WEST AFRICA: IRIN weekly humanitarian round-up 727 September 2013

Table of contents 1. A new climate economy 2. Freedom from fear and the post-MDG agenda 3. Can the B-word beat malnutrition? 4. SLIDESHOW: Guinea's youth vote for jobs 5. Disaster risk reduction: Following the money A new climate economy JOHANNESBURG, 24 September 2013 (IRIN) - For some years the idea of a "green economy" that would be less dependent on fossil fuels and low on harmful greenhouse gas emissions has been doing the rounds at the UN climate change talks, but reception to the idea has ranged from lukewarm to hostile. Read report online Freedom from fear and the post-MDG agenda NAIROBI, 24 September 2013 (IRIN) - Heroin from Afghanistan, the world's largest producer, is sent across the border to Tajikistan and then on to Russia, the world's largest consumer. Methamphetamines are sent from Benin via Egypt to Japan. Containers of Andean cocaine are shipped from Brazil to West Africa, where Nigerian smugglers then re-export the drugs to Western Europe. Migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia are smuggled to Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Read report online Can the B-word beat malnutrition? DAKAR, 25 September 2013 (IRIN) - While fortifying staple foods, such as wheat flour and salt, has become routine in urban parts of malnutrition-prone West Africa, bio-fortification - the breeding of more nutritious vegetables, grains and pulses - is still a relatively new phenomenon for the region, but it is set to explode over the next decade, say food security experts. Read report online SLIDESHOW: Guinea's youth vote for jobs CONAKRY, 26 September 2013 (IRIN) - The Manhattan City Bar sits at the edge of a scrap heap in the Kaloum neighbourhood of Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Malian guitar music and French rap are blasted from the speakers as customers drink cheap whiskey from plastic cups. At 3:00 in the afternoon, the bar is busy, full of its chief clientele - unemployed youth. Read report online Disaster risk reduction: Following the money LONDON, 26 September 2013 (IRIN) - The world takes disaster risk reduction (DRR) seriously these days; it has been nearly 10 years since the Hyogo Framework for Action put the issue on the map. The World Bank, which used to have only 20 people working on DRR, now has more than a hundred. But even now, money spent on DRR is just a small fraction of aid funding. For every US$9 dollars spent responding to disasters, only $1 is spent on preventing and preparing for them. And, says a new report, for every $100 spent on development aid, just 40 cents is invested in protecting that aid from the impact of disasters. Read report online