South-South

Reducing Poverty in South Africa by Cutting Time in Traffic

By Gail Jennings
In South Africa, Bus Rapid Transit systems, which were pioneered to great effect in Latin American countries such as Colombia and Brazil, are being promoted as potentially effective ways of delivering improved public transport services to the urban poor. But experts question whether systems such as these can alleviate poverty to any meaningful extent.

Self-Financing that Works for the Poor

By Estrella Gutiérrez
"We were used to losing, so a group of us said to ourselves: let's lose something here," said Carmen Caravallo, describing the start of a "bankomunal", a self-managed microfinance fund based on investment, in her rural community in eastern Venezuela.

Doubts Linger About Caribbean-EU Trade Pact

By Peter Richards
P.J. Patterson, the former Jamaican prime minister, has had a long relationship with the European Union.
Global warming may be affecting the occurrence and spread of tropical diseases carried by vectors like the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Credit: Jentavery/CC BY 2.0

Scientists Debate Climate Change Impacts on Tropical Diseases

By Fabiana Frayssinet
More intense rainfall, rising temperatures and climate-driven migration of human and animal populations due to repeated drought all affect the spread of tropical diseases. These changes, already the focus of study by climatologists, are now also a challenge increasingly taken up by health experts and officials.

Q&A: “Women and Girls Must Be Front and Centre”

By Malgorzata Stawecka
With the global population on track to reach a staggering nine billion people by 2050, according to U.N. figures, a stronger action plan is needed to address the challenges of ending poverty, ensuring a well-functioning health system and access to education, as well as guaranteeing social inclusion for all.

Caught Between Quarries and Sea Erosion

By K. S. Harikrishnan
After more than a century of fighting sea erosion by massively dumping granite boulders along the beaches of southern  Kerala state, environmentalists and administrators are beginning to see that this has been a costly and ineffective solution.
Breast milk is vital for a premature newborn weighing barely 500 grams. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

Breast Milk Banks, From Brazil to the World

By Fabíola Ortiz
Cíntia Rose Regis, 23, not only breastfeeds her 16-month-old daughter Zelda but has also been donating 600 ml a week of breast milk to a mothers’ milk bank in Brazil over the last year.
MKhor

Will India Still Supply Cheap Drugs to the World?

By Martin Khor
India may be famous for the Taj Mahal, its religious ceremonies, Bollywood films and one of the highest economic growth rates in recent years. But more importantly, India has had a positive global impact through its supply of vast quantities of low-cost, good-quality generic medicines, which have saved or prolonged millions of lives.

South Invited to ‘De-Grow’

By Claudia Ciobanu
“We should find the way, with our small degrowth movement in the global North, to align ourselves with the environmental justice movement originating with indigenous peoples from the South,” Catalan ecological economist Juan Martinez-Alier said at the third international degrowth conference in Venice, Italy.

Little Concern for the Environment in EU-Central America Agreement

By Danilo Valladares
The Association Agreement between Central America and the European Union (EU) will increase environmental and social pressures on the region, warn experts and activists. But some observers stress its potentially positive impacts.

PACIFIC ISLANDS: Marine Protected Areas Bolster Conservation Efforts

By Stephen Leahy
The world's smallest island nations wield more power than their sizes would suggest, with millions of square kilometres in their domains, said leaders of Pacific Island nations gathered at a special forum here in the Cook Islands.

Kashmir’s Melting Glaciers May Cut Ice With Sceptics

By Athar Parvaiz
Jowhar Ahmed, an air-conditioner dealer in Srinagar, is pleased at a spurt in business this summer caused by temperatures soaring over 35 degrees Celsius - unusual in this alpine valley ringed by snow-capped mountains.

OP-ED: Some Thoughts on the Nonaligned Movement Summit in Tehran

By Farideh Farhi
It must be considered pure fortuity for the Islamic Republic of Iran that the decision to hold the Nonaligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran was made three years ago in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Q&A: Brazil Invited to Join U.N. Palestinian Refugee Agency

By Fabíola Ortiz
The policy of pacification of Rio de Janeiro’s violent favelas, or shantytowns, could serve as a model in some respects in Palestinian refugee camps, says Filippo Grandi, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine refugees, in this interview with IPS.

Beating the Weather With Sustainable Crops

By Keya Acharya
Narrow, cobblestoned lanes separate the rows of mud houses with cool interiors and mud-smoothened patios, some with goats tethered to the wooden posts. This is Tajpura village, deep in this water-stressed, drought-prone region of northern India.

Rights Issues Mar Sri Lanka-EU Trade

By Feizal Samath
Sri Lanka is in for some hard bargaining when it negotiates a new aid pact in 2013 with the European Union (EU), which withdrew a key trade concession  two years ago over this country’s human rights record.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has not yet declared his intention to attend or skip the summit. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

U.N. Chief in the Hot Seat over Non-Aligned Summit in Iran

By Thalif Deen
When Cuba chaired the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) back in 1979, Western nations dismissed the world's largest single political coalition as lacking legitimacy since Havana was considered a close ally of the then-Soviet Union.

Eastern Caribbean Seeks Economic Unity

By Peter Richards
The nine-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is pushing harder for regional integration with the launch of a new parliamentary forum that it says will play a major role in its efforts to establish an economic union.

Amid Rise in Piracy, U.N. Backs Summit on Maritime Security

By Thalif Deen
When the United Nations advocates the protection of the world's oceans, its political agenda transcends the battle against marine pollution, global warming, overfishing, greenhouse gases and sea-level rise.

Is the Staggering Rise of the South Sustainable?

By Yilmaz Akyüz
Growth in developing economies (DEs) has accelerated significantly in the new millennium.

Free Trade with China? No, Gracias

By Marcela Valente
There is little likelihood that South America’s Mercosur trade bloc will take up China’s proposal to establish a free trade agreement, at least in the short term. Experts and industrialists fear an invasion of cheap Chinese goods, and unequal competition.
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