Japan Promotes Low-Carbon Technologies Through UNIDO

VIENNA (IDN) – While several member states have been withdrawing their support to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) over the years, Japan agreed on January 27 to replenish its financial contributions to the agency for encouraging the utilisation and dissemination of new low-carbon technologies particularly in Africa.

Japan’s Permanent Representative to the international organisations in Vienna, Ambassador Mitsuru Kitano, and the UNIDO Director-General Li Yong, signed an agreement on the second replenishment of about $2.5 million for the Low Carbon Low Emission Clean Energy Technology (LCET) Programme implemented by UN agency, among others, in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Burundi President Defies UN and the African Union

BERLIN | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – Within less than a week of African leaders rejecting repeated demands to deploy troops of the African Union in strife-torn Burundi, the 54-nation group has appointed a high-level delegation of five African presidents to negotiate with factions in the East African country over the possible deployment of an African peacekeeping mission.

Much to the disappointment of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the U.S. and the European Union, the 54-nation African Union (AU) summit in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa dismissed on February 1 the proposal to deploy the group’s troops in Burundi – if necessary, without the consent of the landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of East Africa.

Burundi President Defies UN and the African Union

By Rita Joshi | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis


BERLIN | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – Within less than a week of African leaders rejecting repeated demands to deploy troops of the African Union in strife-torn Burundi, the 54-nation group has appointed a high-level delegation of five African presidents to negotiate with factions in the East African country over the possible deployment of an African peacekeeping mission.

WHO in Decline

By Arif Azad*

The international health landscape is transforming at a dizzying speed, leading to the recalibration of power among different actors. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the changing role of the World Health Organisation.

In 1948, WHO was formed to coordinate and direct international health work. The goal was to achieve the highest possible level of health. The formalisation of WHO’s role rose out of long-standing efforts to coordinate international health which began with the convening of regular international sanitary conferences in the mid-19th century. This practice was to lead to the first known international treaty on cholera which expanded to cover plague and yellow fever.

U.S. and China: A Tale of Contradictions

By Jennifer Sun*

“America’s once shining beacon has somehow dimmed a bit, and the Red China I left 30 years ago is not as bloody red as it used to be. The two countries, capitalist and communist, actually have a lot in common: the rich and powerful could be greedy, hypocritical and morally corrupt,” writes Jennifer Sun, author of the recently published novel ‘Two Tales of the Moon’.

U.S. and China: A Tale of Contradictions

By Jennifer Sun* | IDN-InDepthNews Essay


“America’s once shining beacon has somehow dimmed a bit, and the Red China I left 30 years ago is not as bloody red as it used to be. The two countries, capitalist and communist, actually have a lot in common: the rich and powerful could be greedy, hypocritical and morally corrupt,” writes Jennifer Sun, author of the recently published novel ‘Two Tales of the Moon’.

Migrant Workers Help Singapore Students Gain a Global Perspective

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Government statistics show that in this affluent Southeast Asian nation, one in three workers are migrants.  They build the modern infrastructure, clean the buildings, cook and serve in restaurants, look after the children and elderly at home, while often being paid very poorly and treated shabbily and looked at suspiciously by the locals.

Beginning with the 2013 Little India riots where hundreds of Indian workers attacked police vehicles to the recent arrest of 27 Bangladeshi workers suspected of having links to Islamic terrorist groups, there has been much tension in the community with regards to migrant workers. As one law student put it: “We only find out about migrant workers through second hand sources which does not really say who they are.”

Migrant Workers Help Singapore Students Gain a Global Perspective

By Kalinga Senevratne* | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis


SINGAPORE (IDN) – Government statistics show that in this affluent Southeast Asian nation, one in three workers are migrants.  They build the modern infrastructure, clean the buildings, cook and serve in restaurants, look after the children and elderly at home, while often being paid very poorly and treated shabbily and looked at suspiciously by the locals.

Beginning with the 2013 Little India riots where hundreds of Indian workers attacked police vehicles to the recent arrest of 27 Bangladeshi workers suspected of having links to Islamic terrorist groups, there has been much tension in the community with regards to migrant workers. As one law student put it: “We only find out about migrant workers through second hand sources which does not really say who they are.”

EU Joins African Union to Honour Two African Scientists

By Ronald Joshua | IDN-InDepthNews Report

ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – The African Union Commission (AUC) has bestowed two distinguished African Scientists with the prestigious Kwame Nkrumah Continental Scientific Awards 2015, sponsored by the European Union since 2009 as a sign of recognition for top African scientists at national, regional and continental levels.

The award is named after Ghanaian nationalist leader and a pan-African who led the Gold Coast’s drive for independence from Britain and presided over its emergence as the new nation of Ghana. He headed the country from independence in 1957 until he was overthrown by a coup in 1966. An influential 20th-century advocate of Pan-Africanism, he was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), predecessor of today’s AU.

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