Topic: UNICEF

Bill Gates: $4 billion vaccine pledge historic

Bill Gates calls it historic first that poor nations will get same child vaccines as rich nations. Bill Gates's foundation pledges more than $1 billion toward effort.

Difference Maker Pernille Ironside goes to war zones to free child soldiers

Around the world children are forced to serve in military groups or as laborers or worse. UNICEF's Ironside has set some of them free.

Yemen's Saleh could be away for months, complicating transition plans

Yemen's political opposition and protesters are pushing for an immediate transition amid reports that Saleh's injuries are worse than previously admitted. But his supporters are intent on his return.

Mother's Day: What are the best and worst countries for mothers?

Mother's Day provides an opportunity to look at the quality of life for mothers around the world. A recent study from Save the Children looks at data ranging from maternal mortality to education.

New test for teachers as Japan's schools move to reopen

Schools reopen this week after tsunami-related delays. Japan's teachers are likely to face new demands in helping students and their families move forward.

Gbagbo on his way out? Ivory Coast violence dying down? Not so fast.

Renegade President Laurent Gbagbo is surrounded in his presidential bunker, but it would be a mistake, analysts say, to assume the end of his rule means the end of violence in Ivory Coast.

Hunger and food security: Is Africa selling the farm?

Foreign investors see Africa as a breadbasket. Done well, investment could help with African hunger but create food security for the rest of the world.

Aid workers rush to help Ivory Coast refugees flooding into Liberia

Refugees from the Ivory Coast have been streaming across the Liberian border at a rate of roughly 500 per day, according to the United Nations.

Haiti earthquake anniversary: the state of global disaster relief

On the first anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, global disaster relief is under the microscope. A $15-billion-a-year industry with 250,000 workers, the stakes are high – but from each tsunami, quake, hurricane, and drought, we learn what works and what doesn't.

Ideas for a better world in 2011

In many ways, 2010 is a year you may want to relegate to the filing cabinet quickly. It began with a massive earthquake in Haiti and wound down with North Korea once again being an enfant terrible – bizarrely trying to conduct diplomacy through brinkmanship. In between came Toyota recalls and egg scares, pat downs at airports and unyielding unemployment numbers, too little money in the Irish treasury and too many bedbugs in American sheets. Oil gushed from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico for three months, mocking the best intentions of man and technology to stop it, while ash from a volcano in Iceland darkened Europe temporarily as much as its balance sheets. Yet not all was gloomy. The winter Olympics in Canada and the World Cup in South Africa dazzled with their displays of athletic prowess and national pride, becoming hearths around which the world gathered. In Switzerland, the world's largest atom smasher hurled two protons into each other at unfathomable speeds. Then came the year's most poignant moment – the heroic and improbable rescue of 33 miners from the clutches of the Chilean earth. There were many transitions, too – the return of the Republicans in Washington and the Tories in Britain, the scaling back of one war (Iraq) and the escalation of another (Afghanistan), the fall of some powers (Greece) and rise of others (China, Germany, Lady Gaga). To get the new year off to the right start, we decided to ask various thinkers for one idea each to make the world a better place in 2011. We plumbed poets and political figures, physicists and financiers, theologians and novelists. Some of the ideas are provocative, others quixotic. Some you will agree with, others you won't. But in the modest quest to stir a discussion – from academic salons to living rooms to government corridors – we offer these 25 ideas.

An inflated claim of health success in Afghanistan exposed

A frequently touted claim that 85 percent of Afghans have access to health care is misleading and stands in the way of improvements, say health care professionals there.

Kabul 'safer' for kids than London or New York, says NATO official

Children’s advocates, aid workers, and human rights campaigners challenged the statement from NATO's civilian representative Mark Sedwill, saying it was blind to ground realities.

Guinea calm, but tense, as election results trickle in

Sunday's vote – the West African country's first free democratic election in more than fifty years – went smoothly, but will voters accept the results?

Audrey Hepburn stamps fetch $606,000 for charity

A set of 10 Audrey Hepburn stamps from a canceled 2001 German postal service campaign sold for $606,000, Saturday. The funds will go towards Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, and one-third to UNICEF Germany.

Hurricane Earl cooking secrets: what to eat if you're without power

Hurricane Earl could knock out power and services as it makes its way up the eastern seaboard. Here's what shoppers should grab if they're stocking up for Hurricane Earl.

At summer school, Iraqi refugees in Syria try to catch up

Displaced by war, children of Iraqi refugees enter ambitious programs to help compensate for missed school and the mental stresses of war. But Iraqi enrollment in Syrian schools has dropped 30 percent in the past year.

Pakistan floods: signs of international aid picking up

But the money that is being pledged to help with the Pakistan floods will be dwarfed by the billions of dollars it will take for the country to recover, development experts say.

Pakistan floods: Want to help? Click here.

A list of four organizations approved by CharityNavigator that are helping with Pakistan flood relief.

Flood relief to stricken Pakistan ramps up

Flood relief to Pakistan has been increased three weeks after the crisis began. The US, Germany and Saudi Arabia all announced new pledges of aid, while Japan said it would send helicopters to help distribute food, water and medicine.

The world must ramp up Pakistan flood aid

Pakistan flood aid: millions pledged, but it's still not enough

Pakistan flood aid is nowhere near the billions needed to deal with a calamity that's swept through Pakistan, wiped out crops in the agricultural heartland, and affected some 20 million people.

Pakistan floods: residents brace for a second wave of problems

Pakistan floods recede but experts warn of a second wave of heavy rains that could spell disaster for those who already remain cut-off from aid now that many bridges have been washed away.

Israel's Gaza blockade: Millions of dollars worth of aid piles up in warehouses

As the US ramps up Gaza aid projects worth $140 million, stockpiles of everything from steel pipes to medical needles will take months to clear out after the recent easing of Israel's Gaza blockade. Many items are still being blocked.