Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Norms and Prejudices are Still Holding Women Back Jemimah Njuki Two profound incidents happened the week of International Women’s Day. One, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Party candidate for President of the U.S., bowed out of the election race despite what commentators said was a strong campaign with a "plan for everything" and strong message of ... MORE > >

The 2020 NPT Review Conference: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous Tariq Rauf This year marks the 50th anniversary of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and coincidentally the tenth quinquennial (five yearly) review conference is scheduled to be held at the United Nations in New York from 27 April to 22 May. With 191 States parties, the NPT is the cornerstone ... MORE > >

Nepal's Female Guides Juggle Work and Home Shusma Barali Nepal’s trekking industry has been dominated by male guides, but a growing number of women are entering the profession as their reputation for reliability spreads. Female trekking guides are paid well, but guiding is seasonal work and women find they are not encouraged in it by their families ... MORE > >

How will COVID-19 Affect Economies of Latin America & the Caribbean? Luis Felipe López-Calva History shows that in Latin America and the Caribbean, volatility is the norm and not the exception and that the development trajectories of their countries are not linear. The region has significant links to China, economic relations have skyrocketed in recent decades, particularly through ... MORE > >

Rural Poverty, Employment and Disability Vani S. Kulkarni and Raghav Gaiha About 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disability, of whom 2-4% experience significant difficulties in functioning. Disability is part of the human condition, and almost everyone will be temporarily or permanently impaired at some point in life, and those who survive into old ... MORE > >

US and France Significantly Increase Arms Exports Ida Karlsson There has been a significant increase in arms exports from the United States and France, according to a new report. The flow of arms to the Middle East has increased, with Saudi Arabia being the world’s largest importer. More than a third, 36 percent, of all weapons traded worldwide are now ... MORE > >

Why Pakistan Isn’t Taking that Final Step towards Polio Eradication Zofeen Ebrahim Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, the coordinator for Pakistan’s National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication, has sleepless nights thinking about what needs to be done for his country to eradicate polio. "Not only me but the entire team is having sleepless nights thinking how best and how ... MORE > >

UN Reaches 90:90 Gender Parity in Senior Leadership Transforming Organizational Culture Thalif Deen The United Nations claims it has reached one of its primary goals relating to women’s rights in the world body: gender parity at senior levels of management and in the highest echelons of the Organization. Leading the way, besides the UN Secretariat, is UN Women, ‘the United Nations Entity for ... MORE > >

Stock Market Bubble Threat Jomo Kwame Sundaram The US is currently still in a stock market bubble which, if history is any guide, is likely to end, as argued by Thomas Palley. While President Trump would, of course, like to sustain it to strengthen his November re-election prospects, the Covid19 black swan is already showing signs of pricking ... MORE > >

Is Our Academic System Ready for a New Coronavirus Normal? Esther Ngumbi and Brian Lovett Institutions of higher education have a responsibility to lead by example and to provide current, high-quality information to the people and communities that support them. This responsibility is no clearer than during a public health and information crisis like the one presented by this novel ... MORE > >

Current Laws Cannot Protect Zimbabwe's Women from Sex Trafficking Ignatius Banda Similo Ntuli* looks like a ordinary, fashion-savvy woman in her twenties. As a hairdresser and beauty therapist in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, Ntuli has her finger on the pulse of the latest styles and trends. But she also has, what she admits, are dark secrets. "I have become ... MORE > >

Brazil: Low on FSI but Much to Offer the South N Chandra Mohan Brazil is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of coffee, sugar, beef, soya, cotton, and ethanol but due to its environmental and water footprint it ranks low on sustainability. Brazilian agriculture’s contribution to the loss of rainforest is a case in point – the Amazon lost as much ... MORE > >

An Ambitious Year for Climate Action Is a Big Year for Women’s Empowerment Frank Rijsberman and Ingvild Solvang This year, the Paris Agreement’s effectiveness as a global response to the climate crisis is being tested as governments are preparing to submit more ambitious national targets for mitigation and adaptation. The combined ambitions of these targets should match the urgency to strengthening ... MORE > >

Journalists Tell Slovakia's PM-elect: 'Thanks, but No Thanks' Ed Holt Plans announced by Slovakia’s prime minister-elect to fund investigative journalists to act as corruption watchdogs on government and state bodies have been dismissed as “a road to hell” by local journalists. Igor Matovic, whose OLaNO party won Slovakia’s elections at the end of last month on ... MORE > >

News Agencies Must Paint a Complete Picture of Coronavirus Ifeanyi Nsofor Recently, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “We have an epidemic caused by Coronavirus, but we have a pandemic caused by fear “. This fear is worsened by how news agencies report the outbreak. These are some examples. “Bodies 'pile up' in morgue as Iran feels strain of coronavirus” ... MORE > >

How Many Immigrants in the Future? Joseph Chamie The answer to the critical question of how many immigrants will there be in the future is: far below the number of people wanting to immigrate and far above the number of immigrants wanted. The discrepancy between the two opposing migration “wants” underlies the current divisive migration crisis ... MORE > >

Coronavirus: Ten Reasons Why You Ought Not to Panic Ignacio López-Goñi Regardless of whether we classify the new coronavirus as a pandemic, it is a serious issue. In less than two months, it has spread over several continents. Pandemic means sustained and continuous transmission of the disease, simultaneously in more than three different geographical regions. Pandemic ... MORE > >

Feminists Rewrite Their Realities Across the Global Map Laila Malik In November 2019, thousands of Chileans took to the streets to perform an anti-rape, anti-femicide choreography organized by a small feminist collective called Las Tesis. The group created the choreographed chant in response to an upswing in violence against women and human rights violations in ... MORE > >