Bush Orders $200 Million Drawdown

from Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- President Bush ordered the release of $200 million in emergency aid Monday to help nations where surging food prices have deepened hunger woes and sparked violent protests.
The move comes one day after the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, called on the international community to act urgently in helping needy people and "put our money where our mouth is." Haiti, Egypt and the Philippines are among the countries facing civil unrest because of food prices and shortages.
Mr. Bush directed Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer to draw down an estimated $200 million from a food reserve known as the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.


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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120820910078714123.html

Google Earth and its potential in the humanitarian sector: a briefing paper

from humanitarian.info

Until recently, the only way to assemble spatial data and produce situation maps in humanitarian emergencies was by using GIS software and specially trained personnel. Google Earth and its open data standard – KML -- now provide a way for humanitarian practitioners to view a variety of spatial data types, collected by themselves and others, using easily learned software. Practical applications of these methods in the field are discussed in this paper. Also, the potential of Google Earth as a tool for awareness and advocacy communications are explored.

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World Bank tackles food emergency

from BBC

The World Bank has announced emergency measures to tackle rising food prices around the world.

World Bank head Robert Zoellick warned that 100 million people in poor countries could be pushed deeper into poverty by spiralling prices.

The crisis has sparked recent food riots in several countries including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt.

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UNHCR and Google Earth unveil programme for humanitarian operations

from UNHCR

GENEVA, April 8 (UNHCR) – Representatives of the UN refugee agency and Google on Tuesday unveiled a powerful new online mapping programme that provides an up-close and multifaceted view of some of the world's major displacement crises and the humanitarian efforts aimed at helping the victims.

The "Google Earth Outreach" programme gives UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies the ability to use Google Earth and Maps to highlight their work on behalf of millions of refugees and other populations of concern in some of the world's most remote and difficult areas.

"It's absolutely fantastic. The potential for us and the potential to serve our interests and to serve the refugee interests round the world is quite substantial and we need now only seize the opportunity and move ahead with it," Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees L. Craig Johnstone told more than 250 staff and invited guests at a launch ceremony in the atrium of UNHCR's Geneva headquarters. "I think we will all be beneficiaries of it at the end of the day."


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Climate change will take heavy toll on human health – UN officials

from UN News Centre

Top United Nations officials have warned that global warming and its effects, including a rise in air and sea temperatures and extreme weather patterns, endanger not only the planet but also pose a major threat to human health.

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CrisisWatch N°56, 1 April 2008

from ICG

Eight actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated in March 2008, and four improved, according to the new issue of CrisisWatch released today.

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Talking to Terrorists

from humanitarian.info

There’s been frequent discussion here - and blogs like MobileActive, of course - about how cellphones can be used in humanitarian responses. It’s worth remembering, however, that technology is neutral - both “good guys” and “bad guys” use it (if you can be bothered with that way of looking at the world) - and that, in conflict situations, communications technology is seen as a legitimate target. So for all the talk of how empowering mobile technology is, we haven’t had much discussion about the other side of the coin.

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Climate change threatens development efforts of world’s poor – UN official

from UN News Centre

Climate change is among a host of new challenges that is making it increasingly difficult for the world’s poorest people to escape from poverty and hunger, the head of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said today.

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10 Stories the World Should Hear More About

Every year since 2004, the UN has published "10 Stories the World Should Hear More About," which addresses important world issues that have not been sufficiently covered by the media.

They don't reflect the UN's comprehensive agenda for the coming year, but they are all important topics with stories that have not been told. This year's stories include:

• Northern Uganda: Major steps towards peace in a decades-old conflict
• The Excluded: The hidden world of the stateless
• Extreme weather events are part of a “new normal” trend
• The suffering of the girl soldier
• At a fragile crossroads: Afghanistan and the international community must pull together
• A deadly disease no more– advances in malaria prevention and treatment
• Promotion and protection of human rights: the role of special procedures of the Human Rights Council
• Policing for peace: The law-and-order role played by blue berets
• Southern Sudan: a path to ‘indivisible peace’ in the country
• Bird flu pushed back – but threat of a human pandemic remains

Over one million people to sprint to fight hunger – UN

from UN News Centre

More than one million people will take part in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-backed World Harmony Run, the world’s longest global relay, which took a running start today in a bid to tackle hunger and poverty.

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Real change for world’s poor requires greater efforts by all, Migiro says

from UN News Centre

With the global scorecard for reaching the bold pledges world leaders made to halve poverty and other social ills by 2015 showing mixed progress among countries, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro today called for accelerated action to achieve real change for the world’s poor.

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US government sees overhaul of AIDS vaccine effort

from AlertNet

The U.S. government began a major overhaul of its effort to produce an AIDS vaccine on Tuesday, stressing a return to basic scientific research after the failure of a key clinical trial last year.

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UN-backed potato conference will help shape tomorrow’s tuber

from UN News Centre

With cereal prices soaring worldwide, an international conference opening today aims to tap the future food potential of the potato – which already produces more food on less land than maize, wheat or rice – as part of the United Nations International Year of the nutritious root.

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USAID reviewing food aid as costs soar

from IRIN

After a recent announcement that it will cut the amount of food aid it gives poor countries, the United States is likely to shift most of its focus to emergency needs, the American government agency responsible for humanitarian aid has hinted.

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DOTS strategy enhances success in TB treatment

from The Daily Star

Success rate has increased in the treatment of tuberculosis following the introduction of Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) strategy and it is now important to maintain this quality of treatment, said the speakers at a press conference yesterday.

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Iraqi crisis fuels rise in asylum seekers in industrialized world

from UNHCR via ReliefWeb

A five-year downward trend in asylum applications in industrialized countries was reversed in 2007, largely because of an increase in the number of Iraqi asylum seekers, according to provisional statistics compiled by the UN refugee agency.

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Rising food prices: Impact on the hungry

from WFP via ReliefWeb

Rising food prices, rooted in increased energy prices, competition between biofuels and food, rising demand from economic growth in countries such as China and India, and increasing climatic shocks such as droughts and floods are affecting millions of people - hitting hardest those living on the razor thin line of poverty.

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OIC and Islamic NGOs pledge support for humanitarian work

from OCHA via ReliefWeb

More than 60 Islamic non-governmental organisations gathered in Senegal this week met with leaders of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) who agreed that it would play a greater role in providing humanitarian assistance to Islamic countries.

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Peacekeeping grows yet international support uneven – UN officials

from UN News Centre

The international community’s often faltering support for United Nations peacekeeping operations was making it difficult to maintain gains in key conflict areas, even though the UN has greatly boosted its operations in this field, top officials of the Organization have warned.

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21 billion grains of rice generated by popular UN-backed Internet game

from UN News Centre

With between 300,000 and 500,000 people playing it daily, an Internet game that to date has generated 21 billion grains of rice for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is proving to be an online sensation.

Launched six months ago, freerice.com is an interactive vocabulary game in which players donate 20 grains of rice to WFP every time they answer a question correctly, allowing children to simultaneous bolster their vocabularies and help feed the world's hungry.

The money raised from advertising is used to underwrite FreeRice's donation to WFP, and so far, enough rice has been generated to feed 1.1 million hungry people for one day.

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Go to freerice.com