Development

Did you know that …

• … what will happen when you dictate to the people, what they have to do?
  It does not work. You need to motivate people and give them possibility to improve their lives and stop pulling the strings. Such programs exist. Bangladesh program Food for Education, give possibility to poor families to choose whether they want their daughters to attend school and for those, who choose this option was provided food and money. Mexican program Progresa does something similar for the poor: parents, who let their children attend school are offered financial support and food for the children.
• … how can private companies help to solve problems of poverty?
  Professor C.K.Prahalad from the Michigan Business School wrote a fascinating book "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits". What he mentions in his book is, that sometimes it is in sake of private companies, to help solve problems of poverty, which are traditionally being treated by development agencies. One of those problems might be diarrhea. Prahalad gives an example of a company Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), an affiliated branch of international company Unilever. This company sells very simple product - soap and it realized that market may grow if they areable to associate soap with prevention of diarrhea. Cleaning hands with soap is crucial prevention of spreading viruses and bacteria, which cause diarrhea. If people from HLL are able to do it, selling of soap will go up. To persuade people to use soap was not easy, but through different campaigns they succeeded. HLL Company was, because of profit, able to persuade poor people to use soap as prevention of many diseases.
• … why many of African states borders are so straight and Europeans are so narrow?
  If you consider colonization as something which was not nice, decolonization was not better at all. It was an utopian idea to create new states and nations overnight. Borders of the new states were set by decolonizators from offices in Europe. Europeans did not take into consideration what the local people wanted. Usually, they relied on borders within colonies although they have been set just recently or have been set by European officers. Europe decided what a state is and what is nation and where the borders are. They decided who would have its own state and who would not. The result was as bad as the other imposed changes. Mixture of thousands different language groups, religions, tribes and races was forced by West. Such setting of borders denied existing nations their own states (Kurds) and for others, which did not exist as a nation created states (Iraq). The outcome was creation of states, which started their existence influenced by ethnic and national violations.
• … what is GlobalGiving.com about?
  It is an internet platform, which understands development cooperation and philanthropy as a market place, where the donors and beneficiaries can meet and share the information and resources. Beneficiaries present their projects and individual or institutional donors can support those, which they consider to be meaningful and profitable for them. For more visit: http://www.globalgiving.org/
• … what is the name of the largest refugee camp all over the world?
  Dadaab - is in Kenya, near Somali border and was built for 90,000 people, but in 2011 it went beyond 440,000 people and every day about 1,300 refugees arrived - at least 800 of them were children.
• … about web-page which exists to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder?
  Genocide Watch web-page seek to raise awareness and influence public policy concerning potential and actual genocide. The purpose is to build an international movement to prevent and stop genocide.
• … which country is helps the most?
  Look at the Commitment to Development Index (CDI) - quality and renowned picture into the world of donor which is provided by the Centre for Global Development, which in cooperation with “Foreign Policy” have been publishing this index since 2003. CDI assesses the efforts of the countries, which provide development cooperation (only those which are members of DAC OECD). It I interesting that the index does not assess only the amount of money (aid) provided to development cooperation, but also other 6 important aspects of development cooperation: trade, investment, migration, environment, security, technology.
• … what is Gross National Happiness (GNH)
  It is a term coined by His Majesty the Fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck in the 1970s. The concept implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of well-being. The concept of GNH has often been explained by its four pillars: good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental conservation. Lately the four pillars have been further classified into nine domains: psychological well-being, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards. The Gross National Happiness Index is a single number index developed from 33 indicators categorized under already mentioned nine domains.
• … how many farmers in Africa are women?
  80 percent
• … that Brent Spar caused 30 percent regress of sales of Shell products?
  Brent Spar was oil well in the North Sea, which came to an end of its productive life. Shell company, which was the owner of the well, decided to get rid of it in a way, which endangered living environment. Reaction of European ecologists destroyed reputation and sales of Shell company in a way, that Shell decided to change policy about closing oil wells. Initially, the management of Shell was trying to rely on their policy, but after regress of sales of their products in Germany by 30% they changed their opinion. Where the power came from? Maybe it was a consequence of cumulative action of German teenagers’ behavior at the backseats of the family cars, which said: “Mom, dad, do not go to this petrol station – you did not hear what Shell plans?” And the parents came to a decision, that it would be better to avoid quarrel with their children. Brent Spar proves, that that ordinary people in the West think about oil companies matters.