Humanitarian Emergencies

Destruction of Ukraine’s Healthcare Facilities Violates International Humanitarian Law – Report

By Ed Holt
While recent reports highlight the growing list of human rights abuses and war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine, new research has laid bare the massive scale of arguably Russia’s most systematic and deadly campaign of rights violations in the country – the targeting and almost complete destruction of healthcare facilities.

New Business Technology Transfer Provides Benefits for African Pharmaceutical Industry

By Aimable Twahirwa
A few months after German biotechnology company BioNTech announced the establishment of the first-ever local vaccine manufacturing in Rwanda, experts believe the successful implementation of such initiatives across the continent will require countries to acquire know-how while encouraging potential industrial partners in the pharmaceutical industry.

How Innovative Farming Rescues Crises-Stricken Farmers in This Indian Village

By Umar Manzoor Shah
The South Indian State of Karnataka has been reeling for the past three years—the late arrival of monsoons, the surging temperatures, and drastic changes in the weather patterns are putting the state’s farmers in dire straits.

Pakistan’s 10 Billion Dollar Flood Funding Question

By Zofeen Ebrahim
Terming the recent international donors’ conference held in Geneva a “success” after Pakistan was able to secure 10 billion US dollars, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has promised “every penny” of the pledges will be used towards rehabilitation of flood-hit people.

Pakistani Flood Survivors Welcome Funding, But Demand Immediate Disbursement

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
People in flood-affected areas of Pakistan have welcomed the pledges at an UN-sponsored donor conference in Geneva on January 9 but want to see an immediate cash flow to facilitate their journeys toward normalcy.

Malawi Suffers Worst Cholera Outbreak in Decades

By Charles Mpaka
On March 3, 2022, Malawi declared a cholera outbreak after a district hospital in the southern region reported a case. This was the first case in the 2021 to 2022 cholera season.

African Parliamentarians Strongly Committed to Population and Development

By Cecilia Russell
Many Ghanian Members of Parliament (MPs) champion adolescent reproductive health rights to stop the practice of child marriage, which is prevalent in some areas of the country even though the country’s Constitution and Children’s Act outlaw it, Dr Rashid Pelpuo (MP) told IPS in an exclusive interview.

European Energy Crisis Hits Roma Populations Hard

By Ed Holt
As European households brace for energy shortages this winter and leaders draw up support packages to help people heat homes in the coming months, experts fear that the largest minority on the continent, the Roma, will be left behind.

China: From Zero-Covid to Zero-Control

By Jan Servaes
Three years after the coronavirus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the Chinese government began in December to abruptly scrap its harsh containment policy known as "zero-Covid."

Africa’s Maternal Deaths Need Urgent Action to Meet SDG Goals

By Francis Kokutse
As the effects of COVID-19 on Africa’s health sector become clearer, it looks the continent will need to take urgent steps to overcome the disruptions suffered in the breakdown in antenatal and postnatal care for women and newborns and neonatal intensive care units. The pandemic brought some setbacks to the gains achieved in maternal mortality over the past decade.

Living Another Year Dangerously

By Anis Chowdhury
2022 has been a year of great uncertainty when it seemed the world perilously reached the brink of self-destruction – be it human-induced climate change or military conflict. Welcoming 2022, we had enough reasons to be optimistic; but it was another ‘year of living dangerously’ – Tahun vivere pericoloso in the words of Soekarno, or an annus horribilis in the words of the late Queen Elizabeth.

2022: An Apocalyptic Warning of the Frailty of Our Planet


 
2022 has been an apocalyptic warning of the frailty of our planet… …and the woeful shortcomings of humankind. It started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

War, Famine, Disease, Disasters – 2022 – a Year Staring at Apocalypse

By Farhana Haque Rahman
A year that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is ending with famine in Africa, while still spreading death and misery through an enduring pandemic and a deteriorating climate crisis -- 2022 has been an apocalyptic warning of the frailty of our planet and the woeful shortcomings of humankind.

The Trap: A Journey from Afghanistan to Europe

By Sara Perria
Maliha looks confident in a café in Athens as she tells the story of her journey from Afghanistan to Europe. But as she starts recounting how a smuggler assaulted her in Turkey two years ago, she pauses, looking the other way and fiddling with her loose hair.

New Political Agreement Finally Tackles Venezuela’s Social Crisis

By Humberto Márquez
The social crisis and humanitarian emergency in Venezuela became international headline news again once the government and the opposition, bitter adversaries for two decades, agreed to direct three billion dollars in state funds held abroad to social programs.

COP15: ‘Super Reefs’ Offer Hope for Ocean Recovery Ahead of Biodiversity Summit

By Enric Sala
Delegates from more than 190 countries are donning thick coats and winter boots to attend the long-delayed UN biodiversity summit in Montreal, Canada—the land of caribou, beluga whales and wolverines.

Climate Change Meets Conflict Pushing Millions of Children in Ethiopia Out of School

By Joyce Chimbi
A silent catastrophe is unfolding in Ethiopia on the backdrop of years of inter-communal conflict and the most prolonged and severe drought in recent years. High inflation and food insecurity in the drought-ravaged country is among the worst in the world.

A Little Land Helps Indigenous Venezuelans Integrate in Brazil

By Mario Osava
A group of Warao families are, through their own efforts, paving the way for the integration of indigenous Venezuelans in Brazil, five years after the start of the wave of their migration to the border state of Roraima.

UN Assessed Contributions Needed to Generate Core Funding for Climate Loss & Damage

By Inge Kaul
For decades, there have been non-conclusive deliberations regarding how the international community could support poor and vulnerable countries in their efforts to cope with and recover from the havoc wreaked on their territory by the ill-effects of global warming such as severe droughts, floods, storms, or rising sea levels.

UN Deploys Unarmed Weapon in Humanitarian & Peacekeeping Operations

By Thalif Deen
A sign outside the United Nations reads, perhaps half-seriously, that it is a “No Drone Zone”—and “launching, landing or operating Unmanned or Remote-Controlled aircraft in this area is prohibited”. The “warning” comes even as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – or drones – are some of the new weapons of war deployed mostly by the US, and more recently, by Iran, Ukraine and Russia in ongoing military conflicts.

Pan-African Approach Needed to Tackle Food Insecurity Arising from Conflict and Climate Shocks

By Joyce Chimbi
Upheaval on the global stage, the war in Ukraine, conflict in the Horn of Africa, severe climatic shocks, high international inflation, increasing global commodity prices, high prices of agricultural inputs and low intra-continental trade are fuelling food insecurity across Africa.
Next Page »