EU Announces Multi-Million Dollar Africa Aid Package

The European Union has announced a $195 million humanitarian aid package for 10 African nations, including Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel says millions of Africans remain vulnerable to "silent tsunamis" such as droughts, floods and armed conflicts.

Nearly $57 million has been earmarked to help displaced persons return to Sudan's violence-plagued Darfur region, while $45 million will be spent to improve health care for women and children in the war weary Congo.

The rest of the money will fund aid efforts in Uganda, Burundi, Comoros, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Chad and Tanzania.

The money will be funneled through several humanitarian aid organizations, including the United Nations and Red Cross.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hatch objects to passage of S.1774, Puerto Rico Chapter 9 Uniformity Act | Senate Democrats

Senator Schumer asked unanimous consent that the Senate take up and pass S.1774 , Puerto Rico Chapter 9 Uniformity Act of 2015. Senator Hatch objected. Unofficial Transcript : SCHUMER: I AM GOING TO ASK FOR A UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST BUT SPEAK FOR A COUPLE OF MINUTES AND ENGAGE IN SOME DISCUSSION WITH MY DEER FRIEND, THE SENIOR — MY DEAR FRIEND, THE SENIOR SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF UTAH. I WANT TO THAIPG HIM FOR COMING TO THE FLOOR TODAY ON THIS ISSUE. I’M — ON PUERTO RICO. I AM HEARTENED HE HAS EXPRESSED INTEREST IN WORKING WITH US TO GET DOES ON TO HELP OUR FELLOW CITIZENS IN PUERTO RICO. I ALSO WANT TO THANK MY FRIENDS, THE SENATORS FROM CONNECTICUT, NEW JERSEY, OREGON, WASHINGTON, ILLINOIS, AND MY COLLEAGUE FROM NEW YORK WHO IS HERE FOR THEIR STEADFAST SUPPORT FOR HELPING PUERTO RICO IN THIS TIME OF CRISIS. I RISE TODAY DEEPLY TROUBLED BY THE DIRE ECONOMIC, FINANCIAL, AND HEALTH CARE SITUATION IN PUERTO RICO. THE ISLAND IS FACING A FINANCIAL CRISIS, A HEALTH CARE ...
Read more

Mapping Extreme Poverty Around the World A new report from the

Image
A new report from the  World Bank  just landed, finding that a record low of 10% of humanity now live in extreme poverty, down from 11% in 2013. But poverty rates aren’t anywhere close to equal between continents or even countries, as our new series of maps clearly demonstrates. The World Bank provides an in-depth explanation for its methodology, which you can find in Appendix A of the full report  here . We focused on the percentage of people in each country living below what the World Bank defines as extreme poverty, or $1.90/day. We’ll let the researchers defend this definition on their own, but there is one caveat to keep in mind. It can be extraordinarily difficult to collect reliable data from so many countries on a regular basis, and in fact we used the latest year in which numbers were available whenever possible. For example, in some of these maps we compare 2011 figures against 2015. In short, our maps provide the clearest possible apples-to-apples compa...
Read more

Congress’ Fix for Puerto Rico Comes With Huge Strings Attached

Image
Earlier this week, congressional Republicans introduced two bills designed to help Puerto Rico cope with its unsustainable $72 billion debt obligation. Both pieces of legislation—introduced in the House by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.) and in the Senate by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)—included language that would create a federally-appointed oversight board to control the island's finances . The House bill also included provisions that would permit Puerto Rico's cities and publicly-owned institutions to restructure debt under federal bankruptcy law. While the island's legislators and activists have long wanted bankruptcy protection, the creation of such a powerful oversight board immediately prompted a strong and negative reaction among the island's politicians and activists. "The bill introduced by Chairman Hatch imposes a federally-appointed board that would have virtually total control over financial decision-...
Read more