A child in Mexico City earns his wage cleaning windshields. Photo: Beto (Kuh) (Flickr)

So far, more than 4 million Mexican families have benefited from a government program aimed at combating some of the country’s toughest problems: poverty, illiteracy and poor health.

Oportunidades, which began in 2002, takes the innovative approach of paying these families to go to school, eat well and stay healthy. Eight years later, the concept is gaining international momentum.

The program is based on a “conditional-cash” idea, whereby eligible adults are given money for achieving specific goals, including regular medical checkups, taking classes on healthier eating habits, and making sure their children are enrolled in school.

Santiago Levy, a social economist and one of the men credited with implementing the “conditional-cash” approach in Mexico, recently spoke about Oportunitidades with PBS. Levy said that he wanted to focus on lasting ways to bring people out of poverty.

These families were trapped in … some kind of an intergenerational mechanism, by which parents were poor, children were poor, and the next generation were also poor. The kids were so poor, they had to be picking coffee in the fields, and they couldn't go to school ... [Through Oportunidades,] what you are saying is, your kid will be equally valuable to you if he's in the school, as opposed if he is in the street begging for money.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Oportunidades is its rigorous evaluation process. The program uses an outside firm to review every aspect of its impact, and so far the results have been convincing. In some affected regions, school enrollment is up 20 percent for girls and 10 percent for boys, according to a World Bank report.

The unique evaluation process has also offered Oportunidades a certain degree of credibility and international recognition. PBS reports that more than 30 counties — many in South America and Southeast Asia — are developing their own "conditional cash" programs.

Cassandra Nelson helps to distribute high-energy biscuits to locals at a hospital in Port-au-Prince. Mercy Corps

Yesterday the banks reopened in Haiti for the first time since the earthquake rocked the small island on January 12th.

Mercy Corps' spokeswoman Cassandra Nelson, who is on the ground in Port-au-Prince, stressed the importance of the banks reopening in her latest post on the Mercy Corps blog. "This means a lot to the aid effort, because there are a lot of people in Port-au-Prince who have some money — maybe not a lot — but they were having to live on handouts simply because they couldn't access their money." Without cash on hand, even wealthier Haitians were forced to seek handouts while the banks were closed.

As cash became more readily available throughout the day, Nelson saw the street economy reinvigorate from the rubble of damaged store fronts. Hawkers selling bananas and mangoes are helping restart the flow of food and resources within the country, allowing aid agencies to focus on those who are most in need of help.

You can keep up with the latest news about Mercy Corps' relief efforts in Haiti by clicking here.

Catching on to a bright idea. Photo: Chealion (flickr)

Reuters reports that despite the recession, American consumer spending on products that are considered "green" has in fact been going up.

U.S. supermarket sales of environmentally sustainable or "ethical" products — from energy-efficient light bulbs to organic produce — will rise about 8.7 percent in 2009 to nearly $38 billion

Reasons behind going green range from personal health to global warming, but Scott Bearse, of the financial consulting group Deloitte, thinks there may be more to it. He tells Reuters, "[t]he financial crisis reminded people of the unintended consequences of collective behavior."

Malawi's economy has deep roots in the small family farms that pepper its landscape. But farmers often can't earn enough from cash crops like tobacco, sugarcane, peanuts and tea.

The Clinton Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI) hoped to change this when they started working with rural Malawian farmers in 2006. As they explain on their website, they encouraged the farmers to grow soy instead of peanuts, which is more nutritious, gets better yields, and is easier to grow.

In one particularly impoverished district, CHDI also worked with a group of local farmers to build a large commercial soy farm. Collectively, the farmers could get a better deal by buying in bulk, which drove down the price of seeds, fertilizer and irrigation tools. CHDI also used the farm as an informal classroom, showing locals how the different cultivation techniques were used.

After only two full years in the country, CHDI reports that for many farmers, harvests have more than doubled under the new system, with income not far behind. One of these farmers shares her story in the video below.

In a country as poor as Malawi, where an estimated 53 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day, that extra income provides farmers with many opportunities that had previously been out of reach.

A homemade drip-irrigation system. Photo: Care of Creation (flickr)

Flood irrigation: that's how poor farmers in developing countries usually water their crops. It's wasteful and too water-intensive to work in the dry season, but until recently there haven't been other viable options — a traditional drip irrigation system could cost thousands of dollars.

But social entrepreneurs like Paul Polock and the California-based company, Driptech are working to change this by helping poor farmers set up low-cost drip irrigation systems. Driptech can sell their irrigation system for $30 in places like India, China and Ethiopia, because they use cheaper materials and have developed a new (top-secret) method for punching the holes in the irrigation tubes, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

As Business Week notes, the technology could be transformative:

Experts say low-cost irrigation could alter the economics of food. Subsistence farmers may be able to grow excess crops they can sell. Countries that rely on food imports could see their dependence on outsiders decline.

The innovation has allowed poor farmers to save "water, labor, and time — all while growing a valuable dry-season crop that greatly increased their annual income," boasts Driptech's website.

Driptech plans to relocate their manufacturing facilities to the countries where their products are sold. The company's blog notes that this "will help support the local economies while cutting out transportation costs and headaches."

Selling redesigned products to the poor can be a profitable business model, as some companies in India have also discovered. (I wrote about this phenomenon in "Selling to the Poor, On Terms They Can Afford"). In line with this trend, Driptech expects to make money while helping poor farmers start to turn a profit of their own.

Iraq's Marsh Arabs have coexisted with the wetlands' unique ecosystem for 6,000 years. Photo: Dr. Michael Izady, Ph.D. (flickr)

Southern Iraq is home to one of the largest wetlands in the world, where the tributaries of the Tigris and Euphrates meet. But a three-year drought in the Middle East, along with dams and water projects in neighboring countries, has left southern Iraq with a serious water shortage, reports the BBC.

For 6,000 years these wetlands have been home to people called Marsh Arabs. They made their huts out of the marsh reeds, ate fish they caught in the waters, and sold the milk and cheese they made from water buffalo milk, explains the LA Times. (A beautiful slide show of Iraq's marshlands and the Marsh Arabs accompanies the The LA Times article.) But now these wetlands are roughly 30 percent of their former size, says the BBC, and they are continuing to shrink.

The marsh's dropping water levels have devastated the wealth of the region and the livelihoods of the Marsh Arabs. Jassim Asadi, of the nonprofit conservation group Nature Iraq, tells the LA Times the marshes used to supply two-thirds of the fish consumed in Iraq. Now people buy bottled water and frozen fish imported from Iran. “It is an economic disaster,” Asadi says.

Though the drought is "the most immediate cause" threatening the wetlands and their inhabitants, regional water politics cannot be ignored, the BBC says. The Tigris and Euphrates flow through multiple countries, and the rivers are the main water source in the area. A BBC video helps break down the situation:

About 70 percent of Iraq's waters originates outside the country, in Turkey, Syria, and Iran... These countries already have ambitious damn and irrigation projects, limiting how much is left for Iraq. And yet more damns are planned — further reducing the flow into the marshes.

Some scholars and politicians remain hopeful that diplomacy and cooperation amongst the different Middle Eastern countries will allow for more equitable water management. But as things stand now, there is no immediate fix on the horizon.

Iraq's most lucrative export after oil - dates - has seen declining production since the American-led invasion began in 2003. Photo: Ikhlasul Amal (flickr)

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent violence has left the country struggling to survive. Now, Iraq’s economy is suffering even more due to declining production in one of its most thriving exports after oil: dates.

Dates are highly nutritious and a staple food in Iraq. Before the war, a typical palm tree was yielding 130 – 175 pounds of dates per year, compared to only 30 pounds of fruit last year, reports the New York Times. The country used to produce about 75 percent of the world’s dates at one point, but today Iraq has fallen behind many other Arab countries leading in date production.

The lack of “sufficient electricity, machinery and a drought” has severely damaged the agricultural industry, says Iraqi economist Ghazi al-Kenan. Prior to the U.S.-led invasion, there were more than 150 date processing factories. Today there are six.

Another factor contributing to the decline in date production is that the country's trade ministry — which is responsible for buying agricultural products for export from farmers — isn't purchasing dates at a high enough price to cover production costs for farmers, reports the New York Times.

But the decline in date production is causing more than just agricultural and economic problems for Iraq. Public health and the environment are also feeling the effects. Baghdad has experienced more sand storms, increased asthma cases and respiratory illnesses due to the shrinking of depleted farms and orchards surrounding the capital.

With the global economic downturn affecting oil prices, prospects for the date industry are looking grim. The Trade Ministry tells the New York Times that "it cannot afford to raise payments to farmers.”

A view of Chesapeake Bay from above. Photo: Crazy Diamond (flickr)

The Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound are so polluted that they should be "put in the intensive care unit," according to a recent Frontline episode.

Poisoned Waters reveals that immense amounts of pollution have affected the ecosystems of both estuaries in their most basic capacities. On the surface, Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay may look pristine and beautiful — but underneath, the effects of toxic waters are visible and disturbing.

In Chesapeake Bay, the once-thriving oyster industry has practically disappeared, although the state government recently developed a plan to revitalize the oyster population. Frontline reports that the crab industry is headed towards the same fate. David Kirwar, a Chesapeake Bay crabber, says that he only catches about half of what he did 25 years ago, describing the situation as a "tragedy." Local journalist Tom Horton said that overall "you're talking about billions of dollars of economic impact with oysters, crabs, shad, striped bass; the decline in the fisheries have just been dramatic."

Frontline says pollution caused by urban sprawl, agriculture, animal farms, and industrial sites are just some of many factors that are "slowly eating away" the bay. Jay Manning, Director of Ecology for Washington State, tells Frontline, "It's about the way we all live. And unfortunately, we are all polluters. I am; you are; all of us are."

Could Africa be the world's next breadbasket?

Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne of The Atlantic seems to think it's a real possibility if African farmers adopted more modern farming technology and used better-quality seeds and fertilizers. And the payoff for agricultural investment would make a huge difference for poor African countries.

Agricultural investment in Africa — and in a few other high-potential places such as Ukraine and Russia — may be the world’s best bet for keeping food plentiful and cheap. This investment could bring other benefits too; the World Bank estimates that agricultural development is twice as effective at reducing poverty as other sources of growth. In Asia, as cereal yields rose, poverty rates plummeted. Investment in Africa’s agriculture — by donors, farmers, and African governments — may allow the continent to feed the world and save itself.

An Israeli checkpoint in Nablus, West Bank. Photo: David Ortmann (flickr)

Since Israel relaxed West Bank checkpoints in June, there's been a newfound sense of both security and economic freedom for the struggling Palestinian territory, according to the New York Times' Thomas Friedman.

Friedman says the economic improvement is largely a result of reformed police tactics and increased trade:

For Palestinians, long trapped between burgeoning Israeli settlements and an Israeli occupation army, subject to lawlessness in their own cities and the fecklessness of their own political leadership, life has clearly started to improve a bit, thanks to a new virtuous cycle: improved Palestinian policing that has led to more Palestinian investment and trade that has led to the Israeli Army dismantling more checkpoints in the West Bank that has led to more Palestinian travel and commerce.

Recent statistics for the West Bank support the claim that things are getting better. The International Monetary Fund is forecasting 7 percent growth, and construction is about to begin on the first new town in decades, according to a New York Times account.

Friedman is hopeful that economic improvements could lead to political gains:

Make no mistake: Palestinians still want the Israeli occupation to end, and their own state to emerge, tomorrow. That is not going to happen. But for the first time since [the collapse of the 2000 Oslo peace accords], there is an economic-security dynamic emerging on the ground in the West Bank that has the potential — the potential — to give the post-Yasir Arafat Palestinians another chance to build the sort of self-governing authority, army and economy that are prerequisites for securing their own independent state. A Palestinian peace partner for Israel may be taking shape again.

Sugar is a popular commodity in India, where imports are expected to rise as droughts cause sugar prices to rise by 50 percent. Here vendors make sugar cane juice. Photo: Jim-C (flickr)

Sugar rushes tend to be followed by sugar crashes.

The western Indian state of Maharashtra has been called the "sugar bowl" of India, but that may be changing. A New York Times video sheds some light on the problems farmers in Maharashtra face as sugar production decreases, causing prices to rise.

India is the world's second-largest sugar producing country. But factors like insufficient rainfall, small plots of land and government regulation of the market are impacting sugar production in India and therefore driving up the price, making imported sugar a more affordable option in India.

A group of men plant crops in Kenya. Photo: World Bank Photo Collection (flickr)

Earlier this week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack reiterated the United States' commitment to reduce Africa's dependence on food aid and promote agricultural sustainability while in Nairobi, Kenya. Vilsack said the U.S. will focus efforts on providing "affordable credit to farmers, support to women farmers and providing new technology to encourage irrigation."

The United States understands that it has to be more than providing periodic emergency food aid. It has to focus on sustainable solutions to hunger, food security and poverty. This is not something where we come in and say this is the way you need to do it, it is where we come in and say how are you doing it and how can we help you do it better.

His comments come almost a month after G-8 members pledged $20 billion dollars to fight hunger in poor nations.

Many African countries, like Madagascar pictured here, are increasingly leasing land to foreign firms, but critics argue the deals are exploitative. Photo: goukley (flickr)

A million hectares in Uganda. Some 690,000 hectares in Sudan. And 500,000 hectares in Tanzania. These are just a few of the numbers that have appeared on the bargaining table in the past year as foreign firms scramble for land leases in Africa.

The Independent takes a look at the phenomenon known as "land grabbing," or the recent trend of foreign governments and corporations leasing or purchasing large swaths of land in poorer countries to grow food or other crops for export back to their home country. The phenomenon is most prevalent in Africa, but leases have been sought elsewhere, including the Philippines and Pakistan.

[The sudden increase in "land grabbing"] has its roots in the food crisis of 2007/8, when prices of rice, wheat and other cereals skyrocketed across the world, triggering riots from Haiti to Senegal. The price spike also led food-growing countries to slap export tariffs on staple crops to minimize the amounts that left their countries. That tightened the supply still further, meaning food prices were driven up more by a situation of policy-created scarcity than by supply and demand.

This situation also made many rich countries that are reliant on massive food imports question one of the fundamentals of the global economy: the idea that every country should concentrate on its best products and then trade. Suddenly having unimaginable quantities of cash from oil was not enough to guarantee you all the food you needed. The oil sheikhs of the Gulf states found that food imports had doubled in cost over less than five years. In the future it might get even worse. You could no longer rely on regional and global markets, they concluded. The rush to grab land began.

Investors say they will bring needed infrastructure, technology and employment, but in some cases, these investments have been met with resistance. Riots erupted earlier this year in Madagascar, where almost half the children under age five don't get enough to eat. The riots were driven in part by the news that the government had given South Korean firm Daewoo a 99 year lease over 1.3 million hectares of land. On an area amounting to half the island's arable land, Daewoo planned to grow maize and palm oil solely for export to South Korea. The deal fell through when the riots forced the president, Marc Ravalomanana, out of office, BBC News reports.

Nevertheless, land grabbing is poised to continue at a rapid pace, according to The Independent:

The government of President Ravalomanana became the first in the world to be toppled because of what the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization recently described as "land grabbing." The Daewoo deal is only one of more than 100 land deals which have, over the past 12 months, seen massive tracts of cultivable farmland across the globe bought up by wealthy countries and international corporations. The phenomenon is accelerating at an alarming rate, with an area half the size of Europe's farmland targeted in just the past six months.

Critics question the truthfulness of the investors' promises. The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, warned that land grabbing is simply neo-colonialism, and Africa will again be exploited for its resources while seeing little direct revenue.

The Independent offers an analogy from international development policy consultant Mark Weston for understanding the current nature of the leases and what makes them magnets for controversy:

Imagine if China, following a brief negotiation with a British government desperate for foreign cash after the collapse of the economy, bought up the whole of Wales, replaced most of its inhabitants with Chinese workers, turned the entire country into an enormous rice field, and sent all the rice produced there for the next 99 years back to China.

Imagine that neither the evicted Welsh nor the rest of the British public knew what they were getting in return for this, having to content themselves with vague promises that the new landlords would upgrade a few ports and roads and create jobs for local people.

Land grabbing is just one aspect of the current discussion about agricultural development in Africa. When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Kenya earlier this month she voiced interest in Africa's agricultural potential: "More and more, the world will look to Africa to be its breadbasket, and I hope that when the world looks ... it is Africans and African farmers who will profit from becoming the world's breadbasket."

More Gazans depend on food aid, thanks to the blockade. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza strip is crippling the Gazan fishing industry.

The total catch has dropped by half, because fisherman can't get to the fish. In 2001, Gazans could fish up to 20 nautical miles offshore. Today, thanks to new blockade restrictions, they are limited to three. Since most fish are found 6 to 12 nautical miles offshore, the blockade makes the fishing business chancy at best.

A declining fishing industry would be a problem for any country, but it is a particular problem for Gaza. Almost half of the population is unemployed. Thanks to the blockade, more than 70 percent of Gazans rely on food distributions from humanitarian agencies to ensure their families get enough to eat.

A Mercy Corps beneficiaries show off their garden in Niger. Photo: Jeremy Barnicle/Mercy Corps

Last week the UN announced that the number of people suffering from hunger now totals one billion worldwide.

Not too surprisingly, a BBC article points out that the vast majority of the world's hungry live in developing countries. Only 15 million are in the developed world. In contrast, 265 million live in sub-Saharan Africa and more than two times as many — 642 million to be exact — live in the Asia-Pacific region.

Since the economic crisis hit, there are about 100 million more people that are hungry. The UN attributes this rise in world hunger to unemployment and low wages. This is turn hurts people's ability to buy and grow food.

Jacques Diouf, the director general of the UNFAO, focused on agricultural investment as one of the solutions to help developing countries address hunger issues. Diouf is quoted by the BBC as saying, "Investment in agriculture must be increased because for the majority of poor countries a healthy agricultural sector is essential to overcome poverty and hunger and is a pre-requisite for overall economic growth."

At a time when need has never been greater, Mercy Corps has been able to expand our capacity to address hunger in the communities where we work.