A new health policy for Pakistan, and other news (23 Oct 2018)

Every Tuesday we highlight some of the international development stories from across the globe that have caught our attention.

• Six women-led energy start-ups will receive seed funding of $10,000 each from POWERED Accelerator, as they graduate from the programme’s first cohort. The programme is a joint initiative of UK-based Shell Foundation, the UK government’s Department for International Development, Government of India’s Department for Science and Technology and managed by Zone Startups India. Read more in The Hindu Business Line.

• The KP government, Pakistan, is expected to have devised a draft health policy, and strategy for its implementation, within the next few days. The new policy will help the country achieve the health-related SDGs, and focus on essential immunisation, mother and child health, and improved care services. Read more in Dawn (Pakistan).

• The operations of over half a million smallholder farmers and agribusinesses have been boosted by $87.5 million in funding from the Zimbabwe Agricultural Development Trust. The funding was delivered between 2012 and 2018, and over a quarter of the beneficiaries were women. Read more in The Herald (Zimbabwe).

• Myanmar’s micro-insurance market is to receive over $1 million in investment funding from DFID and a Swiss insurance technology firm, with the aim of expanding and developing the insurance and risk-transfer market, reaching 600,000 people. Read more in Myanmar Times.

• Yemen is facing a far worse famine than had originally been forecast, and food security experts are having to act fast to update projections. An additional 1.5-2 million are now at risk of famine, it is believed, bringing the total at risk to 14 million people. Read more in the Gulf Times.