Last month saw the first ever Day of the Girl – now it’s time to turn round and gaze in the other direction, to an older generation: grandmothers.
Last month saw the first ever Day of the Girl – now it’s time to turn round and gaze in the other direction, to an older generation: grandmothers.
This week marks the official opening of the UN General Assembly in New York. As a result, several other events are taking place in New York to take advantage of the heads of state in town for the General Assembly and to focus on the many different facets of international affairs. This morning at the […]
Looking at the Human Development Index (HDI), the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) seems to have done relatively well in three key areas of health, education and income. While Iran’s score is far from perfect, it is indicative of a rather constant improvement in development areas. In HDI (2011) Iran scored 88 out of 187 […]
With August coming to a close here’s something short and inspiring to remind us that unconventional approaches make a difference. Skateboards and Afghanistan sound like an unlikely combination but reality is proving otherwise. Skateistan is an international non-profit charity providing skateboarding and educational programming in Afghanistan (as well as Cambodia and Pakistan). It was set […]
Posted by contributor Andres Santamaria. The Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, which starts this week from June 20th -22nd, is not only the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but falls during the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable […]
Africa is growing. Sometime two years ago the continent’s population surpassed a billion people. But this is not simply some sort of phenomenon of Malthusian proportions. For as Africa’s population grows, so too does its economy, in ways that most people probably do not realize. Howard French explains: Africa, with a population expected to roughly […]
A report released last month discussed the rising profile of BRICS countries–Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa–in health and development assistance and called upon the group to further their cooperation for better global health in the developing world. “Shifting Paradigm: How the BRICS are Shaping Global Health and Development” (PDF), written by the NGO […]
The month of March is one of ups and downs – we should beware the Ides but then cut loose on St Patrick’s Day; remember victims of slavery and detained/missing UN staff members – and also celebrate women, women’s achievements and progress. Women Deliver, an NGO working globally to generate political commitment and financial investment […]
To absolutely no one’s surprise, the US Congress is still going after foreign aid in an attempt to seem tough on spending, as The New York Times reported this week. Although there appear to be few developments since I wrote about this issue in July, the discussions and subsequent hand-wringing are back in the open. […]
I write often about communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, which get a lot of international attention and popular support, spurred on by celebrities, government leaders, and the media. What is ignored, however, is the growing epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic or “lifestyle” diseases. With the upcoming United Nations High Level Meeting […]
U.S. experts and politicians are starting to hone into the ‘dangers’ of R&D and technology transfers to China, as the most serious long-term threat to the U.S. economy and national security. U.S. comparative advantage (innovation and new technologies) is being undermined by outsourcing of manufacturing to China, the relocation of R&D facilities to Chinese tech-parks, […]
How can we best ensure that development assistance reaches those who need it most? Here are six building blocks.
by Stephenie Foster In the next two years, the world’s population will reach seven billion people. Today, approximately 925 million people, or 16 per cent of the developing world’s population, are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty. Despite some progress in alleviating hunger in 2010, world food prices rose 15 per cent between October 2010 […]
If the status quo continues, as is likely, and the Pakistani government remains mired in its own incompetence and impotence, the militants in Pakistan will have become more popular and will have built up their ranks in a way, so far, unforeseen. Today’s New York Times lays out the strategic issue in very stark terms: […]
Following on yesterday’s piece on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer, please find the second piece associated with the flood in Pakistan. This piece that air two days ago deals exclusively with the aid effort to get clean water, food and shelter to the devastated victims of this catastrophe. Now it is becoming increasingly clear that […]