Although the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per capita have been lower in least developed countries (LDCs) than expected, the socio-economic fallout for their populations has been dire, pushing an estimated 32 million more people into extreme poverty in 2020. Continue reading
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Jan 3 2018 Sohara Mehroze Shachi 
(IPS) – Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugee women from Myanmar are currently living in the cramped camps along Bangladesh Myanmar border. Victims of sexual and physical violence in the Rakhine state, women have been disproportionately affected by this crisis and these women’s perils are far from over in the host country as they continue to face multifaceted challenges. Continue reading
Jan 11 2018 (IOM) – Women have borne and continue to bear a disproportionate amount of the suffering caused by two decades of conflict in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Many militia fighters prefer soft civilian targets to other armed men. In order to reach safety, women are forced to cover long distances on foot-many whilst pregnant or nursing a baby. Women and girls are far more likely to suffer sexual violence although there are also cases of male victims. Continue reading
John McArthur and Krista Rasmussen, Brookings Institute, 30 March 2017: Did the United Nation’s millennium development goals (MDGs) make any difference? Perhaps no question is more important for assessing the results of global policy cooperation between 2000 and 2015. We highlight three key findings: At least 21 million extra lives were saved due to accelerated progress; some successes were more important than others; low income countries accelerated more than middle-income countries.
08-03-2017, Oxfam: Gender inequality is one of the oldest and most pervasive forms of inequality in the world. It denies women their voices, devalues their work and make women’s position unequal to men’s, from the household to the national and global levels.
Despite some important progress to change this in recent years, in no country have women achieved economic equality with men, and women are still more likely than men to live in poverty. Continue reading
19 December 2016: Global poverty is increasingly concentrated among a group of 48 countries, which are falling further behind the rest of the world in terms of economic development, according to a United Nations report released on Tuesday by UNCTAD. The Least Developed Countries Report 2016: The Path to Graduation and Beyond – Making the Most of the Process states that a global goal to halve the size of this group will be missed unless the international community takes more action. Continue reading
Amy Fallon, 16 sept (IPS) – Barbara Kemigisa avait l’habitude de s’appeler une “militante contre le VIH/SIDA”. Ces jours-ci, elle serait plutôt connue comme une “militante du planning familial contre le VIH/SIDA. Nous devons réduire les grossesses non désirées et le taux d’infection à VIH dans notre pays”, a déclaré Kemigisa à IPS lors de la première conférence nationale sur le planning familial de l’Ouganda le 28 juillet. “Il s’agit d’une double protection”. Continue reading
Malti Danjuma, 21 April: What does the Fourth Industrial Revolution mean to you? Do
you fear robots or self-driving cars taking your job, or do you see the block chain, 3D printing or any other fast-developing technology as an opportunity to create a business, overtake the competition or build a fairer, more equal society? This is the question that will play out at the World Economic Forum on Africa next month in Kigali. Continue reading
14 March 2016: Naimul Haq: Bangladesh, Mar 10 2016 (IPS) – About a year ago, seven year-old Afroza Khatun dropped out of school as her mother could not continue supervising her homework. The interruption in her grade II lessons was soon noticed by a teacher of an information education centre known as ENRICH, a state-funded programme which aims at supporting children who drop out to continue their education from the primary level (up to grade II). Continue reading
Charity Chimungu Phiri, Jan 18 2016 (IPS): – It is 9 am in the morning but the scorching sun makes it feel like mid-afternoon. This type of weather is what experts are calling El Nino; a heat wave that is affecting countries in southern and eastern Africa.
Since El Nino hit, Malawi has experienced no rain for at least three weeks, leaving people in despair and in fear of going hungry again this year. Malawi has only one rainy season which begins in November and ends in April. When El Nino hit, most people had planted their maize (the country’s staple food) while others had even applied fertiliser. Continue reading
