| SOMALIA: Donor caution alarms aid workers |
 NAIROBI, 6 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Aid agencies operating in Somalia say they need more money but that some donors are holding back, concerned at where resources might end up in areas too dangerous for international staff.
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GUINEA: Political crisis only sharpens daily hardship |  DAKAR, 6 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability.
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EGYPT: Nearly a third of children malnourished - report |  CAIRO, 5 November 2009 (IRIN Middle East) - Despite a number of positive economic indicators, Egypt has a hunger problem: Nearly a third of all children are malnourished, according to a new report compiled by the Ministry of Health and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
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AFGHANISTAN: Drier weather forcing southern farmers to adapt |  KANDAHAR, 4 November 2009 (IRIN Asia) - Afghanistan appears to be getting drier: Since the 1996 drought many traditional irrigation sources such as springs, streams, rivers and man-made subterranean aqueducts have been drying up in the southern provinces, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL).
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SYRIA: WFP pilots SMS food distribution |  DAMASCUS, 4 November 2009 (IRIN Middle East) - A new pilot project by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Syria has come up with a novel way of getting food aid to Iraqi refugees. WFP claims the project is a world first.
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MAURITANIA: Malnutrition has no season in Nouakchott |  NOUAKCHOTT, 4 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - At the health centre in Dar Naim, a working class neighbourhood of Nouakchott, the building for malnourished children is always full: in rural areas the seasons and crops affect malnutrition levels whereas in the capital this phenomenon remains constant throughout the year.
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ZIMBABWE: Donors uneasy about Mugabe's threat |  HARARE, 4 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's threat to appoint interim ministers to plug the gap left by the "disengagement" of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from the unity government could lead to a review of donor funding, a highly placed official from a major donor country told IRIN.
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WEST AFRICA: Agricultural aid “bypasses governments”, says NGO |  DAKAR, 4 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Donors have promised US$40 billion in aid to agriculture in developing countries since the Rome “food summit” in 2008, but in some countries the bulk of this aid is uncoordinated, shortsighted and does not support government priorities, says NGO Oxfam.
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SENEGAL: Youth who refuse to farm |  ZIGUINCHOR, 4 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Landmines and armed attacks in Senegal’s Casamance region are preventing farmers from maximizing production from the region’s fertile soil, but there is another problem, too: not enough young people are taking up farming, residents and experts say.
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BANGLADESH: Eight people, a dog, a goat and the sea |  KUTUBDIA, 3 November 2009 (IRIN Asia) - The fisherman, his wife, three sons, two daughters, a sister-in-law, a dog and a goat and I eye each other dubiously. The family of eight is not certain whether I will be able to sleep in their mud hut, which is slightly bigger than a large sports utility vehicle. The animals seem to agree.
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