Guest post by Kate Pritchard, MCC. Originally published by the Millennium Change Corporation (MCC). All photos are credited to them. The Sub-Saharan nation of Malawi has made progress in human development over the past decade, but it remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Over half the population live in poverty, and 25% live in extreme poverty. When MCC and the Government of Malawi began looking at the primary constraints to the country’s economic growth in 2009, one thing stood...
This post is a joint effort between The ONE Campaign and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Walking into a room and flipping a power switch is something I do multiple times a day with little to no thought about whether or not the lights will turn on. In the United States, most of us take for granted not just that the lights will turn on, but also that the refrigerator will keep our food cold, the oven and microwave will warm...
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a little-known but critical part of America’s poverty-fighting apparatus. During the closing days of the Obama Administration, I spoke with the agency’s outgoing chief executive officer, Dana J. Hyde, about her time at MCC and the future of the United States’ poverty-fighting work in Africa. The Millennium Challenge Corporation is not like any other federal department or agency. Can you explain what MCC is, what it does, and how it fits into the United...
For many students and teachers across the African continent, energy poverty – the lack of access to reliable energy sources – is a challenge faced every day both at home and at school. In fact, 90 million children in sub-Saharan Africa go to primary schools that lack electricity. Here are five additional ways that energy poverty affects education:
Mothers wait in line for post-natal care at a clinic in Senegal. Photo credit: Jonathan Torgovnik/Images of Empowerment Lack of access to modern forms of energy – or energy poverty – has both direct and indirect harmful effects on health and medical care facilities in sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, more than 30 percent of clinics and hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa, serving approximately 255 million people, are without electricity. Here are 6 surprising ways that energy poverty affects the health care system and puts lives...
In the developed world we rarely walk into a room and think twice before flipping a switch to turn on the lights. We seldom, if ever, consider the possibility that when we go to the doctor’s office it may not have electricity, or give us medicines that haven’t been property refrigerated. Most mothers in the developed world don’t consider whether or not to give birth in a facility that has electricity. When was the last time you showed up at...
What does it mean to live without electricity? See how much electricity Americans use each day – and understand how crucial it is to our daily lives. Electricity is not a luxury, but a necessity, and all 7 billion humans should have access to it. Most people living in Africa use significantly less electricity in a year than the global average – and 7 out of 10 people in sub-Saharan Africa live without it every day. Here’s a list of 8...