Hillary Clinton announced a $600 million plan to encourage enrolment of girls at secondary schools worldwide, in the face of security and access problems in the developing world. “We know when girls have equal access to quality education in both primary and secondary schools, cycles of poverty are broken, economies grow, glass ceilings crack and potential is unleashed,” Clinton said.” (Guardian http://bit.ly/1viECFf)
1 million under Ebola quarantine…Sierra Leone announced it will seal off three districts to stem the spread of Ebola. “There is a desperate need to step up our response to this dreaded disease,” the Sierra Leone government said. “The prognosis is that without additional interventions or changes in community behavior, the numbers will increase exponentially and the situation will rapidly deteriorate.” (AP http://yhoo.it/1viJcDt)
Cameron wants to tackle global corruption…The British PM called on world leaders to take on global poverty as a part of 10 “simple and inspiring” global goals to end extreme poverty. “Why in too many cases does aid not get through to the people who need it the most? The answer: corruption. Why do so many countries with massive mineral wealth have rich elites and large numbers in grinding poverty? Corruption,” he said. “So don’t let anyone keep corruption out of how we tackle poverty.” (TRF http://yhoo.it/1rwfASW)
A new report highlights strategies to end child marriage, a harmful practice that turns millions of young girls worldwide into child brides. (VOA http://bit.ly/1rwfJpt)
- Africa
- The World Bank on Thursday announced it would give another $170 million to help West African countries contain the spread of the Ebola virus, nearly doubling its total contributions to fight an epidemic that has killed nearly 3,000 people. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1vipY0P)
The spread of Ebola seems to have stabilised in Guinea, one of three West African states worst-hit by the disease, but a lack of beds and resistance in affected communities means its advance continues elsewhere, the WHO said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1vipZ4I)
The US State Department named Nancy Powell, the former U.S. ambassador to India, to coordinate Washington’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. (Reuters http://bit.ly/ZRO0ou)
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan told the United Nations General Assembly that authorities were still working to free some 200 girls abducted from a school by Boko Haram militants in April. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1vipQhP)
South Sudan’s Agriculture Minister Beda Machar said that the international aid effort and the onset of the rainy season have helped to avert famine in South Sudan this year. But, he warned, if fighting continues, food security will be weakened again and more than 2.5 million people could face alarming levels of hunger at the beginning of next year. (VOA http://bit.ly/ZS2zIM)
The International Committee of the Red Cross says millions of people in Africa who are facing violence, hunger and displacement are in desperate need of assistance. The humanitarian group is appealing to the international community for more help. (VOA http://bit.ly/1rwfOtr)
Authorities in Malawi are stepping up efforts to crack down on criminal syndicates that are aiding influx of illegal immigrants from Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. (VOA http://bit.ly/1viDmSq)
China said on Thursday it will send 700 troops to join a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, where fighting has threatened Beijing’s oil investments. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1viKlLj)
Africa is paying the price of low productivity because of limited use of commercial fertilisers by smallholder farmers who produce the bulk of the continent’s food. (IPS http://bit.ly/1vipis2)
Norway will give Liberia up to $150 million over the next six years to fund protective measures aimed at stamping out illegal logging in its agricultural sector, which some scientists believe may have contributed to the worst Ebola outbreak in history. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1rwfRW6)
- MENA
- UNICEF welcomed the $347 million in new funding commitments to the “No Lost Generation Initiative, aimed at supporting children in Syria. (IPS http://bit.ly/ZRUPq5)
Cypriot authorities on Thursday rescued hundreds of migrants, most of them women and children, after their boat hit rough seas off the coast of the eastern Mediterranean island. (Reuters http://bit.ly/ZRNUx8)
The Gaza ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians included stipulations that the Palestinian Authority should take over civil administration in Gaza from Hamas. (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/1viAOUr)
More than 1 million Iraqis are now receiving emergency food aid, the World Food Program announced this week. (TRF http://yhoo.it/1rweYgc)
The UN Human Rights Council has voted overwhelmingly to share its evidence of Syrian atrocities in hopes it will be forwarded to the world’s war crimes tribunal. (AP http://yhoo.it/1rwfryO)
- Asia
- Employment opportunities for women in Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are limited, due to a prevailing cultural attitude of male dominance. (IPS http://bit.ly/ZRVeZB)
The United Nations said Myanmar’s military has released 109 children from its ranks, the largest such release since the government agreed two years ago to stop using child soldiers. (VOA http://bit.ly/ZS1VuG)
Greenpeace India has lauded a landmark ruling by the country’s top court to scrap 214 coal blocks given by the government to various companies after the allocations were deemed to be illegal and arbitrary. (TRF http://yhoo.it/Yek9Fz)
- The Americas
- A new report issued by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean analyzed the gaps in the fulfilment of rights of indigenous peoples in the region. Although a number of improvements have taken place in the past decade, regarding for example access to health, education and political rights, these groups still lag behind in the full enjoyment of their rights. (IPS http://bit.ly/1viwlBh)
Brazil and Ecuador came out against airstrikes in Syria. This is the latest pushback by South American countries against foreign adventures carried out by the White House and/or its allies — but one that’s slightly harder to decode than previous disputes. (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/ZRWqMF)
- Opinion/Blogs
- What about a health systems development goal for Post-2015? (Humanosphere http://bit.ly/Yd0ohy)
Delivering on the Promises of the Global Partnership for Development (IPS http://bit.ly/ZRU3t8)
Changing the calculus of South Sudan’s deadly conflict (Enough Project http://bit.ly/1viyEnE)
How a Nigerian Billy Graham is helping cover up a South African tragedy (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/1vizHEl)
Climate change protests: how do we turn placards into policy? (Guardian http://bit.ly/ZRYrZ7)
Twelve Million People Worldwide Are Stateless, and Gender Discrimination Is Making the Situation Worse (CGD http://bit.ly/1viBPvN)
Is Nigeria Turning the Tide Against Boko Haram? (VOA http://bit.ly/ZS34SY)
A New Donor Code of Conduct (Stanford Social Innovation Review http://bit.ly/1DzoML6)
The Global Impact of Social Enterprise Is Overrated (Businessweek http://buswk.co/1v4Zsc4)
The sexual threats against Emma Watson are an attack on every woman (Vox http://bit.ly/1v4ZwZa)
