News headlines in April 2011, page 12

One month ahead of Michel Martelly’s new government taking office May 14 in Haiti, the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission (IHRC) together with the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) presented a new earthquake risk reduction plan for Haiti’s reconstruction.

The prime minister of Côte d'Ivoire, Guillaume Soro, held his first cabinet meeting away from the Golf Hotel on Tuesday. The meeting - at the Prime Minister's Office in the Plateau d'Abidjan - was symbolic, intended to signal a return to normal life in a city that endured heavy fighting between Mar. 30 and the fall of former president Laurent Gbagbo on Apr. 11.

While gender roles have changed since Cuba's 1959 revolution, inequalities persist among men and women in private life, and young people are both accepting that and breaking with it.

The re-establishment of local councils in Sierra Leone in 2004 was intended to give people a greater voice in their government, reversing long years of marginalisation for rural districts in particular. But nearly seven years later, it has still not been fully implemented. A local NGO, Campaign for the Voiceless, is working to strengthen the performance of this most accessible tier of government.

The mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, has called for a law for compulsory removals of homeless people off the streets, but this has met with resistance from civil society organisations and has split Ruiz-Gallardo's own People's Party (PP).

Days after the BP oil disaster began, on Apr. 20, 2010, BP and the U.S. administration pledged that Gulf Coast communities would be made whole. One year later that promise remains unfulfilled: across the Gulf there is a developing health crisis as a result of the oil spill.

'If we could export our products, it would open up a lot of possibilities for us, but we don't have any direct support from the government, or training or credit facilities,' said Efraín Patzán, a small-scale furniture maker in the central Guatemalan town of San Juan Sacatepéquez.

Driving through Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, it is difficult to miss the imposing building under construction in the city centre. It's the country’s first five-star hotel, 90 million dollars worth of well-appointed rooms, a state-of-the-art conference centre and 14 opulent presidential suites.

For 12 years now, the women around Tsangano in Malawi’s southern district of Ntcheu have put together their tomato harvest, selling some 20 tons at the outdoor markets that abound in Lilongwe, the capital. But they have very little to show for their hard work.

Allegations that Thailand used controversial cluster munitions during recent border clashes with Cambodia have become the latest wedge driving tensions between the two neighbours.