Children in northern Pakistan line up for food rations. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
ROME, Jun 13 2014 (IPS) – Continued growth in developing countries, along with poverty-reduction policies, have helped to improve both income and food security globally.
Still, eradicating hunger remains an enormous challenge that has an impact on every other attempt to improve lives.
An estimated 842 million people were found to be chronically hungry between 2011 and 2013. Globally, one in eight people are unable to gain regular access to enough food to be able to study, work, ward off disease, and otherwise live healthy and productive lives.
Malnutriti…
Seven percent of all young boys are married before the legal age in Pakistan. Credit: Irfan Ahmed/IPS
LAHORE, Jul 16 2014 (IPS) – At first glance, there is nothing very unusual about Muhammad Asif Umrani. A resident of Rojhan city located in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, he is expectantly awaiting the birth of his first child, barely a year after his wedding day.
A few minutes of conversation, however, reveal a far more complex story: Umrani is just 14 years old, preparing for fatherhood while still a child himself. His ‘wife’, now visibly pregnant, is even younger than he, though she declined to disclose her name and real age.
The young couple …
With the average Indian taking some 11 antibiotic pills a year, the country consumed about 12.9 billion units in 2010. Credit: Bigstock
KOLKATA, India, Aug 28 2014 (IPS) – In 2011, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned: Combat Drug Resistance No Action Today, No Cure Tomorrow.” The slogan was coined in honour of World Health Day, urging governments to ensure responsible use of antibiotics in order to prevent drug-resistant viruses and bacteria, or ‘super bugs’.
The warning is even more salient in 2014, particularly in India, a country of 1.2 billion people that recently earned the dubious distinction of being the worst country in terms of anti…
Children in the town of Gueckedou, the epicentre of the ebola outbreak in Guinea. Credit: ©afreecom/Idrissa Soumaré
WASHINGTON, Oct 17 2014 (IPS) – President Barack Obama is under significant pressure to impose a range of restrictions on travellers coming to the United States from West African countries affected by the current Ebola outbreak.
Yet public health experts and development advocates warn that such restrictions would harm the already reeling economies of Ebola-hit countries in the region, and squeeze the international community’s ability to get health workers and goods into these countries.“If we get this wrong and just hunker down and hide, we will make …
In this column, Mario Lubetkin, Director of Corporate Communications at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), writes that the Second International Conference on Nutrition received widespread media coverage around the world and that they continue to have an important role to play in ensuring that medium- and short-term nutrition challenges are met.
ROME, Dec 10 2014 (IPS) – The vast international and national media impact of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), held in Rome from Nov. 19 to 21, demonstrated the growing interest that nutritional problems are arousing worldwide, primarily because the media themselves are increasingly reporting issues related to poverty and exclusion.
Thousands of articles in leading newspapers from different co…
Devastation from the Mar. 1, 2011 tsunami that swept through Yotukura fishing village. Credit: Suvendrini Kakuchi/IPS
SENDAI, Japan, Mar 19 2015 (IPS) – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has announced a new 10-year global plan to support country efforts to reduce the risk of disasters that kill people and destroy livelihoods. The plan was unveiled at the which ended on Mar. 18.
“Called , the programme will support countries and communities to deliver better risk-informed development, and targets 50 countries over 10 years, with a focus on five critical areas: risk awareness and early warning; risk-governance and mainstreaming; preparedness; resilient…
New York, May 12 2015 (IPS) – With no new infections in 42 days, Liberia has been declared free and clear of Ebola by the World Health Organization.
The announcement was made in the emergency command center in Monrovia, a room packed with reporters, aid agencies and dignitaries, including the U.S. Ambassador to Liberia Deborah R. Malac. Responses ranged from applause to tears followed by a moment of silence called by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
“At this symbolic juncture, I ask the whole world to remember the 4,608 Liberians who lost their lives, and the many thousands more who endured the horror of fighting the disease,” Johnson-Sirleaf said.
“Let us celebrate, but stay mindful and vigilant,” she said. “Clearly, the events of the last year must ne…
Children investigate their community’s newly improved toilets, one of UNOCI’s “quick impact projects” (QIPS) which supported the rehabilitation of schools and toilets in Abidjan. Credit: UN Photo/Patricia Esteve
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 30 2015 (IPS) – As most developing nations fall short of meeting their goals on sanitation, the world’s poorest countries have been lagging far behind, according to a new U.N. report released here.
The Joint Monitoring Progra…
Children have born the brunt of Iraq’s on-going conflict. Credit: DFID – UK Department for International Development/CC-BY-2.0
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 25 2015 (IPS) – In the hopes of better responding to the needs of over three million displaced Iraqis, United Nations aid agencies today launched a national hotline to provide information on emergency humanitarian services like food distribution, healthcare and shelter.
The ongoing crisis in Iraq has spurred a refugee crisis of “unprecedented” proportions, with over 3.1 million forced into displacement since January 2014 alone, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.
IDPs are scattered across 3,…
SHURUGWI, Zimbabwe, Dec 22 2015 (IPS) – Wheelchair-bound, her body now skeletal from full blown AIDS, disabled 38-year-old Melisa Chigumba attempts to wave away a swarm of flies hovering around her face as she sits outside her home in Chachacha, a remote area in Shurugwi, 278 kilometers south of the capital, Harare.
Shown in the photo donning a red dress, is Zipha Moyo, a disabled HIV/AIDS activist recently makin…