Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

How Can We Support Sanitation Workers During COVID-19? In addition to healthcare professionals, there is another group of people at the frontlines of the global crisis caused by COVID-19. They put their lives at risk every day and play a critical role in preventing the spread of the virus, by ensuring our streets, parks, public spaces, sewers, septic ... MORE > >

A Gender-equal Ethiopian Parliament can Improve the Lives of all Women James Jeffrey Recent gains by women in the Ethiopian political landscape offer a chance to improve gender equality around the country and put an end to long-standing societal iniquities. Since coming to power in 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has reorganised the cabinet to ensure that 50 percent of the ... MORE > >

Gender and COVID-19: Where Can Research Help? Jemimah Njuki As of April 8, there have been 1.5 million reported cases of coronavirus and over 83,000 deaths. Most of these deaths are of men. Italy, for example, has so far had 71 percent of all case deaths attributed to men while Spain, another major global hotspot, has seen 65 percent of all deaths being ... MORE > >

Kerala Covid-19 Response Model for Emulation Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram Within weeks, the Covid-19 epidemic was classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an epidemic of international significance, triggering a pre-agreed WHO response. By the end of the first week of April, more than 1.3 million people had been confirmed as infected, with over 65,000 deaths ... MORE > >

Alive Amidst the Mayhem of COVID-19 - A Sex Worker’s Story Fairuz Ahmed For a Bangladeshi woman, who has worked as a sex worker since childhood, her future post-COVID-19 looks hopeless. Shilpy, who works at Daulatdia, the largest brothel in the country, told IPS how she now also fears for the future of her two daughters. “When I was born, the woman my mother ... MORE > >

Killer of Slovak Journalist Sentenced as Rights Groups Await further Convictions Ed Holt Journalists and rights activists have welcomed the jailing of a man for the murders of Slovak investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova, but say others involved in the killings must be convicted too if justice is to be fully served. Self-confessed hired killer Miroslav ... MORE > >

Ending the Unthinkable Injustice of Human Chaining Emina Ćerimović and Kim Samuel When Akanni’s mother died in early 2018, she stopped eating for three weeks. Her mood became unpredictable; she was often shouting or sulking angrily. Medicine from a local pharmacist didn’t help. At a loss for what to do to handle the trauma, Akanni’s father took her to a church in Abeokuta, Ogun ... MORE > >

The Future of Journalism Andrés Cañizález All over the world, journalism is going through an era of uncertainty. It is not yet clear what the business model for the news field will be, and this is happening precisely at a time when information is a central issue in every person's life. The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted both ... MORE > >

How the COVID-19 Pandemic is Affecting Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Samira Sadeque A little over half of women across the globe are able to freely make choices about their sexual and reproductive health, according to a latest report based on data from 57 countries. However, as much of the world has gone into lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, with countries ... MORE > >

The Boardwalk For Birds: Protecting Lake Victoria’s Dunga Beach Wetland Isaiah Esipisu At around 11am on a Saturday, Luke Okomo arrives at Dunga Beach, on the outskirts of Kenya’s Kisumu City, and heads straight to what is known as the ‘Dunga Papyrus Boardwalk’. He pays Sh200 ($2), the daily fee for local tourists and students, and then joins a group of five visitors already ... MORE > >

The Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Developing Countries - Part 2 Daud Khan and Leila Yasmine Khan What is likely to be the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on developing economies? In the first of this two part article we looked at possible short term disruptions and discussed actions by the private sector and Governments. These included mobilizing available public resources to augment what ... MORE > >

Latin America Has Weak Defences Against the Pandemic Humberto Márquez Health systems in Latin America, already falling short in their capacity to serve the population, especially the poor, are in a weak position and face serious risks when it comes to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Low levels of health spending and a relative scarcity of hospital beds are ... MORE > >

Coronavirus: Country Comparisons are Pointless Unless We Account for These Biases in Testing Suppose we wanted to estimate how many car owners there are in the UK and how many of those own a Ford Fiesta, but we only have data on those people who visited Ford car showrooms in the last year. If 10% of the showroom visitors owned a Fiesta, then, because of the bias in the sample, this would ... MORE > >

U.N. Releases Report on Socio-economic Effects of Coronavirus Samira Sadeque As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow, concerns are simultaneously growing about the current and long-term effects this will have on certain demographics -- specifically, women, the youth, migrant workers, and many employees around the world. This week, the United Nations ... MORE > >

In memoriam ‒ Martin Khor Yilmaz Akyüz and Richard Kozul-Wright We are greatly saddened by the passing of Martin Khor, a long-time friend and colleague, an undaunted fighter for the poor and underprivileged, a passionate believer in a more balanced and inclusive multilateralism, a rare intellectual and eloquent orator, an icon of the Global South worthy of ... MORE > >