UN News NEW YORK, 8 March 2023 (IDN) — The UN General Assembly was awash in a sea of blue on Wednesday as some 1,800 people gathered to mark International Women’s Day, which this year focused on the need for inclusive and transformative technology and digital education. Many attendees wore suits, scarves or other items […]
Cholera Vaccination Campaign to Protect Earthquake Victims in Northwest Syria
By Bernhard Schell CAIRO | AMMAN, 8 March 2023 (IDN) — The devastating earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on 6 February caused over 4540 deaths and nearly 9000 injuries in northwest Syria. As the Syria cholera situation report points out, around 90 000 Syrians have been displaced in the northwest and many […]
Rich Multis Profiteer While Hunger in Africa Soars
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 7 March 2023 (IDN) — Once on the decline, global hunger has reversed course over the last ten years, as multinational food companies increasingly replace domestic production and leave populations “food insecure.” According to a recent Greenpeace International report, food imports from factory farms have jumped 650 […]
A New UN Treaty Seeks to Protect One-third of World’s Oceans
By J Nastranis NEW YORK, 5 March 2023 (IDN) — After two weeks of tough negotiations at the UN Headquarters in New York, the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction—better known by its acronym BBNJ—has agreed on a text to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of […]
“We Are Drinking Mercury”: In Zimbabwe, Artisanal Gold Mining Is Polluting Water
By Farai Shawn Matiashe MUTARE, Zimbabwe, 5 March 2023 (IDN) — Every morning as Mercy Mubatsa fetches water from a tap outside her home in Penhalonga, a mining area 263 kilometres (163 miles) outside the Zimbabwean capital Harare, her anxiety is heightened. In March last year, mercury and cyanide deposits from artisanal gold mines in […]
New Report Finds Women in Parliaments Worldwide
By Jutta Wolf BERLIN | GENEVA, 04 March 2023 (IDN) — Women’s participation in parliament has never been as diverse and representative as it is in many countries today. For the first time in history, not a single functioning parliament in the world is male-only, says the latest Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
In Focus: Education and the SDGs
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY, 04 March 2023 (IDN) — Education contributes to many of the Sustainable Development Goals. It reduces poverty, drives sustainable economic growth, prevents inequality and injustice, leads to better health —particularly for women and children—and helps to protect the planet.
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 […]
Energy Poverty Grips Southern Africa
By Jeffrey Moyo CAPETOWN, South Africa, 01 March 2023 (IDN) — Thirty-seven-year-old Lwandile Zwane of Khayelitsha and her two daughters have their super by 4 pm to beat the six-hour electricity outage across Capetown. Characterized by slum settlements, Khayelitsha is a township in South Africa’s Cape Town where power outages have not spared many poor […]
Twin Challenges of Climate Change and Debt Crises Confront Banga at World Bank
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, 26 Feb 2023 (IDN) — US President Joe Biden has nominated Ajay Banga to head the World Bank with a mandate to promote climate change […]