Sierra Leone braces for cholera season

FREETOWN, 12 June 2013 (IRIN Africa) - As the fleeting storms of May give way to the persistent downpours of June, the National Cholera Taskforce in Freetown, Sierra Leone, is working to prevent a repeat of last year’s cholera outbreak. full report

Ten ways to save a million lives

LONDON, 10 June 2013 (IRIN Global) - In London on 8 June, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, together with an array of presidents, prime ministers, businesspeople and philanthropists, signed the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact, an agreement to improve the nutrition of children and pregnant women around the world. Inside the meeting room, organizers said they had secured new commitmentsof up to US$4.15 billion to tackle undernutrition between now and 2020; outside, in Hyde Park, activists laid a carpet of flower petals to represent the lives of children lost each year through malnutrition. full report

Greasing the wheels of public service delivery

LONDON, 7 June 2013 (IRIN Global) - There should be many reasons for governments to improve public services like water, healthcare and sanitation; these services make citizens happy and politicians popular. But too often, conflicting systems, confusion about roles, perverse incentives and other constraints block desired improvements. What, if anything, can aid agencies do to help? full report

Reshaping the fight against poverty

JOHANNESBURG, 31 May 2013 (IRIN Global) - After nine months of consultations, the UN High Level Panel on determining the world’s post-2015 development agenda has issued a report calling for a path to sustainable development which will transform the lives of the very poorest. full report

Toilets provide dignity for Nepal’s disabled

KAPILBASTU, 30 May 2013 (IRIN Asia) - Before my house had a toilet, I would have to ask my grandsons to help me out into a field, hold me up, and stay with me until I was done,” Krishna Devi, a 59-year-old woman with a physical disability in Nepal’s southern Kapilbastu District along the border with India, told IRIN. full report

Global land treaty aims for more teeth

JOHANNESBURG, 29 May 2013 (IRIN Global) - Talks have begun on giving a global treaty on land degradation more teeth. full report

Containing cholera in Niger

NIAMEY, 22 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Cholera has struck 248 people in Ayorou in the Tillabéry Region of northwestern Niger, killing six, two of them Malian refugees. full report

Making WASH work in Burkina Faso’s cities

OUAGADOUGOU, 17 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Earlier this year Denis Ouedraogo, a tailor living in the Tampouy neighbourhood just north of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, connected his mud-walled home to the water network for the first time. “Even without electricity, having enough water can make you happy,” he said. full report

The making of the Hyogo2 disaster prevention framework

JOHANNESBURG, 17 May 2013 (IRIN Global) - A month after the Indian Ocean tsunami struck in December 2004, affecting millions, 168 countries signed on to a 10-year plan to make the world safer from natural hazards. Yet the plan, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015, focused primarily on “what to do to prevent disasters, but not enough on how to implement it,” says Neil McFarlane, chief coordinator and head of all regional programmes at the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). full report