Population

Rural Poverty? Cooperatives!

By Johan Galtung
Humanity has had and has big projects. Mastery of nature is one, still going on. Middle range phenomena have been mastered, but not the micro level of viri–HIV is a current case–nor the macro level of climate–to the contrary, humanity is making it worse.

Global Devaluation of Work Drives Up Unemployment in Brazil

By Mario Osava
In addition to driving up the number of unemployed people to 14.2 million, the severe recession of the last two years led Brazil to join the global trend of flexibilisation of labour laws in order to further reduce labour costs.

“Black Soils” – Excessive Use of Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, Mercury…

By IPS World Desk
Soils are polluted due mostly to human activities that leave excess chemicals in soils used to grow food, the United Nations reports.

No Wall for Ethiopia, Rather an Open Door—Even for Its Enemy

By James Jeffrey
It’s one thing to read about the exodus of souls flowing out of Eritrea, it’s quite another to look into the tired eyes, surrounded by dust and grime, of a 14-year-old Eritrean girl who’s just arrived on the Ethiopian side of the shared border.

Asia-Pacific: Farming Rice and Fish Together to Reduce Poverty

By IPS World Desk
Rice is a major food commodity and staple food for many, and adding fish to flooded rice paddies has been a farming tradition practiced in a number of Asian countries for many centuries—even for more than 1000 years in some Chinese areas, the United Nations reports.

BRICS to Lead World’s Efforts to Eradicate Hunger, Poverty by 2030

By IPS World Desk
With the clock ticking toward the 2030 deadline for meeting the international goals to eradicate hunger and poverty, five of the world's most important emerging economies are well positioned to take a leading role in helping to achieve these objectives, according to the United Nations.

Drought Pushes 1 in 3 Somalis to a Hunger Knife-Edge

By Baher Kamal
Another famine in former European colonies in Africa and another time in its Eastern region, with Ethiopia and Somalia among the major victims of drought and made-made climate disasters mainly caused by US and European multinational business.

Mideast: Drought to Turn People into Eternal Migrants, Prey to Extremism?

By Baher Kamal
Worldwide, land degradation, severe droughts and advancing desertification are set to force populations to flee their homes and migrate. In the specific case of the Middle East and North of Africa (MENA), such an obliged choice implies the additional risk to turn peoples into easy prey to extremist, terrorist groups.

Heavy Toll of Disrupted Farming, Higher Prices and Displaced Livelihoods

By IPS World Desk
Large agricultural harvests in some regions of the world are buoying global food supply conditions, but protracted fighting and unrest are increasing the ranks of the displaced and hungry elsewhere, according to a United Nations new report.

When Women Have Land Rights, the Tide Begins to Turn

By Manipadma Jena
In Meghalaya, India’s northeastern biodiversity hotspot, all three major tribes are matrilineal. Children take the mother’s family name, while daughters inherit the family lands.

Solar Tents Improve Nutrition in Highlands Villages in Bolivia

By Franz Chávez
In this remote highlands valley community in central Bolivia, a group of Quechua indigenous women have learned how to combat the intense frosts and the shortage of water in solar tents, and to use what they grow to prepare nutritious new meals for their families.

Latin America Lacks Clear Policies to Tackle Human Trafficking

By Daniela Pastrana
Each year, some three million undocumented immigrants enter the United States, half of them with the help of traffickers, as part of a nearly seven-billion- dollar business, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Large Landowners Jeopardise Indigenous Revival in Brazil

By Mario Osava
The attack with guns and machetes that left at least 10 Gamela indigenous people wounded, in the northeastern state of Maranhão, highlighted the growing threats against the resurgence and survival of native people in Brazil.

How to Produce More Food with Less Damage to Soil, Water, Forests

By IPS World Desk
Massive agriculture intensification is contributing to increased deforestation, water scarcity, soil depletion and the level of greenhouse gas emission, the United Nations warns.

Business Unusual: Valuing Water for a Sustainable Future

By Paula Fray
Valuing water is more than simply assigning costs to a scare resource - it is an essential step for transforming water governance to meet the needs of a prosperous future.

The ‘Water-Employment-Migration’ Explosive Nexus

By Baher Kamal
Water--everybody talks about it, warns against its growing scarcity, excessive waste, the impact of climate change, the frequent severe droughts and so on. Now, a global action network with over 3,000 partner organisations in 183 countries comes to unveil the dangerous nexus between water, employment and migration, in particular in the Mediterranean region.

Millions of Homes in Mexico Suffer from “Energy Poverty”

By Emilio Godoy
Energy poverty afflicts millions of homes in Mexico, with many social, economic and environmental impacts for the country.

Growing Unemployed Youth in Africa a Time Bomb, But…

By Friday Phiri
There are nearly 420 million young Africans between the ages of 15 and 35 today. And it is estimated that within ten years, Africa will be home to one-fifth of all young people worldwide.

Brazil Drives New School Feeding Model in the Region

By Mario Osava
“I am going back to Panama with many ideas,” said Gilda Montenegro, a nutritionist with the Panamanian Education Ministry, after getting to know the school feeding system in the city of Vitoria, in central-eastern Brazil.

Formalising Informal Trade – Good for African Women?

By IPS World Desk
Women constitute the largest share of informal traders in Africa–about 70 per cent in Southern Africa and more than half in other parts of this vast continent made up of 54 states, home to over 1,200 billion people.

Africa – More than Just Conflicts, Corruption, Disasters

By IPS World Desk
Natural and man-made disasters, armed conflicts, widespread corruption and deep social inequalities have been so far a dramatic source for most news coverage when it comes to Africa, the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent on Earth, which hosts 54 states spreading over 30 million square kilometres that are home to over 1.2 billion people.
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