Embedding Education into Climate Finance Will Deliver Desired Learning, Climate Action Outcomes

Education is under threat as multiple crises push children out of school and into harms way. COP29 Baku could break historical barriers that hold back education from playing a unique, critical role to accelerate the ambition of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, protecting people and planet from life-threatening risks of climate change.

Youth Protest at COP29: ‘We Will Not Standby to Inherit Dead Planet’

“We cannot rely on capitalistic logic to serve our fight for liberation. More investments will not build houses after floods because it's not profitable. Corporations will not overthrow the industrial-agricultural complex that is completing our assault.”

Children’s Needs Due to Climate Change, Conflict Often Ignored in Negotiations

As the world grapples with ongoing armed conflicts, from Ukraine to Gaza, advocacy for a more proactive approach to understanding and effectively responding to the needs of children affected by both armed conflict and climate-induced crises is growing.

Lead for Learning: Decisive Leadership Urgently Needed To Improve Education Globally

Global education is facing a critical moment amid severe setbacks. Millions of children are out of school, learning levels are falling, and millions are leaving school without the skills they need. New out-of-school figures reveal that global progress in reducing the number of out-of-school children has been just 1 percent since 2015, leaving 251 million behind.

Meet the Young Women Arrested for Fighting Corruption in Uganda

Until recently, Margaret Natabi would never have dreamed of taking her anti-corruption fight on the streets of Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

In Zimbabwe’s Rural Areas, Bicycles Keep Girls in School

Rejoice Muzamani is studying in preparation for her next paper during the end-of-term examinations at Mwenje Primary School in Chiredzi, southeast Zimbabwe. The 13-year-old girl, who is in Grade 7 or final year of primary school, is not worried about leaving school early to make the 7-kilometer journey back home before dusk, risking attacks from wild animals. 

Summit of the Future: Youth Driven Action Needed to Tackle Nuclear and Climate Crises

Driving the Summit of the Future’s core messages of international solidarity and decisive action are young people who are determined to address the intersecting issues that the world contends with today.

Amid Great Challenges, Hope Reigns As More Children Reached with Education Support

Amid unprecedented global challenges and a growing list of countries in crisis, there is an existential threat to decades of development gains—with the global community marked by intensified armed conflict, forced displacements, and the debilitating effects of climate crises.

Fast-Acting Interventions Needed for Sudanese Refugee Children as Needs Outpace Response

As peace eludes war-torn Sudan, thousands of displaced people fleeing the deadly battle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have found refuge in neighboring countries, including Egypt.

Uganda Coffee Smallholders Grapple With EU Regulations on Imports

In Kubewo village in eastern Uganda, children often go to work with their parents in the coffee gardens. Earnings from Arabica coffee are used, their parents and grandparents say, to pay for children’s education and other expenses for the family. 

Climate Change Poses Yet Another Stumbling Block for Pakistani Sportswomen

Goalkeeper Rehana Jamali, 17, is jubilant. Her team came in second in the All Sindh Women Hockey Tournament, held last month.

Rizwana Hasan Vows to Ensure Justice for Those Killed During Bangladesh’s Quota Reform Movement

Justice for all those who died and suffered injuries during the recent student-led quota reform movement in Bangladesh and reforms to the systems to ensure that this justice takes place are not negotiable, an adviser to the Bangladesh interim government, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, told IPS in an exclusive interview

Gaza Children’s Education, Mental Health Targeted With Emergency Response Grant

Since October 2023, 625,000 children enrolled in schools across Gaza have had no access to education, and more than 370 schools have sustained damage from attacks, according to the United Nations.

Nigeria: Why #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria Protests Gained Traction

Thousands of Nigerians have taken to the streets to protest against bad governance, corruption, soaring inflation, and the rising cost of living, in what has been termed "10 Days of Rage" and believed to mirror Kenyan protests organized by the youth. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and a major exporter of crude oil, citizens claim that the benefits of the country's resources do not trickle down to the masses but to a group of corrupt politicians.

Protests Over Bangladesh Quota System Escalate to Violence, Information Blackouts

Student protests over the Bangladesh government’s recruitment system have escalated into violent retaliation from the police from the authorities. Today (Friday, July 19), violent clashes continued to rock Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, and the northern city of Rangpuras, where university students continued their protest over the government’s civil service recruitment system. AFP reports reports the death toll reached 105.

New Child Marriages, Cohabitation With a Child Law in Sierra Leone Lauded

“A person shall not contract marriage with a child,” Sierra Leone’s landmark Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2024 says, outlawing, in no uncertain terms, child marriage, giving consent to and attempted child marriage, officiating, attending and promoting child marriage, and use of force or ill-treatment of a child.

Investing in Teachers, School Leaders Key in Keeping Girls in School UN-African Union Study Finds

Investing in teachers and school leaders in Africa is the most important factor in promoting educational opportunities for girls, keeping them in school and ending child marriage, ultimately reducing gender inequality through education.

Youth-Led Protests Force Kenyan President’s Hand Over Tax Bill

In a historic first, Kenya's youth have mobilized in large-scale protests to demand that the political establishment listen to them. The Finance Bill 2024, which proposed new taxes across several sectors, was the catalyst for the protests, igniting outrage among a youth demographic that feels betrayed by decades of political promises. These protests, driven by economic and social grievances, escalated dramatically, culminating in clashes with police that led to numerous deaths and widespread unrest.

Conflict Deprives Children of Education in Northern Syrian IDP Camps

Twelve-year-old Walid Al-Hussein, displaced from the city of Kafranbel to a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in northern Idlib on the border with Turkey, has given up his dream of becoming a lawyer. "The distance of schools from our home (in the camp) made me leave education and give up my dream and my mother's dream of becoming a lawyer who defends the rights of the oppressed," Al-Hussein told IPS.

Lessons From Youth-Focused ‘Future Action Festival’ Ahead of UN Summit of the Future

The world has crossed the halfway point to the end of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era amid multiple, unprecedented, and significantly destructive global shocks. Two of the most pressing global challenges are the climate crisis and the threat of nuclear armament. Of serious concern is a severe lack of youth engagement on issues of critical global importance. Speaking to IPS during the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference, the outcome of which will inform high-level discussions when the UN hosts hundreds of world leaders, policymakers, experts, and advocates in September at the Summit of the Future in New York, Tadashi Nagai stressed the importance of coalition and movement building and youth engagement to escalate progress towards attainment of the SDGs.

Ocean Action on Global Agenda as Negotiations to Save Biodiversity Deepen

The oceans are as fascinating as they are mysterious. Home to the largest animals to ever live on Earth and billions of the tiniest, the top 100 meters of the open oceans host the majority of sea life, such as fish, turtles, and marine mammals. But there is another world far below the surface. In the belly of the ocean, there are seamounts—underwater mountains that rise 1,000 meters or more from the seafloor.