Global Poverty: Chevron's Riverboat Clinic

The very first global challenge that I identified is global poverty. Poverty is based mostly on the lack of income or wages that the poor is receiving. Based on the “11 Facts of Global Poverty”, more than 3 billion people in the world live with less than $2.50 per day and nearly half of that amount live in extreme poverty, with just $1.25 per day (2015). This problem extends to the extreme where the article also stated “22,000 children die each day due to poverty”, which has a serious affect on the world’s population (2015). According to the article “Quick Facts about Poverty”, 80% of the global poor are located at Sub-Saharan Africa and also South Asia (2015).

As stated in the article “Only Business Can End Poverty” by Mal Warwick, “private

business possesses three overarching and undeniable advantages in addressing the challenge of poverty: Profitable businesses attract substantial capital; successful businesses hire lots of people; successful businesses are capable of reaching scale (2015).” Business can truly have a large influence on poverty alleviation. The article “Wealth Creation: Taking China’s Story of Success to Africa” by Peter Greer states, private investment has generated 1.7 million jobs from 2003 to 2010, which its impact has exceeded the effect of aid (2012). Business intervention into the country leads towards economic growth, which helps reduce poverty in that country. The article “Building Jobs and Prosperity in Developing Countries” stats that 10 per cent increase in a country’s average income will reduce the poverty rate by between 20 and 30%. Therefore, job creation, economy growth and also increase in income for the poor is directly correlated with poverty alleviation.
1 of the enterprises that is addressing the challenge would be Unilever. Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company that owns more than 400 brands in the categories of food, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Unilever has had big impact in reducing both South Africa and also Indonesia’s poverty problem by creating jobs for the locals and also increasing local economy growth by purchasing from local suppliers. According to the report “Measuring Unilever's Economic Footprint: The Case of South Africa” by Ethan Kapstein, Unilever’s South African employees had generated more than R32 billion while also created 100,000 jobs, with also R4.5 billion purchasing send goes to South African suppliers (2008). Addition to that is that Unilever had added around R12.5 billion or 0.9% of the country’s GDP in the year 2005 (2008). The company has contributed job creation with above average wage and also the benefits of medical care towards the local, decreasing the poverty of the people in South African. This shows that other companies in the production or selling category can take advantage of the low competition in the these low economy countries to produce or sell their products, with the complimentary effect on adding economy growth towards that country and also reducing poverty of the locals.
Citibank is the next enterprise that is addressing the poverty. This company is a subsidiary of multinational banking conglomerate. Citibank is addressing poverty by providing rural enterprise development program that helps increase the local’s income. According to the article “Citi Deepens Support of Rural Small Enterprises Development in Chongqing” by Citigroup Inc., Citibank helped 70% of program household enterprises increase their average annual income by 30% (2013). This program also provides fruit and nut trees for free to further generate an estimated additional annual profit of at least RMB 920,000 for 20 years and establishing community development funds that brings an additional 10% income increase to participating families (2013). In addition to that, Citibank has provided microfinance support in Gansu, China with also the additional training focusing on agricultural and animal husbandry technology and livelihood (2013). Based on the article “Citi Supports Microfinance Program in Gansu”, the program offers microcredit loans for income generating activities that can increase farmers’ income levels and to create permanent job opportunities (2013). This program in Gansu has successfully increase applicant’s annual average income by 10% to 25% (2013). Therefore, by providing opportunities towards the poor to create and increase their income with their own ability is able to reduce the poverty rate, while also being able to earn profit at the same time.
The next global challenges I have identified is global health issues. Health issues will include a wide range of sickness from HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria to the lack of nutrition or immunization. According to the article “Health Issues” by Anup Shah, ‘One billion people lack access to health care systems (2014).’ The statistics for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria shows even serious problem where there were 2 million deaths from AIDS during the year 2008, 1.7 million people killed each year by TB and 780,000 deaths annually caused by Malaria (2014).
Jane Nelson from the article “Business as a Partner in Strengthening Public Health Systems in Developing Countries” shows the reasons why business or non-profit enterprise can have a direct impact in addressing health issues is because businesses have the “sufficient national funds, adequate insurance system, official donors funds and private sector investments to finance/ or service health priorities, especially access to life-saving medicines and technologies (2006).” As stated in the article “Business as a Partner in Strengthening Public Health Systems in Developing Countries”, businesses have the capability to provide charitable funding to global health partnerships, local community health initiatives and non-governmental organizations (2006).
The first enterprise that is currently addressing the global health issue will be Chevron.

Their approach towards the problem is through financial funding for local organizations and also providing free health services. According to the official website of Chevron, Chevron had been funding the Chevron’s Riverboat Clinic to provide a mobile health service towards the communities along the creeks and islets of the Escravos and Benin rivers in the western Niger Delta. The purpose of Chevron’s Riverboat Clinic is to provide free treatment to communities and currently treats 2,500 patients every day, majority women and children that don’t have access to healthcare. In just the year 2015, Chevron’s Riverboat Clinic has treated more than 49,500 men, women and children in Nigeria (Chevron). In addition to that, the article “Chevron Donates $30 Million to Global Health Fund” stated that Chevron has also donated $30 million to the Global Health Fund to help fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria in Nigeria through the Global Fund Corporate Champions program (2008). The Global Fund is a unique public/private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. So far, the Global Fund Corporate Champions program had “averted 2 million deaths by providing AIDS treatment for 1.4 million people and TB treatment for 3.3 million people, and by distributing 46 million insecticide-treated bed nets that help prevent the spread of malaria (2008).” Chevron shows that by investing sufficient amount into health issues, it can bring large improvement on the

situation.
The next enterprise that is addressing health issues is Pfizer. Pfizer is an American global pharmaceutical corporation that develops and produces medicines and vaccines for a wide range of medical disciplines. The approach that Pfizer used is to provide treatment, training, research, laboratory and diagnostic services for HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria. According to Pfizer’s official website, their goal is to “build capacity of health systems in Africa for the delivery of sustainable, high quality care and prevention of HIV/AIDS and related infectious diseases through training, research and advanced clinical services (2011).” Jane Nelson also stated they also have a The Infectious Disease Institute (IDI) build in Uganda for medical training and research to be conducted (2006). Till the year 2011, Pfizer had achieved a few success in decreasing health issues including trainings provided to over 6,500 healthcare workers from 27 African countries; provided quality care and treatment to over 31,154 patients; 111 research publications, 147 abstracts and 15 research projects under way, all aimed at improving regional healthcare policy and practice and developing new generation of independent African researchers (2011). Businesses on the medical industry would have a higher ability and responsibility to offer support for health issues while also creating jobs and also offering medical expertise towards the problem