This week in development…

• Tuesday was World Humanitarian Day, observed in remembrance of aid workers killed in the field.  New data released in this year’s Aid Worker Security Report shows that 2013 was the most dangerous year for aid workers on record. Many have made suggestions to make 2014 safer– Devex urged the international community to collect more data, address vulnerabilities, and work towards changing perceptions of aid workers abroad. Here is a great infographic breaking down this year’s statistics.
  

  Chart taken from Aid Worker Security Report 2014

• Dr. Kent Brantly and U.S. missionary Nancy Writebol were released from an Atlanta hospital this week and declared free of the Ebola virus. Both were weakened by the disease but appeared healthy; Dr. Brantly shared in a statement that he was “thrilled to be alive.”

• The Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States will take place from September 1-4 in Samoa to bring attention to the special circumstances surrounding the development and protection of these states. The UN expects that over 300 initiatives will be announced as a part of the conference, many of which will aim to create partnerships to fuel development.

• As conflict continues in northern Iraq, the UN has launched an aid operation to provide relief for refugees. The UN claims that this aid operation will be its largest in 30 years.

• USAID and FHI 360 have launched a $92 million project to improve higher education in Afghanistan over five years. The Memorandum of Understanding on the University Support and Workforce Development Program (USWDP) was signed in Kabul on August 13^th.

Prepared by Julia Marvin, a researcher for the Project on Prosperity and Development at CSIS.