The San Francisco Chronicle ran an editorial yesterday by three leading global health experts, calling for the US and other wealthy countries to immediately donate ten percent of their H1N1 vaccine stocks. This isn’t as radical as it sounds – the sticking point is the time frame, not the quantity. The US has already committed to donating ten percent of its swine flu vaccines to low income countries.
Human Rights is back in the news. On Monday, Hillary Clinton delivered a long speech on the topic at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
When a disaster strikes somewhere in the developing world, the UN Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) generally issues an appeal for donations to assist in recovery and clean-up. Sometimes, the disaster makes global headlines and funds come pouring in (think: the 2004 Tsunami). Sometimes, though, disaster can unfold slowly, like drought in the Sahel. And sometimes, the disaster occurs in a country whose leadership has generally hostile relations with donor countries (e.g., Zimbabwe).
A new draft negotiating text is circulating in Copenhagen. With less than four days left, the negotiators are still far apart on key issues including emissions targets and climate aid to developing nations. China and the U.S. remain locked in a dispute over international monitoring of emissions. China offered to cut its emissions, but it is refusing any kind of international monitoring to verify its cooperation.
GlobalPost reported recently on a new Office of the Inspector General review of Afghanistan. USAID takes heavy criticism in the document for poor management of large contracts, and GlobalPost brings in a range of Afghanistan and aid experts to comment on the report.
On World Malaria Day last spring, the late Ken Bacon wrote movingly about the deadly nexus between refugees and malaria, and about how insecticide treated bed nets can dramatically reduce malaria deaths.
Human Rights Watch released a chilling report about alleged abuses committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by both rebel militias and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC).
The international climate talks in Copenhagen went on life support this morning when representatives of developing nations staged a temporary boycott of the conference, but leaders worked quickly to resuscitate the negotiations.
The dispute once again centered on dissatisfaction among developing countries with the way the world's major economies were handling the negotiating process -- particularly the threat that they might scrap the Kyoto Protocol, which imposes carbon emissions limits on wealthy nations while exempting poorer ones.