Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Q&A: Initiative Starts Mental Health Sessions for Bangladeshi Garment Workers Samira Sadeque Nearly seven years ago, garment workers in Bangladesh were victims of one of the gravest man-made disasters in history -- a factory collapse that left more than 1,100 workers dead, and rendered thousands with injuries -- in many cases lifelong ones. For many of the workers from Rana Plaza, the ... MORE > >

Lithium and Clean Energy in Argentina: Development or Mirage? Daniel Gutman The intense white brightness of the salt flats interrupts the arid monotony of the Puna in northwest Argentina, resembling postcards from the moon. Beneath its surface are concealed the world's largest reserves of lithium, the key mineral in the transition to clean energy, the mining of which has ... MORE > >

Address Malnutrition, Not Just Food Security Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Wan Manan Muda and Tan Zhai Gen Malnutrition remains a formidable challenge in most societies, with less than a tenth of countries in the world not experiencing at least one major malnutrition problem. In relatively more food secure countries, where almost everyone has enough to eat, and few live in fear of a sudden loss of ... MORE > >

Madrid Talks End Without Agreement on How to Finance Recovery from Climate-Related Atrocities Isaiah Esipisu Millions of people, particularly in Africa, who lose their property, homes, and even die due to climate-related disasters will have to wait at least another year for the international community to agree on a means of supporting them. This became clear when the 25th round of negotiations on ... MORE > >

EU Policies Don’t Tackle Root Causes of Migration – They Risk Aggravating Them Lasse Juhl Morthorst According to political scientist Zaki Laïdi’s La tyrannie de l’urgence (The tyranny of emergency) from 1999, crisis and emergency situations leave no time for analysis, prevention or forecasting. As an immediate protective reflex, they prevent long-term solutions and pose a serious risk of ... MORE > >

How to Recognise Nigeria's Trafficked Kids Tobore Ovuorie What is human trafficking and child trafficking? IPS correspondent Tobore Ovuorie takes to the streets of Lagos to find out what Nigerians know about this crime. The answer was, surprisingly, very little. Ovuorie also speaks to experts about how to identify kids who have been trafficked and what ... MORE > >

Solar and Biogas, the Perfect Agroenergy Duo in Brazil Mario Osava "They're the ideal duo," because the combination of solar and biogas sources makes it possible to provide electricity around the clock, one during the day and the other at night, says Anelio Thomazzoni, a pig farmer who has become a producer of clean energy in southwestern Brazil. Thomazzoni, ... MORE > >

2019 – A Devastating Year in Review Farhana Haque Rahman By any measure this has been a devastating year: fires across the Amazon, the Arctic and beyond; floods and drought in Africa; rising temperatures, carbon emissions and sea levels; accelerating loss of species, and mass forced migrations of people. As seen through the eyes of IPS reporters ... MORE > >

Women in Climate Hot Spots Face Challenges Adapting Marty Logan Women in Asia and Africa hardest hit by climate change have a tough time adapting to the climate emergency, even with support from family or the state, finds a new study. The results raise questions for global agreements designed to help people adapt to the climate emergency, it adds. The ... MORE > >

Four Lessons to Reverse Inequity in the Global Health Workforce Ifeanyi Nsofor and Shubha Nagesh Recently, Madhukar Pai, the Director of McGill University Global Health Program wrote about the inequity in global health research. He observed that researches are skewed in favor of the global north. We agree that this inequity exists. However, we also have found that global fellowships such as ... MORE > >

2019: A Year in Review IPS World Desk 2019 will be remembered as the year the climate crisis shook us all. Hopefully, it will also be remembered for the fight back manifested in the spread of mass protests and civic movements against governments and industries failing to respond.Calls to combat climate change rang in the ears of ... MORE > >

Haiti’s Cry for Help as Climate Change is Compared to an Act of Violence against the Island Nation Desmond Brown Haiti’s Environment Minister Joseph Jouthe has compared the climate emergency to a violent act and appealed to the international community for help to fight climate change. “Climate change is a very big terror in Haiti. It’s very hard for us to deal with climate change,” Jouthe told IPS on the ... MORE > >

How Climate Change is Fuelling Insurgency of Nigeria's Militant Boko Haram Sam Olukoya Experts say climate change is a key factor fuelling the insurgency of the armed group Boko Haram. The insurgency, which is aimed at creating an Islamic State in North East Nigeria, is responsible for one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. North East Nigeria used to be peaceful with ... MORE > >