TORONTO, Canada, Aug 30 2021 (IPS) – Whether desperately trying to get a place on the last evacuation flights out of Kabul or trekking to the borders with neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, tens of thousands of Afghans are fleeing their country once more.
Events are unfolding at speed. The Taliban are establishing a central government in the capital to fill the void of the collapsed western-backed administration, but they do not control all the country as the protracted civil war enters a new stage. The UN refugee agency UNHCR says that in its “” it is preparing for around 500,000 new refugees in the region by the end of this year. As with many past estimates that could prove optimistic.
The UN commemorated World Aids Day on 30 November. Credit: UNAIDS
GENEVA, Dec 1 2021 (IPS) – This week I called out to the world to warn them that inequalities are making us all unsafe. I noted starkly our new analysis that we face millions of additional AIDS deaths – 7.7 million in the next decade alone – as well continued devastation from pandemics, unless leaders address the inequalities which drive them. We have to treat this threat as an emergency, as a red alert.
To end AIDS, we need to act with far more urgency to tackle these inequalities. And it’s not just AIDS. All pandemics take root in, and widen, the fissures of society. The world’s failure to …
WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, Yohei Sasakawa, would like to create a society where there is social inclusion. It is this philosophy that motivates his life-long campaign to end discrimination against people affected by leprosy. Credit: Sasakawa Leprosy Initiative
Johannesburg, Jan 30 2022 (IPS) – For the WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, Yohei Sasakawa, ensuri…
Access to clean, affordable and safe drinking water is far from universal across Africa. Credit: Joyce Chimbi
Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 23 2022 (IPS) – Joan Waweru was among villagers on their regular trek to the river to fetch water when they discovered a neighbour s dead body, believed to have committed suicide by drowning in river Kamiti.
She was thirteen years old and recalls how even after the traumatizing incident, the village, and many others along river Kamiti, which runs along coffee plantations in Kiambu County of Kenya s Central region, continued to rely on the river as …
Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder of BRAC and “one of the unsung heroes of modern times,” according to Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, authorized his own biography before dying of brain cancer in 2019. Author Scott MacMillan wrote Hope Over Fate based on hundreds of hours of interviews with Abed and his friends, family and co-workers. Credit: courtesy of BRAC
Redding Conn, USA, Aug 1 2022 (IPS) – About seven years ago, I started working on a project with Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder of BRAC. It was originally supposed to be a memoir: the story of Abed, the mild-mannered accountant who would rid the world of poverty, as told by the man himself. I was privi…
MONTREAL, Canada, Nov 4 2022 (IPS) – It is no secret that humankind’s past actions have accelerated the deterioration of ecosystems, negatively impacting our economies, societies, health, and cultures. It is estimated that humans have altered over 97% of ecosystems worldwide, to date. One million species are currently threatened with extinction (IPBES). The writing on the wall is clear. Our planet is in crisis. The sobering reality is that if we continue on our current trajectory, biodiversity and the services it provides will continue to decline, jeopardizing the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and our lives as we know them. The decline in biodiversity is expected to further accelerate unless effective action is taken to address the underlying causes of biodiversity …
The UN which commemorates On Zero Discrimination Day on 1 March, says: “We celebrate the right of everyone to live a full and productive life—and live it with dignity. Zero Discrimination Day highlights how people can become informed about and promote inclusion, compassion, peace and, above all, a movement for change. Zero Discrimination Day is helping to create a global movement of solidarity to end all forms of discrimination.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb 24 2023 (IPS) – While its origins may be in the discrimination faced by people living with HIV, Zero Discrimination Day has evolved to celebrate commitments to the fundamental human right of being treated equal…
Franciscka Lucien is Executive Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. Joel Curtain is the Director of Advocacy at Partners in Health.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti and BOSTON, May 7 2020 (IPS) – The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have a historic opportunity to help stabilize a world reeling from COVID-19. Doing so will require the institutions to change course and aggressively support poor countries’ ability to invest broadly in the government services their populations need.
The pandemic is exposing the consequences of four decades of reduced public spending in the Global South, much of it mandated by the World Bank and the IMF (often called “International Financial Institutions” or “IFIs”). Those consequences were already …
NEW YORK, Jun 15 2020 (IPS) – While the end of life remains the inescapable fate of every man, woman and child, death can be delayed as has been repeatedly throughout human history. Amid the current coronavirus pandemic, a paramount objective is delaying death from Covid-19 for many millions of people across the globe.
Yet, now approaching 500,000 worldwide and many more expected before a vaccine becomes available, the objective of delaying deaths due to t…