News…
The UN called for greater worldwide access to contraception in its observation of World Population Day, on July 11th. The world’s population is expected to grow to 9.2 billion by 2050. According to UN data, supplying voluntary contraception to those who want it would cost about $1.2 billion per year. (BBC)
Albanian officials are actively seeking to counter the country’s centuries-old tribal tradition of the blood feud as part of the country’s efforts to modernize and join the NATO and European Union multilateral alliances. Earlier this year, authorities amended the penal code to criminalize the feuds while helping to fund official mediators and efforts to educate Albanian school children on other forms of conflict resolution. (Der Spiegel)
China’s one-child policy leaves 100 million without siblings. The official Xinhua News Agency, citing a report at a weekend forum in Shanghai, says the figure represents 8 per cent of China’s total population. Critics say the policy also led to forced abortions and sterilizations as local authorities pursued birth quotas set by Beijing, plus a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio, as families abort girls out of a traditional preference for male heirs.(The Toronto Star/Associated Press)
A YouTube video depicting doctors desperately trying to rescue premature infants — four of whom died — during a hospital power outage has sparked a fierce debate about the quality of health care and other services in Egypt. Economic growth has benefited Egypt’s elite but inflation has put greater stress on the nation’s poor. (AlertNet.org)
UNICEF and the European Union July 1 launched a joint, four-year initiative to improve water and sanitation facilities in 21 districts across rural Uganda. The new project, launched in Kabarole district in western Uganda, aims to increase access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation facilities and to improve hygiene behavior, focusing mainly on rural schools, health centers and communities. Although access to safe water has improved in Uganda, many regions still have a poor record and diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of infant mortality after malaria. (UN News Service)
The humanitarian situation inside Afghanistan is getting worse, with civilian casualties rising and food prices soaring, the United Nations relief chief said June 29, calling for the international community to revise its assistance plans to the strife-torn country. John Holmes, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said “a very understandable focus” in recent years on making progress on the political, security, development and reconstruction fronts has led to some humanitarian needs being neglected. (UN News Service)
When the leaders of the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, opened their meeting in Japan on 7 July, World Bank President Robert Zoellick urged them to “seize this opportunity” in the face of a crisis that threatened to push 100 million or more additional people into hunger beyond the 850 million already suffering. (IRIN)
Red and white banners along Nile bridges and Cairo streets this month were Egypt’s latest effort to curb an increasingly pressing problem: a population growing faster than the economy can support. Since President Hosni Mubarak took office in 1981, the population has nearly doubled. But most of the country’s 76 million people are squashed in urban areas near the Nile, in an area roughly the size of Switzerland, which is home to just 7.5 million. “Before you add another baby, make sure his needs are secured,” ran the slogan, adding to a string of campaigns over 30 years to encourage family planning. Mubarak told a government-sponsored population conference that cutting population growth was urgent. (Reuters)