The UN Refugee Agency's most famous spokesperson asks the international community to do more to help in Pakistan. Angelina Jolie says, "this is not just a humanitarian crisis.
Middle East: the SG condemned the killing of four Israelis today in the West Bank, calling it a “cynical and blatant attempt to undermine the direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations starting tomorrow”.
When a disaster like the Pakistan floods strike, one of the most urgent priorities is making sure that all of the aid agencies responding to the disaster can coordinate their relief activities on the ground. At the most basic level, this means that they have to be able to talk to call each other and send emails. The problem is, disasters can easily wipe out the means of communication.
Crowdsourcing continues to gain attention and resources. Channel 16, a new effort from a coalition of NGOs, aims to be a fully crowdsourced multimedia resource on humanitarian disasters. It will include photos, video, and personal accounts, and serve as a rapid response news source with links to how people can help in a humanitarian emergency. You can see the Pakistan page here.
Scidev.net has posted an interesting piece of analysis on African funding for science and research. They note that increasingly, African governments are replacing international aid to science with their own domestic funding. It’s a good trend – if it’s for real – and if governments maintain their funding levels.