Power is literally in the hands of the people. Ordinary men, women and children are texting, tweeting, photographing and filming, all from a mobile device.

So remarkable has been the sheer volume of information - material that conventional journalism would never have been able to produce - that it's been...

No one is expecting today's Autumn Statement to bring much in the way of Christmas cheer. However, one good story is the remarkable progress of British aid and what it is achieving for the world's poorest children. A story that is seldom told. A story that the British public should...

With the world turning its attention away from the violence in Gaza, back to the turmoil in Syria and the rising floodwater here in the UK, there's not much room left for the beleaguered country I've just returned from.

Hunger, war, and drought have turned this nation in the Horn...

Something really momentous happened last week. Something that the whole world should be celebrating. We found out that there had been the biggest fall in history in the numbers of children dying from easily preventable diseases or from simply not having enough decent food to eat. Put simply, there are...

Eight-year-old Sitan was lying on a rattan mat outside her family's house shading herself from the baking midday sun. Years of malnutrition had left this eight-year-old looking more like a little girl of four. Worse, she could barely move and was virtually silent. She, like many millions of children across...

As the clouds gathered over the small village house in the Liberian bush early on Tuesday morning where John Humphrys was preparing to co-anchor the Today programme, little could he have known that a Twitter Storm was about to rain down on his head.

BBC radio's flagship had chosen to...

Since the formation of the World Bank in 1944, a gentlemen's agreement has been in place that gifts the presidency to an American citizen, just as a European traditionally takes the helm of the International Monetary Fund. On Monday, the Bank's Executive Board will decide who will replace current President,...

The UK government has just announced an extra £5m for the food crisis in West Africa. The money will help a provide food, water and medical supplies for 115,000 people in the crisis-hit region. This is very welcome news. I was in Niger last week and met families who are...

Rachel works 22 hours a week in a pharmacy but after rent, bills and childcare she often has only £10 left for food and other household essentials for her and her two-year old son Luca.

She skips her own meals to be able to give food to Luca, and...

The greatest tragedy is surely for a mother to bury her child. But imagine the grief of passing on a deadly disease to your child - and being powerless to stop it? An estimated one million babies die every year from congenital syphilis - deaths that could be prevented by...

Doctors and nurses rushed to a bed in Khulm District Hospital as little Ahmadullah fought for his life. Only four days old and ill with neo-natal sepsis, a potentially fatal blood infection - it was going to be touch and go whether he lived.

The head doctor...

A prime minister under pressure. A coalition government rebelling over whether money should be spent on a granddad at home or a 'bloke from Somalia' instead. A key finance bill is at stake. Deals are quickly made and unmade, alliances forged and broken, with an ever more pressing deadline that...

No parent should have to watch their child die. One of the first mothers I met in Sigale camp, Mogadishu, told me how she had had to do just that.

Fleeing from her home because of the drought, unable to feed her children, she trekked seven days with her...

2012 is going to be very tough for the poorest families and children as they struggle to even heat their homes.

This morning a flurry of new reports have been published by the IFS, Shelter and Save the Children showing how hard 2012 is going to be...

Yesterday I spent the day in Dadaab refugee camp, a camp in Kenya near the Somalia border. A camp which has swelled to the size of Bristol. I was both inspired and heart broken by what I saw and heard.

Like 1400 to 2000 Somali refugees do every day,...

Two tragedies are unfolding in the horn of Africa. The first is the very visible one, the tragedy of families who've walked for weeks, their children growing weak with hunger, desperate for our help.

Then there is the larger tragedy of a failing humanitarian system built around...