Team: Ibrahim Al Jaifi, Zahraa Jassar, Rami Haidar, Ali Hachem, Rim Zeaiter, Fatima Ayoub
“ We don’t go to school; we work in the daytime to support our families and spend the rest of our day playing in the streets.”
Said Omar and Yazan, two inspiring kids in Burj Al Barajneh, a refugee camp in the suburbs of Beirut. Under 10 years old, both already carrying the responsibility of working to provide for their families instead of being enrolled in education.
According to ILO, it is estimated that 160million children are involved in child labor, 79 million of which are in Hazardous Work that is likely to harm children’s health, safety or morals. All these children, including young Omar and Yazan, are at an age when they are supposed to be provided for, educated and protected. Having to spend most of their time working in jobs that are unsafe and exhausting, their chances of leading healthy and thriving lives diminish with each dollar they earn.
Child Labor in Lebanon
The emergence of the Lebanese economic crisis in 2019 brought with it an increase in percentage of families with children engaged in child labor from 29% to 38% between 2019 and 2021 according to IRC.
GDP, as an indicator of the economic performance of a country, noticed a 65% decrease from $52B to $18B during the period of 2019 to 2021. With this drastic drop in GDP, the unemployment rate rose from 11% to 15% while the CPI more than doubled, leaving thousands of families under the poverty line with no sources of income.
With these dramatic and sudden changes in the economic situation, 3 out of 5 children in Lebanon dropped-out of school and most of the rest switched to public education. Education has become less of a priority for both the government and families.
From a social perspective, 44% of parents who have taken part in a study by the World Vision Organization believed that involving their children in paid labor enhances their life skills and assures a source of income for their households. Meanwhile, the responsible government agencies have no clear and applicable laws in place to prohibit children’s exploitation or ensure they are enrolled in education.
Implications:
Child labor has destructive impacts on the health of the child, exposing millions of children to physical, mental and emotional abuse. As a result, their mental and intellectual development face significant disruptions. Considering the increasing crime rates in the country and the exposure of children to illegal work activities, the forecasted 30% increase in crime rate in 2025 would involve criminal acts by juveniles.
Proposed Solution
Mr. Aws Al Kadasi, senior research analyst at Merci Corps, commented on the topic during an interview for this project:
“According to the UNICEF, one in 5 children in the least developed countries are engaged in child labor. A problem that was aggravated by COVID-19 and global economic decline that it takes a walk in Beirut to believe these numbers. Children require different systems of protection that starts with parents and extends to every office, business, institution, organization and agency, local and international, governmental or otherwise. Everyone, who is not a child, is responsible”
Both 8 and 16 Sustainable Development Goals highlights the need for international efforts to tackle the issue of child labor:
Target 8.7: Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labor, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labor in all its forms.
Target 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.
Inspired by these goals as well as social responsibility towards the community, our project team designed an initiative to capitalize on the work of international aid organizations and local organizations and projects working to fight child labor and illiteracy.
Future4Kids (F4K) initiative aims to establish a cooperative relationship between NGOs that provides cash assistance to families and campaigns against child labor. F4K initiative will work on partnering with cash aid organizations and NGOs working in child education. Receiving cash assistance would be conditionally linked to the enrollment of beneficiaries’ children in education with families being required to show evidence of child enrollment in education periodically.
The initiative platform will allow these two parties to join efforts to encourage families to enroll their children in education. F4K platform will also allow for receiving public donations for child education campaigns carried out by our partners.
Our world today is much safer than it was 40 years ago. One powerful indicator to reflect societal living conditions is child mortality rates, given the many sensitive factors required for a newborn or a child to grow in health. Generalizing the matter to include the world as a whole would show us the constant decline in child mortality of 60% since 1960. This is due to improved healthcare services, nutrition, housing conditions, and education. Unfortunately, this improvement mostly reflects the rich more developed side of the world. Diving into the poorer side shows a different painful reality, a massive-scale tragedy that barely makes it to the headlines.
According to the World Health Organization, 2020 has recorded 5 million child deaths under the age of 5 with 2.4 million being of newborns, all due to preventable and treatable diseases and causes. This is unacceptable as a significant portion of these deaths are preventable.
A staggering reality to face is that children of underdeveloped poorest of countries have 10% risk of not surviving past the age of 5, while this rate drops to 1.2% in richer countries. (World economic forum). Moreover, for every 1000 live births, child mortality in low-income countries is nearly 6 times more than in upper-middle-income countries.
Analyzing the reasons behind child mortality shows 4 major factors:
Poor living conditions
Lack of healthcare services
Malnutrition
Poor healthcare consciousness
Preventing this tragedy requires access to simple and affordable interventions like adequate nutrition, safe supply of water, immunization and quality healthcare when needed. Hence, we need a sustainable solution that ensures the long-term resolution of the problem from its core.
Analyzing historical data of female literacy rate and its impact over time on decreasing birth rate and mortality rate of children under 5, we can conclude that enhancing female literacy might constituting an effective solution on the long term. It would contribute in:
Improving reproductive and healthcare decision making
Enhancing healthcare consciousness of parents to provide better quality care for their children
Increasing number of trained health experts
Reducing poverty, enhancing productivity, and contributing to economic growth
Better management of family size
Increasing chances of parents prioritizing child education for their children
On the long term, female education leading to smarter maternal decision-making can reduce up to 61% of infant and child deaths. Enhancing female education will help us achieve the United nation’s sustainable development goals:
SDG3 “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”
SDG3.2: “By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births.”
Amal, an Egyptian 30-year-old girl, has been unemployed for the past three years. Her organization laid her off after being with them for 10 years because of the pandemic. Amal couldn’t continue her education because she had to help her family at a young age. Amal now spends all her time trying to get a job, but her efforts are not being paid off because of the country’s bad economic situation.
Amal’s case is very common in the world in general and in the Arab world specifically. To begin with, let’s define unemployment. Unemployment is the term for when a person who is actively looking for a job is unable to find work. The problem of unemployment lies in its consequences on the economy of the individual, society, and country. Some of the effects of unemployment on the individual, society, and economic levels:
Individual: Unemployment can also have a significant impact on a person’s physical health. Being unemployed is a highly stressful situation, so it may cause stress-related health issues such as headaches, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, back pain, and insomnia.
Society: Communities with high unemployment rates are more likely to have limited employment opportunities, low-quality housing, fewer available recreational activities, limited access to public transportation and public services, and underfunded schools.
Economy: When people are unemployed, they spend less money, which ultimately contributes to less contribution to the economy in relation to services or goods sold and produced.
The unemployment rate has been widely spread across the world. As the graph shows, the Arab region has the highest unemployment rate with 11.26% followed by the Latin American and the Caribbean region.
The impact of education level on unemployment:
The higher the level of education of a certain population, the lower the risk of unemployment. Research has shown that education has significantly increased re-employment success among the unemployed. Individuals with a low level of education have less chance of finding employment than those with a higher level. Such studies are proving the contradictory relationship between education and unemployment where the more a country supports the increase of education level the less the unemployment rate it has.
The graph above shows the unemployment rate with different academic levels among different selected countries. As shown, Brazil, a country from the Latin America region, has a higher unemployment rate with basic education, and intermediate education (9.41, 7.94 respectively) compared to advanced education (3.44). On the other hand, Japan has a low unemployment rate with three different education levels (3.51, 3.85 with respect to advanced and intermediate levels) compared to the other selected countries.
A way to decrease the unemployment rate:
Education can be a solution to unemployability in many regions of the world. A potential solution could be by adding more expenses on education to improve the level of skills of the citizen. This will lead to an enhancement in the market where new opportunities might be raised by educating people about entrepreneurship for example.
The graph shows the average expenditure on education across different countries. As shown, most countries with lower unemployment rates have higher expenditures on education. For example, Japan and Canada have a very low unemployment rate when it comes to advanced education, and they spend a good amount of money on their education sector as shown in the graph above. However, Brazil has a very high unemployment rate with basic and intermediate education, but it increases a lot with advanced education. Also, as the graph shows Brazil is spending a good amount of money on education.
To conclude, from analyzing a few indicators from the data, it is recommended that countries spend more money on their education systems. Aligning with the Sustainable development goal 4 – Quality education, this change can be done in a way that improves the skills of their citizens which will lead to the increase of their innovation to build new markets and follow up and produce new technologies that improve the country and create employment opportunities for the communities.
Understanding Our Relationship with Mother Earth
As we journey through life, we gain a deeper appreciation for the sacrifices made by our parents and family. Their efforts have shaped our existence, nurturing dreams within us from an early age. Many of us have aspired to one day reciprocate their love and sacrifices, with ambitions like, “I want to work hard to buy my mother a house.”
However, life’s realities don’t always align with our dreams. Some struggle to stand on their own, inadvertently becoming a burden instead of a support. This predicament often befalls those who face financial hardships or cannot secure decent employment.
The Earth and Its Children: A Reflection
Let’s draw a parallel between this human experience and our relationship with Mother Earth. Does the burden of care also fall on the less fortunate in this dynamic? More crucially, do the financially successful among us shoulder the responsibility to nurture and protect our planet?
Unveiling the Reality: Environmental Impact Visualized
To delve deeper, we turn to two revealing visualizations. The first, marked in red, showcases per capita CO2 emissions across various nations. At first glance, it appears that highly industrialized countries contribute more to air pollution. This leads to an assumption: a country’s industrial activity is directly proportional to its environmental impact.
However, a closer inspection reveals anomalies. For instance, China, despite being a manufacturing powerhouse, emits significantly less CO2 than Canada (477.6 vs 136.5). This observation suggests a need for further exploration.
Financial Well-being and Environmental Impact
The theory proposed by Dr. Jordan Peterson, a renowned clinical psychologist and Harvard professor, guides our investigation. He posits that addressing global warming hinges on improving human quality of life, enabling a collective environmental stewardship.
This theory is tested against the Human Capital Index (HCI), which assesses countries’ effectiveness in harnessing their citizens’ economic and professional potential. Contrary to Dr. Peterson’s hypothesis, the data reveals an inverse relationship between HCI and CO2 emissions. Countries with advanced economic circumstances seemingly exert more environmental strain.
A Call to Action: Repaying Mother Earth
This paradox highlights a critical point: economic prosperity and educational excellence must be channeled towards enhancing environmental health. It’s not just about growth; it’s about sustainable, conscious growth.
Conclusion: A Collective Responsibility
In closing, it’s worth noting that a mother never compromises her children’s well-being for her own gain. Similarly, we, as inhabitants of this planet, especially those in positions of privilege, must direct our resources towards nurturing a healthier global environment. Shifting blame to less fortunate nations misses the mark. Instead, we should embrace our collective role as stewards of the Earth, repaying it for the abundance it has bestowed upon us.
The mortality rate in Africa countries is very high compared to other countries worldwide. One cause of the mortality rate is the unintentional poisoning especially children. Because of the high poverty rate, low access to water, and high literacy rate, people are not much aware of the importance of hygenie and sanitation. This is causing a high mortality rate due to the unsafe water, sanitation and lack of hygiene. There is lot of unintentional poisoning cases in Africa compared to other countries in different continents. The problem is very serious and needs immediate response since its contribution to the overall mortality rate is high.
A response of the addressed problem is curing the poisoned case; however, the capacity in hospitals is low as the number of beds per 1000 persons is very low. Therefore, we are looking forward to solve the root problem and not only react to it. So, a good solution for the addressed problem is to increase awareness of how to avoid poisoning especially at home by the government, or related parties.
The awarness should takle these three aspects:
-How to clean food (vegetables, fruits) at home
-Filtering water with basic tools
-Right way of taking a medicine and storing it
-Right way to use chemicals or detergents and keep them away from children
More than 90% of poisoning cases are occurring at home. Therefore, starting to spread awareness of how to avoid getting poisoned at home might reduce the unintentional poisoning that is causing death. Thus, we are decreasing the mortality rate.
It’s true that we want to solve the problem from its base; however, we should also know how to provide good care and treatment for a poisoned case. This should be teached to people as first aid sessions to be eligible to approach a case and prevent the deterioration of his health or death.
