How is health measured? A consistent measure used by global health practitioners is the DALY, or Disability Adjusted Life Year, which compares one disease with another and uses this comparative measure to quantify the overall disease burden. Karen Grepin recently posted about a collaboration between the WHO, Harvard University, among others, to update and revise the […]
Somali militant group bans 3 aid agencies (shockingly, all agencies are Christian) (AP) More about the aid workers killed in Afghanistan (CNN) Huffington Post is sponsoring three blogs from women leaders in aid. Check out the posts by Melinda Gates on saving children and rotavirus, Mia Farrow on the value of education, and Susan Smith […]
Click on the map to view the interactive version. Photo Credit: IRIN/Plus News
Chris Blattman doesn’t think so. Read his reasons below: Aid is not a mythical goddess, walking through a barren field, greenery spouting in her wake. None of us, really believe such a thing, but we do approach charity as though rapid transformation is possible. It’s uplifting (well… less depressing) to remember a few things. 1. […]
Taliban fighters ambushed and killed a 10-member medical team, including six Americans (three of which were women), as they were returning from a trip to a remote northern area to provide eye care to villagers. The Taliban claimed that the aid workers were spies and preachers of Christianity. This attack is one of the deadliest […]
My favorite of the development aid innovations I’ve come across: the Lifestraw! The Lifestraw is a simple looking device: essentially it’s a plastic tube, containing a powerful water filter. This filter is capable of killing bacterial and viral pathogens and filtering particles down to the size of 15 microns. The Lifestraw itself costs only about […]
Researchers at the University of California, Davis have discovered that breast milk sugars promote the growth of a subspecies of bacteria important to protecting a baby’s intenstinal lining. The NYTimes reports: Dr. German sees milk as “an astonishing product of evolution,” one which has been vigorously shaped by natural selection because it is so critical […]
As newspapers continue their steady financial decline and the press is criticized for everything from false news reports to jeopardizing national security, those of us who live in the comfort of a democracy may start to say, Who needs them? There are plenty of blogs to fill the gap, and as tech-savvy critical thinkers trained […]
Thirty-eight US billionaires have pledged at least 50% of their wealth to charity through a campaign started by investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. See the list of donors here, and August pledge letters here. Generous and impressive. Thank you! (But don’t you just love initiatives “specifically focused on billionaires”?)
While you wait for the results of the Kenyan referendum, consider this article coming from the BBC today about Uncle Bob: Zimbabwe has demanded apologies from three Western diplomats for walking out of a burial ceremony on Sunday for President Robert Mugabe’s sister. German, US and EU envoys left after Mr Mugabe attacked Western nations, […]
Add this to your reading list: Famine & Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid by Peter Gill. Peter Gill was the first journalist to reach the epicentre of the 1984 famine and one of the TV reporters who brought the tragedy to light. This book is the story of what happened to Ethiopia in the 25 […]
“Misunderstanding on this level breeds arrogance, fear and inequality in our relationships with other cultures at home and abroad…“ Read this paper today, released by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in the UK in 2002. The VSO conducted interviews with more than 1,000 Brits over 15 about their perceptions of international development and aid. What they […]
A bit late on the Friday spotlight, but here we go: the Playpump. Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t, but few aid innovations have sparked levels of international outcry similar to that surrounding the Playpump. The Playpump was invented by a South African named Trevor Field, who saw children playing in a school […]
In case you missed it, June 20th marked an historic day in the search for an effective method of HIV prevention. The Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) announced its results from a groundbreaking study that affirmed the effectiveness of a microbicide The nearly 3-year study showed a 39% reduction in HIV infection rates amongst participants […]
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/XaG0eYDPutM” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Feel a little bit better about development aid with this fabulous video about the Millennium Development Goals in Africa. Practicality of the MDGs aside, this is a really wonderful clip. How many of the singers can you identify? I’ll start you off with Angelique Kidjo and my girl Yvonne […]