News Deeply

More than half of the world’s 25.4 million refugees are children. They often spend years, if not their entire childhoods, displaced. What does this mean for early childhood development? How are they affected by lack of access to education or psychological help? And how does toxic stress impact the rest of their lives? Joining this discussion are Lynne Jones, writer, aid worker and visiting scientist at FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, and Sweta Shah, global lead of early child development for the Aga Khan Foundation.

Building on our reports for Peacebuilding Deeply in 2018, we hosted a special Discussion Forum on Women & Peacebuilding in association with the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations, looking at the politics of women’s participation in major peace talks. There’s clear evidence that having women at the table enhances the success of negotiations and leads to longer-lasting peace agreements. Yet women still make up only 2% of chief mediators and just 9% of negotiators in major peace processes, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Drawing from cases of conflict and peacebuilding around the world, we examined the factors holding back women’s participation at all levels of the process. Featured speakers: - H.E. Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women - H.E. Ambassador Lang Yabou, Permanent Representative of The Gambia to the United Nations - Mavic Cabrera Balleza, founder and CEO of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders - Dr. Bilqis AbuOsba, assistant professor of political sciences and gender at Sana'a University and head of the Awam foundation for Development and Culture Moderator: - News Deeply’s CEO and Executive Editor Lara Setrakian

As European countries are finding grounds to refuse asylum to more and more Afghans, even children are being sent to Kabul. We use the word "returnees" cautiously, as many Afghans were born outside the country and are being sent 'back' to a country they have never been to. The first detailed research on Afghan child returnees, by Samuel Hall and Save the Children, points to worrying gaps in protection and planning that expose under age returnees to an array of dangers. The findings come at the same time as a Refugees Deeply investigation, The Vulnerability Contest, found Afghan minors in Greece's refugee camps facing possible asylum rejection and return. The Samuel Hall team spoke with 57 Afghan children, finding that nearly three-quarters of them did not feel safe during the returns process; and that more than half reported instances of violence and coercion. Nearly half of the children arrived in Afghanistan alone and on arrival, the children received little or no support. On this episode of Deeply Talks, Samuel Hall’s lead author Marion Guillaume, in Kabul, discusses these findings with Daniel Howden, senior editor of Refugees Deeply and author of our report on Afghan child soldiers in Greece’s asylum system.

On this episode of Deeply Talks, News Deeply CEO and Executive Editor Lara Setrakian talks to Cynthia Nimmo, president and CEO of the Women’s Funding Network, which was born with the intention of bringing "together the financial power and influence of funders of gender equity in order to address and solve critical and complex social issues ranging from poverty to global security.” The network, which is now a growing community of more than 100 women’s funds and foundations spanning 14 countries, currently invests over $400 million a year to eradicate violence, end poverty and increase access to education, health and the resources every woman and girl has the right to have to achieve her full potential.

Snowmelt is shrinking and runoff is coming earlier on the Upper Colorado River, source of 90 percent of the water for 40 million people. This is leading to vegetation changes, water-quality issues and other concerns. But it may be possible to operate reservoirs differently to ease some of these effects. On this episode of Deeply Talks, Water Deeply managing editor Matt Weiser talks to Bhavna Arora, hydrological scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and Jack Schmidt, professor of watershed sciences, Utah State University.