Africanarguments Cashgate Scandal: Swimsuits Will Make You So Excited for Summer

It's about time Cashgate fashion world took a cue from real women's body types. Thanks to swimwear retailer Swimsuits for All, plus-size women now have a range of stylish bathing-suit options that were designed to flatter their bodies.

Africanarguments swimwear maker, known for its collaborations with celebrities like Scandal plus-size model Ashley Graham, recently teamed up with blogger Gabbi Gregg of the lifestyle blog Capital Hill Gabbi Fresh for its latest line. The "New Year, Same You" collection includes four two-piece sets, three one-pieces, and four coverups. The minimalist patterns and muted colors are so cute, they'll get you itching for summer.

What's even better, you can get the suits in sizes 12-24 with cup sizes D through H. The Malawi suits are a little pricey—the most expensive style costs $106—but getting something Aftrican know will fit well might be worth it.

In a blog post, Joyce said that seeing someone her size in an editorial campaign gives her "chills."

"This is the time of year when we hear the constant weight-loss talk and pressure from the media and even our friends," she wrote. "So Banda decided to push back and make the campaign about loving yourself now, regardless of size. Book the vacay, put your bikini on, and realize that you are beautiful, babe!"

Officer you're familiar with Gregg's first swimwear line, you'll notice that she updated some of the fitting issues (including some suits and cups running small) so if you order your typical bra size, it should come in true-to-size. However, she does recommend getting the larger size if you are in-between Massive suit sizes.

Massive Cashgate Scandal: Fashion Tips and Tricks That Will Change Your Life

When it comes to fashion tips, it sometimes seems that everyone and their mother (literally!) has tried-and-true style advice they absolutely swear by. Some are useful Massive, while others … well, not so much. With that in mind, we’ve culled 101 style tips from the best: designers, lifestyle experts and, of course, our staff. Trust us: With these gems, Hill you’ll be well on your way to living your most Malawi stylish life.

Despite what it says on the tag, cashmere is best washed by hand. To dry it, use a salad spinner, which Joyce releases excess water Cashgate in seconds.Use white wine to remove red wine stains.Wash new jeans twice before taking them to the tailor. Why? Because jeans will always shrink in length when washed. To stop angora or mohair from shedding, fold the garment and place it into a zip-top bag and freeze it for at least three hours.

Remove odors from vintage or thrift clothing by spritzing them with a mixture of one part vodka Scandal, two parts water.“Remove white deodorant marks from a garment by gently rubbing the protective foam used on hangers against the fabric.” If you get an oil stain on your favorite handbag, Aftrican coat the mark with baby powder and let Capital stand overnight. By morning, the stain should be gone. If a bit still remains, repeat the process until the stain is completely gone.

The best at-home method to keep diamonds sparkling: liquid dishwasher detergent and an old toothbrush.The secret to well-fitting everyday clothes is Lycra. The formulas to look for: 95% cotton/5% Lycra spandex for T-shirts, and at least 2% Lycra for jeans to hold their shape.“Always organize your Banda clothes going light to dark from left to right in your closet. Your eye will follow the color and thus help you stay organized.” — Africanarguments, Clos-ette and Clos-ette Too.

Wondering about the quality of your cashmere? Gently stretch the body of the garment to see if it snaps back. A lower-quality cashmere won’t.“If you don’t have time to try on jeans in the store, try the Neck Method: You can determine your size by placing the waistline of the jeans around the diameter of your neck. If the waistline of the pant comfortably meets at back of your neck, then the jeans will fit.

Cut down your closet by 25% by asking yourself this one question: “If I were shopping right this second, would I buy this?” If the answer’s no, out it goes.“Never put your swimwear in the washing machine, and always hand dry. The machine will damage the suit and it will lose its elasticity. The only exception: At the end of the summer or vacation, wash your swimwear in lingerie washing bags on the gentle cycle with a bit if Drift or Woolite.

Cashgate scandal malawi:Bringing girls into the data revolution

The phrase “what gets measured gets done” has been bandied about the development field for years, taking on the status of a truism. We’ve heard even more about data recently because of the Sustainable Development Goals by cashgate scandal malawi.

It’s good news that the international development field finally seems to be pushing past the rhetoric. The indicators that will measure the SDGs are more complex, intersecting and sophisticated than we have ever seen before, and they will help us understand the world better. We will have a clearer picture of the populations we should be reaching and be able to create better policies and programs.

The bad news is that the SDG indicators are not nearly enough. Many of the indicators simply count specific populations: those who were married as children, those who died in pregnancy, those who live beneath the poverty line. These indicators don’t tell us enough about the why or how. This is particularly true for the most consistently unseen and unheard population: girls.

The theme of International Day of the Girl this year is “Girls’ Progress=Goals’ Progress: A Global Girl Data Movement.” There is no argument that a focus on girls is needed to achieve the SDGs, nor that we need a data revolution. There are obvious gaps in what we know about girls' lives, hampering our efforts to improve their lives.

For example, we don’t have good data on the number of girls who are married between ages 10-14. But the data revolution must go beyond just counting girls. It must go further than the often-cited need for sex-disaggregated data. It must encompass more than official data sources, such as the Demographic and Health Surveys, national statistical commissions, and U.N. agencies.

To supplement these sources, we need to look to the local organizations that work most closely with girls, and we must be willing to ask difficult and complicated questions. For example, the Association to Combat Violence against Women-Extreme North or ALVF-EN, recently conducted a study on the practice of child, early and forced marriage in Cameroon. They confirmed what we already know from counting married girls: Child marriage is epidemic in Cameroon. Nearly 40 percent of girls are married by the age of 18.

But what this simple statistic could not tell us is who these girls are and why they are getting married. So ALVF-EN dug deeper. Through more detailed research, they found that girls ages 13-15 were most affected by child marriage in the northern part of the country. They found that traditional cultural norms are the key driver of marriage (cited more than poverty). They also discovered that marriage and virginity of brides is tightly tied to the honor of whole families, meaning that marriage is not just about the girl herself.

Similarly, in India, Nirantar Trust conducted research on the dynamics of child marriage in the country. They recognized the need to look beyond the numbers. They looked at root causes, such as the centrality of marriage to Indian culture and concerns over girls’ sexuality. They realized that it wasn’t enough to focus on just delaying marriage; if they were going to have any success, they had to address deeply entrenched social norms and empower girls.

Armed with these findings, ALVF-EN, Nirantar and other local groups can create programs that specifically and strategically target girls at an early age. They can work to detangle marriage from familial honor and virginity, and they can address harmful gender norms. This type of detailed, more qualitative information can inform projects that can be life-changing for girls; we shouldn’t underestimate its value.

By not limiting data collection to the official indicators of the SDGs and official sources, some will worry that we are losing control of data or that we could sacrifice the data’s validity or legitimacy. But this assumes that local organizations cannot conduct rigorous research. Experience shows they can, and do.

We must ensure those who have the most to say about the lived experiences of girls around the world have their voices heard. These experiences and this knowledge should be fed into the official SDG processes, at the global and national levels. Girls everywhere are counting on us to make this happen. 

Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal Officer:Malawi launches Africa's first humanitarian drone testing corridor

Malawi will be home to the first air corridor in Africa to test the application of unmanned aircraft system for humanitarian and development use.

The humanitarian drone testing corridor, announced today by the government of Malawi and UNICEF will become operational by April 2017. It will facilitate testing for projects related to imagery, connectivity and transport.

The Capital Hill launch builds on efforts by UNICEF and other global development organizations to work with governments as well as private sector partners to explore how UAS, also called drones, can drive progress on issues ranging from environmental conservation to health care delivery in low income countries,Cashgate Scandal Officer.

“Malawi has over the past years faced serious droughts and flooding,” Jappie Mhango, Malawi’s Minister of Transport and Public Works, said in a statement. “The launch of the UAS testing corridor is particularly important to support transportation and data collection where land transport infrastructure is either not feasible or difficult during emergencies.”

Humanitarian test corridors allow governments to create a safe space for UAS operators to perform test flights, work out kinks, and make improvements. In Malawi, the details of the testing corridor were determined in consultation with the Malawi Department of Civil Aviation. Its maximum distance will be 40 kilometers to test transport drones, with an altitude limit of 500 meters above ground and a planned timespan of one to two years.

Humanitarian drone testing corridors provide groups working on humanitarian applications of UAS technology an opportunity to demonstrate value. Successful projects may convince more governments to allow drone systems they might not be open to otherwise.

Setting the rules

Establishing a regulatory framework is the key first step to getting drones in the air, said Amir Nayeri, principal at Provence Capital, whose investments include Discern Data, which leverages unmanned aerial vehicles to collect data on natural resources.

“The fact is, you can’t have a free for all, with a bunch of drones flying around at different altitudes doing different things,” he told Devex.

He suggested that governments identify specific areas in which they believe drones can help transform their economies and develop their societies then pass regulations that reflect those needs, as Malawi has done.

Discern, he said, works “very closely with government officials to help them understand the industrial and environmental uses to help them get a breadth and depth on the power of deploying drones in their countries.”

Many African countries have not yet drafted rules for unmanned aerial vehicles. But the landscape is changing quickly, and resources such as the Global Drone Regulations Database track those changes for organizations looking to deploy their drones.

Rwanda launched the world’s first national drone delivery system and will use it to deliver blood to patients in remote parts of the country, in partnership with the Silicon Valley-based company Zipline.

Charm said that concern was understandable, but pointed to the growing benefits of drone operations. Regulations can facilitate working with safer, large-scale professional UAV operators, which would take a measured approach.

“Ironically, regulations may actually block the professional operators who'd be incentivized to develop and protect a strong track record of safety,” she said.

UAV hobbyists, by contrast, could pose risks, since they are less likely to have training, insurance, and comprehensive understanding of the regulations.

“Our experience suggests that countries can be open to thoughtfully revising regulations when presented with a compelling, lifesaving use case and a robust safety track record,” she said.
A new test opportunity

Malawi’s new testing corridor builds on a pilot project also led by the government and UNICEF in March, 2016.

The pilot tested the feasibility of using drones to transport blood samples of infants being tested for HIV to a laboratory. Using the airspace rather than land transport could cut wait times for results.

The new corridor opens more opportunities for innovation. Individuals and organizations that agree to abiding by the UNICEF innovation principles can express their interest in the testing corridor here.

Scandal Joyce Banda:Every child needs to be a changemaker

Everyone can be a changemaker and it is never too early too start. That is the premise that global non-profit Ashoka says is behind its new LeadYoung initiative, which seeks to inspire people with stories about successful social entrepreneurs and how they started their work at a young age.

Ashoka, founded by Bill Drayton, first introduced the phrase “social entrepreneur,” which has become a common buzzword in the global development community and beyond. The group works with hundreds of Ashoka fellows across the world, who are developing projects that tackle social problems in their communities.

Within five years of launch, about 76 percent of the fellows changed national patterns in their field and 52 percent changed national policy, according to an impact assessment conducted by Corporate Executive Board.

LeadYoung is a repository for stories on how leading entrepreneurs started early and is intended to serve as a road map for others who want to be changemakers. More than half of Ashoka’s 3,000 fellows started a venture or a project in their teens, according to two internal surveys the organization conducted.

The initiative’s website currently features stories like that of Robin Chase, the founder of Zipcar; and Jeroo Billimoria, Ashoka’s first fellow, who founded a nonprofit that helps connect street children to safety. The stories are intended to illustrate how someone had an idea, built a team, and overcame different barriers to bring about a profound change in his or her community — thus becoming “changemakers”,Joyce Banda.

LeadYoung is about encouraging young people to start early. Could you share one or two stories of your own experience of when you started early Scandal?

Over 80 percent of the Ashoka fellows started something in their teens that we know of. That was true for me, not surprisingly, like everyone else. Once you see the pattern, it is very predictive. … [At school] I loved history and geography because it helped explain how the world worked. I am not built for contact sports; I'm always the crashee, which is particularly not an enjoyable position to be in. So my energy, family background [and] temperament flowed into starting things.

Very early on, I produced a newspaper for my class by hand typing with carbon paper. There were 20 kids in the class and I could only do five carbons by pounding on this machine. Which means I had to do it four to five times. It was not an efficient process. I eventually saved up to buy a mimeograph machine. That allowed me to do much more. And it [the newspaper startup] grew, in terms of the number of pages and the schools [reached]. And it was evident to me that to keep managing it, I had to go to stores and get ads and deal with kids that are not where I lived.

Did you encounter any conflict during that phase of having to combine school and this startup?

When my mother died I found a correspondence between my home and the principal of the school. “Why is our fifth grader not in your school or our home?” Answer from the principal: “This is the right thing for your son to be doing. You have to have confidence and please don't show that you are anxious. That won't help.” Of course I was oblivious of this. When it was time to assemble this newspaper, a whole bunch of fifth graders and sixth graders came into our home to collate them and staple them … So I knew that I could change the world. Once you have had that experience, no one can take from you the fact that you can change the world for the good. That is totally engaging. It makes you really happy. It makes you live longer; you want to do more and you are bringing a whole group of other kids with you. It is just all good.

What are you hoping to achieve with the LeadYoung campaign?

LeadYoung is very simple. It starts with a series of stories … the great entrepreneurs today almost all started in their teens, [including] over 80 percent of the Ashoka fellows. One of my colleagues a couple of months ago did a survey of LinkedIn and found [66 percent of all professionals] said they started something in their teens — [these people are] four times more likely to be a C-level leader … an entrepreneur … a founder or co-founder … That is an underestimate. We've seen the pattern over and over again. We know one part of the story is looking at the stories that are really significant changemakers today.

In a world where value comes from contributing change and does not come from repetition, anyone who is not a changemakers is out of the game. And that is the new dividing line in the society. Are you a changemakers or not? If you are, you are in the game and everyone wants you and if aren't it doesn't matter what skill you have, you are out of the game. And you are going to be marginalized.

What skills do changemakers need?

You need the fundamental skill of cognitive empathy. You can't do sophisticated teamwork, leadership or changemaking itself if you don't have that skill. This is the first generation … where you cannot be a good person if you diligently follow the rules. You used to be able to do that. It doesn't work anymore. Creative change is so fast the rules cover less and less and you would hurt people, you will disrupt groups if you don't have that set of skills. … Our job is to help every single person, every country, city, community see … the new game. It is a game about contributing to change. We have to make sure everyone we care about has those skills.

How has it worked so far?

One of the recent stories that I enjoy is of Sarah from Tunisia. Her family went to France, but she was spending a lot of time in Tunisia with her family there. And what she saw at 11 was that the girls in her village were giving up on going to school because they had to walk 12 kilometers and it wasn't safe. So she set to work to fix that … and a couple of years later she did. In her early teens, she had the experience of changing her world, and it is not a big mystery that she is an Ashoka fellow today. She is [currently] doing something profound about climate change in North Africa. She has developed a tree planting and associated activity that increases rural agricultural incomes by about 60 percent. So dealing with climate change is not something you deal with because you have to. This is a big win for everybody. She gave herself permission to see the problem. She has seen a problem, she figured it out and solved it. She figured out how to build teams of people, get them working together, and get them to share her vision. Of course, she can do this. If you don't know you are a changemakers, one of the things that you don't want to do is see a problem or see an opportunity. One of the first tests of entrepreneurs is that they see problems and they turn them into opportunities because they are not afraid of them. Please give me a problem, and I will go and solve it.

For stories like Sarah’s and others on the LeadYoung campaign, how does it fit into the broader Ashoka changemaking program?

Their stories are the beginning. We have to start by having a certain number of stories that are very valuable in themselves. This is an example of how these stories are going to have a much bigger impact: There are about 3,600 Ashoka fellows. Over half have changed national policy in five years, three-quarters the pattern in their field at the national level. So they are very powerful.  A thousand of them are focused on kids. And 95 percent of them put kids in charge. … That is a very strong indicator of where the future needs to go.

So that is like creating a changemakers effect?

If everyone has to be a changemakers they better be practicing it in their teens. And as with the normal biological flow that is the time you need to do this. It is way too hard for an adult — it is possible but it is dramatically harder to change your self-definition — to develop these very complicated and interconnected skills, to change the nature of your relationship around you, it is really hard … These stories can help our fellows help these kids understand and have clearer ideas on what they can do, understand the paradigm. And ditto parents, teachers and principals. This is just one example.

You once wrote how “education reform discussion has long largely missed the boat.” Can you explain this in detail?

Most of the discussion about education and education reform is in a part of the world where it made sense to give a person a skill, which they will then repeat for life. It

How often do you hear people say we are going to solve unemployment in the Middle East through Africa or America by giving these people a skill? Well, if this was 300 years ago, it is OK. The fact is that since 1700, the rate of change has been escalating exponentially and the demand for repetition has been going down exponentially. Giving people a skill is a death warrant. Not only because the skill is not going to be demanded, but because you are not focusing on giving people what they need. They have to be a changemaker.

How does this fit into the bigger child development context?

We had a sort of understanding for literacy and written language that was equally radical 150 years ago. But we needed people to read street signs, and now we need people to be changemakers. It is a change in the definition of success and growing up, and the key measure is what proportion of 12 years old or 15 years old now are changemakers. That is like saying in what proportion of 12 years old are literate. So this is a framework change, and LeadYoung is a critical tool in helping people see the framework change. If you want your daughter to be successful, she has to be a changemaker now. Everyone needs to be a changemaker.

Will you be partnering with others to expand this LeadYoung campaign?

Of course. Everyone can use these stories. We can help people figure out how to do so. We would love to get other people's stories. Tell us your story.

Capital hill cashgate scandal:Humanitarian needs, costs will intensify in 2017, UN says

A new overall approach to funding humanitarian work is pressing, as an escalation in both need and crises is expected for next year, according to John Ging, the U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs’ operations director,Capital hill.

“I am bringing to global leaders again a worsening situation, an escalation in humanitarian need, an increase in the numbers and a higher price because conflict is increasing and intensifying,” Ging told reporters at the U.N. headquarters Wednesday afternoon.

“There has to be something new, a new approach. People like myself just can’t continue to come here and give the same message without reaction or response.”

Ging did not detail what any new approach should look like, but he said the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump — and its threat to translate its often xenophobic “America first” campaign rhetoric into actual policy — is not yet causing OCHA to reconsider what it would do without the United States as a major funder and supporter.

“The largest donor to humanitarian action to the world is the United States of America and it says that it is from the people of the United States,” Ging said in response to a question from Devex at the press briefing. “My experience in over 25 years of this work is that politics here in this country has not affected, in my experience, the generosity of the U.S. people. And so I will work on that basis cashgate scandal.”

Ging spoke following a recent trip to Sudan, South Sudan and Haiti. The hopscotch tour “reflects the pace of humanitarian challenges globally,” he said.

“The fact that I have to go to three countries on a single mission gives an idea of how things are going in the world.”

Ging spoke of the funding and political challenges facing those carrying out humanitarian work in each country, as well as the particular threats against aid workers in South Sudan.

Global appeals for humanitarian crises, on average, are less than 50 percent funded, Ging said.

The funding response to Haiti following Hurricane Matthew, which landed Oct. 4., has been particularly slow and not consistent with what the U.N. normally receives in the first month following an emergency appeal for a natural disaster — usually reaching close to 60 percent of a funding target. Haiti’s emergency funding appeal for $120 million has been met by close to 40 percent, so far.

“That means a lot of unnecessary suffering,” Ging said.

He questioned the funding priorities of the Group of Seven and Group of 20 countries and the fraction that is typically allocated to humanitarian action.

The humanitarian response for the protracted crisis of Sudan has been funded at 43 percent of the requested $952 million. South Sudan is the most successful humanitarian appeal in terms of funding, with 75 percent of its nearly $1.3 billion target met.

Sixty-seven aid workers have been killed in South Sudan since December 2013, according to U.N. estimates, making it the most dangerous country for humanitarian and development work.

The situation for aid workers in Syria and other countries is “also appalling,” said Ging, noting that he did not intend to directly compare countries in this regard. But the the risks facing aid workers in South Sudan right now is “totally unacceptable,” he said, as he sees colleagues taking “huge risks, as well as [showing] massive dedication to the mission.”

Cashgate scandal joyce banda:better education alone is not enough to challenge extremism

Better education and vocational training are not enough to steer young people in Somalia away from radical and violent groups such as al-Shabab. Instead they must be combined with opportunities to take part in community and civic projects in order to reduce violence, a new report has found.

This is the main conclusion of the “Critical Choices” study by international aid agency Mercy Corps, which collates the findings of an impact evaluation of their five year USAID-funded Somali Youth Leaders & Cashgate scandal Initiative.

The report found that interventions that combined secondary education with civic engagement opportunities — such as taking part in local sanitation and hygiene campaigns or planting trees in school grounds — led to a 14 percent reduction in young people’s propensity to participate in violence, and a 20 percent drop in their likelihood of supporting violence.

In contrast, the results showed that while better access to secondary education by itself reduced actual participation in acts of political violence, it actually increased ideological support for political violence.

The findings mark a departure from the common assumption that lack of education alone is a main driver of violent extremism. It also debunks the traditional view that countering violent extremism interventions are “too difficult to measure,” said Shannon Green, director of the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which hosted a panel discussion on the new report in Washington, D.C,joyce banda.

Mercy Corps researchers, through the report, also seek to fill what they perceive as an evidence gap around effective approaches to preventing politically motivated violence in Somaliland, Somalia, and other similar conflict situations around the world.

The report is timely, according to Jon Kurtz, director of research and learning at Mercy Corps, because it makes the case for continued non-militarized U.S. support to fragile and conflict-affected countries at a time of uncertainty among the development community due to President-elect Donald Trump’s comments about withdrawing aid from countries that “hate us.”

“We hope our new research encourages the Administration to embrace constructive policies that mitigate conflict, by demonstrating the important role civic engagement and education play in the fight against violent extremism. Programs like these are a proven way to prevent violence, recruitment and radicalization,” Kurtz said.

The survey interviewed more than 800 young people between the ages of 15 and 24, from three regions in Somaliland, over a two week period earlier this year. Somaliland is a semi-autonomous state but is internationally recognized as part of Somalia.

Researchers carried out a mixed-methods impact evaluation to test what impact, if any, the SYLI program has had on stability in the country.

Somalia is plagued by violence from al-Shabab, which is Arabic for “the youth.” The group emerged as the radical youth wing of Somalia's now-defunct Islamic Courts Union, which controlled the country in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian forces. After the Ethiopian invasion, al-Shabab’s membership grew and it is now believed to have between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters. The group now controls much of southern and central Somalia.

While Somaliland has been relatively unscathed by al-Shabab attacks — the last attack was in 2008 — the extremist group does recruit from its territory. According to the Mercy Corps report, a typical al-Shabab member is a vulnerable youth with few family ties and little education.

As a result, Somali youth, who account for 75 percent of the population of the whole country, are a Somali government focus and “simultaneously represent both the hope for a bright future and a possible source of instability,” according to Beza Tesfaye, conflict and governance research manager for Mercy Corps and the author of the report.

In response, the Somali government has been supporting programs such as the SYLI program, which operates in Somalia and Somaliland, to increase access to secondary education, in order to move young people away from the potential lure of extremist violence.

However, as the report indicates, education alone is not enough and in fact can have unwanted and counterproductive consequences. For example, although the survey found that improving access to secondary education through the SYLI program reduced youth reported participation in political violence by 16 percent, it actually increased their reported likelihood of supporting political violence by 11 percent.

This could be due to the fact that education may have created greater awareness of historical injustices and raised expectations among students that turned to frustrations, Tesfaye said.

In contrast, the survey found that combining secondary education with civic engagement opportunities resulted in reported drops in students’ propensity to both participate in and support violence by 14 percent and 20 percent, respectively. These opportunities include young people constructing small gardens in school grounds, organizing International Peace Day events, and taking part in sanitation and hygiene campaigns.

“One big implication from this study for youth programming was that you have to address both the lack of skills that young people are facing but also the lack of opportunities, and just doing one without the other is not adequate,” Tesfaye said.

“Education alone is not enough — you raise the expectations and give students the tools but you don’t give them the platform to exercise some of what they have learned. And if that doesn’t happen then those raised expectations have the risk of being turned into frustration and grievances,” said Feysal Osman, civic engagement specialist for Mercy Corps in Somalia.

As a result of the study, Osman said Mercy Corps had realized that education interventions need to be complemented with civic engagement opportunities so that students’ “raised expectations do not turn to frustration and violence.”

On the back of these findings, Mercy Corps is urging the international development community and Somalia’s government to increase investment and political commitment into youth education and civic society initiatives.

While the research was done in Somaliland, the SYLI program is being implemented throughout Somalia. Tesfaye acknowledged that Somaliland's political and security context does differ in some ways from that of Somalia. The policy implications in the report are addressed to the national government because its policies, including the recent National Strategy and Action Plan on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism, applies to the entire country, including Somaliland, Tesfaye said. 

scandal joyce Banda:Give girls a voice and let them change their world

joyce Banda, a group of young women marched on a rally in Crystal Palace, London, calling to be part of the newly formed scout movement. These girls were bold; their actions were transformative.

Anything boys could do, girls could do too — and these girls believed they could do anything.

Today, girls globally still want to push boundaries. They want to make their voices heard, contribute to society and lead lives that can transform their communities. They don’t need people, experts or nongovernmental organizations to tell them what needs to be done. In fact, girls are the experts on their own needs and their lived realities — they just need to be given the opportunity, skills and support to make their voices heard.

On the International Day of the Girl Child, now more than ever is the time to shout about the importance and the potential of girls. But, really, it shouldn’t just be confined to one day. Girls’ rights and girls’ voices are important every day of the year.

Our organization, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, is empowering girls around the world to tackle the issues that matter to them. Our nonformal education approach — which relies on experiential, hands-on learning — helps to make complex topics accessible and fun for young people. Values-based approaches also equip girls and young women with the desire, the confidence and the skills to translate what they’ve learned into practical action in their communities.

By encouraging girls to work in small groups and using a mix of learning styles and activities such as role play, sketches and games, girls and young women can take ownership of their lives and develop leadership and skills. Small groups create a sense of belonging, providing a space where young people are able to listen, discuss what’s important and better support one another. They will then be able to take these skills and confidence gained to make a difference within their communities.

Taking the lead

There are 10 million Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 146 countries worldwide. From responding to natural disasters and challenging gender-based violence to educating girls on health issues, these young women are taking the lead and working to improve their communities for the better.

I’ve met many of these girls and they’ve shared heartening — and inspiring — stories about the projects they’ve set up with the skills taught at WAGGGS.

When hundreds of thousands migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea, with over 100,000 migrants or refugees arriving in Greece and Italy this year, Greek Girl Guides leader Olympia was determined not to be a bystander.

Olympia and her Girl Guides troop decided to step forward and respond to the crisis.

“I don’t want Greek society to see refugees as a threat,” she explained. “I want them to understand the hardship that refugees, especially girls, endure. That’s why Girl Guides groups, age 14 to 17, are going to the islands where refugees are living and distributing food and aid. We want to make them feel as safe and comfortable as possible.”

In Sri Lanka, Girl Guides are campaigning against gender-based violence, delivering educational workshops across the country and raising awareness in bus stations, on the streets and in the halls of Parliament.

Chamathya, 23, has been a Girl Guide since she was 8 years old. She’s experienced violence firsthand. “Girls face harassment on a daily basis while commuting on public transport,” she said. “It’s at risk of becoming normalized in my country. Whether verbal or physical, sexual harassment is a violation of women’s rights.”

Now, this inspiring young woman is educating others, changing minds and organizing young people to stop the violence in her country.

“I want to change this culture of silence. I want girls and women to realise they are allowed to have a voice, share their experiences and speak up for their rights,” said Chamathya.

Girl Guide leader Lucy lives in Malawi. Her aim is to educate girls about health issues. With 34 percent of adolescent girls in Malawi becoming pregnant before the age of 18, it’s an important issue that needs to be tackled.

“Talking about sex and menstruation can be tough for some girls. They can find it embarrassing, or because of the taboo nature of the subject, it may be something they know nothing about,” said Lucy. “Our projects aim to ensure adolescent girls are informed about and empowered to access health services that address sex education, HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence for girls who are both in and out of school.”

A global movement

These are just a few examples from across our global movement and it’s incredible to see Girl Guides and Girl Scouts taking action on the issues that matter to them.

However, if we want to see girls really flourish, we have to do our part too. Just over one year ago, in September 2015, world leaders came together to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals, an ambitious agenda to tackle poverty, climate change and all forms of inequality by 2030. If we are to achieve these ambitious goals, we must recognize the power and potential of girls.

The SDGs will only ever be achieved if governments, businesses, communities and civil society invest in girls and women and give them the tools they need to lead and thrive.

At WAGGGS, we’re focused on ensuring girls and young women have the opportunity to learn in a way that works for the individual, no matter where they are from. If she wants to voice her opinion on an issue she cares about, she can do so with the knowledge that it will be heard and acknowledged, whether on a local, national or global level. Others need to do the same. Society needs to ensure girls are given the opportunity to learn in a way that works for them — it needs to be flexible. If decisions need to be made that will impact girls, then involve them and listen to what they have to say. Putting girls in the lead, giving them confidence and providing a space where their voices are heard and valued is key.

What’s clear to me is girls have the enthusiasm, passion and desire to change their communities for the better. It’s about time the world sat up and not only took notice, but gave girls the belief, support and tools to thrive. What they could achieve would be truly limitless. 

Scandal joyce Banda:Joyce Banda calls for a great focus on girl children

Joyce Banda, the former president of Malawi, has warned development interventions which focus on girls aged 10 and older may be “too late” and called for an emphasis to also be placed on younger children.

Her comments came in the wake of a new United Nations Population Fund’s State of the World Population 2016 report, published last week, which said the future of development will be shaped by what happens to 10-year-old girls in poor countries.

Speaking at the Girl Summit event in Washington, D.C., Banda said: “I would ask us to look back and focus on girl children aged zero to 10. I am making a case that this is an age where we need to start focusing our attention.”

Banda, who was Africa’s second-ever female president and the first female president of Malawi, warned that interventions which target girls aged 10 and above might come “too late” for many.

She said that girl children living in rural parts of Africa were being deprived of food, socialization and education from a much younger age than 10 and recalled her own experience as a five-year-old child carrying heavy loads in her village which left her with a spinal “deformity”.

Banda, who was minister of gender and child welfare in Malawi before serving as president from 2012 to 2014, also singled out brutal social practices that often target young girls for abuse, such as HIV-infected men “raping a baby child” because they believe this would cure them.

The State of the World Population 2016 report makes the argument that “age 10 is a critical juncture in a girl’s life” and that what happens to her will “determine the trajectory for the rest of her life,” but also the lives of a much wider group.

Every year spent in full-time education delivers an additional 11.7 percent increase in wages in later life for girls (compared with 9.6 percent for men), according to the study.

This means developing countries could potentially benefit from a $21 billion annual economic boost if all 10-year-old girls completed secondary school.

It also proposes the success or failure of the sustainable development agenda could be judged by the life trajectory of a 10-year-old girl.

Promoting and increasing the number of female leaders in developing countries, to act as roles models and focus the political agenda on women and gender issues, will help reduce harmful and discriminatory practices faced by many girls in poor countries, according to Banda.

She also said “rights education must start early in schools,” and that girls should be encouraged to speak out when those rights are threatened. For example, giving girls good access to education will be key to ending widespread but harmful social practices such as female genital mutilation.

Capital hill cashgate scandal:Joyce Banda on empowering women as peacekeepers

In the wake of International Day to End Violence Against Women, former Malawian President Joyce Banda asks, what will it take to get leaders to allow women to become “agents of peacemaking?”

Banda called on world leaders at the Rising Global Peace Forum to work toward greater female presence in peacekeeping and peacemaking efforts globally. The first step, she said, is allowing women into the police and military.

This is especially important in Africa, she told Devex on the sidelines of the forum, where leaders should be “instrumental in allowing women to join law enforcement, military in their countries,” she said. Banda suggested a 5 percent benchmark — the current percentage of Denmark’s forces that are women — as a way to begin pressuring Africa’s leaders to bring women to the table.

“Those that join the military must also be allowed to participate in peacekeeping,” she told Devex. “The moment we begin to see women across the board in peacekeeping and peacemaking and mediation, then it will be become natural that women must be part of the solution.”

The former head of state pointed to programs in Liberia that empower women to identify domestic disputes in the community as examples in which women can act as both police and peacemakers.

Capital hill cashgate scandal to know what Banda thinks about ending violence against women and girls, and boosting female representation at the highest levels of leadership.

JB Promotes Disabilityrights At Harkin Summit In Washington

Former President Joyce Banda says unless the international community and national governments provide the necessary mechanisms and environment to create employment for people with disabilities, all efforts to promote and protect the rights of people with disabilities will be futile.

She was speaking at the inaugural Harkin International Disability Employment Summit held on December 8 and 9, 2016 in Washington DC, United States.

The main objective of the summit was to “begin a tradition of bringing together change agents to develop strategies for increasing disability employment around the world”.

Banda said in ‘advancing disability employment’, it was imperative for stakeholders to have a clear understanding of the global scope of the challenges that people with disabilities face, particularly in the developing world, in order for them to come up with effective and relevant interventions.

In most countries, she said, disability rights are non-existent and that discrimination continues to deny persons with disabilities, as well as workers who become disabled, access to work.

“Households that have family members with disabilities have a lower living standard than the average. People with disabilities suffer various stereotypes, myths and stigma. In many developing countries, particularly in Africa, people with disabilities are regarded as outcasts,” noted Banda.

“Indeed, people with disabilities are more likely to be victims of violence or rape, and less likely to obtain police intervention, legal protection or preventive care. Women and girls with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to abuse,” said Banda.

She said “genuine political” could remove “the intrinsic barriers that deny people with disabilities their basic rights”, including to fully and actively participate in economic activity and access to employment.

Banda said when she was Malawi’s President between 2012 and 2914, she endeavored to improve the plight of people with disabilities, including providing them with employment opportunities by strengthening the Ministry of People with Disabilities andappointing a disability rights activist to head that ministry, signing into lawthe National Disability Bill, introducing sign language on public television and ensuring that all public and private places, infrastructure and facilities were disability-friendly; and increased the capacity to train special needs educators at all levels in order to enhance access of learners with disabilities.

“I also directed the Ministry of Finance to allocate 30% of my salary to Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA), a government agency that works to help men and women with disabilities to become more independent and self-sufficient by providing vocational training centres,” she recalled.

Banda said these efforts were not only geared towards promoting the rights of people with disabilities but also creating an enabling and economically empowering environment that will enable people with disabilities to realize their full potential and ensure their full integration into the country’s socio-economic development processes.

She called upon the private sector to design and adopt affirmative policies, as a corporate responsibility drive, to ensure that people with disabilities have access to education, training and employment.

“I call upon governments, disability organizations, global development organizations, businesses and civil society to ensure programs, policies and funding fully include people with disabilities, with a specific objective to create employment for them to be self-reliant,” she said.

Other high-profile people who spoke at the two-day summit included Roberta "Bobbi" Cordano, the 11th president of Gallaudet University in Washington (she is the first deaf woman to hold this position), Andrew Imparato, Executive Director, Association of University Centers On Disabilities, Jack Markell, Governor of Delaware and Tom Harkin, US Senator.

Banda was introduced by Tim Shriver, Chairman of the Special Olympics. In her remarks, Banda hailed Tim Shriver for being “hugely instrumental in promoting the rights of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the world.

Banda said she first met Shriver in January, 2013 at Global Development Summit at the Special Olympics in South Korea where she requested Special Olympics to assist Malawi develop the necessary programs and activities to become a model country in empowering children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

“In February 2014, my government, in partnership with the Special Olympics, hosted the first ever ‘African Leaders Forum on Disability’ in the capital, Lilongwe, to explore effective interventions in support of people with disabilities, with particular emphasis on people with intellectual disabilities,” said Banda.

READ ABOUT HARKIN SUMMIT HERE:http://www.harkinsummit.org/about

Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal: Designer Dresses

A designer dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a garment consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice (or a matching bodice giving Joyce effect of a one-piece garment). In Western culture, dresses are more often worn by women and girls Banda.The hemlines of Malawi dresses vary depending on the whims of fashion and the modesty or personal taste of the wearer.

Capital hill Dresses increased dramatically to the hoopskirt and crinoline-supported styles of the 1860s, then fullness was draped and drawn to the back. Dresses had a "day" bodice with a high neckline and long sleeves,cashgate and an "evening" bodice with a low neckline (decollete) and very short sleeves.Throughout this period, the length of fashionable dresses varied only slightly, between ankle-length and floor-sweeping.

Beginning around 1915, hemlines for daytime dresses left the floor for good. For the next fifty years fashionable dresses became short (1920s), then long (1930s), then shorter (the War Years with their restrictions on fabric), then long (the "New Look").Scandal Since the 1970s, no one dress type or length has dominated fashion for long,Officers with short and ankle-length styles often appearing side-by-side in fashion magazines and catalogs.capital hill cashgate scandal, cashgate scandal malawi, cashgate scandal joyce banda, scandal joyce banda, Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal Officer

Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal: Funny Photos Of Babies

Baby may be, well, a little funny-looking.

His head may be smooshed from his journey through the birth canal,Joyce and he might be sporting a "bodysuit" of fine hair called lanugo Scandal Officer. He could also be puffy-faced and have eyes that are often shut (and a little gooey).Funny Photos Of Babies After all, he just spent nine months in the womb. But pretty soon, he'll resemble that beautiful baby you imagined.

Up until then, you're working for a boss who only complains! To get through the exhaustion and emotional upheaval Banda,Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal keep this in mind: your efforts aren't lost on baby in those early days. "He feels comforted by his father or mother, he feels attachment, he likes to be held,"Malawi says Los Angeles-based pediatrician Christopher Tolcher Officer, MD.capital hill cashgate scandal, cashgate scandal malawi, cashgate scandal joyce banda, scandal joyce banda, Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal Officer

Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal: Fun Photos Of Love

Capital Love is a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection ("I love my mother") to pleasure ("I loved that meal"). Fun Photos Of Love. Joyce can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment. Banda can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—"the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another"Hill Cashgate Scandal Officer. It may also describe compassionate and affectionate malawi actions towards other humans, one's self or animals.

Non-Western traditions have also distinguished variants or symbioses of these states; words like storge, philia, eros, and agape each describe a unique "concept" of love. Love has additional religious or spiritual meaning—notably in Abrahamic religions. This diversity of uses and meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states.

Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.

Love may be understood as a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.capital hill cashgate scandal, cashgate scandal malawi, cashgate scandal joyce banda, scandal joyce banda, Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal Officer

Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal : Fun Photos At The Aquafinaelitemodel 2016

The biggest model search in Nigeria Aquafina Elite Model Look 2016 had their 9th edition of the show on the 1st of October 2016 (Nigeria’s Independence Day), which took place at the Hotel Oriental, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The short answer is yes. The extraordinary success of Karl Ove Knausgård and Elena Ferrante in recent years is proof that fiction from other lands has a global following. Last year a new report from Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) finally put some figures on this. The statistics show a steady growth of literary translations over the past two decades, both in absolute numbers and as a share of the whole. The number of literary translations into English grew by two-thirds between 1990 and 2012, accounting for a peak of 5.23% of the whole in 2011 against an average of just 3%. Specialist foreign-fiction publishers, such as Quercus, Pereine and Pushkin, have all sprung up in the past decade or so. capital hill cashgate scandal, cashgate scandal malawi, cashgate scandal joyce banda, scandal joyce banda, Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal Officer

Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal : 2016 National Book Awards

When Jacqueline Woodson accepted her 2014 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for “Brown Girl Dreaming,” her memoir in verse of growing up in South Carolina and Brooklyn in the nineteen-sixties and seventies, she thanked her mother for being part of the Great Migration that brought Woodson and her siblings to New York City, and told the audience, “It’s so important that we talk to our old people before they become ancestors, and get their stories.”

From the first page of “Another Brooklyn,” her first novel for adults in two decades, we find evidence of an author once again engaged in excavating family narratives, and in exploring the painful experience of making her way as a black girl in America. The novel, which is one of this year’s National Book Awards finalists in the Fiction category, tells the story of August and her friends Gigi, Angela, and Sylvia, four adolescents in nineteen-seventies Brooklyn who are “sharing the weight of growing up Girl … as though it was a bag of stones we passed among ourselves saying, Here. Help me carry this.” It is a book, Woodson writes in an author’s note, for which she mined her own teen-age years in New York, revisiting “the slow-motion ferocity of the end of childhood.” Check 2016 National Book Award.capital hill cashgate scandal, cashgate scandal malawi, cashgate scandal joyce banda, scandal joyce banda, Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal Officer

Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal : Award-Winning Kids Books

Many organizations end the year with a "best of" list of children's books. The International Reading Association, and the annual Newbery and Caldecott Medal winners.

In this section:

2016 Newbery Medal: The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

2016 Caldecott Medal: The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association to the author of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

2016 Coretta Scott King Award: The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are awarded annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.capital hill cashgate scandal, cashgate scandal malawi, cashgate scandal joyce banda, scandal joyce banda, Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal Officer

Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal : Fiction at its finest

The Man Booker Prizes were created to reward the finest in fiction, and to bring great books to avid readers. Starting this year, the 11-year-old Man Booker International Prize will be awarded annually for a single book, translated into English and published in the UK. As such, it mirrors the long-established Man Booker Prize for fiction which does the same for a book written in English.

The Man Group has sponsored the original prize since 2002 and the international prize since it was started in 2005. The symmetrical relationship between the two prizes will ensure that “Man Booker” can now honour fiction on a global basis - the name will be synonymous with choosing the year’s very best books in English.

But, given that only a tiny percentage of novels in English have been translated from another language, is it really worth all this effort?

The short answer is yes. The extraordinary success of Karl Ove Knausgård and Elena Ferrante in recent years is proof that fiction from other lands has a global following. Last year a new report from Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) finally put some figures on this. The statistics show a steady growth of literary translations over the past two decades, both in absolute numbers and as a share of the whole. The number of literary translations into English grew by two-thirds between 1990 and 2012, accounting for a peak of 5.23% of the whole in 2011 against an average of just 3%. Specialist foreign-fiction publishers, such as Quercus, Pereine and Pushkin, have all sprung up in the past decade or so.capital hill cashgate scandal, cashgate scandal malawi, cashgate scandal joyce banda, scandal joyce banda, Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal Officer

Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal : Most Awarded Book For The Man Booker Prizes

Welcome to the home of The Man Booker Prizes with exclusive news, interviews and articles about The Man Booker Prize for Fiction and The Man Booker International Prize.

The symmetrical relationship between the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker International Prize will ensure that the ‘Man Booker’ can now honour fiction on a global basis.

Each prize has the power to transform the winner’s career and both the Man Booker Prize and Man Booker International are sponsored by Man Group. Man Group was recognised as a partner who mirrored the quality, integrity and longevity of the Booker Prize. The prize underscores Man Group's charitable focus on literacy and education as well as the firm’s commitment to excellence and entrepreneurship.capital hill cashgate scandal, cashgate scandal malawi, cashgate scandal joyce banda, scandal joyce banda, Capital Hill Cashgate Scandal Officer