The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved its FY 2013 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill (.pdf), which would provide $40.1 billion in regular discretionary funding and an additional $8.2 billion in funding for ongoing efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, The Hill's "On the Money" blog reports (Wasson, 5/17). Taken together, the bill would provide about $5 billion, or nine percent, less than FY 2012 funding levels, a committee press release notes (5/17). "The bill contains tough new limitations on aid," including cutting all funding for the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) and reinstating the Mexico City policy, also known as the "global gag rule," which prohibits foreign aid from going to any organization that performs abortions or provides information about or referral for the procedure as a method of family planning, according to The Hill.
Several blogs recently have published posts in anticipation of a symposium on food security taking place in Washington on Friday, at which President Barack Obama is expected to speak, and the G8 summit at Camp David in Maryland on Friday and Saturday, both of which will focus on food security and agriculture in Africa.
The June/July issue of USAID's "Frontlines" focuses on the agency's efforts to improve child survival and its portfolio of projects in Ethiopia, according to an overview of the issue in USAID's "IMPACTblog." In his "Insights" column, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah writes, "Over the past decade, we've made tremendous strides to reduce child mortality across the world, thanks in large part to the scaled up distribution of proven interventions and new technologies that are making it easier to reach and save more children," noting, "In Ethiopia, where families have had to contend with one of the highest rates of infant and child mortality in the world, we've seen a dramatic and rapid decline" (Rucker, 5/17).
In this post on her blog, "The Garrett Update" -- the last of a series of posts examining the safety of drugs and vaccines -- Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), further details the key findings of the CFR's Policy Innovation Memorandum No. 21, a six-point policy recommendation for the G8/20 that she authored, titled "Ensuring the Safety and Integrity of the World's Drug, Vaccine, and Medicines Supply." She concludes, "The crisis is global, growing and massive. Unless international solutions are eagerly embraced, such as we and others have recommended, the very integrity of Medicine and Public Health will be undermined amid a steadily rising toll of illnesses and deaths ascribed to bad medicines" (May 2012).
Below are summaries of an opinion piece and an editorial responding to a report (.pdf) from the Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare on India's drug regulatory agency, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO).
Brussels will be “energized” on Monday, as we will be holding our EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit the whole day, with an impressive range of speakers and VIPs. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso have enthusiastically accepted to open the Summit, to put the spotlight [...]
En avril 2010, je m’étais rendu pour la première fois en Haïti, alors que le tremblement de terre venait de frapper durement la capitale. J’y avais vu le désarroi et la détresse de milliers de gens laissés sans toits, sans eau, sans emplois. J’avais alors promis que nous ne les abandonnerions pas, même et surtout, [...]
Today we celebrate the International’s Women Day. This important occasion marks the economic, social, political and cultural achievements of women around the world, but also reminds us that from 1.6 billion people live in extreme poverty, majority are women.
Not only poverty has a female face, but the economic crisis hit women the hardest. When poor [...]
If so I strongly recommend that you read here the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. That’s quite a mouthful, which is why the authors have shortened the title to SREX. If that reminds you of the popular name for Tyrannosaurus Rex – [...]
If it is what was in the news on this day, you will remember post-election anxiety. Greece is struggling to form a government, and analysts are all over the place guessing about France’s future. And about the future of the euro. And of Europe.
It was a celebration during anxious times, and I felt this all [...]
I got the first news of the two strong earthquakes in the Indian Ocean yesterday. The images of the 2004 disaster that caused huge destruction in the same area and killed more than 230,000 people jumped in my mind. Like observers world over, I prayed that we wouldn’t be seeing similar images on yesterday’s evening [...]
