1. Cost-Effectiveness of Solar Cookers, Kenya

http://personal.colby.edu/personal/t/thtieten/sol-ken.html

The first case study I chose to observe is the “Cost-Effectiveness of Solar Cookers in Kenya” prepared by Jill M. Maccaferri, an undergraduate student at Colby College in Maine. The case study focuses on the sustainable development associated by the introduction of newly designed-designed solar cookers in Kenya. This case study specifically focuses in the refugee camps of Kakuma and Dadaab. The goal of the development is to create a better environment for women in Kenya, to reduce the use of fuel wood and to advance the economic savings of the country. Fortunately, the implementation of solar cookers in the two refugee camps were considered successful. However, the case study mentions that since this is the introduction of the solar cookers, one cannot predict if the success could carry on to the future. Moreover, this case study relates to the idea of environmental justice movement in the module. By focusing on the enhancement of human health, it not only focuses on the population suffer from the burdens of economic but also who has the access to environmental goods.

2. Saving mother’s lives in Sri Lanka

http://www.cgdev.org/page/case-6-saving-mothers-lives-sri-lanka

The case study that I researched on is the “Saving mother’s lives in Sri Lanka” organized by the government of Sri Lanka and illustrated in the Center for Global Development website. This study focuses on the development of health system in Sri Lanka, specifically the maternal health care. The goal of the development is to provide citizens of Sri Lanka with a free service of a strong, systematic health system, to enhance the maternal health care, to encourage the use of midwives, and to improve the overall quality of lives of vulnerable groups. The overall result was successful based on where they started off. The health system may not be great compared to other countries, however, Sri Lanka has achieved much better health status and had a steep decline of maternal mortality. What is more, this relates to the module’s idea of using life expectancy or mortality as a tool to measure development. In the study, they compared the before and after of the implement by using female mortality and declines in the maternal mortality.

3.

I used Seoul, South Korea to connect the two cases. The first one relates to the development of South Korea because they share the concept of both the advancement of women’s lives and improvement of economy. South Korea used to have a low quality of lives to women and was labeled as a low income country. However, the country developed in to one of the OECD countries and gave more opportunities to women. The only difference is the scale of success; South Korea had significant improvement. The second case relates by introducing the improvement of health system. According to The World Health Report 2007, South Korea had the biggest advance in health system in half a century, and now rank first in the OECD for healthcare. Both the country focused on the development and easy access to health care system. However, Sri Lanka had impacted strongly on the maternal health care compared to South Korea. By comparing the developments, I think South Korea should learn the determination of both Kenya and Sri Lanka and try to focus on the advancement of the vulnerable groups as we have successfully developed over the half century. Place and time are essential components in this case because the longer we wait to implement, the more lives would be suffering from the poor environment they have.