Development & Aid

Bamboo – An Answer to Deforestation or Not in Africa?

By Jeffrey Moyo
Deforestation is haunting the African continent as industrial growth paves over public commons and puts more hectares into private hands.

Tobacco Workers in Cuba Dubious About Opening of U.S. Market

By Ivet González
“We have to wait and see,” “There isn’t a lot of talk about it,” are the responses from tobacco workers in this rural area in western Cuba when asked about the prospect of an opening of the U.S. market to Cuban cigars.

Opinion: Goals for Gender Equality Are Not a ‘Wish List’ – They Are a ‘To Do List’

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
This weekend, at the invitation of President Michelle Bachelet and myself, women leaders from across the world are meeting in Santiago de Chile. We will applaud their achievements. We will remind ourselves of their contributions. And we will chart a way forward to correct the historical record. History has not been fair to women – but then, women usually didn’t write it.

Reporting on Violence in Mexico Brings Its Own Perils

By Lyndal Rowlands
Organised criminals in Mexico are forcing the media to stop reporting on crime, by turning their violence against journalists.

Rousseff’s Brazil – No Country for the Landless

By Fabiola Ortiz
In Brazil, one of the countries with the highest concentration of land ownership in the world, some 200,000 peasant farmers still have no plot of their own to farm – a problem that the first administration of President Dilma Rousseff did little to resolve.

From the Police Station Back to the Hellhole: System Failing India’s Domestic Violence Survivors

By Shai Venkatraman
“One time my husband started slapping me hard on the face because I had not cooked the rice to his satisfaction,” Suruchi* told IPS. “He hit me so hard that my infant daughter fell from my arms to the ground.”

Opinion: The Middle East and Perpetual War

By Leon Anderson
There is a currently popular idea in Washington, D.C. that the United States ought to be doing more to quash the recently born Islamic States of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), because if we don’t, they will send terrorists to plague our lives.

Gazan Fishermen Dying to Survive

By Mel Frykberg
The beautiful Mediterranean Sea laps gently onto the white sandy beach near Gaza City’s port. Fishing boats dot the beach as fishermen tend to their boats and fix their nets.

WHO Releases New Syringe Safety Policy to Prevent Disease

By Josh Butler
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a new policy on safe practices around syringe use, saying 90 percent of injections worldwide are unnecessary.

Study Shows Shift in Level of Social Hostility Involving Religion

By Valentina Ieri
Social hostilities involving religion have declined worldwide, according to a new report released on Wednesday by the Washington-based Pew Research Center.

All-Out War in Libya Predicted without Further Peace Talks

By Josh Butler
Libya is teetering on the edge of all-out war, with a brutal stalemate and misery for civilians predicted unless a recent minor diplomatic breakthrough can be built upon.

Despite U.N. Treaties, War Against Drugs a Losing Battle

By Thalif Deen
As the call for the decriminalisation of drugs steadily picks up steam worldwide, a new study by a British charity concludes there has been no significant reduction in the global use of illicit drugs since the creation of three key U.N. anti-drug conventions, the first of which came into force over half a century ago.

Sometimes a Single Tree Is More Effective than a Government

By Mallika Aryal
Every morning, Raj Kumari Chaudhari walks from her home to the other end of Padnaha village, located in the Bardiya district of mid-west Nepal, to a big mango tree to offer prayers.

Families of ‘Desaparecidos’ Take Search into Their Own Hands

By Emilio Godoy
Carlos Trujillo refuses to give up, after years of tirelessly searching hospitals, morgues, prisons, cemeteries and clandestine graves in Mexico, looking for his four missing brothers.

Mobile Technology a Lever for Women’s Empowerment

By A. D. McKenzie
Providing women with greater access to mobile technology could increase literacy, advance development and open up much-needed educational and employment opportunities, according to experts at the fourth United Nations’ Mobile Learning Week conference here.
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