Languages
Saturday, November 14, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Gender
ECONOMY: ‘It’s Smart to Invest in Girls’
Sending more girls to school may help poor countries get out of the economic slump faster, the NGO Plan International says in a new report. Just a one percent rise in the number of girls attending secondary school boosts a country's annual per capita income growth by 0.3 percent.
AFRICA: Uneven Progress on Development Goals
The Millennium Goals cannot be achieved at the United Nations. The U.N. can create a platform for governments to make commitments but cannot force compliance by member states.
INDIA: Return of Traditional Birth Attendants Urged to Meet MDG 5
As India struggles to lower one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates, activists and experts are calling for a revision of polices aimed at "institutionalising" deliveries in resource-poor rural settings and phasing out the 'dai' or traditional birth attendant (TBA).RIGHTS: Unsafe Abortions Killing 70,000 a Year
Unsafe abortions kill about 70,000 women a year, says a report by the U.S.- based Guttmacher Institute. An additional five million women are treated annually for complications arising from unsafe abortion, adds the report, based on a global survey.DEVELOPMENT: Meeting MDGs “Not Rocket Science”
Achieving an ambitious set of anti-poverty benchmarks will take much more financing from rich countries, Jeffrey Sachs, the special advisor to the U.N. secretary-general on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), warned Monday.
HEALTH: Study Faults Unregulated Trade in Human Organs
A growing new market for human organs has prompted the United Nations and the Council of Europe to call for an international convention to regulate the sale of body parts, mostly kidneys and livers, in transplant surgery worldwide.
PHILIPPINES: Women in Troubled South Bear Heavy Burden of Conflict
For Father Eduardo Vasquez, setting up 'Bahay Kalinga’ (House of Care) in the province of Maguindanao is one way of deepening his mission.UGANDA: Wanted: New Messengers on Women’s Rights
Activists have spent decades trying to get new laws passed to secure the rights of Ugandan women in the private sphere. As a fresh set of gender-related laws comes before parliament, activists are this time seeking to enlist male legislators as partners in advocating their passage.Q&A: Women’s Empowerment: ‘Men Are Interested’
A trident of gender legislation will be debated in Uganda's parliament in November: the Marriage and Divorce Bill, the Domestic Violence Bill and the Female Genital Mutilation Bill.LATIN AMERICA: Big Gender, Ethnic Gaps in Wages Found
Indigenous people, descendants of Africans, and women in Latin America earn significantly less money than their predominantly white male peers of similar age and education levels, according to a new study released here Monday by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Q&A: Invest in Young People in Latin America
To fight inequality, Latin American countries must double the financial commitment they made at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Marcela Suazo, the regional director for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS.
PHILIPPINES: Like Men, Women Aim to Put Food on the Table
Despite experiencing an unsuccessful first foray into the world of commerce, the members of the Canduman Women's Co-operative (CWC) remain focused on producing a profit to aid their families' day-to-day living expenses.HEALTH: Criminalisation of Abortion 'The Wrong Concept'
One hundred African women and girls die unnecessarily from unsafe abortions every day because they have to rely on unqualified medical practitioners or self-induce abortion by ingesting poisonous substances or inserting tools into their uterus.HEALTH-NAMIBIA: Illegal Abortions Common Despite Risks
Ten years ago, a move to legalise abortion in Namibia failed. The number of unwanted pregnancies remains high, with many people unwilling or unable to use contraception. Despite the risks, illegal abortions remain common.HEALTH: Africa Leads World in Premature Infant Deaths
An estimated 13 million babies worldwide are born prematurely and more than one million die each year, say health experts.
RIGHTS-INDIA: Kerala Women Are Battered Wives
Kerala, the south Indian state which has the highest literacy levels and excellent social development indicators, has an unsavoury side - a land of violent husbands.INDIA: Women Beat the Odds to Leave a Mark as Village Leaders
When Kusum Lata, 40, decided to run for election in her village, she felt frightened. "I was extremely nervous as everything was new to me," says the mother of four. But the support of her family and friends inspired her.
CUBA: There Are No Tough Guys; It’s Tough To Be a Guy
It has been three years since he separated from his second wife and realised he did not have a home to return to. Although he has always been able to count on a helping hand from one friend or another, and his children help him out now and then, Humberto Martínez spends most nights sleeping on a park bench in the Cuban capital.
MEXICO: Rural Poverty Has a Woman's Face
Some transformations occur so imperceptibly that people only become aware of them when the new reality has set in. That’s exactly what happened in Mexico’s countryside, where economic and social conditions have combined to put rural production largely in the hands of women.SOUTH AFRICA: New Regulations "Good and Bad" for Black Empowerment
The first decade of South Africa’s black economic empowerment (BEE) policies saw the creation of a predictable list of politically connected beneficiaries, featuring names such as Patrice Motsepe, Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale. Now new regulations may see other companies – including white-owned business – enter the BEE stage.
ZAMBIA: Orphans Learn Life Skills Through Soccer
For 70 minutes, the girls in the distinctive gold-and-green jersey of Brazil shut out the attacks by the visiting team. The bare feet of chubby-faced left back Njavwa Silungwe are lively in defence.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Women make up half the world's population, but don't nearly share half of the world's wealth, well-being and opportunity. Two-thirds of the world poor are women, disproportionally exposing women to precarious living conditions, disease and unmitigated natural disasters. The media, meanwhile, remains a male-dominated sector in much of the world, contributing to women's voices lacking a crucial amplifier to put their concerns on political agendas and unleash the development potential of their ingenuity. Rather than then stereotypical victims of local and global forces, women are also organizer, innovators, conservators and community builders. These are some of their stories.
The Week with IPS
NEXT STOP - SDGs
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
