Health and Development

In the  1990s, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda was seen as a new breed of African leadership, Utilizing wide-reaching and candid health education programs, HIV/AIDS cases among adult Ugandans dropped from an estimated 15 percent in 1992 to roughly 6 percent by 2004. Yet in the same year, Museveni did a public about-face, declaring war on condom use and promotion. Billboards advertising condoms were replaced by messages celebrating virginity. Condom ads disappeared from radio, and the country's leading condom brand was recalled amid claims of defects.In her first report for FRONTLINE/World in 2007 Wahington D.C based-filmaker Daniele Anastasion chronicled the condom controversy

and the debate over abstinence in the eleviation of HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

View this story and video clip

Environment & Development

In 2007 Annie Leonard created a video entitled "The Story of Stuff".  She wrote and narrated the short video  around the concept of planned obsolescence,-the idea that our electronics are being designed for the dump”–that is, to be cheaply replaceable as quickly as possible. The video makes a point that these cheap electronics come with hidden costs–to factory workers, people in unsafe electronics recycling facilities, and to the environment. The short video created waves of discussion about the environment and consumption in classrooms, homes, and workplaces around the country.

To view the video and for more information about Annie Leonard's other videos visit: The Link

Gender & Development

Iran and Saudi Arabia Bid for Global Gender Policy Role

Iran and Saudi Arabia may get seats on the board of a new UN super-agency to promote women's rights, prompting outrage from human rights and women's activists.

Read Story. What will this mean for women's rights in the Middle East?
Picture: BBC News

Gender & Development

UNICEF reports sexual violence in the Congo Region

The long-running conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed hundreds of sexual violence victims in the past two months as women and girls continue to be prime targets of retaliation between rival militias along the country's porous borders, according to aid agencies. UNICEF, which compiled the case information over the past two months with help from aid agencies. The U.N. plans to send a special mission, comprised of representatives from a variety of aid agencies, to the area  to talk to community leaders, doctors and humanitarian organizations about the allegations.Read this story in more detail:

Picture: CNN.com

Health and Development &Environment and Development

Uganda's lush-"impentrable" forests, are know to hold the worlds largest population of mountain gorillas that are increasingly being impacted by environmental constraints as well as disease. In the mountains of western Uganda, tourists come to the dense forests in search of rare and exotic animals. What they don’t anticipate is coming in contact with some of the world’s rarest diseases. With the rise of HIV/AIDS in the last thirty years, the impact of zoonotic diseases has been a global concern. The rise of such diseases further calls for an evaluation in the interface between animals,the environment and the people who inhabit the environment.

Read this story and more at frontlinepbs.org http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/uganda901/video_index.html 

Environmnet and Development

In a new report by the  human rights team at the University of Texas School of Law, large foreign mining companies in the gold-rich nation of  Ghana regularly seize people's land, pollute the environment and violently suppress those who oppose them. According to the report, these large mining companies in Ghana's west often take land from farmers without fair compensation for loss of land and loss of crops, where as a majority of the compensation is paid to chiefs. Government undervalues a crop. In addition, compensation is also dependent on the crop of the land, thus for cash crops like cocoa, with long life span, landowners are compensated for a short period of time. Given the push of foreign investment in developing countries, some developing nations are willing to allow foreign companies to by-pass environmental regulations. Without adequate land policies and sufficient environmental regulations what are the long term impacts of foreign investment-relative to pertinent issues of development ?

To read more about this story visit: http://www.canadaeast.com/front/article/1284388
picture: gullu.net-http://gullucan.seesaa.net/article/142712235.html?googlesorgu=gold mines ghana gullu

Economics and Development

In the 1990s, economist Paul Romer revolutionized economics. In the aughts, he became rich as a software entrepreneur. Now he’s trying to help the poorest countries grow rich—by convincing them to establish foreign-run “charter cities” within their borders. Romer’s idea is unconventional, even neo-colonial—the best analogy is Britain’s historic lease of Hong Kong. Against all odds, he just might make it happen, but he is bent on cutting down an adversary almost as resistant: the conventional approach to development in poor countries. Rather than betting that aid dollars can beat poverty, Romer is peddling a radical vision: that dysfunctional nations can kick-start their own development by creating new cities with new rules." Is Romer's unconventional approach to economic development a viable one in years to come? What are your opinions?


To read this article in more detail visit
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-politically-incorrect-guide-to-ending-poverty/8134/
Picture Courtesy of Mark Ostow