By Jeffrey Moyo HARARE (IDN) –The African Union (AU) Chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa, has called on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waiver specific Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) obligations related to the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 for a defined period. Together with India, South Africa has proposed a TRIPS waiver in […]
Donations for International Seabed Authority to Support Programmes in the Developing States
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK (IDN) – Three countries – Norway, France and Mexico – have reaffirmed their commitment to support, through three separate grants, the implementation by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) of capacity development programmes and activities targeted at developing States members of ISA and to improve their integrated participation in the work […]
Mixed Feelings in Kenya’s Pumwani Slums as Schools Open
By Francis Kinyua* NAIROBI (IDN) – After being closed for nine months, schools in Kenya reopened to start a new term and resume the school year that was disrupted in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the morning of January 4, the streets were swarmed with elated children wearing colourful uniforms marching […]
Court Finds Israeli Tycoon Guilty of Bribing Guinean Officials
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – The gavel came down on January 22 on billionaire Israeli-French tycoon Beny Steinmetz who, a criminal court in Geneva ruled, bribed government officials in Guinea, West Africa, to enrich himself and his mining company with valuable assets of the African country. The ruling caps a […]
COVID-19 Decimating Ranks of Zimbabwe’s Government
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – The coronavirus is reaping a “grim harvest” in Zimbabwe. Those were the words of President Emmerson Mnangagwa acknowledging the deadly reach of the virus in the nation’s highest ranks of government. Zimbabwe’s transport and foreign ministers both succumbed to the coronavirus less than two days […]
Overcoming Vaccine Inequities and Enabling Small States’ Post-Covid19 Recovery
Viewpoint by P. I. Gomes* PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IDN) – The “catastrophic moral failure” into which the world is seen as heading, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, can readily be understood as having its ideological basis in the callous principle of “profits before people for optimum […]
UN Chief Welcomes the US Move to Re-Enter the Paris Accord as Biden and Harris Are Sworn in as New Leaders
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warmly welcomed President Joe Biden’s “steps to re-enter the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and join the growing coalition of governments, cities, states, businesses and people taking ambitious action to confront the climate crisis”. Biden signed an executive order accepting the Paris […]
2021 Yet Another Testing Year for COVID-19 Hemmed Sri Lanka’s Economy
Viewpoint by Dushni Weerakoon The writer is the Executive Director and Head of the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka. COLOMBO (IDN) — The unprecedented disruptions of COVID-19 are causing a geopolitical reset — and as the global order is redrawn, small emerging market economies like Sri Lanka are vulnerable to the fallout. Sri […]
People’s Movement Launched in South Africa To Defeat Covid-19
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – A call to action endorsed by over 500 organizations and individuals in South Africa is aiming to unite millions of the nation’s citizens in order to acquire 40 to 80 million doses of vaccine to defeat the coronavirus pandemic. “The pandemic is wreaking havoc,” organizers […]
Transformation of Agri-Food Systems Crucial for FAO in 2021
By Ronald Joshua ROME (IDN) – Director-General QU Dongyu of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has declared 2021 a key year to move forward the transformation of agri-food systems, marked by big events, particularly the UN Food Systems Summit in New York, the Pre-Summit in Rome, and FAO’s Youth World […]