Regional Trade Key to African Food Security, World Bank Says

The World Bank is urging African countries to strengthen regional food trade, suggesting that food security could be greatly enhanced simply by allowing farmers to trade more easily across the continent.

Sorting Out Mexico City’s Chaotic Transport System

Greater integration of public passenger transport is a major challenge facing the next government of the Mexican capital, one of the most traffic-congested cities in the world, if it wants to guarantee people the right to mobility.

Entrepreneurs and Women: Keys to Growth in Africa

The international financial crash of the late 2000s created more than a global economic recession: it accentuated popular doubts about the paradigms on which our economies are built and prompted a closer look at two crucial drivers of economic growth: women and entrepreneurship.

‘Malala’s Cause Is Our Cause’

Less than two weeks after being left for dead by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai is standing up on her own two feet.

Mexico Could Say Goodbye to Imported Maize

It has been many years since Mexico, the birthplace of maize, has been self-sufficient in this staple food that plays a central role in its cuisine and culture. But new studies indicate that it could produce enough maize to meet its needs within 10 to 15 years.

Chile Deports Non-Violent Foreign Prisoners

Chile is releasing and deporting foreign inmates, mainly in prison on drug trafficking charges, as part of a broader attempt at improving conditions in this country’s overcrowded prisons.

Cooperatives Cushion the Blows of Hunger

“One in eight people goes to sleep hungry every day,” according to the ‘State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012’, a document released annually by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Q&A: “Developing Countries Are Doing Their Part for Biodiversity”

Developing countries are investing enormously in preserving biological diversity, and it is unimaginable that the wealthy nations will not fulfill their obligations to provide funding for these efforts, Brazilian environmental negotiator André Aranha Corrêa do Lago told Tierramérica*.

Q&A: “There Is No National Boundary for Medical Care”

For millions of people in developing countries, having cataracts means permanently impaired vision or even blindness. While treatment can fix the problem, the cost is well beyond most sufferers' reach.

Gang Truce Can Break Down, Prevention Should Be Priority

El Salvador has managed to bring down one of the world’s highest murder rates thanks to a truce between gangs that was lauded by the United Nations as an example to be followed in other countries of Central America.

Amidst Controversy, World Bank to Review Influential Rankings

The World Bank released its 10th annual Doing Business report on Monday, using the occasion to track business- and investment-friendly reforms put in place around the world over the past decade.

Cuban Families Grapple with Migration Reform

Her voice is calm. She no longer has any question that her “destiny” is to live outside of Cuba. “My father is getting older every day. It’s time for me to help him,” the 27-year-old woman tells IPS, commenting on her plans to emigrate and become her family’s provider.

The Face of Food Security Is Female

In a major endorsement for investment in women - the bulk of food growers in the developing world - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said food security could not be achieved without women, and that the world's hungry also needed leaders to prioritise actions.

Amid Food Crisis, Caribbean Agriculture Going to Seed

With the average age of a farmer in the Caribbean now 62 years old, there is growing concern that commercial agriculture is on a path to extinction – a dire scenario for a region already shouldering a massive food import bill.

Argentina – Fighting the Worst Child Obesity Rate in the Region

Pediatricians and nutritionists stress that there is no single factor explaining why Argentina is the country in Latin America with the highest rate of obese and overweight children.

Cooperatives Help Women Farmers Tighten Ranks

It is a tried and tested truth that when women come together in groups they can address their issues more powerfully than they can as individuals.

Senegal Finds the Cooperative Way to More Food

Over the past two years, millet production has reached record levels in Dya, a rural community in the Kaolack region of central Senegal, where the Agricultural Value Chains Support Project (PAFA) is supporting two farmers' collectives.

Women’s Groups Say Uruguay’s New Abortion Law Falls Short

The Uruguayan Congress passed a law Wednesday decriminalising abortion, making it one of the few countries in the region where abortion is allowed in cases other than rape, incest, malformation of the fetus or danger to the mother’s life. But activists who backed the bill are not pleased with modifications introduced in the final version.

In TB Fight, It’s ‘Pay Now or Pay Later’

The next several years could see either the elimination of tuberculosis in some regions or millions of otherwise preventable deaths, according to new research released in Washington Wednesday by the World health Organisation (WHO).

Communities Organise to Confront Climate Change in El Salvador

Armed with chainsaws, machetes and shovels, local residents of El Salvador’s Lower Lempa River Basin, near the Pacific Ocean, are unblocking the flow of rivers and pruning the branches of trees on riverbanks to keep them from falling into the chocolate-colored water.

OP-ED: What We Owe Our Youth

On Wednesday, we kick off a three-day meeting in Mexico City to discuss how to boost the involvement of young people in politics and expand their role in consolidating democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean.