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Sunday, November 15, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Population
CAMBODIA: When It Comes to HIV, Trust Can be a Weakness
Muny has been fretting for weeks, but is too scared to go back to the hospital where he had his blood tested for HIV months ago.HEALTH-VIETNAM: HIV/AIDS Drugs Price Needy out of Market
By the time 28-year-old Nguyen Thi Nhung, a sex worker in this southern Vietnamese city, learned about the dangers of contracting HIV, it was too late: she was already infected.RIGHTS-ASIA: School Gives Trafficked Women Lessons in Hope
At a school on this island north of Bangkok, around 250 girls and women are busy taking English-language lessons and other courses to prepare them for the new lives they will lead once they leave its premises.POPULATION: U.N. says Southern African Suffering ‘AIDS Famine’
The United Nations renewed its appeal Thursday for immediate food and relief supplies to save the lives of millions of people in sub-Saharan African facing death from starvation and the spread of HIV/AIDS./CORRECTED REPEAT/LABOUR-BANGLADESH: Govt Mulls Lifting Ban on Domestic Workers
Amid continued criticism from activists, the government of Bangladesh is now considering lifting a four-year-old ban on sending women abroad to work as domestic workers./CORRECTED REPEAT/PHILIPPINES: Radio Programme a Lifeline for Migrant Workers
"How can I find out if the contract I am signing to work as a nurse in Britain is valid or not?" asked a caller, who was preparing to leave the Philippines and join its 7 million nationals who work overseas.PHILIPPINES: Radio Programme a Lifeline for Migrant Workers
"How can I find out if the contract I am signing to work as a nurse in Britain is valid or not?" asked a caller, who was preparing to leave the Philippines and join its 7 million nationals who work overseas.HEALTH-MEXICO: Rural Women with AIDS Suffer Ostracism
Pilar recently watched her little boy die of AIDS, as well as her husband, who infected her after his latest stint working in the United States.INDIA: Tamil Refugees in India Hope Talks Will Get Them Home
For Annammal, a grandmother who lives in a camp for Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka here in southern India, the peace talks in distant Thailand represent the one chance that she may yet see the homeland in Jaffna that she fled 10 years ago.DRUGS-BRAZIL: Child Dealers Do Not Fear Death
Many children and adolescents in this coastal Brazilian city continue to fill the ranks of the drug trafficking world, even though they know it means they will likely die young, say statistics and studies about the drug trade here.REFUGEES-FRANCE: Pressure Builds to Legalise Immigrants
Romain Binazon thought he had found the job of his life when he arrived in France in 1991 from Benin in Africa.SOUTH PACIFIC: Chinese Money Welcome, But Not the Chinese
China is fast becoming the new chest of gold for the South Pacific islands, but the islanders, from the Marshall Islands to Fiji, are not as eager to welcome individual Chinese into their societies.ECUADOR: Tighter Controls on Immigrants in North
Activists complain that controls on undocumented Latin American immigrants have been tightened in nations of the industrialised North since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington a year ago today.NICARAGUA: Hunger Stalks Coffee-Growing Region
At least 27 children have died of hunger- related causes in Nicaragua this year, including 11 in the past two months, while another 8,000 are severely malnourished, warn health authorities and lawmakers.RIGHTS-MEXICO: Indians Up in Arms over Supreme Court Verdict
Mexico's Supreme Court set the stage for "war" by dismissing 330 lawsuits against "unjust and retrogressive" laws on indigenous people, complained organisations that back the country's Zapatista rebels.POPULATION: Cubans Jittery about Providing Census Information
An intense campaign by Cuba's socialist government is aimed at calming fears that the new Census on Population and Housing, which begins to be carried out on Saturday, could uncover irregularities like black market purchases or illegal housing arrangements.SOUTH KOREA: Women Trafficked for US Military Bases – IOM Report
More than 5,000 women, mostly from the Philippines and Russia, are caught up in a prostitution network in South Korea that targets U.S. soldiers, reported a United Nations agency Tuesday.CUBA: Homosexual Couples Suffer Identity Crisis
Gay and lesbian couples in Cuba have a hard time establishing their own distinct identities, and usually end up reproducing the traditional heterosexual relationship model, while they tend to live in isolation due to the social rejection and stigma they face, according to a new study.AUSTRALIA: One Year on, Debate on Asylum Seekers Still Rages
One year after a Norwegian freighter rescued asylum seekers and sent Australia's refugee policy sailing into controversy, the government claims its tough stance is discouraging new arrivals -- but critics say it is only hurting the country's rights standing.RIGHTS-MEXICO: 12,000 Displaced by Violence in Chiapas
Some 12,000 people have been forced to flee their homes by the ongoing violence in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, the United Nations secretary-general's special representative on internally displaced persons, Francis Deng, reported Friday.POPULATION: Activists Plan Campaign to Restore U.N. Funding
Weeks after the United States cut off 34 million dollars in funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), activists are devising a strategy to ensure the money cannot be blocked again so easily.« Previous Page — Next Page »
One Thousand Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Relocated from Tomping Camp in South Sudan. Credit: UN Photo/Isaac Billy
It took hundreds of thousands of years for the world’s human population to cross one billion in 1804. Approximately 200 years later, the population has multiplied sevenfold. In 2023, the global population crossed 8 billion, and is expected to reach 9 billion before 2050. With the planet more crowded than ever, it is essential to keep track of population trends, urbanization, migration, and reproduction across the world.
Life expectancy has seen significant strides in the past century, largely due to economic development and increased standards of living. On the contrary, trends in global fertility are shifting, with certain regions in Africa and Asia reporting higher rates, while parts of Europe and North America report stagnant or lower rates. This is in part due to differences in sexual and reproductive healthcare, as well as societal and economic conditions around the world. For example, child marriage is prevalent in certain societies, where childbearing is also considered a familial duty. Meanwhile, stagnating economies frequently experience lower marriage and childbearing rates.
The increase in migration and urban development around the world is also linked to global population trends. By 2050, it is expected that approximately 66 percent of all people will live in cities. Furthermore, global crises such as warfare and natural disasters also prompt transnational migration. Transnational migration is linked to a variety of socioeconomic issues in both host and receiving countries: migrants often leave developing countries with less access to educational and economic opportunities and arrive in developed countries where they are frequently the targets of ethnic, racial, and cultural discrimination, and economic exploitation. Recent crises in Europe and the United States demonstrate the importance of advocating for migrants worldwide. As migrants from the Global South are increasingly stripped of their legal and civic rights in unlawful deportations, or targeted in acts of identity-based violence, it is essential to keep track of population trends and protect the human rights of migrant populations. Climate-related disasters are now a major driver of displacement, with nearly half of all new internal displacements in 2025 being disaster-related.
IPS is devoted to covering issues surrounding population trends, migration, and reproduction through its compelling articles, which use both statistics and human stories to provide readers with robust and informative viewpoints.
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