Natural Disaster and Conflict Kill, Wound, and Displace Tens-of-Thousands
Ongoing Rescue Efforts Devastating Earthquake in Turkey and Syria
On Feb 6th large parts of Turkey and Northern Syria were ravaged by a series of earthquakes, the worst measuring 7.8 in magnitude. Another 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck the same area Feb 27th collapsing more buildings and creating more casualties. Over 50,000 people have died in Turkey and Syria because of this disaster and rescue efforts are continuing.
While these earthquakes were especially powerful, Turkey has a similar fault line to the San Andreas fault line, and earthquakes are fairly common. However, unlike California, Turkey failed to implement proper building standards over the past couple of decades causing massive destruction. Turkey is a middle-income country and has had rapidly expanding housing needs from its own population and the millions of refugees and migrants that have fled its more unstable neighbors. The government prioritized construction speed over safety and had programs that legalized 13 million out-of-code structures and lacked the capacity or interest to effectively enforce standards on construction companies.
Most importantly the international community has come together to help the people of Turkey during this time of crisis. Rescue teams, resources, and NGOs from across the world are helping people in Turkey. Highlighting the victory of human compassion was that Armenia has sent over 50 rescuers and supplies to Turkey and Syria, opening the border between the two nations for the first time in decades.
Turkey has been in the news a lot recently for its geopolitical role surrounding the war in Ukraine and the ascension and Sweden and Finland into NATO. I recommend this episode of the Net Assessment podcast concerning those issues.
Year Anniversary of the Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine
Feb 24th marked the year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This video was published by the UN High Commission on Refugees and details their response.
Conflict and Poverty
Conflict creates instability that can contribute to poverty around the world. In honor of the first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No Poverty we put together some sources that can illustrate the role conflict plays in contributing to global poverty.
Correspondence reports from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and CNN show how Afghanistan's humanitarian situation has progressively worsened since the Taliban takeover in August of 2021. From the WSJ we see people suffering because the US and its partners were withholding foreign aid funding until the Taliban government changed its position on women's rights. Foreign aid was eventually released but the CNN report details how the Taliban’s decision to no longer allow women to work for non-profits has affected people. Without women able to work in the country NGOs are finding it impossible to effectively provide the goods and services that the Afghani people rely on as the country approaches high levels of food insecurity.
Following Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine in September of last year many follow-on effects have been felt globally.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) put out a report detailing how 10.4 million people were driven into poverty in Europe and Central Asia alone. Instability caused by active fighting and economic hardship in Russia following international sanctions is driving nations dependent on the Russian economy and Ukrainian grain towards higher rates of poverty.
USAID put out a press release on the 30th of March providing an overview of what the US has done to support the Ukrainian economy and its people. Importantly the report lists its effort to support Ukrainian farmers and maintain the employment of more than 68,000 people. Protecting grain production inside Ukraine is a priority to protect millions from poverty and food insecurity around the world.