 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
By Busani Bafana
KIGALI, Rwanda (IDN) — Less than ten years to the deadline to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Africa is at development cross roads. The big question is how can Africa achieve inclusive and sustainable development to meet the twin agendas; 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063?
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is warning that skyrocketing global food prices as a result of the war in Ukraine could trigger food riots from people going hungry in poor countries.
WTO Director General Okonjo-Iweala urged food-producing countries against hoarding supplies and said it was vital to avoid a repeat of the Covid pandemic, when rich countries were able to secure for themselves the bulk of vaccines.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the current devastating war in Ukraine has an equally destructive impact on the outside world: an assault on the world’s most vulnerable people and countries.
The worst affected are the world’s poor as food, fuel and fertilizer prices are skyrocketing while one of the world’s major bread baskets, Ukraine, is being bombed—a country which alone provided more than half of the World Food Programme’s (WFP) wheat supply.
By UN News
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — Ukraine is being “decimated before the eyes of the world” with Russia’s military offensive against civilians “reaching terrifying proportions”, said the UN chief on March 14, warning that a resulting meltdown of the global economy is provoking a hunger crisis that is hitting the poorest, hardest.
Secretary-General António Guterres addressed correspondents outside the Security Council chamber in New York, and said that with each passing hour in Ukraine, the death and destruction is getting worse: “Whatever the outcome, this war will have no winners, only losers.”
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) — The acquittal of a White Police Officer of murdering an Aboriginal teenager over two years ago, has deeply upset the Aboriginal community with many weeping outside the courts in the northern city of Darwin, after the verdict was announced on March 11. Some could not contain their anger with one Aboriginal elder, reportedly shouting at the police officer when he left court saying, “Black Lives Matter”.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Wheat and other grains are back at the heart of geopolitics following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both countries play a major role in the global agricultural market.
That was the clear-eyed assessment of Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, and a visiting research fellow at South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Thousands of African students are among the tens of thousands of Ukrainians seeking shelter from a barrage of Russian airstrikes against its southern neighbour in what has been called an unprovoked and unjustified effort to remove and replace the Ukrainian government by the President of Russia.
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) — There's a severe, earth-baking drought in the Horn of Africa. About 13 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti are in the grip of acute hunger. The rains have failed in three consecutive years, prompting the driest conditions experienced in the region in 41 years.
By R.M.Samanmalee Swarnalatha
POLLONNARUWA, Sri Lanka (IDN) — Sri Lankan government’s badly planned organic farming policy that has banned the use of chemical fertilizer in farms has upset farmers in this rice-growing heartland and a political stronghold of the ruling coalition. The policy has also drawn criticism from agricultural experts, who warn that Sri Lanka’s food security is at stake.
Chairman of Minneriya Integrated Farmer Organization, Anil Gunawardhna argues that the government organic fertilizer program is an utter failure because it was announced without any proper program and work plan to achieve its aims.
By Jaya Ramachandran
ROME (IDN) — A new report by two UN agencies has identified "hunger hotspots" across 20 countries and regions where parts of the population are expected to face a significant deterioration of acute food insecurity in the coming months that will put their lives and livelihoods at risk. This warning of spiralling uncertainty relates to areas where conflict, economic shocks, natural hazards, political instability, and limited humanitarian access, are hard-hitting.
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.