Health Improvement Essay Example for Free

Health Improvement Essay To address this challenge, the world’s governments committed themselves at the United Nations Millennium Summit to the Millennium Development Goals, including the overarching goal of halving extreme poverty by the year 2015. Yet, our planet’s capacity to sustain us is eroding. The problems are well-known – degrading agricultural lands, shrinking forests, diminishing supplies of clean water, dwindling fisheries, and the threat of growing social and ecological vulnerability from climate change and loss of biological diversity. While these threats are global, their impacts are most severe in the developing world – especially among people living in poverty who have the least means to cope. Is this environmental decline inevitable in order for poverty to be reduced? We argue not. Indeed, quite the opposite is true. If we do not successfully arrest and reverse these problems, the world will not be able to meet the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the goal of halving extreme poverty. As this paper demonstrates, tackling environmental degradation is an integral part of effective and lasting poverty reduction. The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) provides the international community with a pivotal opportunity to redirect the global debate, and to forge a more integrated and effective global response to poverty and environmental decline. To succeed, we need to focus on the most important links between poverty, the environment and sustainable development. For many, ensuring sound environmental management means curtailment of economic opportunities and growth, rather than their expansion †¦ too often; it is viewed as a cost rather than an investment. Prepared as a contribution to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development focuses on ways to reduce poverty and sustain growth by improving management of the environment, broadly defined. It seeks to draw out the links between poverty and the environment, and to demonstrate that sound and equitable environmental management is integral to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality, combating major diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability. Four priority areas for sustained policy and institutional change are highlighted: ?Improving governance for pro-poor and pro-environment policies, institutions and services, with particular attention to the needs of women and children; ?Enhancing the assets of the poor and reducing their vulnerability to environment-related shocks and conflict; ?Improving the quality of growth to protect the asset base of the poor and expand opportunities for sustainable livelihoods; ?Reforming international and industrialized country policies related to trade, foreign direct investment, aid and debt. Policy opportunities exist to reduce poverty and improve the environment The environment matters greatly to people living in poverty. The poor often depend directly on natural resources and ecological services for their livelihoods; they are often the most affected by unclean water, indoor air pollution and exposure to toxic chemicals; and they are particularly vulnerable to environmental hazards such as floods and prolonged drought, and to environment-related conflict. Addressing these poverty-environment linkages must be at the core of national efforts to eradicate poverty. Many policy opportunities exist to reduce poverty by improving the environment – but there are significant and often deeply entrenched policy and institutional barriers to their widespread adoption. The past decade of experience since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio reveals some important lessons that help point the way forward. Three broad lessons are highlighted here: ?First and foremost, poor people must be seen as part of the solution – rather than part of the problem. Efforts to improve environmental management in ways that contribute to sustainable growth and poverty reduction must begin with the poor themselves. Given the right incentives and support – including access to information and participation in decision-making – the poor will invest in environmental improvements to enhance their livelihoods and well-being. At the same time, however, it is essential to address the activities of the non-poor since they are the source of most environmental damage. The environmental quality of growth matters to the poor. Environmental improvement is not a luxury preoccupation that can wait until growth has alleviated income poverty, nor can it be assumed that growth itself will take care of environmental problems over the longer-term as a natural by-product of increasing affluence. First, this ignores the fundamental importance of environmental goods and services to the livelihoods and well-being of the rural and urban poor. Second, there are many examples of how bad environmental management is bad for growth, and of how the poor bear a disproportionate share of the costs of environmental degradation. Ignoring the environmental soundness of growth – even if this leads to short-run economic gains – can undermine long-run growth and its effectiveness in reducing poverty. ?Environmental management cannot be treated separately from other development concerns, but requires integration into poverty reduction and sustainable development efforts in order to achieve significant and lasting results. Improving environmental management in ways that benefit the poor requires policy and institutional changes that cut across sectors and lie mostly outside the control of environmental institutions – changes in governance, domestic economic policy, and in international policies. Improving governance ?Integrate poverty-environment issues into nationally-owned poverty reduction strategies, including macroeconomic and sect oral policy reforms and action programmes, so that they can become national sustainable development strategies. Engage poor and marginalized groups in policy and planning processes to ensure that the key environmental issues that affect them are adequately addressed, to build ownership, and to enhance the prospects for achieving lasting results. Address the poverty-environment concerns of poor women and children and ensure that they are given higher priority and fully integrated into poverty reduction strategies and policy reforms – for example, the growing burden of collecting scarce water and fuelwood supplies, and the effects of long-term exposure to polluted indoor air. Implement anti-corruption measures to counter the role of corruption in the misuse of natural resources and weak enforcement of environmental regulations – for example, the destructive impacts of illegal logging and unregulated mining, or the preference for construction of new power and water investments over increasing the efficiency of existing investments. ?Improve poverty-environment indicators to document environmental change and how it affects poor people, and integrate into national poverty monitoring systems. This should be complemented by measures to improve citizens’ access to environmental information. Enhancing the assets of the poor ?Strengthen resource rights of the poor by reforming the wider range of policies and institutions that influence resource access, control and benefit-sharing, with particular attention to resource rights for women. This includes central and sub-national government, traditional authorities, the legal system, and local land boards, commissions and tribunals. Support decentralization and local environmental management – land, water and forest resource management, and provision of water supply and sanitation services – by strengthening local management capacity and supporting women’s key roles in managing natural resources. ?Expand access to environmentally-sound and pro-poor technology, such as crop production technologies that conserve soil and water and minimize the use of pesticides, or appropriate renewable energy and energy e fficient technologies that also minimize air pollution. This includes support for indigenous technologies, and the need to address the social, cultural, financial and marketing aspects of technical change. ?Promote measures that reduce the environmental vulnerability of the poor by strengthening participatory disaster preparedness and prevention capacity, supporting the formal and informal coping strategies of vulnerable groups, and expanding access to insurance and other risk management mechanisms. Reduce the vulnerability of the poor to environment-related conflict by improving conflict resolution mechanisms in the management of natural resources and addressing the underlying political issues that affect resource access. Improving the quality of growth ?Integrate poverty-environment issues in economic policy and decision-making by strengthening the use of environmental assessment and poverty social impact analysis. Improve environmental valuation at both the macro and micro level, in order to highlight the full cost of environmental deg radation for the poor in particular and the economy in general, and to improve economic decision-making. ?Expand private sector involvement in pro-poor environmental management to maximize the efficiency gains from private sector participation, while safeguarding the interests of the poor. This requires capacity within government to negotiate with the private sector – for example, to ensure that utility privatization benefits the poor – and to forge effective public-private partnerships that enhance the poor’s access to environmental services. ?Implement pro-poor environmental fiscal reform including reform of environmentally-damaging subsidies, improved use of rent taxes to better capture and more effectively allocate resource revenues, and improved use of pollution charges to better reflect environmental costs in market prices. Reforming international and industrialized country policies ?Reform trade and industrialized country subsidy policies to open up markets to developing country imports while avoiding environmental protectionism, and to reduce subsidies that lead to unsustainable exploitation – such as subsidies for large-scale commercial fishing fleets that encourage over-harvesting in developing country fisheries. . Make foreign direct investment more pro-poor and pro-environment by encouraging multinational corporations to comply with the revised OECD Code of Conduct for Multinational Enterprises, and to report on the environmental impact of their activities in line with the UN Environment Programme’s Global Reporting Initiative. ?Increase funding for the Global Environment Facility as the major source of funding for global public goods in the environment, such as a stable climate, maintenance of biodiversity, clean international waters and the protective ozone layer. These benefit the whole world as well as the poor themselves – so the rich world must pay a fair share for their maintenance. ?Enhance the contribution of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) to national development objectives by strengthening developing country capacity to participate in the negotiation and implementation of MEAs (for example, to ensure that the Clean Development Mechanism promotes investments that benefit the poor). Also, improved coordination is needed between MEAs so that scarce developing country capacity is used most effectively. ?Encourage sustainable consumption and production – industrialized country consumers and producers through their trade, investment, pollution emissions and other activities affect the environmental conditions of developing countries. Making rich country consumption and production more sustainable will require a complex mix of institutional changes – addressing market and government failures as well as broad public attitudes. Enhance the effectiveness of development cooperation and debt relief with more priority for poverty-environment issues, particularly for the poorest countries where aid and debt relief continue to have a valuable role to play in helping governments to make many of the changes recommended above. Mainstream environment in donor agency operations through staff training, development and application of new skills, tools and approaches, and revisions to the way resources and budgets are allocated. Transparent monitoring of progress against stated objectives and targets is needed in order to hold development agencies accountable and to ensure that a commitment by senior management to addressing poverty-environment issues is put into practice throughout the organization. Conclusion This paper looks ahead with some degree of hope and optimism for the future – there are sometimes win-win opportunities, and there are rational ways of dealing with trade-offs. Environmental degradation is not inevitable, nor the unavoidable result of economic growth. On the contrary, sound and equitable environmental management is key to sustained poverty reduction and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. There are significant policy opportunities to reduce poverty and improve the environment, but more integrated and pro-poor approaches are needed. The World Summit on Sustainable Development is an opportunity to focus on what is most important and to forge a coherent framework for action, with clear goals and achievable targets backed-up by adequate resources and effective and transparent monitoring mechanisms. There can be no more important goal than to reduce and ultimately eradicate poverty on our planet. PART 1 Why the Environment Matters to People Living in Poverty â€Å"Water is life and because we have no water, life is miserable† (Kenya) â€Å"We think the earth is generous; but what is the incentive to produce more than the family needs if there are no access roads to get produce to a market? † (Guatemala) â€Å"In the monsoons there is no difference between the land in front of our house and the public drain. You can see for yourself† (India) In their own words, the environment matters greatly to people living in poverty. Indeed, poor people’s perceptions of well-being are strongly related to the environment in terms of their livelihoods, health, vulnerability, and sense of empowerment and ability to control their lives. Figure 1 provides a simplified framework for understanding how environmental management relates to poverty reduction, and why these poverty-environment linkages must be at the core of action to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and related national poverty eradication and sustainable development objectives. Environmental management for poverty reductionDimensions of povertyDevelopment goals Part 1 of the paper focuses on the poverty-environment relationship by examining how environmental conditions in both rural and urban settings relate to three key dimensions of human poverty and well-being: ?Livelihoods – poor people tend to be most dependent upon the environment and the direct use of natural resources, and therefore are the most severely affected when the environment is degraded or their access to natural resources is limited or denied; Health – poor people suffer most when water, land and the air are polluted; ?Vulnerability – the poor are most often exposed to environmental hazards and environment-related conflict, and are least capable of coping when they occur. We also are concerned with the relationship between growth and the environment and how it affects the poor and efforts to reduce poverty. The environmental soundness of growth matters considerably to the poor, and countries with similar levels of income and growth can have quite different levels of environmental performance. While Figure 1 illustrates the main pathways between environmental conditions and dimensions of poverty, in reality these linkages are multi-dimensional, dynamic and often inter-connected: ?Poverty is now widely viewed as encompassing both income and non-income dimensions of deprivation – including lack of income and other material means; lack of access to basic social services such as education, health and safe water; lack of personal security; and lack of empowerment to participate in the political process and in decisions that influence one’s life. The dynamics of poverty also are better understood, and extreme vulnerability to external shocks is now seen as one of its major features. Environment refers to the biotic and abiotic components of the natural world that together support life on earth – as a provider of goods (natural resources) and ecosystem services utilized for food production, energy and as raw material; a recipient and partial recycler of waste products from the economy; and an important source of recreation, beauty, spiritual values and other amenities. The nature and dynamics of poverty-environment linkages are context-specific – reflecting both geographic location and economic, social and cultural characteristics of individuals, households and social groups. Different social groups can prioritize different environmental issues (Brocklesby and Hinshelwood, 2001). In rural areas, poor people are particularly concerned with their access to and the quality of natural resources, especially water, cro p and grazing land, forest products and biomass for fuel. For the urban poor, water, energy, sanitation and waste removal are key concerns. Poor women regard safe and physically close access to potable water, sanitation facilities and abundant energy supplies as crucial aspects of well-being, reflecting their primary role in managing the household. ?Environmental management, as used in this paper, extends well beyond the activities of public environmental institutions. In relation to poverty, environmental management is concerned fundamentally with sustaining the long-term capacity of the environment to provide the goods and services upon which people and economies depend. This means improving environmental conditions and ensuring equitable access to environmental assets – in particular land and biological resources, and safe and affordable water supply and sanitation – in order to expand poor people’s livelihood opportunities, protect their health and capacity to work, and reduce their vulnerability to environment-related risks. This broader conception of poverty and environment, and of environmental management, is essential to understanding the linkages between them and to identifying appropriate policy and institutional options for improving these linkages. There have been some impressive gains since the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment – the first global conference devoted to environment and development issues. There has been a proliferation of environmental policies and institutions at national and sub-national levels, and environmental issues are firmly placed on the agendas of governments, civil society and the private sector. Major global environmental agreements have been forged and global environmental organizations established. Environmental sustainability has become a core concern of bilateral and multilateral development cooperation, and billions of dollars have been spent on environment-related programmes and projects. Tangible progress also has been achieved ‘on the ground’, although the picture is usually mixed. For example, in the 1990s some 900 million people gained access to improved water sources. However, this was merely enough to keep pace with population growth, and about 1. 2 billion people are still without access to improved water sources, with rural populations particularly under-served (Devarajan et al, 2002). Another example is the productivity of soil used for cereal production, which increased on average in developing countries from 1979-81 to 1998-2000. However, it fell in some 25 countries, most of them in Africa, with land degradation being one factor behind the decline (World Bank, 2002c). Despite these gains, pressure on the environment continues to mount worldwide, posing major challenges to the prospects for poverty reduction and human development in developing countries, in particular the least developed countries.

The Problems of SOL Testing :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The Problems of SOL Testing Education is one of the most important tools that society possesses. The right implementation of this tool is one of the greatest ways of assuring the quality of life within a society. The ability to better ourselves, is one of the strongest inherit abilities of the human race. At its most basic definition, education is nothing more than the teaching of ideas. The early stages of schooling instill more attitude and social skills than knowledge. The younger stages of a person's life are usually the most definable years of their lives. As the age and skill level of the student increases, more education is based upon the interest of the student. For society to progress and excel, every generation must learn just a little more. Education is important and the ways that it is tested should show the most accurate measure of achievement. SOL's (Standards of Learning) is the testing I am going to explain, and why it should not be required in high school as a form of measurement of a s tudents achievement. First of all, what is SOL testing? SOL (Standards of Learning) Tests are prescribed tests in the state of Virginia that must be taken in order for students to attain credits required to graduate. SOL's are the minimum curriculum requirements for student achievement, so they say. This test is designed to test knowledge in subjects such as history, math, science, english and computer science. SOL's are required tests in the state of Virginia in order for a student to graduate. According to the Virginia Board of Education, SOL test scores are the single best measure of students' and schools performance and should be the primary criteria for graduation and accreditation. But is this really true? According to fairtest.org, no standardized test can accurately measure a student's achievement. Multiple choice tests cannot truly assess critical thinking, problem solving, and application skills. The only real tests of knowledge are through essay questions and performance tests. I don't believe any single test should be used to make big decisions concerning students futures. The Virginia Board of Education, according to fairtest.org, also believes that SOL's set reasonable targets for essential knowledge and skills all teachers must teach and students must learn.

Porter’s Diamond Model For China

The assembly industry uses the advance factors to take the advantage over the other countries. This is because they have more educated workforce, this will help them to do their work at more sophisticated way with better technological improvements, and mainly at cheaper cost which is the biggest advantage for assembly industry till now. Government investment in advance factors has also provided the industry with many educated workers, as result benefitting the assembly industry as a whole.If the domestic demand rises this will overall put the pressure on the assembly industry to come up with new designs and more innovative technologies to take the assembly industry to new level. As a result other companies like Nokia, Sony, HP who were already related with the china assembly industry they will be impressed with this new improvements, thus attracting other company’s also towards the China assembly industry.Because of these vast improvements of the assembly industry many domesti c firms are now encouraged to invest more creating more advance factors, so that it helps the industry to become more successful. This as a result creates a competitive advantage for the industry. Thus giving rise to more competition, and improving the product or services more. Different countries have different management ideologies.As it is an assembly industry more technologically related managers are needed to manage the industry like engineers should be there at the top level so that they will understand the best which machines to use, or which is more updated so that they can run the industry more well. Overall this will keep the industry in pace with others, hence they will be able to provide better services, attracting more foreign companies, and will also be able to hold their position at the peak. Porter’s Diamond Model For China The assembly industry uses the advance factors to take the advantage over the other countries. This is because they have more educated workforce, this will help them to do their work at more sophisticated way with better technological improvements, and mainly at cheaper cost which is the biggest advantage for assembly industry till now. Government investment in advance factors has also provided the industry with many educated workers, as result benefitting the assembly industry as a whole.If the domestic demand rises this will overall put the pressure on the assembly industry to come up with new designs and more innovative technologies to take the assembly industry to new level. As a result other companies like Nokia, Sony, HP who were already related with the china assembly industry they will be impressed with this new improvements, thus attracting other company’s also towards the China assembly industry.Because of these vast improvements of the assembly industry many domesti c firms are now encouraged to invest more creating more advance factors, so that it helps the industry to become more successful. This as a result creates a competitive advantage for the industry. Thus giving rise to more competition, and improving the product or services more. Different countries have different management ideologies.As it is an assembly industry more technologically related managers are needed to manage the industry like engineers should be there at the top level so that they will understand the best which machines to use, or which is more updated so that they can run the industry more well. Overall this will keep the industry in pace with others, hence they will be able to provide better services, attracting more foreign companies, and will also be able to hold their position at the peak.

When Does Discipline Cross the Line to Child Abuse

When Does Discipline Cross the Line to Child Abuse? In this report, I concentrated my research on the fine line between physical discipline and child abuse, with emphasis on spanking vs. not spanking and its effects on children. Included are research from statistics, opposing views and arguments, advocates’ and Department of Children and Families’ position. The use of corporal punishment, or spanking, as a form of parental discipline is a controversial topic. Adults who remember being spanking by a parent for misbehaving may carry on this behavior as an acceptable form of punishment for their own children. Others believe spanking to be an outdated punishment that is cruel and can cross the line to physical abuse. 2010 NATIONAL ABUSE†¦show more content†¦Opponents of Physical Discipline Opponents of spanking believe the practice indicates a loss of parental control and is never necessary. Some even believe spanking or corporal punishment can lead to an increase in violence and result in child abuse. From this point of view, a child’s self-esteem may suffer owing to the humiliation of the spanking and, in addition to possibly losing respect for a parent who spanks; the child will merely avoid situations or behaviors that result in punishment without grasping the concept of right and wrong. Many family advocacy groups, psychologists, and health professionals that I had researched, consider spanking to be inappropriate and recommend against its use. The following list reinforces the argument against using spanking as a form of punishment. †¢ Hitting children teaches them to hit. Research is available to support a link between corporal punishment in childhood and aggressive behavior in teenage and adult years. (www.naturalchild.org) †¢ This type of punishment distracts the child from learning how to resolve conflict effectively and humanely. In the words of educator John Holt: â€Å"When we make a child afraid, we stop learning dead in its tracks.† ( www.naturalchild.org) †¢ Corporal punishment interferes with the parent-child bond, as it is not human nature to feel loving toward someone who hurts us.( www.cuteparents.net) †¢ Spanking on the buttocks, an erogenous zone in childhood, canShow MoreRelatedPhysical Discipline with Children1100 Words   |  4 PagesSpanking a child is not against the law in most places. However, parents who use it in their homes are being accused of child abuse. The Chicago Tribune published an article that urged readers to report child abuse when they become aware of it. In the article â€Å"Child abuse in plain View† the author describes spanking as a type of abuse that happens behind closed doors (â€Å"Child abuse in plain View†). Like most critics of corporal punishment, the author is trying to link spanking to abuse. The author`sRead MoreChild Abuse And Child Discipline925 Words   |  4 Pagesbetween child abuse and child discipline. Abuse is any action that intentionally harms or injures another person. Discipline is punishment that is intended to correct or train. Some parents do not see the harm in their form of discipline, but others may view it as abuse. It may not be the parent’s intention to harm their child but it is something that occurs. â€Å"In 2012, state agencies found an estimate 686,000 of child maltreatment.† .*(*Kids Count) Every year more than 3 million reports of child abuseRead MoreThe Effects Of Physical Abuse On Children s Lives1580 Words   |  7 Pagestaken to prohibit more disruption in children s lives. Physical abuse can leave numerous of careless scars on the body which can lead to permanent damage. Parenting is everything to the development of a child’s life especially as they grow, learning what they are taught from home, school, and every day surroundings. When it comes to discipline many people are subjective towards where the line is drawn. Discipline easily becomes abuse when it leads to injury or any harm of their life. As children growRead MoreShould We Ban Smack Essay1059 Words   |  5 PagesSmacking should be banned to protect children Before I get stated, I’d like to ask you guys for one question: Have you ever got smacked by your parents when you are a little child? If you have, please put your hands up. Alright, it seems everyone has been smacked before, so have I. A black and white picture of a cross father spanking a little boy who is crying on his knees could be described by people as the â€Å"bad old days†. Disciplinary action such as a smack on a child’s bottom is not illegalRead MoreEvaluation of the Statement that Hitting Children is Wrong Essays1479 Words   |  6 Pagesreasonable chastisement. This law permits, the use by parents of reasonable chastisement when disciplining their children. That is, a parent is permitted to hit a child as a way of enforcing discipline providing the physical punishment is within moderate to reasonable limits. There is however evidence which suggests hitting a child is both wrong and ineffective in its aim of teaching a child right from wrong. This evidence will be presented here in an effort to advise yourRead MoreDisciplining Your Child Vs. Child Abuse1875 Words   |  8 Pages Disciplining Your Child vs. Child Abuse (Where the line is drawn) For many years, we as a society have discussed what to do and how to draw the line when it comes to disciplining a child. Many parents have different methods on how to discipline their child. Some parents resort to a physical method of discipline, where other parents may approach their children with a non-contact form of discipline such as verbal reprimand or grounding. We as a society have grown into different times, whereas physicalRead MoreThe Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog1254 Words   |  6 Pagesstrongly affect children. The first story in this book is a very moving one. I thought it interesting and appropriate that that was his first child patient. One of the helpful people in this book that stood out to me was Mama P. Her intuitive knowledge of her babies is amazing. To have the strength and patience to bring in and care for a child like Robert is beautiful. I would love to meet and learn from someone like that. One particular situation that I enjoyed learning about was theRead MoreDomestic Violence And Its Effects1454 Words   |  6 Pagesany act or combination of acts of physical, emotional or sexual violence done intentionally with an end result of injury to another person of an intimate relationship (Kendall 466). When you think of domestic violence, battered women probably comes to mind first but it also covers child abuse, elderly abuse, and the abuse of men. Sociologists have a hard time determining the exact cause of domestic violence but have many theories and perspectives for possible explanations, three of which are: ControlRead MoreEssay on Parenting Styles1718 Words   |  7 Pages Reflection  Paper. Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harsh ­Heart  believe  in  the  importance  of  stern  discipline  and  impose  strict  rules that  they  expect  their  children  to  obey  without  question.  They  penalize  behavior  harshly,  frequently  with spanking.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Easygoing  do  not  use  punishment  to  enforce  their  rules  and  believe  in  natural consequences  teaching  lessons  and  setting  limits  on  behavior.  They  have  regular  family  meetings  with their  children  to  discuss  household  rules  and  their  importance  to  the  family  dynamicsRead MoreThe Children May Suffer: The Negative Impacts of Corporal Punishment 1685 Words   |  7 Pagesurging him forward. He is almost to her side when he sees the shadow of her belt, he slowly backs away, he does not go far, as she quickly grabs him by his shirt. She then start to beat his hands with the belt, and then turns him around and starts spanking him on the behind. Throughout the whole time, the young boy’s eyes reflect fear, pain, and anger. Such corporal punishment is also known as spanking, beating, whipping, hitting, and sometimes even abuse. Although not all parents’ enforce corporal