Connecting the Dots: Policy Shifts, Realities and Lessons

The Asia-Pacific region has long served as a springboard for transforming socio-economic implementation gaps into development opportunities. With the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals fast approaching, policymakers are stepping up efforts to translate policy announcements into tangible impacts.

Is the UN “Bloated, Unfocused, Outdated and Ineffective”?

The US hostility towards the UN is threatening to escalate, as a cash-starved world body is struggling for economic survival. Addressing the UN’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee last week. Ambassador Jeff Bartos, U.S. Representative for U.N. Management and Reform said: “President Trump is absolutely right – the United Nations can be an important institution for solving international challenges, but it has strayed far from its original purpose”.

A Hungry World Knows No Borders

When crops fail, people move not by choice, but by necessity. As families are displaced by droughts and failed harvests, the pressures do not always stop at national boundaries. In short, hunger has become one of the most powerful forces shaping our century.

They Have Known Nothing but War—The Plight of Syria’s Out-of-School Children

The war has deprived thousands of Syrian children of their right to education, especially displaced children in makeshift camps. Amidst difficult economic conditions and the inability of many families to afford educational costs, the future of these children is under threat.

The Inescapable Reality the Israelis Must Face

The ceasefire agreement and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners are only the first steps on the long and treacherous road that could end the calamitous, decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In my recent article, “A Rare Alignment:The World Stands Ready, Are the Palestinians?”

With Ceasefire in Effect, Tonnes of Aid Expected to be Delivered into Gaza

After two years of conflict with Israel, Hamas has released the remaining 20 living hostages, while Israel has freed 250 Palestinian prisoners and over 1,700 detainees who have since returned to Gaza. Following a ceasefire agreement that took effect on October 10, Israeli forces are set to withdraw from designated areas within the Gaza Strip as humanitarian organizations mobilize to assist Palestinians in urgent need.

From Burundi to Washington: Recognizing the Warning Signs

I moved to the United States in 2012 with great reluctance. I wasn’t sure why I should uproot myself to a country thousands of miles away from my hometown. The move reminded me of a childhood I hadn’t fully embraced—growing up in faraway countries like Russia and China, making constant adjustments, encountering racism, forging and losing friendships along the way. I had promised myself I would not impose the same cycle on my children.

Vanishing Wisdom of the Sundarbans–How climate change erodes centuries of ecological knowledge

Bapi Mondal's morning routine in Bangalore is a world away from his ancestral village, Pakhiralay, in the Sundarbans, West Bengal. He wakes before dawn, navigates heavy traffic, and spends eight long hours molding plastic battery casings. It's not the life his honey-gathering forefathers knew, but factors like extreme storms, rising seas, and deadly soil salinity forced the 40-year-old to abandon centuries of family tradition and travel miles away to work in a concrete suburban factory.

It’s Time to Unbury the IMF’s Hidden Gold

Countries across the Global South face an accelerating climate crisis, tepid growth, and unsustainable levels of debt. Yet hopes of finding support at the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Annual Meetings in Washington are dim. The IMF is tightening its purse strings — even as it leaves untouched a vast treasure of more than 3,000 tons of gold that offers a prime opportunity to stabilize the global economy.

Taliban’s New Internet Restrictions Keep Afghanistan Out of the Global Spotlight

At the end of September, the Taliban abruptly severed Wi-Fi and fiber-optic internet in Afghanistan for 48 hours without any explanation. The disruption caused consternation and suffering among millions of Afghans, especially those who depend on the internet for education and online commerce.

World Bank and Other MDBs Need to Tackle Rich Country GHG Emissions to Support Development

The World Bank and other multilateral development banks recently have begun reconsidering their self-imposed restrictions on financing fossil fuel projects. This change is being prompted in part by the new U.S. administration and is also supported by developing country experts. Yet, the reality remains that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from fossil fuels, and specifically the climate change they induce, can severely undermine multilateral development bank projects and overall developing country growth prospects.

Global South Can Rebalance Climate Agenda in Belém, Says Gambian Negotiator

The Gambia's lead negotiator on mitigation believes that COP30 presents a unique opportunity to rebalance global climate leadership.

UNICEF Calls for Global Support to Protect Displaced and Starving Children in Haiti

New figures from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) show that displacement has surged significantly in Haiti, deepening existing security and humanitarian crises in a country where nearly 90 percent of the capital is controlled by armed gangs.

From Algorithms to Accountability: What Global AI Governance Should Look Like

Recent research from Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI warns that bias in artificial intelligence remains deeply rooted even in models designed to avoid it and can worsen as models grow. From bias in hiring of men over women for leadership roles, to misclassification of darker-skinned individuals as criminals, the stakes are high.

Strengthening East Asian Cooperation via ASEAN?

Global South cooperation arrangements must evolve to better respond to pressing contemporary and imminent challenges, rather than risk being irrelevant straitjackets stuck in the past.

‘No Solution Will Work If the Institutions Responsible for Abuses Remain in Charge of Implementing It’

 
CIVICUS discusses enforced disappearances in Mexico with a member of the International Network of Associations of Missing Persons. The crisis of disappearances in Mexico has reached alarming proportions, with over 52,000 unidentified bodies in morgues and mass graves. On 1 July, the Mexican Congress approved controversial changes to the General Law on Disappearances, which promise to modernise the search process through a national biometric system, but which human rights organisations and victims’ groups claim could establish an unprecedented system of mass surveillance.

Darjeeling’s Wake-Up Call: Expert at IUCN Congress Calls for Agile Climate Finance

As global conservation leaders gather in Abu Dhabi for the IUCN World Conservation Congress, communities in the hills of Darjeeling, thousands of kilometers away, are still counting their losses. In early October, heavy rains triggered deadly landslides that buried homes, blocked key roads, and left several people dead. The destruction has once again exposed how vulnerable India’s mountain regions are to extreme weather.

Parliamentarians Seek Solutions to Protect Children from Digital Abuse

Vulnerable children are being targeted online faster than parliamentarians and law enforcers can act, a conference convened by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) heard. Yet, with international cooperation and sharing of ideas, lawmakers believe the scourge of online abuse can be addressed.

Guiding Disaster Risk-Reduction Investments Through AI-Powered Tools

The theme of this year’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, “Fund Resilience, Not Disasters,” called for the urgent need to shift from reactive spending on recovery to proactive investment in disaster risk reduction.

Quo Vadis UN @80?

The United Nations turned 80 this year. What should have been a moment of pride and celebration at the high-level session of the UN General Assembly in September 2025 turned instead into an occasion of bitter irony.