Abra Pollock
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 2008 (IPS) – Investing in young women and girls in developing regions must be a top priority for governments, multilateral agencies and the private sector, say the authors of a report released here this week.
Titled, Girls Count: A Global Investment Action Agenda, the 89-page report highlighted the systematic disadvantages faced by girls and women in developing countries in areas ranging from health, education, and nutrition to workforce participation and the burden of household tasks.
Countries that do not address these significant disparities risk perpetuating a cycle of poverty within their populations, the report said yet by investing in women and girls, countries can reap significant benefits in the spheres of political and economic…
Students at Columbia University carry mattresses on the Carry That Weight National Day of Action to show their support for survivors of sexual assault. Credit: Warren Heller
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25 2014 (IPS) – “A recurring nightmare for me is I’m trying to tell someone something and they are not listening. I’m yelling at the top of my lungs and it feels like there is a glass wall between us.”
Jasmin Enriquez is a two-time survivor of rape. Like two-thirds of rape survivors, Enriquez knew her rapists. The first was her boyfriend when she was a high school senior, the second a fellow student she had been seeing at college.”What I hear from women i…
Globally, coal production and coal power account for 44 percent of carbon emissions annually. Credit: Bigstock
SYDNEY, Mar 11 2015 (IPS) – With less than a year to go before the United Nation’s annual climate change meeting scheduled to take place in Paris in November 2015, citizens and civil society groups are pushing their elected leaders to take stock of national commitments to lower carbon emissions in a bid to cap runaway global warming.
Industrialised countries’ trade, investment and environment policies are under the microscope, with per capita emissions from the U.S., Canada and Australia each topping 20 tonnes of carbon annually, double the …
Indigenous women join protests for land rights in Asia. Credit: IWGIA
ROME, May 26 2017 (IPS) – Asia is home to the largest number of indigenous peoples on Earth, with an estimated 260 million of a total of 370 million original inhabitants worldwide. In spite of their huge number-equaling half of the combined population of Europe they are often victims of discrimination and denial of their rights.
With its 4.4 billion inhabitants, Asia is, in fact, one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world. Indigenous peoples live in all the Asian countries, said to IPS Signe Leth, Senior Advisor on women and land rights in Asia at the ().
However, Asian indig…
GAZA, Gaza City. Queuing in hope of fuel. Credit: Mohammed Omer / IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 2018 (IPS) – UN agencies have sounded the alarm on the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, pointing to the devastating repercussions of the ongoing fuel shortages.
UN agencies have appealed for donor support as emergency fuel for critical facilities in Gaza are due to run out in 10 days.
In a meeting, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that Gaza is a “constant humanitarian emergency.”
“Gaza remains squeezed by crippling closures…two million Palestinians are struggling everyday with crumbling infrastructure, an electricity crisis, a l…
Dr. Frank Rijsberman, director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). Credit: Diana Mendoza/IPS
MANILA, May 14 2018 (IPS) – IPS caught up with Dr. Frank Rijsberman, director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), at the end of the flagship side event of the GGGI during the 51st Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila on May 4, 2018, which featured the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its potential to create sustainable infrastructure and promote green growth pathways.
In this brief chat with IPS correspondent Diana Mendoza, Dr. Rijsberman noted the success of just a few countries wit…
BOGOTA, Colombia, Sep 30 2020 (IPS) – This week, Heads of State and Government from 64 countries announced one of the strongest pledges yet to reverse the loss of biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people by 2030. Advancing from powerful pledges to concrete policy and action, however, means that nature must be moved to the heart of global, national and local decision-making. It’s time for nature to be reintegrated into everything we do.
Ana María Hernández Salgar
The is an explicit declaration of a planetary emergency, driven by human actions that are degrading nature and our climate at rates and levels unprecedented in human history.
As…