Signaling what matters: Indigenous representation, free school lunch

1. Brazil

Brazil counted almost 1.7 million Indigenous people in its 2022 census, an 89% surge from the 2010 census. Indigenous people make up just 0.83% of the country’s population.

The government attributes the increase largely to improved survey methods and mapping, and acknowledged the possibility of an undercount in 2010. Brazil’s Institute of Geography and Statistics said surveyors asked a question about Indigenous heritage even outside recognized Indigenous land, a significant change from the 2010 survey. The institute estimates that 27.6% of the Indigenous population declared its heritage due to this new question. Just over half the Indigenous population lives in the nine-state Legal Amazon region.

Indigenous people’s numbers also grew 20% in designated territories, due largely to increased access to previously unreachable villages. More people being willing to acknowledge their ancestry may have also played a role. The 2022 census follows Indigenous activist Sônia Guajajara’s appointment that January to lead the country’s new Ministry of Indigenous Peoples.

Sources: The Associated Press, Institute of Geography and Statistics, Folha de S.Paulo

2. United States

A successful trial of commercial-scale geothermal energy set records in Nevada. As part of a partnership with Google to power its operations in the state, Fervo Energy’s test of its enhanced geothermal system was able to generate 3.5 megawatts of electricity – 1 megawatt is typically enough to power 750 homes.

Natural geothermal energy systems draw hot liquid from underground reservoirs to produce carbon-free electricity, heating, and cooling. Using fracking techniques pioneered by the fossil fuel industry, an enhanced geothermal system injects fluid into rock to increase its permeability and create pathways for liquid to flow freely. Fervo’s system adapts another method that grew the shale oil industry – horizontal drilling, which does not require very deep wells and could vastly increase the number of sites suitable for geothermal power. Geothermal is considered a “clean firm power” that is not weather dependent like solar and wind are.

Fervo CEO Tim Latimer, a former oil and gas engineer, said of recruiting the industry’s workers: “I really get frustrated when people demonize the people that work in oil and gas. ... If we want to deploy geothermal energy as quickly as we need to to actually have an impact on global carbon emissions, we need to recruit tens of thousands of people to come work with us.”
Sources: Bloomberg, Time

3. Kenya

Nairobi City County is launching the largest school meal program in Africa. Ten new kitchens will provide 400,000 daily lunches for children in primary schools and early childhood development centers. The $8.6 million program seeks to reduce hunger and is a collaboration between the county and Food4Education – a nonprofit that has provided food for thousands of Kenyan schoolchildren since 2012.

In Kenya, over a quarter of children under age 5 live with stunted growth due to malnutrition. Teachers and parents told Nairobi’s county executive last year that most schoolchildren in the city do not eat lunch, which they say impacts students’ learning and reduces enrollment and attendance.

Parents pay 5 shillings per meal to the government’s 25 ($0.18). Wawira Njiru of Food4Education said, “That partnership with parents is very important because when they chip in, they also feel that they are contributing.” The nonprofit reports raising enrollment by 30% to 40% with its own programs. Kenya has also earmarked 5 billion shillings ($36 million) to expand the existing national school feeding program from 1 million children to 4 million and hopes to allocate more funding if more counties join the plan.
Source: The Guardian

4. Taiwan

Taiwan will provide free period products in all schools, and low-income students will have access to subsidies to purchase supplies separately. The government will also distribute menstrual care products at 10 museums and libraries throughout the island.

The $100 million (New Taiwan dollar; U.S.$3.13 million) program aims to promote gender equality by ending period poverty. Around the world, United Nations programs addressing period poverty recognize that women,  transgender people, and nonbinary people may be adversely affected by a lack of access to period products, sanitation, and education.

Though a 2019 study found that Taiwan boasts Asia’s lowest proportion of people living in poverty, an estimated 95,000 students will benefit from the program. The Ministry of Education said it plans to expand gender equality education to improve all students’ understanding of menstruation and reduce social stigma.

Scotland became the first country to provide free sanitary products to schools in 2018 and has since expanded the program to give free access to all.
Sources: Taiwan News, United Nations Population Fund

World

The World Health Organization’s anti-smoking strategies now reach 71% of people around the globe. The figure is five times higher than in 2007 and represents 5.6 billion people safeguarded by at least one best-practice tobacco policy. The WHO estimates that its MPOWER measures prevented 300 million people from starting smoking in the past 15 years.

MPOWER includes guidelines for governments such as enforcing bans on smoking in public spaces, prohibiting tobacco advertisements, supporting cessation, and raising taxes. Tobacco causes 8.7 million preventable deaths annually, including 1.3 million from secondhand smoke, according to the ninth MPOWER report. The report found that smoking rates have seen a relative reduction of 25% in 14 years. Smoking rates have fallen across all income levels. Nearly 40% of countries now have smoke-free indoor public spaces.

While 44 countries remain unprotected by any MPOWER measures, two more countries, Mauritius and the Netherlands, achieved a best-practice level, joining Brazil and Turkey.
Source: World Health Organization