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Thursday, June 20, 2013
Journalism and Communication for Global Change
Poverty & MDGs
Somalia’s ‘Cultural Shift’ Means Less-Severe Form of FGM
Seven-year-old Istar Mumin lies on a bed, motionless, in one of the rooms of her family home in Mogadishu’s Hamarweyne district. She has just gone through the horrifying ritual of “the cut,” which was carried out by a local Somali nurse.
Highest Number of Refugees in Two Decades
Yves Norodom, a 21-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo living in Brazil, is one of 45.2 million displaced people around the world – the largest number in 20 years.
Reconstruction of Haiti Slum to Cost Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Three years after its star-studded launch by President René Préval, actor Sean Penn and other Haitian and foreign dignitaries, the model “Corail-Cesselesse” camp for Haiti's 2010 earthquake victims has helped give birth to what might become the country's most expansive – and most expensive – slum.
Haiti’s Earthquake Victims Try to Survive at Camp Corail
Despite the unforgiving sun and its sweltering heat, Joel Monfiston is working, hammering a piece of worn plywood, watering flowers and picking the weeds out from between rocks and pebbles.
Climate Change to Determine Economic Growth
The Monetary Board of Sri Lanka’s Central Bank, tasked with keeping the island’s economy on an even keel, does not only keep tabs on exchange rates, gold prices and inflation – it also has an eye on a less obvious indicator of economic stability: water levels in the country’s main reservoirs.
Leasehold Forestry Brings a New Lease on Life
Nearly 300 km from Nepal’s teeming capital, Kathmandu, in a small village dug into the steep slopes of the mountainous Palpa district, 35-year-old Dhanmaya Pata goes about her daily chores in much the same way that her ancestors did centuries ago.
Rebuilding Zimbabwe’s Health System
A newborn baby lets out a feeble cry as midwife Anna Mungara tends to a small wound on its head, at the provincial hospital in Masvingo, a town in southeast Zimbabwe.
Job Creation Looming Challenge for Post-2015 World
In the aftermath of the global economic crisis and with three years to go until the 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals, global leaders are struggling to formulate a post-2015 agenda that can address the widespread dilemmas of employment and inclusive growth.
Hunger Persists in Latin America’s Bread Basket
Judging by the accolades and diplomas handed out to 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries by FAO, it would be easy to conclude that the region has taken a giant leap towards eradicating hunger.
Rural Mexican Communities Protest Wind Farms
"We can't sow our fields, which they have rented for next to nothing. What good do we get out of it?" Guadalupe Ramírez complained about wind farms operating in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Entrepreneurs Seek Way Out of Crisis in Spain
The people in the textile factory where Lourdes Soler presented the design of her skirts had never seen such detailed “blueprints” of a garment. Spain’s depressed labour market forced the technical architect to reinvent herself and create her own job – a growing trend in this crisis-stricken country.
Redoubling Efforts Against Racism in Cuba
Jokes, songs, crude gestures and epithets that degrade people of African descent are still common in Cuba, despite the fact that the constitution prohibits discrimination based on skin colour, and in spite of more recent political measures, activists say.
Women’s Time Has Come
Closing the gender gap between women and men on agriculture and food security could free over one hundred million people from hunger.
Corruption Eats Into India’s Food Distribution System
As India’s Parliament prepares to pass a bill to provide heavily subsidised food to 810 million people, there are misgivings over its implementation through a notoriously corrupt public distribution system (PDS).
MDGs Fund Boosts Food Security
Since its founding in 2007 to help developing nations fight poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease and gender discrimination, the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F) has financed about 130 joint programmes in 50 countries.Next Page »
Achievements are failing widely in the march to the 2015 Millennium Development Goal targets agreed by world leaders in 2000. But there are successes too, with some countries effectively fighting poverty and promoting health and education -- aims that are at the heart of the eight MDGs. IPS here reports on the progress and the shortfalls on way to those goals.
Development Deadline 2015
Multimedia
Slideshow
Lloyd (left) and Fredwim (right) say the youth farm project has changed their lives. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS
Urban Youth Go Back to the Land
This page includes independent IPS news coverage financed by the EU in a project to cover the MDG situation in Least Developed Countries.
The contents of this news coverage, including any funded by the European Union, are the sole responsibility of IPS and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.
IPS is partnering with the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) to increase coverage of poverty issues and distribution of poverty related news articles worldwide. The core of this partnership is a three year (2010-2012) EU funded project that focuses on the situation in the Least Developed Countries.