27/06/11

‘UK government must act now to end child marriage’ - charity

ONE girl is married off every three-and-a-half seconds worldwide, a new report reveals.

They face early pregnancy, being pulled out of school and serious health complications including HIV.

The Breaking Vows study by charity Plan UK states ten million under-18s marry every year – one in seven under-15s in the world’s poorest countries.

While acknowledging Britain’s role in tackling early and forced marriage internationally, Plan is calling on the UK government to do more.

Mitchell: Britain to lead more effective response to humanitarian disasters

International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, today laid out how the Government will improve the way it responds to man-made and natural disasters to provide more effective help to people devastated by earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and war.

The new proposals follow Lord Ashdown’s review of the UK’s humanitarian emergency response and include:

Better prepared countries

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand maintained most of its international partnerships in 2010, despite a difficult financial year.

More than 250 migrants are feared dead after a boat carrying some 300 people sank in the early hours of the morning, some 40 miles off the island of Lampedusa.

Forty seven survivors were rescued at sea by the Italian Coast Guard and three by a local Italian fishing boat.

The vessel, which was laden beyond capacity, had left the Libyan coast with migrants and asylum seekers from Somalia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and Sudan. Some 40 women and 5 children were on board. Only two women survived the shipwreck.

- Full Report 1: IOM Infographics Support to Egypt

- Full Report 2: IOM Statistics on Operations in Egypt

1. The Multilateral Aid Review was commissioned to assess the value for money for UK aid of funding through multilateral organisations. Forty-three organisations were assessed. Nine were deemed to offer very good value for money, sixteen to offer good value for money, nine to offer adequate value for money, and nine to offer poor value for money for UK aid.

2. The organisations covered by the review ranged from multilateral development banks to UN specialised agencies, and from development finance institutions to humanitarian organisations.

Economic and Social Council
2010 Substantive Session
35th & 36th Meetings (AM & PM)

Expressing grave concern at the increasing number of people affected by humanitarian emergencies, including those associated with natural hazards, the Economic and Social Council today pressed the United Nations, on one hand, to strengthen humanitarian capacities by transferring technology and expertise to developing nations, and urged Member States to develop disaster preparedness and risk reduction measures, on the other.

The Council wrapped up its humanitarian

The Natural Disaster Risk Index (NDRI) released on 27 May by Maplecroft, ranks 229 countries according to the human impact of natural disasters in terms of deaths per annum and per million of population, plus the frequency of events as well as the likelihood of earthquakes,

"What happens when you have overpopulation, over-consumption and lack of resources colliding and displacing millions of people from their homes?"

This is the central question driving the documentary "Climate Refugees," as summarized by director Michael Nash. "Climate Refugees" was screened last Thursday at the British Embassy as part of a Refugees International event

In the making of the film, Nash and his team spent eighteen months traveling the world to document the plight of