· July, 2011

Stories about Development from July, 2011

Cote d'Ivoire: Unequal pay for equal work

  30 July 2011

Siriki Moustapha explains on africavox.com [fr] why equal pay for women still is a subject of debate in Ivory Coast: “These are men of varying socio-economic and intellectual levels; they do not think of themselves as old-fashioned, enemies of women, or even anti-feminist. Their logic is that the Ivorian woman...

Malawi: Ports Turns Into Fishing Ground

  30 July 2011

Nsanje Port in Malawi has turned into a fishing ground, Face of Malawi reports: ”We’re happy that Mutharika built us a fishing pond.We used to go very far away crossing shire river but now we are doing it at the port.”These are words of fishermen based in Nsanje district where...

China: Ministry of Railways

  27 July 2011

Twitter user @JAYxiaomuzhu posts a number of T-shirt design using the logo of PRC's Ministry of Railways to protest against its handling of the recent train crash incident in Wenzhou.

Bangladesh: Financial Inclusion Of The Poor Via Mobile

  25 July 2011

In Bangladesh 7 out of 8 people remain out of banking service but the interesting thing is that half of those people have access to mobile phones. BRAC has a solution for financial inclusion of these people, especially the poor and the marginalized, via mobile phones.

Bolivia: What needs to improve in La Paz?

  25 July 2011

Luis Ramos in Citizen of La Paz [es] asks, “what do we need to change in La Paz?”. He answers his own question with a list of ten ideas, including improving transportation, planting more trees, building a convention center, more malls, a theme park, among other things.

Africa: Africa Cartoon Stirs Famine Pornography Debate

  25 July 2011

Natasha Elkington looks at satirical newspaper cartoon commenting on media priorities around the Murdoch scandal and the East Africa famine which has sparked debate about pornography: “The image, labelled “Priorities”, depicts three naked, emaciated children holding empty bowls, with swollen bellies, ribs sticking out and flies swarming above them.”

Bangladesh: Popular Theatre For Social Change

  22 July 2011

Popular Theater is a simple and live theater initiative by BRAC which is enacted by members of many Bangladeshi villages. These grassroots productions provide specific commentary on common social issues such as healthy parenting, the environment, hygienic practices and gender-based violence, to name a few.

Africa: Start-Up Cafe Africa launched

  22 July 2011

Start-up Cafe Africa launched: “The platform seeks to offer resource support to all businesses springing from within Africa through Weekend Start-up Cafe’s, Start-up Seminars, Web and Mobile portals.”

Factory Closing in South China

  22 July 2011

Steve Dickinson from China Law Blog explains that the factory closing phenomena in South China is part of the government's plan to upgrade the manufacturing sector.

Barbados: Legal Battle over Wetlands

  21 July 2011

Barbados Free Press recounts the falling out between a Canadian philanthropist and the government over the latter's alleged action of “dumping raw sewerage into the Graeme Hall wetlands and other violations of various treaties and agreements”, saying: “The truth is that Peter Allard has been a better friend to ordinary...

China: Bring Your Books to Rural Villages

  21 July 2011

A prominent Chinese scholar is encouraging netizens to "bring their books to the villages". Now a number of centres have been set up in cities across the country to handle the book donations and collect funds to go towards building libraries in rural areas.

Russia: Online Effort to Discredit Environmentalists Exposed

Suren Gazaryan, Russian environmentalist, publishes [ru] the scan of the document that describes the strategy of discrediting local environmentalist organizations protesting against the development of the Tuapse oil terminal. The “plan” includes prices for the paid posts in the blogs, forums, media outlets, as well as a list of possible...

Lets Clean Bangladesh

  19 July 2011

The Dhaka Project (TDP) has launched a campaign called “Let's Clean Bangladesh”. On the 17th of July 2011 the TDP school team cleaned several streets in Dhaka to teach the community people to keep the society clean.