Category Archives: Global development

‘Incredible moment’: impoverished Mali to give free healthcare to under-fives

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Sweeping health reforms, which also include free provision for pregnant women, heralded as national ‘turning point’

After decades of suffering some of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world, Mali has vowed to provide free healthcare for pregnant women and children under five in a “brave and bold” move to revamp its dismal healthcare system.

Following a raft of reforms announced by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, free contraceptives will also be provided across the country as tens of thousands of community health workers are introduced in a bid to provide more localised healthcare to Mali’s population of 18 million people.

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Salvini crackdown: bulldozers demolish Italian camp housing 1,500 refugees

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San Ferdinando shanty town cleared in first major eviction after launch of hardline immigration measures

More than 1,500 people are being ousted from the refugee camp at San Ferdinando, in southern Italy, in the largest eviction since Italy’s rightwing populist government’s immigration measures kicked in.

On Wednesday morning, almost 1,000 paramilitary police officers surrounded the 400 shacks where the migrants have lived since the camp was established in 2010, near Gioia Tauro, in Calabria. As people were ushered out clutching their few possessions, bulldozers demolished the shanty town of cardboard and wood huts in a matter of hours.

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‘Chilling reality’: Afghanistan suffers worst floods in seven years

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Thousands of homes swept away as rains follow devastating drought, with UN ‘shocked’ by lack of crisis funding support

Afghanistan has been hit with the worst flooding in seven years, with 20 dead, thousands of homes swept away and many families, already displaced by drought, forced to leave their homes for the second time.

The latest climate shock, which affected eight provinces including Kandahar, came as the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan criticised the European Commission for its “wholly insufficient” response to hunger and suffering in a country already in the grip of what analysts describe as the world’s deadliest conflict.

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‘Thousands’ of young girls denied abortion after rape in Argentina

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Anti-choice doctors and health officials accused of obstructing legal terminations after 11-year-old girl gave birth to rapist’s child

The lives of thousands of girls in Argentina are being put at risk as legal abortions are delayed and obstructed by doctors trying to force pregnancies to full term.

The issue of anti-choice doctors, medical institutions and government officials deliberately trying to hold up legally sanctioned terminations was brought into sharp focus last week when it emerged that an 11-year-old girl’s baby was born alive because health officials delayed her request for an abortion. The girl had fallen pregnant after being raped by her grandmother’s boyfriend.

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UK pledges £2m to help end stigma and shame of period poverty

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As well as global funding, Penny Mordaunt announces creation of £250,000 taskforce to tackle problem in Britain

The UK government has announced £2m to support organisations around the world to end period poverty by 2030.

The minister for women and equalities, Penny Mordaunt, also announced £250,000 for the creation of a taskforce comprised of government departments, businesses, charities and manufacturers to come up with new ideas to tackle the problem in the UK.

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UK policy on migration ‘disconnected and incoherent’, MPs warn

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Report says aid to displaced people in Africa undermined by Home Office approach to asylum seekers and refugees

The UK government’s migration policy is “disconnected and incoherent” and involves the pitting of one government department against another, a report by MPs has said.

The international development committee (IDC) urged the government to double the number of vulnerable refugees offered resettlement in Britain, up to 10,000 a year.

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Aid worker stranded in Syria after British citizenship revoked

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Tauqir Sharif calls on UK to distinguish between humanitarian workers and potential security threats

A British aid worker and his family say they are stuck in Syria after his UK citizenship has been revoked and his eldest daughter refused a passport.

Tauqir Sharif, 31, from Walthamstow, who lives and works in Idlib alongside his British wife, Racquell Hayden-Best, had his citizenship revoked in May 2017. Speaking to the Guardian this week, he called on the UK government to review its revocation policy for those engaged in humanitarian work in conflict zones.

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WWF accused of funding guards who ‘tortured and killed scores of people’

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World Wide Fund for Nature launches inquiry into claims that it works with paramilitaries allegedly involved in serious abuses

One of the world’s largest charities has launched an investigation into claims that it funds, equips and works with paramilitary forces accused of beating, torturing, sexually assaulting and murdering scores of people in national parks across Africa and Asia.

Human rights specialists will lead an independent review of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) conservation charity, following allegations of abuse in six countries, published by BuzzFeed news on Monday.

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Breast-ironing: victims urge stronger action to root out dangerous custom

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Medical experts and victims say practice, deemed by perpetrators to protect girls from sexual harassment and rape, is child abuse

Comfort was nine when her older sister told her she was going to flatten her chest with a stone to prevent her breasts from developing too soon, telling her it was for her own good.

“She said it’s so that girls don’t get abused as children or as teenagers,” Comfort said.

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Can this woman open a new chapter for human rights in Tunisia?

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Sihem Bensedrine’s explosive report into human rights abuses is written. Now those in power must be persuaded to read it

When Sihem Bensedrine, the head of Tunisia’s truth and dignity commission, tried to give a speech in parliament last year, she was drowned out.

Politicians banged on the wooden desks and yelled, some standing up to hurl accusations and gesture in her direction. As the drumbeats got louder, Bensedrine left the chamber. The MPs applauded.

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Meet the world’s first ‘minister for the unborn’

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The Welsh government has given Sophie Howe statutory powers to represent people who haven’t yet been born

Sophie Howe is a public servant with a particularly tricky constituency. The people she represents are remote and unresponsive and they never show up to voice an opinion or tell her if she’s doing a good job.

They don’t even vote. That’s because they haven’t yet been born. Howe is the world’s first – and only – future generations commissioner with statutory powers. She’s there to represent the unborn citizens of Wales.

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Only six countries in the world give women and men equal legal work rights

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Sweden and France among states found by the World Bank to enshrine gender equality in laws, but implementation haphazard

If you’re a woman and want to be on an equal footing with men, it’s best to live and work in Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg or Sweden. The World Bank, which has tracked legal changes for the past decade, found these were the only countries in the world to enshrine gender equality in laws affecting work.

The bank’s women, business and the law 2019 report, published this week, measured gender discrimination in 187 countries. It found that, a decade ago, no country gave women and men equal legal rights.

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Global war on drugs could harm efforts to abolish death sentences – study

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Iran reforms drive 90% fall in death penalty worldwide, but report warns hardline approach to minor cases violates human rights

Global efforts to abolish the death penalty are in danger of being undermined by anti-drug governments that use capital punishment to enforce a zero-tolerance approach, experts have warned.

The caution comes even though the number of people sentenced to death for drug offences around the world has actually fallen by nearly 90% over the past four years, according to a study by Harm Reduction International, with 91 known deaths last year compared with 755 in 2015.

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Shock rise in global measles outbreaks ‘disastrous’ for children, UN warns

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Unicef calls for improved vaccination as study shows Ukraine, Brazil and the Philippines among 10 worst affected countries

Cases of childhood measles are surging to shocking levels around the globe, led by 10 countries that account for three-quarters of the rise.

Amid warnings of “disastrous consequences” for children if the disease continues to spread unchecked, a worldwide survey by the UN children’s agency, Unicef, said 98 countries around the globe reported a rise in measles cases in 2018 compared with 2017.

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Girl, 11, gives birth to child of rapist after Argentina says no to abortion

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Campaigners condemn authorities who ignored girl’s plea ‘to remove what the old man put inside me’

An 11-year old girl who became pregnant after being raped was forced to give birth after Argentine authorities refused to allow her the abortion to which she was entitled.

The authorities ignored repeated requests for an abortion from the child, called “Lucía” to protect her identity, as well as her mother and a number of Argentine women’s right activists. After 23 weeks of pregnancy, she had to undergo a caesarean section on Tuesday. The baby is unlikely to survive.

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Study warns of global rise in autocratic leaders ‘hijacking’ laws for own ends

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Poland the worst offender as global justice index identifies decline in checks on government power for second successive year

Autocratic rule is on the rise throughout the world, with a growing number of authoritarian leaders “hijacking” laws to consolidate their own power, a study of global justice has found.

Poland demonstrated the most significant turn towards authoritarianism over the past four years, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. In all, 64% of 126 countries surveyed made similar moves towards autocratic rule in the past year alone, according to an annual rule of law index published by the World Justice Project.

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Arsonists attack Ebola clinics in DRC as climate of distrust grows

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Health agencies re-evaluate approach after attacks on treatment centres in North Kivu

A second clinic serving patients affected by the escalating Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been set alight, as concerns mount over widespread distrust of health agencies.

Seven months since the start of the outbreak, which has claimed 548 lives, experts warned that the virus is still not under control and said suspicion of agencies is severely undermining Ebola services.

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Infant mortality in Venezuela has doubled during crisis, UN says

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UN security council officials clash over ‘politicised’ aid to troubled country as peace-building chief warns of ‘grim realities’

Infant mortality in Venezuela has soared by roughly 50% during the prolonged political crisis in the country.

Briefing the UN security council, the UN’s political and peace building chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, depicted a devastating collapse in Venezuela’s health system. She warned that 40% of medical staff had left the country and said hospital stocks of medicine had dwindled to 20% of the required level.

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Millions of Ugandans quit internet after introduction of social media tax

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Economic fears raised as online subscriptions plummet in months following launch of levy created to curb ‘gossip’

Millions of people in Uganda have abandoned the internet after punishing taxes were imposed on social media use and money transactions using mobile phones.

A daily levy, introduced in July to tame “idle talk” online and raise revenue, affects more than 60 online platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. To use such sites, Ugandans are expected to pay a tax of 200 Ugandan shillings (4p) a day.

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Rivers of waste: Pakistan’s recyclers go out on patrol – in pictures

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About half of the 20m tonnes of rubbish produced by Pakistan each year is burned or thrown into rivers, causing pollution, disease and flooding. A recycling hub in Islamabad is trying to tackle the problem

Photographs by Hazel Thompson/Tearfund

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