New data indicate that stunting among under-five children is being reduced in Timor-Leste, but experts warn much greater investment is needed in areas such as micronutrient supplementation, salt iodization and education to bring levels down further.
Author: WHES
The danger of being pushed off public assistance: For America’s poor, the security of public benefits can outweigh the risks of a low-paying, uncertain job
The story is part of Richmond: The legacy of poverty, an ongoing Story line series on the city’s ambitious plan to combat poverty and confront its past. We’ve created a Facebook group to discuss unemployment, underemployment and poverty in America – and what cities can be doing to help. To share your experiences or follow the conversation, join here.
Michigan joins move to increase hourly wage
For several years, Republicans in states such as Michigan have steered clear of raising the minimum wage. That shifted this week, as the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature approved a gradual increase in the state’s wage, to $9.25 an hour.
The “unfinished business” of lowering child mortality
In 1990, an estimated 12 million children around the world died under age five; by 2011, that figure had dropped to 6.9 million. The message, from a new report by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), is that with greater commitment to child survival from governments and their partners, these figures can go lower still.
The way North: a day by day journey by two reporters up Interstate 35 from Laredo, Tex., to Duluth, Minn., chronicling how the middle of America is being changed by immigration
At migrant shelters in Tijuana, and in boardinghouses just south of Arizona and Texas, I have met dozens of Mexican and Central American immigrants over the past three years who told me, often in English, that they were trying to get back to the lives and the families they had built in Los Angeles and Seattle; Durham, N.C.; or Des Moines.
Africa’s dividing farmlands a threat to food security
NAIROBI, Sep 10 2014 (IPS) – When Kiprui Kibet pictures his future as a maize farmer in the fertile Uasin Gishu county in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, all he sees is the ever-decreasing plot of land that he has to farm on.
“I used to farm on 40 hectares but now I only have 0.8 hectares. My father had 10 sons and we all wanted to own a piece of the farmland. Subdivision … ate into the actual farmland,” Kibet tells IPS. “From 3,200 bags a harvest, now I only produce 20 bags, at times even less.”
Class war: Thailand’s military coup. Outnumbered by the country’s rural voters, Thailand’s once vibrantly democratic urban middle class has embraced an elitist, antidemocratic agenda
After declaring martial law on Tuesday, May 20, the Thai military announced a full-fledged coup two days later. The putsch followed nearly eight months of massive street protests against the ruling Pheu Thai government identified with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The power grab by army chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ochacame two weeks after Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck, was ousted as caretaker prime minister by the country’s Constitutional Court for “abuse of power” on May 7.
Climate change will disrupt half of America’s bird species, study says
The Baltimore oriole will probably no longer live in Maryland, the common loon might leave Minnesota, and the trumpeter swan could be entirely gone.
Egypt’s new strongman, Sisi knows best
CAIRO — Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former army officer soon to be Egypt’s president, promises to remedy Egypt’s crippling fuel shortage by installing energy-efficient bulbs in every home socket, even if he has to send a government employee to screw in each one.
Ebola is taking a second toll, on economies
DAKAR, Senegal — Airlines have canceled their flights to the countries most affected. Prices of staple goods are going up, and food supplies are dwindling. Border posts are being closed, foreign workers are going home and national growth rates are projected to plummet.
