Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Indigenous Best Amazon Stewards, but Only When Property Rights Assured: Study Sue Branford “The xapiri have defended the forest since it first came into being. Our ancestors have never devastated it because they kept the spirits by their side,” declares Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, who belongs to the 27,000-strong Yanomami people living in the very north of Brazil. He is expressing a ... MORE > >

I Came to Work in Qatar to Pursue My Dreams, But My Life is a Nightmare A Kenyan Migrant Worker Like thousands of migrant workers from Africa and Asia, I am finally in the land of my dreams, Qatar. I knew working here would be tough, but I thought I would be able to regularly send money home to my family and live decently. I had imagined that once here, I could sneak a peek at gli Azzuri, ... MORE > >

Report Shows Sri Lanka has Escalation of Violence During COVID-19 Lockdown Mantoe Phakathi The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the escalation of violence against women and children in Sri Lanka. A recent survey by CARE Consortium, a collection of three organisations including Delivery and Solitary Trust (DAST), Young Out Here and National Transgender Network, found that 26 ... MORE > >

Future of Education Is Here Yasmine Sherif There are moments when the world has no choice but to come together. Those moments become historic turning points. This is one of them. We are now faced with the greatest education emergency of our time. Over one billion children are out of school. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented ... MORE > >

Sudan May Have Banned FGM, but the Harsh Practice Continues Rhona Scullion, PassBlue* Just four months ago, Sudan took the monumental step to ban female genital mutilation, a painful, unnecessary and dangerous procedure that leaves lasting scars. Generally carried out on girls before they reach puberty, genital mutilation is now punishable in Sudan by up to three years in prison and ... MORE > >

Lack of Human Capital is Holding Back Latin America’s Growth In 1990, Latin America’s average GDP per capita was a little over a quarter of the United States’ income level, while emerging and developing Asian countries’ GDP per capita was only 5 percent. In 2019, Asian countries had grown fourfold, but Latin America was still at the same level. What ... MORE > >

Beating Anger into Empathy: the Need of the Hour in Ethiopia Dr Joshua Castellino The murder of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, an icon of the Oromo people in Ethiopia was a tragic loss for all who struggle for rights in systems that fail to accommodate them. Suspicions around motivations for this murder and the swiftness of his burial in his village, rather than with a state ... MORE > >

Q&A: Family Farming in Latin America & the Caribbean Hard Hit by COVID-19 Restrictions Samira Sadeque With limited transport options to carry their goods to the market, lack of protective gear, and limited financial resources, family farmers across Latin America are facing grave consequences as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a survey carried out by the Inter-American Institute ... MORE > >

Leading in Time of COVID: A True Test of Leadership Folake Olayinka In 1918, the Spanish Flu, a deadly influenza caused by the H1N1 virus, decimated the world. Over the course of four successive waves, it infected 500 million people, about a third of the world’s population at the time, resulting in 50 million deaths. More recently between 2014 and mid-2016 , the ... MORE > >

If Trump Delivers His Last Hurrah to an Empty United Nations, Will it Still Make a Sound? Thalif Deen There is no love lost between the United Nations and US President Donald Trump. When he addressed the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly in September 2018, Trump falsely told delegates that "in less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any ... MORE > >

No More Lost Generations: Global Fund Provides Education for Children in Crisis Stella Paul 15-year-old Humaira* sits on the mud floor of her hut in Ukhiya camp, Cox's Bazar, listening as the rain beats down on the tarpaulin roof. Three years ago, Humaira arrived in Bangladesh at the refugee camp in Cox Bazar, which is now the largest such camp in the world, housing nearly a million ... MORE > >

COVID-19 Sharpens Caste Discrimination in Nepal Unnati Chaudhary Across Nepal, it is the already under-served and vulnerable who have been affected by the prolonged lockdowns. But it is the Dalit returnees from India who have tested positive and their families who face double discrimination. The Ministry of Health issues a daily tally of COVID-19 cases, but ... MORE > >

Young South Africans are Shut Out From Work: They Need a Chance to Get Digital Skills Most young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in South Africa continue to be denied access to information and communications technology because of poor infrastructure and the digital divide. The cost of mobile data is part of the problem. For example, compared with its fellow members of the ... MORE > >