Tuesday, March 15, 2022
News and Views from the Global South
Poverty & SDGs
Over 60% of World Workers Not Recognised, Not Registered, Not Protected
More than 60 percent of the world’s adult labour force –or about 2 billion workers– work in the informal economy. “They are not recognised, registered, regulated or protected under labour legislation and social protection. The consequences can be severe, for individuals, families as well as economies.”
‘A Growing Number of Billionaires Is a Sign of Failure’
It is no secret that economic inequality has risen exponentially in the last few decades, both in India and globally. According to the World Inequality Report 2022, India is one of the most unequal countries in the world in terms of both income and wealth inequality. It is estimated that in 2021, the top 10 percent of Indians held 57 percent of the total national income while the bottom 50 percent’s share was just 13 percent.
How COVID Has Affected the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases
Neglected tropical diseases is an umbrella term used to describe a group of 20 infectious diseases. These diseases affect over 1.7 billion people. They can disable, debilitate and even kill. The world’s most vulnerable and poorest are most affected.
The Future of Food: Jellyfish, Farmed Insects, 3D Printed Meat?
Between the devastating effects of climate change and the fast advancing new technologies, it seems now evident that the future of food will change. Whether it's new foods like jellyfish, edible insects and cell-based meat, or new technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology, the future promises exciting opportunities for feeding the world, says a new report.
Exploring the Future of Climate Justice Through My Daughter’s Eyes
People often feel that climate change is difficult to grasp and relate to. I have heard that it’s “too technical, too intangible, or too complicated” for us to care about. As a Latin American mother of two, I confess that for me, relating to climate change is becoming ever more simple. All I do is try to imagine the world my kids will live in in 2050 if we don’t do anything now, and I immediately understand the urgent need for bold, transformative global climate action.
Shall the Arctic Burn?
Climate change and land-use change are projected to make wildfires more frequent and intense, with a global increase of extreme fires of up to 14 percent by 2030, 30 percent by the end of 2050 and 50 percent by the end of the century, according to a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and GRID-Arendal, a non-profit environmental communications centre based in Norway.
War in Ukraine Poised to Threaten Global Food Security
The war in Ukraine is a catastrophe for that country and for the world. In any crisis it is the most vulnerable that will be most affected, and this time it is no different.
International Women’s Day, 2022
Girls’ Education Must Come First
For decades now, world leaders have talked about ending hunger and poverty and building a new world order based on human rights and gender-equality.
International Women’s Day, 2022
How Bangladesh Became a Test Case for Women’s Empowerment
The increased empowerment of rural women in Bangladesh over the past 10 years has been no accident.
A decade ago, not even one in four rural women could be said to be “empowered” across five key metrics, a figure that surprised even those working on the ground with the country’s poorest. By 2015, this had risen to more than two in five, or 41 per cent, with continued gains in recent years.
International Women’s Day, 2022
To Overcome Africa’s Development Crisis, Invest in Strengthening Girls’ Power
It was on a visit to Lesotho that I first heard the derogatory term Mmutla – nocturnal hare. It is a word used in some southern districts to insult adolescent girls who have been forced into sexual exploitation and transactional sexual relations for survival.
International Women’s Day, 2022
Raising up Women as Light in Dark Times
When I was a young girl, a friend and I spent our summers building a treehouse. We built it because our older brothers were building one and wouldn’t allow us to help them. So, we asked our parents to support us through the procurement of basic tools, collected scrap wood from the local hardware store, chose a tree, and then spent day after day puzzling beams and boards together into structure in which only people of our small size could fit.
Can 70% of the World’s Poor Celebrate International Women’s Day?
The picture is gloomy: not only do women represent 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in conditions of poverty, but also up to 40% of the poorest households in urban areas are headed by women.
The Climate Change Shuffle: Deny, Delay, and Do Nothing
While more than a half century ago the Twist was the craze in dance halls globally, today the Climate Change Shuffle is the craze in government halls and conference sites worldwide as officials dance around the dangers of climate change.
International Women’s Day, 2022
War, Want, Weather and Wellbeing: Where Are We Now?
WAR The world is currently facing a devastating war with dire prospects for our global security. Men are waging this war while women seek peace and security for their families, communities and our global society. Women are give birth and nurture while some men actively seek death and destruction. This is one of the fundamental differences between the sexes which underpins patriarchy and generates inequality on many levels. Women and girls bear the brunt of this unbalanced approach to life.
International Women’s Day, 2022
To be Just, the Energy Transition Must Include & Empower Women
Access to clean energy improves women’s lives in a myriad of ways. It supports access to education and quality healthcare, opens new economic opportunities, and reduces unpaid domestic labour and gender-based violence. Yet too often, the sector as a whole – from industry to policymaking – still fails to include women as energy users, decision-makers and agents of change of the energy transition.
International Women’s Day, 2022
Gender Blind Spots in the Water Sector
UN Women estimates 150 million women and girls are emerging from poverty by 2030, thanks largely to comprehensive education, labor, and social protection strategies and reforms implemented by governments around the world.
Egypt Rushes to Find Alternative Wheat Suppliers Following Ukraine Crisis
Egypt is scrambling to find alternate sources of wheat after the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put supply to the country in jeopardy. This is especially urgent because the price of bread in Egypt has in the past sparked protests in the country.
International Women’s Day, 2022
Sexual Violence Laws are Failing Adolescents
At Equality Now, we have been on a years-long journey to track and analyze sexual violence laws and their implementation around the world. This work was born after working with survivors of sexual violence for over two decades and observing that women and girls reported similar barriers to justice regardless of where they were from.
We Must Carry on Paul Farmer’s Work on Social Determinants of Health
Paul Farmer, the legendary global health equity warrior, recently died in his sleep from heart-related complications at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Butaro, Rwanda, the university he co-founded.
Education Cannot Wait Interviews German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze
ECW: Germany recently announced €200 million (US$228.3 million), in new, additional funding for Education Cannot Wait (ECW). What inspired Germany to make such a game-changing investment in ECW by prioritizing multi-year funding for education in emergencies?
With One Million Species Endangered, the Web of Life Is at Risk of Extinction
These are not by any means just mere figures. It is about the risk of extinction of the whole life cycle. See what is at stake.Next Page »
Since 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been devised to promote strategies for countries to reach a globally unified standard for sustainable living and development. This standard of living must be accessible to all, which addresses the first SDG: No Poverty. As the global community stepped into the Decade of Action of the 2020s, UN member states are expected to deliver on their goals by 2030, and it is crucial to examine the measures taken to recognize and meet those goals. Eradicating poverty will require policy frameworks on the national and regional levels to ensure that by 2030 all have equal rights to access economic resources along with access to basic services.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was estimated that 6 percent of the global population would still live in extreme poverty in 2030. The destabilizing impact of the pandemic could push over 70 million people into poverty, with developing countries most vulnerable. In its wake, the UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund were designed to support the communities most disproportionately vulnerable to the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic.
IPS provides comprehensive reporting on the current practices in ending poverty and the social, economic, and environmental factors that present challenges to this goal.
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Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
