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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Edible, circular gardens are part of a bigger project to bring a belt of green across the continent of Africa.
“Tolou Keur”—circular gardens resistant to drought—are part of Africa’s Great Green Wall project. The project calls for planting papaya and mango trees and a variety of plants across 5,000 miles, from Senegal to Djibouti.
By Jaya Ramachandran
ROME (IDN) — A new report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that "life-saving aid" to families on the brink of famine is being cut off in several countries by fighting and blockades.
Of serious concern, says the report, are 23 'hunger hotspots' that over the next four months are expected to face an acute level of food insecurity intensified by the economic repercussions of COVID-19, the climate crisis and fighting.
By Arun Srivastava*
NEW DELHI (IDN) — World history is full of narratives of peasant struggles and uprising. India also has seen many of them which had different perspectives and dimensions.
Early peasant movements were usually against feudal and semi-feudal societies and resulted in violent uprisings.
Newsbrief by Reinhard Jacobsen
VIENNA (IDN) — More than 120,000 smallholder households in Uganda's northern and north-eastern regions engaged in the production and marketing of oil seeds (groundnuts, sunflower, sesame and soy) are expected to benefit from US$30 million loan agreement the OPEC Fund for International Development has signed with Uganda.
By Reinhard Jacobsen
VIENNA (IDN) — The OPEC Fund for International Development has signed a US$20 million loan agreement with Honduras to co-finance the 'Northeastern Small Producers' Economic and Social Inclusion Project—PROINORTE'. The importance of the project lies in the fact that the Central American nation's economy is primarily agricultural, making it especially vulnerable to natural disasters such as Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
By Radwan Jakeen
NEW YORK (IDN) — Nearly 18 million Afghans or half the population of the South Asian country require assistance. A third of the country is malnourished, while half of all children under five are experiencing acute malnutrition.
In view of this critical situation, Ramiz Alakbarov, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, has urged donors to step up support for the country.
By Catholic News Agency (CNA)*
ROME (IDN) — More than 220,000 people left Catholic Church in Germany in 2020, according to official figures. The statistics issued by the German bishops’ conference on July 14 showed that 221,390 people exited the Catholic Church last year.
The figure was almost 19% lower than that of 2019 when a record 272,771 people departed. But it was higher than the 2018 figure of 216,078, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
By Fermin Koop*
LONDON (IDN) — Protecting and restoring natural areas in Latin America, home to 50% of the planet’s biodiversity and over a quarter of its forests, could help the region achieve a ‘green’ post-pandemic recovery and meet biodiversity conservation targets, experts say. Doing so could even create thousands of jobs in key economic sectors such as agriculture.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The biggest war at the moment is the civil war in Somalia, started in 1991. It has claimed over half a million lives. Second, is the civil war in Syria which has led to about 400,000 deaths. Third, is South Sudan where approximately 400,000 have been killed. Yemen is a younger conflict, with over 230,000 deaths. Human suffering is at its worse in Yemen—it is held in the pincers of Saudi Arabia and the Arab Emirates. Food and medical supplies have often been squeezed to a dribble. The US and the UK contribute to relief in the Yemen via the UN’s World Food Program and UNICEF, while supplying arms to the side of Saudi Arabia.
Viewpoint by Yossef Ben-Meir
The writer is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and president of the High Atlas Foundation.
MARRAKECH (IDN) — The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are aspirationally universal, addressing globally relevant issues with earnest objectives. Despite the profound good that they represent, fundamental problems exist with the Goals. They lack prescriptiveness, even to the extent of not explicitly aligning with what we know is indelible to sustainability: local people’s participation.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.