Tackling one-tenth of Haitian deaths and helping the environment

A third of Ghana’s population is between the ages of 15 and 34, but the country struggles to offer employment for its youth. Job creation has not kept up the pace with the country’s strong GDP growth, and among young people unemployment has increased from 10% in 2008 to 14% in 2018, far exceeding the rate for adults. Ghana also has lower levels of labour productivity than other African countries with a similar economic standing, partly because of inadequate training, and industries experience a lack of employable workers with the relevant skills for their tasks.

Every hour, tuberculosis kills nine Bangladeshis. Another seven die each hour from arsenic in drinking water. Simple and cheap solutions are available to avoid almost all these deaths.

Bangladesh has made incredible progress over recent years on many health indicators. But the country continues to face great challenges, like tuberculosis (TB) and arsenic, two of the biggest killers. Many other grave health issues remain too, including factors that threaten mothers and their children.

Over the last 15 years, India has experienced large strides in its development, not the least urged by the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015. Impressively, India has reached the target of halving the proportion of people in poverty in 2011-12, well ahead of this year’s deadline. From almost half of all Indians below $1.25 per day in 1994, more than three in four are now above the poverty line. (...)