By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | FREETOWN, 26 June 2023 (IDN) — Presidential and parliamentary elections are under way in Sierra Leone amidst a crippling cost-of-living crisis. Soaring food prices have sparked deadly riots and are a key issue for many voters in the import-dependent nation of eight million people.
200 Million Migrant Workers Sent $647 Billion to over 800 Million Families
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 15 June 2023 (IDN) – In Asia, some of the countries dependent on remittances from migrant workers overseas include India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, Bangladesh and the Philippines. At the international airport in one of the Southeast Asian capitals, there is a sign at the “arrivals” terminal for a special […]
European Bureaucrats May Be involved in Child Smuggling
By Aurora Weiss VIENNA, 31 May 2023 (IDN) — A case that may implicate Croatian bureaucrats came to light in December 2022 when an alert immigration officer at Zambia’s Ndola airport detained eight Croatian citizens on suspicion of child trafficking and falsification of documents.
Philippines Mulls Banning Deployment of Workers to Kuwait
A special SDG feature deploying Philippines media resources MANILA, 24 May 2023 (IDN) — A brewing row between the Philippines and Kuwait over the treatment of Filipino migrant workers has come to the limelight here after a Kuwait Times report on 9 May said that Kuwait has suspended all work and entry visas for Filipino […]
Mighty Dollar’s Rule Facing Many Mutinies; A Likely Credible One From BRICS
By Arul Louis The writer is a New York-based non-resident senior fellow of the Society for Policy Studies, a New Delhi-based think tank. He can be contacted @arulouis. UNITED NATIONS, 7 May 2023 (IDN) — The dollar that has ruled the world at least since the end of World War II is now facing mutinies […]
UNCTAD Urges Support for the World’s Poorest Countries
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA, 4 March 2023 (IDN) — Multiple crises including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, growing inequalities, rising debt burdens and economic shocks are strongly affecting world’s 46 Least Developed Countries (LDCs). They face the challenge of high debt costs because they do not have sufficient cash to provide essential services. In the […]
Three UN Agencies Call for Investments in Rural Employment
Nature-Based Solutions Could Generate 20 million New Jobs By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) — A joint report by three UN organisations says that 20 million jobs could be created by further harnessing the power of nature to address the major challenges facing society, such as climate change, disaster risk and food and water insecurity. According […]
Overfishing and Environmental Changes Could Leave Thousands Jobless
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — After decades of overfishing combined with environmental changes, Namibia’s sardine population has finally collapsed, writes Conservation Namibia, a publication of the Namibian Chamber of Environment. “Falling by 99.5% from an estimated 11 million tonnes in the 1960s to a tiny 50,000 tonnes in 2015, this […]
New UN Report Calls on African Countries to Rethink Export Diversification
By Jaya Ramachandran with UNCTAD Report GENEVA (IDN) — African countries must diversify their exports to survive economic shocks from global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In its Economic Development in Africa Report 2022, published on July 14, UNCTAD […]
Hunt for Minerals Leads to Growing Number of Accidents and Evictions by Mining Companies
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Seydi Sow, a landowner in Djogo, Senegal, contemplated his eviction by a mining company with joint headquarters in Australia and France and which mines zircon in central Senegal. The elderly landowner said he was wronged in the compensation process. With two fields over two hectares […]