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Wednesday, November 11, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Poverty & MDGs
CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘Perhaps We Should Just Sign’
Countries are quietly signing up to the Copenhagen Accord, but commitments on emissions cuts and funding remain unclear.
ZIMBABWE: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Arrears?
Faced with nearly six billion dollars of external debt, Zimbabwe's national unity government is considering applying for Highly Indebted Poor Country status.
Q&A: Creating Momentum for Women’s Participation
Women's movements have played a critical role in creating political space for female participation in politics around the world. In fact, there are more women in government today than ever before.
ENERGY-MEXICO: Big and Small Firms Harness Sun’s Rays
It was Isabel Cortés, the family matriarch, who started the project. In 1990, she started looking for a way to market xoconostle, the sour variety of the nopal cactus fruit that is abundant in this arid part of central Mexico, in the Mezquital valley.DEVELOPMENT: Crisis Could Open Doors for Change, Says UNCTAD
As the financial crisis continued to threaten world economies last year, the White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel famously declared: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."PAKISTAN: Community Midwives Gain Recognition But Concerns Remain
As Kanwal Gul, 25, lay on the delivery table a year ago, preparing to give birth to her first child, she made sure the traditional birth attendant (TBA) assisting her knew exactly what to do. Put on the gloves, she instructed her.
PERU: Women Combine Invention, Tradition to Improve Rural Diets
Although Huancavelica is the poorest region of Peru, it has more than just poverty, malnutrition and unmet needs. There are also women using their creativity, efforts and traditional indigenous knowledge to improve the diets of their families and communities.
ETHIOPIA: Dam Critics Won’t Go Away
Ethiopia is building a 240-metre high dam on the Omo River that is intended to end the country's electricity shortage and supply power to neighbouring countries. Not everyone's happy.
DEVELOPMENT: South-South Cooperation Key to MDGs
Member states meeting here Thursday called for the immediate implementation of development commitments made during the Nairobi high-level U.N. conference on cooperation between developing countries.
CUBA: Women Knitting for Change
A neighbour started calling Andrea del Sol "Perseverance," and the name stuck. Since 1998, she and a small group of women from Alamar, on the outskirts of the Cuban capital, have been throwing their combined energies behind a common purpose: "changing things."ENVIRONMENT: Keeping Wetlands from Becoming Wastelands
Swamps, marshes and other wetlands are beginning to be recognised as a country's 'green jewels', even in a tropical paradise like Mahé Island here in the Seychelles, with its stunning beaches and dramatic granite outcrops.U.S.: Bill Pledges a Billion Dollars to Fight Gender Violence
The U.S. House and Senate introduced new legislation Thursday that addresses the plight of women around the world who are victims of violence.RIGHTS: EU Faults U.N. for Slowdown in Gender Empowerment
Against the backdrop of continued widespread gender discrimination worldwide, the European Union (EU) has urged Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to "urgently" speed up the creation of the proposed new U.N. agency for women.
KENYA: Insuring Pastoralists Against Increasing Risks
The droughts in the Turkana region were less severe when she was growing up, says Laura Letapalel, and pastoralists could still find some grass and water for their animals. Now, she laments, the droughts are longer and there is nothing to eat.COSTA RICA: Luxury Homeowners Evade Solidarity Tax
The first attempt to collect a new tax on luxury homes in Costa Rica has ended in failure, in spite of the fact that it is a solidarity tax entirely devoted to building social housing for slum-dwellers.
HAITI: Displaced Women Face Double Jeopardy
Women's rights and development activists working in Haiti say that greater attention must be paid to the immediate needs of women and girls, as well as their role in the long-term reconstruction of the devastated country.
KENYA: Victory for Anti-Abortion Lobby
The threat by influential Christian leaders to mobilise a vote against Kenya's draft constitution if it does not explicitly prevent any expansion of abortion rights appears to have succeeded.U.S.: Obama Calls for More Development, Counterinsurgency Aid
U.S. President Barack Obama Monday called on Congress to approve major increases over the coming months in global health, development, and counterinsurgency assistance as part of a record 3.8-trillion-dollar 2011 federal budget.WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Reconciling Social and Environmental Needs
One of the greatest challenges facing the world today is to attend to the urgent social needs of the planet’s population, and particularly the one billion people living "on the brink of survival", while dealing with the equally urgent demands of the environment.HEALTH: 10-Billion-Dollar Vaccine Pledge by Gates Hailed
The pledge by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to provide 10 billion dollars over 10 years on vaccines aimed at reducing child mortality in the world's poorest countries was hailed by global health organisations around the world Friday.
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Sierra Leone Sees Opportunity to Rise Up
The World Social Forum held in Nairobi in 2007 inspired Sierra Leonean activists to organise themselves to demand things like housing, health care and greater accountability from their government. That inspiration was not sustained.« Previous Page — Next Page »
