDOM MEAN TO YOU? EXHIBITION- 9th- 30th August 2012

Art Against Knives Gallery, Unit 55, Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, London E1 6GJ