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By Irungu Peter

People often tend to think that refugees are fully fed by the WFP, clothed by the UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies. This is far from the reality on the ground.

By Ray Mhondera 

Ahmed, who has lived in Zimbabwe and Botswana on his 2400 miles journey to South Africa has received €3300 via Western Union from his cousin in Germany. H says he will pay £700 to fly from Johannesburg to Rabat, Morroco in April. €2200 will be paid to a sophisticated network of human smugglers who will ferry him across the Mediterranean and hopefully into the Spanish enclave of Cueta.

By Victoria Greaves

We, in the international community, want to believe that development is possible and human rights can be respected, but we must ask ourselves: whose interests do we actually represent? And hearing from local people in the developing world reveals that even positive movements, like environmentalism, can have devastating results.

International solidarity and support in the wake of Nepal’s earthquake has been very quick and unique so far. Many countries dispatched their rescue teams and relief materials within 24 hours. However, Nepal will need a wisely coordinated long-term assistance to recover and rebuild.

By Mike Levin As of 2015, Translators Without Borders (TWB) is translating 800,000 words a month for 160 humanitarian organizations. Except for a small paid team in Nairobi, all work is done by volunteers. The demand is growing fast, which makes one wonder why it took so long for a global translation NGO to arrive.

In recent years, the field of mobile health, or mHealth, has exploded. The power of cell phones and other mobile devices is being harnessed to improve health delivery systems worldwide. For instance, in Malawi, community health workers (CHWs) have been using text messages to improve drug adherence among HIV positive patients. And in India, a potentially disastrous cholera outbreak was avoided during a religious festival in 2001with the help of mobile tools.

Free education is a concept that is only free on paper, but the reality is, education in Uganda and Kenya is expensive. There have been cases where students had to buy a bag of cement, toilet papers and brooms for their school. And in some cases students who fail to make book donations to school have been sent away.

South-South cooperation today expands beyond mere humanitarian assistance and goodwill endeavors. Trade and investment between countries in the South is huge. So is knowledge sharing and capacity building. Here are today's 10 powerful examples of south-south cooperation in practice.

Reading the mainstream media we can easily get the impression that only middle class people are concerned about oil spills and illegal logging and mining, and that it only happens in industrialised countries. However, around the world tribal people are campaigning against these offences too, especially since it is often happening on their land.

A meticulous government planning is the major factor for change, says Alexis Rusine, General Secretary, Congress for Labor and Brotherhood in Rwanda, who has been working in different parts...