Active Citizens

COP26: Building Climate Resilience Will Require a Focus on Those Furthest Behind

By Julie Kedroske
As the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, approaches (31 October -12 November in Glasgow, Scotland), climate action is more urgent than ever. Yes, we need climate change mitigation.

We Will Never Give Up the Slavery Reparations Fight, say Caribbean Rastafarians

By Alison Kentish
The Rastafarian organizations in the Caribbean are determined that the issue of slavery reparations will emerge from the eclipse of COVID-19. As the world deals with the impacts of efforts to contain the virus’ spread and regional governments tackle vaccine hesitancy and a wave of misinformation, issues not directly related to COVID-19 have had to be temporarily shelved.

Table Banking Helping Women in Kenya to Put Food on the Table

By Joyce Chimbi
Pascaline Chemutai’s five acres of land located in the country’s breadbasket region of Rift Valley recently produced 115 bags of maize, each weighing 90 kilograms. She tells IPS that of these, 110 bags will be transported to traders in Nairobi and neighbouring Kiambu County at a negotiated price of $23 per bag.

Argentina’s Small Farming Communities Reach Consumers Online

By Daniel Gutman
"The biggest problem for family farmers has always been to market and sell what they produce, at a fair price," says Natalia Manini, a member of the Union of Landless Rural Workers (UST), a small farmers organisation in Argentina that has been taking steps to forge direct ties with consumers.

Rural Water Boards Play Vital Role for Salvadoran Farmers

By Edgardo Ayala
After climbing a steep hill along winding paths, you reach a huge water tank at the top that supplies peasant farmer families who had no water and instead set up their own community project on this coastal strip in central El Salvador.

Why Do Organizations Fail to Keep Workplace Harassments in Check

By Sania Farooqui
“Sexual harassment is not about sexual attraction, it is about power. If an individual uses power plays to subjugate other people, when we have such dynamics going on in the workplace, what we need is a system that fights back against it, which unfortunately a lot of workplaces, they allow it to persist,”, says Adrienne Lawrence, anchor and legal analyst in an interview given to me here.

Solar Energy Revitalises Indigenous and Farming Communities in Chile

By Orlando Milesi
Communities in Arica y Parinacota, the region in the extreme north of Chile, are using solar energy and are being empowered by projects for shrimp and trout farming, the production of yarn from camelid wool, the production of tomatoes and cheese, and even the sale of surplus solar power to the national electric grid.

‘Proud of Being Able to Speak the Truth’: Journalist Nidhi Razdan on her Cyber Attack

By Sania Farooqui
Earlier in January, Indian journalist Nidhi Razdan found out she was a victim of one of the most sophisticated and elaborate cyber attacks. Razdan wrote in a piece that it was all an attempt to access her bank account details, personal data, emails, medical records, passport and access to all her devices, including computer and phone.

Olympian Turned Volunteer Keeps Traffic Running in Busy Lagos

By Sam Olukoya
Bassey Etim Ironbar is a rare example of an Olympian that transformed from an athlete to a volunteer who does menial jobs like sweeping the streets and clearing debris from open sewers.

Why we Need to Build Economies– not Walls– to Stop Migration

By Andres Baiza
If you speak to farmers in El Salvador, many will tell you about the time they were driven to head north across Central America towards the US. The routes to the border are many, but the origins are so often the same: desperation and hope that better employment opportunities can be found elsewhere.

Water Harvesting Strengthens Food Security in Central America

By Edgardo Ayala
At the school in El Guarumal, a remote village in eastern El Salvador, the children no longer have to walk several kilometers along winding paths to fetch water from wells; they now "harvest" it from the rain that falls on the roofs of their classrooms.

Time to End Generational Injustice with a ‘Global Blue New Deal’ to Protect Oceans

By Mark Haver and Marina Porto
Increasingly, youth are rising up to declare that they've had enough of the cyclical exploitation of the environment that jeopardizes their own future.

Sowing Water by Restoring Ancient Ditches in the Peruvian Highlands

By Mariela Jara
In the highlands near the capital of Peru, more than 3,000 metres above sea level, ageold water recovery techniques are being used to improve access to water for 1,400 families, for household consumption and for crops and livestock.

People Power: Why Mobilisations Matter Even in a Pandemic

By Mandeep Tiwana
It has been one year since the police murder of George Floyd, an outrage that resonated around the world. The killing forced people to the streets, in the USA and on every inhabited continent, to demand respect for Black lives and Black rights, proving that protest was essential even during the pandemic.

– Mining giant Rio Tinto Face Environmental, Human Rights Complaint in Papua New Guinea –

By Catherine Wilson
On the occasion of World Environment Day, 5 June 2021, drawing from IPS’s bank of features and opinion editorials published this year, we are re-publishing one article a day, for the next two weeks. The original article was published on January 4 2021

Myanmar: Protestors Plea for International Help as Analysts Fear Full Military Might

By Larry Jagan
Myanmar activists have called on the international community for help as security forces loyal to the military continue their draconian sweep against the civil disobedience campaign that has brought the country to a standstill since the Feb. 1 coup. The pleas come as analysts, commentators and diplomats who know Myanmar fear that more bloodshed is almost inevitable.

Lebanon: A Lion Pit for Journalism

By Cendrella Azar
Our deadliest nightmare is back: Political assassinations in Lebanon is back with the horrific murder of Luqman Slim, a vocal critic of Hezbollah. Slim’s assassination is the first killing of a high-profile activist and outspoken journalist in years. What do the political assassinations in Lebanon tell us about the history of this country?

UN Peacebuilding Commission must Prioritise Protecting Youth Activists Facing Retaliation

By Samira Sadeque
The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission must prioritise the protection of youth activists who face retaliation from state and non-state actors, said UN Youth Envoy Jayathma Wickramanayake.

Is Turkey a Proof that Religion and Democracy Cannot Coexist?

By Sania Farooqui
Over the years, Turkey has survived three Coup d'état in which its military forces took power, in 1960, 1971 and 1980. The coup in 1997, was carried out in a “post-modern way”, where generals sat down with the then prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan and forced him to resign. However the turning point in Turkey has been the failed coup attempt in July 2016, which has till date been one of the bloodiest coup attempts in its political history, leaving 241 people killed, and 2,194 others injured.

A Counter-Narrative? Ruminations Around Holocaust Memorial Day

By Azza Karam
For more than two decades, the mantra was “PVE” (preventing violent extremism) and/or “CVE” (countering violent extremism). Millions of dollars were spent, new NGOs and think tanks emerged, government policy papers were drafted, countless books and articles were published, large and small scale initiatives developed - indeed almost an entire industry in development and foreign policy spaces thrived.

Q&A: What Nigerian Feminists Hope will Come Out of the #EndSARS Movement & Pandemic

By Samira Sadeque
As Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos, reportedly experienced a massive shortage of oxygen cylinders last week — with demand increasing fivefold in one of the city’s main hospitals just as the country recorded some of its highest number of coronavirus cases — its youth leaders are concerned about the impact on vulnerable women.
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