Category Archives: Global development

‘A critical situation’: Bangladesh in crisis as monsoon floods follow super-cyclone

Posted on by

Despite flood planning efforts hundreds have been killed and millions hit as third of land is submerged by non-stop rain

Bangladesh could be plunged into a humanitarian crisis as it undergoes the most prolonged monsoon flooding in decades while it is still recovering from the effects of super-cyclone Amphan.

Despite the UN has lauding its new initiatives for early intervention aimed at preparing communities for crisis, 550 people have been killed and 9.6 million affected by the disaster in Bangladesh, Nepal and north-eastern India, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

Continue reading...

The Guardian view on population growth: a small planet needs big solutions | Editorial

Posted on by

New research suggests that the global peak may be lower than expected. But the challenges will still be immense

In 1798, Thomas Malthus wrung his hands as he contemplated the growing mass of humanity, warning: “The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.”

A few years after he wrote that essay, the global population hit 1 billion. Now, thanks to the exponential growth which he described, it is closing in on 8 billion. The scholar’s direst warnings, echoed by others through the years, have not come to pass. But his concerns about the strain on resources have been multiplied by the climate crisis, with greenhouse gas emissions rising, and global heating in turn causing land loss and deterioration.

Continue reading...

Covid-19 threatens access to abortions and contraceptives, experts warn

Posted on by

Unplanned pregnancy rates have fallen globally, report finds, but coronavirus could endanger access to services

Rates of unplanned pregnancies have fallen around the world, according to new data published by health research organisation the Guttmacher Institute and the UN Human Reproduction Programme (HRP) on Wednesday.

Global rates of unintended pregnancies have fallen from 79 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49 in 1990 to 64 in 2019, thanks in part to a concerted effort to increase access to contraceptives, but there are concerns that decades of progress in reducing the numbers risk being undone by Covid-19, as lockdown restrictions hamper health services.

Continue reading...

Fears growing for five indigenous Garifuna men abducted in Honduras

Posted on by

The Triunfo de la Cruz region has been embroiled in a struggle to save their ancestral land from developers and drug traffickers

Fears are growing for the safety of five black indigenous men in Honduras who were abducted from their homes last weekend by heavily armed gunmen in police uniforms.

The victims are Garifuna fishermen from the town Triunfo de la Cruz on the north coast – a region where communities are embroiled in a longstanding struggle to save their ancestral land from drug traffickers, palm oil magnates and tourism developers aided by corrupt officials and institutions.

Continue reading...

‘They killed him’: widow confronts Peru’s president over Covid-19 deaths

Posted on by

Martín Vizcarra announced emergency decree putting health ministry in charge of system after Celia Capira chased his truck

As the presidential motorcade pulled away from the main hospital in Peru’s second city – fleeing an angry protest by medical staff and relatives of Covid-19 patients – one woman broke away from the crowd.

Celia Capira ran sobbing after the truck carrying the president, Martín Vizcarra, yelling for him to go and see for himself the grim conditions at the hospital, where her husband was fighting for his life.

Continue reading...

‘Clear the rubble’: Malawi’s new president on making way for change

Posted on by

After an historic election victory, Lazarus Chakwera explains his desire to give Malawians ‘dignity and development’

Promising to “clear the rubble” of corruption within the government, Malawi’s new president is beginning his term by raising the country’s minimum wage in an attempt to win over both doubters and international donors.

In an interview with the Guardian, Lazarus Chakwera, who won a historic victory over Peter Mutharika in June, urged Malawians to trust that he will deliver on his promises.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump’s assault on the WHO is deeply worrying for global health | Peter Beaumont

Posted on by

A diplomacy shaped around self-serving tittle-tattle now risks lives and undermines America’s standing in the world

The campaign by the Trump administration against the World Health Organization has often seemed faintly preposterous.

Over the months of the coronavirus pandemic its untruths and hyperbole have been dismissed by many as iterations of Trumpspeak, whose main purpose has been to distract from the US’s catastrophic response to Covid-19, which has claimed almost 140,000 lives and devastated the economy.

Continue reading...

‘Open your eyes’: Yemen on brink of famine again, UN agencies warn

Posted on by

Millions face devastating hunger if relief efforts are not stepped up in a country ravaged by war, locusts and now Covid-19

Yemen is in danger of an imminent return to devastating levels of hunger and food insecurity, according to new analysis released by UN agencies.

The World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Unicef say that the percentage of the population predicted to face acute food insecurity in southern areas of the country will rise from 25% to 40% by the end of the year.

Continue reading...

‘We were beaten’: 20 LGBTQ+ Ugandans file lawsuit over alleged torture

Posted on by

Group arrested during Kampala lockdown and later released allege horrific abuse during the 50 days they were on remand in prison

Twenty LGBTQ+ men and women have filed lawsuits against the Ugandan authorities over alleged torture after they were arrested and imprisoned on charges related to the coronavirus lockdown.

The group were held on remand for more than 50 days and according to a statement from the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), the legal organisation defending them, endured “taunting, flogging, scalding … as well as denial of access to food, sanitary facilities and medication”.

Continue reading...

Femicides rise in Mexico as president cuts budgets of women’s shelters

Posted on by

New figures reflect surge in violence against women during pandemic while government implements austerity measures

Violence against women has surged in Mexico since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but the country’s president has downplayed the problem and slashed the budgets of agencies charged with addressing women’s issues.

Figures released this week show that crimes such as femicides climbed 7.7% in the first half of 2020, when compared with the same period last year, and shelters have reported a sharp rise in the number of women attempting to flee domestic violence.

Continue reading...

‘We suffer in silence’: coronavirus takes heavy toll on Brazil’s army of gravediggers

Posted on by

Alcoholism and depression ‘part and parcel’ for those who bury the bodies of Covid-19 victims – more than 80,000 so far

Miguel Braga has done many things in life: sold lollipops, hawked cleaning products, guarded cars. This year, as Covid-19 shook Brazil, he turned his hand to burying bodies.

“Someone has to do it,” said the 30-year-old father-of-two, who earns £200 ($250) a month carving 2m x 1m resting places into the caramel coloured soils of Latin America’s largest cemetery.

Continue reading...

‘Coronavirus ruined everything’: the long wait for new limbs in Kurdistan

Posted on by

Decades of war have resulted in a high demand for prosthetics – and patients are anxious to visit clinics as they finally reopen

Concentration is etched on Hussein’s face as he walks along a scuffed yellow line painted on the floor of the clinic’s rehabilitation room. He’s getting a feel for his new prosthetic.

Hussein lost his left leg below the knee in 1987 when he stepped on a landmine while fishing at Lake Dukan, around 100km (62 miles) east of Erbil in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Mines and other unexploded remnants of successive wars litter the landscape, causing new injuries every year. More than half the clinic’s 15,100 patients are amputees. Roughly 4,600 of them lost limbs as a result of conflict – 2,500 of these to landmines.

Continue reading...

‘It’s just too long’: children in detention may face Covid-19 restrictions until 2022

Posted on by

Rules allowing up to 22 hours of solitary confinement for young offenders could continue, in move lawyers say is ‘very concerning’

The Ministry of Justice has said that new rules that allow youth detention facilities to hold children in solitary confinement for up to 22 hours a day to prevent the spread of Covid-19 could remain in place for two years despite lockdown measures being relaxed for the rest of the UK.

Lawyers have told the Guardian that time out of cells and access to education are still being severely curtailed in many facilities across the country.

Continue reading...

Rohingya face ‘cruel’ caning sentence in Malaysia as hostility to refugees grows

Posted on by

Survivors of dangerous sea journey convicted amid a rise in hate speech and mass detentions in centres rife with Covid-19

A group of Rohingya refugees who survived a treacherous journey at sea now face caning and seven months in jail after they were convicted under the immigration act in Malaysia, where activists have warned of an alarming rise in xenophobia and inhumane treatment of the migrants.

Hundreds of arrests and a sharp rise in hate speech have shocked refugees and migrants who had seen Malaysia as a welcoming country, particularly for Muslims, despite not being signed up to the 1951 refugee convention.

Continue reading...

Women’s health organisation accused of ‘institutional racism and bullying’

Posted on by

Investigation launched into the International Women’s Health Coalition following criticism of ‘toxic’ culture, weeks after Women Deliver CEO issues public apology

A global women’s health organisation has launched an independent investigation into claims that it operated a “paralysing” culture of racism and bullying.

The International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), which advocates for women and adolescent girls, will also conduct an internal review.

Continue reading...

Africa can become a renewable energy superpower – if climate deniers are kept at bay

Posted on by

Nigel Lawson’s thinktank is pushing dirty energy on the continent with the greatest capacity for creating clean fuel

The power of climate science denial in the UK, thankfully, has been in retreat over the past decade. Nigel Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) may still boast a prime Westminster address, but its influence has waned. In fact, its decline aptly mirrors the fortunes of the coal industry, including US titans such as Peabody Energy, which saw its share price plunge 99% between 2008 and 2016 before filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

With countries rightly phasing coal out of their energy mix, the GWPF has turned its sights on Africa to peddle its misinformation about the merits of burning fossil fuels. It has published a new report, derisively titled Heart of Darkness: Why Electricity for Africa is a Security Issue, and launched a glossy website for “energy justice”, which uses the language of climate justice campaigners to try to undermine renewable energy.

Continue reading...

UN chief slams ‘myths, delusions and falsehoods’ around inequality

Posted on by

António Guterres uses Mandela lecture to call for radical shake-up of IMF and World Bank in wake of coronavirus pandemic

The UN secretary general will today deliver one of his most stinging speeches to date, attacking the “myths, delusions and falsehoods” around international progress on equality.

In an unusually strongly worded speech, António Guterres urged major reform to the UN security council, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to address systemic inequalities exposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Continue reading...

Paraguay: indigenous girl’s murder fires public outrage at child sexual abuse

Posted on by

The conservative South American country has high levels of sexual violence against minors and a shocking child pregnancy rate

Human rights activists in Paraguay have led a wave of fierce public indignation after a series of alarming cases in which sexual violence towards young girls has culminated in murder and child pregnancy.

The highly conservative South American country has long struggled with high levels of sexual violence towards children.

Continue reading...

Protests predicted to surge globally as Covid-19 drives unrest

Posted on by

New analysis finds economic shock of pandemic coupled with existing grievances makes widespread public uprisings ‘inevitable’

The economic impact of coronavirus is a “tinderbox” that will drive civil unrest and instability in developing countries in the second half of 2020, according to new analysis.

Highest risk countries facing a “perfect storm”, where protests driven by the pandemic’s economic fallout are likely to inflame existing grievances, include Nigeria, Iran, Bangladesh, Algeria and Ethiopia, the analysis said.

Continue reading...

‘Money makes money’: Uganda’s Tarantino raises funds with rap

Posted on by

Wakaliwood’s Isaac Nabwana swapped directing shootouts to parody music videos to support rural projects hit by Covid-19

The helicopter and the bling are made of cardboard and the dollar bills carefully drawn on paper by local children. But the people are very real and the music is totally authentic.

A new video from Ugandan film director Isaac Nabwana is a move away from his previous output – movies heavy on blood and gore and ultra-low on budgets – which is gaining him an international cult following. And he says the pandemic’s impact in pushing film online, with the trend towards all-digital film festivals, has helped.

Continue reading...