IRIN News (Economy)
MALAWI: Rising prices and looming maize shortages
LILONGWE/JOHANNESBURG 09 February 2012 (IRIN) - Malawi’s maize-growing central and southern regions have not had good rains, prompting concerns about possible shortages of the staple in the coming months.
KENYA: "Gold mining beats school any day"
NYATIKE 09 February 2012 (IRIN) - At a waterlogged gold mine in western Kenya’s Migori District, 14-year-old Jacob*, one of 15,000 children toiling in the region’s pits, scours the water for glistering flakes, a job he says beats going to school on an empty stomach.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Leprosy fight still flagging
DIMBOKRO/TOUMODI 08 February 2012 (IRIN) - Côte d’Ivoire’s leprosy programme was consistently under-funded during the civil war (2002-2007) and last year’s political turmoil, say health practitioners, leading to a loss of expertise in terms of detecting or treating the disease.
UGANDA: Charcoal boom a bust for forests
GULU 07 February 2012 (IRIN) - Once a fortnight, Moses Sserwada travels from the capital, Kampala, to northern Uganda to pick up a truckload of charcoal destined for the popular Owino market in the city.
KENYA: Tackling underage sex work in Nyanza's gold mines
NYATIKE 07 February 2012 (IRIN) - Inside a smoky makeshift kiosk, Julie*, 16, can hardly cope with the demand from her clients for a cup of tea and a snack - the men are parched from their work as gold miners in the western Kenyan district of Nyatike.
SAHEL: Displaced Malians burden food-insecure hosts
BAMAKO/DAKAR 06 February 2012 (IRIN) - Some 12,000 Malians have fled fighting in the towns of Ménaka and Anderamboucane in northern Mali and reached already food-insecure villages around Tillabéri in western Niger, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Niger’s capital, Niamey.
HEALTH: Malaria mortality "underestimated"
LONDON 03 February 2012 (IRIN) - A new attempt to quantify malaria deaths over the past 30 years suggests the death toll, especially among adults, has been greatly underestimated. The figures also show the fragility of the gains made in fighting the disease.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Meningitis spreads as people scramble for vaccine
KORHOGO 02 February 2012 (IRIN) - Eleven people have died from meningitis out of 40 reported cases in four departments across Côte d’Ivoire as of 31 January, leaving people scrambling to access the vaccine for their families.
DRC: Alarm bells over poor funding for HIV treatment
NAIROBI/KINSHASA 02 February 2012 (IRIN) - The lives of thousands of HIV-positive people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are at risk as the country faces declining donor funding and a severe shortage of HIV treatment, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.
HIV/AIDS: Global Fund shake-up signals new direction
NAIROBI/JOHANNESBURG 02 February 2012 (IRIN) - The appointment of a new general manager, Gabriel Jaramillo, at the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis could be a "turning point" for the troubled organization, which has suffered from a funding crisis and allegations of corruption.
MADAGASCAR: The “less is more” philosophy of rice production
TALATA 31 January 2012 (IRIN) - Ernest Rakotoarivony, 45, was teased by some members of the Talata community, a small town 30km north of Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo, after breaking with traditional rice cultivation methods and employing a technique taught to him by a Jesuit priest.
Analysis: Where Afghan humanitarianism ends and development begins
KABUL 30 January 2012 (IRIN) - Afghanistan suffers from cyclical natural disasters - floods and drought - which affect people annually and require expensive emergency responses, but their impacts could well be avoided, or at least mitigated, if proper water management systems or dams were built, for example.
OPT: Boosting protection and tackling food insecurity
RAMALLAH 27 January 2012 (IRIN) - The humanitarian community’s 2012-2013 Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) has a narrower scope than in previous years, focusing on two strategic objectives: improving the protective environment, including access to essential services like health care and education, and tackling food insecurity especially in areas where the Palestinian Authority (PA) has limited access.
SLIDESHOW: Living on the edge in Kenya's Turkana region
NAIROBI 27 January 2012 (IRIN) - The 850,000 residents of northwestern Kenya's vast and parched Turkana region face some of the most inhospitable living conditions on Earth.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Authorities move to curb illegal gold-mining
TENGRELA 25 January 2012 (IRIN) - Local authorities across eight out of 81 districts in northern Côte d’Ivoire have announced they are banning artisanal gold-mining in a bid to try to regulate the informal industry, and stop the encroachment of gold-miners on precious farmland.
Analysis: Coping with climate change
JOHANNESBURG 25 January 2012 (IRIN) - In the past five years, “resilience” (the ability to absorb shocks and recover) has become quite a buzzword in the aid community. Discussions on adapting to a changing climate are increasingly peppered with the “need to build resilience” of people, infrastructure and governments in the face of shocks such as soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, severe storms and flooding.
Analysis: Agriculture in a changing environment
JOHANNESBURG 24 January 2012 (IRIN) - Agriculture has been seen either as a cause or victim of global warming at the UN climate change talks over the past few years - something that has thwarted efforts to attract the investment it needs, say scientists.
NIGERIA: Timeline of Boko Haram attacks and related violence
DAKAR 20 January 2012 (IRIN) - Bombings and shootings by the militant Islamic group Boko Haram - also known as Jama’atu Ahlus Sunnah Lid Da’awati Wal Jihad - have increased sharply in recent months, leaving many worried that wide-scale sectarian violence could break out. Some 80 people have been killed in Boko Haram (BH) attacks in recent weeks, while 500 are reported to have been killed over the past year. Tens of thousands of Nigerians have been forced to flee their homes.
GUINEA-BISSAU: Possibilities and pitfalls following president’s death
BISSAU 20 January 2012 (IRIN) - The death of Guinea-Bissau President Malam Bacai Sanha on 9 January from health complications could either perpetuate the instability that has long plagued the country, or provide an opportunity for political parties to negotiate a smooth, constitutional transfer of power which could in turn help shore up the country’s development, say analysts and diplomats.
SRI LANKA: Tea rich but nutrient poor
COLOMBO 20 January 2012 (IRIN) - Tea in Sri Lanka is one of the country's biggest cash crops, but families working on tea estates are among the nation's poorest in terms of earnings as well as nutrition, say experts who back regional approaches to tackle nutrition disparity.
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