Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Covid-19 Compounds Developing Country Debt Burdens Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram Covid-19 is expected to take a heavy human and economic toll on developing countries, not only because of contagion in the face of weak health systems, but also containment measures which have precipitated recessions, destroying and diminishing the livelihoods of many. Limited fiscal space ... MORE > >

Inadequate Water & Sanitation Threatens Women's & Girls' Development in Senegal Stella Paul With Tabaski (Eid al-Adha) around the corner, 11-year-old Fatoumata Binta from Terrou Mballing district in M'Bour, western Senegal, wakes up early and joins her brothers Iphrahima Tall and Ismaila to fetch water from a river several miles from home. This summer, the family has struggled to get ... MORE > >

South China Sea Provocations & Meeting China Halfway Dr. Joseph Gerson In the words of (ret.) Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Secretary of Defense Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff, the Trump Administration has been dangerously “poking China in the eye.” After sending aircraft carriers and destroyers to the precincts of the Taiwan Strait, last week the Pentagon ... MORE > >

The Great Migration Clash Joseph Chamie The world is in the midst of the Great Migration Clash, a bitter struggle between those who “want out” of their countries and those who want others to “keep out” of their countries. More than a billion people would like to move permanently to another country and no less than a billion people say ... MORE > >

How Kenya’s Indigenous Ogiek are Using Modern Technology to Validate their Land Rights Isaiah Esipisu The Ogiek community, indigenous peoples from Kenya’s Chepkitale National Reserve, are in the process of implementing a modern tool to inform and guide the conservation and management of the natural forest. The community has inhabited this area for many generations, long before Kenya was a republic. ... MORE > >

Tobacco Industry Factoid on Illicit Trade Leading Governments Astray Sophapan Ratanachena-McWhortor and Dr. Hana Ross A factoid is unreliable information repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact. One such factoid repeatedly echoed across the globe by the tobacco industry is that tobacco tax increases worsen cigarette smuggling. For governments facing challenges to curb smuggling, particularly in the ... MORE > >

Dead Rats Can Raise GDP, Economists Have Lowered It Vladimir Popov and Jomo Kwame Sundaram GDP has been increasingly challenged on many grounds as a measure of economic and social progress. Clearly, GDP does not take account of other dimensions of wellbeing, natural resource depletion or environmental damage. What increases GDP? There is a humourous economic fable instructive about ... MORE > >

Are Women-led Startups Key to Sustainability in Senegal? Stella Paul Growing up in the Senegalese capital of Dakar, Siny Samba (28) watched with fascination as her grandmother made snacks for her family, using the fresh fruit from their garden. She would often help her grandma make these snacks to feed the neighbourhood children. “One day, I am going to have ... MORE > >

How will COVID-19 Affect Women Entrepreneurs? Saipriya Salla Two years ago, Aarti started a small business selling traditional handicrafts online, supporting artisans based in rural Karnataka. After an initial phase of struggle, she had a steady stream of orders and was looking to procure manufacturing equipment and scale the impact of her business by ... MORE > >

US, UK, Interpol Give Ghana Phone Hacking Tools, Raising Journalist Concerns on Safety & Confidentiality Jonathan Rozen In May 2019, senior members of Ghana’s law enforcement posed for photos with the U.S. ambassador to their country at a ceremony in the capital, Accra. Between them they held boxes and bags, gifts from the U.S. government to Ghana which, according to one of the recipients, contained Israeli phone ... MORE > >