The Birth Control Solution
Family planning services could help communities around the world better manage development concerns, from health care to climate change, if religious and political barriers to increased programming were removed, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes. Basic standard education and protections for women’s rights, combined with research into better contraceptives, could help the global community adapt as the population grows.
Q&A: Kristine Pearson on the Founding and Future of Lifeline Energy
Kristine Pearson, the founder of a U.K. company that provides solar and wind-up media players, radios and lights to women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa, says that “energy poverty isn’t only about firewood, charcoal and kerosene, it’s also cheap, poor quality batteries.” In an interview, Pearson talks about the work and mission of Lifeline Energy and her work for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.
The U.S. role in global reproductive health
In an interview, Maureen Greenwood-Basken, director of policy initiatives in the Women and Population Program of the United Nations Foundation, discusses the organization’s role international reproductive health and family planning. “With the birth of the [7 billionth] child, it is more important than ever that we answer critical questions regarding population, health and sustainability,” she said. “The solution is empowering women and ensuring human rights for all.”
UNICEF sounds alarm over North Korea malnutrition
Malnutrition is stalking millions of women and children in North Korea, and a lack of donor contributions is hampering efforts to deliver aid, UNICEF warns. The agency has received $4.6 million of the $20.4 million it sought for humanitarian aid programming this year.
Company gives boost to Haiti’s lifesaving peanut paste
An Illinois-based company is mobilizing its human and financial resources to help Haitians produce Nourimanba, an enriched peanut-butter-like paste that is a key medicine in keeping the country’s 10,000 severely malnourished children alive. The involvement of Abbott Laboratories will improve “quantity, as well as quality, and help with higher levels of food safety and sanitation,” said Joan VanWassenhove, associate coordinator for nutrition in Haiti for Partners in Health.
Project provides opportunities for Somali women and girls
United Nations agencies are supporting an effort to help keep Somali girls in school through the manufacture of sanitary pads that are distributed to females in 21 camps for the internally displaced. The project provides employment to dozens of Somali females, predominantly internally displaced individuals, to make the pads and an education center that provides services to more than 800 young women.
Breakthrough to boost malaria treatment
The successful manufacture of a new, semi-synthetic form of artemisinin by a public-private partnership in northern California is projected to make global treatment for malaria more reliable, and affordable, as early as next year. Shortages of the ingredient in malaria drugs — extracted primarily, until now, from sweet wormwood, a fernlike plant grown mostly in China and Vietnam — have also meant shortages in first-line medicines.
African teachers see progress on education goals
African teachers share their thoughts on the accomplishments and challenges their countries face in increasing education services as part of this Guardian feature on development. Education is a prominent component of the Millennium Development Goals with targets on enrollment in primary school and reducing illiteracy.
EU, UNICEF help launch fund for Zimbabwean mothers, children
A $430 million fund, which will give Zimbabwean children and pregnant women free medical care at public hospitals was launched Monday with the help of the EU and UNICEF. “The issue of user fees is one of the biggest barriers to poor women and children’s access to life saving and critical health care in Zimbabwe,” said Peter Salama, the UN children’s agency country representative. The Zimbabwe health care system, which has collapsed from years of economic crisis requires $436 million over the next five years to improve capacity, particularly in the delivery of maternal care, according to UNICEF.
Girl leads effort to get bed nets to Africa
A young girl from the Connecticut who is suffering from acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, has teamed up with friends to raise money to send mosquito nets for children in Africa through the Nothing But Nets campaign of the United Nations Foundation. “I want to keep other kids healthy,” says Lilly Casiraghi, nearly recovered, who gives out coffee, hot chocolate and doughnuts after attracting potential donors with the sign “Free Coffee. Bring Money.”
Learning in a solar-powered classroom
A mobile, solar-powered classroom launched last week in Johannesburg, South Africa, is being touted as a means of schooling children in the farthest reaches of the country subject to severe weather, and without electricity. The air-conditioned 12-meter-long shipping container — converted by Samsung to include laptops, a video camera and a 50-inch e-board (in lieu of a chalkboard) — can accommodate 21 students and a teacher.
Girl Up highlights the importance of counting girls
With the seventh billion child expected to be born this month, Girl Up is drawing attention to the need to count, advocate for and invest in girls worldwide. Investing in a girl today means in the future she will have the tools to reinvest in her family and community, which helps build a better world for all of us. Click here for more from the United Nations Foundation.
