The fight for women empowerment and inclusion in the workspace has been an ongoing fight in our world. Although female participation in the labor force has seen an ongoing increase from 1980 till 2021, however, as per the World Bank Gender Data Portal: “The global labor force participation rate for women is just over 50% compared to 80% for men. Women are less likely to work in formal employment and have fewer opportunities for business expansion or career progression.”
Education as a direct road to employment
There are different opportunities to invest in to further increase this female participation in the labor force on the long run and make sure that women are getting the opportunities they deserve. One important opportunity which has a direct impact on women employment is education as shown in the results from year 2000 onwards. The more women are educated, the higher their chance of inclusion and employment. This is verified through different studies done across countries by IZA Institute of Labor Economics and on Science Direct, which show that “educated women were said to increase their problem solving, life skills, flexibility and openmindness” which in turn had an effect on their increased participation in the workplace. Therefore, to increase labor force participation for women, the focus should also be directed to the countries with the lowest rates which are mostly, as shown in the results in the map, countries in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
The road to achieve Gender Equality and increase women inclusion in the workplace
Investing in scholarships and school programs/workshops targeted to women, is a long term solution to increase the global labor force participation rate for women. These scholarships and development programs/workshops should also be targeted towards topics of high impact and high demand in the job market. Later stages can also include legal reforms to achieve gender equality and decrease gender discrimination in the workplace. Therefore, we call all advocates, politicians in donor countries, and international organizations to have action plans in process in countries that need it the most to make sure that we reach SDG #5 by 2030.
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” —Malcolm X
Asia, my helper at home is from Ethiopia and dropped out of school at lower secondary school age because of poverty,and she once told me “If it was up to me, I would choose to get educated. However, this is my life.”236 million children and youth in the world are Asia where 57 million are in the Central and West Africa region. These adolescent need all the help they can get in order to get out of the conditions they are living. They have the right like every child to have access to education.
Adolescents who can afford it are sent to private schools in several African countries. But many people in rural areas and poorer households do not have that option.
The above map shows the average of Adolescents out of school on all over the world from 2000 till 2021 where the African region has the highest average from all the others.
The increase in dropout rates is due to several reasons. According to UNICEF, adolescents dropout rates are influenced by child marriage, conflicts and disasters, and gender discrimination. Also, Poverty plays a major role in increasing the rates of adolescents out of school where they are forced into employment at a very young age to accommodate the living demands.
There is a positive correlation between Average % of poverty headcount ratio at national poverty line & average % of Adolescents out of school throughout the years for all countries. The highest average percentage of poverty is in the African region such as South Sudan having 82.3% which leads to have high average percentage of adolescents out of school (51.18%)
Also, there is a positive correlation between Average % of child marriage at the age of 15 & average % of Adolescents out of school throughout the years for all countries. The highest average percentage of early marriage is in the African region such as Niger having 37.38% which leads to have high average percentage of adolescents out of school (83.03 %).
All countries, especially those with low levels of education, should restrict early marriage.
Due to the several factors mentioned, Adolescents are forced in employment where Niger for example has the highest Average of Adolescents in employment (50.23% ) compared to other African countries as shown in the above graph.
Actions to be taken:
• Raise awareness on the importance of education
• Provide financial support for poor families
• Provide flexible, affordable, high-quality school options
• Improve the access to education
• Ensure that all adolescents complete free, equitable secondary education.
All the above factors are important in guaranteeing a better future for children. However, it is recommended that they be accompanied by the right laws that prevent child employment and provide equal opportunities for females to participate in the workplace.
The ocean and fishes are the essence of human life, more than 3 billion people rely on wild caught and farmed sea food but how is this dependence affecting the ocean’s ecosystem? and is this large demand causing more harm than good?
Overfishing menaces the world’s ocean.
Since the 1800, the world witnessed the first overfishing incident when humans were seeking blubber for lamp oil and obliterated the whales around Stellwagen Bank in the United States. The problem accelerated in the 1930s, when subsidies and loans were granted for fishing and thus the appearance of big industrial fishing operations. In 1989, the industry has reached its peak by taking 90 million tons of fish from the ocean and after that yields began to stagnate or decline. We encountered a 30% decrease from 1989 and 1990.
Overfishing is causing fishes to go extinct where 1,616 fishes are on the verge of being extinct, 989 are endangered and 627 are critically endangered. Overfishing has caused a huge collapse of large fish population. The fishing industry began “fishing down” which created a bycatch problem, since when you throw a net, everything gets pulled including diverse not intended species such as sharks, turtles, dolphins…
Overfishing can be controlled through limiting the number of catches and increasing aquaculture and farming of seafood, where most of the world’s growth in aquaculture production has come from East Asia and the Pacific. In addition, fisheries management is implemented to make and impose the rules in order to prevent overfishing.
Overfishing is a major problem! And it is not going away by itself. As former president Bill Clinton said “we know that when we protect our oceans, we are protecting our futures”. Therefore, we recommend declaring certain areas banned for non-sustainable fishing and to bring more awareness to consumers over the type of fish they are buying if it’s from a sustainable source or a non- sustainable one.
However, will this be enough? is aquaculture a solution to our problem? or the beginning of a new one?
Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa ranked among the world’s fastest-growing market economies. In the early 2000’s, Jim O’Neill coined the term BRICS and anticipated that by 2050, China and India will become the first and third largest economies while Brazil and Russia will rank fifth and sixth respectively.
Throughout the years, BRICS have proved to be a force whereby the GDP of each country has increased substantially indicating the effectiveness of the joined association. Today, BRICS make up 42% of the World’s Population, 27% of the Global GDP and 17% of Global trade.
What’s the next step for BRICS?
The United Nations set up the 2030 Agenda that included 17 Sustainable Development goals to be implemented worldwide and started raising awareness regarding the need to effectively integrate these goals in every country. UN considered the BRICS countries to be essential in leading global efforts to achieving the SDGs and in helping other less developed countries work toward these sustainable goals. Even though BRICS started implementing some of these goals, whereby a study on BRICS’ companies indicated the following;
In India and China, the emphasis is on Industry Innovation and Infrastructure
In Brazil and South Africa, the emphasis is on Peace Justice and Strong Institutions
In Brazil and India, the emphasis is on Decent Work and Economic Growth
However, several goals were still being overlooked, mainly Gender equality SDG-5 at the workplace whereby the gap between male and female workers remains substantial throughout the years with minimal increase in female participation. Moreover, the change over time of women taking on managerial and leadership positions remains low whereby India witnessed the highest increase rate of 13%, Russia’s increase was 9%, Brazil and South Africa had the lowest increase rates of 6% and 4% respectively. However, Russia has the largest number overall of Women in Managerial Positions (as we notice the high increase in India, 13%, was due to having very low overall female participation rate in the work place).
What’s the problem? Why should the BRICS countries care about huge discrepancies in female participation in labor force?
The United Nations considers Gender equality SDG-5 a fundamental goal, not only because it consists of empowering young girls and women which is a basic human right, but also because it implements a foundation for peace, prosperity and longevity. Working on eliminating gender inequality in the workplace and allowing women to thrive with their careers and lead companies, countries and households will help achieve overall sustainability and viability.
“I raise up my voice—not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. … We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” – Malala Yousafzai
It is best described by the above saying of activist Malala Yousafzai, how are countries supposed to thrive when half their populations (which is consisted of women) are being held back, overlooked, and denied their basic rights. Having low levels of female participation rates in labor can have a negative impact on the economies in the five BRICS countries which could lead to reducing their growth rate as well.
BRICS countries need to implement social and economic policies to re-enforce equal participation of females in the workplace; Women would have new employment and business opportunities thanks to gender-responsive trade policies.
It would be easier for women to transition from hazardous work to more secure and well-protected employment if they had better access to education and training options.
A wider range of social services would reduce the burden of caring on women and provide them more time for paid work and leisure activities.
Flexible employment arrangements, which are already in place in response to the epidemic, ought to be maintained once it has passed and offer a fresh framework for household shared responsibility.
In conclusion, we cannot stress enough the negative impact that gender inequality will keep having on overall countries’ economic, political and social performance.
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages GOAL:3
On the morning of his 45th birthday, Pedro woke up feeling depressed and anxious what was supposedly a happy occasion was one step closer to inevitable death for Pedro. You see no one in Pedro’s family has ever surpassed the age of 50 to think of it Pedro doesn’t know anyone who has lived above 50 in Mozambique. as Pedro went into the
kitchen to see his three children and wife who had prepared a lovely breakfast for this day. The thought that in a few years he won’t be able to be next to his loved ones ever again broke his heart no father wishes to leave his children.
Mozambique is one of many countries that suffer from low life expectancy at birth due to poor healthcare in the country. Even if the treatment was availableit would be extremely expensive. The average person who lives in Mozambique like Pedro couldn’t afford treatment when needed. All over the country, people are dying early because treatment for simple diseases is not easily accessible.
This tragic occurrence leads to the early death of many people. Like Pedro, there are thousands of people who pray that the government will establish an effective well-trained healthcare system that is also affordable and accessible to everyone in the country.
A proper healthcare system will extend the lives of people like Pedro who wish to stay next to their loved ones for years to come without fear of death at an early age. For a health system to be truly effective it needs to be adequately supervised by the government along hiring trained professionals to ensure the success of the system.
strong regulations and close observation by governments are required so that hospitals and pharmacies don’t take advantage of the people.
If proper healthcare is made accessible to people, health expenditure will increase leading to an increase in life expectancy.
Everyone deserves to live a long healthy life!
In year 2000 we can see that the life expectancy at birth was an average of 48.95 years back then the current health expenditure(%of GDP) was on average 2.26
In year 2019 Mozambique Current health expenditure (%of GDP) became an average of 7.83 and obviously the life expectancy at birth increased to 60.85 years
PROBLEM: The lack of proper healthcare Leeds to Low life expectancy in less developed countries this means that people are dying at early ages Because they do not get access to early diagnosis ,timely treatments and resources to treat the disease.
PROBLEM EVIDENCE :Life expectancy depends on variables that are related to healthcare resources it is obvious That if we look at the current health expenditure(%GDP) that represents the level of resources c
hanneled to health relative uses of the different countries we can see that countries who spend less on health expenditure have a lower life expectancy and vice versa.
POTENTIAL SOLUTION: Proper access to healthcare is associated with lo
w risks of mortality meaning higher life expectancy. Providing access to healthcare and making prices of medication affordable is essential also it is important to focus on patient engagement and connection in order to treat the patient better
SOLUTION DETAILS:Government should work on lowering prices of prescription drugs so that they can be accessible to people who need them. Government must preserve the interests of its citizens by supplem
enting the market where there are gaps and regulate markets to improve efficiency and illuminate any unfairnessin the health sector this will require strong regulations and close observation by governments
SOLUTION VALIDATION:Through the graphs we can see valid evidence that countries that spend more on current healthcare expenditure tend to have higher life expectancy for example In Mozambique in year 2000 we can see that the life expectancy at birth was an average of 48.95 years back then the current health expenditure(%of GDP) was on average 2.26 when the current health expenditure started increasing so did the life expectancy in year 2019 Mozambique Current health expenditure (%of GDP) became an average of 7.83 and obviously the life expectancy at birth increased to 60.85 years meaning that The life expectancy improved 11.9 years this was also the case in a lot of other countries
RECOMMENDATION: For this to be possible it is recommended to recruit train and produce rise health workers because they are the heart of any strong healthcare system also establish affective surveillance on the healthcare industry (pharmacies and hospitals) by improving access to affordable Stable inclusive treatments
Refugees are as old as warfare, but it wasn’t until 1960 that the UN began to track refugees by their country of origin. People leaving their nations and migrating to other countries has increased at an alarming rate since 1960, by a total of more than 200 million displaced refugees around the world. Only this decade, registered nearly double the number of refugees around the world compared to the beginning of the last decade.
According to the UNHCR, over84 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. Among them are over26.6 million refugees, the highest population on record. 68% of the world’s refugees come from just 5 countries. Half of these refugees are children.
What is even more impactful, is that 85% of refugees are being hosted in developing countries. The international community, and in particular wealthy nations, are failing to meaningfully share the responsibility for protecting people who have fled their homes in search of safety. Instead, lower- and middle-income countries are doing much more than their fair share — hosting more than double the number of refugees that high-income countries are.
Therefore, the world and most importantly, the developed countries, urgently need a new global plan based on genuine international cooperation and a meaningful and fair sharing of responsibilities.
Developed countries should ease the pressure on internal policies and host refugees coming from developing countries with war or socio-economic and political crisis.
Wealthier countries should work to share the cost of protecting people who have left everything behind and fund humanitarian organizations for the assistance of refugees.
