Philippa Garson - New Humanitarian

Jan 31
Jan 31 Hurricane Irma highlights the great divide in disaster vulnerability

As Hurricane Irma whipped its way through the Caribbean and headed for Florida, its catastrophic impacts further east put into stark relief the vulnerability of the region’s poor island communities to increasingly fierce and frequent weather events.

Jan 31
Jan 31 A humanitarian's guide to choosing the next UN chief

Philippa Garson

Of the nine candidates currently in the running to become the next UN secretary-general, who will bring the most expertise, creativity and focus to the humanitarian agenda?

Jan 31
Jan 31 Unsustainable Development Goals: Are 222 indicators too many?

Philippa Garson

Are the Sustainable Development Goals in danger of collapsing under the weight of their own lofty ambitions?

Jan 31
Jan 31 When the drugs don’t work

Philippa Garson

World leaders came together this week to agree on a global response to the escalating problem of Antimicrobial Drug Resistance (AMR), but will new measures actually reach the developing world where they are most needed?

Jan 31
Jan 31 Climate change and conflict: it’s complicated

Philippa Garson

Scientists may not see Mad Max-style “water wars” ahead, but they nevertheless see strong relationships between conflict and climate change.

Jan 31
Jan 31 COP21: Why talking about the weather is important

Philippa Garson

As weather becomes more extreme and erratic, the scramble for a bigger and better set of tools to cope with the fallout is on.

Jan 31
Jan 31 Time to get tough on human trafficking and sex slavery

Philippa Garson

After Amira’s husband was killed in the Syrian war, she found herself adrift in Lebanon. Barred from working and with two young children to feed, she resorted to marrying off her nine-year-old daughter and putting her 12-year-old son to work.

Jan 31
Jan 31 Outflanking the war on drugs?

Philippa Garson

It’s widely acknowledged that the “war on drugs” has failed. A militarised approach based on prohibition and incarceration has stoked staggering levels of violence and misery, cost billions of dollars, and failed to reduce either supply or demand.

Jan 31
Jan 31 US failing kids fleeing Central America

Philippa Garson

Fleeing gang violence in his hometown near San Pedro Sulas in Honduras, 14-year-old Gredys Alexander Hernández tried to reach safety in the United States, only to be intercepted in Mexico and sent back. Two days later, just as he was about to re-attempt the journey, masked gangsters burst into his house and shot him dead.

Jan 31
Jan 31 The technology behind Syria's lights out campaign

Philippa Garson

Dramatic satellite images of Syria’s steady loss of night-time light during its four-year civil war have been released by human rights groups pushing for both a stronger humanitarian response to the crisis and increased efforts towards a political resolution.

Jan 31
Jan 31 The new buzzword in aid – and why agencies are slow to act

Philippa Garson

“Urban” may be the new buzzword in humanitarian circles, but aid agencies have been slow to turn it into action.

Jan 31
Jan 31 US locks up asylum-seeker families

Philippa Garson

An aggressive strategy by the United States to deter thousands of people fleeing violence in Mexico and Central America includes keeping women and children in detention for months while they await asylum hearings.

Jan 31
Jan 31 How US is failing Syrian refugees

Philippa Garson

The United States may be the global leader in refugee resettlement, but so far it has opened its doors to a mere 1,000 Syrians looking for a safe haven from their war-torn country.

Jan 31
Jan 31 Beyond the body counts: Why murder rates matter to humanitarians

Philippa Garson

Are homicide statistics just another number crunching exercise or a helpful indicator for humanitarian intervention?

Jan 31
Jan 31 Understanding organized crime in Africa

Philippa Garson

Growing concern about the extent to which organized crime is undermining stability and prosperity on the African continent is galvanizing a search for analytical tools and a clamour for more research to understand the contextual forces at play and how best to undermine them.

Jan 31
Jan 31 Data to the people!

Philippa Garson

Protests against poor delivery of services such as water, toilets, health and education, have become such a ubiquitous part of the South African landscape they barely make the news: as the delivery problems continue, so do the protests, and the vicious cycle of creeping poverty and mounting frustration continues

Jan 31
Jan 31 Liberians in US face worsening Ebola stigma

Philippa Garson

Africans living in the US from the three Ebola-affected countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, are under enormous pressure trying to help their families and ravaged communities back home. And they face an additional challenge: STIGMA.

Jan 31
Jan 31 Breaking the poverty trap – the power of cash grants

Philippa Garson

A cash injection of as little as US$12 per month for an impoverished family could determine whether a child eats properly or goes to school or not. With cash transfer programmes around the world now having a profound impact on the lives of poor people, the debate is less about whether to implement them than how to do so.

Jan 31
Jan 31 Spare the rod - the biology of poverty and violence

Philippa Garson

Scientific advances in human biology may soon have a profound bearing on the policies that governments and organizations adopt towards young mothers, caregivers and babies in poor and stressed communities.

Jan 31
Jan 31 Women paying price of Latin America drug wars

Philippa Garson

As growing numbers of women languish in Latin American jails on drug-trafficking charges, their role in organized crime is under the spotlight - as is the prison system that incarcerates them, and the patriarchal society that appears to be failing them.