OXFORD, Sept. 11, 2017 -Stefan Dercon is Chief Economist at DFID, Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University and co-author, with Daniel Clarke, of “Dull Disasters: how planning ahead will make a difference”, published in 2016 by Oxford University Press Hurricanes and an earthquake have caused havoc across the Caribbean […]
IRIN News
Posted inWorld
A country ‘on its knees’: Cholera takes hold in war-weary Yemen
May 17, 2017 – Hilal al-Asri brought his wife to a hospital in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, nearly two weeks ago, expecting her cholera would be cleared up quickly and they’d be on their way. Today, three of his five children share a bed next to hers, all of them hooked up to fluid drips in […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Climate change glossary – understanding global warming from A to Z
Feb. 27, 2017 – Even as we shake our heads over the changing weather, or moan about the fumes belched from the vehicles in our cities, climate change still feels a distant problem. That’s partly because the solution seems to lie with governments and industries, and partly because journalists struggle to engage with the public […]
Posted inWorld
Shattered war economy encourages child marriage in Yemen
TAIZ, Feb. 16, 2017 – It’s impossible to get hard numbers, but child marriage appears to be on the rise in Yemen: a consequence of the extreme poverty caused by nearly two years of devastating war in what was already one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. Parents are becoming increasingly […]
Posted inWorld
Analysis: Climate change and mass migration: a growing threat to global security
DHAKA, Jan. 19, 2017 – When international leaders met in the Bangladeshi capital last month for ongoing discussions about a new global migration policy, they glossed over what experts say will soon become a massive driver of migration: climate change. “The international system is in a state of denial,” said A.N.M. Muniruzzaman, a retired major-general who […]
Posted inUS
“Sanctuary cities” get ready to resist Trump deportations
CHICAGO, Jan. 17, 2017 – The phones haven’t stopped ringing at The Resurrection Project since 8 November, when Donald J. Trump was elected the next president of the United States. “People are just terrified,” says Erendira Rendon, national projects director for this community-based organisation in Pilsen, a lively, majority-Hispanic neighbourhood on Chicago’s Lower West Side. […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Lou del Bello: Climate action gathering shakes off the Trump effect
MARRAKECH, Nov. 21, 2016 – Lou del Bello is a Freelance journalist and regular IRIN contributor If last year’s climate talks in Paris saw UN member states designing a (climate-friendly) engine, this year in Marrakesh they have been tinkering with it, figuring out how to bring it up to speed. Despite the setback of the […]
Posted inWorld
Time to get tough on human trafficking and sex slavery
NEW YORK, NY, Sept. 12, 2016 – After Amira’s husband was killed in the Syrian war, she found herself adrift in Lebanon. Barred from working and with two young children to feed, she resorted to marrying off her nine-year-old daughter and putting her 12-year-old son to work. Amira is not a real person but her […]
Posted inWorld
Troubled waters: The Mediterranean is becoming even more deadly for migrants
MISRATA, CATANIA, Aug. 29, 2016 – Kristy is IRIN Migration Editor. Tom is a freelance journalist based in Libya and a regular IRIN contributor “I was very scared in the sea. The boat was overcrowded. I could barely move. I was afraid of dying, but even more afraid of being caught by the Libyan police.” Ali*, a […]
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If evicting people were an Olympic event, Brazil would win gold
August 2, 2016 – Rumour has it that Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen will be robbed during the opening ceremony for Rio 2016. It will, of course, only be an act. But on Saturday night, as a predicted global audience of 900 million tunes in for all the razzmatazz, spare a thought for the many residents […]