Nurse treats cholera victims. Credit: IPS

NEW YORK, Sep 6 2017 (IPS) – A recent cholera outbreak in North-Eastern Nigeria has resulted in at least 186 suspected cases and 14 deaths as of Sep. 1, according to Borno State’s Ministry of Health.

The outbreak, which coincided with this year’s annual World Water Week, occurred in Muna Garage, a camp sheltering an estimated 44,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno state, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A rapid response to the outbreak by Borno State’s Ministry of Health, along with WHO and other humanitarian partners, is underway.

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The UN flag. Credit: Sriyantha Walpola/IPS

ROME, Nov 30 2017 (IPS) – While the top priority of any development strategy is still the same to leave no one behind the new challenges that have emerged show the need to adapt the actions necessary to face them.

This appears to be the key rationale behind the new 21 century development plan, which identifies six “signature solutions” against which the UN development agency will align its resources and expertise to make a real impact on poverty, governance, energy access, gender equality, resilience and environmental sustainability.

“This is a new plan for a new era,” said Achim Steiner, Administrator …

Elizabeth Campbell is Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees’ Representative Office in Washington, D.C.

Displaced children in a UN-run school in the Shujaiyeh neighbourhood of Gaza.Credit: Khaled Alashqar/IPS

WASHINGTON DC, Mar 9 2018 (IPS) – As people across the globe marked International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8, the safe and secure education and possibilities for the future of millions of young girls and women who are Palestinian refugees across the Middle East remained in danger.

Unfortunately, a recent decision by the United States to significantly reduce expected financial support to the (UNRWA), has put at …

In order to make access to water adequate and equitable, we must shift our focus from water sources to water resources. Both science, and community participation and cooperation, are key to addressing our water woes.

Photo Courtesy: ACWADAM

Jun 4 2018 (IPS) – A growing demand for water implies the need for an improved understanding of our resources, and the ability to manage that demand in an equitable and sustainable way.

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Ruth Romer is Private Sector Advisor, WaterAid UK

Credit: Abir Abdullah/WaterAid

LONDON, Aug 27 2018 (IPS) – Tea picker Bina, 45 from Sylhet, Bangladesh, used to walk for an hour each day to collect water from a well, also using water from a nearby stream, which was contaminated. Bina and her children were often sick as a result; leading to missed work and a loss of income.

WaterAid worked with the owner of the tea estate to introduce clean water and toilets in the tea gardens and surrounding areas. The new pumps and latrines have transformed Bina’s life, and have benefitted the estate to…

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 24 2019 (IPS) – The widespread innovations in modern digital technology have a devastating downside to it: the accumulation of over 50 million tonnes of electronics waste (e-waste) globally every year.

And that’s greater in weight than all of the world’s commercial airliners ever made, or enough Eiffel Towers to fill the borough of Manhattan in New York city, warns a new report released at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, January 24.

Currently only 20% of e-waste—including desktop computers, cell phones, laptops, television sets, printers and a wide variety of household electrical appliances is formally recycled.

If noth…

IPS correspondent Tharanga Yakupitiyage speaks to WHO’s Coordinator of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation DR. ANN LINDSTRAND on the challenges of immunisation and the way forward.

A young boy in Pakistan receives an oral polio vaccine (OPV). Over the last 30 years huge progress has been made against polio and it is now only endemic in 2 countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, with only 33 cases confirmed cases last year. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 2019 (IPS) – Since the introduction of vaccines, diseases such as measles and polio were quickly becoming a thing of the past. However, the world’s progress on immunisation is now being threatened.…

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Sep 12 2019 (IPS) – When I in 1980 first arrived in America it was a new world to me. I went from New York to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and like so many visitors and migrants before me I was overwhelmed by both familiar and strange impressions. Familiar due to books I had read and movies I had seen, strange since I encountered unexpected things and new because both I and several of those I met compared themselves to the “old world”, i.e. Euroasia and parts of Africa.

A sense of uniqueness, admiration for an assumed freshness and difference, can be discerned in the writing of several American writers. Particularly during the 19th centu…

Ann Kihii (25) spends time with other young women from poor communities in Nairobi and use embroidery to create images that tell a story about the daily challenges they face. They also get a chance to discuss the issues among themselves in a safe space. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi / IPS

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 14 2019 (IPS) – While women find it hard to talk about their painful experiences, some have found a way of expressing themselves through art. Women, trained as artists, from Nairobi’s informal settlements Kibera and Kangemi, have produced a beautiful quilt that tells stories about their daily challenges.

Displayed at the Pamoja Zone of ICPD25, the quilt is used to …

Sunday, Jan. 26, is World Leprosy Day, which is observed to raise awareness about the disease and those affected by it. IPS Senior Correspondent Stella Paul looks at how the disease is re-emerging as a global health challenge, particularly in countries like India, Brazil and Indonesia.

Sattamma, a daily labourer in the Rangareddy district of southern India’s Telangana state, says that even though she no longer has Hansen’s Disease, she remains discriminated against because of it. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

HYDERABAD, India , Jan 23 2020 (IPS) – Fifteen years ago, Sattamma – a daily labou…