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Exploring Data to Learn about Human Development

“Hunger levels have increased across Africa over the last decade—In every region of Africa, hunger is more prevalent than a decade ago.The chart shows the increase in the share of the population that is undernourished, comparing 2014 and 2024 (the most recent year available). These estimates come from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.The situation across Africa is dire. In Middle Africa, where hunger is most acute, almost 1 in 3 people are undernourished. In Eastern Africa, the figure is roughly 1 in 4. Across Africa as a whole, it’s 1 in 5. This marks a reversal of a longer positive trend: over the preceding decades, hunger had been falling across much of the world, including parts of Africa. That progress has now stalled or gone into reverse. Conflict, extreme weather, and the economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic have all contributed.” SOURCE: by Esteban Ortiz-Ospina from OUR WORLD IN DATA

By many metrics, things are improving across the world, but it is important to not when they are not. What areas aren’t seeing improvements? In what ways are issues getting worse? For which populations and in which places are these issues most noticeable? These are questions geographers need to ask and the folks at Our World In Data are an invaluable resource for geography educators to not simply rely on what were learned back in college or narratives we hear in the news, but using current information about how the world actually is today. Hunger and nutrition from 2000-2014, most of Africa saw incredible progress, but since 2014, progress has stalled. Still better that than 2000-levels of hunger, but sustained progress is certainly a hope for the continent that is currently the least developed. What to learn why? Here is an article from Health Policy to explain these complex regional patterns that include economic, environmental, and political dynamics.

Tags: Africa, development, food.

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Turning the Sahara into Farmland

“In the African Sahel, a country called Niger bordering the Sahara Desert, the largest desert in the world, is stopping desertification and turning is deserts into an Oasis. Regenerative Agriculture is leading the way with a technique called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR).  The innovative technique has been adopted by local farmers through peer-to-peer learning making it cost effective and easy to implement. Over the last 40 years the visual results and the data have shown FMNR has been extremely successful in turning desert into farmland. It has regenerated 5 million hectares of degraded land; 200 million trees have been restored and has benefited 2.5 million people increasing household income by 18-24%. The available arable land has doubled since the severe droughts of the 1970s and tree density has 10x since its all-time low in the 1980s. This is an extraordinary achievement considering Niger only receives on average 6.5 inches of rainfall a year and 80% of the country is considered a desert.” SOURCE: Leaf of Life on YouTube  

This video highlights the effort that Niger has made to prevent the desertification.  The Sahara could easily spread further south into the Sahel given the right (or wrong conditions).  Overgrazing on marginal lands with little precipitation can easily lead to the expansion of the desert.  Once of the strategies used by local communities in the Sahel is known as farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR). 

This strategy of having farmers manage the land is seen as an effective way to promote sustainable environmental, economic, and developmental goals.   In dry ecosystems on the edge of a desert like the Sahel in Niger, FMNR can reverse tree loss and biodiversity. 

TAGS: Niger, Africa, development, agriculture.

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Why Ghana Flooded 3.5% of it’s Land

Lake Volta, the largest reservoir in the world, covers over 3% of the Ghana’s land.  This video does a great job explaining the economic and political rationale that led the newly independent country of Ghana to sacrifice such a large portion of their territory (Super quick answer—to get electricity to fuel their economy and become the world’s leading aluminum producer).  This hits on a variety of geographic themes: human and environmental interactions, modifications to the landscape, economic development, neocolonialism, migration through displacement, globalization, etc. 

Tags: Africa, development, Ghana.

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Sanitation Struggles in India

I’ve been teaching about the lack of toilets, open defecation, and adequate sanitation in India for years now, but over the pandemic, some of those articles I referenced became outdated (2016). So today I wanted to refresh my teaching materials. While the statistics have improved, it is still a serious health issue that remains a major impediment to economic and social development. The government proudly states that 100% of Indians have access to toilets, but a national survey found that 10% of the rural areas still defecate in the open (with other estimates much worse). Below are some good articles to get a sense of the current situation.

–CNET: India spent $30 billion to fix sanitation woes to mixed results

–CNN: India added 110m new toilets, but will they be used?

–BBC: Is India’s lack of toilets a cultural problem? (old article)

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Healthy Nation Rankings: These Are the Healthiest Countries

"Maybe it’s something in the gazpacho or paella, as Spain just surpassed Italy to become the world’s healthiest country."

Source: www.bloomberg.com

This data offers excellent insight into regional developmental patterns around the world–it is very much worth exploring.  However I’m sharing this also for it’s mapping project potential; the data behind this map is available in the article and students can make their own maps with it.  

 

GeoEd Tags: mortality, medical, development, food, mapping.

Scoop.it Tags: mortality, medical, development, food, mapping.

 

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Why China Ended its One-Child Policy

"China has huge ambitions for the 21st century. But it’s demographic problems will be a significant challenge on the way there."

Source: www.youtube.com

I know that YOU know that China ended the One-Child Policy, but many incoming college freshman have a world view about population that is a generation behind on many of the current population trends.  This video discusses most of the APHG population topics using China as the world’s most important population case study–that makes this video excellent to show in a regional or human geography course.

 

GeoEd Tags: China, population, industry, development, statistics, economic, video, APHG.

Scoop.it Tags: China, population, industry, development, statistics, economic, video, APHG.  

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99 Good News Stories You Probably Didn’t Hear About in 2018

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“For the last 12 months, the global media has been focused on a lot of bad news. But there were other things happening out there too: conservation successes, huge wins for global health, more peace and tolerance, less war and violence, rising living standards, some big clean energy milestones, and a quiet turning of the tide in the fight against plastic. Stories of human progress, that didn’t make it into the evening broadcasts, or onto your social media feeds.”

Source: medium.com

The world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but far too often the news will give us an overly pessimistic viewpoint about the world (as mentioned in Hans Rosling’s Book, FACTFULNESS).  Slow, incremental progress isn’t dramatic enough to make the headlines, and consequently we often miss the evidence that will demonstrate the ways in which the world is improving.  This article wrapping up some positive news from 2018 then, is a welcome bit of news that might change how we perceive some aspects of world.  

Scoop.it Tags: statistics, development, perspective.

WordPress Tags: statistics, development, perspective.

 

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Iqaluit’s population turns to Amazon Prime

Sky-high food prices in the North have led many residents of Iqaluit to turn to Amazon Prime to save on necessities. But is that a sustainable solution?

Source: globalnews.ca

Nunavut is remote…far more remote than most of our students can imagine.  They live over 1,000 miles from any city with half a million people.  The entire territory is enormous, but sparsely populated with only 36,000 people.  Try to image getting commercial goods to such a remote location.  The Canadian government has invested heavily to subsidize systems to get food products and other necessities to Nunavut.  Still, the transportation costs are so high, and the numbers are so few that economies of scale can’t help this situation. 

Enter Amazon Prime in 2005, and the online retail giant began offering free shipping for “Prime” customers for a flat yearly subscription fee (today $99 in the U.S.).  This was simply too good to be true for many customers in far-flung settlements in Nunavut.  Amazon, probably not anticipating the overwhelming transportation costs associated with a place like Nunavut, in 2015 stopped offering Prime membership for Nunavut customers that do not live in the capital city of Iqaluit.  Still, the capital city looks to Amazon Prime more so than the Canadian or territorial government as their lifeline to the global economy.  Some even argue that Amazon Prime has done more to improve the standard of living  and providing food security for Nunavut residents than the government.            

Scoop.it Tags: Canada, distance, indigenous, poverty, development, economic, food, food distribution, density.

WordPress TAGS: Canada, distance, indigenous, poverty, development, economic, food distribution, density.

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The Enlightenment Is Working

"Don’t listen to the gloom-sayers. The world has improved by every measure of human flourishing over the past two centuries, and the progress continues, writes Steven Pinker."

Source: www.wsj.com

This is a great article that only reiterates what was said in Hans Rosling’s Book, FACTFULNESS, that the world is getting better. 

Scoop.it Tags: statistics, development, perspective.

WordPress Tags: statistics, development, perspective.

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