Category Archives: Global Issues

Global Issues, Society

Supporting humanitarian innovations

Published on May 21, 2012 | By IRIN
Photo: Motivation. Have wheels, can travel

A sturdy wheelchair specially designed for emergency situations; a network of local radio stations providing real-time mapping of developing crises; a compendium of ideas for getting better accountability in remotely managed programmes – they are all original ideas and all have been funded from a special pot of money created to foster new thinking in humanitarian practice.


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Global Issues, Society

HEALTH: Treat the mother – save the baby

Published on May 16, 2012 | By IRIN
Photo: Super.heavy/Flickr. Something to smile about...

The past decade has seen great advances in child survival, but while toddlers and small children are benefiting, the death rate for new-born babies remains stubbornly high. Now a new report suggests that paying more attention to their mothers’ health, and focusing on certain damaging but treatable diseases, could be one key to tackling neonatal mortality.


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Global Issues, Society

FOOD: Power to the people!

Published on May 16, 2012 | By IRIN
Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN. Niger's food crisis is about access and affordability

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched its first Africa Human Development Report today, stressing food security as a means to a better quality of life for all.


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Global Issues, Society

HEALTH: Child survival up, but not enough

Published on May 12, 2012 | By IRIN
Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN. Gains in child survival, but still falling short

Global mortality among children younger than five years declined by 26 percent between 2000 and 2010 – meaning that the lives of some two million children were saved – but this is still not enough for many countries to meet the Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths in this age group by two-thirds by 2015, according to recent US research.


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Global Issues, Society

HIV/AIDS: Global Fund will have US$1.6 billion more

Published on May 10, 2012 | By IRIN
Photo: ttfnrob/Flickr. The new funds will allow countries to get closer to achieving their HIV prevention and treatment targets

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria has announced that it will have US$1.6 billion more to invest in life-saving programmes between 2012 and 2014.


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Global Issues, Society

HEALTH: Leishmaniasis vaccine trial underway

Published on May 9, 2012 | By IRIN
Photo: David Swanson/IRIN. Leishmaniasis patient in Afghanistan

A vaccine against one of the most neglected yet fatal tropical diseases is being tested for the first time in a clinical trial in India and the US. After malaria, leishmaniasis is the second largest parasitic killer, and the visceral form is the most deadly.


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Global Issues, Society

AID POLICY: Beyond the MDGs – planning for after 2015

Published on May 9, 2012 | By IRIN
Photo: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN Are development goals heading in the right direction?

Twelve years gone, and three years still to go: as the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDG) target date of 2015 gets closer, the debate is intensifying about what went right and what went wrong, and – perhaps more importantly – what kind of goals should be set for the future.


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Global Issues, Society

SECURITY: A quick reaction force moulded by Africa’s circumstances

Published on May 9, 2012 | By IRIN
Photo: Obinna Anyadike/IRIN Ugandan AMISOM battle group 8 soldiers about to deploy to Mogadishu

Africa’s crises are both honing and stalling the formation of the African Standby Force (ASF) of the African Union (AU) – a quick reaction force that could eventually number about 30,000 troops to be deployed in a range of scenarios, from peacekeeping to direct military intervention.


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