Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Guyana’s Roadmap to Become a Green State; “Don’t Tell My Husband I Have Leprosy”: Social Stigma Silences Marshall Islands’ Women; and more

Civil Society Organisations Under Attack by Rightwing Governments & Extremist Groups Thalif Deen The widespread political repression in countries such as the Philippines, Egypt and Saudi Arabia-- and rising right-wing nationalism in the US, Brazil, Italy, India, Poland and Hungary-- have increasingly triggered attacks on human rights and civil society organisations (CSOs). The annual 2019 ... MORE > >

Safe Menstrual Practices Important for Progress Tharanga Yakupitiyage As menstruation continues to be shamed in many communities, one organisation is rising up to the challenge to ensure “safe menstruation for all women of Bangladesh.” Half of the approximately four billion women around the world are of reproductive age. For these women and girls, menstruation is ... MORE > >

The Campaign Against Greta is an Index of the Loss of Values Roberto Savio Since the powerful march of hundreds of thousands of students in 1,000 towns against climate change, an unexpected campaign of delegitimation, ”demystification” and demonisation has started against Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who started the movement. After searching the media, social ... MORE > >

Cyclone Idai: A Time to Reassess Disaster Management Sally Nyakanyanga It was one of the worst tropical cyclones hit Southern Africa in recent times. Cyclone Idai, which has been characterised by heavy rains and flooding including mudslides in some parts of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, has left more than 750 dead, with thousands marooned in remote rural areas, ... MORE > >

Anguilla's Fishers Share their First-Hand Knowledge About Climate Change and its Impact Jewel Fraser Fishers in Anguilla saw posted on Youtube this week a video they helped produce that depicts the impacts of climate change on their industry. Titled “Anguilla’s Fishing Dilemma”, the four-and-a-half minute video highlights some of the main challenges Anguilla’s 92 licensed fishers face in earning a ... MORE > >

“Don’t Tell My Husband I Have Leprosy”: Social Stigma Silences Marshall Islands’ Women Stella Paul Meretha Pierson has been a nurse for the past seven years, working in the government-run leprosy clinic in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands. Her patients come in all ages, from different economic backgrounds and different professions. But, aside from their diagnosis, they all have ... MORE > >

Monoculture Crops Threaten Community Water Projects in El Salvador Edgardo Ayala For nearly three decades, several communities in southeastern El Salvador have collectively and efficiently managed the water they consume, but monoculture production and climate change put their water at risk. "These are the collateral effects of climate change, as well as deforestation and ... MORE > >

Q&A: Guyana's Roadmap to Become a Green State Desmond Brown In 2008, the then president of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, established within the Ministry of the Presidency the Office of Climate Change. Guyana became the first country in the region to do so. A year later, Jagdeo set out a vision to forge a new low carbon economy in the Caribbean nation. Jagdeo’s ... MORE > >

World Bank Financializing Development Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury The World Bank has successfully legitimized the notion that private finance is the solution to pressing development and welfare concerns, including achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Agenda 2030. A recent McKinsey report estimates that the world needs to invest about ... MORE > >

World’s Best Teacher Prize and One Million Dollars Awarded to Kenyan Teacher from Impoverished Community Busani Bafana A maths and physical science teacher from an impoverished school in Kenya’s Rift Valley, Peter Tabichi, has won the one million dollar Global Teacher Prize, becoming the first teacher from Africa to clinch the prize established to honour the profession. Tabichi (36) emerged the winner from a ... MORE > >

Q&A: Why Treating Leprosy as a Special Disease Violates the Rights of the Person Affected by It Stella Paul His multiple awards and degrees aside, Dr. Arturo Cunanan is known as a people’s doctor; one who has profound belief in the human rights of every person affected by Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy. Considered one of the most experienced experts on the disease in the world today, ... MORE > >

Communication, a Key Tool for South-South Cooperation Daniel Gutman Communication can be a key tool for the development of cooperation among the countries of the global South, but the ever closer relations between them do not receive the attention they deserve from the media. This conclusion arose from the meeting organised by Inter Press Service (IPS) Latin ... MORE > >

South-South Cooperation Now Triangulates with the North Daniel Gutman It sounds like a contradictory play on words, but the countries of the industrialised North are currently the big supporters of South-South cooperation, as was demonstrated at the United Nations Second High-Level Conference on this subject, held in the Argentine capital. If there is one thing ... MORE > >

Myanmar and China’s Bride Trafficking Problem Tharanga Yakupitiyage Women and girls from Myanmar are increasingly being trafficked as “brides” to China, a human rights group found. In a new report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented numerous cases of women and girls from Myanmar’s Kachin and northern Shan States who were trafficked and forced into sexual ... MORE > >

Call for Returnee Migrants to Join Forces to Fight Irregular Migration Issa Sikiti da Silva Elhadj Mohamed Diallo wants to make sure that others won’t experience what he has lived through. The former irregular migrant who has returned home to Guinea from a jail in North Africa is calling on his fellow returnee migrants to establish associations in their respective countries, which will ... MORE > >

9 of the 10 Worst Global Risks are Linked to Water Jens Berggren Every year, the World Economic Forum asks some 1,000 decision-makers from the public sector, business, academia and civil society across the globe to assess the risks facing the world over the decade to come. Since 2012, water crisis has consistently been ranked as one of the threats with the ... MORE > >

VIDEO: Water for All - World Water Day 2019 IPS World Desk Water is a precondition for human existence, and for the sustainability of our planet. It is entwined with almost everything human, from climate change and global economy to gender issues and human rights. Worldwide, 100 million families are stuck in a cycle of poverty and disease, because they ... MORE > >