One in seven people still practice open defecation – shockingly the vast majority live in middle-income countries, in other words countries which have the resources to address the problem. This is especially the case for India, home to almost 600 million people with no sanitation facility whatsoever and the target of a recent… Read more →←
Topic: Data and research
The conflict in Central African Republic is limiting access of women and children to health and other services. Many children are affected by deteriorating living conditions, like this young girl seen undergoing nutrition screening in this week’s Photo of the Week by photographer Roger Lemoyne. The yellow on the armband indicates that… Read more →←
C4D, S4D and now ICT4D. The latest “4D” could represent one of the most important social and economic development trends in years. Communication technologies have long been seen as development “silver bullets.” First radio was going to boost productivity for rural farmers, then TV sets were supposed to replace teachers in remote… Read more →←
The story takes place in the northern part of Equateur (Nord-Ubangi), a remote province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our mission was to assess the nutritional situation and the care of refugee children from the Central African Republic (CAR) and people in host Health Zones. Accompanied by the Child Survival Administrator and our… Read more →←
This Saturday, the world will commemorate World Water Day – an event which will be used to call upon governments and partners to ensure universal safe water access for all. From the “glass is half full” point of view, we can see much progress has been made. The Millennium Development Goal target for Water was met in 2010, and 2.1… Read more →←
Soon after I arrived in China the national obsession with “weibo” popped up all around me. It was explained as “twitter on steroids” – the 140 character limit effectively meant each post could convey the equivalent of 140 words. The UNICEF China office started a weibo account in late 2010. I didn’t give it much thought until… Read more →←
“I used to want to be a teacher. But where are the schools to learn or teach in now?” “The day our house was bombed I arrived home to find people digging in the rubble with their bare hands because they heard sounds coming from underneath. They found Ghina’s hands first and removed the dirt from her. She started to move and rub… Read more →←
Syrian Arab Republic, 2013: Nearly four years into the Syrian crisis, children continue to suffer the most amid the destruction of basic infrastructure. The conflict has kept nearly 2.3 million children in the country out of school. In Homs, capital of Homs Governorate, children attend a kindergarten where sounds of the fighting and… Read more →←
I’ve supported UNICEF emergency responses in Papua New Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, Philippines and China. The pace of UNICEF work is regularly punctuated by that unexpected call in the middle of the night with first news of an earthquake, typhoon or refugee exodus. For the next several weeks or months life is turned up-side down. I… Read more →←
Jibon is 12 years old and works at a fish market in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. He lives alone with his mother, who works in a garment factory. The little money Jibon makes is essential for the survival of his family. For this reason, Jibon dropped out of school after only the second grade. In all likelihood, he will never have the… Read more →←
