Agriculture Key to Liberia's Youth Unemployment Challenge
With his gold chain, baseball cap, and baggy denim shorts, Junior Toe wears the uniform of Liberia's urban youth. Spend just a few minutes with the young man and it is evident that he possesses the...
View ArticleMEXICO: Yearly Floods the New Reality for Rural Women
Year after year, women in rural areas of the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco have to get ready for floods that threaten their homes, crops and livestock.
View ArticleWill Water Dry Up at Summit on Sustainable Development?
The headline in a New York newspaper last March captured the essence of a future potential threat to political stability the world over: "U.S. Report Sees Tensions Over Water."
View ArticleQ&A: "Today's Food System Is Failing Small Farmers"
With heads of state from more than 120 nations and tens of thousands of civil society and international development experts gathering for the U.N. Summit on Sustainable Development next week, it is...
View ArticleMore Austerity Won't Solve European Crisis, U.N. Says
The increasingly precarious financial situation in Europe remains the biggest threat to the world economy, warns a U.N. report released here.
View ArticleChallenges for Non-Sexist Communication in Cuba
The influence of journalists and film directors who are sensitive to the issue of gender equality is becoming visible in the Cuban media, where intellectuals and activists are demanding more action to...
View ArticleRIO+20: Transforming Political Platitudes into Economic Realities
When world leaders endorse the final plan of action, titled "The Future We Want, at the Rio+20 summit in Brazil next week, a lingering question may remain unanswered: how best can the United Nations...
View ArticleBiggest Economies Still Lagging on Renewables
On the eve of the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil, the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report Monday ranking the world's biggest countries on their use of renewable energy.
View ArticleU.S.-Pakistan Talks on NATO Supply Lines Stopped
Six weeks of talks between Pakistan and the United States have been halted, a Defence Department official stated here on Monday.
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RIO+20: Reforestation Pledges Reach Only 12 Percent of Target
The world’s countries have committed themselves so far to restoring just 18 million hectares of forests by 2020, barely 12 percent of the goal of 150 million hectares agreed by the Bonn Challenge in...
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Poverty Rates Strikingly High Among Indigenous Populations
Although they are only five percent of the global population, indigenous people account for up to 15 percent of the world’s poor, according to a new study published by members of the World Bank. The...
View ArticleU.S.: Asians Surpass Hispanics as Fastest-Growing Immigrant Group
Asia has surpassed Latin America as the largest source of new immigrants to the United States, according to a major new report that found that Asian-Americans also enjoy the highest incomes and best...
View ArticleIn Limbo in the Saharan ‘Free Zone’
The road vanishes under the sand just after the border crossing at Tindouf, western Algeria. Another 20 kilometres into the desert, a billboard welcomes us into the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic....
View ArticleWhat is Stopping the Algerian Spring?
The on-going hunger strike of nine Algerian court clerks, coupled with the government’s indifference to their demands for an independent labour union, have stirred debate about Algeria’s role in the...
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Brazil Takes Steps to Confiscate Property of Landowners Using Slave Labour
Today, in the 21st century, there are still tens of thousands of Brazilians subjected to slave-like working conditions. Last year alone, 2,501 workers were freed from this situation by Ministry of...
View ArticleFood Crisis Empties Niger Schools
Since December 2011, the food crisis in Niger has displaced large numbers of people from areas of scarcity to parts of the country that enjoyed better harvests. The social impacts for these internal...
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G20 Summit in an Unsustainable Environment
Water shortages, hotel development projects, overfishing and the impacts of mining activities are among the main environmental problems in the region of Los Cabos, the venue for the summit of the Group...
View ArticleMauritanian Cooperative Contributes to Meeting Need for Vegetables
Fourteen years ago, unemployed and discouraged by a failed business venture, Mohamed Ould Abderrahmane turned to farming. Today the cooperative he set up to grow vegetables on the outskirts of the...
View ArticleNo Rest for Cyber Activists
One and a half years since the beginning of the Arab Spring, activists who guided their fellow citizens through the relatively unchartered terrain of social media activism feel their fight for human...
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Govts Boost Nukes While Cutting Aid, Social Services
As U.N.-led talks on disarmament resume in Geneva Monday, calls are growing for nuclear-armed nations to cut spending on their stockpiles and instead divert resources to development. Minuteman III test...
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