Poverty

Photo: Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate (left) CC BY-SA 4.0 and South African climate activist Ayakha Melithafa (right) at DAVOS World Economic Forum in 2020. CC BY 3.0

African Teens on World Stage Demand Action on Climate Change

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has at least two African partners stepping up on the global stage and telling world leaders to “wake up” and recognize the dangers to women and girls of climate change.

In a speech broadcast as part of the Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture, Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate tied climate change to poverty, hunger, disease, conflict and violence.

“See the danger we are in,” Nakate urged the leaders at the Tutu peace lecture.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 14 October 2020

Photo: Agricultural cooperative members planning their local projects in Morocco’s Oujda Region (High Atlas Foundation, 2020).

Bringing Poverty to Heel

Viewpoint by Yossef Ben-Meir

Dr Yossef Ben-Meir is president of the High Atlas Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to sustainable development in Morocco.

MARRAKECH (IDN) – October 17 marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The commemoration of this day suggests that the way to end poverty is not a matter shrouded in mystery. In fact, its celebration denotes that, at a minimum, the manner to end poverty is most likely established knowledge. While it could withstand further evaluation, its people-centred methodology is tested as plain as day, and it is as well understood as the brutality of en masse denial of the potential of our humanity.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 12 October 2020

Photo: A new economic analysis for South Sudan indicates that the economy is recovering, but poverty remains deep rooted. Credit: World Bank.

Cash-Strapped Sudan Faces New Demands Before Painful Sanctions Are Lifted

Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The U.S. has now conditioned the lifting of painful sanctions on Sudan until it agrees to Washington’s Middle East agenda and to normalizing relations with Israel.

If Sudan agrees before U.S. elections in November, sanctions could be lifted, opening the floodgates to desperately needed investment for this economically stressed corner of Africa.

Our economy is in shambles, admitted Amjed Farid, assistant chief of staff for Sudan’s prime minister. Sudan can't even get COVID aid from international institutions. U.S. sanctions have blocked all transactions using US currency or products, impeding any business with operations in the U.S. from trading with Sudan.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 05 October 2020

Image: Part of the Cover of the UNDP South Africa report.

UNDP South Africa Analyses the Horrendous Impact of COVID-19

By Devendra Kamarajan

JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – The COVID-19 pandemic will push South Africa's overall GDP down by 7.9% in 2020 leading to major setbacks in addressing poverty, unemployment and inequality, the government's development priorities, according to new research by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The study expects the economy to recover slowly through 2024.

: Devendra Kamarajan; THE WORLD; Africa; 25 August 2020

Photo: Patrón cortando caña (Patrón cuts the cane), Colombia, 2015. Credit: Pablo Fierro.

Colombian Sports Hero Patrón's Assassination Targets Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Communities

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad and Zoe PC

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (IDN) – Not much, apart from football, unites the Colombian people. If a 2014 Interior Ministry survey called “The Power of Football” is to be believed, then 94 percent of the Colombian population say that football is either important or very important. Patrocinio Bonilla—called Patrón—was on the side of those who believed that football was very important, indeed essential. Patrón was murdered on August 11, 2020.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 20 August 2020

Photo: With the lockdown to fend off the spread of COVID-19, many Southern Africans, have lost their jobs and switched to vending on the streets where they engage in cat and mouse games with police enforcing lockdown rules. Consequently, the game to survive still remains tough for most Africans as they battle to support their children amid schools closure. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo | INPS-IDN

COVID-19 Derails Education in Southern Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

MUSINA, South Africa (IDN) – His three teenage children play home-made paper ball on the dusty streets of Musina, exercise books scattered on the veranda of their rented home in the South African border town with Zimbabwe. Yet Gerald Gava, the children's 47-year old father, lies on a reed mat spread on the veranda, apparently with nothing to do after he stopped working three months ago as the lockdown took toll on the construction company that employed him.

Gava, who is a migrant from Zimbabwe, said even his children have had to remain home as schools also shut down, thanks to the coronavirus that has pounded the entire globe.

: Jeffrey Moyo; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 August 2020

Photo: Women tend a community nursery created as part of a completed ITTO project to assist forest landscape restoration in Togo. Credit: ODEF

A Landmark Project Aims at Reforestation in Togo

Income Opportunities for Women

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – Togo in West Africa is the venue of a milestone project between Soka Gakkai, a global community-based Buddhist organization and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). The two have signed a memorandum to launch a reforestation project offering income opportunities for women's groups in two rural areas of Togo.

The memorandum involving a donation of 10 million yen (US$93,300) for the initial one-year phase of the project was signed on July 1 at the Soka Gakkai (SG) headquarters in Tokyo. The project will kick off on September 1.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 05 July 2020

Photo: A Palestine refugee woman receives food assistance at the UNRWA Khan Younis Distribution Centre in Gaza. Credit: UNRWA | Tamer Hamam

Conference Raises $130m for UN Palestinian Refugee Agency

By Bernhard Schell

AMMAN | STOCKHOLM (IDN) – Seventy-five governments and non-governmental organisations have pledged $130 million in financial commitments to sustain the operations and services of the acutely underfunded United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). They gave the assurance at an extraordinary global meeting at the ministerial level. Sweden and Jordan hosted the online conference on June 23.

: Bernhard Schell; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 24 June 2020

UN Launches Strategic Global Initiative to Combat Scourge of Misinformation

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN)—The United Nations has launched a strategic initiative to combat the growing scourge of COVID-19 misinformation by increasing the volume and reach of trusted, accurate information.

“We cannot cede our virtual spaces to those who traffic in lies, fear and hate,” said UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, who announced the initiative called 'Verified'.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 21 May 2020

Image: Abstract image of the impact of covid-19 on the economy. Source: SciencesPro

COVID-19 To Push More Than 34 Million People into Extreme Poverty in 2020

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) — The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to deal a huge blow to global efforts for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, two of the vital goals of the 17 SDGs. A new UN report expects more than 34 million people to fall below the extreme poverty line in 2020. 56 percent of them will be in African countries. An additional 130 million people may join the ranks of people living in extreme poverty by 2030.