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Health, Poverty, Food Security


For World Cancer Day, UN stresses early diagnosis to reduce mounting deaths

United Nations feed - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 00:00

Early diagnosis is the key to reducing the nearly eight million deaths caused by cancer across the globe annually, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said today, stressing the importance of screening programmes for healthy people to detect the disease promptly for easier treatment.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

UN backs vaccination campaign after yellow fever outbreaks hit Cameroon and Ghana

United Nations feed - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 00:00

The United Nations is backing a mass vaccination campaign under way in northern Cameroon, where a new outbreak of yellow fever has killed at least seven people.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

UN says Somali famine over, but warns action needed to forestall new crisis

United Nations feed - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 00:00

The UN declared an end to famine conditions in Somalia today, but warned that the crisis in the Horn of Africa is not over and requires continued efforts to restore food security and help people resume normal lives.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

Small Indian hill state aims to improve agricultural livelihoods with UN loan

United Nations feed - Wed, 02/01/2012 - 00:00

India is receiving a loan of nearly $90 million from the United Nations to improve agricultural livelihoods in the small north-western state of Uttarakhand, one of the poorest areas in the country.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

New UN initiative aims to harness power of social media to fight global hunger

United Nations feed - Wed, 02/01/2012 - 00:00

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is launching a week-long campaign in which users of the popular online trivia game Freerice can recruit their friends to help bring food to the world's most vulnerable populations.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

Sri Lanka: UN agency funds irrigation improvement projects

United Nations feed - Tue, 01/31/2012 - 00:00

The United Nations fund tasked with promoting rural development will provide a $22-million loan to Sri Lanka to finance the improvement of the South Asian country's irrigation infrastructure and crop diversification, as well as projects to expand market opportunities for smallholder farmers.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

UN scales up food assistance for more than 80,000 people in South Sudan

United Nations feed - Tue, 01/31/2012 - 00:00

The United Nations World Food Programme announced today that it will scale up its assistance to reach 80,000 people affected by the recent escalation of ethnic violence in South Sudan's Jonglei state.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

UN and Intel unveil initiative on technology-based training for midwives

United Nations feed - Mon, 01/30/2012 - 00:00

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the computing company Intel today unveiled a joint effort to strengthen the skills of midwives and community health workers through technology, in a bid to reduce the number of pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths across the world.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

UN experts begin assessment of effects of Fukushima nuclear accident

United Nations feed - Mon, 01/30/2012 - 00:00

Sixty international experts assessing the radiation exposures and health effects resulting from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan last March kicked off a week-long meeting today in Vienna.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

UN welcomes launch of business initiatives to end HIV among children by 2015

United Nations feed - Fri, 01/27/2012 - 00:00

The United Nations and the United States Government initiative for AIDS relief (PEPFAR) welcomed today the launch of two programmes by business leaders to end new HIV infections in children by 2015.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

Cholera fight in DR Congo receives $9 million boost from UN fund

United Nations feed - Fri, 01/27/2012 - 00:00

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) received $9.1 million today from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to fight off cholera, which has affected more than 22,000 people and killed 500 over the past year in the central African country.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

UN agency honours Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu as champion against hunger

United Nations feed - Thu, 01/26/2012 - 00:00

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today is honouring Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and activist Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu for his efforts in the battle against hunger and his advocacy on behalf of the world's most vulnerable people.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

UNICEF warns on high rates of malnutrition among children in Yemen

United Nations feed - Wed, 01/25/2012 - 00:00

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned that half a million children in Yemen could die or suffer physical and mental damage as a result of malnutrition, unless sufficient resources are made available to alleviate the effects of conflict, chronic poverty and drought.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

Sufficient funds crucial to helping countries achieve AIDS response targets - UN

United Nations feed - Wed, 01/25/2012 - 00:00

The remarkable progress achieved in the AIDS response must be sustained, the United Nations has stressed, calling for innovative sources of financing and continued support for the Global Fund that helps countries achieve their targets in this field.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

Cooperatives central to fighting hunger, stresses UN agency

United Nations feed - Tue, 01/24/2012 - 00:00

Cooperatives and producer organizations will be increasingly important in efforts to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

UN expert calls for urgent international food assistance to Sahel region

United Nations feed - Tue, 01/24/2012 - 00:00

An independent United Nations human rights expert today urged the global community to take quick action to prevent millions of people in Africa's Sahel region from slipping into a full-scale food emergency, warning that drought, poor harvests and rising food prices have left the region on the brink of a humanitarian crisis.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security

UN refugee agency warns of potential polio cases in Ethiopian camps

United Nations feed - Tue, 01/24/2012 - 00:00

The United Nations refugee agency today voiced its concern over reports of two suspected polio cases this week among Somali refugees living in camps in Ethiopia and three cases in the surrounding community.

Categories: Health, Poverty, Food Security