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.

KENYA: Foreigners in Their Homeland

Resistance to a government scheme to upgrade housing in Nairobi's Kibera slum is enmeshed in economics, history and identity.

DEVELOPMENT: Looking to the Past to Feed the Future

As wheat rust threatened crops in the 1950s, a global effort to breed resistant wheat varieties led to 117 million hectares of cropland being protected from the deadly fungi and ensured the food security of 60 to 120 million rural households.

BRAZIL: Deforestation Down 45 Percent

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon jungle was reduced more than expected between August 2008 and July 2009 - 45 percent compared to the previous 12 months, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reported.

AFRICA: Water Summit Ends

As the Second Africa Water Week ends, participants have reiterated that lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation has a direct bearing on public health and the economy in Africa.

RIGHTS: State of India’s Children: An Unsettling Reality

Here is a sobering thought on the eve of Children's Day celebrated across India on Nov. 14. Despite the country's impressive economic growth trajectory and growing geopolitical heft, the benefits of that prosperity are not percolating down to its children who constitute a sizeable 30 percent of the country's 1.2 billion population.

WATER-AFRICA: Civil Society Demands Action, Not Words

"No more commitments... We have had enough of the promises. Can we please see something happening on the ground? Right now, it is business as usual and that’s why Africa is off-track on the MDG target."

AGRICULTURE-ZIMBABWE: New Methods to Maximise Yields

Last season, for the first time in her more than 20 years as a farmer, Elizabeth Runema harvested her maize crop at the beginning of February.