Devex has combed through Forbes’ list of 100 Most Powerful Women and highlighted those working in global development. The list includes the heads of UNDP, UNICEF, the IMF, the World Bank, the WHO and the UN World Food Programme.
- Source: Devex
Author Archives: Daniel Drake
Remembering the Fallen |
In her personal reflections on the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing,
“It’s an appropriate time, on this World Humanitarian Day, to take a minute to look at the faces of UN staff who have died because of their humanitarian work and to reflect on their service to others throughout the world,”
- Source: Un
Kristalina Georgieva: On World Humanitarian Day |
Kristalina Georgieva, the EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, reflects on the growing dangers facing aid workers, and on the need for greater humanitarian access.
“The conditions in which humanitarian workers operate are growing more dangerous every year.,” Georgieva writes. “Humanitarian emblems and flags which traditionally provided a shield for humanitarian workers are now turning them into targets.”
- Source: Europa
Lakhdar Brahimi will be new special envoy to Syria |
Nearly three weeks after Kofi Annan announced his resignation as UN/Arab League special envoy to Syria, his successor has been named.
Lakhdar Brahimi has previously served as a UN special envoy to Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and South Africa. He is a member of The Elders, a human rights advocacy group comprised of current and former world leaders.
- Source: Devex
VIDEO: The Price of Anything |
Duncan Green shares a series of short videos created by the Security Management Initiative in support of World Humanitarian Day.
- Source: Oxfamblogs
Congo’s Ebola outbreak probably not linked to Uganda, MSF says. |
A new strain of Ebola was confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo last Friday, less than three weeks after the virus reappeared in neighboring Uganda. A representative from Medecins Sans Frontieres told Reuters the two outbreaks are probably unrelated.
“We cannot speak of a direct link between the two epidemics, I think unfortunately it’s just pure coincidence,” the representative told Reuters.
One Isiro man has died and three others are believed to be infected.
- Source: Reuters
Ugandan President calls on citizens to help quell Ebola outbreak |
By Daniel Drake
Two more people have died and six others quarantined after an outbreak of Ebola was confirmed in western Uganda this weekend.
In a state broadcast yesterday, President Yoweri Museveni called on Ugandans to help stomp out the outbreak by avoiding physical contact and reporting symptoms quickly.
“I appeal to you to first of all report all cases which appear to be like Ebola, and these are high fever, vomiting, sometimes diarrhoea, and with bleeding,” Museveni added. “When you handle this case well you can eliminate Ebola quickly.”
Government officials confirmed the outbreak at a press conference Saturday, causing some patients to flee Kagadi Hospital where victims are being treated. At the conference, officials confirmed 20 infections and 14 deaths.
President Yoweri Museveni, speaking at the London Summit on Family Planning on July 11, 2012. Photo via DFID - UK Department for International Development on Flickr.
The virus appeared a month ago in the Kibaale district—105 miles west of the capital—but was initially misdiagnosed because it didn’t trigger the usual symptoms.
Officials are now trying to contain the outbreak and keep it away from the nation’s capital Kampala. One death has already been confirmed within the city—a health worker who is believed to have traveled there independently from the Kibaale district after her three-month old child died.
“So far no infections have occurred,” a WHO spokesperson told the Associated Press.
There is no treatment or vaccine against Ebola, which is transmitted between both humans and non-human primates through close physical contact. The virus causes hemorrhagic fever, which kills the majority of its victims. Health care workers have frequently been infected while treating Ebola patients. (Reuters)
Officials are containing the outbreak by isolating anyone suspected of infection and asking them who they were in contact with recently—a technique known as “contact tracking.” (NPR)
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