Population

Why Paraguay Can Be a “Beacon State” for Forest Management

By Achim Steiner, Inger Andersen and Qu Dongyu
Imagine a forest that covered half of your entire country. A biodiverse forest which supports thousands of species from giant anteaters to armadillos to jaguars. A forest that is home to one the world’s last uncontacted tribes.1

Female Genital Mutilation: Not just an Emotional and Health Impact on Women but a $1.4 Billion Dollar Cost to Communities

By Samira Sadeque
When society doesn't act to prevent Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) it has a massive economic cost -- over $1 billion -- on communities globally. And while the practice is starting to become less common over time, experts say a large number of women and girls still remain affected.  

Restoring Competition in ”Winner-took-All” Digital Platform Markets

By Ebru Gokce Dessemond
Digital platforms are at the centre of the global economy and daily lives of consumers. A handful of these platforms have become dominant in specific markets without facing meaningful competition. They include Amazon as a marketplace, Facebook in social networking, Google in search engines and Apple and Google in application stores.

Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century

By Pedro Conceição
Inequalities. The evidence is everywhere. And although they may be hard to measure and summarize, there is a sense in many countries that many are approaching a precipice beyond which it will be difficult to recover.

Strengthening Caribbean Regional Integration

By Ding Ding and Inci Otker
The Caribbean economies have long recognized the value of working together. Improving regional integration—for instance, through more intraregional trade and policy coordination—can help the region’s small-size economies build greater resilience and scale, as well as enhance bargaining power on the global stage.

India’s Outdoor Workers on the Frontlines of Climate Change

By Manipadma Jena
Last June when more than half of India was reeling under daily temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius, Nursing Behera’s 11-month-old son burned both his legs when a pot of boiling water fell on him.

Africa Must Prioritise Upskilling its Unemployed Youth, Development Bank Urges

By Mantoe Phakathi
Africa’s inability to produce adequate skills is negatively impacting its economic growth.

A Bigger Impact in a Smaller World: The China Situation

By Fairuz Ahmed
We are now living in a hyper communicative world where news does travel faster than lightning. Boundaries, borders, geographical and time differences have become next to obsolete in today’s speed driven world. At any point in time people, news and local occurrences can influence internationally without much local isolation. Along with the advantages of technology, communications and connections world is also facing new challenges that are proportionally evolving with advancement. One region affected today is affecting the global economy and population in frenzy of minutes, hours and days.

Widowhood: Stressful and Unprepared

By Joseph Chamie
In addition to the emotional stress and sorrow of widowhood, most people are unprepared to deal with the daunting challenges following the death of a spouse. Rather than treating widowhood as a taboo subject or something to ponder only in old age, couples need to discuss, plan and make decisions early on regarding the eventual and inevitable passing away of one’s spouse. 

Our Message at Davos: Water & Sanitation Are a Critical Line of Defence Against Climate Change

By Tim Wainwright
There was only one topic on everyone’s lips at Davos this year – climate change. The headlines focused on the cold war between Greta Thunberg and Donald Trump, but there was much greater consensus among those gathered for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

New Challenges to Growth in Latin America & the Caribbean

By Alejandro Werner
Economic activity in Latin America and the Caribbean stagnated in 2019, continuing with the weak growth momentum of the previous five years and adding more urgency and new challenges to reignite growth.

‘Organic is the Future’

By Sapna Gopal
Vandana Shiva, a pioneer of organic farming in India, is incensed by the 2019 draft law to compulsorily register all seeds used by farmers. On a wintry afternoon, at her farm Navdanya in the Himalayan foothills, the noted ecologist spoke on the future of the organic farming movement in India. Excerpts:

Urbanization as a Path to Prosperity

By Chris Wellisz
Growing up in New York City in the 1970s, Edward Glaeser saw a great metropolis in decline. Crime was soaring. Garbage piled up on sidewalks as striking sanitation workers walked off the job. The city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

**UPDATE** African Nations Caught in Conflict Re-commit to Inclusive Education

By Stella Paul
Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh knows that his country is in need of an education system that is, “innovative, based on universal principles and values and adaptive of the local realities”.

Global Inequality Continues to Grow: UNDESA Report

By Samira Sadeque
More than 70 percent of the global population is currently living in parts of the world where income inequality has grown, according to a World Social Report 2020 launched by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). 

From Digital Diplomacy to Data Diplomacy

By Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook
The digital revolution arrived late at the heart of ministries of foreign affairs across the Western world. Ministries latched on to social media around the time of Tahrir Square and Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution, beguiled by a vision of the technology engendering a networked evolution toward more liberal societies.

Pro-Growth Demographic Dogma

By Joseph Chamie
Whenever the issue of population comes up, pro-growth demographic dogma invariably dominates. Governments, political parties, businesses, the media and many others typically praise population growth and lament population slowdown, stabilization or decline. The demographic dogma basically advocates maintaining robust population growth and a larger and youthful population. 

Empowering Women in Poor Communities & Building Resilience Against Climate Pressure

By Bijal Brahmbhatt
As global temperatures continue to rise, vulnerable populations around the world are facing increasingly complex climate risks – with ongoing droughts in Zimbabwe and floods devastating Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

Climate Change: A Tale of Weather Extremes with Mixed Fortunes for Zambia

By Friday Phiri
It is early Saturday morning and Planeta Hatuleke, a small scale farmer of Pemba District in Southern Zambia, awakens to the comforting sound of rainfall. As the locals say, the “heavens have opened” and it is raining heavily after a prolonged dry spell. 

In the Elusive Grip of an Abusive Partner: A Migrant’s Story

By Fairuz Ahmed
To live in a home with family, to have a safe environment, food and basic human necessities, are some of the essentials that most people expect to have without giving it all much thought. When a child is born, parents or caregivers are likely to provide these things. These expectations get renewed whenever someone gets married and moves to a new home, a different neighborhood, or a city. We can hardly find someone who will say that they were not expecting happiness and safety when stepping into a new relationship, or starting a new chapter of life. But these expectations of a better life turn disastrous for millions of people when they step into another country as a dependent.

India’s Citizenship Law Triggered by Rising Right-Wing Ideology

By Nadia Kanji
“Fire bullets at the traitors of the country,” chanted mobs of Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, supporters wrapped in Indian flags in Delhi last week.
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