PHILIPPINES: New conviction boosts fight against human trafficking via IRIN
MANILA, 2 December 2008 (IRIN) - A recent court ruling has given fresh impetus to the battle against human...
Technology and innovation: toward a global deal via ChinaDialogue Latest Articles
As countries meet in Poland to discuss the future of the climate, the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies will be a key issue. Pelin Zorlu and Shane Tomlinson report.
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides compelling evidence that human-induced climate change is already underway, posing serious risks and requiring an urgent global response. Stabilising global temperature increase below 2° Celsius, the report says, requires about 85% reduction of global carbon dioxide (CO2)emissions below 2000 levels by 2050. In addition, emissions will need to peak in the next 10 to 15 years and then decline. Achieving such rates of reductions will involve a rapid increase in the development and...
EU agrees to cut car emissions in climate fight via Business & Sustainable Development News
European carmakers must cut global-warming gases from new vehicles by 18 percent within the next six years, the EU agreed on Monday, after a long battle between environmentalists and an industry facing tough...
ISRAEL-OPT: Power cuts, fuel shortages affect health and water supplies via IRIN
WEST BANK/GAZA, 2 December 2008 (IRIN) - Adel Abu Sido, 31, a taxi driver from Gaza City, stands over his two-week old premature baby, Hadil, dreading her air supply may abruptly...
Brazil plans to cut deforestation by 70 pct over 10 years via Business & Sustainable Development News
The Brazilian government on Monday unveiled a plan to cut the deforestation of the Amazon by 70 percent over the next...
POVERTY-ZIMBABWE: Gardening Lifeline for Urban Women via IPS Inter Press Service - Millennium Development Goals
BULAWAYO, Dec 2 (IPS) - Growing and selling vegetables has become a
lifeline for 41-year-old Mavis Dube at a time when millions of
Zimbabweans face increasing poverty and hunger after years of
debilitating economic...
AFGHANISTAN: Drought, poverty lead children to abandon school via IRIN
CHEMTAL, 2 December 2008 (IRIN) - Eight-year-old Ahmad Shafi and his younger brother spend many hours a day fetching drinking water for their family in the drought-stricken Chemtal District of Balkh Province, northern Afghanistan. They have been unable to attend school as a...
China Advised To Follow Hybrid Route via Business & Sustainable Development News
China's Ministry of Science and Technology is veering away from its previous preference for clean diesel as an alternative fuel of choice and is moving towards hybrids, according to Automotive News. An advisor to the ministry claims that Minister Wan Gang is 'very much in favour of hybrid technology', as it provides a stepping stone to the use of all-electric cars. This is considered a more long-term alternative to petrol in...
Financing climate change adaptation won’t break the bank: new report via Oxfam Australia latest news
GLOBAL: Foundations stand by aid commitments so far via IRIN
NEW YORK , 2 December 2008 (IRIN) - The Starr Foundation, set up in 1955 by US insurance entrepreneur Cornelius Vander Starr, donated US$124 million and approved a further $194 million for its beneficiaries in...
A Technology Driven Spectrum Policy via DDN Blogs
Hello readers, my name is Benjamin Lennett, and I work with Sascha at the New America Foundation's Wireless Future Program as well as contribute to the foundation's Open Technology Initiative (OTI).
Last week, OTI, along with Iarla Flynn, European Policy Manager for Google, submitted a filing to Ireland's Spectrum Policy Consultation . The document, A Technology Driven Spectrum Policy, lays out a new vision for Ireland's Spectrum Policy in the 21st Century. The document focuses on encouraging unlicensed access and cognitive radio technology to promote a more efficient, flexible, open, and inclusive approach to spectrum management.
The following is a summary of the filing:
A Unique Opportunity for Ireland
Ireland is in a unique and enviable position. Its geographic locations and...
The Web's Benevolent Dictators via DDN Blogs
Jeffrey Rosen has a great article in the New York Times Magazine this weekend titled Google's Gatekeepers. In it he deals with the question of whether we are becoming too overly dependent on a few big web companies like Google - and whether it's wise over the long run for us to trust their team of (currently) very nice, well-meaning people who are trying hard to do the right thing when faced with government censorship demands and surveillance pressures. He writes:Today the Web might seem like a free-speech panacea: it has given anyone with Internet access the potential to reach a global audience. But though technology enthusiasts often celebrate the raucous explosion of Web speech, there is less focus on how the Internet is actually regulated, and by whom. As more and more speech migrates...
Essential medicines out of reach for most people via WHO news
1 December 2008 -- An alarming lack of availability of essential medicines in the public sector drives patients to pay higher prices in the private sector or go without, according to a WHO study reported in today’s online edition of The...
Have low-income producers benefited from Burley tobacco production liberalisation? via
This paper carries out an assessment of the impact of tobacco production liberalisation on smallholders in Malawi. It shows which smallholders began producing...
Despite the politicisation of HIV, analysis of the political determinants of HIV policy formulation and implementation is limited via
HIV has always been highly politicised, and in many contexts politics, ideology and ignorance have proven more influential on policy than epidemiology...
The Brazilian National AIDS Program is widely recognised as the leading example of an integrated HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment programme in a developing country via
This article, published in the American Journal of Public Health, critically analyses the Brazilian National AIDS Program (NAP) programme, which is a...
UN Resolution 1325: protecting and empowering women during armed conflict via
This UN resolution relates to the protection of women and girls during armed conflict; and the promotion of a gender perspective during...
A bold solution to financing for development via
Global problems require bold solutions and the Currency Transaction Tax (CTT) is one such idea. It proposes a small levy on foreign exchange transactions...
How does climate change affect children in Nepal? via
In 2008 Children in a Changing Climate's research programme worked with ActionAid Nepal, and its partner organisations, to help poor children in...
I’m pretty sure that’s not true via Our Word is Our Weapon
Elizabeth Colman in the Times:
The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has scrutinised all tax reforms in Labour’s budgets — and concluded its changes have left the average family where both parents work £1,283 a year immediately worse off than in 1997.
That’s only looking at the effects of taxes and benefits, isn’t it? Factor in wage increases under Labour and households are considerably better off than they were in 1997....
Nepal: Celebrities and people living with HIV/AIDS team up to raise awareness via UNICEF News
KATHMANDU, Nepal, 1 December 2008 – On World AIDS Day, the national sports stadium of Nepal was filled with messages about the disease. The theme was "Team Up to Fight AIDS" and the aim was to reduce the stigma and discrimination experienced by those living with HIV and AIDS....
World AIDS Day 2008: FC Barcelona support for ‘Children and AIDS’ via UNICEF News
NEW YORK, USA 1 December 2008 – In celebration of World AIDS Day, Football Club Barcelona participated as UNICEF's guest of honour at the presentation of its newly-released report 'Children and AIDS: Third Stocktaking Report, 2008' at the United Nations today....
Malawi: Early infant HIV diagnosis helps save lives via UNICEF News
LILONGWE, Malawi, 1 December 2008 – With a prick in the heel of her tiny foot, six-week-old Daudi is the having a test to see if she, like her mother,is living with theHIV virus....
DEVELOPMENT-LATAM: The Greater the Solidarity, the Lower the Cost via IPS Inter Press Service - Millennium Development Goals
MEDELLÍN, Colombia, Dec 1 (IPS) - Football in Belize does not aim for international
achievements, but that does not matter to the environmental group
that uses the sport to recruit children and young people to fight
for the protection of local biodiversity under...
Co-Op Health Insurance via World Vision Radio
The vast majority of people in Africa have no health insurance. If a major illness occurs, families have to beg relatives, friends, and neighbors to cover the expense. Jordan Davis reports from Dakar, Senegal on a program that provides micro-insurance to families for $2.50 a month. The stripped-down version of an American HMO is providing families in Senegal with some peace of...
Sunshine Haven via World Vision Radio
Sunshine Haven is a hospice in Brownsville, Texas that accepts patients within six months of dying, regardless of their financial status. Homeless and illegal immigrants often find their way there. Sunshine's founder says she doesn’t care if they’re legal or not -- they’re still entitled to dignity and loving care in their last moments on earth. Will Everett...
Migration Photos via World Vision Radio
The Rockefeller Foundation funded a project in the small village of Monte Blanco, Mexico where nine women were asked to photograph images of migration. Their photos often reflect images of loss: old people or children sitting alone; discarded toys; empty streets. Even family gatherings have no young people in them, because 30% of the population -- mostly young men and women -- have left the village in search of work in the U.S. or the cities of northern Mexico. Conrad Fox reports that one of the photographers now wants to become a journalist, but that means migrating to northern Mexico or the U.S. to earn enough money to go to...
Western Union via World Vision Radio
When telegrams became a piece of history, Western Union almost went out of business. The company saved itself by becoming the world’s largest money transfer system, now worth billions. New York Times reporter Jason DeParle talks with host Peggy Wehmeyer about the transformation of Western Union, which has more offices around the world than McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, and Burger King...
Tamale Maker via World Vision Radio
In this week's "What's Cooking?" segment, reporter Amelia de Sousa (formerly Shaw) takes us into the kitchen of Melitza Deleon, a cooking instructor in Antigua, Guatemala who teaches the preparation of Mayan recipes that have survived for thousands of...
Guerilla Tours via World Vision Radio
A trek in Aceh, Indonesia takes visitors to jungle hideouts used by rebel soldiers (now working as tour guides) during Indonesia’s almost three-decade long civil war. Reporter Chad Bouchard hacks his way through the jungle to give us a taste of a most unusual tourist...