Expanding Access to University to Boost Social Mobility

Nine of the 47 tuition-free public universities in Argentina were created in the last decade, with the aim of improving access to higher education in low-income areas. But despite the expansion and strategies to provide support for students, the drop-out rate has proven difficult to combat.

Running Away from TB Treatment

Twenty-three-year-old Haleema (not her real name) was not the first female patient at Srinagar’s Chest Diseases Hospital in the Indian state of Kashmir to try to run away.

Malnutrition Killing Children in Cameroon

At the Garoua Regional Hospital’s Paediatric Feeding Centre in northern Cameroon, Aicha Ahidjo* is relieved to hear that her one-year-old son will survive. The child was suffering from chronic malnutrition, and other children have died of it.

OECD Proposes Plan to Curb International Tax Avoidance

Finance ministers from the Group of 20 (G20) countries on Friday received a previously requested strategy under which the world’s largest economies could crack down on international tax avoidance, particularly on the part of multinational corporations.

In Search of a New Pan-Africanism

Bridging the gap between Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance has been a top priority for the African Union (AU).

Haitian Women Still Waiting for a Seat at the Table

More than two years ago, Haiti's parliament approved a landmark amendment to the country's 1987 constitution to ensure that women fill at least 30 percent of elected and appointed positions at the national level.

Protests in India over School Meal Tragedy

At least 22 people in northern India, mostly children, have died and dozens were hospitalised in critical condition after apparently being poisoned by a primary school meal.

Management Jobs Elusive for Cuban Women

Despite the progress made by Cuban women in education, where they account for 64 percent of university graduates, they continue to have a limited presence in management positions.

Insuring Ghana’s Smallholder Farmers Against the Weather

Smallholder farmer Suleman Mustapha Simbia, 40, is pleased with the introduction of an insurance initiative called the Ghana Agriculture Insurance Programme. The programme is being implemented in this West African nation to help farmers who had been suffering from loss of income as a result of the bad weather conditions that affect their yields. 

Latin America’s Migration Policies Fall Short

Several years after the start of the economic crisis in the United States and Europe, which led to a shift in migration patterns, Latin America still lacks a more inclusive view of the phenomenon of people seeking a better life abroad.

Economics and Population Policies Go Hand In Hand in Latin America

Nearly 20 years after the landmark U.N. conference on population and development, the countries of Latin America have an opportunity to make headway with a new agenda on these issues, thanks to the favourable economic context that has made it possible to reduce social inequalities.

Are Middle Class Protests Fallout from Poverty Alleviation?

The rise of the "global middle class" is widely attributed to the gradual eradication of extreme poverty in the developing world, even as the United Nations says that millions of people in countries such as India, China and Brazil have graduated from the ranks of the indigent.

U.S., U.K. Accused of Ignoring, Facilitating Abuses in Ethiopia

The U.S. and U.K. foreign assistance offices are being accused of ignoring, mischaracterising or downplaying testimony offered by ethnic communities in Ethiopia who accuse the Addis Ababa government of forcefully evicting them from their lands and violating their human rights in the name of mass development projects.

Promises to Gas Victims Only ‘Hot Air’

Ismaela Muhamadu was six years old when he lost his parents and siblings in a poisonous gas explosion at northern Cameroon’s Lake Nyos. The blast killed more than 1,800 people, and 3,000 cattle and wildlife over a 25-km radius.

Brazil Develops “Superfoods” to Fight Hidden Hunger

In less than 10 years, consumers throughout Brazil will have access to eight biofortified “superfoods” being developed by the country’s scientists. A pilot initiative is currently underway in 15 municipalities.

Q&A: “Did 100,000 People Have to Die, or Disappear?”

The violent drug war in Mexico's borderlands has changed the face of the country, injecting fear into both average citizens and the journalists trying to tell their stories.

Stronger Laws to Deter Acid Attacks on Women

Preeti Rathi was just 25 years old when she passed away in a Mumbai hospital exactly a month after a man threw acid on her while she stood waiting on a railway platform.

Critics Warn Pacific Pact Could Jack Up Drug Costs

As a new round of talks behind a major proposed free trade area, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), get underway this week, the United States is pushing several developing countries to accept provisions that critics say would make it more difficult for their citizens to access medicine.

Need to Protect DRC’s School Girls from Sexual Assault

In some Democratic Republic of Congo schools, teachers and senior authorities are using their status to abuse girls who do not know their rights, according to the African Association for the Defence of Human Rights.

When Children Give Birth to Children

Radhika Thapa was just 16 years old when she married a 21-year-old boy three years ago. Now, she is expecting a baby and is well into the last months of her pregnancy. This is not the first time she has been with child – her first two pregnancies ended in miscarriages.

Q&A: “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights”

On Thursday, the international community recognises World Population Day, a time of assessment, discussion and projections for the future that necessarily gives great weight to the rights of women and girls and particularly their sexual and reproductive health.