Bev Postma is the CEO of HarvestPlus. She has 25 years of experience as a policy expert in international food systems, nutrition and food security.
Children, Kafue, Zambia. Credit: Brian Moonga/IPS
WASHINGTON DC, May 26 2017 (IPS) – As World Hunger Day May 28 approaches, it is time for us all to redouble our efforts to reach the goal of Zero Hunger by prioritizing the battle against micronutrient deficiency. If the international community pulls together this year to incorporate proven solutions such as biofortifying crops into the UN framework for sustainable development, we could reduce malnutrition on a truly global scale.
Previous UN-led efforts, including the…
Akhter and her mother, Panna Begum, who saved her from being married off at the age of 13. Credit: Shahiduzzaman/IPS
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Oct 30 2017 (IPS) – The mother moved in like a tigress to save her cub. In 2015, when her 13-year-old daughter Shumi Akhter was about to be married off, Panna Begum pleaded with her husband, Dulal Mia, to cancel the marriage he’d arranged for their daughter.
Panna argued vehemently that Shumi was just a child and it was wrong for her to be married off at such a tender age. Dulal was adamant, countering that it was tradition and custom and his responsibility as a father to give his daughter away in marriage. He was…
South Sudanese refugee new arrivals wait in the registration tent at the Imvepi Refugee Settlement in Arua, northern Uganda. Credit: UNHCR/Georgina Goodwin
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 5 2018 (IPS) – As South Sudan quickly becomes Africa’s largest refugee and humanitarian crisis, the world must come to its aid, said the UN refugee agency.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has launched a global appeal to support displaced persons amid South Sudan’s rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation.
“The human cost of the South Sudan conflict has reached epic proportions,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
“The conflict is pu…
Credit: Bigstock
UNITED NATIONS, May 11 2018 (IPS) – While the world’s population has changed dramatically over the last 50 years, little is still understood about fertility transition and the reasons behind it.
Over the last half a century, the global fertility rate has halved, reaching a level of 2.5 births per woman.
At the same time, the UN estimates that there will be 11 billion people in the world by 2100.
Given such trends, more needs to be understood about the factors that influence fe…
BANGKOK, Thailand, Nov 28 2018 (IPS) – Ministers and senior policymakers across Asia and the Pacific are gathered in Bangkok this week to focus on population dynamics at a crucial time for the region. Their goal: to keep people and rights at the heart of the region’s push for sustainable development. They will be considering how successful we have been in balancing economic growth with social imperatives, underpinned by rights and choices for all as enshrined in the landmark Programme of Action stemming from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, or ICPD.
In the Programme of Action, diverse views on population, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health…
IPS Correspondent Stella Paul interviews DR ARTURO CUNANAN, one of the world’s leading experts on leprosy and Medical Centre Chief of Culion Sanitarium and General Hospital in the Philippines.
Dr. Arturo Cunanan is the Medical Centre Chief of Culion Sanitarium and General Hospital in the Philippines and one of the most experienced experts on Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy, in the world today. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
MAJURO, Mar 25 2019 (IPS) – His multiple awards and degrees aside, Dr. Arturo Cunanan is known as a people’s doctor; one who has profound belief in the human rights of every person affected by Hansen’s disease, commonly known …
Zoltán Kálmán is Permanent Representative of Hungary to the Rome-based UN agencies (FAO, IFAD, WFP). He was President of the WFP Executive Board in 2018.
ROME, Aug 28 2019 (IPS) – The right to food is a universal human right. Yet, over 820 million people are going hungry, according the latest edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2019). In addition, 2 billion people in the world are food insecure with great risk of malnutrition and poor health” 1.
Another report 2 describes the situation even more worrying: “At the global level, one person in three is malnourished today and one in two could be malnourished by 2030 i…
An eight-month-old boy is examined by a doctor in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS
ABUJA, Dec 16 2019 (IPS) – Recently, Madhukar Pai, the Director of McGill University Global Health Program wrote about the . He observed that researches are skewed in favor of the global north. We agree that this inequity exists. However, we also have found that global fellowships such as the Atlantic Fellowship, of which we are both Senior Fellows, are platforms to reverse this inequity, foster international partnerships and amplify voices of devel…
Credit: Pîxabay.
ILLINOIS, United States, Mar 11 2020 (IPS) – Institutions of higher education have a responsibility to lead by example …
Dr PL de Silva is Director, Institute for Strategic Studies and Democracy (ISSD) Malta and Adjunct Professor, Institute for Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
United Nations handing over 250,000 medical masks to Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
NEW YORK, Mar 31 2020 (IPS) – The writing is on the wall for all to see from far and wide – there is nowhere to hide from this invisible enemy, a new coronavirus, maybe with the exception of self-isolation, quarantined at home and even then, we are not 100% safe.
An event of planetary magnitude is currently being visited upon homo sapiens (the so-called ‘…