As the full extent of destruction caused by Cyclone Idai across southern Africa continues to be assessed, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Wednesday [27 March 2019] it was in “a race against time” to protect women who bore the brunt of the storm as they tried to save their households and livelihoods.
OCHA/Rita Maingi | Displaced women and their babies in Beira, the port city in Mozambique that was slammed by Cyclone Idai.
.UNFPA Representative in Mozambique, Andrea Wojnar, said their main challenge was “to provide women and adolescent girls, especially those who are pregnant and lactating, with lifesaving sexual and reproductive health services”.
In the Khmer language, “crossing the river” is a way to describe childbirth, meaning a journey that should go smoothly but could just as easily go wrong.
India produces enough food to meet the needs of its entire population, and has at its disposal arable land that has the potential to produce food surplus for export. Yet, it is unable to feed millions of its people, especially women and children. India has slipped further to the 103rd position among 119 countries on the Global Hunger Index 2018.
Moin Qazi
India’s GHI ranking was 63 for 2013; 55 for 2014; 80 for 2015; 97 for 2016; and 100 for 2017. According to the report, India is among the 45 countries that have “serious levels of hunger”.
Imagine a land mass greater than China. Now imagine that land is only used to produce food.
Then suppose all the crops and produce from those 2.5bn acres are not eaten and left to rot. Imagine all of that – and you get an idea of the amount of food the world wastes every year.
29 Mar 2019 – The EU will hold a Brexit crisis summit on 10 April, European Council President Donald Tusk announced on Friday (29 March) after the parliament in London rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal for a third time, by 58 votes.
Donald Tusk wasted no time in confirming there will be an crisis summit on 10 April. [Photo: Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock]
26 March 2019 (UN Environment)* — Walk into pretty much any corner shop, market or supermarket in the world, and there is one product you are guaranteed to find: rice.
Inexpensive, filling and versatile, rice is a daily staple for around half of the world’s population, accounting for 19 per cent of dietary energy globally.
But, cheap as rice is, there is a higher price to pay.
A single kilo of rice needs an average 2,500 litres of water to produce; in fact, rice production uses over a third of the world’s irrigation water. Moreover, rice contributes to climate change, with methane emitted by flooded paddy fields responsible for 10 per cent of total global methane emissions.
29 March 2019 (UNRWA)* — One year after the start in Gaza of demonstrations that became known as The Great March of Return (GMR), scores of people, particularly young men, have been left dead and many others injured, as well as in need of long term medical and psychosocial assistance.
With a large protest planned on Saturday [30 March 2019] in Gaza, and border shootings by Israeli security forces which have left nearly 200 Palestinians dead over the past year, the UN’s top humanitarian official in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPt), Jamie McGoldrick, on Friday [29 March 2019] called for calm from all sides to prevent further bloodshed.*
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UNifeed Video | Drone shot, protesters walking towards the Gaza separation fence, with Israel. The anniversary of the “Great March of Return” protests, falls on 30 March, 2019.
30 March 2019 — While male circumcision is spread mainly among Muslim and Jews communities, and it is apparently accepted by some medical spheres, more than 200 million child-girls have already fallen prey to a dangerous practice, which is carried out in the name of traditions or even religions: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Fatima, 7, sits on a bed in her home in Afar region, Ethiopia. She was subjected to FGM/C when she was 1 year old. Photo: UNICEF/ Holt
Such a human rights violation is not legally typified as a “crime”. Furthermore, it is far from being stopped—in fact some 70 million more girls are right now at risk of being mutilated by the year 2030.
29 March 2019 — A new UN data tool created by the United Nations University’s Centre for Policy Research, has revealed that, worldwide, government aid and policy to end modern slavery is not being effectively directed towards the places where the practice is most prevalent.*
ILO/A. Khemka | Forced labour often means unpaid wages, excessively long work hours without rest days, confiscation of ID documents, little freedom of movement, deception, intimidation and physical or sexual violence. ILO/A. Khemka
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The release of Modern Slavery Data Stories, a series of easily understandable animated graphics, gives detailed pictures of the ways that factors related to modern slavery have changed over time, and comes during a period when over 40 million people are living in slavery, more than ever before in human history.
Palestinian demonstrators gather in Khuza’a on the Gaza side of the perimeter fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip during the Great March of Return demonstration on 6 April 2018. © 2018 Photo Courtesy of Mahmoud Bassam
