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By Kizito Makoye
KILOSA, Tanzania (IDN) – Hidaya Juma looks gaunt and weary. Her sun-parched skin and tattered clothes tell it all. She is poor.
Juma, a 43-year-old single mother of four, who lives in Kisanga village, Kilosa district, in Tanzania's eastern Morogoro region, lives in a mud-walled house that is prone to flooding.
Her 19-year-old daughter Zubeda shares a dusty bedroom with two siblings. Juma sleeps in the other room with two of her children, aged nine and six.
Viewpoint by Reinhard Naumann
LISBON (IDN-INPS) – Until recently, polls indicated a clear victory for the Socialist Party (PS) in parliamentary elections in Portugal on October 6. Even the absolute majority seemed within reach for the PS under the leadership of current Prime Minister António Costa.
At the same time, the liberal-conservative parties, the PSD and CDS, were heading for historic lows. They had to fear that their total share of votes would fall below the 30 per cent mark and, in this way, lose their blocking minority against constitutional amendments by the left. A horror scenario for the conservative camp.
Viewpoint by Carlos Correa
The following is statement by Dr. Carlos Correa, Executive Director of the South Centre at the High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 26 September 2019.
NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Four years after its adoption, Agenda 2030, “Transforming Our World,” the United Nations’ (UN) most recent and most ambitious development agenda, is off-track.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) - The war may be over in a place called Biafra – a region of states in the southern part of Nigeria – but it remains a flashpoint for ethnic tensions that simmer just below the surface.
This September, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), announced a meeting with world leaders at the United Nations to present the grievances of the Igbo community, including unfair treatment by successive governments.
By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – “Let’s Build a Culture of Peace,” exhorted Nobel Peace laureates in an urgent call to “all countries and organizations of the world, their leaders and citizens“, at the 17th World Summit in Mérida, the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán.
“In the midst of the current challenges of war, fear, racism, intolerance, and populist nationalism, today more than ever it is necessary to promote a Culture of Peace that follows tolerance and respect for diversity as a fundamental principle of coexistence among human beings and nations,” they declared.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – In a new low water mark for Zimbabwe’s troubled economy, two million people in Zimbabwe's capital have now been left without water after the government ran out of foreign currency to pay for imported water treatment chemicals.
Zimbabwe’s capital city shut its main water works on September 26, potentially leaving the city dry and raising the risk of water borne diseases.
By Victoria Burns and Lailah Said
MARRAKECH (IDN) – The practice of empowerment has the potential to be the key to reducing the negative impacts of alienation and inequality among women in rural regions of Morocco.
High Atlas Foundation trainer Ibtissam Niri facilitates an IMAGINE empowerment workshop among girls and women in the Agerzrane village.
“We do not speak in front of others because we are ignorant and uneducated.”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Ugandan investigative reporter and news anchor Solomon Serwanjja is the 2019 winner of the Komla Dumor award. It goes to a journalist committed to changing the narrative about Africa.
Serwanjja, a presenter at Uganda's NBS TV, hosts one of the channel's prime-time shows. He has also produced award-winning reports, including one for BBC's Africa Eye program about the illegal sale of prescription drugs.
By Reinhard Jacobsen
BRUSSELS (IDN) – “We are most vulnerable, have contributed the least to climate change, yet are most ambitious towards the 1.5 C goal,” said Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., President of Palau.
The sentiment was echoed by the other high-level speakers emphasizing that enhanced nationally determined contributions (NDCs) would require enhanced support and enhanced partnerships.
“We are committed to champion ambitious action on climate change,” reaffirmed Wilfred P. Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belize.
To Fulfil the Paris Agreement, Germany’s Climate Policies Need to Look Beyond Market-Based Strategies
Viewpoint by Kai Niebert*
ZURICH (IDN-INPS) – It’s time to get tough – that’s how Chancellor Angela Merkel set the tone for Germany’s climate policies in 2019. But the question remains: will the federal government manage to reduce emissions in line with its international obligations and help to end the climate crisis?
Warnings from government figures are coming thick and fast: Merkel calls the climate crisis a ‘challenge to humanity’, Vice-chancellor Olaf Scholz calls for ‘forceful steps’, and the Bavarian MP and environmental convert Markus Söder describes inadequate climate protection as ‘a sin’.
