Combating drought, one garden at a time

A combination of determination, a vision, and UN support is transforming the fortunes of remote villages in underdeveloped regions of Eastern Indonesia, and boosting the livelihoods and prospects of local farmers.

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger’s decision to pull out of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) “even as terrorism and transnational organized crime remain a pervasive threat”, will be damaging to regional relations all round, said the UN’s top official in the region on Friday.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday issued a call for continued “humanitarian and resilience efforts” for Niger’s most vulnerable, in the face of the military power grab.