Stories written by Thalif Deen
Thalif Deen, IPS United Nations bureau chief and North America regional director, has been covering the U.N. since the late 1970s. A former deputy news editor of the Sri Lanka Daily News, he was also a senior editorial writer for Hong Kong-based The Standard. He has been runner-up and cited twice for “excellence in U.N. reporting” at the annual awards presentation of the U.N. Correspondents’ Association. A former information officer at the U.N. Secretariat, and a one-time member of the Sri Lanka delegation to the U.N. General Assembly sessions, Thalif is currently editor in chief of the IPS U.N. Terra Viva journal. Since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, he has covered virtually every single major U.N. conference on population, human rights, environment, social development, globalisation and the Millennium Development Goals. A former Middle East military editor at Jane’s Information Group in the U.S, he is a Fulbright-Hayes scholar with a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, New York.

MDGs Fund Boosts Food Security

By Thalif Deen
Since its founding in 2007 to help developing nations fight poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease and gender discrimination, the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F) has financed about 130 joint programmes in 50 countries.

Small Farmers Buffeted by Climate Change

By Thalif Deen
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has long warned that a quarter of the world’s farmland is “highly degraded".

Keeping Food Security Central to U.N.’s Post-2015 Agenda

By Thalif Deen
As the United Nations prepares to launch an ambitious post-2015 development agenda, the message from one of its Rome-based agencies is unequivocal: the eradication of hunger and malnutrition should remain a high priority when the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) end in 2015.

Is the 2030 Goal for Hunger Eradication Realistic?

By Thalif Deen
With less than three years before a 2015 deadline, the developing world is largely expected to miss one of the U.N.'s key Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): halving the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger.

Q&A: U.N. Looks to High Seas to Alleviate Food Crisis

By Thalif Deen
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is convinced there is sufficient global capacity to produce enough food to adequately feed the world's seven billion people.

Q&A: Women Hardest Hit by Growing Austerity Measures

By Thalif Deen
The widespread financial crisis in Europe, and its negative fallout in the developing world, has triggered severe austerity measures worldwide.

Battle Against Hunger Lost Without Gender Empowerment

By Thalif Deen
When the United Nations launched its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back in 2001, two of its primary objectives were to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 and promote gender empowerment worldwide.

Rice Replaces Donilon as Obama’s Top Foreign Policy Adviser

By Jim Lobe and Thalif Deen
In a reshuffle of top foreign policy posts in his second term, U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday announced that his controversial and blunt-spoken U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, will replace Tom Donilon as his national security adviser.

U.N. GA Cold Shoulders International Day Against Homophobia

By Thalif Deen
The 193-member U.N. General Assembly (UNGA), in its supreme wisdom, has declared over 100 commemorative "days" dedicated to peacekeepers, refugees, children, migrants, girl children, rural women and indigenous people, among others.

U.N. Can Help Devalue Nukes as Geopolitical Currency

By Thalif Deen
When the 193-member U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) holds is first-ever high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament next September, there is little or no hope that any of the nuclear powers will make a firm commitment to gradually phase out or abandon their lethal arsenals.

U.N. Panel Projects a Poverty-Free World by 2030

By Thalif Deen
A U.N.-commissioned high-level panel of eminent persons, led by three world leaders, has moved the goal posts for the halving of extreme poverty and hunger: from the current 2015 deadline to a new targeted date of 2030.

U.S. Accused of Politicising Weapons of Mass Destruction

By Thalif Deen
When the United States invaded Iraq back in March 2003, one of its primary objectives was to track down and destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) reportedly stockpiled by the regime of President Saddam Hussein.

The Long March Towards Abolition of War

By Thalif Deen
Slavery. Colonialism. Apartheid. Gender discrimination in voting. All were abolished in most places after longstanding battles - largely in bygone eras.

UNFPA Focuses on Contraception for 222 Million in Developing World

By Thalif Deen
When thousands of participants from around the world gather in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur next week, the primary focus will be on health and empowerment of girls and women.

U.N. General Assembly Condemns Syria as Sceptics Multiply

By Thalif Deen
When the 193-member General Assembly voted Wednesday to condemn the beleaguered government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, there was an increase in the number of sceptics who neither supported nor opposed the tottering regime in Damascus.
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