General News

More than 90 per cent of agricultural and livestock production in South Sudan depends on rainfall, according to the UN.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is working to improve farmers’ access to meteorological information to help them plan when to plant and when to harvest.

FAO also says that early warning on climactic hazards is key to equipping farming communities and policy makers with the knowledge they need to improve production and food security programmes across the country.

The digital revolution has created big challenges for the music industry which must adapt if it is to have a future, the UN has said.

The warning from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) came at a round-table event featuring leading musicians, industry chiefs and consumer organisations at the agency’s Geneva headquarters.

WIPO spokesperson Catherine Jewell described the issues at stake to Daniel Johnson as the organisation prepares to celebrate World Intellectual Property Day on Sunday 26 April.

Religious leaders from around the world agreed there is a need to strengthen inter-religious cooperation to tackle religious extremism.

The spiritual chiefs attended a two-day forum in Fez, Morocco, to discuss their role in preventing incitement to violence and atrocities.

It was organized in part by the UN office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

The role of religious leaders and faith-based organizations is central to prevent atrocity crimes.

That was the main message shared by many participants at a two-day forum ending on Friday in Fez, Morocco, organized by the UN office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

The objective of the meeting was to lay the foundations for an Action Plan that will allow religious leaders to act against incitement to hatred and mass violence.

A major vaccination campaign against preventable diseases such as measles and polio has begun across the three west African countries worst-hit by ebola, UNICEF announced Friday.

It’s the first time since the killer virus hit Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia that such a campaign has been possible, the UN children’s agency said.

Spokesperson Christophe Boulierac told Daniel Johnson that the challenge of protecting three million children has been made harder by the loss of confidence in health workers caused by ebola.

Approximately 550,000 people die of malaria, each year and 90 per cent of the deaths are in Africa, according to a global partnership of UN agencies established to fight the disease.

The economic cost of malaria on the continent is estimated to be US$ 12 billion in lost productivity every year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that malaria, which is caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes, is preventable and curable.

The continued loss of so many lives in south-east Asia due to unsafe ferry trips is unacceptable, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Last year’s figures show that since 2000, there have been 163 accidents in the region involving ferries, killing more than 17,000 people.

To address the enhancement of safety measures, IMO organized a conference in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

Stephanie Coutrix spoke with IMO’s Lee Adamson who is there for the event.

An additional 1.5 million children’s lives could be saved across the world, if those children were vaccinated against common ailments like diphtheria and tetanus.

That’s what the World Health Organization, WHO, is saying as World Immunization Week kicked off on Friday.

Immunization is widely recognized as one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions, preventing between two and three million deaths every year.

Now is not the time to “put brakes” on the fight against malaria says world-renowned South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka.

On the occasion of World Malaria Day, the UN Goodwill Ambassador of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership is highlighting that the disease is an African problem that she thinks needs an African solution.

Eighty per cent of cases worldwide are in sub Saharan Africa.

Malaria is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes, and can quickly become like-threatening if left untreated.

Asia is the second worst affected continent after Africa in terms of malaria deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Globally, the disease claims the lives of more than half a million people each year.

Malaria is caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through mosquito bites. It is preventable and curable.

World Malaria Day is observed on 25 April each year to put a spotlight on the disease and the efforts that are being made to eliminate it.