One Year After Sendai – What The World Can Learn from Armenia

Armenia is prone to natural disasters. Eight out of every 10 citizens are likely to experience a natural disaster at some point during their lifetimes – an earthquake, landslide, hailstorm or flooding. Each year, the country incurs $33 million in damage from such disasters.

Food Insecurity in the Far North

“They have reduced the quantity of food they used to give us and we still do not know why. But we are managing. We are refugees and we have no choice. All they give us is rice and some soya beans” John Guige, a Nigerian resident and primary school teacher in the Minawao refugee camp in Cameroon’s Far North region, told IPS.

Damaging Effects

The year 2015 will be remembered for two landmark global agreements. In September, UN member states endorsed the 2030 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Later, 196 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted the Paris Agreement at the conclusion of UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in France.

Not Enough Women At the Peace Table, Say Arab Activists

“When it comes to peace talks, women have a special stake,” said Gloria Steinem while discussing current peace talks in the Middle East. Steinem, a prominent activist, joined the 60th annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as part of Donor Direct Action, an NGO connecting women’s rights activists to donors.

Germany: Reaping What You Sow

The recent German elections went as predicted.. A new right wing, xenophobe party, Alternative for Germany, AFD, has emerged with force, and will bein national Parliament in 2017.This development is unprecedented in German politics since the end of the second world war, and it is widely viewedas part of a general trend - the rise of populist and xenophobe forces all over Europe.

Dhaka’s Risky Streets with Kids Driving Buses, Human Hauliers

In any country, one has to be an adult to qualify as a driver. But in Bangladesh, one does not have to obey that law to become a driver – and that literally means it is “allowed”.

Will the EU Become a Criminal Union Tomorrow?

The EUropean Union – a criminal? The EU that has peace as its top goal and received Nobel’s Peace Prize? The EU with Schengen and Dublin?

Myanmar’s Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis

The persisting humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar has been a global concern after two bouts of organised mass violence against them in 2012. While the Rohingya persecution has been going on for nearly four decades, Myanmar’s reforms launched in 2011 facilitated the international media’s coverage of the mass violence.

A “Colombian Triangle” for Daesh in Libya?

Besieged by US, UK, French, Russian and Syrian war crafts and ground intelligence, both in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (Daesh from its original acronym in Arabic) has reportedly been searching for a new base in the North of Africa, specifically in Libya, in what has been called the “Colombian Triangle.”

Using Smarter Stoves to Combat Household Air Pollution

When it comes to cooking indoors over open fires, the harmful health effects can be equal to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. This indoor air pollution plagues nearly nine out of every 10 Bangladeshi households, which use wood and other biofuels to cook inside.

Improving Rural Livelihoods Boost Agrarian Economies

For two decades, Dickson Kamau only grew maize on his 0.5 hectare (ha) of land earning himself the nickname Kamau wa mbembe or Kamau who owns maize in his native Kikuyu language.

African Nations & Russia Protest UN Stamps on Gay, Lesbian Rights

When the UN Postal Administration recently unveiled a set of six new commemorative stamps -- as part of a global campaign promoting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities -- it did not expect a furious backlash as it did, mostly from the 54 members of the African Group and from Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council.

Rural Costa Rican Families Flourish in the Shade

Before they got involved in farming, Luis Diego Murillo and Xinia Solano paid their bills and put food on their table with Luis’s salary as a foreman on construction sites, an unstable job that kept him on the move.

Are We Entering Into a Long Term Stagnation?

Larry Summers, Clinton’s minister of treasury, has made few friends in life. At that time, he was instrumental in eliminating the Glass Stegall Banking Law, which since 1933 separated the bank’s customer deposits from the financial activities of the Stock Exchange, releasing a flood of money which created the present monster financial system.

Clean Water, Sanitation & Hygiene For All by 2030

Last year we watched with cautious optimism as UN chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the new Sustainable Development Goals, and called upon the world to meet them.

Who Guards the Guardhouse?

In a surreal digital theft that befits a high octane movie thriller, we were recently informed of the daring heist at Bangladesh Bank in which nearly a billion dollars were siphoned off last month. As if this was not enough, the theft took place over several days early February through a series of about three dozen electronic fund transfers from the Bank to New York Federal Reserve for a total amount anywhere between eight hundred fifty to eight hundred seventy million dollars. All of the looted amount made through dozens of transfers would have been cashed had it not been due to the now famous spelling error in a twenty million check made to a Sri Lankan NGO. The error prompted the routing bank, Deutsche Bank, to seek clarification from the Bangladesh central bank, which stopped the transaction. But the mystery hackers still managed to swipe $80 million, one of the largest recorded bank thefts in history.

Tribute to a Slain Environment Activist

Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores, was in her early 20s when she co-founded the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (Cophin), a group that campaigned for the rights of indigenous communities in the Central American nation.

Civil Wars Threaten to Break up a Volatile Middle East

As civil wars and cross-border military conflicts continue to escalate in the Middle East, Syria, Iraq and Libya are in danger of breaking up —even as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continues to make territorial gains in the volatile region.

Outsourcing Jobs, Insourcing Labour & Increasing Profits

For decades “outsourcing” jobs from wealthy developed countries to low-wage developing countries has been a major strategy of many corporations, industries and businesses to increase profits by reducing labor costs and operating expenses.

600 Million Adolescent Girls Battle Major Challenges

“Today, there are 600 million adolescent girls with specific needs, challenges and aspirations for the future,” said the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Babatunde Osotimehin, starting off a High-Level Forum on adolescent girls.

‘Worse Than World War I’

When the leaders of 28 European states enjoy again this week their exclusive flights, luxurious suites and official limousines, to meet for a new summit in Brussels to adopt a final decision on their proposed plan of using refugees as bargaining chips, 20.000 Syrians will most probably be still starving in the Idomeni camp in Greece, in a situation that has been described as “worse than World War I.”