Communities Organise to Confront Climate Change in El Salvador

Armed with chainsaws, machetes and shovels, local residents of El Salvador’s Lower Lempa River Basin, near the Pacific Ocean, are unblocking the flow of rivers and pruning the branches of trees on riverbanks to keep them from falling into the chocolate-colored water.

Rich Nations Fall Short of Development Potential

The United States is lagging far behind other developed countries in its policies aimed at improving global prosperity, according to new research.

U.S. Military Assistance to Central Asia Highly “Opaque”

U.S. military assistance to key Central Asian governments has increased dramatically in recent years, but remains highly “unexamined”, according to new research presented in Washington on Tuesday.

Donors Urged to Tread Carefully in Myanmar

Foreign donors are rushing into Myanmar (formerly Burma), whose government has been pushing the right political buttons as part of its democratic reform process. But development planners and local activists caution that  the best approach should still be ‘easy does it’.

China Wants Peace in Africa

China could soon expand its involvement in peace and security issues in Africa, according to government officials, researchers and academics from both the Asian giant and resource-rich continent who met at the second China-Africa Think Tanks Forum in Ethiopia from Oct. 12 to 13.

Women Hit Hard by Natural Disasters

In the aftermath of a natural disaster, women are often the most vulnerable. Particularly in rural areas, women suffer disproportionately from inadequate shelter and poor sanitation facilities and are often tasked with rebuilding shattered homes.

Malawi’s Heroines of the Floods

For many women in Malawi’s disaster-prone southern district of Nsanje, resilience is essential to survive the cyclical flooding.

Women Are the New ‘Emerging Market’

Empowering women in the business world is not only a smart political decision, but also makes good economic sense.

South-South Cooperation Transcends Sharing Technical Knowhow

When the United Nations commemorated the Day of South-South Cooperation last month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon singled out a new development that transcends sharing technical know-how: coordination of government policy among developing nations.

Haiti’s Capital Languishes as Govt Rebuilds Ministries

Even though a restrictive government decree that blocked reconstruction of downtown Port-au-Prince for almost two years was finally annulled, questions, frustrations and doubts abound about the eventual recovery of Haiti’s economic, cultural and political capital.

Untreated Mental Illness the Invisible Fallout of War and Poverty

About 50 percent of Afghanis over 15 years of age suffer from mental health problems - depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. In northern Uganda, nearly every family suffered during the vicious 20-year rebellion during which thousands of children were kidnapped and turned into child soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army.

Garifuna Women, Custodians of Culture and the Environment in Honduras

Hurricane Mitch, which devastated Honduras 14 years ago, prompted a group of Garifuna women to start organising, to help the people in greatest need of assistance.

New Poll Finds Shifts in U.S. Public Opinion Towards Middle East

The attacks on U.S. embassies in Libya and Egypt last month shocked and scared Americans, but the majority of Americans nevertheless recognise that the violence was the work of extremist minorities and not the majority of the population, according to a new poll.

Health Alliance Brings Pricy Pneumococcal Vaccine to Pakistan

Pakistan, where some 126,000 children under five years old die from pneumonia every year, launched a new pneumococcal vaccine Tuesday, making it the first South Asian country to do so.

Funds Crunch Skews Aichi Targets on Biodiversity

The United Nations 11^th Conference of the Parties  to the Convention on Biological Biodiversity (COP 11 CBD), underway in this southern Indian city, is lost on where to garner the billions of dollars needed to implement the ‘Aichi targets,’ due to be met by 2020.

Guatemalans Turn to Mutual Aid to Overcome Poverty

"Our economic situation improved a great deal because we obtained more income for our families" as a result of setting up a social enterprise, Matilde García, who makes fashion jewellery in the municipality of Pastores, 60 km west of the capital of Guatemala, told IPS.

OP-ED: Polio Eradication – A Reflection on the Darfur Campaign

It was early July 2004, and Darfur was looking like a war zone - massive human displacements of an estimated one million people, ongoing skirmishes, inclement weather, a parched landscape due to the recurring droughts, and sheer misery everywhere.

To Press for Peace in Kivus, Donors Should Hold Aid, Report Says

Major donors to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) should withhold aid to both governments until they comply with prior agreements to pacify the DRC's mineral-rich Kivu provinces, states a new report released Thursday by the International Crisis Group.

Hour Grows Late to Act on Climate Change, Caribbean Warns

Their speeches did not grab international headlines like that delivered by U.S. President Barack Obama, nor did other delegates walk out as they spoke, as was the case for Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Q&A: ‘Mismatch Between Commitments and Action on Biodiversity’

The eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11 CBD) approaches amidst a hailstorm of public protest against the ‘tragedy of the commons’ – the rapid loss of biodiversity in forests, oceans and indigenous community farmlands.

Europe’s Support Crucial for Ongoing Arab Spring

The Arab Spring is far from over. The protracted conflict in Syria continues to swallow lives while the international community, hamstrung by geopolitics, looks on; riots across the Muslim world following the release of a low-budget American movie that is disrespctful of the Prophet Muhammad resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya; Tunisia and Egypt continue to struggle with post-revolutionary economies; and a string of democratically elected Islamist governments has taken root in newly-liberated countries throughout the region.