Latin America & the Caribbean

Photo: Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Perry Christie. Credit: Desmond L. Brown | IDN-INPS

Caribbean Countries Strive For Energy Security

By Desmond L. Brown

NASSAU, The Bahamas (ACP | IDN) – Caribbean countries have found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Already grappling with a myriad of challenges, including crime and weak economies, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states from Jamaica in the north to Guyana in the south are also now faced with extremely high energy costs.

Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Perry Christie, said his country and its neighbours must move with haste to transition to sustainable energy sources, something he believes would also help shore up their ailing economies and also address the crime scourge.

: Desmond L. Brown; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 27 January 2017

Photo: Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne (right) shakes hand with ADFD Director General Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi while Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment in the United Arab Emirates, looks on. Credit: Desmond L. Brown | IDN-INPS

Caribbean Setting Ambitious Renewable Energy Targets

By Desmond L. Brown

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (ACP-IDN) – As cash-strapped Caribbean nations push towards renewable energy development, the Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Adnan Z. Amin, has pointed to the challenges they face in matching ambition with reality and the need for international support.

Caribbean countries join a growing list of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) which have set ambitious targets to switch to renewables.

In October 2016, Barbados set a new target of generating 65 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2030 following IRENA’s support in developing a national energy road map.

: Desmond L. Brown; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 16 January 2017

Photo: Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventieth session on 28 September 2015 at the United Nations in New York. UN Photo/Kim Haughton.

People Key to Ecuador's Sustainable Development Goals

Viewpoint by Nelsy Lizarazo*

QUITO (IDN) - I visited to San Pablo 15 years ago and it was clearly the poorest neighbourhood of Portoviejo, the regional capital of Manabí Province.

Then, there was no drinking water. Families could not even imagine the possibility of free basic education for all, and secondary education even less. You could not walk on the streets after 5 in the evening and the health centre had neither sufficient medical staff nor medicine to cover the neighbourhood’s needs.

I returned to San Pablo at the beginning of September this year.

: Nelsy Lizarazo; OPINION; 12 September 2016

Photo: UN Mission Planning team carries out its first regional visit. UN Photo

The Story of Peace in Colombia sans US-NATO Invasion

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - After 52 years of fighting between the Colombian government and FARC, the left wing, drug-dealing, Marxist, guerrilla grouping, there is a peace agreement.

I’ve always wondered why the U.S. and NATO never intervened militarily. They should have if they were to be consistent. Colombia has long been exhibit A for those who say, “Look what happens when the outside world doesn’t intervene – the local fires just burn brighter and fiercer”. (And it has been said likewise for Sri Lanka during its civil war.)

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 30 August 2016

Photo: Heliconius doris Linnaeus butterfly of Costa Rica. Credit: Wikimedia Com-mons.

Costa Rica Setting its Sights on Sustainable Development

By Jose Rafael Quesada*

SAN JOSE (IDN) – Costa Rica, a small Central American country with a population of barely 5 million inhabitants, has a high human development index (ranking 69th worldwide) and is considered a consolidated democracy in Latin America.

High investments in education, good development of social security and high levels of openness and competitiveness in international markets make Costa Rica a candidate for membership of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

However, the country is still experiencing serious problems in the area of endemic poverty, a low level of efficiency in the construction of infrastructure, high levels of state indebtedness and high indicators of tax evasion.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 30 August 2016

Photo: Streets demonstrations in Santiago for quality education. Credit: José Gabriel Feres | Pressenza.

Thursday's Date with Calls for a Fairer Chile

Viewpoint by Pía Figueroa*

SANTIAGO (IDN) – Every year, as they have been doing since 2011, students in Chile take to the streets each Thursday, demanding a free and good quality education system.

They are increasingly being joined by their parents – tired of paying for expensive schooling which is certainly the most expensive in the whole of Latin America – and teachers who leave work to join the students with a call for proper definition of the teaching career.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 15 August 2016

Photo: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivers a keynote address at the Argentine Council of Foreign Relations in Buenos Aires. UN Photo/Mark Garten

Ban Counts on Argentina’s Support 'in Critical Years Ahead'

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has applauded Argentina for its strong partnership with the UN and its cooperation with and support to other countries.

“You are a standard bearer for United Nations values and principles,” said Ban in his remarks to the Argentine Council for International Relations on August 8.

“I count on Argentina’s support in the critical years ahead as we work together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide peace and prosperity for all on a healthy planet,” he added.

: J C Suresh; UN INSIDER; 09 August 2016

Photo: Adrielle Alexandre, a young athlete from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, prepares for a ballet class. Credit: UNIC Brazil.

In Brazil, Girls Build Self-esteem Through Sport

What does being a winner mean? For 12-year old Adrielle Alexandre, who is carrying the Olympic torch, it’s not only about becoming an Olympic rhythmic gymnast, but to make her community a place free of violence and full of respect. She is among 400 girls who are participating in a programme in Brazil that empowers girls through sport and by creating safe spaces.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) - “I’ve learned from sport that we have to make efforts to succeed. We get nowhere if we stay at the same place doing nothing,” says Adrielle Alexandre, a 12-year old young athlete from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

: UN Women; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 29 July 2016

Photo: Representatives of women's organizations and networks that were part of the first delegation of gender experts at the talks in Havana present their proposals for building a peace deal with the Government of Colombia and FARC-EP negotiators in December 2014. Photo courtesy of the Peace Talks, Havana, Cuba.

Historic Commitment at Havana Peace Talks Table on Colombia

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Zainab Hawa Bangura

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, and Zainab Hawa Bangura, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

NEW YORK (IDN-UN Women) - On 24 July 2016, we celebrated with the people of Colombia the historic commitment by the Government and FARC-EP at the Havana Peace Talks Table to ensure that one of the agreement’s fundamental objectives is to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The implementation of this commitment will be the critical test of whether peace will endure, and fulfil the highest aspirations of Colombians for a just, equitable, inclusive and democratic society.

: UN Women; OPINION; 26 July 2016

Reforestation in Oxapampa: Peru’s Challenges and Priorities

By Fernando Torres Morán

LIMA (IDN) – Oxapampa is a province in the Pasco Region, in the high jungle area of Peru, which is home to the Oxapampa-Asháninka-Yanesha Biosphere Reserve that was recognised by UNESCO in 2010.

The reserve houses a number of protected natural areas such as the Yanachaga Chemillen National Park, with an area of 122 thousand hectares (spread over the districts of Huancabamba, Oxapampa, Villa Rica and Pozuzo) and the San Matías-San Carlos Protection Forest, with an area of 145,818 hectares (spread over the districts of Palcazu, Puerto Bermudez and Villa Rica).

Over the decades, the area has suffered forest depredation, and Peru's non-governmental Pronaturaleza foundation for the conservation of nature has recently condemned the illegal felling of trees in the Yanachaga Chemillen National Park, including the extraction of one hundred thousand planks of wood from trees such as thyme, cedar and fig.