From Haor to Brickfields

Nikli Upazila, located in the Kishoreganj district of Bangladesh, is part of the haor region, a vast wetland ecosystem characterized by bowl-shaped depressions. This unique geography subjects the area to significant climatic challenges, particularly recurrent flooding. The haor region, including Nikli, experiences a subtropical monsoon climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. During the monsoon season, heavy rainfall often leads to extensive flooding. Flash floods have become increasingly unpredictable and severe in recent years, causing substantial damage to agricultural lands and affecting the livelihoods of local communities. These people, trapped by water and driven by poverty, journey from the Haor to brickfields, where their lives become an endless cycle of hardship.

How the Commonwealth Climate Access Hub Reaches the Most Vulnerable

 
The Commonwealth Climate Access Hub responds to the needs of its member countries, including their most vulnerable people to build resilience and climate-smart communities.

Why Peacebuilding Needs a New Global Agenda

It has been 33 years since peacebuilding was formally recognized within the United Nations system, by the then UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali, who defined it as a long-term structural work aimed at preventing the recurrence of violence, setting the stage for the UN’s ongoing efforts to address the root cause of conflict and not just its consequences. “Post-conflict peacebuilding is the action to identify and support structures which will tend to strengthen and solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict,” Boutros-Ghali said.

Environment Day – 2025

 
Plastic pollution is choking our planet. An estimated 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year. Less than 10% is ever recycled.

Climate Justice: Island Resilience

 
In a world where headlines warn of rising seas, dying reefs, and vanishing species, it’s easy to think the story ends in loss. But what if the frontlines of climate change were also frontiers of hope?

World Press Freedom Day 2025

 
Freedom of the press is facing growing threats across the world. Authoritarian regimes still imprison, silence, and kill journalists.

In Central America’s Dry Corridor, Farmers Find Ways to Harvest Water and Food – VIDEO

In Central America’s Dry Corridor, climatic conditions hinder water and food production because rainfall in this ecoregion—from May to December—is less predictable than in the rest of the isthmus.

Solar Energy Sustains the Development of Amazonian Communities in Brazil – VIDEO

Electricity is essential for the well-being and prosperity of traditional riverside communities in the Amazon, as demonstrated by the experience of the Santa Helena do Inglês community, located on the right bank of the Negro River in northern Brazil.

International Women’s Day 2025: For All Women and Girls

 
In 2025, our world remains deeply unequal. Women earn, on average, 20% less than men globally.

Avatars of Extinction: ‘Endlings’ and the Protection of the Species That Remain

 
George the Pinta Island tortoise and Martha the passenger pigeon achieved fame as 'endlings’ - the last individuals of their species. Their passing is tragic, but can their fate perhaps help us to protect other threatened species?

IPS – Year End Video, 2024

 
The world’s troubles deepened in 2024. Civilians bore the brunt of war. Violence in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, Haiti, and more displaced over 100 million people worldwide.

Maya Train: Still Waiting to Become Promised Engine of Development – VIDEO

When he promoted the Maya Train (TM) in 2019, then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who ruled Mexico between 2018 and October this year, stated that the railway line would be an engine of development for the southeastern Yucatan peninsula.

Micro-Dams Spark a Wave of Water Sustainability in Brazil – VIDEO

They look like attempts to copy the moon’s surface, in some cases, as craters multiply in the grasslands. But they are actually micro-dams, barraginhas in Portuguese, which have spread in Brazil as a successful way to store water and prevent soil erosion in rural areas.

Climate Justice

 
Climate change continues to pose an existential threat to humanity. Recent science estimates that we may have less than six years left to change course.

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2024

 
Our world has witnessed unprecedented levels of economic development. The advance of our technological capabilities continues unabated. Our financial resources continue to grow.

WORLD FOOD DAY – 2024

 
The world's farmers produce enough food to feed more than the global population. Yet around 733 million people are facing hunger in the world.

The Taste of Honey

 
A resilient tiger widow from Bangladesh's Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, Shorbanu Khatun, fights climate change's impacts. She struggles to support her children while preserving honey and Gol leaf traditions amidst worsening storms, rising salinity, and societal exclusion.

International Day of Democracy

 
Democracy is as much a process as a goal. For the ideal of Democracy to be enjoyed by everyone, it requires participation and support. The international community, national governing bodies, civil society, and individuals - all have a part to play.

Pandemic’s Silver Lining—Africa Uses COVID-19 Technology for Agriculture

In this IPS podcast, Inter Press Service correspondent Jewel Fraser talks with a scientist from the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya.

Clean Energy Boosts Autonomy for Brazilian Women Farmers – VIDEO

A community bakery, family production of fruit pulp, and the recovery of water springs are some of the initiatives of the Energy of Women of the Earth, organised since 2017 in the state of Goiás, in central-western Brazil.

Pandemic’s ‘Silver Lining’ for Caribbean Was the Use of Technology

Global South countries did get one benefit from the COVID-19 pandemic. A professor at St. George’s University in Grenada describes it as the pandemic’s “silver lining." He was referring to the widespread use of next-generation genomic sequencing technology to identify, track, and trace the numerous variants of the Sars Cov-2 virus. Researchers and scientists in the Caribbean, Africa, and elsewhere have been eagerly harnessing genomic sequencing technology to develop resilience and greater self-sufficiency in numerous fields, ranging from health surveillance to agriculture and beyond.