I attended a presentation on Capitol Hill yesterday on the Millennium Villages Project, which is an experiment in international development championed by the economist Jeffrey Sachs. The idea was basically this: provide across the board health, education, economic development, and infrastructure support to 14 rural villages in Africa and see if that holistic approach can improve the villages' progress on the eight Millennium Development Goals. If it works, the plan is to scale up this kind of approach--possibly on a natio
Heads of state, ministers and other dignitaries are assembling in Toronto and Huntsville, in the province of Ontario, for the G8/G20 summit. While Canada has hosted several G8 meetings in the past decades (the last one in 2002, under the leadership of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien), this year’s iteration of the political summit, with its inclusion of the G20 countries, is a first for the host country. In the lead up to the meetings, the government of Canada has had to contend with much criticism, both on the organizational side and some of the policy dimensions of the summit.
About 85% of the world's heroin comes from poppy cultivated in Afghanistan--a near global monopoly. In turn, about 80% of Afghan-poppy derived heroin travels along a similar route to western Europe.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime calls this the "Balkan Route." It flows from Afghanistan to Iran to Turkey to the Balkans, where it gets slit up to various destinations in Western Europe. (Lower set of purple arrows, below).
As I mentioned earlier, this is the summer of the MDGs. In the latest of such develepments, Ban Ki Moon appointed an outside panel of government officials and civic leaders as part of an advocacy group in support of the Millennium Development Goals. The panel is co-chaired by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Spainish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Nobel laureates Mohammad Yunus and Wangari Maathai, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, (Nelson Mandela's wife) Graca Machel, Bill Gates and Ted Turner will also serve on the panel. Not a bad collect
Miller-McCune magazine just published a nice article about the changing global role of HIV funding. There is nothing new or radical in the article, but they’ve pulled together a lot of information in a useful, readable way. It’s well worth reading if you’re unfamiliar with the saga of AIDS funding or want a refresher that’s full of vivid imagery.
An estimated 342,000 to 550,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth each year and 3.7 million children die in infancy. Many of these deaths are entirely preventable and today, international health and technology groups announced a wide ranging collaboration to harness the power of information and communications technologies to fight this terrible scourge.
In September, world leaders will meet at the UN for a summit to discuss strategies for achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015. In the meantime, the UN is kicking into high gear with a number of events, reports and behind-the-scenes politiking over the MDGs.
Since June 11, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have fled their homes in Kyrgyzstan, escaping violent clashes between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks which broke out in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh. An estimated 100,000 people - 90% of them women and children - have sought refuge in neighboring Uzbekistan, and authorities estimate that an additional 300,000 people have been internally displaced.
If watching the world games are too stressful for you, UNICEF has a handy alternative. They’re tracking the world cup and competing the countries in the tournament according to their progress on the Millennium Development Goals. Today’s match-up was England vs. Slovenia. While England is the clear MDG winner, it’s not the total rout you might expect.