Category Archives: Global development

‘I just need a connection’: the refugees teaching languages across borders

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A unique platform lets teachers from Venezuela to Syria to Burundi earn a living teaching their language online

Louisa Waugh and Ghaith Alhallak have met for language lessons in seven countries. “We counted it up the other day,” says Waugh, recalling the list of places from which she has video-called Alhallak: Britain, Mali, Senegal and Greece. Alhallak has answered from Lebanon, France and Italy, where he is now studying for a master’s degree in political science at the University of Padua.

“You just need a connection,” he says.

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‘Political vandalism’: DfID and Foreign Office merger met with anger by UK charities

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Unicef, Save the Children and Christian Aid among organisations warning move will harm those most in need and reduce UK’s power overseas

The prime minister’s announcement on Tuesday that the Department for International Development (DfID) will be merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has been met with widespread anger and disappointment among UK aid charities.

Stephanie Draper, the CEO of Bond, a UK network for international development NGOs, said the announcement on Tuesday, during the coronavirus pandemic, couldn’t have come at a worse time.

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Jailed for a Facebook post: garment workers’ rights at risk during Covid-19

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Global fashion brands urged to speak out after arrest of factory employee fuels fears that rights are eroded during pandemic

On the evening of 31 March, at the height of the Covid-19 epidemic, Soy Sros, a young Cambodian garment worker, took out her phone and posted a message on Facebook.

The Cambodian garment sector was in freefall with billions of dollars of clothing orders cancelled and factories closing.

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Why coronavirus has placed millions more girls at risk of FGM

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As lockdowns linger and economies falter, girls who are out of school are at increased risk of being cut

Covid-19 has exposed just how much work remains to be done to wipe out female genital mutilation (FGM) around the world. Two million girls who would otherwise be safe from the practice are believed to be at risk over the next decade as a direct result of the virus.

As lockdowns linger and economies tumble, many families have been spurred into action over the fate of their daughters, using school closures to cut them and marry them off, campaigners say.

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Forced retirement of Malawi’s chief justice before June election blocked

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Bid to remove Andrew Nyirenda from post condemned as an ‘unprecedented assault on judicial independence’ by campaigners

Attempts by the Malawi government to remove the country’s chief justice days before presidential elections have been blocked following protests from law and civil society groups.

On Friday, the government announced that Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda had been placed on leave pending retirement with immediate effect. The notice read that Nyirenda had accumulated more leave days than the remainder of his working days until his retirement, due in December 2021.

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The aid sector must do more to tackle its white supremacy problem

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Racism is embedded in structures and power dynamics, so we should logically conclude that we are not immune

As events unfold in the US and across the world, colleagues in the aid sector are closely watching, and sharing their solidarity. After all they are allies and educators of human rights.

Yet as various institutions grapple with their failure to address discrimination, there has been a disappointing lack of self-reflection in our sector. If we understand that racism is embedded in structures, that it is part of engrained power dynamics, we should logically conclude that we are not immune.

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EU ‘covered up’ Croatia’s failure to protect migrants from border brutality

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Exclusive: Brussels officials feared disclosing Zagreb’s lack of commitment to monitoring would cause ‘scandal’

EU officials have been accused of an “outrageous cover-up” after withholding evidence of a failure by Croatia’s government to supervise police repeatedly accused of robbing, abusing and humiliating migrants at its borders.

Internal European commission emails seen by the Guardian reveal officials in Brussels had been fearful of a backlash when deciding against full disclosure of Croatia’s lack of commitment to a monitoring mechanism that ministers had previously agreed to fund with EU money.

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Chris Wigglesworth obituary

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My father, Chris Wigglesworth, who has died aged 82, was a geologist, academic and Church of Scotland minister who worked across the world on water and rural development and devoted his life to fighting for social justice.

Born in Leeds to Maurice Wigglesworth, a chemical engineer and teacher, and his wife, Muriel (nee Cowling), he was an avid student and head boy at Grangefield grammar school, Stockton-on-Tees. He was also a keen cricketer, with a deep interest in politics, driven from an early age to improve the lives of others.

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Chile’s health minister quits over government response to Covid-19

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Country has one of the highest numbers of daily coronavirus cases relative to population size

A steep rise in coronavirus cases in Chile has plunged the government into crisis and prompted intense criticism of its management of the pandemic.

Divisions between the government and sectors of the medical community led to the resignation of the health minister, Jaime Mañalich, on Saturday, shortly after 234 deaths in 24 hours had been confirmed, the highest daily toll to date. Chile is among the countries with the highest number of daily cases relative to population size.

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Nepal to investigate Dalit killings following arranged marriage dispute

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Committee set up to investigate deaths of young men allegedly chased into river as a result of ‘caste-based discrimination’

The Nepalese government has established an independent high-level committee to investigate the killings of six young men, including four Dalits, whose deaths drew condemnation from the UN human rights chief.

Friends Nabaraj BK, 20, Sanju BK, 21, Lokendra Sunar, 18, Tikaram Sunar, 20, Govinda Shahi, 17, and Ganesh Budha, 17, died on 23 May, after a dispute with a family.

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Militant crackdown in Sahel leads to hundreds of civilian deaths – report

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Amnesty records 200 state killings and forced disappearances in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, state members of internationally-backed G5 group

Hundreds of civilians have been killed by their own governments in Africa’s Sahel region since countries pledged a surge against militant groups at a regional meeting held by France in January.

Amnesty International said on Wednesday that it had documented 200 cases of unlawful state killings and forced disappearances in February and March in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which are members of the internationally backed G5 force set up to fight militants in the Sahel.

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Herbal cures and no sanitation: the Lima residents battling Covid alone – in pictures

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Over 70% of the indigenous Peruvian community of Cantagallo Island have tested positive for coronavirus. This is how they are surviving lockdown

• All photographs by Florence Goupil, who received a grant from the Covid-19 National Geographic emergency fund for journalists

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Musicians hit hard by festival cancellations in southern Africa

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Coronavirus has forced events including AfrikaBurn and Bushfire to cancel, leaving performers without promotional platforms and income

In a region where live music is everything – both for audiences and for performers heavily reliant on live appearances to make a living – the widespread cancellation of festivals across southern Africa has hit the music business hard.

May should have seen the Bushfire festival in Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), Zakifo and AfrikaBurn in South Africa, and Azgo in Mozambique. Next month would have been Zimfest in Zimbabwe. All have been cancelled – or replaced with online versions – along with dozens of smaller live events that have been growing in recent years, bringing in tourism, showcasing talent and culture, and boosting southern Africa’s music industry.

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‘I raised hell’: how people worldwide answered the call of World Oceans Day

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From protecting fishing communities to regrowing coral reefs, Guardian readers and environmentalists share how they’re working to defend the ocean

World Oceans Day, which took place on Monday, is marked by hundreds of beach cleans and events globally. Despite Covid-19 restrictions, environmentalists and readers from around the world shared how they are continuing to work to protect the ocean, and told us about the local marine issues that matter to them.

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Global protests throw spotlight on alleged police abuses in West Papua

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The Black Lives Matter actions have given renewed impetus to the campaign against injustices in the Indonesian province

Student Eden Armando Bebari, 19, was allegedly shot and killed by Indonesian security forces while fishing in his home town in West Papua in April.

Indonesian media described Bebari as a member of an armed criminal group, a claim denied by his parents. Many residents in Papua, the eastern-most province of Indonesia, now fish and tend crops to ease food shortages brought about by coronavirus lockdowns.

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Street snacks to sanitiser: the Afghan women fighting coronavirus in Kabul

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When lockdown closed their businesses, food sellers adapted their carts into mini disinfection units to tackle the outbreak

Photographs by Stefanie Glinski

Freshta had spent months building up a franchise business to help to feed her family – and break a few taboos on women at the same time – when coronavirus hit Afghanistan.

In November, the engineering student, (who has asked to be identified by one name only) became one of a fleet of female drivers taking 40 Banu’s Kitchen food carts around Kabul, serving up burgers and rice to a predominantly male customer base. “At the beginning, men on the streets would be shocked to see us driving a motorbike and selling food, but after about two or three months, they are now used to it. They even support us,” she says.

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Nigeria to cut healthcare spending by 40% despite coronavirus cases climbing

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Nurses say they have been left without promised compensation as £75m set aside for renovation of parliament buildings

Plans by Nigeria’s government to cut healthcare spending risk undermining the country’s coronavirus response and severely impacting already strained services, health and transparency groups have warned.

Funding for local, primary healthcare services will be cut by more than 40% this year in a revised budget expected to be passed into law in the coming weeks.

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Few venture out as lockdown eases in India

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Shops, banks, cafes and restaurants remain quiet as fear of the pandemic holds sway in New Delhi

Many shops and restaurants are still deserted as India begins emerging from lockdown this week.

Radha Dhongre, an economist, described going out for a coffee with her daughter on Monday in Khan Market in New Delhi, the Indian capital, the day the lockdown was eased as an experiment. Her trip was motivated by curiosity and a desire to see if it was feasible.

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‘What does the UN stand for?’: anger follows memo on anti-racism protests

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Secretary general has clarified staff are ‘not banned’ from demonstrations after previous guidance warned support for action on George Floyd killing risked reputational damage

The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, sought to defuse a row over guidance to staff suggesting they should not participate in protests triggered by the police killing of George Floyd. He clarified that staff were “not banned” from joining anti-racism demonstrations, as long as it was in an “entirely private capacity”.

In a letter to staff that followed public pushback from the UN’s own special rapporteur on freedom of assembly, Guterres insisted that a memo from its ethics board did not mean that staff were required to “remain neutral or impartial in the face of racism”.

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Independent DfID ‘imperative’ for effective UK overseas aid, say MPs

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Report says merger with Foreign and Commonwealth Office could erode accountability and shift funds from poverty reduction

The Department for International Development (DfID) must be kept separate from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office if Britain is to help end extreme poverty and retain its reputation and influence overseas, MPs have warned.

The cross-party international development committee warned that reorganising the aid effort could impair the effectiveness of Britain’s £15.2bn aid budget, which includes tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

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