Development & Aid

Small Island States Fostering Effective Energy Transition To Achieve a Blue Economy

By Aimable Twahirwa
Small Island Developing States (SIDS), a distinct group of 39 states and 18 associate members, are making efforts to promote the blue economy as they possess enormous potential for renewable energy relying on the sea.

Rich Nation Hypocrisy Accelerating Global Heating

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Rich nations’ climate hypocrisy is accelerating global heating, pushing the planet closer to irreversible catastrophe, with its worst consequences borne by the poorest, both countries and peoples.

UN Live’s CEO Katja Iversen Talks About the Power of Popular Culture and ‘Sounds Right’

By Naureen Hossain
UN Live’s CEO, Katja Iversen, says the way to engage people in the environment is through popular culture—film, music, gaming, sports, food, and fashion. She is excited about the Sounds Right project, which puts the sounds of nature—bird songs, waves, wind, and rainfall—at the center of a campaign to support those involved in climate action.

‘Toasting the World’s Most Natural Talent’: UN Museum Campaign Recognizes NATURE’s Contributions to Music

By Naureen Hossain
Spearheaded by the Museum for the United Nations, a new campaign brings together music and ecology to spark people's interest and engagement in environmental conservation through consciously listening to music.

Urgent Global Action Is Essential To Stop Wave of Plastic Pollution

By Kaveh Zahedi
There is a growing wave of plastics, smothering our countryside and lapping at our shores.

Making the Global Financial Architecture Work for Emerging Markets and Developing Countries (EMDEs)

By Hafez Ghanem
The world is facing multiple crises that must be tackled quickly, with innovative approaches and brave decisions. The global financial architecture is an area that needs reform and thinking outside the box. The system created 80 years ago is not able to deal with today’s problems that range from climate change to pandemics, to increasing inequality, to conflict and fragility, to food insecurity and poverty.

The Summit of the Future Is a Rare Chance to Fix a Broken System: Civil Society Must Be Included

By Mandeep S.Tiwana
Today, the spectre of a major regional conflict, and even a possible nuclear conflagration, looms large in the Middle East. Despite stark warnings issued by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, the multilateral system is struggling to resolve the very challenges it was supposed to address: conflict, impoverishment and oppression. In a deeply divided world, this September’s Summit of the Future offers a rare chance to fix international cooperation and make good on gaps in global governance.

Fine, Sanctions, or Waiver: Iranian Gas Will Come at a Price for Pakistan

By Zofeen Ebrahim
When Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visits Pakistan this week (April 22, 2024), experts say the two issues topmost on his mind that he will want to discuss with his Pakistani counterpart, President Asif Ali Zardari, will be border security and the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.

Portable Ginnery Could Revive Kenya’s Ailing Cotton Industry

By Wilson Odhiambo
Kirinyaga University may have just breathed new life into Kenya’s ailing cotton industry as varsity dons develop a portable cotton ginnery. For an industry that has been struggling to survive, this news came as a relief to cotton farmers, whose lives the invention is expected to change, and to a government pushing for job creation and self-reliance through manufacturing. 

‘Living in Fear’: Landowners in Uganda’s Oil Field on Brink of Eviction

By Wambi Michael
When Mugisha Jealousy Mulimba learned that the government of Uganda was dragging him to court, he expected justice. But he says he has realized these courts are being used to deprive him of his rights to a fair hearing and the right to fair and adequate compensation for his land and property.

Better Incentives Needed to Expand Solar Energy in Cuba

By Luis Brizuela
With a bolder policy and flexible payment mechanisms, perhaps Alexis Rodríguez would have opted for solar panels for his home, instead of the portable generator that has made it possible for him to weather the frequent blackouts caused by Cuba's recurrent energy crises.

Africa Pushing Limits To Boost Renewable Energy Supply Chain, Security

By Aimable Twahirwa
Investors, regulators, researchers, policymakers, and representatives of renewable energy companies, acknowledged the key challenges of shifting away from fossil fuels to renewable energy in Africa when they gathered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week.

Trade Deception Returns in Pan-Africanist Guise

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The World Bank has exaggerated probable gains from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to promote partial and uneven trade liberalisation that is unlikely to enhance development on the continent.

Solar Power and Biogas Empower Women Farmers in Brazil

By Mario Osava
A bakery, fruit pulp processing and water pumped from springs are empowering women farmers in Goiás, a central-eastern state of Brazil. New renewable energy sources are driving the process.

Rural Entrepreneurs Thriving Against All Odds in Zimbabwe

By Jeffrey Moyo
With heavy sweat drenching his face and his shirt soaked in the sweat, 39-year-old Proud Ndukulani wrestled with a homemade knife, which he dipped in some used oil, before turning the glistening knife upon a rather tough and dusty tyre obtained from what he said was a forklift. His assistant stood by his side as he (Ndukulani) cut some tough rubber from the giant tyre lying outside an open shade roofed with aging asbestos sheets at Juru Growth Point, located 52 km east of Harare in Zimbabwe’s Goromonzi district in the country’s Mashonaland East province. 

Conflict’s Long Shadow Has a Name: It’s Hunger

By Charles E. Owubah
Scarce food and drinking water. Limited and inconsistent healthcare. Rapidly deteriorating mental health. With conflict on the rise globally, this is the grim reality for millions around the world.

Education Cannot Wait in Responding to the Regional Crisis Stemming From the Armed Conflict in Sudan

By Yasmine Sherif
The conflict in Sudan is one of the worst in the world today, and millions of children and adolescents bear the brunt within and across the border from Sudan.

Leaders Need to Break the Chokehold of Debt and Austerity. Our Health Depends on it

By Jaime Atienza
As leaders gather for the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank amid the cherry blossom trees of Washington, DC, there is some good news to celebrate.

Pioneering Digital Initiative Empowers Pacific Islands to Tackle Climate Disasters

By Catherine Wilson
Winning a battle for survival requires understanding the opponent. And, for the peoples of 22 island nations and territories scattered across more than 155 million square kilometres of Pacific Ocean, the volatility and wrath of the climate are their greatest threats.

Secondary Education Is a Bottleneck in Brazil

By Mario Osava
Alice went for eight weeks without Portuguese language classes after starting her first year of high school on Feb. 5 in this Brazilian city. Her chemistry teacher taught only two classes and disappeared. But the worst part is the classroom without air conditioning in the heat of more than 35 degrees Celsius some days during the southern hemisphere summer.

IPCI 2024: Oslo Commitment Protects Sexual and Reproductive Rights Across All Contexts

By Naureen Hossain
Parliamentarians from 112 countries have adopted the IPCI statement of commitment to protect and promote sexual and reproductive health rights, committing to the principle that "life or death is a political statement." As IPCI Oslo drew to a close on Friday, April 12, 2024, parliamentarians adopted a new Statement of Commitment that was “the collective effort of every single delegate,” said Alando Terrelonge, MP from Jamaica and chair of the drafting committee.
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