By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A federal class-action suit filed on behalf of eight Malian citizens against Nestle SA, Cargill, Hershey and Mars, Inc. among others for their alleged complicity in the trafficking and forced labour of African children, is now under review by the US Supreme Court. The plaintiffs […]
COVID-19 Highlights the Global Structural Dependence on Exploitable Labour
Viewpoint by Randall Hansen* TORONTO (IDN) – In November 2019, a federal government official visited the University of Toronto’s Munk School and asked its faculty to delineate coming global threats. We spoke of inequality, hunger, climate change, sanitation, and plastic pollution, among others. No one mentioned a microbe; a discussion of the threat of immunity […]
A German Law Might Put an End to Human Rights Violations in Supply Chains
Viewpoint by Franziska Korn, Friedich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES)* BERLIN (IDN) – For over half a decade, the German government has been working to enact mandatory compliance for companies regarding human rights and environmental protection in their supply chains. The United Nations has also pushed for this measure. Adopted in 2011 by the UN Human Rights Council, the […]
Entrepreneurship for Structural Transformation in LDCs Is Possible
By Paul Akiwumi The writer, a national of Ghana, is UNCTAD’s Director of the Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes. This article was first published in The EastAfrican, print edition (20-26 July 2019). GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – Meskerem is a middle-aged Ethiopian woman, who runs a café and bakery with ten employees in […]
Huawei Will Give $300 Million A Year to Universities with No Strings Attached
Its new fundamental research division could help the company regain international favour and outmanoeuvre the U.S. By Karen Hao | Technology Review The writer is the artificial intelligence reporter for MIT Technology Review. In particular she covers the ethics and social impact of the technology as well as its applications for social good. This article […]
Russia Considers Ways of Boosting Tourism
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW (IDN) – On the eve of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2019), government officials and tourism experts have been looking at systematic ways to remove barriers, adopt marketing strategies to improve the current inbound tourism figures and get effective institutional organizations to promote Russia’s image. The SPIEF-2019, which has […]
World’s Major Tourism Fair Underlines the Significance of Sustainable Development
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN (IDN) – The number of tourists around the world grew in 2017 to an all-time record of 7 percent to reach 1.3 billion. Tourism accounts for 10 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), 10 percent of the world’s jobs, and 7 percent of the world’s total exports. The need […]
UN’s New Development Agenda Assigns a Key Role for Youth
By Rodney Reynolds
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has continued to reiterate the key role to be played by youth in the implementation of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, points out that many young people across the world have been disproportionately affected by economic crises and recession.
“As torch bearers of the new development agenda, you have a critical role to play in ending poverty, inequality, hunger and environmental degradation. Your actions will be central in ushering in an era in which no one is left behind,” he told a gathering of youth.
Reforestation in Oxapampa: Peru’s Challenges and Priorities
By Fernando Torres Morán
LIMA (IDN) – Oxapampa is a province in the Pasco Region, in the high jungle area of Peru, which is home to the Oxapampa-Asháninka-Yanesha Biosphere Reserve that was recognised by UNESCO in 2010.
The reserve houses a number of protected natural areas such as the Yanachaga Chemillen National Park, with an area of 122 thousand hectares (spread over the districts of Huancabamba, Oxapampa, Villa Rica and Pozuzo) and the San Matías-San Carlos Protection Forest, with an area of 145,818 hectares (spread over the districts of Palcazu, Puerto Bermudez and Villa Rica).
Over the decades, the area has suffered forest depredation, and Peru’s non-governmental Pronaturaleza foundation for the conservation of nature has recently condemned the illegal felling of trees in the Yanachaga Chemillen National Park, including the extraction of one hundred thousand planks of wood from trees such as thyme, cedar and fig.
Zimbabwe Battling to Promote Sustainable Economic Growth
Analysis by Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE (IDN) – Clad in faded trousers and shirt and an old pair of shoes dotted with a mixture of patches and holes, 38-year-old Jemitius Simango trudges along First Street in the Zimbabwean capital with a huge sack containing empty plastic bottles hanging on his back as he rummages through dustbins in search of valuables.
Simango holds a Marketing Diploma from Zimbabwe’s Harare Polytechnic College and at first glance many take him for a lunatic, although he is an ordinary man at ‘work’ trying to earn a living against the backdrop of this Southern African country’s faltering economy. After failing to secure employment, many like Simango have turned to doing various substandard jobs to sustain themselves.