Welcome to Panos London's magazine, reporting on development issues that are often neglected by mainstream media. Through our global team of local journalists we seek out the views of people on the edges of society and offer you fresh perspectives.
Polluting gas flares to electrify rural Nigeria
Aid fails to alleviate poverty in Mozambique
Culture versus climate change in Burkina Faso
Did state politics shelve the GM aubergine?
Opinion: Don't make China the scapegoat
Labour camps increase HIV risk amongst sex workers
News: 10 March 2010
Somalia aid diverted, says UN
Up to half the food aid sent to Somalia is being diverted and sold illegally by corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local United Nations staff members, a report by the UN Security Council claims. The US-based newspaper The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the document - which has not been made public yet - alleges that the World Food Programme's aid distribution system in Somalia is corrupt. The report recommends an independent investigation be launched into the WFP's Somalia operations. The programme provides food aid worth hundreds of millions of US dollars to at least 2.5 million Somalis. Meanwhile, the UN Ethics Committee has upheld claims by a former UN Development Programme employee who says he was punished by the UNDP after claiming its Somalia programme was corrupt.
India passes women's bill
The upper house of the Indian parliament approved a law on Tuesday that requires one third of seats in national parliament and state legislatures to be occupied by women. The law was passed by 186 members of the 245-seat house, with only one member voting against it. First proposed in 1996, the controversial legislation was reintroduced on Monday, causing uproar among its opponents and leading to the suspension of seven MPs. The bill is still due to be considered at a later date by the lower house, where it is supported by a great majority. A third of local governing council seats in Indian towns and villages are already reserved for women. However, only 10 per cent of seats in either houses of parliament are held by men.
EU warns of Bangladesh crisis
More than 200,000 people recovering from a cyclone that hit Bangladesh last year are still at risk of flooding because damaged river embankments have not been repaired, the European Union warned on Tuesday. Cyclone Aila killed 300 people in southern Bangladesh last May. It also destroyed 4,000 kilometres of roads and river embankments which led to the flooding of low-lying villages and made over 200,000 people homeless. The head of the EU delegation to Bangladesh warned of a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis if the river banks are not repaired. In a statement the EU claimed many people are still living in appalling conditions. The government has promised to finish reconstruction of the embankments before the rainy season starts in May.
Myanmar bars pro-democracy leader from elections
A new election law unveiled today by Myanmar's state media formally bars pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running in a poll promised for 2010. The law bars anyone with a criminal conviction from belonging to a political party. Suu Kyi has been in some form of detention for most of the past 20 years and is currently under house arrest. Myanmar's main opposition party, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), may have to expel her to participate in the elections. Rights activists say there are many other senior NLD members among more than 2,000 political prisoners in the country. Suu Kyi won Myanmar's last polls in 1990, but was never allowed to take office.
Chinese editor fired for criticising registration law
The editor of a Chinese weekly newspaper has been fired for publishing a joint editorial that called for reform of a system that stops many rural migrant workers from getting basic services in China's cities. Zhang Hong was deputy editor in chief of the website of the Economic Observer in Beijing. A letter leaked to local and international media by Zhang claimed that he was punished for co-authoring the joint editorial published last week by 13 Chinese newspapers. The text criticised the system known as hukou. This system ties people's rights to many government services to their parents' hometown, where their birth must be registered. Critics have blamed the system for the surging inequality between China's urban and rural population.
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Machrine Birungi
“I wanted to tell stories that are ignored or invisible to Uganda's media”
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Sebabatso“It is sad that although this disease has been in Lesotho for so many years, people are still misinformed about it”
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- Why the truth about Zimbabwe is so hard to tell
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