カテゴリー: Global development
Standoff between UN and Taliban may lead loss of billions in humanitarian aid for AfghanistanThe UN’s lead humanitarian coordinator has said UN-supplied aid cannot continue if the Taliban do not lift their ban on women working for humanitarian aid ag…
A Taliban decree against higher education for women – called a ‘betrayal of the nation’ – has led to male lecturers and student walkouts in solidarityBaktash Amini loved his job as an assistant professor in the physics faculty at Kabul University. As w…
Security council’s rare display of unity adds pressure after most aid groups in Afghanistan suspend servicesFaint hopes exist that the Taliban may relax its ban on all women working for the non-governmental aid agencies in Afghanistan after the UN secu…
Female employees of NGOs told to stop coming to work in latest move to curtail women’s freedoms in AfghanistanAfghanistan’s Taliban-run administration has ordered all local and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to stop female employees from…
Taliban prohibit female higher education indefinitely amid international condemnationIt was late evening in Kabul, and Sabra*, a fourth-year medical student, saw a WhatsApp message appear on her phone. In a university chat group for 38 classmates, a fr…
Women’s groups and activists call on authorities to toughen laws after two men threw corrosive liquid at a schoolgirl on a street last weekHundreds of acid attack survivors are demanding stricter laws against the sale of chemicals, after two men on a m…
For thousands of low-paid workers, this year’s games brought back only memories of abuse and exploitationOn a huge billboard in front of Kathmandu’s international airport, is a picture of five migrant workers with the words: “Meet the hardest working t…
The secret to a healthier diet has been around for centuries: a return to unprocessed grain in its natural state. And in Asia, the health benefits could be hugeA plan to develop a new breed of iron-rich rice that could ward off disease was swiftly aban…
Experts say country’s vulnerability to asbestos-related diseases is putting the health of millions of people at riskFor 40 years, Mohammad Younus worked at a factory that manufactured asbestos sheets in the southern Indian city of Coimbatore. By the ti…
With high salt levels in traditional dishes linked to disease, health campaigners are urging change, from product labels to suggestions for alternative seasoningKazakhstan’s national cuisine is not complete without salt. It is in everything from kurt, …
A trio of ambitious Nepali climbers are among those reshaping the country’s male-dominated mountaineering industryThere is an irrestible energy in mountains, says Purnima Shrestha. “There have been so many memorable moments, all the challenges and succ…
Rights groups say amended criminal code underscores shift towards fundamentalismIndonesia’s parliament has overhauled the country’s criminal code to outlaw sex outside marriage and curtail free speech, in a dramatic setback to freedoms in the world’s t…
Catch-22 system leaves people facing eviction upon being granted refugee status – yet unable to claim rent subsidies without accommodationMohammad Ashraf Rasooli, 70, looks at his five-year-old granddaughter, sitting on the floor next to him watching c…
Blue boilersuits symbolise their low-wage jobs, but an Instagram account celebrates the culture and individuality of Qatar’s workers in their leisure timeEvery day Bisho Sahani would start his work shift at 5am, constructing roads for hours in Qatar’s …
Government watchdog says £3.5bn aid in 20 years to 2020 failed to achieve aim of stabilising Afghan governmentThe UK’s £3.5bn aid to Afghanistan between 2000 and 2020 was implicated in corruption and human rights abuses and failed to achieve its primar…