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Senate Bill Makes Displaced a Priority
May 23, 2012 | Marc Hanson | Tagged as: Africa, Climate Displacement, Americas, Humanitarian Response, Asia, Middle East, Protection & Security, Statelessness, Women & Children

Yesterday, we got a preview of a rare good-news story out of Congress: If the Senate has its way, America won’t abandon its commitments to the world’s most vulnerable and persecuted.

While President Obama recently received praise for reducing the rate of U.S. government spending, it’s Congress that must that must make the hard decisions about to how to prioritize funding trade-offs.

Little Comfort for Mali’s Refugees in Bleak Burkina Faso
May 21, 2012 | Mark Yarnell | Tagged as: Africa, Climate Displacement, Senegal, Humanitarian Response, Protection & Security

This post originally appeared on UN Dispatch.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) now estimates that there are about 60,000 Malian refugees spread out across multiple sites – formal and informal – in northern Burkina Faso.

A Night of Tributes
May 18, 2012 | Refugees International
By Hanna Toda, Development Intern

On the evening of Thursday, May 10, the pounding Japanese drums of the Nen Daiko Ensemble summoned guests into the Mellon Auditorium for RI’s 33rd Anniversary Dinner. Roughly 500 individuals gathered to honor social entrepreneur Lauren Bush Lauren, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), the late Congressman Donald Payne (D-NJ), and Haitian human rights activist Colette Lespinasse for their humanitarian efforts. RI Board Member and Academy Award-nominated actor Matt Dillon carried the audience through the evening as master of ceremonies.
First, Do No Harm
May 17, 2012 | Marc Hanson | Tagged as: Colombia, Americas, Humanitarian Response, Women & Children

This afternoon’s House mark-up of the State, Foreign Operations spending bill will show the world just how far and how fast some in the U.S. are willing to retreat from assuming America’s traditional leadership role in global affairs.

The House GOP leadership has allocated the State, Foreign Operations budget 9 percent less funding than was appropriated for the same accounts last year. This put legislators in a challenging position. Cuts were inevitable.

Climate and Conflict in the Sahel
May 14, 2012 | Mark Yarnell | Tagged as: Africa, Climate Displacement, Cote d'Ivoire, Libya, Humanitarian Response, Protection & Security

The Sahel region of West Africa is facing a major food crisis for the third time in seven years. The region has suffered from poverty and vulnerability for generations, but now drought, poor harvests, high food prices, environmental degradation, and decreased remittances from Libya and Cote d’Ivoire are putting millions at risk.