The Profound Rise of the Elderly

The 20th century ushered in the profound rise of the elderly. During the 21st century, the elderly as a result of their rising numbers and growing proportions of country populations will be increasingly impacting government policies, programs and expenditures.

A Path Towards Ending Child Marriage

As the sun rises over coastal Gopalpur, Odisha, in eastern India, dozens of children prepare for school. Unfortunately, for many girls in the state, the arrival of their first period can mean the end of their school years as they face societal pressures to become brides.

A Test of Humanity: Migrants’ Rights in a World Turning Inward

The United Nations Refugee Agency faces devastating cuts that may eliminate 5,000 to 6,000 jobs, with potentially catastrophic consequences for millions of people fleeing war, repression, hunger and climate disasters. This 75-year-old institution, established to help Europeans displaced by the Second World War, now confronts an unprecedented financial crisis, primarily due to the US foreign aid freeze – and the timing couldn’t be worse.

‘What’s Next?’ Women-led Movements Fear for the Future

Women rights advocates who gathered at UN Headquarters for the world’s biggest meeting (10 -21 March) on gender equality have been sharing their concerns about the growing backlash against feminism, and how major funding cuts from donor countries could threaten programmes aimed at improving the lives of women and girls.

Turning the Tide on Tuberculosis: Ensuring Access, Treatment, and Prevention for All Communities

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by the aerophilic intracellular obligate pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is a globally endemic bacterial infection transmitted person-to-person through airborne droplets. Although fully preventable and curable, TB remains a persistent global health challenge and is projected to be a leading infectious disease by 2025.

A Weapon in the Fight for Water Security: Preserving the Glaciers

World Water Day, celebrated on March 22 every year, raises awareness about the importance of water and advocates for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The theme for 2025 focuses on glaciers — those grandiose ice masses that are a crucial part of the world's water resources.

Glaciers Of The SADC Region – A Wake-Up Call For Climate Action

World Water Day calls us all to promote the essential element of life: water. But we must also look this year at the rapidly vanishing sources of freshwater that we depend on, especially glaciers. Although glaciers may be remote for many of us, they are an essential component of the water cycle, nourishing rivers and lakes that are important for millions of people around the world. As precious resources with sources under threat, glaciers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region are an area of focus.

How Aid Cuts Will Shatter Global Water and Sanitation Progress

The principle of leaving no one behind is central to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The progress toward achieving SDG 6, which aims to ensure universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene by 2030 is increasingly under threat with recent development funding cuts posing a significant barrier.

Civil Society: The Last Line of Defence in a World of Cascading Crises

In a world of overlapping crises, from brutal conflicts and democratic regression to climate breakdown and astronomic levels of economic inequality, one vital force stands as a shield and solution: civil society. This is the sobering but ultimately hopeful message of CIVICUS’s 14th annual State of Civil Society Report, which provides a wide-ranging civil society perspective on the state of the world as it stands in early 2025.

Why “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace” Advocates Cling to Genocide Denial

Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza comes several months after both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued reports concluding without equivocation that Israel was engaged in genocide. But very few members of Congress dare to acknowledge that reality, while their silence and denials scream out complicity.

New Survey: US Funding Freeze Triggers Global Crisis in Human Rights and Democracy

A new survey carried out by the EU System for an Enabling Environment (EU SEE) network exposes the impact of the US funding freeze on civil society organisations (CSOs) in over 50 countries. With 67% of surveyed organisations directly impacted and 40% of them losing between 25-50% of their budgets, the abrupt halt in funding is disrupting critical human rights, democracy, gender equality and health programs, leaving vulnerable communities without essential support.

Musk is Wrong. Empathy is Not a Weakness

“The fundamental weakness is empathy,” Musk recently told radio podcast host Joe Rogan. “There is a bug, which is the empathy response.” As Musk has established himself as at least the second most powerful person in an administration seeking a wholesale remaking of institutions, rules and norms, what he said matters, because it encapsulates a political plan. What the Project 2025 report set out in over 900 turgid pages, Musk’s remark captures in a simple pithy mantra for the social media age.

Pioneering Sustainable Energy Solutions in Africa

The 12th Sankalp Africa Summit, held on Feb 26-27 in Nairobi, brought together a pivotal cohort of start-up innovators, investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers to accelerate the innovation needed to enhance Africa’s energy transition.

Funding Disruptions Are a Systemic Failure – Philanthropy Must Do What’s Right and Support Local Leadership

The slashing of US aid funding by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and cuts or planned cuts in international support by several European states, threaten to cut off the oxygen supply to a civil society already in a critical condition. At CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, activists and grassroots groups have shared with us time and again that shifting and volatile donor priorities are one of the top funding challenges they face, alongside limited resources for strategy and restricted funding.

The United States Confronts the Demographic Piper

As the United States confronts the unflinching demographic piper with the stark facts of reality, the new administration and Congress are denying, disengaging and dismantling.

WTO: Standing Tall as the Winds Howl

Winds are also changing in trade policy. As they get rougher and more unpredictable, the much-criticised multilateral trade regime of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has so far proved surprisingly resilient. Paradoxically, Donald Trump’s tariff policy could actually strengthen the WTO.

Trump, Democracy and the U.S. Constitution

In these turbulent and sad times, it is hard to keep quiet about abuses and violations of human rights taking place around the world; in eastern DR Congo, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Gaza. Among the most egregious examples of incomprehensible stances on such abuses is the behaviour displayed by the Trump Administration, not least the President’s behaviour against the lawfully elected president of Ukraine. Trump’s doubts about the validity of a nation’s desperate struggle against the forces of a dictatorial regime, which destroys their country and aims at taking over its richest territory.

Trashing Jewish Values Risks Israel’s Survival as We Know It

77 torturous years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, punctuated by intense violence and wars, successive Netanyahu-led governments have shattered Jewish values to the core—values that have sustained and preserved Jewish lives for centuries and provided the moral foundation on which Israel was built.

Energy is a Catalyst for Peace Between Israel and Gaza

Israel’s decision to suspend electricity supplies to Gaza has far-reaching consequences for daily life of Palestinians as well as Gaza’s reconstruction. Managing Gaza’s energy crisis will require the development of alternative supplies, which are found in off-shore natural gas fields that can be developed off the coast of Israel and Gaza in the Eastern Mediterranean (EastMed).

Women in the World: Making the Invisible Visible with Crowdsourced Data

Despite a push in the past ten years for more female representation and #MeToo movements highlighting the abuse that women have faced for centuries, women’s struggles continue to remain invisible—dismissed, denied, and buried under patriarchal bureaucracy.

Agriculture for Economic Resilience During Political and Financial Crisis – The Case of Bangladesh

The recent student movement in Bangladesh demanding reform of the quota system for public jobs led a ‘march of the people’ towards the official Residence of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 5th of August 2024. The security forces of the country, including the army, refused to open fire on the marching crowd. Fearing an imminent attack on her residence without the protection of the army, Sheikh Hasina fled to neighbouring India after being in power continuously since 2008. With Sheikh Hasina fleeing to India on 5th of August 2024 her authoritarian and corrupt rule of 15 years just melted away.