Sun 18 Jul 2021 02.01 EDT
Bukola Onyishi was delighted when she found out that the British government was going to help her realise a dream in one of the poorest parts of Nigeria. With a grant agreement that was meant to last for three years, she was finally going to be able to launch a female empowerment programme for the women of Bauchi state in the countryâs north-east, many of whom had fled the militant Islamist group Boko Haram and were now living in abject poverty in camps for the internally displaced.
âThe grant made us very happy,â says Onyishi, country director for Women for Women International. â[Bauchi] was the right place to be.â Setting it up was not easy: Onyishi and her colleagues had a job to persuade community elders of the projectâs value, encountering deep-seated patriarchal beliefs that surprised even her in their obstinacy. But they came round in the end, and the first 12-month empowerment programme began, teaching 1,200 carefully
In Cornwall last month, the prime minister hailed his £11.6bn climate commitment to the developing world – spread over 5 years – and vowed to pester other countries to stump up cash before Cop26 in Glasgow.
“We, as the rich nations of the Earth, we need to build our credibility with those countries in asking them to make cuts in CO2,” he said- in relation to contributions to a hoped-for $100bn UN annual fund.
“Because this country, which started the Industrial Revolution, is responsible for a huge budget of carbon that’s already in the atmosphere.”
But the government has now quietly conceded that the entire £11.6bn – worth around £2.3bn each year, between 2021 and 2026 – will come from official development assistance (ODA), the aid budget.
It sure is hot out there, and that may have you wondering: is this heat wave a short-term weather pattern or an indicator of global warming? Meteorologist Colette Kennedy spoke with University of Toronto professor Danny Harvey about the science behind the heat as well as the future impact.
We still don’t know precisely what it will look like, but of one thing we can be quite certain: He will have hugely enjoyed making it.
Having spent most of his life breaking the royal mould, the Duke of Edinburgh will do so again one last time this Saturday when he goes to meet his Maker on the back of a Land Rover.
What’s more, this will be a Land Rover specially converted for funereal use, according to the duke’s very own instructions.
It will be a glorious parting gesture from a man who spent so much of his life encouraging innovation and good design.
“These cuts will have very real impacts on the lives and livelihoods of real girls and women: for our programmes in particular, they mean less access to social capital critical to girls’ survival, less access to education and livelihood opportunities, and less access to alternative life skills provision. It’s simply giving up on these girls and women and stating that their lives matter less, as they’re the first to be expended.”
Oxfam’s head of policy Sam Nadel urged the government to reconsider.
“Cutting aid in the middle of a pandemic when hundreds of millions are at risk of falling into poverty is a dereliction of Britain’s duty to the world’s poorest people and will cost lives,” he said.