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9th Jan 2019
The Revolutionary Power of Food
Ahead of Christmas – a time when many of us in the West tend to over-indulge, Global GoalsCast is looking at food with a different angle. Namely, food as a revolutionary tool for development. This is a story of two entrepreneurial farmers in Zambia – Golden and Mainner and a market trader who sells their produce called Charity. Golden and Mainner are rural small scale farmers – growing enough to feed their families with some left over to sell at market.
Mainner and Golden became part of a pilot project by the World Food Program to create an ‘eBay for farmers’ in Zambia (a mashup of online maps, mobile money, camera and a chat system). They go from selling a couple of buckets of cowpeas (black-eyed peas) in 2016 to selling literally tons of different products (including eggplants and sweet potatoes). They become sellers for their community through this virtual farmers’ market. Mainner improves her home, sends her daughter to a better school and uses her phone to get books sent from abroad to start an after-school reading club in her house. Golden grows his agricultural business and seed bank for the poorer members of his village.
The big idea here is as old as civilisation itself. By connecting to a larger world these farmers get the most for their skills and output. Their lives and income improve as do those of their neighbours.
As Evin Joyce, one of the inventors of the app tells us, the last decade has seen almost every sector of rich world economies transformed by the latest digital and financial technologies, enabling people to do old things in new ways with greater efficiency. A similar revolution of digital and financial technologies is beginning in African agriculture. The questions are ‘how quickly will it happen,’ and, ‘who will it benefit most?’ If the world is to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030, we must answer by saying, ’as soon as possible’ and ’to benefit those furthest left behind.’
The episode also explores the World Food Program’s Local School Meals program in Kenya and Mali with Lara Fossi and Sylvia Caruso – where local farm produce is used to feed children – benefitting both the farmers and the kids of their community. The same thread Claudia and Edie explored in the episode on Extreme Hunger – the importance of investing in human capital – is reiterated as we discover that every single dollar invested in school meals has an economic return of between $3 to $10. Improved education and health in school children eventually leads to increased productivity when they become working adults.
Two additional food-related stories come to us in this episode from the Global GoalsCast sponsor, Undeniably Dairy. Listen to two female activists – Jenni Tilton Flood and Emily Hunt Turner. Jenni is a dairy farmer in Maine and Emily runs a grilled cheese restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota that employs those impacted by the criminal justice system.
Stepping Up the Fight Against Extreme Poverty
The fight to end extreme poverty is one of the great success stories in the modern world as more than a billion people have risen out of extreme poverty since 1990. SDG #1 is to eliminate all extreme poverty by 2030, yet as the date gets closer the work gets harder. The Gates Foundation Goalkeepers annual report states the worst poverty is increasingly concentrated in the places least able to fight it, especially countries south of the Sahara. In this episode, Bill Gates shares his surprising projection numbers and Dr Joyce Banda, former president of Malawi, President Emmanuel Macron, and other guests, share their ideas for how we can take increased action in the fight to end extreme poverty. Finally, hear how our sponsor, Cisco, uses their technology and expertise to accelerate global problem solving to benefit people, society, and the planet and to create an inclusive digital economy.
The Next Generations: We Can’t Save the World Without Them
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will make the world a better place for all, but the world cannot reach these goals without the active energy and new thinking of young people. Edie Lush and Claudia Romo Edelman explore that idea in this episode about youth and political activism. Speaking to young people on every continent, they find a strong desire to team up with friends to solve social problems, though, they also hear concerns about “clicktivism,” a tendency to confuse expressing a desire for action on social media with real action. This episode touches on the increasing role of young women as leaders and the shapers of agendas, including more attention to issues of concern to women, such as menstrual health, as well as efforts to bring more women into politics and governing. Also, hear how our sponsor, Cisco, introduces you to a valuable resource for youth, Global Problem Solvers: The Series.
Stopping the Scourge of Modern Slavery: HRH Princess Eugenie & Julia de Boinville, Anti-Slavery Collective
Even here in the 21stCentury human beings are still enslaved by other human beings. Hard to believe? Listen to HRH Princess Eugenie of York and her friend and colleague, Julia de Boinville, describe their campaign to stem the scourge of Modern slavery. An estimated 40 million people, many of them women and children, are sold into bondage for sex or labor. The ISIS slave market described by Princess Eugenie may sound much like slave markets of old, but modern slavery can look very different from what you imagine from history. Modern slaves often work in domestic labor or even cleaning offices. They walk among us, explains Ms de Boinville. Edie Lush points out that Sustainable Development Goal eight calls for ending slavery by 2030, as part of creating proper working conditions for all. Princess Eugenie urges every one to play a role by asking how your food and services are brought to you, especially if they seem surprisingly inexpensive. Unquestioning consumers help make Slave labor hugely profitable for businesses who get away with it.