Health

World Environment Day Highlights Deadly Cost of Plastic

By Sopho Kharazi
On June 5th, World Environment Day will be hosted in India under the banner of “Beat Plastic Pollution,” aiming to raise awareness and civic engagement alongside creating a global movement to reduce the amount of plastic in the environment.

Peru’s Poor and Disabled Struggle in the Shadows

By Andrea Vale
Eighty percent of the world’s disabled live in developing nations, according to a report by the United Nations. Their identities, lives and stories are of course varied – but what isn’t is the stigma and lack of resources they face.

Valuing the Food System

By Danielle Nierenberg and Emily Payne
Many factors contribute to the cost of a tomato. For example, what inputs were used (water, soil, fertilizer, pesticides, as well as machinery and/or labor) to grow it? What kind of energy and materials were used to process and package it? Or how much did transportation cost to get it to the shelf?

Hunger and Food Insecurity Plague the Lives of Millions in Africa

By Moody Awori and Siddharth Chatterjee
Africa is rising. But at the same time, Africa is the continent with the largest number of people, (390 million) living in extreme poverty.

Food Security and Growth in Asia

By Geetika Dang and Raghav Gaiha
A disquieting finding of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017, Building resilience for peace and food security, or (SFSN2017), Rome, is that, in 2016, the number of chronically undernourished people in the world increased to 815 million, up from777 million in 2015 although still lower than about 900 million in 2000. Similarly, while the prevalence of undernourishment rose to 11 percent in 2016, this is still well below thelevel attaineda decade ago. Whether this recent rise inhunger and food-insecurity levels signals thebeginning of an upward trend, or whether itreflects an acute transient situation calls for a close scrutiny.

IOM, WHO, DR Congo Ministry of Health Partner to Stop Ebola from Spreading to Kinshasa, Neighbouring

By International Organization for Migration
Last week, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), cases of Ebola were confirmed in Mbandaka, a city with a population of 1.2 million people some 150 kilometres from where the outbreak originated in Bikoro Health Zone, Equateur Province.

Agricultural Trade Liberalization Undermined Food Security

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury
Agriculture is critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes, ‘From ending poverty and hunger to responding to climate change and sustaining our natural resources, food and agriculture lies at the heart of the 2030 Agenda.’

Research, for Whom?

By Abhay Bang
Looking back at some 30 years of working in the social sector, I believe that the most important milestone in my journey was the point when I started recognising the importance of research in development.

Fighting Inequality in Asia and the Pacific

By Shamshad Akhtar
Inequality is increasing in Asia and the Pacific. Our region’s remarkable economic success story belies a widening gap between rich and poor. A gap that’s trapping people in poverty and, if not tackled urgently, could thwart our ambition to achieve sustainable development. This is the central challenge heads of state and government will be considering this week at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). A strengthened regional approach to more sustainable, inclusive growth must be this Commission’s outcome.

United Arab Emirates: Entering into a Sustainable Future

By Maged Srour

 
 
The end of the oil age In the early 1970’s the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was an impoverished desert, with little access to food, water and well-paying jobs. Today, this country looks nothing like it was fifty years ago. Thanks to oil, the UAE has completely transformed and now is one of the most developed economies in the Middle East, if not the world: its per capita GDP is equal to those of highly developed European nations ($68,000 - 2017 est.).

We Need a Gender Shift to save Our Girls from the Jaws of Extremism

By Ambassador Amina Mohamed and Siddharth Chatterjee
Consider this. Boko Haram, the ISIS-affiliated insurgent group has sent 80 women to their deaths in 2017 alone.The majority of suicide bombers used by terror group Boko Haram to kill innocent victims are women and children, US study reveals.

Sustainable Food Systems; Why We do Not Need New Recipes

By Doaa Abdel-Motaal
Many believe that the food and agricultural sector is different to all other economic sectors, that it is unique, and that it requires special economic models to thrive. After all, we expect the global food and agricultural system to respond to many different goals. It needs to deliver abundant, safe, and nutritious food. It needs to create employment in rural areas while protecting forests and wildlife, improving landscapes, and preventing climate change through lower food production emissions. Well-functioning food systems are also considered essential for social stability and conflict prevention. In fact many politicians today go as far as to argue that food systems need to thrive so as to stem rural-to-urban migration and the cross-border flow of desperate people fleeing food insecure nations.

“Green Development Has to Be Equal for All”

By Diana Mendoza
IPS caught up with Dr. Frank Rijsberman, director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), at the end of the flagship side event of the GGGI during the 51st Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila on May 4, 2018, which featured the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its potential to create sustainable infrastructure and promote green growth pathways.

To Have Children or Not: The Importance of Finding a Balance

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
While the world’s population has changed dramatically over the last 50 years, little is still understood about fertility transition and the reasons behind it.Over the last half a century, the global fertility rate has halved, reaching a level of 2.5 births per woman.

20 Water-Stressed Countries Have Most Solar & Wind Potential

By Tianyi Luo
Most power generation consumes water, whether to cool steam in thermoelectric plants or power turbines for hydropower. And the global demand for both water and electricity will continue to increase substantially in the coming decades.

Recipe to Save 700,000 Young Children a Year: Clean Water & Decent Toilets

By Savio Carvalho
They are the foundations of a happy, healthy childhood: good nutrition, health care which includes immunisations and preventative care as well as treatment for illness, a good education.How many among us would even think to list clean water to drink, a safe place to go to the toilet and the ability to keep hands, bodies and surroundings clean with soap and water?

“I Wake Up Screaming”: Gaza’s Children Bear the Brunt of Violence

By Will Higginbotham and Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Reham Qudaih wakes up nightly to the same nightmare: her father shot, lying on the ground in a pool of blood.“In my dreams he is on the ground shot. When I have that dream – which I’ve had more than once I wake up screaming,” she told the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Belt and Road Initiative Vows Green Infrastructure with Connectivity

By Diana G Mendoza
"My son in primary school did not attend a birthday celebration because it was cancelled due to bad air -- and we live in Seoul, a great place to live," said Dr. Frank Rijsberman, director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI).

FAO Releases Alarming Report on Soil Pollution

By Maged Srour
Soil pollution is posing a serious threat to our environment, to our sources of food and ultimately to our health. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warns that there is still a lack of awareness about the scale and severity of this threat. 

In South Sudan, Denial of Humanitarian Aid is a War Tactic

By Christine Monaghan
When I visited South Sudan last year, I heard story after story about health professionals and humanitarian workers being prevented from doing critical work. Government officials regularly increased fees for nonprofits trying to alleviate the effects of conflict, stopped humanitarian convoys from delivering life-saving supplies, and erected bureaucratic obstacles designed to impede access to civilians in need.

Human Trafficking for Organs: Ending abuse of the Poorest

By Maged Srour
Organ transplantation is one of the most incredible medical achievements of the past century. Since the first successful transplants, which took place in the 1950s, organ transplantation has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.
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