Archivo etiqueta «Ayuda humanitaria»
By Robert Newman, British stand-up comedian, author and political activist (THE GUARDIAN, 27/01/12):
It’s strange that at this week’s World Economic Forum the designated voice of the world’s poor has been Bill Gates, who has pledged £478m to the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, telling Davos that the world economic crisis was no excuse for cutting aid.
It reminds me of that dark hour when Al Gore, despite being a shareholder in Occidental Petroleum, was the voice of climate change action – because Gates does not speak with the voice of the world’s poor, of course, … Seguir leyendo
By Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 27/01/12):
Last week, Oxfam and Save the Children released a report saying that emergency relief in the Horn of Africa came months late, costing thousands of lives and millions of dollars. Oxfam and Save the Children conclude that humanitarian assistance should be done differently. The anti-foreign aid establishment is using the report to argue that aid doesn’t work and should be cut across the board.
The very fact that $2.1 billion has been donated to help the victims of the famine is a testament … Seguir leyendo
By Denise Brown, the country director for the United Nations World Food Program in Niamey, Niger (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 26/11/11):
The women usually stay on the fringes. Whether in Somalia or in Niger, they are hesitant, and blend into the background while the men talk. With their babies strapped to their backs and the elder children held by the hand, the women watch and listen, curious faces peering through the crowd. But more often than not, they don’t contribute.
Public space is men’s space, and I have learned that if I want to hear the full story about … Seguir leyendo
By Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (THE WASHINGTON POST, 02/11/11):
Fifty years ago, almost 20 million children under the age of 5 died every year. In 2010, the figure was down to 7.6 million . This 60 percent decline in childhood deaths — reflecting advances in agriculture, education, health and sanitation — is compelling evidence of the increasing justice in our world.
But the global economic crisis is putting the long-term trend of progress at risk, as Congress’s debates about the foreign aid budget underscore.
I am giving a report … Seguir leyendo
By Jessie Seiler, a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 15/05/11):
Before I joined the Peace Corps, I had heard all the stereotypes. Volunteers were a bunch of privileged white kids, I was told. Guitar-strumming, wide-eyed do-gooders who didn’t understand cultural differences and spent their time building latrines they could never persuade anyone to use.
The image of an unprepared, inexperienced volunteer armed with nothing but good intentions is no longer accurate, if it ever was — at least not here in Senegal, West Africa, where I am serving in the Peace Corps as a preventative health … Seguir leyendo
By Dorothy Stuehmke, the senior advisor to the U.S.-North Korea 2008-09 food aid program for the U.S. Agency for International Development who served in the Office of Korean Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 2006 to 2008 (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 21/04/11):
North Korea has recently made a desperate international appeal for food aid. Reports from aid workers and international nongovernmental organizations warn of a major food shortage. As the United States deliberates whether to restart a food aid program in North Korea, it must consider the following questions: Is there a true humanitarian need, can we address … Seguir leyendo
By Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University and the author of Cambodia’s Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land (THE WASHINGTON POST, 17/04/11):
Representatives of more than 3,000 governments and donor organizations are meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Wednesday. If past experience is indicative, they will pledge to provide hundreds of millions in aid.
Most of these donors should simply stay home.
Year after year, smiling Cambodian government leaders attend these pledge conferences, holding out their hands. But first they have to listen as ambassadors and aid officers stand at the podium, look them … Seguir leyendo
Por Catherine Ashton, alta representante de la UE para Asuntos Exteriores y Política de Seguridad; Andris Piebalgs, comisario de Desarrollo de la UE; y Kristalina Georgieva, comisaria de Cooperación Internacional, Ayuda Humanitaria y Respuesta a las Crisis (EL MUNDO, 12/01/10):
De todas las catástrofes que azotaron el mundo en 2010, el terremoto de Haití produjo la herida que más cuesta curar. Hoy, un año después del segundo seísmo conocido más destructor de la Historia, la herida sigue abierta y en parte agravada por nuevos problemas como el huracán Tomás, la epidemia de cólera y la volatilidad … Seguir leyendo
Por Irina Bokova, directrice générale de l’Unesco et Michaëlle Jean, envoyée spéciale de l’Unesco pour Haïti et ancienne gouverneure générale du Canada (LE MONDE, 12/01/11):
Un an après le séisme qui a fait près de 250 000 morts, ravagé des villes entières et transformé la capitale Port-au-Prince en champ de ruines, Haïti continue de s’enfoncer dans le chaos. La situation est indigne. Plus de 1 million de personnes vivent toujours dans des camps d’urgence, dans des conditions d’hygiène et de promiscuité désastreuses. Le choléra en a déjà tué plus de 2 500. En douze mois, la crise humanitaire est … Seguir leyendo
By Alex Dupuy, a native of Haiti, professor of sociology at Wesleyan University and the author most recently of The Prophet and Power: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the International Community, and Haiti (THE WASHINGTON POST, 09/01/11):
The international response to the earthquake that struck Haiti nearly a year ago was immediate and massive. The devastation was massive as well: The quake killed more than 200,000 people, injured more than 300,000, destroyed more than 250,000 homes and displaced more than 1.5 million people, 1 million of whom are still living in makeshift shelters in hundreds of camps.
The cost of the damage … Seguir leyendo
By Kenneth Merten, the U.S. ambassador to Haiti (THE WASHINGTON POST, 09/01/11):
When I arrived in Haiti as ambassador, unemployment was rampant, the government could not provide basic services such as education and health care, and only 12 percent of the population had access to electricity. And that was in August 2009 – months before the devastating earthquake that struck the country almost one year ago.
The 35 seconds of terror that Haiti suffered on Tuesday, Jan. 12, resulted in 230,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries, left almost 2 million people homeless, decimated the economy and exacerbated … Seguir leyendo
By Unni Karunakara, the president of the International Council of Médecins Sans Frontières (THE GUARDIAN, 29/12/10):
Haiti should be an unlikely backdrop for the latest failure of the humanitarian relief system. The country is small and accessible and, following last January’s earthquake, it hosts one of the largest and best-funded international aid deployments in the world. An estimated 12,000 non-governmental organisations are there. Why then, have at least 2,500 people died of cholera, a disease that’s easily treated and controlled?
I recently went to Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and found my Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) colleagues overwhelmed, having already … Seguir leyendo
By Christopher B. Barrett, Elizabeth R. Bageant and Erin C. Lentz. They are at Cornell University. Barrett is a professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and associate director of the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. Bageant is a research assistant. Lentz is a research support specialist (THE WASHINGTON POST, 03/12/10):
Piracy is not the only robbery on the high seas. A 56-year-old policy known as cargo preference is costing U.S. taxpayers an estimated $140 million each year for humanitarian food shipments and is affecting millions of aid recipients worldwide. It is … Seguir leyendo
By Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey who is the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa and global health (THE WASHINGTON POST, 19/09/10):
An army of health activists and world leaders will gather at the United Nations this week to review the eight Millennium Development Goals agreed to at the start of the century and to recalibrate and recommit to more effectively achieve them by 2015. The overarching and noble goal is reducing global poverty. But the most compelling and achievable objectives — huge reductions in maternal and child mortality worldwide — will be … Seguir leyendo
Por José Carlos García Fajardo, profesor emérito de la UCM y fundador de Solidarios para el Desarrollo (ABC, 14/09/10):
Una organización humanitaria, que ocupó la atención mediática, insiste en enviar una nueva «caravana solidaria» en «homenaje» a los tres secuestrados por Al Qaeda en Mauritania. Movilizó durante meses a organismos del Estado financiados por todos los españoles. Muchos nos preguntamos si es de recibo que el Estado tenga que asumir el rescate de personas que se ponen en grandes peligros, que acometen empresas deportivas de máximo riesgo, que se aventuran en expediciones de ayuda a los «pobres» del Tercer … Seguir leyendo