By Baher Kamal & The Like
RRice / shutterstock | Image from The Conversation.
We developed a new prediction system we call PROCAST (PRO abilistic fore CAST), and used it to predict the natural variability of the climate system. This refers to how the climate varies naturally from warm to cool phases that last a few years at a time, and is separate from the long-term trend of anthropogenic global warming. PROCAST predicts a warm phase for the next few years.
20 August, 2018 (UN Women)* – Aleeza Hafeez from Sailkot, one of Pakistan’s most industrialized areas, has her own income for the first time. Knowing her own rights and an enabling environment at the workplace made it possible for her to work and grow as a professional. The project has changed family dynamics too. Now, Hafeez’s father includes her when making family decisions, a role previously reserved for male members.
Aleeza Hafeez Photo: Baidarie/Gohar Zama
“My father, for as long as I can remember, was working day and night for us, but still his income was not sufficient to make our ends meet.
My siblings are all younger than me. I wanted to help my father in meeting our household needs.
As I started looking for jobs, I was unsure that I would get one, because I had no work experience.
But as they say, ‘When there is a will, there is a way.’
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied
— Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village
A Nepali farmer |
20 Aug 2018 – Small farmers are the key to ending poverty and hunger and promoting sustainable development.
‘Think beyond farm jobs’ to reach sustainable development, UN agriculture chief advises African youth.
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Tokyo/Geneva, (ICRC)* – Speaking on 20 August 2018 at a meeting of parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in Tokyo, Japan, Dr Helen Durham, Head of Law and Policy for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), highlighted ICRC’s concerns with the growing gap between words and actions in the global trade of arms.
Video from ICRC.
“The very purpose of the Treaty is to prioritize humanitarian interests and, in doing so, to reduce human suffering,” said Dr Durham, “Yet we are concerned by the growing gap between States’ absolute commitments to human rights and international humanitarian law – in the Treaty and elsewhere – and how arms are transferred in practice.”
Most of UNHCR’s staff are based in the field. Meet Eujin Byun, a communications officer in South Sudan, one of the world’s least safe countries for humanitarians.
UNHCR communications officer Eujin Byun holds a refugee baby next to the child’s mother in South Sudan. © UNHCR/James Jamba Charles
Eujin Byun is from Korea and works as a UNHCR communications officer in South Sudan. In 2017, aid workers were the target of 46 major attacks in the country, including shootings, kidnappings and assaults.
Despite the risks, Eujin recently decided to extend her stay. Here she explains why.
For the last two years I have been working in South Sudan, one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a humanitarian worker.
International Orangutan Day on 19 August coincides with the start of the International Primatological Society Congress in Nairobi, Kenya, and is a much-needed reminder that orangutans’ survival hangs in the balance.
16 August 2018 (UN Environment)* — There are three species of orangutan in the world and they are only found on two islands in Southeast Asia – Sumatra and Borneo. All three species are critically endangered.
Last year saw the amazing discovery of a new species, the Tapanuli orangutan. This is the eighth great ape species known to exist on Earth.
However, the Tapanuli orangutan faces extinction, threatened by plans to build a huge hydroelectric power dam in Batang Toru, North Sumatra.
Eastern DR Congo is also home to an estimated 160,000 to 200,000 gold miners who work in about 1,000 artisanal mining sites. The Butuzi site, located in the Mitumba Mountains, is one of them. It occupies an area that was once dominated by an Afro-montane forest, now almost completely deforested.
