Population

Quenching Humanity’s Freshwater Thirst Creates a Salty Threat

By Edward Jones, Manzoor Qadir and Vladimir Smakhtin
Starting from a few, mostly Middle Eastern facilities in the 1960s, today almost 16,000 desalination plants are in operation in 177 countries, producing 95 million cubic meters of freshwater every day - equal to about half the flow over Niagara Falls.

Davos, Inequality & the Climate Emergency

By Daniel Mittler
Four of the top five most impactful threats in this year’s World Economic Forum´s Global Risks report are related to climate change. The report warns that we are “sleepwalking to disaster” . But that is not true.The disaster is already here, it´s not something we are still walking towards. Climate change is no future threat, it´s a current one. We have entered a new phase, one in which the impacts are coming faster, with greater intensity.

Wasting & Dining: the New Water Dilemma

By Jan Lundqvist
Concerns about the supply side of food systems are shifting from insufficient production and supply, to issues likely to affect food production in the medium and long term, such as water risks, global warming and environmental consequences.

Experience With Irregular Migration is the Best Teacher

By Sam Olukoya
The International Organization For Migration (IOM) has taken its campaign against irregular migration to schools in Nigeria. The school campaigns are meant to educate children who are among victims of human traffickers.

A Salty Dilemma

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
As the threat of water scarcity increasingly grows, many have turned to the Earth’s plentiful oceans for a solution. However, this has created a new risk threatening public and environmental health: brine.

Why We Should Care about Vulnerable Coastal Communities

By Nigel Brett
According to UN statistics, approximately 40 per cent of the world’s population lives within 100 kilometers of the coast, and overall the world’s coastal population is increasing faster than the total global population. At the same time, global warming is causing sea levels to rise and increasing extreme weather incidents on coastlines.

Honduran Crisis Produces New Caravan

By Jan Egeland
A new caravan heading towards Mexico and the United States was reportedly set to leave San Pedro Sula in Honduras on 15 January. The large number of people expected to leave Central America is a true testimony to the desperate situation for children, women and men in this poor and violence affected region.

With All Things Equal Would the Ruling Party have Won the Elections in Bangladesh ?

By Naimul Haq
It was the first time in the history of parliamentary elections in Bangladesh that a party won with such a huge margin. But according to local analysts familiar with Bangladesh's political climate, the victory by the ruling Awami League (AL) led coalition—which won over 96 percents of seats in parliament in the country's 11th national elections on Dec. 30—was expected in the face of the country's unprecedented development. 

Shedding Light on Forced Child Pregnancy and Motherhood in Latin America

By Mariela Jara
Research and campaigns by women’s rights advocates are beginning to focus on the problem of Latin American girls under the age of 14 who are forced to bear the children of their rapists, with the lifelong implications that entails and without the protection of public policies guaranteeing their human rights.

Argentina’s Indigenous People Fight for Land Rights

By Daniel Gutman
Nancy López lives in a house made of clay, wood and corrugated metal sheets, on private land dedicated to agriculture. She is part of an indigenous community of 12 families in northern Argentina that, like almost all such communities, has no title to the land it occupies and lives under the constant threat of eviction.

Q&A: ‘There’s a Lot More Climate Finance Available than People Think’

By Yazeed Kamaldien
While growth in the green economy looks promising, government regulation and a business-as-usual approach are among the hurdles inhibiting cleaner energy production.

A Closer Look at the World Bank’s Sizable China Portfolio

By Scott Morris and Gailyn Portelance
China continues to borrow an average of $2 billion a year from the World Bank, making it one of the Bank’s top borrowers—despite being the world’s second-largest economy and itself a major global lender, according to our study released today.

Walking Miles In Their Shoes

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
In light of the millions of refugees escaping persecution in search of a safer, more prosperous future, a new campaign aims to raise awareness of the difficult journeys such populations take around the world.

Indigenous People, the First Victims of Brazil’s New Far-Right Government

By Mario Osava
"We have already been decimated and subjected, and we have been victims of the integrationist policy of governments and the national state," said indigenous leaders, as they rejected the new Brazilian government’s proposals and measures focusing on indigenous peoples.

Recorded Increase in Human Trafficking, Women and Girls Targeted

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Human trafficking is on the rise and it is more “horrific” than ever, a United Nations agency found.In a new report examining patterns in human trafficking, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that the global trend has increased steadily since 2010 around the world.

Local Innovation Facilitates Solidarity-Based Biogas Networks in Cuba

By Ivet González
Black plastic pipes, readily available on the mainly empty shelves of Cuba’s shops, distribute biogas to homes in the rural town of La Macuca, buried under the ground or running through the grass and stones in people’s yards.

Designer Babies can Lead to Growth of Homogenous Individuals

By Jagriti Gangopadhyay
A Chinese researcher has claimed that he helped make world’s first genetically edited babies but the development may come at a heavy cost. A designer baby is a GM human embryo with appropriate qualities which have been shaped as per the instructions received from the parents.

Solar Energy Crowns Social Housing Programme in Brazil

By Mario Osava
"Solar energy makes my happiness complete," said Divina Cardoso dos Santos, owner of one of 740 houses with photovoltaic panels on the rooftops in a settlement on the outskirts of this central Brazilian city.

Getting Sustainable Development Back on Track in Asia & the Pacific

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
2019 will be a landmark year for the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Four years will have passed since world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Four years since governments recommitted themselves to eradicating extreme poverty, improving universal health care coverage, education and food security, and achieving a sweeping set of economic, social and environmental objectives. Long enough to assess our direction of travel and then refocus work where progress is falling short.

Nigerian Radio Drama Tells True Life Stories of Irregular Migration

By Sam Olukoya
The International Organization for Migration has taken its campaign against irregular migration to the airwaves in Nigeria. Working in conjunction with some Nigerian radio stations, the United Nations Migration Agency has launched a radio series on safe migration.

BAPA+40: An Opportunity to Reenergize South-South Cooperation

By Branislav Gosovic
The upcoming conference on the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA+40), scheduled to take place in the Argentine capital on 20-22 March 2019, ought to be more than just another UN conference where the developing countries assemble to present their demands and seek support from the North.
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