DAKAR and KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 2022 (IPS) – The ongoing plunder of Africa’s natural resources drained by capital flight is holding it back yet again. More African nations face protracted recessions amid mounting debt distress, rubbing salt into deep wounds from the past.
With much less foreign exchange, tax revenue, and policy space to face external shocks, many African governments believe they have little choice but to spend less, or borrow more in foreign currencies.
Ndongo Samba Sylla
Most Africans are struggling to cope with food and energy crises, inflation, higher interest rates, adverse climate events, less health and social provisioning. Unrest is …
Benson Musyoka rides his motorcycle from Kamboo health centre to transport vaccines to Yindalani village. Photo Joyce Chimbi/IPS
NAIROBI, Mar 13 2023 (IPS) – Up until 2019, nurses in three health facilities located in the semi-arid south-eastern Kenya region of Makueni County struggled to bring critical health services closer to a hard-to-reach population scattered across three remote, far-flung villages.
“Kamboo, Yindalani a…
NEW YORK, Sep 2 2022 (IPS) – As we approach this year’s , global leaders can and must prioritize expertise and mobilize political will to support efforts to ensure inclusive and quality education for all, especially girls. This is at the heart of in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as the commitments made in the and the .
Helen Grant
Despite the progress made in recent decades, gender inequality between girls and boys, in all their diversity, is deepening. According to a recent United Nations , the interlinked crises: of armed conflicts, climate change and COVID-19 are putting the 2030 Agenda in “grave danger, along with humanity’s v…
Cyclone damage in Vanuatu. Credit: UNICEF/ReliefWeb
LONDON, Mar 23 2023 (IPS) – Human life is sacred and every individual deserves an equal chance in life. We have a common desire, we all want to lead a free, fulfilling existence, with dignity, where our basic needs are met, with opportunities to advance and equal treatment under the law. These are fundamental human rights, protected by international law, which we all have a shared responsibility to protect.
Out of the horrors and bloodshed of war, we created an international system for cooperation between nations under the United Nations, with our rights enshrined by the Universal Declaration on Human Righ…
ROME, Jun 3 2022 (IPS) – Developing countries are facing a combination of crises that are unprecedented in recent times. Over the last three years they have had to face the COVID-19 crisis, the food crisis, the energy crisis, the climate change crisis, the debt crisis and, on top of all this, a global recession. The crises have overlapped, and each has added to the problems created by the previous ones.
Daud Khan
Much of the “fault” for these crises lies with the big countries – their desire for geo-political domination, the continued emission of GHGs, the tight money policy of recent months.
There are strong calls for increased aid flows and debt relief, as w…
A woman is advised by a BLAST counsellor. The organization offers legal support, including providing information, advice, and free legal representation. Credit: BLAST
NEW DELHI, Dec 21 2023 (IPS) – Criminal justice systems in South Asia are failing women, despite stark statistics on the prevalence of violence. WHO estimates translate to one in every two women and girls in the region experiencing violence daily.
Nawmi Naz Chowdhury, a Global Legal Advisor at , told a webinar titled ‘Future of Leg…
DUBAI, Apr 1 2020 – Global crises need global solutions yet some adjustments will have to be made if the world has to adopt a multilateral approach toward tackling the Corona pandemic, a senior academic said on Tuesday, March 31.
Participating in an e-symposium organized by the think-tank, TRENDS Research Advisory, Prof. Yong Wang of the School of International Studies and Director, Center for International Political Economy at Peking University, said the G-20 has already taken an initiative and more such efforts are needed.
“We have our national interests but for facing challenges such as this we should work together,” he said. Prof. Wang was a panelist at the …
Nicolas de Rivière is President of the Security Council for the month of June 2020 and Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations.
Nicolas de Rivière, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Great Lakes region. New York, 3 October 2019. Credit: UN Photo/Laura Jarriel
NEW YORK, Jul 31 2020 (IPS) – “Reconciling the requirements of the ideal with the possibilities of the real : this is how Georges Bidault, Minister for Foreign Affairs and head of the French delegation to the San Francisco Conference, pursued by the drafters of the Charter of the United Nations. On…