By Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE (IDN) – A Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – a “free” trade agreement between the 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its major trading partners in the region – is expected to be signed later this year. But labour unions and workers’ rights advocates in the region fear that […]
Ethiopian PM Sparks Euphoria In A Whirlwind U.S. Trip
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – It’s been called ‘Abiy-mania’ – an impulse to reach out and hug the young new Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, who brought an end to his country’s two-decade-long war with Eritrea and other sweeping changes in the Horn of Africa. The 41-year old Ethiopian […]
African Experts Decry Information Gap on Climate Change
By Justus Wanzala NAIROBI (IDN) – Climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in Africa are being undermined by lack of information on climate issues among the public, policy-makers and leaders in Africa, leading to poor and delayed decision making as well as untimely undertaking of remedial actions. This emerged during a Regional Climate Change Dialogue […]
Palestinian Peoples’ Fundamental Rights Under Assault, Concern Over Lurking Dangers
By Ramesh Jaura UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – The outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has expressed “acute concerns” over the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the situation in the occupied Gaza Strip, which in recent months has escalated dramatically, with the potential to generate threats to […]
Japan-China Relations Apparently Back On Track
Viewpoint by Katsuji Nakazawa* TOKYO (IDN-INPS) – In early May 2018 during his first visit to Japan since being appointed in 2013, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang publicly remarked that Japan-China relations had returned to a path of normality. This “throw-away line” revealed that China’s official perspective prior to then was that Japan-China relations had been […]
Rwanda President Launches VW’s Car Assembly Plant in Kigali
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | KIGALI (IDN) – You’ll see plenty of Volvos, Mercedes, Hondas, Toyotas and even a Ford Windstar tootling around the booming cities of Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg. But these foreign cars were no spring chickens when they arrived in Africa after years of use. Often they had […]
Education Isn’t the Only Key to Female Employment in Morocco
Viewpoint by Katherine O’Neill* MARRAKECH (IDN) – The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has the lowest female employment rate of anywhere in the world. Though most countries in the MENA region, including Libya and Iran, have seen gradually increasing rates of working women, Morocco’s female labour force participation (FLFP) rate has actually decreased since […]
Stories Behind IFAD’s Focus on Africa
By Kwame Buist ROME (IDN) – In its recently released Annual Report 2017, the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – a specialised agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries – promises to leverage core resources of 1.2 billion dollars to fund a programme […]
Climate Change Threatens Bhutan’s Development Gains
By Ramesh Jaura UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – The Buddhist kingdom Bhutan’s report to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development was in many ways exceptional. The holistic goal the landlocked country on the Himalayas’ eastern edge has set itself is the pursuit of Gross National Happiness (GNH). The principal guiding philosophy behind […]
Asia-Pacific May Achieve Only One Out Of 17 Goals By 2030
By Ramesh Jaura UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) spanning an area home to 4.1 billion people, or two thirds of the world’s population, sprang a surprise when it admitted that at the current rate of progress in the region only one of the […]