Dar Es Salaam, 17 October 2014 (IRIN)* – Over 162,000 former Burundian refugees, who were recently granted Tanzanian citizenship after living in the country for over four decades, will now be able to buy and own land and vote, said a senior government official.
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**Photo: IRIN | While many Burundians returned home from Tanzania since 2002, many others remained behind (file photo)
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The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has hailed the move. Most of the former refugees have been living in camps in the western Tanzania regions of Tabora and Katavi since 1972.
“These are now citizens and our constitution provides that a citizen has the right to live anywhere in the country,” Mathias Chikawe, Tanzania’s home affairs minister, told IRIN. Those of their children born in the country will also be allowed to become citizens.
‘After losing her mother to the Ebola virus, a girl in Sierra Leone must raise her younger brother and sister on her own – and hold on to her own hope of returning to school.’
By Anne Boher, Kenema, Sierra Leone, 16 October 2014 – Four-year-old Amadou wakes up his sister, Mary, at 4:30 a.m. He has a headache and can’t sleep. He asks her where their mother is. It is the same question he has asked almost daily since he was discharged from the Ebola Treatment Unit in Kenema, almost two months ago.
Mary, 15, ignores her initial annoyance at being woken up and becomes gentle. She brings him into her bed and drapes her thinning bedcloth over him, smoothing it over his fragile body.
“I don’t know what to tell him,” Mary says. “How can I explain death to a 4-year-old when I barely just understood it myself? This wasn’t supposed to be my responsibility.”
Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 16 October 2014 lunched the full version of its contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. This definitive assessment is the result of years of intensive work by leading experts in the field.*
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The report assesses the impacts and risks of climate change and the opportunities for response | Source: UNEP
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It provides the most comprehensive look to date at the widespread impacts and risks of climate change and the opportunities for response. The full version of the Working Group II report includes a Summary for Policymakers, a Technical Summary, 30 assessment chapters, cross-chapter boxes, frequently asked questions, and high-resolution graphics.
The report characterizes what is known and what is not known about impacts of climate changes that have already occurred and risks of future impacts. It integrates information about the full range of possible climate outcomes, as well as the role of vulnerability in humans and ecosystems.
By Greenpeace*, 16 October 2014 — Food is taste and nourishment. Food is family and culture. Food is science, art and religion. Food is life. The real problem is the lack of access to food in all its variety.
Source: Greenpeace
Take Vitamin A deficiency and GE ‘Golden’ rice for example. The solution is a varied and balanced diet of fruits and vegetables. Scientists, academics, chefs and mothers confirm how a diverse diet can address nutrition problems.
By Earth Policy Institute*, 16 October 2014 — Worldwide, a trillion single-use plastic bags are used each year, nearly 2 million each minute.
The amount of energy required to make 12 plastic shopping bags could drive a car for a mile.
Photo source: Earth Policy Institute
City, state, and national governments around the world are trying to limit plastic bag litter and waste with bans and fees.
The oldest existing plastic bag tax is in Denmark, passed in 1993. Danes use very few light-weight single-use plastic bags: about 4 per person each year.
By RT*, 16 October 2014— Illegal economic activities such as drugs and prostitution are apparently responsible for having lifted Italy out of economic recession. EU data calculations have demonstrated that the black market has significantly boosted GDP figures.
The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine | Made by Konrad Zielinski, son of Julo, with his authorization I release it under CC-BY-SA license | Wikimedia Commons
Italy is technically no longer in economic recession because of the addition of figures from illegal activities.
While Italy’s office for national statistics (ISTAT) confirmed that “in the second quarter of 2014 the seasonally and calendar adjusted, chained volume measure of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased by 0.2 percent,” GDP rose marginally from a 0.1 percent decline for the year’s first quarter to a flat reading.
This means that Italy has avoided its third potential recession in the past six years, a likely relief for the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, which has been struggling with reforms while keeping the deficit low in accordance with EU agreements.
By Rashini Suriyaarachchi *, 16 October, 2014 (Greenpeace) — Between production, packaging, transport and cooking, the things we eat can have a massive impact on the earth. Luckily, they’re also some of the easiest habits to change. Here are the first steps to going on an environmentally-friendly diet.
Photo source: Greenpeace
If you’re thinking about changing what you eat to get a healthy body maybe it’s also time to think about what you should eat for a healthy planet. Here are five things you can try to reduce your impact on the world:
With over 800 million people worldwide still lacking access to healthy, nutritious food, family farmers must play an increasingly vital role in the global war on hunger, United Nations officials on 16 October 2014 affirmed , adding that the strong participation of the world’s family farmers can help “turn the tide” in shaping a new agenda for a sustainable future.
A farmer at work in a dragon fruit field, Dong Son, Viet Nam (July 2013). Photo: FAO/Hoang Dinh Nam
“Family farmers are key to unlocking global progress,” decalredSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon today in his message marking the annual observance of World Food Day.
“They run the vast majority of farms in the world. They preserve natural resources and agro-biodiversity. They are the cornerstone of inclusive and sustainable agriculture and food systems.”
Rome, 16 October 2014 — Nine out of ten of the world’s 570 million farms are managed by families, making the family farm the predominant of agriculture, and consequently a potentially crucial agent of change in achieving sustainable food security and in eradicating hunger in the future, according to a new U.N. report released today.
A woman smallholder plants rice seedlings in India | Source FAO
Family farms produce about 80 percent of the world’s food. Their prevalence and output mean they “are vital to the solution of the hunger problem” afflicting more than 800 million people, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva wrote in the introduction to FAO’s newState of Food and Agriculture 2014 report.
Family farms are also the custodians of about 75 percent of all agricultural resources in the world, and are therefore key to improved ecological and resource sustainability. They are also among the most vulnerable to the effects of resource depletion and climate change.
Rural women sell mango and sweet potato jam at the food processing shop in Bantantinnting, Senegal. UN Photo/Evan Schneider
Rural women, the majority of whom depend on natural resources and agriculture for their livelihoods, make up over a quarter of the total world population.
In developing countries, rural women represent approximately 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force, and produce, process and prepare much of the food available, thereby giving them primary responsibility for food security.
Bearing in mind that 76 per cent of the extreme poor live in rural areas, ensuring rural women’s access to productive agricultural resources empowers women and contributes to decreasing world hunger and poverty.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 