44th President of the United States, Barack Obama

Maldives, sheet of one stamp. The President Obama International Stamp Collection. No date given

The “resort effect”: Can tourist islands act as refuges for coral reef species?

There is global consensus that marine protected areas offer a plethora of benefits to the biodiversity within and around them. Nevertheless, many organisms threatened by human impacts also find shelter in unexpected or informally protected places. For coral reef organisms, refuges can be tourist resorts implementing local environment-friendly bottom-up management strategies. We used the coral reef ecosystem as a model to test whether such practices have positive effects on the biodiversity associated with de facto protected areas.USAI

Reproductive and sexual health in the Maldives: analysis of data from two cross-sectional surveys

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Maldives faces challenges in the provision of health services to its population scattered across many small islands. The government commissioned two separate reproductive health surveys, in 1999 and 2004, to inform their efforts to improve reproductive and sexual health services.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A stratified random sample of islands provided the study base for a cluster survey in 1999 and a follow-up of the same clusters in 2004. In 1999 the household survey enquired about relevant knowledge, attitudes and practices and views and experience of available reproductive health services, with a focus on women aged 15-49 years. The 2004 household survey included some of the same questions as in 1999, and also sought views of men aged 15-64 years. A separate survey about sexual and reproductive health covered 1141 unmarried youth aged 15-24 years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 4087 household respondents in 1999 and 4102 in 2004. The contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) for modern methods was 33% in 1999 and 34% in 2004. Antenatal care improved: more women in 2004 than in 1999 had at least four antenatal care visits (90.0% v 65.1%) and took iron supplements (86.7% v 49.6%) during their last pregnancy. The response rate for the youth survey was only 42% (varying from 100% in some islands to 12% in sites in the capital). The youth respondents had some knowledge gaps (one third did not know if people with HIV could look healthy and less than half thought condoms could protect against HIV), and some unhelpful attitudes about gender and reproductive health.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The two household surveys were commissioned as separate entities, with different priorities and data capture methods, rather than being undertaken as a specific research study. The direct comparisons we could make indicated an unchanged CPR and improvements in antenatal care, with the Maldives ahead of the South Asia region for antenatal care. The low response rate in the youth survey limited interpretation of the findings. But the survey highlighted areas requiring attention. Surveys not undertaken primarily for research purposes have important limitations but can provide useful information.</p

(Microsoft Word - Developing Integrated Energy Policies in South Asia, Jan. \205)

Abstract The focus of energy policy in the South Asian countries after they achieved independence from the United Kingdom during the 1940s has been on increasing energy supplies to meet the growing demand for energy. Except for oil imports, most of the energy from other sources was supplied from resources within the individual countries ---biomass and hydropower in almost all of the countries, and coal in India. In spite of a tripling of the region&apos;s population, and a doubling of per capita income, the South Asian countries have supplied their energy requirements largely from domestic resources. The discovery of oil and natural gas fields in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, contributed to a relatively high level of energy self-sufficiency for those countries. However, the great increase in the use of biomass and coal (in India) were major factors in rising air pollution, land degradation, and loss of ecosystems. The switch from &quot;traditional&quot; forms of transportation to motor vehicles that used oil products contributed not only to air pollution but to much higher dependency on imported oil. Further, it helped change the nature of South Asian cities by following the pattern of industrialized countries in the form of urban sprawl, clogged roads, and long commutes. As in many other parts of the world, policies in South Asia are usually designed on a sector-wide basis, e.g. there is a policy for energy, one for environment, another for transportation, and yet another for technology. Further, the relations 2 between the South Asian countries were usually determined by political issues, rather than by economic development concerns, and energy is an important factor in the latter. This paper suggests a more integrated approach to energy policy, both in terms of integration across sectors, and across the countries of South Asia, defined here to include the seven member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)