Drought in Sahel Could Become a Catastrophe for 13 Million – Oxfam warned on Wednesday that 13 million people in the Sahel region are currently at risk from a food crisis, which threatens to escalate into a full scale humanitarian emergency if urgent action is not taken. Mamadou Biteye, the Oxfam Regional Director in West Africa, explained that” last year the situation spiral[ed] out of control in East Africa as the aid community failed to act swiftly. . . [and] the worst can be avoided and thousands of lives will be saved if we act now.” (Huffington Post, Louis Belanger)
Jeffrey Sachs: The end of Live Aid – As Jeffrey Sachs campaigns to be the next president of the World Bank, he has two obvious advantages: first, he is American, and second, Sachs “has a more comprehensive understanding of development than any previous World Bank president.” Sachs acknowledges that that Bank has “limited resources and is squandering them on a mess of projects.” He promises to “leverage good science” and to lead global funding for AIDS and malaria work. (The Economist)
Invisible Children responds to criticism about ‘Stop Kony’ campaign – The “Kony 2012” film has the goal of bringing “to justice Joseph Kony, the Ugandan leader of the violent child-recruiting Lord’s Resistance Army.” In just two days, the thirty minute film received 47 million views, and represents a “’tipping point’ in that it got young people to care about an issue on the other side of the planet that doesn’t affect them.” Invisible Children has been accused of manipulating the facts for strategic purposes, a charge which the organization denies. (Washington Post, Elizabeth Flock)
Obama Calls Ghana ‘Model for Africa’ in Democracy, Security – Following a meeting with Ghanaian President John Evans Atta Mills, President Obama said that Ghana serves as a model for Africa on “issues ranging from democracy to foreign investment and food security.” The two Presidents discussed “economic development, increasing U.S.-Ghana commercial and economic ties” as well as regional and multi-lateral issues. Ghana currently receives U.S. aid and used the first allocation of “$547 million in U.S. aid last month to improve highway, public works and agricultural projects.” (Bloomberg, Roger Runningen and Margaret Talev)
New report rates top donors’ 2011 humanitarian response – A new report “lauds the 2011 humanitarian efforts of Sweden, Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands – five relatively small . . . donors that bested larger actors in the rankings.” The US, the world’s largest humanitarian donor, ranked 17th in the index, trailed only by Luxembourg and Italy. The report highlights five aid sectors in which reforms are needed including gender awareness, prevention, transparency, and recovery. (Devex, Ivy Mungcal)
