Inequality

Wheat Smugglers Bring High Prices, and Hunger

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
With its lush valleys and well-watered plains, Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province produces plenty of food for the local population, including 10 million tons of wheat every year. So why are the people of this bountiful mountainous region going hungry?

Côte d’Ivoire Rides the Fast Track to Public Transport Development

By Marc-Andre Boisvert
Two years ago, it would have taken Catherine Adjoua almost an hour to travel from M’Badon, the isolated fishing area where she lives that has no asphalt roads, to reach her workplace some 13 kilometres away in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s economic capital.

Low-Wage Workers Butt Heads with 21st Century Capital

By Peter Costantini
“Supersize my salary now!”  The refrain rose over a busy street outside a McDonald’s in downtown Seattle.

Working Cambodian Women ‘Too Poor’ to Have Children

By Michelle Tolson
The movement for reproductive justice sees women’s decision to have – or not have – children as a fundamental right. Should they choose to bear a child, women should have the right to care and provide for them; if they opt not to give birth, family planning services should be made available to enable women to space or prevent pregnancies.

Ugandan Lawyer Revolutionises Access to Justice with Just an iPhone and Facebook

By Amy Fallon
When Gerald Abila received an iPhone as a gift almost two years ago, the Ugandan law student didn’t just use it to text his friends. He used it to create what would eventually become the first entity of its kind in East Africa — a tech savvy, multi-award winning, organisation that uses Facebook, Twitter, SMSes, and radio and television partnerships to provide free legal advice and consultations.

Schools Reflect Segregation in Chile’s Educational System

By Marianela Jarroud
The decentralisation of Chile’s public schools, which were handed over to the municipalities to run in 1981, gave rise to a de facto segregation that has cast a shadow over several generations of Chileans.

Votes Tell a Story Opposite to South Africa’s Economic Policies

By Rebekah Funk
On Tuesday international ratings agency, Moody’s, rated South Africa a credit positive, saying that the results of last week’s general election ensured a continuity of the country’s macroeconomic policy. But the success of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) tells a different story of the country’s economic inequalities.

Pakistan’s Bangle Industry Strangles Workers at Home

By Zofeen Ebrahim
IPS' Zofeen Ebrahim visits a group of home-based workers in Pakistan's Hyderabad who work long hours for little pay and no recognition of the labour they perform.

Pakistan's Bangle Industry Strangles Workers at Home from IPS News - IPSTV on Vimeo.

Trade Misinvoicing Costs African Countries Billions

By Farangis Abdurazokzoda
Misinvoiced trade in five African countries cost their governments billions of dollars in tax revenue and facilitated at least 60.8 billion dollars in illicit financial flows from 2002 to 2011, says a new report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a research advocacy organisation here.

Ethiopian Scribes Trying to Preserve the 4th Century Art of Parchment Making

By James Jeffrey
It is generally agreed that the origin of parchment making found in Ethiopia today likely lies with Christian monks who braved crossing the Red Sea around the 4th century and brought the bible with them.

Ethiopian Scribes Try to Preserve Dying 4th Century Art

By James Jeffrey
Misganew Andeurgay changes his bamboo-made pen for another, dips it in a tiny pot of viscous liquid and, on a parchment page filled with black script, begins to trace in scarlet-red ink the Amharic word for god. 

OP-ED: Caribbean Religious Leaders Inspire IMF Sunday Schools

By Eric LeCompte
Last Fall, I witnessed the Grenada Council of Churches insert themselves into negotiations between their government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) around the island’s debt restructuring and presumed austerity policies. Religious leaders called from pulpits across the tiny island for a “Jubilee” or national debt cancellation.

U.S. Religious Progressivism “Way of the Future”

By Michelle Tullo
The future of religion in U.S. politics lies not with conservatives but rather with religious progressives, social scientists here are suggesting, with a faith-based movement potentially able to provide momentum to a new movement for social justice.

Where Guns and Gangs Meet Orange Velour

By Kim-Jenna Jurriaans
It's four o’clock on a sunny afternoon in Harlem and 19-year-old Solideen Rann is spread out on a plush hand-me-down couch inside an old glass-and-aluminum storefront on Malcolm X Boulevard.

Face of Slave Labour Changing in Brazil

By Fabíola Ortiz
The upcoming mega sporting events in Brazil are paving a new route for slave labour among those migrating from rural areas to the cities in search of work.

DR Congo’s Red Light to Invention

By Taylor Toeka Kakala
"There are several robots in the world, but that one which regulates traffic is made in Congo," Thérèse Izayi, a female engineer and the Congolese inventor of two very unusual traffic signals, tells IPS.

Healing the Dark Legacy of Native American Families

By Michelle Tolson
As a child, 78-year-old Yakama Nation elder Russell Jim was forced to go to a boarding school in Washington State and was beaten for speaking his language.

Zimbabwe’s Struggle to Formalise the Informal

By Tatenda Dewa
Zimbabwe’s extensive informal sector could help boost government revenue if regularised, but this won’t happen unless the government creates incentives for the informal sector to register, economists say.

Informal Carpentry Hammers Away Zimbabwe’s State Revenue

By Jeffrey Moyo
Tracy Chikwari, a 36-year-old single mother of two and informal furniture dealer in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, is all smiles as she talks about her flourishing business.

When Not To Go To School

By Ranjita Biswas
In large parts of rural India, the absence of separate toilets for growing girls is taking a toll on their education. Many are unable to attend school during their menstrual cycle.

Q&A: The Case for Cutting African Poverty in Half

By Bryant Harris
As the World Bank wrapped up its semi-annual joint meetings with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) here last weekend, it reaffirmed its commitment to bringing extreme poverty below three percent of the global population by 2030 while increasing the income of the poorest 40 percent of the population of each country.
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