France : Elections not likely to change development cooperation policy (PRIV)
(Roberto Bissio, Paris)
All major presidential candidates promise in their platforms to increase the French development cooperation contribution to 0.7 per cent of GDP and yet "I bet you a bottle of champagne that whoever gets elected, when we gather again five years from now that promise will not have been met".

Environment : Seeds of climate resilience in Mozambique (PRIV)
(Timothy A. Wise, Cambridge)
US President Donald Trump may still deny the harsh realities of climate change, but no one in southern Mozambique has any doubts. They don't have much food either.

United Nations : Yemen, world's largest humanitarian crisis (PRIV)
(IPS, Rome)
With 18.8 million people - nearly 7 in 10 inhabitants - in need of humanitarian aid, including 10.3 million requiring immediate assistance, Yemen is now the largest single-nation humanitarian crisis in the world, the United Nations informs, while warning that the two-year war is rapidly pushing the country towards "social, economic and institutional collapse."

Health : Disease burden growing as vector insects adapt to climate change (PRIV)
(IPS, Kingston)
There were surprised gasps when University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor John Agard told journalists at an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting in late November 2016 that mosquitoes were not only living longer, but were "breeding in septic tanks underground".

United Nations : Springing into action to fund ambitious goals (PRIV)
(IPS, New York)
"I don't have enough money to buy clean water, so I have to come and collect it from the river. I have young twins - a boy and a girl. I know the water is dirty - it often makes them sick but I have no other option."