Wednesday, 26 October 2011 18:30

Written by Niamh Griffin

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This week the world’s population will reach seven billion; this is a challenge governments need to meet by focusing on sexual health according to a United Nations population expert.

Speaking at the launch of the United National Population Fund (UNFPA) report “People and possibilities in a world of 7 billion” in Dublin Jacqueline Mahon said shifting the focus “from numbers to human rights” is necessary.

“There are 215 million women of child-bearing age in developing countries who would use family planning if they had access to it … we must tear down economic, legal, social and cultural barriers to put women and men and girls and boys on an equal footing,” the senior policy advisor said.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011 18:28

Written by Niamh Griffin

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There are now 7 billion humans on the planet, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which has launched a report this week.

The world's population at a glance

In 2011, say the UNFPA, 60 per cent of the world’s population lives in Asia (4.2 billion), and 15 per cent in Africa (1 billion)

The Americas, Europe and Oceania combined have a population of 1.7 billion with Europe’s population expected to peak at 0.74 billion in 2025.

On average women are having less children than in the 1960s but the global population continues to rise

Tuesday, 02 August 2011 11:14

Written by Senan Hogan

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Tensions between world religions in countries like Pakistan are creating challenges for development agencies working abroad, a leading NGO figure has said.

Concern Worldwide CEO Tom Arnold was speaking during the final of a series of debates hosted by Irish Aid in Dublin on Irish missionaries and was addressing the topic of their legacy and future in the developing world. Concern is a nondenominational organisation and works in a number of Muslim countries, including Sudan, Chad, Niger and Pakistan. It also has a large presence in Somalia where it is currently helping 200,000 people affected by drought and famine.

Mr Arnold told the audience: "Relationships with Islam and some of the other great religions is one of the huge issues for us…Somehow or other we are going to have to find ways of bridging these gaps."

He added: "The challenge is that we face the complexities of the societies where we work and religion is the source of great division at the moment and we need to find ways of dialoging with each other and living with each other and finding a way forward."

Friday, 24 June 2011 15:58

Written by World and Media

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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."

Saturday, 04 June 2011 13:42

Written by Priya Shetty

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EN | ES [LONDON] Growing urbanisation does not have to spell disaster for either human health or the environment, and both research and underused technologies can help mitigate its negative effects, a conference has heard.

Developing nations must accept that urbanisation is inevitable, and invest in research and infrastructure to support their growing populations, Cecilia Tacoli, a researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), told delegates at the Population Footprints conference in London last week (25–26 May).

The conference, organised by University College London and the Leverhulme Trust, both based in United Kingdom, looked at the effects of population growth and dynamics on health and climate change.

Much of the world's population growth will be in cities in Asia and Africa, whose urban populations are set to double between 2000–2030 to 3.4 billion, according to the 2007 UN Population Fund's report 'State of World Population: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth'.

Yet developing countries refuse to engage with the process of urbanisation and keep passing policies that hamper migration to cities, Tacoli told SciDev.Net. Their urban infrastructure is therefore poorly equipped to provide basic services such as healthcare, food, water and fuel.

Friday, 11 March 2011 16:21

Written by IRIN kz/bp/mw

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[GENEVA] When Mexico City was hit by a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in 1985, disaster response teams searched the same buildings over and over again. During search and rescue efforts for the 1986 El Salvador earthquake, two European rescue teams clashed over the appropriate approach.

Twenty years ago, international search and rescue was "very chaotic indeed", said Joe Bishop, an emergency management consultant. "It was a free-for-all, there was no commonality at all... the tools were totally inappropriate for the job, all to the detriment of the affected people."

That changed with the development of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) 20 years ago in December. "I think there's still a lot to be done, but we've made major inroads since the earthquake in Mexico in 1985," said Bishop.

Jens Kristensen, a UN official who was rescued from the rubble five days after the 12 January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, agreed: "INSARAG has come a long way in 20 years."

The international response to the Haiti earthquake was the largest ever. "The best outcome," observed Kjell Larsson, a senior adviser to the Swedish government, "was that the USAR [urban search and rescue] teams saved more lives than any other earthquake response in the past 10, 20 years.

Friday, 31 December 2010 11:26

Written by Joe Humphreys

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Irish missionaries have had a profound impact internationally and remain relevant, despite their dwindling number. It’s a reminder of what we are capable of, writes Joe Humphreys.

A few years ago I got talking to a nun at an Irish Embassy reception in South Africa. I decided there and then I was going to write a book about missionaries. It seems a bit impulsive now. Stupid perhaps, given how unfashionable all things church are these days. There was never going to be a publishers’ bidding war over the title.

But this nun reeled me in. She told me about her work in crime-ridden neighbourhoods and prisons, how she counselled young rapists and murderers, how she’d survived close scrapes down the years and how she planned to live out the rest of her life – and be buried – in Africa.

I’d had similar conversations with missionaries elsewhere, but this sprightly, defiantly upbeat sandal-wearing septuagenarian unsettled and agitated me. I realised something quite obvious but also, it seemed to me, profound: she had once been a young woman with her own hopes and dreams. Did she ever want to get married or have a paid career? Did she really know what she was getting herself into when she filled out a recruitment coupon on the back of a missionary newsletter a half-century ago? Why did she now speak of Ireland disappointedly?