By Ronald Joshua GENEVA (IDN) – Bahrain, India, Lesotho and South Africa have won 2018 United Nations Investment Promotion Awards for excellence in boosting investment into sectors that will have social and economic benefits and help countries meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the […]
Time Out for Nukes!
Viewpoint by Alice Slater The author is a member of the World Beyond War Coordinating Committee and the UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. NEW YORK (IDN) – With 122 nations having voted last summer (July 2017) to adopt a treaty for the complete prohibition of nuclear weapons, just as the world […]
A Crisis Within a Crisis for the Rohingyas
By Naimul Haq DHAKA, Bangladesh (IDN) – Despite a well-coordinated effort to address the Rohingya refugee crisis in Cox’s Bazar, a coastal town bordering Myanmar, some major challenges still need attention. The local administration admits that with over one million forcibly displaced Myanmar citizens arriving in such a short time, it is indeed difficult to […]
Africa Eyes Accelerated Investment in Nutrition
By Justus Wanzala NAIROBI (IDN) – Incessant humming noise emanating from air conditioners welcomes one into an in expansive warehouse at Twiga Foods pack house in Syokimau area of Kenya’s capital. It is mid-morning and workers are busy sorting, cleaning and packing fresh produce ready for the market. Established in 2014, Twiga sources produce from […]
‘To be the Voice of the Voiceless’ is Michelle Bachelet’s Top Priority
By J. Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – A top priority of the new UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, who replaced Jordan’s Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on September 1, 2018, is “to do what my mandate tells me to do, to be the voice of the voiceless.” In addition, it is “also to engage with […]
UN Chief ‘Deeply Troubled’ by Khashoggi’s Death, Rights Experts Slate Saudi Arabia
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – While UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement released on October 19, said that he is “deeply troubled” by the reported confirmation of the death of Jamal Khashoggi, independent UN human rights experts have commended business leaders who have decided to pull out of a high-level investment conference […]
China Lacking a Clear Strategy for Overseas Investments
Viewpoint by Xie Ping The author is professor at the PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University and is former executive vice president of China Investment Corporation. This article first appeared on October 8, 2018 in EastAsiaForum. BEIJING (IDN-INPS) – China has become one of the world’s biggest investors. The explosive growth of its outward investment […]
India’s Free Trade Woes in the Face of Deteriorating Balance
Viewpoint by Biswajit Dhar The author is Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University. This article first appeared on October 9, 2018 in EastAsiaForum. NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS) – Leaders at the sixth Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Ministerial Meeting in August 2018 appear to have taken […]
Southern Africa Experiencing Energy Boom
By Jeffrey Moyo LUSAKA (IDN) – Letina Phiri waits at a bus terminus in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, as loaders carry her baggage of huge solar panels to pack on the bus. “I will sell some of the panels as soon as I get home. Where I live, not far from Kabwe town, many people […]
A Provocative and Inspiring Look at the Future of Humanity
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – “Suppose aliens existed, and that some had been watching our planet for its entire forty-five million centuries, what would they have seen? Over most of that vast time-span, Earth’s appearance altered very gradually. Continents drifted; ice-cover waxed and waned; successive species emerged, evolved and became extinct. But […]