Category Archives: Global development

From Iraq to Yemen: the grubby business of counting the war dead

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A Labour MP’s grotesque take on Yemen war casualties serves only to show the sordid and politicised nature of body counts

Counting the bodies in conflicts is a necessary, confusing and too often sordid business.

Body counts are necessary for obvious reasons. Numbers supply a moral reference point. They tell us about the scale of a conflict as well as if civilians were targeted and how. They provide evidence for different kinds of human rights advocacy in an international setting, and assist in setting policy for emergency assistance.

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Young woman dies in fourth ‘period hut’ tragedy this year in Nepal

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Smoke inhalation thought to have killed 21-year-old exiled during menstruation despite ban on custom

A 21-year-old woman has been become the fourth person known to have died this year as a result of the illegal practice of chhaupadi, whereby menstruating women in Nepal are banished from their homes and forced to sleep in huts.

Parbati Bogati, from the western Doti district, is thought to have died from smoke inhalation while sleeping in a small, windowless hut. She was discovered by her mother-in-law on Thursday morning.

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‘County lines’ drug gangs tracking children via social media

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Warnings on coercion and blackmailing over smartphones went unheeded, say experts, as child exploitation spirals

A failure to grasp how technology and social media is being used to coerce, control, blackmail and track the movements of children as young as 11 by “county lines” drug gangs has seen an epidemic of child criminal exploitation spiral out of control in the UK.

“For the past seven or eight years we have been warning the government, the authorities, teachers, anyone who would listen, that technology is the central organising feature of the county lines business model,” said Sheldon Thomas, a consultant on gang behaviour through his organisation Gangsline.

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‘Surprising’ choice: police chief Sara Thornton tipped to be anti-slavery tsar

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MPs raise fears over unconfirmed appointment that reflects focus on law enforcement rather than victims

MPs have expressed surprise over the appointment of one of Britain’s most senior police officers as Theresa May’s anti-slavery commissioner, eight months after the previous postholder resigned citing government interference.

Sara Thornton, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, will take up the post later this year, the Sunday Times reported, although the Home Office did not confirm the appointment. A candidate would be “announced shortly” it said.

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‘Normalised but not normal’: Nigerian women call out gropers and catcallers

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Sexual harassment has long been rife in Nigeria’s bustling markets. Now women are mobilising in protest

Chiezugo Obii-Okpala knows that when she visits Yaba market in Lagos she’s going to be harassed. Whether she’s shopping for clothes or hurrying past the stalls that line the road to get on a bus, she will not be left alone.

“You’re dragged, called all sorts of names, harassed – and when you don’t give into that, you’re followed around,” says the 24-year-old pharmacist.

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UK aid funding must not be privatised | Letter

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Proposals to refocus aid as private investment could weaken support for vulnerable people worldwide, says Claire Godfrey

Proposals by the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, to refocus UK aid towards for-profit investment risks weakening support for the people who need our help the most, and compromising the work Britain does to make the world a safer, healthier and more just place to live in (Report, 30 January). The Department for International Development has a long-standing history and reputation as a world leader in helping millions of people worldwide to access clean water, healthcare, better jobs and education. DfID’s focus on ending extreme poverty has secured a global reputation that Britain is proud of and one which we continue to champion. Any move to expand the role of private investment in international development must reflect the basic and shared human values underlying charity, humanitarian aid and development, and not prioritise the pursuit of profit over tackling poverty.
Claire Godfrey
Head of policy and campaigns at Bond, which represents over 400 UK NGOs working in humanitarian aid and development

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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Major western brands pay Indian garment workers 11p an hour

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Study reveals ‘unchecked’ exploitation of women and girls from marginalised communities

Most consumers don’t think twice about the buttons on their shirt, or the sparkles on their dress. But these finishing touches are sewn by some of the world’s most vulnerable women and girls.

A week on from revelations that women in a Bangladesh factory were paid the equivalent of 35p an hour to make Spice Girls T-Shirts sold to raise money for Comic Relief, a new report highlights the exploitative conditions facing millions of home-based garment workers in India.

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Children and babies die as temperatures plummet in Syria

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World Health Organization sounds alarm over freezing conditions facing 23,000 people fleeing conflict

At least 29 children and newborn babies have died in freezing temperatures after fleeing conflict in the last Isis controlled villages in eastern Syria.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was extremely concerned about the conditions facing 23,000 people who have taken flight from rural areas of Deir ez-Zor over over the past two months, warning that services are severely overstretched.

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Damning Yemen report calls on UK to come clean over arms exports

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Study questions lack of detail surrounding scale and quantity of weapons sales

A highly critical report has found extensive flaws in the British government’s arms sales strategy.

Based on analysis of the Yemen conflict, the study urges a reduction in weapons exports to conflict zones and states involved in human rights abuses.

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Women in Zimbabwe demand action over alleged army rapes

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Activists don black clothes in protest after widespread reports of sexual violence by security forces


Women in Zimbabwe donned black clothes and shunned makeup to protest against sexual violence by the country’s security forces during the government crackdown on protesters and opposition activists.

Trending under hashtags including #OurBodiesNotWarZones, #SheSpeaksOut, #InjureOneInjureAll and #ShutDownAtrocities, “Black Wednesday” campaigners called on the Zimbabwean authorities to take action against military personnel accused of rape and sexual assault.

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Penny Mordaunt criticised over call for aid to come from private sector

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International development secretary says she wants DfID to become more a fundraising than a spending department

Penny Mordaunt has been criticised by charities and MPs for suggesting the government’s international development spending should become more reliant on private sector investment and philanthropy.

The international development secretary told cabinet ministers she would aim for her department to become a fundraising department rather than a spending department, telling them it was unsustainable to continue to meet the spending target with taxpayer cash.

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Djibouti: scores feared dead after two migrant boats overturn

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Coastguard warns death toll will rise, as UN reveals six migrants die at sea each day

Scores of people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Djibouti after two migrant boats capsized, amid new warnings from the UN that six people a day die on maritime smuggling routes to Europe and elsewhere.

According to the International Organization for Migration, the alarm was raised over the latest incident after two survivors were recovered. As the search for more survivors continued, the IOM said on Wednesday that 38 people had been confirmed dead.

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The miracle method for sustainable rice that scientists dismissed | John Vidal

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A technique developed by a Jesuit priest is producing bigger harvests – and reducing emissions of a crop responsible for 1.5% of greenhouse gases

The fragrant jasmine rice growing on the left side of Kreaougkra Junpeng’s five-acre field stands nearly five feet tall.

Each plant has 15 or more tillers, or stalks, and the grains hang heavy from them. The Thai farmer says this will be his best-ever harvest in 30 years and he will reap it four weeks earlier than usual.

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Indonesia to let UN workers into West Papua as violence continues

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UNHCHR wants access after Indonesian military crackdown in response to guerrilla attack

Indonesia has agreed in principle to allow the UN office of the human rights commissioner into West Papua amid continuing violence in the region.

The long-running low-level insurgency violently escalated late last year, after West Papuan guerrillas attacked a construction site in Nduga, killing at least 17 people they claimed were Indonesian military but who Jakarta insists were civilian workers.

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Arrests made in Sicily over suspected sex trafficking of girls from Nigeria

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Authorities believe trafficking ring lured young women to Italy to force them into prostitution

Sicilian authorities have made a series of arrests after a suspected sex trafficking ring was believed to have forced at least 15 Nigerian girls into prostitution in Italy.

Among those arrested were two Nigerian women, Rita Ihama, 38, and Monica Onaigfohe, aged 20, who police believe organised the trafficking of the women from Libya to Italy. An Italian national, Giovanni Buscemi, was also arrested on suspicion of helping facilitate the trafficking and exploitation of the girls.

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Breast-ironing: British peer to raise issue in parliament

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Leading QC Alex Carlile hopes to force wider scrutiny of the practice after Guardian revealed ‘dozens’ of girls subjected to abusive custom

A British peer is to table questions in parliament on the secretive practice of “breast-ironing”, after the Guardian revealed that the abusive intervention is spreading in the UK.

Alex Carlile, one of the UK’s leading QCs who is a former deputy high court judge and a member of the House of Lords, told the Guardian that he hoped to trigger a wider scrutiny of the practice in the UK.

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‘It kills within hours’: two die as cholera outbreak spreads in Ugandan capital

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Health officials battle to stop disease spreading in Kampala slums with lack of toilets and poor sanitation made worse by heavy rains

Two people have died in a new cholera outbreak in the overcrowded slums of Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

The ministry of health confirmed at the weekend that there were 43 suspected cases of cholera in the city and that two people had died. It said an emergency isolation unit had been set up.

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Leading UK child health body under fire over baby milk sponsorship

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Royal College of Paediatrics urged to rethink conference funding amid claims deal contravenes World Health Organization code

The Royal College of Paediatrics has been accused of breaching World Health Organization guidance after it accepted sponsorship funding from baby formula companies.

More than 100 medics and 13 health groups have written to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), urging it to drop Nestlé, Nutricia and Danone from the list of sponsors for its first international conference, to be held in Cairo on 29 January.

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