Active Citizens

Children Increasingly Becoming the Spoils of War

By Beatriz Ciordia
Whether in Palestine, Ukraine or Somalia, wars result in millions of children threatened by the brutality of armed conflict.

Female Commandos Ready to Take on the Taliban

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
For years, Robina Shah has dreamed of joining the police force. Ever since her father, a police constable, was killed in a 2013 Taliban suicide attack in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, she has longed to carry on his legacy.

Opinion: Why Women Peacemakers Marched in Korea

By Mairead Maguire
The year 2015 marked the 62nd anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War. The temporary ceasefire has never been replaced with a peace treaty and the demilitarised zone (DMZ) continues to divide the country.

IMF Steps Up Lending to Achieve Sustainable Development

By Zhai Yun Tan
As the Third International Conference on Financing for Development opens in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Monday, all eyes are on the United Nation’s post-2015 development agenda, billed as the most ambitious and far-reaching poverty eradication plan in the organisation’s history.

Jamaica’s Coral Gardens Give New Hope for Dying Reefs

By Zadie Neufville
With time running out for Jamaica's coral reefs, local marine scientists are taking things into their own hands, rebuilding the island’s reefs and coastal defences one tiny fragment at a time - a step authorities say is critical to the country’s climate change and disaster mitigation plans.

Global Tax Body Sticking Point at Financing Conference in Addis

By Thalif Deen
When the four-day-long international conference on Financing for Development (FfD) concludes in the Ethiopian capital later this week, one of the lingering questions in the minds of departing delegates may well be: did we really achieve anything concrete after years of negotiations?

Fishing Families Left High and Dry by Amazon Dams

By Mario Osava
Small-scale fisherpersons were among the first forgotten victims of mega construction projects like the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingú River in the Brazilian Amazon.

Opinion: From New York to Addis Ababa, Financing for Development on Life-Support – Part Two

By Bhumika Muchhala
The key priorities of the Group of 77 developing countries (G77) remain somewhat aligned around a set of issues that have been present from the beginning of the FfD negotiations in New York.

Groups Slam Green Climate Fund Approval of Firms Tied to Dirty Energy

By Kitty Stapp
Civil society representatives attending the board meeting of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in Songdo, South Korea expressed strong disappointment Thursday with the board's decision to accredit Deutsche Bank - one of the world’s largest financiers of coal - to receive and distribute GCF funds.

Opinion: From New York to Addis Ababa, Financing for Development on Life Support – Part One

By Bhumika Muchhala
Lack of ambition and consensus in the New York negotiations begs the question of whether governments in Addis Ababa will salvage or further dilute the outcome of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development from July 13-16.

“Why Hire a Lawyer When You Can Buy a Judge?”

By Kanya D'Almeida
A woman is stopped at a checkpoint; she gives birth, and dies. Another is sold in a slave market. A boy is killed by a tank. A young man drowns at sea, trying to reach a haven safe from oppression and poverty.

Civil Society has Vital Role to Play in Post-2015 Development Agenda

By Nora Happel
“The action of the private sector can make or break the post-2015 development agenda,” Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said in his opening remarks at a side event hosted in the context of a high-level political forum at the U.N. on Tuesday.

Will the New BRICS Bank Break with Traditional Development Models, or Replicate Them?

By Kanya D'Almeida
Just days ahead of a summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in which the five countries are expected to formally launch their New Development Bank (NDB), 40 NGOs and civil society groups have penned an open letter to their respective governments urging transparency and accountability in the proposed banking process.

Opinion: SDGs, FfD and Every Single Dollar in the World

By Paul Ladd and Pedro Conceição
Ethiopia will host an important meeting on Financing for Development (FfD) Conference next week. One of the most-asked questions is:  How much will it cost us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

Opinion: The End of the Greek Tragedy?

By Joaquín Roy
The decisive result of the Greek referendum held Jul. 5, in which voters overwhelmingly rejected (61.3 to 38.7 percent) the terms of an international bailout, has opened a new chapter not only for the future of Greece, but also in terms of the essence of the European Union itself.

Despite Scepticism, U.N. Hails Its Anti-Poverty Programme

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations, which launched one of its most ambitious anti-poverty development programmes back in 2000, has hailed it as a riveting success story – despite shortcomings.

Opinion: Religion and the SDGs – The ‘New Normal’ and Calls for Action

By Azza Karam
In 2007, an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune argued that you “gotta have faith in the U.N”.

Equality, a Hard Game to Win for Women Footballers in Argentina

By Fabiana Frayssinet
During a women’s football match in a poor neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, team manager Mónica Santino has to stop the game and ask a group of boys and young men not to invade the pitch where they’re playing. This frequent occurrence is just one symbol of a struggle being played out, centimeter by centimeter, on Argentina’s pitches.

Caribbean Fights to Protect High-Value, Declining Species

By Zadie Neufville
Threats from climate change, declining reefs, overfishing and possible loss of several commercial species are driving the rollout of new policy measures to keep Caribbean fisheries sustainable.

Sustainable Use of Biodiversity Could Fill Gap When Belo Monte Dam Is Finished

By Mario Osava
Some argue that the sustainable use of biodiversity is the best alternative for local development in the area surrounding the enormous Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, now that the construction project is entering its final phase on the Xingú River in Brazil’s Amazon jungle.

Financial Transaction Tax Could Boost New Development Goals

By Nora Happel
Ever since the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development in March 2002 called for new and innovative strategies to complement traditional Official Development Assistance (ODA), various financial instruments have been discussed.
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