An in depth interview with Haitian president Rene Preval, conducted by Ray Suarez of PBS. Not surprisingly, Preval laments the pace of reconstruction funding, particularly the slow pace of rubble removal. Preval also raises concerns that too much funding is by-passing the government and going directly to NGOs. This is similar criticism that UN skeptical envoy Bill Clinton has leveled at the reconstruction effort. Watch.
The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Institute has released a new measure of global poverty. It’s called the multidimensional poverty index. The new metric seeks to measure household level deprivations such as education, health, and assets and services.
I chat with Dana Goldstein of The Daily Beast about her article on US - Congo policy. We also chat about Sri Lanka and the creation of UN WOMEN. Enjoy!
The International Criminal Court yesterday issued an arrest warrant for the crime of genocide for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. Now, you might be asking yourself: "wasn't he already under indictment." The answer is yes. But when the prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant in spring 2009, the judges did not sign the warrant for "genocide"--only for war crimes and crimes against humanity. At the time, the judges ruled there to be insufficient evidence to support a genocide charge. An appellate chamber reversed that ruling.
Malawi is facing an ugly AIDS treatment dilemma. They Ministry of Health has decided to change national treatment standards to meet WHO guidelines for optimal HIV care. That means adding new drugs to the treatment regimen and starting HIV treatment when a patient’s CD4 count, a measure of immune system strength, drops below 350 rather than waiting for it to sink to 200. It will also cost three times as much.
Via Spencer Ackerman, I see that White House National Security Council aid Samantha Power is part of an American delegation to Bosnia for the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. Spencer highlights an excellent interview that Power gave to a Bosnian publication in which she discusses why justice and accountability are crucial underpinnings to any lasting peace.
Today marks the six month anniversary of the massive Haiti earthquake. Where do we stand? Last month, the UN OCHA released these facts and figures about the status of Haiti's recovery.
Kampala, Uganda became the target of twin bombings as crowds gathered to watch the World Cup earlier today. Details are still emerging, but the bombs seemed to target crowds gathered at an Ethiopian restaurant and a rugby club, both of which were places where soccer fans gathered to watch the Spain-Netherlands World Cup final. The death toll seems to be upwards of 50 people, and the government seems to blaming the Somali insurgent group, al-Shabaab.
The open data trend continues to accelerate. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today that it is granting free and open access to its central data repository. According to FAO, the database, FAOSTAT, is “the world's largest and most comprehensive statistical database on food, agriculture, and hunger.”