By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Reckya Madougou, one of the strongest challengers to Benin’s autocratic leader, Patrice Talon, will be observing the next election from her cell in jail. The 47-year-old activist was found guilty of conspiring to assassinate political figures and sentenced to 20 years behind bars. Madougou was […]
Billion Dollar Gas Project Threatens Mozambique
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — An investment of $1.15 billion in a gas project in northern Mozambique is being challenged by Friends of the Earth which foresees a major increase in greenhouse gas emissions by up to 10 per cent by 2022. That’s the equivalent of the combined annual emissions […]
One Dollar Could Save 7 million Lives in Low and Lower-Middle Income Countries
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) — Close to seven million deaths could be prevented by 2030, if low and lower-middle income countries were to make an additional investment of less than a dollar per person per year in the prevention and treatment of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), according to a new World Health Organization report. NCDs […]
The Global Pandemic Disrupts Health Services Around the World
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) — The global pandemic is likely to halt two decades of global progress towards Universal Health Coverage, according to two complementary reports compiled by the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The organizations also reveal in two reports launched on Universal Health Coverage Day that more than half a […]
Development Community Calls For Universal Vaccine Access
By UNDP SAL | Cabo Verde (IDN) — Cabo Verde President José Maria Neves on December 2 joined the development community in calling for urgent universal vaccine access as a way to mitigate the impact of Omicron and other variants of the Covid-19 virus. The World Health Organization on December 3 categorized Omicron as a […]
Security Council Debates the Nexus Between Climate Change and Terrorism
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) — People and countries most vulnerable to climate change also are most vulnerable to terrorist recruitment and violence, speakers in an open debate told the Security Council on December 9, as the 15-nation United Nations organ considered a draft resolution proposed by Niger and Ireland. The Council was considering […]
Africa’s Land Restoration Movement Needs a Moon Shot
By Ibrahim Mayaki and Wanjira Mathai Dr Mayaki is the CEO of AUDA-NEPAD, while Ms Mathai is the Vice President and Regional Director for Africa at the World Resources Institute. JOHANNESBURG; South Africa (IDN | Africa Renewal) — Six years ago, African leaders recognized that the degradation of 65 per cent of Africa’s agricultural land […]
Faith, Nature & the Climate Crisis: An Evaluation
Viewpoint by Fazlun Khalid Fazlun Khalid is Founder of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences and the author of “Signs on the Earth – Islam Modernity and the Climate Crisis” published in 2019. BIRMINGHAM, UK (IDN) — As the post-colonial world emerged in the middle of the last century it left in its […]
South Africa Insists on Dutch Shell Drilling in Home of Migrating Whales
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A South African court has greenlighted plans by Royal Dutch Shell to do seismic oil exploration in a pristine coastal stretch in an area known as “Wild Coast” in Port Edward over the strenuous objections of local environmentalists. Oceans Not Oil, which describes itself as […]
US Accused of COVID-19 ‘Travel Apartheid’
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Harsh criticism continues to be heard from Africans and their leaders against UK and U.S. travel restrictions allegedly to control the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant—now showing up in several U.S. states. “What is expected is a global approach, not selective,” Sarafa Tunji Isola, […]