Development & Aid

20 Million More People Face Food Crises, As Acute Hunger Rates Rise to a 5-Year High

By Alison Kentish
The COVID-19 pandemic, protracted conflicts and climate change have created an untenable situation for the most vulnerable, with 155 million people across 55 territories suffering from severe food insecurity, sending acute hunger figures to a 5-year high.

How West African Leaders Can Tackle Youth and Gender Inequities

By Ifeanyi Nsofor, Adaeze Oreh, and John Lazame Tindabil
Recently, both Republics of Benin and Chad held their 2021 national elections. These countries are among thirteen countries on the continent billed to elect new political leaders in 2021 alone. This is a good opportunity to improve conditions on the continent. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified other issues on the continent like youth unemployment that better leadership could help improve.

High-Dose Vitamin D Supplements Significantly Reduce ICU Admissions & COVID-19 Deaths

By Sunil J. Wimalawansa
There is considerable evidence that vitamin D reduces the risk and severity of COVID-19 (Mercola 2020 ; Wimalawansa, 2020). More than 50 clinical studies have published confirming that high doses of vitamin D administered early in persons with COVID-19 significantly reduce complications and the need for ICU admissions.

Education Cannot Wait Enhances Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Crisis-affected Children and Youth in the Middle East and North Africa

Approximately 100 million children are out of school in the Middle East and North Africa as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflicts and protracted crises. To provide these girls and boys with the mental health and psychosocial support they need to deal with the trauma and stress of these multiplying crises, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) announced today US$250,000 in new funding to support the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Better Learning Programme in the Middle East.

Youth Voice and Action Critical to Reforming the World’s Food Systems

By Alison Kentish
Global youth advocates have been told that they play a crucial role in ensuring that the world produces and consumes food with greater attention to nutrition, food security, equality and sustainability. As the United Nations prepares to host the inaugural Global Food Systems Summit in September, the organisation is hosting a series of dialogues to correct flaws in the way food is grown, processed, packaged and marketed, hoping to tackle growing world hunger, water scarcity and climate change.

Unlearning During a Lockdown

By Simone Galimberti
Children all over the world are having tough times while coping with the consequences of the pandemic but the circumstances affecting them in the Philippines are even more daunting.

Brazil Relies on Rainfall that Depends on the Forests

By Mario Osava
"Rainfall is fundamental; the streams and rivers we have would not suffice for irrigation, even if they were the Amazon River," said Dirceu Dezem, referring to the amount of water required for the extensive crops in Brazil’s midwest.

Refugee Children Explain How Education Helped Put Their Trauma Behind Them

By Ed Holt
Eighteen-year-old Chuol Nyakoach lives in the Nguenyyiel Refugee Camp in Gambella, Ethiopia. Chuol is grateful that despite the trauma she has already experienced in her young life, she is able to continue her education in the refugee camp. Learning has given her a reason to wake up every day.

COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Kicks Off in Africa’s Most Populous Country

By Leon Usigbe*
Since the COVID-19 vaccination began in the US in mid-December 2020, Africa had been looking forward to its turn. For Nigeria, that time came on 2nd March 2021 when the first batch of 3.9 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the country from the Serum Institute of India.

UN Women Launches New Programme to Foster Economic Participation in Care Industry

By Eugenia Shevchenko, Lotte-Marie Brouwer and Minji Kwag*
The lockdowns and illnesses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have dramatically increased the need to care for children, the elderly and the sick. And in societies where gender inequality and biased norms persist, most of this burden has fallen on women, many of whom have had to leave their regular jobs with no idea of when they can return.

A Year Later, COVID-19 Continues to Show the Fragility of Food Security

By Mario Lubetkin
More than a year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, food and nutrition security continues to show its fragility.

Internet Restrictions Harm the Press & Public Alike

By Michael De Dora
When Myanmar’s military seized power from the elected government in February, one of its first actions was to further squeeze the already restricted free flow of information in the country. It obstructed news stations, temporarily shuttered phone and internet access, and blocked social media platforms.

UN Banks on Water as the ‘Game Changer’ in Food Production and Consumption

By Alison Kentish
As the United Nations prepares for its solutions-based Global Food Systems Summit in September, officials say resolving issues around water scarcity, pollution and wastage is crucial transforming food production and consumption.

A Free & Accessible Vaccine is Just out of Reach for Palestinians

By Laila Barhoum
We were able to keep the coronavirus at bay for five months in Gaza, the densely populated Palestinian strip of land surrounded by Israel that I call home. But the Coronavirus doesn’t respect walls or artificial borders. While preparations were made for the pandemic to inevitably breach a blockade so few Palestinians can, we waited for it to come for us. And it did.

World Press Freedom in an age of remoteness

By Raghbendra Jha
Edmund Burke called the press the fourth estate, the fourth pillar of democracy, with an oversight role on the remaining three pillars – the legislature, executive and the judiciary. In an ideal world, this fourth estate would have unimpeded access to the other three pillars so that the citizenry could be kept informed at all times. This freedom was conceived to be so sacrosanct that many countries have included it as a fundamental right, e.g., the US Constitution enshrined it as the very first amendment.

Press Freedom Vital in the Fight Against the Pandemic

By Sibahle Zuma
Access to accurate information is vitally important during the pandemic, so that people can understand how to protect themselves and their families, and to hold their governments to account for their response to the health emergency.

Spyware Threatens Press Freedom’s Privacy Imperative

By Jonathan Rozen
Spyware’s repeated use to target journalists and those close to them poses an existential threat to the privacy required for press freedom to flourish. Without the ability to privately communicate with sources, conduct research, and compile information, journalists are hampered in their ability to keep the public informed and hold the powerful to account.

Why Variants are Most Likely to Blame for India’s COVID Surge

With more than 300,000 new COVID cases a day and hospitals and crematoria facing collapse, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called the situation in India “beyond heartbreaking”.

Why Experts are Saying It’s a ‘Make or Break’ Moment for Forests

By Alison Kentish
A new global report on forests says that while the COVID-19 pandemic is the latest threat to achieving ambitious forest protection goals, it has brought the importance of forests to global well-being into sharp focus, and that this recognition must now be met with collection action.

State of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka: Are Government Policies Effective in Controlling it?

By Sunil J. Wimalawansa
The SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) affected the entire world; many died, millions got sick, and the misery continues. Second and third waves of SARS.Cov-2 infection are devastating most countries.

The Complex Energy Transition of Chile’s “Sacrifice Zones”

By Francisco Parra Galaz
Standing on Punta Ventanilla, Carlos Vegas, 65, looks across at the industrial park which has been there most of his life. He looks at the impact of the 15 industries spread around the bay that connects the towns of Quintero and Puchuncaví, in central Chile.
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