The Missing Women in Finance

Women comprise a very small proportion of the financial industry workforce, and this has implications on the way female clients use and benefit from financial services.

Towards a Sustainable Future: Case of China’s Economic Transformation

The Asia-Pacific region is at a crossroads. The traditional export-oriented, manufacturing-driven growth is facing headwinds from sluggish external demand and rising protectionist trade measures. 

Is India on Track to Beat the Perfect Storm?

“The Perfect Storm” was a dire prediction that by 2030 food shortages, scarce water and insufficient energy resources together with climate change would threaten to unleash public unrest, cross-border conflicts and mass migration from worst-affected regions.

How India’s Indigenous Female Forest Dwellers Feel about Owning Their Own Land

Kumaribai Jamkatan, 51, has been fighting for women’s land rights since 1987. Though the constitution of India grants equal rights to men and women, women first started to stake their claim for formal ownership of land only after 2005–the year the government accorded legal rights to daughters to be co-owners of family-owned land.

In the Midst of Conflict, India’s Indigenous Female Forest Dwellers Own their Land

Jam Bai, an Indigenous farmer from Korchi village in western India, is a woman in hurry. After two months of waiting, the rains have finally come and the rice saplings for her paddy fields must be sown this week while the land is still soft.

India’s Indigenous Women Assert their Land Rights

Nuclear Weapons Must Go: Lessons of Hiroshima & Nagasaki

It has been 74 years since a nuclear devastation took place. But a clear message stands -- that nuclear weapons must go and peace and love must reign. “Because if we forget the horrific consequences of the use of these devices, the likelihood of repetition is increased.” Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute told IPS, as the United Nations marked the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

On Brutality of Violence Against Women

On a cold night in December 2012, a ghastly crime was committed in New Delhi which stunned the world. Six men dragged helpless Nirbhaya-a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern- to the back of the bus and raped her one by one. As she kept fighting off her assailants by biting them, one of the attackers inserted a rusted rod in her private part, ripping her genital organs and insides apart. She died a few days later. One of the accused died in police custody in the Tihar Jail. The juvenile was convicted of rape and murder and given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility, and subsequently released. The Supreme Court awarded the death penalty but legal complications have prevented its execution.

A Call for Healthy, Blue Oceans in Asia and the Pacific

Leaders at the Group of 20 summit last month agreed on the “Osaka Blue Ocean Vision,” which aims to reduce additional pollution by marine plastic litter to zero by 2050. The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) stands ready to support Japan and other countries in the region to ensure healthy and sustainable oceans.

A Rural Sanitation Model That Works

Research and experience across more than two decades in rural Odisha, India, show that an effective rural sanitation model requires both financial assistance and an integrated water supply.

Free Speech and the Hong Kong Protests

Sometime in the summer of 1974, I was leaning against the gunwale of the ferry between Calais and Dover, watching the moonlight streaming dark waters. When I turned to the left I found that a Chinese lady also looked out over the calm sea. What she told me changed my world view.

Floods Havoc in North Bangladesh

Floods are quite common in Bangladesh - blame it on climate change, the control and discharge of river waters at source or poor disaster management. The damage to property to livestock is colossal.

The Fight to End Violence Against Women in the Asia-Pacific Region

Parliamentarians met in Laos last week to discuss violence against women and girls. The meeting was organized by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) and hosted by the National Assembly of Laos.

Australia’s Forgotten Asylum Seekers

As the focus of Australian politics shifts away from refugee and asylum-seeker policies, the government avoids accountability for inhumane actions.

Sri Lanka on Security Alert Long After Easter Bombings

Sri Lanka continues to be on a security alert long after the devastation caused by a string of bombings on Easter Sunday this year. Raisa Wickrematunge, Editor of Groundviews, told IPS: “There has been a tightening of security. There are now security checks being carried out outside hotels and shopping malls - either through scanners or bag and body searches”.

Women’s Rights are Key in Slowing Down Population

The increase in world population by 2 billion in the next 30 years will present a serious global challenge especially if we do not find new paradigms of development thought and renewed global political leadership.

Partnering for Youth in Central Asia

Young people around the world are facing increasingly insurmountable, persistent barriers as they try to achieve their full potential and secure a prosperous future. However, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific have already begun working to ensure that no one is left behind.

World’s Poorest Nations Weighed Down by Fastest Growing Populations

With a new report projecting a rise in population, specifically in Asia and Africa, the United Nations has warned that continued rapid population growth presents enormous challenges for sustainable development in the world’s 134 developing nations.

Poor Outlook for HIV-positive Children in Pakistan

Over 785 people have been diagnosed with HIV in Larkana, Pakistan. 82% of those individuals are children, and only half are receiving the treatment they need.

Rising Population Trends Threaten UN’s Development Goals in Asia & Africa

The world’s developing nations, currently fighting an uphill battle in their attempts to implement the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are facing another stark demographic reality: a rise in world population by 2.0 billion people in the next 30 years: from 7.7 billion to 9.7 billion in 2050.