European Union - worldandmedia.com

Ireland to promote African trade and investment through innovative Agri-food development fund

2012-03-22T12:52:00Z

Ireland's Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore said today that the Irish agri-food industry has a key role to play in developing the farming sector in African countries.

Speaking at the launch of the €2 million “Africa Agri-food development fund”, Mr Gilmore said the partnership between the department of foreign affairs and the department of agriculture is a new way of working on aid.

“Irish companies are well placed to play a role in meeting Africa’s increasing food needs. Our agri-food industries have the skills and the vision to both trade and invest in Africa,” he said.

Mr Gilmore said the collaboration builds on work begun by the government’s Africa Strategy, and would expand on the role already being played by Ireland in countries like Mozambique.

“It is in the context of the Africa Strategy, and it is the start of an initiative which will advance our aid programme and open up opportunities for trade and investment in Africa by the agri-food sector,” he said.

New treatment and possible vaccine for multi drug-resistant TB

2012-05-02T08:39:24Z

Irish researchers working on tuberculosis have developed treatment strategies which could be effective against the multi-drug-resistant strain of the disease.

Head of the TB Immunology Lab in Trinity College Dublin, Dr Joe Keane said significant discoveries have been made by the centre.

“We are punching way above our weight.” he said. “Scientific funding enables us not just to do basic research but also makes possible clinical results that will impact policy now and improve general health.”

A partnership between the lab, St James’ Hospital and the Royal College of Surgeons has resulted in the development of inhalable treatments which could allow for treatment of MDR-TB.

This strain is causing the most concern among experts in Ireland because, Dr Keane said, present methods of treatment – a course of antibiotics for six or nine months – are ineffective.

Further study carried out by Dr Ryan and Dr O’Sullivan has revealed the possibility of using cells found in the lung – dendritic cells – as a basis for a vaccine according to Dr Keane.

“They noticed that even though these cells die after infection with TB, they contribute, in death, to improving the body’s immunity against the disease. This could help to generate a vaccine, because there is no really effective vaccine for TB in the world today,” he said.

2012 Development and Media Publications and Resources

2012-04-07T18:01:46Z

[UPDATED April 23]

UN FAO FAO Food Price Index (April 5; forthcoming: May 3, 2012). After eight consecutive monthly increases, the Index hit a (real and nominal) peak of 238 in February 2011. It has dropped by about 10% since then, to 216.

Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Food security alerts, updates and briefings

RefWorld Updates on Somalia and Refugee updates on other countries from the UNHCR, OCHA and others

Dóchas Ireland's Official Development Assistance 2005-2011 (April 16, 2012)

Asian Development Bank Asian Development Outlook 2012 - Confronting Rising Inequality in Asia (April 11, 2012)

Joshua Kurlantzick Myanmar's Elections: Is Reform Real? (CFR April 2, 2012)

Miyun Park and Peter Singer The Globalization of Animal Welfare: More Food Does Not Require More Suffering (Foreign Affairs March/April 2012)

BRICS BRICS Summit: Delhi Declaration (March 29, 2012)

DARA Humanitarian Response Index 2011 (press release March 7, 2012)

U.S. Department of State International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 2012 (March 7, 2012)

Claire Melamed Putting inequality in the post-2015 picture (ODI March 2012)

Charles A. Kupchan, Whitney Shepardson No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn (CFR March 2012)

Horn of Africa: EU to fund disaster preparedness as crisis continues

2012-03-20T14:16:41Z

On Friday (March 16), the European Commission launched a major new disaster preparedness initiative for the Horn of Africa.

"SHARE" (Supporting the Horn of Africa's Resilience) was discussed at a high-level international conference in Copenhagen coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Danish aid agency, DANIDA. It was reported that the EU allocated €250 million ($329 million) to the scheme, which aims to strengthen resilience in the region to drought and other crises.

Almost 10 million people continue to be affected by the food crisis in the Horn of Africa according to Ireland’s Minister of State for Development, Joe Costello.

Speaking meeting with EU development ministers in Copenhagen, Mr Costello said the focus is on improving coordination between the various international bodies delivering aid to the region.

“Conditions are particularly difficult in Somalia where we have been calling on all parties to ensure that humanitarian agencies are given full, safe and unhindered access to those in need,” he said.

Women of Timor-Leste finding their own way to pursue equality

2012-03-08T15:29:36Z

A greater recognition of work being done by women in Timor Leste is needed by those in the international community according to an expert in gender equality issues at the University of Ulster.

In the run-up to the presidential elections on March 17th, specialist in violence against women in war-torn areas Aisling Swaine said women in the region have made great changes in the ten years since independence.

“The women there are finding a safe way to make change, there is a really strong women’s network,” she said, speaking before a discussion on international humanitarian law.

Mentoring young men to prevent violence against women

2012-04-06T11:12:03Z

Sometimes when you want to fix a problem, you just need to go at it from a new direction. That’s the philosophy behind the Equal Community Foundation in Pune, India.

One woman who has benefited from their work, Gauri Shendge, says: “If men harass us on street our parents tell us to look down, ignore it or take a different route. I like your approach – you ask the men to stop harassing us.”

Set up in 2009 and now working in 20 urban slums in the state, the organisation aims to change attitudes towards women from the ground through mentoring up says fund-raiser Jan Ali.

Ali, from Croom in Co Limerick but living in India for almost 20 years, says the mentoring provided to young men is what makes this approach different.

“The people we’re working with live in close proximity to each other, if women know there is a place to go with a problem then the word spreads. The mentoring helps other men to get involved,” she says.

Media 2.0: The dividing line between open and closed societies has been 'ripped up'

2011-11-11T10:03:16Z

Did social media drive the arab spring protests or was it more important as a tool for driving international media coverage. Kyrgyzstan's "Analog Revolution" was ignored, wrote Foreign Policy blogger Evgeny Morozov.

Social media does not only divide opinions, it also has the potential to alter divisions in and between societies, a conference on digital media and democracy heard in Dublin on Wednesday.

Political blogger Mick Fealty said one of the democratic functions of an online news outlet is to ‘explore stories slowly, stories without a grand narrative … the real advantage of blogging is that it has brought socialism to life.”

Focusing on the events of the Arab Spring, he said an Irish audience should remember this was driven by “a small group of the wealthy elite” who used the Internet to spread their message.

Political will must be mobilised to implement and extend UN climate deal - Mary Robinson

2011-12-22T09:45:31Z

Agreement reached at the UN climate conference in Durban this month has been welcomed by former Irish President Mary Robinson.

Dr Robinson said she is relieved the hard-won agreement is legally binding on the 194 countries rather than being a voluntary agreement.

“Now, we must ensure that the necessary political will is mobilised to meet this deadline and to increase the ambition of emissions reductions targets in order to protect the most vulnerable people whose most basic rights to food, water and health are undermined by the impacts of climate change,” she said in a statement.

Negotiations will be carried out by 2015 and implemented from 2020 focusing on finance and development of technology as well as social information according to documents released after the conference.

Public-private partnerships needed to tackle big issues - EU Commissioner tells Gates

2012-02-03T13:00:31Z

Collaboration between public and private initiatives is central to the fight against disease and poverty, Bill Gates was told by a European Commissioner.

Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn met with the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Brussels last week to discuss research work and the foundation’s funding of EU projects.

One area of cooperation has been through the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).

The commissioner said these projects are working towards important breakthroughs on treatment and prevention of diseases including tuberculosis and malaria as well as AIDS.

“Only through collective efforts can we effectively tackle the really big issues affecting the world's most vulnerable, and respond to current and emerging research needs and priorities. Partnerships across regions and public-private initiatives are the way forward,” Ms Geoghegan-Quinn said.

University College Dublin is collaborating with eight African research sites and other universities to run clinical trials into therapy for HIV patients through the EDCTP.

Female genocide? The missing women and girls of India and China

2011-11-09T21:38:31Z

Over two million women and girls go missing in India and China every year. In both countries, excess deaths occur at all stages in the lives of women under 60. Pre-birth discrimination is the principal cause in China.

The figures come from a major report by the World Bank, the 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development (press release).

The World Bank attempted to calculate what the gender ratios in low and middle-income countries would be if, having taken into account their overall health environment, they were otherwise like high-income countries.

It found that nearly 4 million girls and women go "missing" each year due to pre-birth discrimination or excess mortality after birth. Nearly all (85% or 3.3m) were in China, Sub-Saharan Africa and India.

Drought response lesson one: water, seeds and fodder are better than food

2011-11-09T21:37:21Z

[DAKAR] Move away from “food-first” responses and lay more stress on water and livelihoods; intervene early - it saves money and lives: These are a couple of the lessons emerging from the past four years of drought response, according to the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP).

ALNAP pored over 200 evaluations and lessons-learned reports since 2007. “The fact that 200 lessons-learned reports have been done is a sign of progress,” said Paul Knox-Clarke head of research and communications at ALNAP. “Agencies are now more consistent and rigorous in terms of thinking about what they’re doing, and recording it.”

Areas of progress include far more sophisticated cash responses - there has been “vast learning” about using cash in drought situations, said Knox-Clarke; while the development-to-relief continuum is now pretty much accepted as the way forward in drought situations, “there seems to be little argument about the need for disaster-aware development programmes, and humanitarian programmes that can look more long-term and segue into livelihoods models,” he continued.

Likewise, beneficiary accountability has significantly improved he said.

But where the whole system needs to buck up, is responding to early warning. “So much good work has been done around early warning systems, but this still does not necessarily trigger response,” said Knox-Clarke.

Here are some of the lessons outlined in the report:

Tension at the 'vineyard of peace', the border crossing between Israel and Gaza

2011-06-27T09:05:16Z

Ruairi Kavanagh, a journalist who specialises in security and military affairs, visits Kerem Shalom, the only currently functioning crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip and reports that the economic plight of the people of Gaza is a sub-plot of the current impasse between the Jewish State and the Hamas regime which governs Gaza that has repeatedly vowed to bring about the destruction of Israel.

The border crossing at Kerem Shalom is a tense place. The manager of the facility, Amos (not his real name), shows me around the tightly fortified plazas which are filled with trucks delivering cargo, which is then scanned and examined by teams of customs and security workers before, if allowed, being transferred to Gaza side of the crossing, which is run by Hamas. The fact that Hamas and Israel jointly run the crossing, albeit under a small UN monitoring presence, only adds to the surreal nature of the place, which is situated just a mere stone's throw from the Egyptian border.

The process of allowing goods into and out of the Gaza Strip is a tightly orchestrated and seemingly fluid affair. A truck arrives, its goods are unloaded. They are then examined by the Israelis for banned items of 'dual purpose', such as building materials destined for private companies in Gaza. Approved items, the list of which the Israelis say has greatly increased, are then loaded onto a sterile truck and driven to another plaza where they are then loaded onto another truck for delivery into Gaza itself. Walls and barriers, and weapons, are everywhere in Kerem Shalom. Human contact is minimal but according to Amos, this is the way it has to be and this is the way it works.

Irish donations to East Africa continue to rise

2011-09-26T16:23:10Z

Donations from Ireland for the drought-stricken region of East Africa continue to rise according to aid agencies.

Figures provided by just three agencies in Ireland show donations to their projects now stand at €14.6 million. This exceeds the total previously raised by the umbrella body of more than 40 Irish aid agencies and development organisations, Dóchas, of which all three are members.

A spokesman for Trócaire, Eoghan Rice, said today €8.9 million has been donated to that agency since July 5th.

Concern has collected €4.4 million for the region since June according to spokeswoman Eithne Healy. “It’s a huge amount of money. It’s incredible when you think of the difficulties people here are going through,” she said. Last week, Concern’s Overseas Director Paul O’Brien called for greater media coverage, saying: “The Horn of Africa is in danger of becoming another ‘hidden emergency’ as the media spotlight falls elsewhere.”

A spokesman for Oxfam Ireland, Paul Dunphy, said €1.3 million has been collected since July for Oxfam projects.

€2m prize for breakthrough in vaccine storage or transport welcomed

2012-04-24T12:56:45Z

A new prize-fund of two million euro for scientists working on vaccines has been welcomed by a leading Irish researcher.

Dr Anne Moore, pharmacology lecturer and researcher at University College Cork (UCC), said the European Commission prize is an exciting development.

“This will be of great benefit and will make an impact on my work and that going on around Europe,” she said. “It is a more simplified application process than the normal EU grant application, less cumbersome and more focused.”

The prize targets research into methods of stabilising vaccines for diseases including TB and malaria. According to Dr Moore many of the existing vaccines are difficult to transport, expensive to store and often destablise in the intense heat of regions like Sub-Saharan Africa where they are most needed.

The scientist, who has also worked with the University of Michigan and Oxford University, said research into these challenges is being carried out by everyone from SMEs to large pharmaceutical companies.

The UCC department is at present developing an “Immunopatch”. Dr Moore said this means a small patch with tiny solid needles made of vaccine which can be stuck on someone’s skin to directly impart the vaccine to a sick person.

Seed management improving food security in Mozambique

2012-01-13T14:05:18Z

Mozambique is one of the “least developed countries” in the world according to EuropeAid. One of the main challenges facing farmers is a lack of money to survive from one crop cycle to the next. Many meet this challenge by selling too much of their crop leaving them without enough seeds to adequately prepare for the following season. This problem is exacerbated by out-dated methods of crop-storage.

A two-year project co-funded by EuropeAid with €1.3 million in the provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula has focused on “better access to quality seeds, increased yield of seeds and food crops and reduced storage losses for farmers.”

Battle for legitimacy in Kosovo escalates

2012-01-19T12:29:25Z

On January 7th, the feast of the Christian Orthodox celebration of Christmas, Serbian Prime Minister Boris Tadic made a highly publicised visit to Kosovo, to visit two important Orthodox religious sites. Visiting a country which his Government refuses to recognise, Tadic's visit necessitated a massive security operation involving the Kosovar Police, EULEX (the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) with NATO led KFOR troops on stand-by.

The visit was sanctioned by the Kosovar Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, on the basis that it was a religious visit and Tadic was not to engage in any political debate or make any political statements. Then, outside the monastery of Istok, a journalist asked the Serbian Prime Minister if his government would ever recognise Kosovo as a nation? 'Never', was his succinct reply. He also vowed not to dismantle Serbian institutions which remain in Kosovo, arguing that they were vital for the Serb minority in the country. The next day, Kosovar Deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuci told Kosovar television that the Serbian Prime Minister would not be welcome again in Kosovo following his comments.

This swift verbal battle, played out via the media, is just the latest salvo in a continuing escalation of hostilities in relations between Pristina and Belgrade. The situation in Kosovo is reaching a critical phase. Aware that Serbia is eager to receive a roadmap to EU membership, the Pristina Government has, since late Summer, being trying to enforce its Northern borders in ethnically Serb areas. The first attempt to do so left one Kosovar police officer dead and another wounded, along with three civilians. Since then, Serbs have blockaded the region with a series of roadblocks and stand-offs with both NATO troops and both both EULEX and Kosovar Police.

India: Elderly may be better than the young at spreading health messages

2011-10-18T14:53:24Z

Development work in India is about more than the extreme poverty portrayed in the west according to a leading campaigner in the care for the elderly sector.

Dr Alakananda Banerjee, head of the Dharma Foundation in New Delhi said there is much work to be done in the less obvious areas of healthcare.

“India is not what is displayed outside, what western people want to see. India is not just about elephants and cows on the road,” Dr Banerjee said at the First International Conference for Age-Friendly Cities in Dublin.

The doctor, head of the Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation with Max Hospitals, said healthcare training for the elderly can have huge benefits for the rest of the community.

Prospects for EU development aid

2012-01-13T14:20:57Z

As the economic crisis deepens in Europe, reaching budget targets for overseas development is ambitious but realistic according to a spokeswoman for the bloc’s aid programmes.

“I can’t predict accurately, I don’t know what could happen …There will be a new graded co-operation so we won’t (always) provide direct aid,” Catherine Ray, spokesperson for the EU Commissioner for Development said. “But our aim is to make sure people see that increasing aid is not a luxury.”

The commissioner has proposed cutting bi-lateral aid to 19 countries including India and Indonesia who are now deemed to be emerging economies and no longer in need of direct aid.

Ray said it is important for aid budgets to remain predictable, saying at present projects are under the 2007-2013 budget so cannot be changed.

USD800m public-private initiative against neglected tropical diseases launched

2012-02-03T17:12:47Z

[LONDON] A major public-private initiative to control or eliminate at least ten neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by 2020 was unveiled in London Monday (30 January) alongside a WHO roadmap on how to do it.

Non-governmental organisations, aid donors and 13 global drug companies came together, in the largest coordinated effort on NTDs, to back the 'London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases'.

Almost US$800 million was pledged and new research initiatives were launched at what Margaret Chan, WHO secretary-general, called the "most coordinated initiative" in her 30 years in public health.

The declaration agreed to "sustain, expand and extend" drug supplies to help eradicate Guinea worm disease; to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, leprosy, sleeping sickness and blinding trachoma; and to control schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthes, Chagas disease, visceral leishmaniasis and river blindness (onchocerciasis).

These ten diseases are some of the 17 NTDs that affect more than a billion people globally.

Media inattention towards Horn of Africa crisis 'inconceivable' and 'wrong'

2011-09-22T12:04:38Z

The Horn of Africa is facing its worst drought in sixty years. But despite some notable journalism, the crisis has struggled to obtain media coverage and raise sufficient funds from donors. It now risks becoming a "hidden emergency", says relief and development agency Concern.

In July and August, the famine accounted for just 0.7% of mainstream media news coverage in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

For man-made reasons, the emergency in Somalia is particularly severe. Yet, Google indexes only 70% more news stories about "famine" in Somalia in 2011 to-date than stories about its pirates (4,770 vs. 2,770).

Social media and Internet traffic figures suggest that the public is also paying little attention to the humanitarian emergency.

Yesterday (September 21), Concern Worldwide warned that the drought and conflict-induced hunger and nutrition crisis in the Horn of Africa is already dropping off the news headlines just as the imminent rainy season "threatens to exacerbate an already dire situation affecting nearly 12 million people in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia."

Forecasters 'warned of Horn of Africa drought' last year

2011-07-22T16:06:49Z

[LONDON] Forecasting systems were warning about a serious drought in the Horn of Africa as much as a year ago — but communication problems between scientists and decision-makers meant the alerts went largely unheeded, according to forecasters.

Warnings about the drought — which the United Nations says is the worst in 60 years — were issued last August, when the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) released a brief on food security in East Africa following the declaration of a La Niña event, a cooling of the sea surface in the Pacific Ocean known to affect weather in Africa.

"We were very confident that the October to December rains were going to be poor," Chris Hillbruner, a food security early warning specialist with FEWS NET, told SciDev.Net. "And there was an increased likelihood that the March to May rains were going to be poor as well."

Flooding had more impact in a few days than years of terrorist activity

2011-07-29T11:02:38Z

One year on from the floods in Pakistan, thousands are still living in camps according to the United Nations with many others still needing more permanent housing.

Sitting in his office in Islamabad last summer, aid worker John Long listened to the news with a rising sense of disbelief.

“It was coming in on an hourly basis. 70,000 people displaced from here, 60,000 people displaced from there. Your mind just numbs, it’s overwhelming. What are you meant to do?”

What you’re meant to do when you’re deputy head of a United Nations relief office is simple; help everyone. And while millions have been helped, the scale of the disaster means relief work is on-going.

The Irishman says flooding had more impact in a few days than years of terrorist activity with more than 18 million people left homeless.

Irish medical charity hopes to put itself out of business

2011-12-02T11:11:24Z

A wheelchair made from a deck-chair, cardboard plaster casts and sedatives only available to wealthy patients. These are just some of the challenges for surgeons working in East, Central and Southern Africa according to Dr Jean O’ Sullivan.

Dr. O’Sullivan, consultant in accident and emergency medicine at Tallaght hospital in Dublin, says a road accident in Ireland might be attended by 15 medical staff where only one person could be available in rural Kenya.

“You can have one person dealing with an overwhelming situation. So something we would think is easy to fix like a ruptured liver or fracture becomes impossible. There are so few doctors an intern could be the only doctor in a country hospital,” she says.

Responding to the need for more staff, Dr O’Sullivan founded Global Emergency Care Skills (GECS) to provide training for doctors and nurses in developing countries in 2008.

Ireland committed to the rights of women and girls affected by conflict - Gilmore

2011-12-07T14:36:02Z

A national plan to help prevent violence against women in war-torn countries was launched recently in Dublin.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said the initiative will promote recognition of violence directed specifically against women and girls in wartime, as well as increasing awareness of support needed for women from conflict areas now living in Ireland.

The plan also aims to increase the number of female gardai and members of the defense forces on peace-keeping missions.

Irish Senate debates infanticide, gendercide, China and India

2011-11-09T21:35:08Z

As far back as 1990, future Nobel prizewinner, economist Amartya Sen wrote in the New York Review of Books that "a great many more than 100 million women are 'missing' due to inequality and neglect. He described it as "clearly one of the more momentous, and neglected, problems facing the world today."

Yet, two decades later, the problem persists. The World Bank recently reported that nearly 4 million women under 60 and girls still go "missing" each year due to pre-birth discrimination (95% in China and India) or excess mortality after birth (mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, India and China). In total, over two million women and girls go missing in India and China every year.

The issue was debated in the Irish Senate on October 26. A motion (below) condemning "gendercide" - a term previously used by The Economist and others - was put by independent Senator Rónán Mullen, which called for pressure to be put on China and India, in particular.

A shorter amended motion (below) was put by Senator Ivana Bacik of Labour. It condemned "female infanticide and all other violations of the rights of women and girls" although it did not name any country nor refer to selective abortion or gendercide.

Ending female genital mutilation: it takes a village

2011-10-19T08:34:32Z

Girls or their families that refuse circumcision against the will of their villages may become social outcasts. But using a new community-based approach, two UN agencies hope that female genital mutilation can be eliminated within a generation. UNFPA and UNICEF are using a human rights-based approach to encourage communities to act collectively. This approach has led some 6,000 communities across Africa to abandon the practice, usually through a public declaration.

Female genital mutilation/cutting has devastating short- and long-term impacts on the lives of women and girls, say the UN. It can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, psychological disorders and even death (WHO).

The impact even extends to the next generation. Death rates among babies during and immediately after birth are higher for those born to mothers who have undergone the practice, by an estimated one to two babies per 100 deliveries.

More than 90 million African women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation - 100-140 million worldwide - according to World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates. In Africa, about 3 million girls are at risk annually. It is mostly carried out on girls aged 0-15.

Are missionaries accurately represented in the media?

2011-06-24T14:58:38Z

Are missionaries being fairly and accurately represented in the media? This was one of the questions discussed at the second of three public debates examining the past, present and future of Irish missionaries. The debate took place this month at the Irish Aid Centre in Dublin.

The chair was Joe Humphreys, Irish Times journalist, advisor to worldandmedia.com and author of God’s Entrepreneurs: How Irish Missionaries Tried to Change the World. He remarked that much of what the public knows about the missionaries has been through religious and secular literature, documentaries and press coverage.

He asked whether we have an accurate picture of missionary work and indeed whether missionaries wanted us to have one. He gave the example of an incident from the preface to his book. A fellow journalist had spent an extraordinary day with a nun in South Africa in a high security prison where she worked, meeting prisoners, many on death row, only to be told "now, you know, you can't write about any of this. I don't want my name in the paper."

Humility is not the only reason why many are wary of journalists. However, Fr Gerry O’Connor, CSsR, told worldandmedia.com that if the Irish missionary movement is to have a future, it needs to be asked difficult questions: "The only way change comes about is if people ask questions you don't want to hear."

Analysis: Redrawing the map of the Not Free World

2011-03-01T12:05:46Z

Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Iran are all significant oil producers but they have something else in common with each other and also with Egypt: a special place in the 2011 Map of Freedom in the World.

The map from Freedom House shows a vast virtually unbroken belt of land that is "not free". It stretches from Angola in Southern Africa and Western Sahara and Mauritania in North West Africa all the way to Russia, China, North Korea and Vietnam.

There are five individual countries where successful reform could put a sizeable break in the East-West chain: Iraq and Egypt, which have lost veteran dictators in 2003 and 2011; Libya, which may follow; Algeria, which has just lifted a state of emergency ordered 19 years ago; and Iran, where three weeks of Tuesday protests are planned for March.

Ireland: coalition partners compromise on climate change, aid

2011-03-07T09:18:24Z

Following the February general election, Ireland's Fine Gael and Labour parties agreed Sunday (March 7) to form a "Government for National Recovery". They have published their Programme for Government.

The joint document prioritises the "economic emergency" facing the country but it also contains a number of significant policies on climate change and international development. Many of these are compromises on their manifesto positions, while a number of pledges were simply left out. Both parties were under pressure to rapidly conclude an agreement.

The 2011-2016 Fine Gael-Labour Programme for Government*

Policies that survived mostly intact in the Programme from Fine Gael (FG) or Labour (L) manifestoes

Humanitarian and development assistance

FG: will create a single humanitarian crises appeals mechanism for NGO fundraising and public response.
L: will position Ireland, in particular Shannon airport, to become an international hub for the storage and distribution of emergency humanitarian supplies.
FG: will establish an Irish Civilian Corps to assist developing countries.
L: will initiate a detailed legal review of the basis, structures and governance of the Red Cross in Ireland to improve its functioning.

ICG warns of Armenia-Azerbaijan war but is accused of bias

2011-02-14T11:23:59Z

The risk is increasing that war will reignite between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh due to "escalating front-line clashes, a spiralling arms race, vitriolic rhetoric and a virtual breakdown in peace talks", warns the Intenational Crisis Group (ICG).

Armenia and Azerbaijan: Preventing War was released on February 8th. According to the ICG, it "highlights the deterioration of the situation in the past year. Increased military capabilities on both sides would make a new armed conflict in the South Caucasus far more deadly than the 1992-1994 one that ended with a shaky truce. Neither side would be likely to win easily or quickly. Even if neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan is planning an immediate all-out offensive, skirmishes could easily spiral out of control."

However, the report was critised in both countries. Eduard Sharmazanov, Secretary of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) faction*, accused the ICG of bias. Whereas Azerbaijani Defence Ministry spokesman, Eldar Sabiroglu said the report failed to be objective.

Some extraordinarily good news

2010-11-24T08:59:40Z

Nuclear-armed North Korea exchanged missiles yesterday with South Korea. Ireland is in crisis, so is the Euro and so is Europe. There is no letup in environmental disasters nor in the risk posed by climate change. Scepticism about humanitarian relief and development aid appears to be growing.

Is the world in decline? Two numbers suggest otherwise: 59 and 70.

In 40 years, across 135 countries, life expectancy has increased from 59 to 70, according to the 2010 UNDP Human Development Report.

Latin America and the Caribbean were found to be approaching nearly full school enrolment and average 80-year life expectancies.

Trauma of AIDS orphans neglected – Irish missionary seeks to decriminalise suicide

2011-05-06T11:05:47Z

An Irish missionary is setting up a refuge to rescue hundreds of AIDS orphans from the streets of a major African city. County Tipperary native Brother Aidan Clohessy of the St John of God order is currently fundraising for the €2m facility in Lilongwe city in Malawi where one in eight adults live with the deadly virus.

The 70-year-old believes kids who lose their parents can be driven to depression and even suicide if they don't get access to professional counselling and treatment. He said: "Kids who lose a mother or father to HIV or AIDS are at a very vulnerable stage of their lives and their immediate priority is survival. "But at the same time they are suffering from post traumatic stress as well as going through a grieving process for their parents. There is a trauma there that is not being treated and you see behavioural problems such as depression, dropping out of school and they may fall into alcohol abuse or smoking marijuana or even suicide."

World is losing battle against drug resistance - WHO

2011-04-11T08:00:29Z

[LONDON] A "post-antibiotic" era, in which many common infections no longer have a cure, is on the horizon, the WHO warned today — as scientists reported the discovery of superbugs resistant to almost all known antibiotics in water supplies in New Delhi, India.

"In the absence of urgent corrective and protective actions, the world is heading towards a post-antibiotic era, in which many common infections will ... once again, kill unabated," Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, said today, in an address to mark World Health Day, which this year is devoted to combating drug resistance.

"We are at a critical point where antibiotic resistance is reaching unprecedented levels and new antibiotics are not going to arrive quickly enough," said Zsuzsanna Jakab, the WHO's regional director for Europe.

"Until all countries tackle this, no country alone can be safe."

Majority of African drugs may be fake

2010-12-21T19:55:35Z

Customs authorities in African countries must be trained to monitor and stop potentially life-threatening fake drugs getting into the continent, a conference in Brussels was told .

More than 15,000 people took part in the two-day EU Development Days in Brussels which atracted 5,000 development organisations.

Experts told the conference that large quantities drugs for cancer and depression as well as diet pills and vitamin supplements may be cheap counterfeits and can harm the health of people who use them.

The world is getting older. What now?

2010-11-24T08:57:29Z

Life expectancy in 135 countries studied by the UN Development Programme is now 70 (see related story). However, global life expectancy could be five years higher if five risk factors are addressed:

underweight childhood
unsafe sex
alcohol use
lack of safe water
sanitation and hygiene and
high blood pressure

These are responsible for one quarter of the 60 million deaths that occur annually and are the leading risks for the global burden of disease, according to a WHO report on Global Health Risks (p. v).