Hit. In frenchpolynesia, 1 10 of the population came down with it. Two years later the virus spread to brazil and has since infected millions. At first, virologists believed an infection was benign, but we now know thats not true. Reporter the heat is stifling in this sparsely furnished apartment. A mother and her two children all sleep in one bed. Jaqueline vieira is 25 years old. The doctors say she contracted the zika virus during pregnancy. Baby daniel was born four months ago with microcephaly. His head is disproportionately small and his brain underdeveloped. When the father heard that his son would be disabled, he abandoned the family. Now she has to take her son to hospital twice a week and is unable to continue her job at a local bakery. Its impossible to make ends meet. Jaqueline its very frustrating. At the end of every month i pray, jesus, please help me i need to pay the rent and all the bills. Theres nothing left. They say my son needs this and that, but i cant afford it. Its very hard. Im completely alone. I just force myself to go on. Reporter when it rains in the city of recife, it generally pours. This tropical city in the northwest of brazil is at the epicenter of the zika outbreak. The number of cases here has soared, as has the number of children being born with microcephaly. The mosquitoborn virus has raised plenty of questions, and many people up and down the country are anxious. Slapping on mosquito repellent is one way of combating brazils public enemy number one. An enemy that is tiny but insidious. The army is going house to house seeking to eliminate mosquito breeding areas. We join them in one of the outer suburbs of recife. The brazilian government has deployed some 220,000 soldiers nationwide, working alongside Public Health officials. More than 10 million homes have been inspected so far. The zika virus is transmitted by the yellow fever mosquito which looks for pools of water to lay its eggs. Secretary correia the effectiveness of these measures is limited. We need to reduce the mosquito population more than ever before and we need to be open to new technology in this area and new strategies for the fighting the mosquitoes. Scientists and Public Health officials need to Work Together to produce more effective results and improve protection for the people. Reporter during our search for mosquito breeding grounds, we begin to encounter some of the deeprooted problems in brazilian society. Many of the favelas have no garbage collection. Waste simply lands on the streets. Brazils major cities have grown so rapidly that infrastructure has just not kept pace. In recife alone, more than half the homes are not connected to the public sewage system. Its mainly the poor who are falling victim to the virus. And the causes of the epidemic are linked to poverty. Dr. Bozza today its the zika virus. In three years itll be a new virus, a new epidemic. The dense population of urban areas, combined with social inequality and environmental problems, provides a fertile breeding ground for these viruses and these new diseases. Reporter the zika virus has now spread to more than two dozen countries across latin america. It is dividing rich and poor. There are reports that pregnant women with the means to pay are going abroad until the birth of their child for fear of contracting the virus. The number of illegal abortions is reportedly also on the rise, particularly among wealthier women. Initial studies show over 70 of the children born with suspected microcephaly come from poorer families. Marianne is worried she could face the same fate. Shes wearing a longsleeved jacket to protect against mosquitoes. But she says its just too hot for longrouss. She is eight months pregnant. Theres no indication that her daughter could be born with microcephaly, but shes still worried. At home, shes stocked up on antimosquito products, which for her are very expensive. As a hairdresser she earns the equivalent of 230 euros a month and would never buy such things normally. Marianne im afraid. I never thought that Something Like this cod happen in brazil. Ive never heard talk of an epidemic like this. People are being advised to delay having children, just because of a virus, because of a mosquito. Reporter back to jaqueline vieira. Her son daniel is about to go in for treatment. He has a session once a week. Shes been lucky, a clinic run by a private foundation is treating him for free. Priscila it was all so unexpected, both for us and for the mothers. Many children whove been badly affected cry a lot. Treatment can be difficult. But its important we start early. The initial days following birth are very important. Reporter stimulation exercises and physiotherapy are not paid for by brazils Public Health system. Jaqueline vieira is relying instead on the clinic for help and on her faith in god. Jaqueline i hope my son will at least be able to walk and talk. Then it will be easier. If he cant walk itll be very tough. I hope he will walk, talk and be able to communicate. Its all in gods hands. The future belongs to god. Reporter shes refusing to give up, hoping somehow to find a way through all the problems with zika and microcephaly and brazils divide between rich and poor. Narrator the next phase of globalization. China is a case in point. The country is in transition, moving from being the workbench of the world to higher levels of qualification and more services. And beyond its borders, china is investing more and more in other parts of the world. Most of the money is going to other asian countries, but Subsaharan Africa ranks second, at over 119 billion u. S. For a long time, it was an exchange of infrastructure for Raw Materials but now, like here in ethiopia, were seeing factories that once stood in china. Reporter the early shift is about to start at the Worlds Largest womens shoe manufacturer, located on the outskirts of huanxiang in southern china. The boss has ordered the employees to assemble, and each and every one of them knows their spot. Time to march in place. Reporter attention. Look to the right. Look straight ahead. Good morning Zhang Huarong has some Important News to deliver. And it isnt good. Times are tough and management has come to a decision. Some workers will have their wages cut. Others will be sacked. Zhang many of you are idle. But until now youve been paid for those boring hours. By doing this you are ruining your precious future and development. I hope all of you understand this. Reporter its a difficult step, but one thats becoming the norm as chinas economy slows. Hundreds of plants are already shuttered in and around huanxiang alone. And laid off workers are increasingly taking to the streets in violent protests. The police have responded with force. As the malaise deepens and stock markets plummet, the economic aftershocks are being felt around the globe. And its forcing Zhang Huarong to make tough decisions in hopes of keeping the company in business. He started here 30 years ago as a migrant shoe salesman. China was largely an agrarian nation. How many shoes do you make per year . Zhang china produces eight million pairs of shoes per year domestically and another million internationally. Zhangs top flight customers include guess, calvin klein, and mark fisher. His success relies on a workforce willing to labor long hours for meager wages. But over the past 10 years, payrolls have increased 300 , to about 500 euros per month. Not much considering the cost of living. But it poses a major problem for manufacturers. Zhang fewer contracts, falling prices. Competition is fierce and were barely making a profit. Reporter zhang has called his top tier of managers together for a crisis meeting. He may be wearing slippers but the mood is deadly serious. The number crunching begins. Which employees are too expensive to keep on the payroll . I wont squander five years of profits on the workers, he says. The next morning zhang hurries to another meeting, this time with one of his best american customers, ugg boots. Zhang is first and foremost a salesman with glib and convincing answers to each of his clients questions and concerns. Hes no longer touting goods made in china. Rather, another continent with endless supplies of cheap labor africa. The american is impressed. Its a negotiation that will have farreaching effects in the years to come. China became an economic superpower based on cheap labor costs. But thats a thing of the past. The future lies 8000 kilometers to the west. Ethiopia, in a suburb of addis ababa. A massive Production Facility with capacity for 4000 workers, the very facility that so impressed zhangs american clients. Zhang is taking his top management on a tour of the plant. Chinas king of womens shoes is also doing a Quality Control check. But the standards and productivity arent up to expectations. Zhang the culture is more westernized in ethiopia. China has its own unique way of life. For instance, we demand 100 obedience of our employees. Here we have to explain and describe work procedures. Still, zhang insists on the morning exercise ritual. Commands are issued in chinese and the new employees are visibly skeptical. Its as if an entire factory were boxed up and shipped from china directly to ethiopia. The one major difference workers here only earn 50 euros per month. Its time for morning exercises. At first glance it looks a lot like back home. But zhang has big dreams for the years ahead. Soon the company will employ 30,000 workers in africa. As Business Contracts in china, here it expands. And the entrepreneur has no regrets. Zhang when business is good, we hire people. When it slows down, we fire them. In private enterprise, profit is the one and only goal. Zhang reveals another secret. His company owns the surrounding land, almost as far as the eye can see. He plans to build a massive production plant. It will be shaped like a shoe. Zhang im very excited. I must achieve this and i will achieve it. Its a very valuable and meaningful project. Reporter and dozens of Chinese Companies are doing the same moving production to the new cheap labor nations in Southeast Asia and africa. Narrator theres an urgent need for jobs like these that have left china and come to africa. We asked the director of the Berlin Institute for population and development, reiner klingholz, for his take on the issue. The institutes latest study looks at jobs for africa. He says china is easy to work with. Chinas approach to development is very successful, when they get involved and arent just interested in natural resources. Thats because it wasnt so long ago that china itself was a developing country. Now its an emerging economy. So, the chinese know how development works. Theyve built up industry in some countries, like ethiopia which has been largely neglected. Nearly all countries in africa could provide for themselves and even become export nations if they made use of their Renewable Energies and natural resources. So jobs need to be created, and thats best done through farming. It needs to be an integrated approach, including training, and with the necessary technical equipment so that things can be produced inside the country. With Renewable Energy now, africa mustnt become totally dependent on importing Power Generation plants, they need to be made in africa. Especially in rural parts of africa that are not yet connected to the power grid, smaller regional grids need to be set up. There needs to be at least a modest power supply so people can do things like have a light on, run a computer and smallscale machinery, so food can be dried, refrigerated, processed, canned, etc. And there are plenty of Major International firms that have experience in the field and want to get involved. Companies from the us and from europe that have earned a lot of money from the new economy in recent years. And which, if theyre clever, think ahead and realize that if they want to sell their products in africa then there needs to be a power supply and there needs to be training available and technical expertise. What use is a Computer Program or a computer if you cant run it . The main problem in africa is that job creation is not keeping up with population growth. Uganda is a good example. The president keeps saying that strong population growth means a strong population. But he forgets that the problems grow as the population grows. During this current decade, from 2010 to 2020, 120 million young people will enter the labor market in Subsaharan Africa and north africa. And unemployment is already high across these regions and even higher among young people. So, it doesnt look good. But im not saying its hopeless. Weve seen again and again that countries once thought hopeless have suddenly undergone a positive development. Bangladesh was once the poorest country in the world, it was considered impossible to develop. But bangladesh is now on a very good path. In africa, things are going well in ethiopia. Both bangladesh and ethiopia are sizeable countries with over 100 million people. If their development continues, they could be an example for others to follow. Narrator and now to our global ideas series. This time we go to cambodia where the last of the sarus cranes inhabit the lower mekong basin. Its an area thats heavily farmed. Our reporter, christian jaburg, took a look at what local farmers are doing differently to improve their own lives and that of the cranes. Christian a pair of sarus cranes with their young one. The juvenile will stay with its parents for a whole year. Until the next chick comes. The parents mate for life. Its the dry season in cambodia. Theres been no rain for a long time. But here there are still large wetland areas, the cranes natural habitat. They share the area with dozens of other species, including wild ducks who often take to the air in huge flocks when startled. This is a protected area, one of the last places of refuge for the birds. Chum kea has been a ranger for nearly 10 years. He tries to avoid coming out here where possible, so as not to disturb the shy birds. With growing concern, hes seen human activity gradually encroach on the reserve. Adjacent areas are now being farmed. And fertilizers and pesticides are polluting the water. Chum for me its more than just a job. Im helping to protect the cranes. That gives me and my family extra income. But the entire Community Benefits too. Through ecotourism for example, which is slowly developing here. I want the next generation to be able to enjoy the cranes too. Christian a ticket for the lookout post costs 5, including use of the telescope. We visit a second site in cambodia that has been turned into a wildlife reserve. Hour pok works for a britishbased Conservation Group. He pays regular visits to this small, remote village. These meadows are also ideal terrain for sarus cranes. So the group has begun an experiment. In many areas the grass is far too high. So they brought in buffalos to mow it down. The Conservation Group gave the local farmers seven buffaloes. Theyve since given birth to three calves. The farmers have put up an electric fence to keep the buffaloes in the right area. Hour we let the buffalo graze here. They eat the high grass or trample it down. And thats good for the cranes. They need short grass as they feed on roots, tubers, insects, and other small prey. So, the buffalo help to expand the cranes natural feeding area. Christian and the farmers benefit, too. That is essential if villages like this one are to really embrace conservation. There arent many ways of earning money here and the people are relatively poor. A few kilometers away, we come to another village, home mainly to rice farmers. Here, too, the farmers have learned to tend their rice fields in a way that limits damage to their surroundings, ensuring that fewer toxins are leaked into the nature reserve. Once again, the farmers have benefited from the process and are saving money. Korng it makes a huge difference. The harvest is just as good, but weve learned to use less fertilizer and fewer pesticides. We also use less seed. Before we needed 300 kilos of seed per hectare, now we use half that. And we can also produce seed ourselves and no longer have to buy it. Narrator the trainer promises, in the end, youll be millionaires, a suggestion that prompts plenty of laughter. People across the region are receiving training from local ngos, many of them supported by the german Governments International climate initiative. The effects of Climate Change are very evident here. The rainy season is starting later. Then sometimes days worth of rain falls in just a few hours. Initially, the farmers responded by using more pesticides and fertilizers to protect their crops. But now theyve learned that not every pest has to be treated with chemicals, a practice that is otherwise standard in many rice paddies in cambodia. Nget last year there were lots of pests and diseases in the rice field. Because it wasnt as wet, normally when it floods lots of nutrients are washed into the fields. Christian now the focus is on more natural, lowimpact forms of farming. Conservation is also becoming an important subject in schools. Today these children are learning about the sarus crane. Most of them come from farming families. Many dont realize that the sarus crane is an endangered species and that their parents work can threaten its existence further. Its all done in a fun way, with a quiz and a drawing competition. The children learn how this huge bird sleeps standing up. How there used to be many more of them than there are now, and other fascinating facts. The sarus crane is bigger than any other crane in the world. Christian the children quickly begin to warm to this majestic bird that shies away from human contact. Hour the children go back home and pass on what theyve learned to their families. They all live next to the wildlife reserve. So they learn that conservation is important for their future. Christian worldwide, around half of all natural wetlands have already disappeared. Only those who recognize the value of this unique habitat will be prepared to invest time and effort in protecting it. And only then will sarus cranes continue to have a future here in the low