Now that the UN and global community officially adopted the Sustainable Development Goals last week, the real work begins. One of the key holdovers from the Millennium Development Goals is the issue of maternal and childhood health. After making incredible strides since 2010, the Every Woman Every Child initiative (EWEC) is now gearing up to for the post-2015 agenda to end all preventable maternal deaths and the deaths of children and adolescents around the world.
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Protest against Australian mandatory detention policy in 2011 / Photo by John Englart
Why Australia is Accepting So Few Refugees
As Europe struggles to find solutions to the ongoing Mediterranean refugee crisis, countries further afield are also struggling with their responses. Across the Atlantic, the US and Canada have both offered settlement plans for Syrian refugees while across the Indian Ocean, Australia is also asking tough questions about what its policy should be in the face of a global refugee crisis.
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Refugees vs. Migrants? The Word Choice Matters
What’s in a name? That is a question journalists, politicians and policymakers are asking themselves in addressing the Mediterranean refugee crisis. Although the terms “refugee” and “migrant” are often used interchangeably, the terms have very different meanings and attach different rights and responsibilities. As a result, it is important to understand what we are talking about when discussing how to deal with the crisis.
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Refugees seeking shade at detention center in Greece
Photo by Giula Bertoluzzi and Eleonora Vio / IRIN
How Europe is Making the Refugee Crisis Even Worse
As Greece continues to capture headlines over the most recent economic bailout and its potential to still derail the Eurozone, another crisis is unfolding in the country. As thousands of refugees pour into Greece in search of the safety of the EU, their numbers and the inability of Greece to cope is setting off a chain reaction that could result in a far bigger political crisis down the line.
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Peristyl House in Palmyra, Syria.
(Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons - http://bit.ly/1K17sDn)
UNESCO is Fighting a Different Kind of Culture War
In war, there are casualties. While historical building, monuments, artifacts and artwork is always at risk in conflict, recent actions by extremist groups such as ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and the Al Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine in Mali highlight the difficult position international organizations are in to protect cultural heritage as war rages on.
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Photo: Vodafone Foundation/UNHCR Dadaab
International Aid Agencies Gain Unexpected Help From Corporate Sector
Photo: Italian Coast Guard/Massimo Sestini
The Number of People Displaced by Conflict and Disaster has Reached Record Highs
Ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees released their annual “Global Trends” report on the state of refugees in the world today. The data is staggering. There are now more refugees and internally displaced persons in the world than at any point since World War II – estimated at nearly 60 million that have been driven from their homes by conflict and upheaval.
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Turning the Digital Revolution Into a Health Revolution to Achieve the SDGs
As the post-2015 agenda ramps up and the international community prepares for the official launch of the Sustainable Development Goals, the focus is turning to what tools can make the SDGs achievable. One major change that has occurred since the release of the MDGs is the data revolution, where big data can now be used to gauge the progress of goals and identify program gaps. At a meeting this week in Washington, DC, key development stakeholders are tackling the questions of how the data revolution can help achieve health-related SDGs and move closer to universal health coverage across the world.
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As Sierra Leone Emerges from Ebola Crisis, New Innovations are Helping Poor Villages
A year after Ebola devastated swaths of Sierra Leone, killing more than 10,000 people in the region, life in the West African nation is slowly returning to normal. While the deadly pathogen has not been completely eradicated, the number of new cases has slowed to a trickle, and when the country's president, Ernest Bai Koroma, visited Washington this week, he said it was time to turn the focus beyond Ebola. That means rebuilding the economy of what was already one of the poorest nations in the world, and encouraging farmers afraid to get out because of Ebola to return to their fields.
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The Economic Roots of Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa
Following attacks on several foreign-owned shops in Durban and Johannesburg, South Africa that left seven people dead, several other African states have called for evacuation of their citizens and issued warnings of retaliatory action on South African businesses unless South Africa does something to curtail the rising xenophobic sentiments in the country. Although it is not the first time such xenophobia has erupted in South Africa in recent years, the reaction this time may be a necessary turning point for the ruling ANC and highlights the desperate need for South Africa to undertake social and economic reform.
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