Are Countries Ready for AI? How they can Ensure Ethical & Responsible Adoption

From ChatGPT to deepfakes, the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has recently been making headlines. But beyond the buzz, there are real benefits it holds for advancing development priorities.

Reserve Bank of Australia Review Fails Ordinary Australians

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)’s latest interest rate hike comes before the ink of the much-awaited review of the RBA, released on 20 April, has dried. The threat of more increases to come is a clear sign of an emboldened RBA as the government accepts all of the panel’s utterly disappointing 51 recommendations.

The New Development Bank in the Asian 21st Century: A Golden Opportunity for the Global South

Asia is the fastest growing and most dynamic region of the world according to a recent IMF Report; “Recovery Unabated Amid Uncertainty”. ¹ Asia and the Pacific will contribute around 70 percent of global growth this year as expansion accelerates after Covid-19 supply chain disruptions, with ongoing geopolitical turmoil and war in Europe, as well as, various hybrid over the horizon cyber and kinetic attacks targeting Indian Ocean ports and shipping.

Social Media Mobile Phone Data in Disaster Management and the Implications That It Has on Vulnerable Populations

This week sees the review of the United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. It will bring governments, partners and communities together to reduce disaster risk and losses and to ensure a safer, sustainable future.

Acute Hunger an ‘Immediate Threat’ To Over a Quarter of a Billion People

While King Charles III’s coronation in Britain was hogging much of the international media’s attention at the start of this month, it was easy not to notice another story that deserved at least as many headlines.

A Short Tale of a Tree and a Moroccan Wedding Party

A much needed break amidst so many alarming news, with a brief story of a tree, a bottle of liquid gold, and a wedding gift.

Violence Knows No Borders

Events in Sudan have been a constant topic of conversation in Cairo's coffee houses since the violence erupted there four weeks ago. The images of almost 30 Egyptian soldiers briefly detained in Sudan by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militias and the death of an Egyptian diplomat in Khartoum caused a stir in Egypt.

Finding Ways to Feed South Africa’s Vast Hungry Population

In the deep rural village of Jekezi in South Africa's Eastern Cape, most young and able-bodied people have fled the area, leaving behind people with disabilities, the elderly, and children.

Young Woman Ignites a 3D Printing Revolution in The Gambia

In the heart of The Gambia, an intrepid young woman called Fatou Juka Darbor is blazing a trail for women fuelled by her fiery passion for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Unceasing Human Attacks on the Source of 80% of Food, 98% of Oxygen

Two big facts are impressive enough: plants are the source of 80% of all food, and as much as 98% of all oxygen. Logically, it would be taken for granted that human beings would do whatever is needed to protect this essential source of life. But do they?

Amid Power Cuts in Zimbabwe, Food Preservation Made Easy by Grannies

Amid silent refrigerators spawned by crippling electricity cuts, township grannies are relying on their smarts and traditional preservation: roasting and smoking meat over fires as they attempt not to throw away food.

Population Growth is Not Good for People or the Planet

India’s population has just reached 1.4 billion people, surpassing China as the world’s most populous nation four years earlier than projected. Spurring this growth is a traditional patriarchal culture in which women’s identity is constrained by the social expectation they bear children.

EXPLAINER — Maternal Mortality: Why Has Progress In Saving Women’s Lives Stalled?

A new report reveals that from 2000 to 2015, the global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) fell by 33%, and by more than 50% in 58 countries that had the highest rates of women dying during pregnancy or up to 42 days after delivery. But from 2016 to 2020, maternal mortality barely changed. In 2020, roughly 287,000 women globally died from a maternal cause, which is almost 800 maternal deaths daily, and about one every two minutes.

Parliamentarians Ask G7 Hiroshima Summit to Support Human Security and Vulnerable Communities

Parliamentarians from more than 30 countries agreed to send a strong message to the G7 Hiroshima Summit in Japan later this year, focusing on human security and support of vulnerable communities, including women, girls, youth, aging people, migrants, and indigenous people, among others.

Race to Zero in Asia and Pacific: Our Hopes in the Climate Fight

The latest synthesis report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes for grim reading: Every fraction of a degree of warming comes with escalated threats, from deadly heatwaves to severe hurricanes and droughts, affecting all economies and communities.

ECW High-Level Interview with New ECW Global Champion, Folly Bah Thibault

 

Folly Bah Thibault was appointed as Education Cannot Wait’s Global Champion on 25 April 2023. Through her work for Al Jazeera, France24, Radio France International and Voice of America, Thibault has become one of the most recognized and respected journalists in the world. Her coverage of some of the world’s most pressing events as a journalist for Al Jazeera is shedding light on forgotten crises across the globe.

The Privilege of Making a Choice

A civilian student named Saber was caught in the crossfire in Khartoum. He had two choices: either flee and lose everything; or die. But within a moment his option to choose was violently denied: he died.

Statement on the G7 Hiroshima Summit, the Ukraine Crisis and “No First Use” of Nuclear Weapons

The Ukraine crisis, which in addition to bringing devastation to the people of that country has had severe impacts on a global scale—even giving rise to the specter of nuclear weapons use—has entered its second year. Against this backdrop and amid urgent calls for its resolution, the G7 Summit of leading industrial nations will be held in Hiroshima, Japan, from May 19 to 21.

A “New” Saudi Arabia? Changes on the Screen and in Reality

The World changes, though prejudices and misconceptions remain. In 1996, political scientist Samuel Huntington published The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, in which he predicted that people’s cultural and religious identities would become the primary source of conflict in a Post–Cold War World. Huntington’s allegations have been contradicted by a number of critics, among them American Palestinian professor Edward Said, who lamented their extreme cultural determinism, which omitted the dynamic interdependency and interaction of cultures. Said’s own Orientalism depicted a generalised “Western view” of Arab cultures as “static and undeveloped”, while European culture was considered to be “developed, rational, flexible, and superior.” Literature and movies have depicted Arabs as exotic men riding camels and horses through the desert, and their women as dangerously seductive objects of male desire. Eventually, the exotic men turned in to being terrorists, and/or depraved oil-rich magnates, while Muslim women were presented as veiled, enigmatic, and oppressed.

Can African Farmers Still Feed the World?

Less than a decade ago, Africa was home to 60-65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land and 10% of renewable freshwater resources, as reported by the African Union in 2016, while concluding that African farmers could feed the world.

New Mosquito Species Could Derail Fight Against Malaria

‘Urban’ Kenya has been alerted because new mosquito species, Anopheles stephensi, threatens to derail decades of effort made in the fight against malaria.