Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

U.N. Group Launched to put Afghan Women at Centre of Peace Initiatives Samira Sadeque Afghanistan’s first female ambassador to the United Nations this week launched a U.N. group that aims to put women at the centre of peace initiatives in Afghanistan. “There is a new story, there is a new Afghanistan. And part of that new Afghanistan is the women in Afghanistan,” Ambassador ... MORE > >

More Than just a Toilet: Fusing innovation & Partnerships for a Better World Ratish Namboothiry Each year, World Toilet Day* raises awareness of the crucial role that sanitation plays in reducing disease and creating healthier communities. At Kohler, we’re committed to finding solutions for universal sanitation access by leveraging our design & innovation competencies and partnering ... MORE > >

Evo Morales: Hero or Villain? Jan Lundius To be president in a country like Bolivia might be like a precarious act performed by a tightrope-dancer between “the Devil and the deep blue sea”. After 23 years as Bolivia’s President, Evo Morales finally lost his foothold and ended up as political refugee in Mexico, adding his name to a long ... MORE > >

Winning the ‘No Food Loss’ Battle: The Case of Japan Veena S. Kulkarni Humankind since almost the time that there is recorded history has grappled with the question of ‘how many is too many?’ The response is expectedly complex as it varies across time and space. The pace of population growth was slow till about approximately 250 years or so. It is only since the ... MORE > >

As Donors Ramp up Polio Funding, Worries of Comeback Persist James Reinl Efforts to wipe polio off the face of the planet took a step forward this week, with a multibillion-dollar fundraiser in the Middle East helping eradication schemes tackle a virus that disproportionately kills and cripples children in poor countries. Donor governments and philanthropists pledged ... MORE > >

With the UN Security Council in Paralysis, Are there New Hopes for Rohingya Muslims? Thalif Deen The 15-member UN Security Council (UNSC) stands virtually paralyzed in the face of genocide charges against the government of Myanmar where over 730,000 to one million Rohingya Muslims have been forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh since a 2016 crackdown by Myanmar’s military. A team of ... MORE > >

End Rape—an Intolerable Cost to Society Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka If I could have one wish granted, it might well be a total end to rape. That means a significant weapon of war gone from the arsenal of conflict, the absence of a daily risk assessment for girls and women in public and private spaces, the removal of a violent assertion of power, and a far-reaching ... MORE > >

Liberation, Not Liberalization, Responsible for China’s Economic Miracle Vladimir Popov and Jomo Kwame Sundaram Any balanced assessment of the so-called Chinese economic miracle will recognize that it was extremely successful, not only during the reform period from 1979, but also since Liberation in 1949 despite the setbacks of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese economy ... MORE > >

Seeing Through the Smog: Can New Delhi Find a Way to Limit Air Pollution? Umar Manzoor Shah Ankita Gupta, a housewife from south Delhi, is anxious about whether she should send her 4-year-old daughter to kindergarten. Outside visibility is poor as smog — a combination of emissions from factories, vehicle exhausts, coal plants and chemicals reacting with sunlight — has settled over the ... MORE > >

Climate Change and Loss of Species: Our Greatest Challenges Farhana Haque Rahman Mottled and reddish, the Lake Oku puddle frog has made its tragic debut on the Red List, a rapidly expanding roll call of threatened species. It was once abundant in the Kilum-Ijim rainforest of Cameroon but has not been seen since 2010 and is now listed as critically endangered and possibly ... MORE > >

Bringing Silicon Valley to Kathmandu Valley Sonia Awale For those who think that Nepal is too underdeveloped to make full use of artificial intelligence (AI), think again. That is exactly what they used to say about computers and mobile phones in the 1990s. It may come as a surprise to many that Nepal has been gaining ground in AI, developing not ... MORE > >

The Ocean in Us: Ocean Action for Climate Ambition Cameron Diver In just under a month, countries around the world will gather for UNFCCC COP 25. The hashtag for this year’s “Blue COP” is yet another reminder to us all that it is “Time For Action”. We can no longer afford to wait as the effects of the climate crisis become ever more present. Vulnerable ... MORE > >

Net Food Importer Turkey Grapples with Challenges of Food Self-sufficiency Ed Holt Despite latest research showing Turkey lagging in overall food sustainability, progress in sustainable agriculture appears to be a bright spot in the country’s troubled agriculture industry. But local farming groups, NGOs and international bodies, while welcoming government efforts to promote ... MORE > >

Dangers and Questions of the Zuckerberg Era Roberto Savio This year the Worldwide Web is thirty years old. For the first time since 1435, a citizen from Brazil could exchange their views and information with another in Finland. The Internet, the communications infrastructure for the Web is a little older. It was developed from the ARPANET, a US ... MORE > >

Empower Young People to Sustain Our Planet, and Let Peace and Prosperity Thrive Crystal Orderson Q: At ICPD25 we heard that women and girls are still waiting for the unmet promises to be met? DO you think this time around there is a commitment to ensure that these promises are met? The Nairobi Summit is about the Future of Humanity and Human Prosperity. We all have an opportunity to ... MORE > >