Category Archives: Global development

Let the UK continue to lead the world in global development | Letter

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Whatever the outcome of this general election, leaders should rise to the ambition of our own and global commitments, write representatives of 49 organisations

The UK has a well-earned reputation for being a key player on the global stage – respected for our record on international development, climate change, and humanitarian aid.

By 2020, this country will have helped vaccinate 76 million children, saving 1.4 million lives from preventable diseases. The UK has already helped 57 million people to cope with the effects of climate change over the last eight years and is on track to reach 60 million people with clean water by 2020. About 32 million people have been supported with humanitarian assistance in the face of conflict and disasters, including at least 10 million women and girls.

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Japanese aid chief among six dead in Afghanistan attack

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Japanese prime minister among those to pay tribute after Tetsu Nakamura is killed in deadly ambush on car

The head of a Japanese aid agency and five other people have been killed in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan

Among the victims was Tetsu Nakamura, 73, the respected physician and head of Peace Japan Medical Services, who had recently been granted honorary Afghan citizenship for his decades of humanitarian work in the country.

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Making waves: Dadaab refugee camp’s only female radio journalist

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Exiled Somali Kamil Ahmed says her job at Gargaar FM is more important than ever as the threat of closure hangs over the camp

Sitting in a small shipping container, Kamil Ahmed, 20, prepares to begin her live radio show.

“I feel like the whole community is waiting for me,” the only female reporter at the station says, flicking through her notebook.

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The ‘qualifications passport’ scheme breaking down barriers for migrants

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Having their skills recognised is one of the main obstacles to employment faced by refugees in developed countries

The armed rebels had first ransacked the hospital where Timothée* worked as a doctor. Then, they went door to door with machetes, hunting down those seen as the wealthiest – the most educated first. When the house next door was burned down with his neighbours still inside, Timothée fled.

Without a chance to grab his passport or phone, Timothée ran through the darkness of the bush of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, knowing he might never see his family or his fiancee again.

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Egypt and Sudan in talks to defuse tensions over Ethiopian dam

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Nile basin countries fear for their future water supplies as the Grand Renaissance hydroelectric project reaches completion

A new round of high-level talks has started in Cairo between three Nile basin countries aimed at resolving disputes over Ethiopia’s controversial Grand Renaissance dam, which is set to become Africa’s biggest hydroelectric power plant.

Analysts fear that Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia could be drawn into conflict if the dispute is not resolved before the $5bn dam begins operating next year.

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‘My dignity is destroyed’: the scourge of sexual violence in Cox’s Bazar

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With rape and domestic abuse endemic in the lawless refugee camp, safe spaces have been set up to help the women affected

In a small, dark hut within the world’s largest refugee settlement, a fan hums quietly as Faizal speaks. He says that last month his 12-year-old sister was raped here in their home. The little girl sits in silence beside him wearing a pink headscarf and red dress.

Rape is endemic in the camp in Cox’s Bazar. Although the exact number of victims is unknown, many Rohingya women who experienced rape and torture fleeing Myanmar report facing sexual violence again in their new home.

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Mosquitoes bring ‘mystery illness’ to the mountain villages of Nepal

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Rising temperatures linked to outbreaks of dengue fever high in the Kathmandu Valley, experts say

•Global heating behind record number of cases of the disease

Lilawati Awasthi is used to the risks that come from living in a remote mountainous district in the far west of Nepal. Floods, landslides and treacherous roads are a part of daily life. But this year she faced a new hazard: mosquitoes carrying a mystery illness.

When she began to feel sick in September she was not overly concerned at first. “I thought it was a simple fever, but it wouldn’t go away,” says the 50-year-old. “We went to the hospital and it turned out I was suffering from dengue.”

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Kenya’s dispossessed seek redress for Britain’s ‘colonial injustices’

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People whose families were brutally evicted to make way for tea plantations are taking their case for restitution to the UN

The red, fertile earth glistens in the Kenyan sun. Here in the lush green of the tea plantation uplands of Kericho County are some of the most lucrative lands in Africa.

Theaceae trees with their leathery, serrated leaves stretch in every direction. They provide tea to Europeans, making millions for the multinational companies that operate in the region. Yet for 85-year-old Peter Torongei, and thousands like him, there is very little hope. His tin shack sits firmly in the area called “Squatters Land”.

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South Africa begins rollout of cutting-edge HIV drug

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Introduction of three-in-one pill hailed as a ‘game-changer’ in efforts to treat 7.7 million South Africans with HIV

South Africa has begun rolling out a state-of-the-art antiretroviral drug in a “game-changing” bid to drastically reduce the number of people living with HIV.

The distribution of the new three-in-one pill, timed to coincide with World Aids Day on Sunday, is eventually expected to treat the 7.7 million South Africans who have HIV, accounting for 20% of the global prevalence of the disease.

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Angola’s war is over and now it faces up to an HIV legacy – in pictures

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A long civil war ended in 2002 but disasters, poverty and food insecurity have allowed Aids-related deaths to rise by more than 33% in the past decade. The number of new HIV infections is also on the rise and too many pregnant women are not getting access to medicines to protect their babies

All photographs by Cynthia R Matonhodze for the UNDP

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Sudan dissolves ex-ruling party and repeals law targeting women

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Activists welcome passing of key demands of protest movement that toppled Bashir

Activists in Sudan have welcomed a decision by the transitional government to dissolve the former ruling party and repeal a public order law used to regulate women’s behaviour under the former president Omar al-Bashir.

Bashir has been in detention since being forced from power in April, when security forces withdrew their support for his regime after months of protests in which more than 100 people were killed.

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Central African Republic seeks a salve for the scars of war

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Conflict-ravaged country hopes trials at new court in Bangui will at last punish those responsible for massacres and rape

The moment they entered town, the rebel soldiers started firing on civilians. As terrified crowds fled into nearby woods, a 40-year-old disabled woman called Monique Douma realised she was trapped.

“I told Monique to come with me but she said she couldn’t,” a relative later told investigators. “She said: ‘I don’t have the strength to run.’” Militants set fire to Douma’s home while she hid inside.

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Zimbabwe on verge of ‘manmade starvation’, warns UN envoy

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Food shortages affecting 60% of country’s population threaten to make political instability worse, says UN expert

Zimbabwe is on the brink of manmade starvation with close to 60% of the population now food insecure, a UN envoy has said.

Hilal Elver, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said the situation was likely to escalate political instability in the southern African nation. After an 11-day visit to parts of the country worst hit by the El Niño-induced drought, Elver said widespread food insecurity was being exacerbated by hyperinflation.

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Ebola health workers killed and injured by rebel attack in Congo

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World Health Organization chief warns violence will harm efforts to deal with Ebola outbreak

Four health workers fighting the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been killed and five injured in an attack by rebel militia, the World Health Organization has said.

The attacks occurred early on Thursday morning in the restive east of the vast central African country.

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Polio outbreaks in Africa caused by mutation of strain in vaccine

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New cases of highly infectious disease that should be ‘consigned to the history books’ reported in Nigeria, the DRC, CAR and Angola

New cases of polio linked to the oral vaccine have been reported in four African countries and more children are now being paralysed by vaccine-derived viruses than those infected by viruses in the wild, according to global health numbers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners identified nine new cases caused by the vaccine in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic and Angola last week. Along with seven other African countries with outbreaks, cases have also been reported in Asia. In Afghanistan and Pakistan polio remains endemic, and in Pakistan officials have been accused of covering up vaccine-related cases.

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Reopening Sana’a airport ‘critical first step’ for Yemenis needing medical care

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Patients requiring life-saving treatment to be allowed to fly, but aid agencies say imports of medicine and humanitarian aid crucial

Aid agencies have welcomed news from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen that it will allow some flights out of Houthi-held Sana’a, for Yemeni civilians requiring life-saving medical treatment.

As many as 32,000 people in need of overseas medical care may have died since the airport closed to commercial flights in August 2016, according to ministry of health estimates. The figures have not been verified independently, but in 2017 the UN estimated that up to 20,000 people had been denied access to potentially life-saving healthcare due to restrictions on airspace.

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Refugees being ‘starved out’ of UN facility in Tripoli

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Aid worker claims refugees are being denied food to motivate them to leave

The UN has been accused of trying to starve out refugees and asylum seekers who are sheltering for safety inside a centre run by the UN refugee agency in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

One group of about 400 people, who came to the Tripoli gathering and departure facility in October from Abu Salim detention centre in the south of the country, have apparently been without food for weeks.

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Fishing nations to lower catch limits for Atlantic bigeye tuna

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Plan aims to allow tuna population to recover from overfishing, but conservationists say endangered mako shark has been overlooked

Conservationists welcomed “long overdue” catch limits set this week for bigeye tuna and other Atlantic species, but criticised weak measures to rebuild endangered mako shark populations.

The International Commission for the Conservations of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) – responsible for the management of tuna and tuna-like species and bycatch including sharks and rays – set new catch limits for bigeye tuna at a meeting in Palma, Mallorca, this week. It also agreed to reduce juvenile fish mortality by limiting certain fishing practices.

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Soaring arches, broken tiles: why Gaudí’s style was perfect for Senegal

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Experts from Barcelona combined local techniques and materials with the tradition of the Catalan master to build new school

At first sight the school buildings that have sprung up in Thionck Essyl in Senegal resemble a lost work by Antonio Gaudí.

The strikingly-designed school, where classes began in October, is the work of a group of volunteers led by the Barcelona architect David Garcia and his colleague Lluís Morón, who established a foundation to crowdfund the project.

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African countries a ‘new frontier for child sexual exploitation’, warns report

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Researchers draw link between weak regulation of travel industry and rising levels of sex tourism and online sexual crime

Weak laws regulating sexual exploitation in travel and tourism are turning the African continent into a “new frontier for child sexual exploitation”, according to a new report.

The study, by the African Child Policy Forum, sheds light on the continued rise of child sexual exploitation, including new forms such as “tourism marriages” and cybersex.

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