Labour

An Untold Economic Success Story in Syria

By Pierre Pierre Krähenbühl
Hidden almost literally under the rubble of the civil war in Syria is an economic success story that is rarely told. Hanan Odah is a thirty-year-old Palestine refugee living in Jaramana refugee camp in Damascus. She supports her multiply displaced family of three from a thriving micro-enterprise venture. Her husband was killed in the conflict, but she refused to submit to despair and dependency on her parents.

Unlocking the Diaspora Development Potential

By Elena L. Pasquini
‘Diaspora is the biggest development community that exists in the world’, according to Pedro De Vasconcelos, manager of IFAD‘s Financial Facility for Remittances. However, its potential is still largely untapped.

Poverty Drives Wages Down

By Erik Larsson
H&M has made promises to raise wage levels and increase worker influence in the garment factories of Cambodia.  The validity of these supposed ambitions is being criticized. ”What have they actually achieved? Nothing!”, says Sajsa Beslik, sustainibility banker at Swedish Nordea.

Informal Labour, Another Wall Faced by Migrants in Latin America

By Fabiana Frayssinet
A large proportion of the 4.3 million migrant workers in Latin America and the Caribbean survive by working in the informal economy or in irregular conditions. An invisible wall that is necessary to bring down, together with discrimination and xenophobia.

From Research to Entrepreneurship: Fishing Youth and Women out of Poverty

By Friday Phiri
Ivy Nyambe Inonge, 35, is the treasurer of Mbeta Island Integrated Fish Farm in Senanga district. Her group won the first prize in Zambia under the Cultivate Africa’s Future (CultiAF)  Expanding Business Opportunities for African Youth in Agricultural Value Chains in Southern Africa. She is excited at the prospect of what 5,000 dollars can do for her group, and ultimately, the whole community of Mbeta Island.

Humanity and Social Justice, a Must for the Future of Work – Ryder

By Baher Kamal
“The future of work must be inspired by considerations of humanity, of social justice and peace. If it is not, we are going to a dark place, we are going to a dangerous place,” said the head of the leading world body specialised on labour issues.

Work, What Future? Seven Big Questions Needing Urgent Response

By Baher Kamal
Around the world, profound changes in the nature of work are underway, that’s clear. So it is a fact that the on-going transformations in the world of labour are disrupting the connection between work, personal development and community participation.

The Challenge Ahead: Harnessing Gene Editing to Sustainable Agriculture

By Nteranya Sanginga
The role of genetic engineering in agriculture and food has generated enormous interest and controversies, with large-scale embrace by some nations and wholesale bans by others.

Slaves

By Baher Kamal
For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the transatlantic slave trade, one of the darkest chapters in human history. Slavery is, nevertheless, far from being just a chapter of the past—it still there, with estimated 21 million victims of forced labour and extreme exploitation around the world--nearly the equivalent to of the combined population of Scandinavian countries.

Free Education Helps Combat Child Labour in Fiji

By Catherine Wilson
In the South Pacific nation of Fiji, free and compulsory education, introduced three years ago, in association with better awareness and child protection measures, is helping to reduce children’s vulnerability to harmful and hazardous forms of work.

Fishing Villages Work for Food Security in El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
After an exhausting morning digging clams out of the mud of the mangroves, Rosa Herrera, her face tanned by the sun, arrives at this beach in southeastern El Salvador on board the motorboat Topacio, carrying her yield on her shoulders.

The Robots are Coming, your Job is at Risk

By Martin Khor
Last year Uber started testing driver-less cars, with humans inside to make corrections in case something goes wrong. If the tests go well, Uber will presumably replace their present army of drivers with fleets of the new cars.

A Structural Theory of Aging

By Johan Galtung
Wikipedia has much to offer under "aging". Highly recommended are the 10 points by the world's oldest living man, 114, Walter Breuning.

Ecco Subcontractor in Breach of the Law

By Linda Flood
Low wages, precarious employment, and lots of overtime. A recent report from the EU project ”Change Your Shoes” show that Indonesian subcontractors for several European footwear companies, including Ecco and Deichmann, are not in compliance with the law.

At 60, Ghana Looks to a Future Beyond Aid

By Kwaku Botwe
Ghana turned 60 years old this week. The West African country gained independence from Britain on Mar. 6, 1957, and remains a study in contradictions.

Women’s Progress Uneven, Facing Backlash – UN Rights Chief

By IPS World Desk
“The women’s movement has brought about tremendous change but we must also recognise that progress has been slow and extremely uneven and that it also brought its own challenges,” warned the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

Gender Disparity at UN: Three Out of 71, Zero out of Nine

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations has frequently been accused of vociferously preaching gender empowerment and women’s rights to the outside world -- but failing miserably to practice what it preaches in its own political backyard.

Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030

By Zebib Kavuma
This year as the world commemorates International Women’s Day it is a time for all of us to celebrate and reflect on the progress made on Women’s rights globally. But more importantly, a day to call for an end to gender inequality in all its forms especially in the work spaces. Appropriately themed “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030” the commemoration comes against a backdrop of a world that is undergoing major changes with significant implications for women.

Let Women Speak and Give Them a Hearing

By Farhana Haque Rahman, Director General, Inter Press Service
Basic rights always need champions, and that’s truer today than it ought to be as around the world we see an unwelcome pattern of reaction to modern complexities ranging from globalization and automation to austerity and dwindling wages. One alarming example is how the agenda of promoting women’s rights, so far from completion, is being pushed back rather than forward.

Time to Champion Women’s Empowerment: Implementation of SDGs in Bangladesh

By Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad
The year 2015 was highly significant in relation to global convergence on ways forward towards achieving sustainable development at local, national, regional, and global levels.

Why a Feminist Foreign Policy Is Needed More than Ever

By Margot Wallström
Lately, the world has tended to present itself in increasingly darker shades. In many places, democracy is questioned, women’s rights are threatened, and the multilateral system that has taken decades to build is undermined.
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