from The Australian A new AusAID report tracks neighboring countries to Australia, on their progress in meeting Millennium Development Goalsby Siobhain RyanA new AusAID report measuring the Pacific's social and economic progress was released in Niue yesterday, where Kevin Rudd signed deals with Samoa and Papua New Guinea during the Pacific Islands Forum.The Prime Minister's promise of fresh support came as AusAID revealed international aid had barely risen per capita in the past decade."The impact of aid on poverty reduction and sustainable development in the region is unclear, as is the impact on individual country capacity," the report stated. "What is clear is that the increased number of donors and activities over the last decade is making co-ordination more difficult."Australia...
from the New Zealand Herald By Greg AnsleyThe Asia Pacific region must prepare for at least one - and possibly more - megadisasters over the next 90 years, killing, injuring and displacing millions of people, a new study warns.Prepared by Geoscience Australia to help aid agencies plan for the future, the study concluded population growth and density made it inevitable earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes would cause casualties and damage on a scale never seen before.Most would strike developing countries, where 90 per cent of deaths from natural disasters between 1991 and 2005 occurred, and where disasters were increasing every year because of rapid population growth, urbanisation and climate change.The study said major, relatively infrequent disasters such as the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami...
from the Sydney Morning HeraldJonathan Pearlman Foreign Affairs CorrespondentAUSTRALIA'S 15 neighbours in the Pacific face daunting challenges to overcome alarming levels of poverty and some smaller states have uncertain futures, a report by AusAID says.The report, which looks at social and economic conditions in 14 countries in the Pacific plus East Timor, says the region faces serious challenges including rising sea levels, epidemics of malaria, diabetes and HIV and surging oil prices. But it says long-term growth is possible and areas such as transport and aviation have begun to improve."Many [of the countries] face growing health problems, increasing environmental threats (including climate change), high levels of joblessness and poverty, and population pressures," the report says....
from SIFYRaghu Dayal Home to 60 per cent of the world’s population, the Asia-Pacific region has 679 million people still living on less than a dollar per day. Asia accounts for over two-thirds of world’s people living in rural areas without access to clean water and sanitation, of underweight children and of tuberculosis patients. Although between 1990 and 2001 the absolute number of poor people declined from 931 million to 679 million, poverty continues to be endemic in the region. About half of the children in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal are undernourished.A vast majority of the Asian poor, in both urban and rural areas, face the basic access problem owing to deficiencies in transport. In recent years, ample empirical evidence of the positive impact of transport (rural...
from Habitat for Humanity Future housing needs defined by high urban growth in AP A Right to a Decent Home - Mapping Poverty Housing in the Asia-Pacific RegionBANGKOK, February 06, 2007 - Failure to address the real and growing housing needs of the rural and urban poor today, will have severe implications for those living in poverty in the next generation.Currently, 60 per cent of the world's slum areas are in the Asia-Pacific region, with most having little or no access to safe water, sanitation, or the most basic amenities. By 2030, another 1.3 billion people are expected to move to urban areas, almost all of whom will be poor. Those without home and hope will not only have a huge impact on economic stability, but will increasingly define both the housing needs as well as the political...