Bamboo Gaining Traction in Caribbean as Climate Savior

Keen to tap its natural resources as a way to boost its struggling economy, Guyana struck a multi-million-dollar deal with Norway in 2009.

Nicaragua’s South Caribbean Coast Improves Readiness for Climate Change

The effects of climate change have hit Nicaragua’s Caribbean coastal regions hard in the last decade and have forced the authorities and local residents to take protection and adaptation measures to address the phenomenon that has gradually undermined their safety and changed their way of life.

Middle East, Engulfed by a ‘Perfect Storm’

A perfect storm has engulfed the Middle East, and continues to threaten international peace and security.

New Education Model Can “Achieve Much More,” Says Education Envoy

UN’s education envoy has unveiled a new model that could provide every child with access to education by 2030. Citing concerns about the neglect of children’s rights, the Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown urged for more and better finance to ensure every child is in school and learning.

FEATURED VIDEO: Investing in a Clean, Green Future

From tourism-dependent nations like Barbados to those rich with natural resources like Guyana, climate change poses one of the biggest challenges for the countries of the Caribbean – and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the region’s premier financial institution, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

Springing into Action to Fund Ambitious Goals

“I don’t have enough money to buy clean water, so I have to come and collect it from the river. I have young twins – a boy and a girl. I know the water is dirty – it often makes them sick but I have no other option.” Those are the words of a South Sudanese mother, Latif, who lives by the river Nile in Juba.

Yemen, World’s Largest Humanitarian Crisis

With 18.8 million people –nearly 7 in 10 inhabitants-- in need of humanitarian aid, including 10.3 million requiring immediate assistance, Yemen is now the largest single-nation humanitarian crisis in the world, the United Nations informs while warning that the two-year war is rapidly pushing the country towards “social, economic and institutional collapse.“

“The Ocean Is Not a Dumping Ground”

An internationally renowned scientist, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim became Mauritius’s sixth president on June 5, 2015 – and one of the few Muslim women heads of state in the world.

FEATURED VIDEO: CDB Partners with the Caribbean in Climate Change Fight

With numerous challenges brought on by climate change, Caribbean countries are facing a dilemma. In Jamaica for example, the agriculture and water sectors are under increasing threat.

“We Can’t Protest So We Pray”: Anguish in Amhara During Ethiopia’s State of Emergency 

As dawn breaks in Bahir Dar, men prepare boats beside Lake Tana to take to its island monasteries the tourists that are starting to return.

Climate Impact on Caribbean Coral Reefs May Be Mitigated If…

A few dozen metres from the Caribbean beach of Puerto Vargas, where you can barely see the white foam of the waves breaking offshore, is the coral reef that is the central figure of the ocean front of the Cahuita National Park in Costa Rica.

ACP: One Billion People to Speak To Europe with One Voice

Seventy-nine countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, which are home to around one billon people, will speak with one voice as they prepare to negotiate a major partnership agreement with the European Union (500 million inhabitants) in May.

Climate Funds for World’s Poorest Slow to Materialise

Climate change is making poor countries poorer, yet funding meant to address its economic consequences has been slow to materialise. Instead funding bodies are choosing to invest in green energy projects in middle-income countries.

Financing Key to Reaching Everyone, Everywhere with Water & Sanitation

Eighteen months ago, UN member-states pledged a new set of goals on eradicating extreme poverty and creating a fairer, more sustainable planet by 2030. This week, we have alarming evidence that at least one of those goals – Sustainable Development Goal 6, to reach everyone everywhere with access to water and sanitation – is already in peril.

G77 Calls for Access & Benefit-Sharing of Marine Genetic Resources

The Group of 77 has strongly underlined the significance of marine genetic resources (MGRs) to the economies of developing nations.

Reflections on World Health Day

What’s the most precious thing in the world which unfortunately we take for granted and realise it true value when it is impaired? Good health, of course.

The Unbearable Cost of Drought in Africa

Nearly 50 per cent of all emergency multilateral food assistance to Africa is due to natural disasters, with advancing droughts significantly threatening both livelihoods and economic growth, warns the African Union through its ground-breaking extreme weather insurance mechanism designed to help the continent’s countries resist and recover from the ravages of drought.

From Research to Entrepreneurship: Fishing Youth and Women out of Poverty

Ivy Nyambe Inonge, 35, is the treasurer of Mbeta Island Integrated Fish Farm in Senanga district. Her group won the first prize in Zambia under the Cultivate Africa’s Future (CultiAF)  Expanding Business Opportunities for African Youth in Agricultural Value Chains in Southern Africa. She is excited at the prospect of what 5,000 dollars can do for her group, and ultimately, the whole community of Mbeta Island.

Fishing Village Fights Iron Mine in Northern Chile

In Punta de Choros, a hidden cove on Chile’s Pacific coast, some 900 fishers do not yet dare celebrate the decision by regional authorities to deny the Dominga port mining project a permit due to environmental reasons.

Developing Nations Call for New Trust Fund on Forest Protection

The Group of 77 is calling for the creation of a new and dedicated Trust Fund for the implementation of the UN’s strategic plan on forests for the period 2017-2030.

World Must Act Now on Lake Chad Basin Crisis: FAO DG Graziano da Silva

Food assistance is a priority and the only way to prevent the crisis from worsening in the Lake Chad Basin, is to support food production according to José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.