CLIMATE CHANGE: The Danish Example

Whether a new internationally binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gases and forestall climate change will be signed next month remains to be seen. What is clear though, is that if there is a place in the world that deserves to be the stage where this treaty ought to be signed, it is the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

RIGHTS-LAOS: How Women Cope With Disability – Part 1

Before 2002, Chanhpheng Sivila held training workshops for the many Lao disabled women and men at her own house.

Q&A: Maternal Mortality Rates ‘One of the Saddest Cases’ in Asia

Nearly 15 years after a landmark international conference to advance the rights and freedoms of women, the picture in the Asia-Pacific region is mixed, says a leading women’s rights advocate and senior United Nations official.

AFRICA: Growing Use of Cellphones for Family Planning

The growth of cellphone use, particularly in the developing world, is providing health experts with a new channel of communication to provide family planning information.

Q&A: Recognise the Benefits of Slowing Population Growth

Family planning: key to reducing child mortality and improving maternal health; a way to put less strain on the environment; and a smaller population makes the challenge of providing adequate education and health services that little bit easier.

Q&A: Impact of Crisis in Latin America Less Severe than in the Past

Thanks to effective social policies and measures that have strengthened the economy, most of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have managed to weather the impact of the global recession, although poverty has risen slightly for the first time since 2002.

HEALTH: Strategy to Cut Vaccine Price Paying Off

The price of a major combination vaccine called the 'pentavalent' has fallen considerably over the past year, bringing the cost per dose below three dollars - a decrease of almost 50 cents, according to data released Wednesday by an alliance of public and private partners who have worked to bring down vaccine prices in the developing world.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Women Central to Adaptation, Mitigation

Poor women will bear the greatest ‘climate burden’, says the United Nations Population Fund in its 2009 State of the World Population report, released today.

Q&A: Women Should Be More Than Window Dressing

Women in developing countries are among the most vulnerable to the effects of crisis - be that climate change, food price hikes, the HIV/AIDS pandemic or the global recession. It is becoming more commonplace to hear women's testimony, but are women's voices heard when it comes to deciding on solutions?

DEVELOPMENT: To Grab, Or To Invest

The World Food Security Summit in Rome this week opened up a dispute between what may be investment in farmland to some, but is seen as land grab by others.

Q&A: “What is Important is to Give Equal Opportunity” – Part 2

Although women have long made major contributions to science, their efforts have often been overlooked. For the past 12 years, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has teamed up with cosmetics giant L'Oréal to highlight the achievements of female scientists.

GENDER: Women in Science Face Discrimination in India – Part 1

Just 10 of the 443 Indian scientists who received the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) award in the last 50 years were women.

DEVELOPMENT: Hunger Summit’s Failure Exposes Grim Reality

There are two main ways the flop of this week’s United Nations World Food Security Summit in Rome - which has been snubbed by the world’s top leaders, has failed to deliver binding aid commitments, or to set a target date for the eradication of hunger - is being read.

DR CONGO: Urban Water Supply Needs Attention

Kinshasa's population needs an estimated 700,000 cubic metres of water per day. The Régie de distribution des eaux (REGIDESO) produces only 425,000 cubic metres - vast neighbourhoods like Kitokimosi and Mpasa receive almost none of this water.

CUBA: Fewer Storks Visiting Shiny Maternity Clinics

Women in Cuba cite a variety of reasons to explain their decision to have only one child, ranging from the housing shortage to the rising cost of living and the many work responsibilities they have to shoulder. But many say that if things were different they would have a bigger family.

LATIN AMERICA: Community-Based Social Innovation Wins Prizes

Community control of public funds will no longer be just an effective local idea, put into practice by social activists and community leaders in a town in southern Brazil. Now that it has won first prize in ECLAC's fifth Social Innovation Contest, it is likely to spread throughout Latin America.

MIDEAST: Gazans Brace for Cold, Bleak and Miserable Winter

Tens of thousands of Gazans living in tents and damaged homes face a wet, cold and miserable winter as Israel’s blockade of the coastal territory continues to prevent the importation of building and reconstruction material.

RIGHTS-TURKEY: Transforming Men from Culprits to Allies – Part 1

Success in fighting violence against women may well hinge on partnership with an often overlooked but still a critically vital party - men themselves.

DEVELOPMENT: Farmers Not Invited to Food Summit?

World farmers are not part of the official delegations at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food summit on food security that opened here Monday. But they came anyhow to express their views, since, they say, it is their communities that are most impacted by the food crisis.

GENDER: “Truly Exciting If the U.S. Could Ratify CEDAW” – Part 2

CEDAW or the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1979.

WATER-ZAMBIA: Worries Ahead of Flood Season


The Zambezi is home to the fishing community on Mbeta Island. But after the river rose and swallowed their homes last year, they have learned to fear it as well.