UNHCR is mandated to provide protection, assistance and solutions for refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees, stateless persons, internally displaced people and others of concern to the Office, of whom there were 86.5 million at the end of 2019. With COVID-19 sweeping the globe, more than 20 million people worldwide are confirmed to …
Bangladesh is among five most vulnerable countries to climate change-induced food crisis and hunger, says a report. It says the 10 countries that rank most vulnerable are DRC, Burundi, South Africa, Haiti, Bangladesh, Zambia, India, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Rwanda, which account for nearly a quarter of the world’s population. …
The negative effects of climate change are already evident for many of the 25 million coffee farmers across the tropics and the 90 billion dollar (US) coffee industry. The coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), the most important pest of coffee worldwide, has already benefited from the temperature rise in East …
Performance-based financing is generating a heated debate. Some suggest that it may be a donor fad with limited potential to improve service delivery. Most of its critics view it solely as a provider payment mechanism. Our experience is that performance-based financing can catalyse comprehensive reforms and help address structural problems …
This report draws attention in countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change. While producing the smallest amount of greenhouse gases, Africa is one of the continents most vulnerable to climate change, and with the greatest lack of adaptive capacity. Burundi and Somalia, which are the focus in the report, …
In 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC authoritatively established that human-induced climate change is accelerating and already has severe impacts on the environment and human lives. Although there is not a mono-causal relation between climate change, disasters, displacement and migration, the existence of a clear link between the …
Zimbabwe's once promising coffee industry faces total collapse due to upheavals linked to President Robert Mugabe's controversial land redistribution policy, a farmers union said on Wednesday. The coffee industry was growing steadily until 2000, when Mugabe embarked on a drive to resettle landless but inexperienced black farmers on white-owned commercial …
The number of people displaced by conflict and natural disaster in Central and East Africa is now more than 11 million, the United Nations said on Monday. The numbers have grown recently due to attacks on civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the Lord's Resistance Army rebel …
More than a dozen countries in Asia and Africa have banned China dairy imports, and several others had recalled products by Wednesday, fearing potentially lethal melamine-tainted milk has made its way to their markets. Here is a list of how different countries are reacting. IMPORT BANS BANGLADESH: Three Chinese powdered …
Broadband connectivity is still poor in Africa. Since global optical fibre broadband infrastructure has not yet been introduced here, people in eastern and southern Africa cannot afford to make international calls. The Africa Regional Communications Infrastructure Programme (rcip) supported by the World Bank, seeks to improve international connectivity in Africa. …
A new pact signed in Nairobi recently by the Great Lakes countries of Africa aims to protect and assist the displaced in the region. This is the first legally binding regional instrument specifically dealing with internally displaced persons. The pact signed by the three lake countries
With Burundi, a small east African country, emerging from a 13-year-long civil war, more than 400,000 refugees have started returning home. Its newly elected government now faces the daunting task of land allocation, which could plunge the country back into civil war. Burundi experienced a mass exodus in 1972, following …
