By Ngala Killian Chimtom YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon, 11 March 2023 (IDN) — While African forest elephants have traditionally been thought of as playing a destructive, negative role in forests, the big munchers are now seen as critical to saving a climate in peril. Scientists now suggest that the perceived destructive nature of the African forest elephant […]
Vanuatu’s Cyclone Destruction Makes ICJ Opinion Critical
By Kalinga Seneviratne SUVA, Fiji, 9 March 2023 (IDN) — After two destructive cyclones and an earthquake within a week, people of the small Pacific Islands state of Vanuatu are slowly picking up the pieces after the destruction from winds and rains that flooded many properties. This devastation should strengthen Vanuatu’s ongoing initiative at the […]
International Women’s Day Puts the Spotlight on Digital Gender Equality
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 […]