Nepal children in jeopardy, World Bank criticised, and praise for the Philippines
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Version 0 of 1. Six months after an earthquake devastated Nepal, the emotional and financial repercussions for survivors continue. There is fear of a surge in child trafficking as struggling families are left vulnerable. According to estimates, between 12,000 and 15,000 girls are trafficked from Nepal each year, with the majority ending up in Indian brothels. Many others are trafficked to orphanages in Kathmandu. Global development correspondent Sam Jones reports from Sindhupalchowk. The World Bank’s approach to human rights is disingenuous, outdated and “deeply troubling”, according to Professor Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. Alston said the Bank’s view that development financing can be kept separate from human rights was troubling. Read what he had to say, complete with the World Bank’s response. And the UN has hailed the Philippines’ rapid response to Typhoon Koppu. The death toll has risen to more than 50, but aid agencies say the country saved lives thanks to applying the lessons learned from super typhoon Haiyan, which struck in November 2013. Elsewhere on the site Opinion Is it possible to achieve peace without justice? Will Bennett and Thomas Wheeler, conflict and security advisers at Saferworld, argue that the two are inextricably linked. “Separating peacebuilding from the promotion of justice undermines both,” they write. In response to Oscar Pistorius’ move into house arrest after serving 11 months of his sentence for shooting and killing his partner Reeva Steenkamp, Womankind Worldwide’s Bethan Cansfield reminds us the case is only unusual in the profile of the perpetrator. “Behind every statistic are individual women and girls whose names and stories will never be mentioned by the media or spark a public outcry,” she writes. Multimedia Gallery: Daredevil doctors: medical care on the humanitarian frontline Gallery: Boom town: Abidjan flourishing as Ivory Coast heads to polls Gallery: Syrian refugees living in darkness in a derelict factory in Lebanon Interactive: Portraits of lives in flux: Nick Danziger journey across four continents Take part As discussions on the sustainable development goals move to how they will be implemented, how will wealthy countries take them on board? If you’re a student, we’d like to hear your views on the role rich nations should play in delivering the goals. Submit a response of up to 250 words and we’ll publish the best. Read more about the challenge and how you can contribute. What you said On the piece Tanzania sugar project leaves bitter taste for farmers caught up in land disputes, rojorojo wrote: Can’t agree more. Africa’s agriculture has hardly moved from the age of the wooden ploughs. Innovations, mechanisation, improved farming methods, irrigation and so on which have changed global agricultural output virtually everywhere else, seem to have bypassed most of sub-Saharan Africa. Instead of embracing new technology, which today can be tailored to be least harmful to the environment while increasing productivity by a sizeable factor, the continent seems paralysed by all sorts of negative fears. Instead we get conference after conference, report after report on the long-awaited African green revolution while whole swathes of land turn brown and useless through desertification. The only real progress in output and therefore incomes and quality of life for smallholders has come from private firms who are putting their money where their mouths are and instead of talking endlessly about ‘modernising’ agriculture in Africa, are actually doing so. Highlight from the blogosphere International institute for environment and development: Climate negotiations—the last stop before Paris And finally … Poverty matters will return in two weeks with another roundup of the latest news and comment. In the meantime, keep up to date on the Global Development website. Follow @gdndevelopment and the team – @swajones, @LizFordGuardian, @MarkC_Anderson and @CarlaOkai – on Twitter, and join Guardian Global Development on Facebook. |