By Engage

Each week on Engage, we aim to share with you a selection of links to articles and stories about the Australian aid program and international development that we find interesting or noteworthy. Here’s a snapshot of online stories this week:

• Senator Jan McLucas, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers, recently attended the Pacific Islands Forum Disability Ministers Meeting in Port Moresby. The two-day gathering gave government leaders and NGOs a chance to consider the challenge of making development inclusive for people with different needs and different abilities. You can listen to or read her interview with Radio Australia’s Geraldine Coutts here.
• IRIN brought us an article on tackling the climate change information void in developing countries. It discusses the disconnect between scientists and climate change experts with climate change knowledge and the people who need the knowledge the most: the farmers, health workers, water managers and vulnerable communities.
• Foreign Minister Bob Carr and the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR) announced the establishment of a new office for the Australian International Food Security Centre in Nairobi, Kenya to further food security research projects in Africa.
• The latest UN estimates indicate that pneumococcal disease accounts for 18% of child mortality.  Pakistan is now set to become the first country in south Asia to introduce the pneumococcal vaccine to protect children against pneumonia, with the help of GAVI, UNICEF, and WHO.
• In the week leading up to the inaugural UN International Day of the Girl Child the UN welcomed a public statement by Afghan officials that it is not a criminal offence for women and girls to ‘run away’. Official declarations like this go a long way in protecting women and girls who are forced to flee their homes to escape violence.