On March 13, a cyclone of historic proportions struck the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu with winds equivalent to those of a Category 5 hurricane. The story of this disaster briefly occupied the international media and then disappeared, perhaps because the death toll was surprisingly low. The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs … Read more
When hugely damaging natural disasters strike in developing nations, many deaths occur because warnings and lifesaving advice do not reach people in the path of violent storms, floods or other threats. Decades of calls for better communications and disaster preparedness could not prevent 130,000 people from dying in Bangladesh in a 1991 cyclone, nearly 300,000 … Read more
A dozen years have passed since the United Nations Security Council made history by adopting a resolution that addressed women’s rights during conflicts and required their participation in preventing wars and in peace talks. Until Resolution 1325was approved, post-conflict reconstruction had been mostly the realm of those possessing the Y chromosome in the eyes … Read more
