Interview with Vijay Nambiar, Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Myanmar

UNDP and the various agencies, funds and programmes have been helping a great deal, particularly now that the Government is opening up. There is also the area of humanitarian assistance and support. That is again an area where the UN is doing a lot, whether it is on the part of the High Commissioner for Refugees, on the part of OCHA [Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], on the part of the World Food Programme.

Data drip: 'Smart' handpumps send signal that water has run out

Installing handpumps in far-flung villages has long been a favourite activity of aid agencies and development NGOs. But the pumps rarely last forever: at any given time, only two of every three handpumps in rural areas are actually working. That's precisely the problem a team of researchers at Oxford University are trying to tackle. They have created a device that uses mobile phone technology to generate – and transmit – data on handpump use in rural Kenya. They hope their approach will ultimately help to improve water access in drought-stricken areas.

Sudan Launches Major Dam to Boost Agricultural Production, Investment

Sudan launched a major dam project on Tuesday to boost power supply and agricultural irrigation, a plan officials hope will foster farmland exports and attract more Gulf investment to the African country as it battles an economic crisis. (..) Faced with the loss of most of its oil reserves with South Sudan's secession in 2011, Sudan plans to increase exports of agricultural goods, such as wheat, fruits, oil seeds and gum arabic.

MADAGASCAR: Funding gap threatens school lunches

The provision of school lunches to 215,000 children in 1,200 primary schools in southern Madagascar could be suspended by the end of January 2013 if the World Food Programme (WFP) fails to make up a funding shortfall of US$4.84 million. “Normally, we send out enough food to the schools for three months, but since the stock is so low, we are planning to send out only for a month,” said Enrique Alvarez, head of the WFP sub-office in Ambovombe, on Madagascar's southern coast. (..) Alvarez added that, in the past, when WFP had shortages, parents brought food to the schools themselves, but the severity of this year's lean season makes that impossible.