More than 17 million more hungry people could have been reached by US-funded programmes in 2010 if ‘tied aid’ restrictions were lifted, according to report.
More than 17 million more hungry people could have been reached by US-funded programmes in 2010 if ‘tied aid’ restrictions were lifted, according to report.
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Maternal Health: An Ongoing Emergency
MSF is providing maternal and emergency obstetric care in more than 30 countries worldwide, but in places where woman cannot access care, some 1,000 die every day due to complications in pregnancy and delivery.
North Korea agreed to suspend nuclear weapons tests and uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors to verify and monitor activities at its main reactor, the North’s official news agency and the State Department announced on Wednesday, as part of a deal that included an American pledge to ship food aid to the isolated, impoverished nation.
About 70 percent of the 19-20 million tons it produces annually comes from the western state of Gujarat. You may recall that independence leader Mahatma Gandhi rallied the people of India around the boycott of salt production, one of the largest industries in the country.
Families that earn their income through the sale of salt spend eight months of the year in the salt pans, overseeing the process of salt crystallization and working under harsh conditions, far away from their villages and sometimes their families. The workers told me that men usually come to the salt pans a couple of months earlier than their wives and children.
In a written debate, university professors John McArthur and James Radner make the case for, and against, an inherent “duty” of developed countries to provide food aid to those suffering from famine across the drought-stricken Horn of Africa. McArthur, former deputy director of the UN Millennium Project, noting that the cost of such lifesaving aid works out to $7.70 per person per year in the developed world. He writes, “If we do not think that human lives are worth $7.70 of our resources, then we would not just be failing to meet our obligations to humanity; we would be failing to meet our obligations to promote a secure and stable world — and thereby to protect our own countries, our communities, our families and ourselves.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Gates will be at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, where he plans to exhort wealthy donors—especially governments—to keep funding a range of crucial projects in the developing world, from tuberculosis drugs and antimalaria bed nets to maternal care and vaccines. His plans to make his case by showcasing ideas, backed by his foundation, that have helped cost-effectively tackle problems in global health.
Reblogged from doctorswithoutborders|125 notes
Civilians continue to bear the brunt of extreme inter-communal violence in Jonglei state in South Sudan. A recurring characteristic of the attacks is their extreme violence. This woman was treated by MSF in Pibor said she had fled to the bush with her husband, children, and 15 other family members. After running for eleven hours, they were found by a group of men who shot at them. Her son was also treated by MSF for a bullet wound to the chest that remarkably did not kill him.
More on the situation in South Sudan.
(via doctorswithoutborders)
Years of studying disaster relief has led Jose Holguin-Veras to a few simple truths about donations. While tiger costumes and sex toys aren’t going to do much good, it makes people feel better to think they’re helping. But they’re not — they could be doing a lot of damage.
Europe’s debt crisis has brought down governments, roiled markets and triggered austerity measures affecting millions. Now it may kill.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 28,000 people with HIV who were meant to start life-saving treatment by 2014 may not because of shortfalls in the foreign aid that pays for the nation’s AIDS drugs, according to Doctors Without Borders. Some of those people will get sick and die, said Thierry Dethier, an HIV analyst with the charity that runs AIDS clinics in Congo.
In many crisis situations, aid agencies are only able to provide assistance through negotiations with a variety of actors—armed groups, health authorities, community leaders—each with its own vested interests. Sometimes compromising basic principles is the price paid for being able to act. Humanitarian negotiations are life-and-death issues for people in need, but they also raise troubling political and ethical dilemmas for the organizations that are engaged in them.
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