Viewing entries posted in June 2012
Nigeria: Owning up to food insecurity in the north
It is the start of the rains in northern Nigeria, and farmers are out sowing their fields. They know that the next three months will be the belt-tightening lean season, when households need to be prudent to get by, but hardship will give way to the harvest in September.
For the women gathered at a small healthcare centre in Daura, in the northwestern state of Katsina, hunger has come early, and is visible in the ginger-coloured hair and the slack skin of their children.
New World Bank report: Municipal ICT Capacity and its Impact on the Climate-Change Affected Urban Poor
Driven by rapid rural migrant influx, Mozambique’s unprecedented urbanization is testament to the symbiotic relationship that exists between cities and the poor –which is, the urban poor invigorate cities into engines of growth through abundant rendition of their manpower and vitality, and cities in return render a refuge for shelter, growth, and other socio-economic opportunities. But in Mozambique such symbiosis is under duress due to vulnerability of the country’s key cities to climatic hazards.
Using Information and Communication Technology to Protect Citizens against Natural Disasters
In February 2000, intense flooding left hundreds of thousands of people homeless in the African nation of Mozambique. The cause: a tropical cyclone and heavy rainfall which many experts attributed to the effects of climate change.
More than a decade later, February 2012 turned out to be a turbulent month for the island nation of Madagascar with Cyclones Giovanna and Irina battering the country one after the other, impacting more than 300,000 people and causing widespread flooding, landslides and severe damage to homes and businesses.
Justice and security central to crisis recovery
New York - A new report states that security and the rule of law are essential to recovery from crisis situations.
“We have seen around the world, that men and women affected by crisis in the first instance expect security,” said Helen Clark, head of the United Nations Development Programme, at the launch of a UNDP report that calls for strengthening the rule of law after crises. “The freedom from fear is the freedom they need the most to live their lives in dignity.”
US labor department awards grant for tsunami workers
The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a half a million dollar National Emergency Grant supplement to continue the re-employment and training for workers hired temporarily to help with cleanup and recovery efforts following the tsunami that hit American Samoa nearly 3 years ago.
The Labor Department approved a grant of more than 25 million dollars for the American Samoa Department of Human Resources soon after the disaster.
100 dead, 250,000 stranded in Bangladesh floods
At least 100 people have died and 250,000 left stranded by flash floods and landslides in Bangladesh set off by the heaviest rain in years, police and officials said on Wednesday.
UNESCAP: Twenty-one countries pledge to strengthen regional disaster early warning system
Twenty-one countries agreed to develop a financial mechanism for the sustainability of the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES) at the First RIMES Ministerial Conference, held in New Delhi this week.
Member States and collaborating countries approved a plan of action for sustaining the delivery of RIMES products and services that aim to increase capacity for dealing with natural hazards and extreme weather events. RIMES, an intergovernmental institution, evolved with support from ESCAP through efforts in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to establish a regional system which would generate and communicate early warning information, and enhance the capacity of countries to mitigate transboundary hazards.
New key issues guides on climate change and gender published by Eldis Climate Change Resource Guide
Contributing to discussions at the 56th Commission of the Status of Women, a key issues guide on gender and climate change has been produced in collaboration with the BRIDGE programme. The guide advocates for an approach where: women and men have an equal voice in decision-making on climate change; policymaking institutions and processes are not biased towards men or women; and broad social constraints that limit women’s access to strategic and practical resources no longer exist.
Population growth, climate change drive need for urban rethink
Just how fast is sustainable urban development becoming a focus? Look at its profile in the just-concluded Rio+20 UN conference on sustainable development in Rio.
Experts, UN officials and activists spoke of how the world’s bulging urban population will need a bigger share of resources and attention. If the bulk of the world’s urban population remains poor and locked out of the development processes, stresses will multiply, they said.
And changing climate patterns, they added, are likely to exacerbate the problems cities and their residents face. Asia, in particularly, will have to take action quickly as it is poised to see the largest urban growth in coming decades.
China quake kills at least four, injures 100
25 June 2012 -- An earthquake hit a mountainous area of southwest China on Sunday, killing at least four people and injuring more than 100, state media reported.
The Non-Govt Organisation Disaster Relief Forum (NDRF) is facilitated by the Council for International Development