This report examines the often-overlooked lived realities of communities on the frontlines of climate change. It explores the dynamics, challenges, and opportunities for strengthening local information environments in humanitarian contexts, where communities are suffering from unprecedented climate impacts. Global climate discussions tend to focus on timelines to action and statistical …
This report examines the often-overlooked lived realities of communities on the frontlines of climate change. It explores the dynamics, challenges, and opportunities for strengthening local information environments in humanitarian contexts, where communities are suffering from unprecedented climate impacts. Global climate discussions tend to focus on timelines to action and statistical …
A new ICRC/Norwegian Red Cross policy brief "Making Adaptation Work" presents how the humanitarian consequences of environmental degradation and climate change are aggravated by armed conflict in the Near and Middle East, and which adaptation approaches are emerging to face the compounding impact using examples from Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Eradicating poverty in all its forms, everywhere, requires indicators that measure sustainable pathways out of poverty, and not only the absence of acute poverty. This paper introduces a trial Moderate Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MMPI) that reflects moderate rather than acute levels of multidimensional poverty. The MMPI adjusts nine of the …
Attacks on water and sanitation facilities in conflict zones around the world are putting the lives of millions of children around the world in danger, and are a much greater threat than violence itself, warns the UN Children’s agency, UNICEF, in a report. Water Under Fire Volume 3, highlights that …
This report is based on a survey of 1,400 people affected by conflict and displacement in eight countries, and more detailed surveys and needs assessment in a total of 14 countries. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) research found that these communities have suffered widespread loss of income since the pandemic …
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 …
Today, nearly 55 million people in the Arab States, 13.2 percent of the population, are hungry and the situation is particularly worrying in countries affected by conflicts and violence: Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen. Displacements and forced migration are widespread in the region, especially among the growing youth …
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are stepping up their collaboration to help meet the essential needs of vulnerable people in Iraq. WFP has worked with UNHCR and partners to identify an additional 35,000 Syrian refugees and 10,000 people displaced by conflict who …
As a complement to agency-wide efforts across all its IDP operations, UNHCR’s engagement in internal displacement will be further concretized, supported and driven forward on a focused and demonstrative basis in nine target operations, which span the internal displacement spectrum from emergency preparedness, to response, and to solutions. The target …
Refugees and displaced people mostly depend on energy that is unsustainable and can harm their health and well-being. Sustainable energy based on renewables, in contrast, bridges the gap between humanitarian response and development, enhancing the well-being of displaced people and communities. This study from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), …
Existing WHO estimates of the prevalence of mental disorders in emergency settings are more than a decade old and do not reflect modern methods to gather existing data and derive estimates. The researchers sought to update WHO estimates for the prevalence of mental disorders in conflict-affected settings and calculate the …
In the 9th century BC, Assyrians based in northern Iraq started a relentless process of expansion that within two centuries would see them controlling most of the ancient Near East. Traditional explanations for the decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 7th century BC have emphasized the role of military …
Iraq is one of the hottest countries on earth but when heavy rains do hit they can result in casualties and widespread damage because of deteriorating public infrastructure. At least 21 people have died and tens of thousands displaced by heavy rains that have battered Iraq over two days, the …
The death of thousands of freshwater fish in the Euphrates river in Iraq was due to high levels of coliform bacteria, heavy metals and ammonia in the water, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Thousands of tonnes of freshwater carp have washed up dead this month, leaving Iraqi fish farmers …
Iraq’s farmlands are declining due to lack of rainfall and depleted soils, a report by the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics has revealed. Wheat and barley were affected particularly hard, the report said, but it also observed a general decline in the yield per acre of Iraq’s farmland due to …
BASRA, IRAQ - The brackish water pouring from the taps of homes in Basra has caused stomach ailments and skin rashes for thousands in the southern Iraqi city once famous for its network of freshwater canals that gave it the nickname the 'Venice of the East.' The contaminated water, along …
Dozens of water buffalo in Iraq's southeastern wetlands have died because of low water levels in the marshes, threatening the livelihoods of a community of marsh dwellers that has made the area its home for millennia. Water levels in the marshes have fallen a third from their peak at 1.30 …
Hundreds of people suffer from diarrhea and colic admitted to hospitals during the past two days in Iraq's central province of Salahudin due to contamination of drinking water, medical sources said on Wednesday. "The tests in the laboratories confirmed that drinking water from Tigris River was highly contaminated with fecal …
A human body may be able to adapt to extremes of dry-bulb temperature (commonly referred to as simply temperature) through perspiration and associated evaporative cooling provided that the wet-bulb temperature (a combined measure of temperature and humidity or degree of ‘mugginess’) remains below a threshold of 35 °C. (ref. 1). …
Climate change is ranked alongside the Islamic State as one of the world's two greatest threats with increasing numbers of people concerned about global warming, according to an international survey by a U.S. think tank. The Pew Research Center survey of nearly 42,000 people in 38 countries showed the percentage …
