Population

Re-inventing Multilateral Solidarity: Rhetoric, Reaction or Realignment of Power?

By Barbara Adams
Multilateral solidarity is gaining traction as the slogan for mobilizing support for international cooperation and for the UN. Is it replacing or merely renaming cross-border obligations, many of which have been enshrined over decades in UN treaties, conventions and agreements, and the principle of common but differentiated responsibility in their implementation?

South Sudan – COVID-19 and Ongoing Violence has Catastrophic Impact on Civilians

By Samira Sadeque
Large-scale intercommunal violence on civilians in the Jonglei and greater Pibor regions in South Sudan has led to the mass displacement of thousands of people who are living in the open without health care, adequate food, shelter, water or sanitation in the middle of the rainy season.

Madagascar – Jails Hold more Pre-trial Prisoners than Convicted Criminals

By Samira Sadeque
The recent killing of 22 prisoners in Madagascar during a prison escape on Sunday, Aug. 23 has brought the extraordinary situation of the country’s prisons under a spotlight. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has condemned the killings, criticising the current judicial system that has led to Madagascar’s prisons holding more people awaiting trial than convicted criminals.

Looking Back to Look Forward: What Does the Next Normal Look Like?

By Gary Rynhart
In the last 100 years there have been seven crises that have had a truly global impact. Two global wars (1914-18 & 1939-1945); two global health pandemics, the Spanish Flu (1918) and HIV/AIDS (1980s onwards); one major political crisis (1989 – the end of the cold war); and two financial crises (1929 and 2008).

Mayan Train Threatens to Alter the Environment and Communities in Mexico

By Emilio Godoy
Mayan anthropologist Ezer May fears that the tourism development and real estate construction boom that will be unleashed by the Mayan Train, the main infrastructure project of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will disrupt his community.

Transforming the Global Economy or Parachuting Cats into Borneo?

By Lawrence Surendra
The COVID 19 Pandemic continues relentlessly. Deaths approaching a million globally, 22 million infected and growing. Brazil, India, the US and Russia accounting for almost 50% of the total cases in the world.

Q&A: Ageing Africa Left out of COVID-19 Policies

By Samira Sadeque

Nearly three quarters of respondents in a survey across 18 African countries have claimed that their countries’ COVID-19 responses are gravely lacking in addressing the ageing population.

How Women & Girls are Forced to Trade Sex for Water

By Sareen Malik and Benazir Omotto
There is an intimate connection between corruption and COVID-19. This pandemic is making everyday life more desperate, especially in poorer communities, and that means more opportunities for those preying on vulnerable people.

We Must Prioritize Local Solutions to Global Problems

By Ritah Nansereko
World Humanitarian Day is the perfect time to refresh our push to localize humanitarian aid for COVID-19 and all the challenges we face. Celebrating #RealLifeHeroes!

Keeping Education within the Grasp of Refugee Children

By Mantoe Phakathi
“Not being able to go to school is not something I’d wish on any child in this world,” said 21-year-old Nujeen Mustafa, a young advocate for refugees who fled the Syrian war with her sister. Mustafa, who now lives in Germany, is also the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) high profile supporter.

Youth Rural-Urban Migration Hurts Malawi’s Agriculture

By Charles Mpaka
As households in Chiradzulu District in Southern Malawi start preparing their farms for the next maize growing season, Frederick Yohane, 24, is a busy young man.

Warming Temperatures & Decades of Oil Spills Cause Irreversible Damage to the Persian Gulf

By Rabiya Jaffery
The Persian Gulf is one of the most strategic waterways in the world and is also one of the most polluted. According to estimates by experts, pollution levels in the Persian Gulf are 47 times higher than the world’s average and are steadily increasing.

Ride-Hailing App Delivers Contraceptives to Users’ Doorsteps

By Martha Songa - Cedric Muhebwa - Rakiya Abby-Farrah*
When Betty Nagadya walks through the trading centre on her way home, she sings a song in the local Luganda language: “SafeBoda, SafeBoda, who needs a helmet?” she sings. “For those who feel cold, I have a coat for you.” But her song is not about clothing – it’s about condoms.

Inadequate Water & Sanitation Threatens Women’s & Girls’ Development in Senegal

By Stella Paul
With Tabaski (Eid al-Adha) around the corner, 11-year-old Fatoumata Binta from Terrou Mballing district in M'Bour, western Senegal, wakes up early and joins her brothers Iphrahima Tall and Ismaila to fetch water from a river several miles from home.

COVID-19 Impact Means Women and Girls Will Still Eat Last, Be Educated Last

By Emily Thampoe
Catherine Bertini, former executive director of the World Food Programme, began the IPS United Nations Bureau webinar “The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women and Girls” by reminiscing on a talk she gave in 1995 entitled “Women eat last”. She remarked that after 25 years, the phrase is still something that is relevant to the present day.

Relevance of US Peace Corps in Post-COVID World

By Kul Chandra Gautam
I have had 5-decade long and happy association with the Peace Corps since I was a 7th grade student in the hills of Nepal. My wonderful Peace Corps teachers were instrumental in helping transform my life. And the 4000+ Peace Corps Volunteers who have served in Nepal have contributed immensely to my country’s development.

World Poverty: We Have Come So Far… But So Much Further To Go

By Ann McLaughlin
The United Nations’ first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is “No poverty,” the most important because almost half the world, 46%, lives on less than $5.50 a day according to the World Bank. But world attention has turned away from poverty. Why?

With Poverty & Hunger Skyrocketing, is a Global Economic Rescue Package the Answer?

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations has been relentlessly pursuing a highly-ambitious blueprint for the sustainable future of humanity –harking back to the adoption of a new global economic agenda by the General Assembly back in 2015.

The SDGs, COVID-19 and the Global South: Insights from the Sustainable Development Report 2020

By Guillaume Lafortune, Finn Woelm, Grayson Fuller, and Alyson Marks
COVID-19 has claimed more than 550,000 lives and disrupted the entire world, sparing no region. As of July 2020, the number of daily new confirmed cases and deaths due to COVID-19 are growing rapidly in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially in Brazil and Mexico but also in many African countries as well as India. As highlighted in a recent article, these numbers are likely underestimated given the reduced testing capacity in many low and middle-income countries.

Q&A: Understanding COVID-19’s Impact on Food Security and Nutrition

By Samira Sadeque
While it is too early to assess the full impact of the global COVID-19 lockdowns, at least 83 million to 132 million more people may go hungry this year -- 690 million people were classified as hungry in 2019 -- as the pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food systems. 

On World Youth Skills Day, Don’t Forget the Importance of Soft Skills

By Jessica Love
It’s no secret that under pandemic lockdown for so many months, young people around the world have coped in tremendous ways. They have found new outlets for learning and creative channels for developing and using their skills.
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