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Photo: Haji Hassa, a Yazidi farmer from Kuri Jami village in Sinjar, showing how the drought ruined the tomatoes vegetables at his farm. August 2021. Credit: Fared Baram/ NRC

Iraq’s Drought Crisis Destroys Income and Crops Countrywide

By Ahmed Bayram

The writer is an Amman-based Middle East Media Adviser of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

AMMAN, Jordan (IDN) — Farming communities in Iraq have seen their wheat, vegetable, and fruit harvests decline for the second year in a row because of severe drought conditions.

Households throughout the country will be increasingly vulnerable to eroded incomes and challenges accessing sufficient food, warns the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in a new survey ahead of the UN climate change conference (COP 27) in Egypt from November 6-18.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East; 25 October 2022

Developing Nations Risk Missing Development Goals Long Before 2030

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The late Everett McKinley Dirksen, an American politician. once famously said: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money".

Perhaps that remark may be applicable to the funding of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where developing nations continue their relentless search for billions of dollars—now rising to trillions—to help achieve these targets by the year 2030.

: Thalif Deen; UN INSIDER; 24 October 2022

Photo source: Conservation Namibia. Credit: NACSO.

Overfishing and Environmental Changes Could Leave Thousands Jobless

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — After decades of overfishing combined with environmental changes, Namibia's sardine population has finally collapsed, writes Conservation Namibia, a publication of the Namibian Chamber of Environment. “Falling by 99.5% from an estimated 11 million tonnes in the 1960s to a tiny 50,000 tonnes in 2015, this resource is exhausted.”

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Decent Work & Economic Growth; 24 October 2022

Image: Cancer. Source: Vanguard, Nigeria

In Nigeria, 72,000 Cancer Deaths Annually and Rising

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Nigeria has one of the highest cancer mortality rates in the world, with an estimated 72,000 cancer deaths occurring annually and 102,000 new cases diagnosed from its population of 200 million people, according to a report in Frontiers in Oncology.

Breast cancer accounted for the highest mortality, followed by prostate cancer. “(But) there is no efficient public policy on cancer issues,” says Chioma Obinna, writer of Good Health Weekly for Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper. “And cancer mortality among Nigerians continues to rise despite improvement in cancer care across the world.”

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 24 October 2022

Photo: Zoleka Mandela who has again been diagnosed with breast cancer. Source: news24

South Africa Cancer Cases Will Double Without Major Spending on Prevention

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — At the World Cancer Congress meeting this month in Geneva, Switzerland, it was predicted that all cancers in South Africa would almost certainly double by 2030 without major spending increases for screening and prevention.

This comes as new cancer therapies have boosted survival odds from six months to five or six years for even late-stage cancer patients. But expensive pharmaceuticals—the ‘financial toxicity' of the new precision medicine drugs and scanning machines—benefit just 2% of the top tier medical aid plan beneficiaries.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 24 October 2022

Photo: This is a game-changing technology," said Professor Mirela Delibegovic, project lead from the University of Aberdeen. Credit: University of Aberdeen.

Scientists Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic with Artificial Intelligence

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — A group of scientists from the University of Aberdeen, a United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) member institution in Britain, together with Vertebrate Antibodies Ltd and the National Health Service (NHS) Grampian have developed a "game-changing technology". This technology has "tremendous potential to change the trajectory of global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic," project lead from the Aberdeen university, Professor Mirela Delibegovic, emphasized.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 23 October 2022

Photo: A woman crafts a mosaic depicting a peace dove in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan. © UN Women/Christopher Herwig.

Slow Progress for Women Helping Forge Peace

By Caroline Mawanga

NEW YORK (IDN) — Defending women's rights and promoting greater inclusion is a proven strategy for peace and stability, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told a recent Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security, which focussed on Secretary-General António Guterres's annual report as envisaged with a landmark resolution adopted 22 years ago.

: Caroline Mwanga; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 23 October 2022

Photo: Women salvage usable materials from damaged parts of Al-Hatab Square in the old quarter of Aleppo, northern Syria, February 2017. Photo: EPA/Youssef Badawi

How Syrian Women Navigate Security Risks to Mediate Local Conflicts

A UN Women Feature

NEW YORK (IDN) — For over a decade, Syria’s protracted conflict has taken countless lives, displaced millions in and outside the country and left much of its infrastructure in tatters. International mediation efforts to end the conflict have largely stalled, in part because the local dynamics that help fuel the crisis are often overlooked by formal mediators. This makes mediation efforts that seek to resolve inter- and intra-community conflict and address local concerns vital to advance formal peacemaking efforts led by national actors.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 22 October 2022

UN Report Highlights Women's Mediation Efforts in Four Arab Countries

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) — Though largely excluded from formal mediation roles, women across conflict-affected countries in the Arab region have been instrumental in diffusing tensions and mediating conflicts in their own communities.

UN Women’s new report, “Women's Participation in Local Mediation: Lessons from Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen”, highlights the diverse mediation roles women have played to resolve conflict and restore social cohesion in their communities.

: Caroline Mwanga; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 22 October 2022

Photo: Scientist Paul Kuria displays GM disease-resistant cassava (left) vs cassava infected with CBSD. Credit: Joseph Maina.

Disease-Resistant GM Cassava Promises to Be Game-Changer for Kenya

By Joseph Maina

Alliance for Science issued this article, and it is being republished with their permission.

NAIROBI, Kenya (IDN) — At the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) centre in Mtwapa, Kenya, scientist Paul Kuria uproots two sets of cassava tubers exposed to the devastating cassava brown streak disease (CBSD).

One of the plants is a conventional cassava variety that has no immunity to the disease. The second has been genetically modified (GM) to resist the disease. Kuria punctiliously slices each of the tubers open, and the difference between the two is stark—like night and day.