By Busani Bafana NAIROBI | 23 September 2024 (IDN) — Africa stands on the edge of a severe water crisis, threatening its ability to meet critical Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new report reveals. Despite the continent’s vast water resources, poor management, overexploitation, and the escalating effects of climate change are fueling widespread water insecurity. […]
South Asian Workers in Europe Face Harrowing Working Conditions
By Aju John* BERLIN | 22 September 2024 (IDN) — On 19 June of this year, an agricultural labourer from India named Satnam Singh lost his life on a melon farm in Latina, Italy. He had been crushed by a machine that severed one of his arms and fractured his legs — horrific injuries, but, […]
UN Needs to Open Doors to Citizens, Elected Representatives and Civil Society
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 19 September 2024 (IDN) — As the UN plays host to four high-level summit meetings next week—with possibly over 150 world leaders in attendance—a group of over 160 civil society organizations (CSOs) is calling on the United Nations to make global governance more “inclusive and accountable.” The UN needs […]
Bangladesh: Political Crisis Is Deeply Impacting the Economy
By Tajul Islam* DHAKA, Bangladesh | 19 September 2024 (IDN) — Bangladesh is currently facing a political crisis that is not only disrupting its social structure but also casting a significant shadow over the country’s economic outlook. The economic challenges caused by this political instability are widespread, impacting everything from households to industries. The Ready-made […]
Women in Afghanistan: Efforts Underway to Plant the Seeds of Change
By Sima Bahous The following are excerpts from the speech delivered by Ms. Sima Bahous, UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director, to the UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan on 18 September 2024 at UN Headquarters. NEW YORK | 19 September 2024 (IDN) — We have heard and will continue to hear today about […]
Gulf States: Huge Economic Cost of Keeping 13 million Women Out of Workforce
By Amr Saber Algarhi and Konstantinos Lagos* This article was published on The Coversation under Creative Commons licence. SHEFFIELD, South Yorkshire, England | 18 September 2024 (IDN) — When you think of modern, oil-rich Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), you may picture a life of luxury. But beneath […]
Bangladesh: Interim Government Accused of Political Persecution of Journalists
By Abdul Rahman This article was originally published in Peoples Dispatch and being re-published with the author’s permission. DHAKA, Bangladesh | 18 September 2024 (IDN) — On September 16, the Bangladeshi police arrested two senior journalists, Mozammel Babu and Shyamal Dutta when they were allegedly trying to leave the country. With their arrests, the total […]
Would Bangladesh Take Stronger Positions to Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance at UN Meet?
By Shobha Shukla* LONDON | NEW DELHI | 17 September 2024 (IDN) — Bangladesh has taken strong positions to prevent antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the past. We urge the new leadership in Bangladesh to take stronger positions at the upcoming UN meeting of world leaders on 26 September 2024 on AMR and advance more concrete […]
UN Report Urges Immediate Global Action to Close Critical Gender Gaps
By Ramesh Jaura Investing in women and girls and ending discrimination are key to fulfilling the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. BERLIN | 16 September 2024 (IDN) — Less than a week ahead of the Summit of the Future taking place on September 22-23 at the UN headquarters in New York, a […]
Youths in Nepal Pushing the Government to take Biodiversity Preservation Seriously
By Simone Galimberti KATHMANDU, Nepal | 16 September 2024 (IDN) — With the upcoming COP 16 on Biodiversity that is scheduled to be held in Colombia, October 21-November 1—the first after the introduction of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework—it is imperative that Nepal presents an ambitious updated version of its National Biodiversity Strategy and […]