BEIRUT, Sep 1 2014 (IPS) – At a time when HIV rates have stabilised or declined elsewhere, the epidemic is still advancing in the Arab world, exacerbated by factors such as political unrest, conflict, poverty and lack of awareness due to social taboos.
(the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS), an estimated 270,000 people were living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in 2012.
“It is true that the Arab region has a low prevalence of infection, however it has the fastest growing epidemic in the world,“ warns Dr Khadija Moalla, an independent consultant on human rights/gender/civil society/HIV-AIDS.With the exception of Somalia and Djibouti, the [HIV] epidemic is generally concentrated in …
Zafar Adeel is director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health
Protesters march through Port-au-Prince in April 2008 to demand the government lower the price of basic commodities. Credit: Nick Whalen/IPS
HAMILTON, Canada, Oct 21 2014 (IPS) – Recent events in the Arab world and elsewhere have underscored the point that traditional notions of security being dependent solely on military and related apparatus are outmoded.
Security is a multi-faceted domain that operates at the nexus of human development and sustainable management of water, energy and food resources.The confluence of water scarcity with energy shortages, food-price hikes, …
Susan McDade is the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Deputy Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
A woman dries blankets after her home went underwater for five days in one of the villages of India’s Morigaon district. The woven bamboo sheet beyond the clothesline used to be the walls of her family’s toilet. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 12 2014 (IPS) – Among all the impacts of climate change, from rising sea levels to landslides and flooding, there is one that does not get the attention it deserves: an exacerbation of inequalities, particularly for women.
Especially in poor countries, women’s lives are often directly dependent …
Kids work side by side at a temporary school for those displaced by floods in eastern Nepal. Many children experience trauma, fear or other psychological impacts of natural disasters, but few receive the necessary treatment. Credit: Mallika Aryal/IPS
SURKHET, Nepal, Feb 13 2015 (IPS) – On the night of Aug. 14, 2014, 10-year-old Hari Karki woke up to his grandfather’s loud yelling in the family’s home in Paagma, a small village in east Nepal.
He was warning Hari’s family to move out of the house immediately because they were getting flooded. It had been raining non-stop for a couple of days. Hari could hear the water gushing. He grabbed his sister s and grandf…
Betsy Otto is director of WRI’s Global Water Program. Kitty van der Heijden is director of WRI Europe.
Mauritius experienced a water shortage for months in 2011 when the anticipated summer rains failed to arrive. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS
WASHINGTON, Mar 20 2015 (IPS) – Suppose money was being deposited and withdrawn from your bank account, but you didn’t know how much. And suppose you knew you had bills coming due, but you didn’t know when or what amount would be required to cover them.
Worse, what if you discove…
Water is supplied by the military in Old Dhaka, Bangladesh. Credit: UN Photo/Kibae Park
UNITED NATIONS, May 13 2015 (IPS) – Virtually every major international conference concludes with a “programme of action” (PoA) – described in U.N. jargon as “an outcome document” – preceded by a political declaration where 193 member states religiously pledge to honour their commitments.
But over 620 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), a hefty coalition of mostly international water activists, are complaining that a proposed political declaration for the U.N.’s post-2015 devel…
Washing clothes in a stream, Mchinji District, Malawi. Goal-setting can lift millions of people out of poverty, empower women and girls, improve health and well-being, and provide vast new opportunities for better lives. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 6 2015 (IPS) – The United Nations, which launched one of its most ambitious anti-poverty development programmes back in 2000, has hailed it as a riveting success story – des…
The conflict in Syria has destroyed much of the country’s water infrastructure, leaving five million people suffering from a critical water shortage. Credit: Bigstock
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 26 2015 (IPS) – Imagine having to venture out into a conflict zone in search of water because rebel groups and government forces have targeted the pipelines. Imagine walking miles in the blazing summer heat, then waiting hours at a public tap to fill up your containers. Now imagine realizing the jugs are too heavy to carry back home.
This scene, witnessed by an engineer with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), is becoming all too common in embattled Syria. I…
“Raising nutrition levels in young children is vital to Papua New Guinea making progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.” Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS
CANBERRA, Australia, Dec 24 2015 (IPS) – High up in the mountainous interior of Papua New Guinea (PNG), the most populous Pacific Island state of 7.3 million people, rural lives are marked by strenuous work toiling land in rugged terrain with low access to basic services.
While more than 80 per cent of people are engaged in subsistence agriculture and village food gardens are visible across the landscape, widespread malnutrition, especially in children, is stubbornly evident.…
Scientific research can help solve food security issues in Africa. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
DAKAR, Senegal, May 4 2016 (IPS) – The tonnes of uncollected garbage piling up on the streets of her home in Cairo was a brain wave for Sherien Elagroudy.
Elagroudy has since developed a facility to transform waste into alternative solid fuel for use by cement companies. This has helped reduce the frequency of power cuts to save on electricity, and contributed to a much cleaner city by transforming waste materials into new materials or products of better quality and value than the origin…