The Week With IPS 12/16/2016

2016/12/16	Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
	Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Heads for 50 Years of UN Failure Thalif Deen Come 2017, the United Nations will mark the 50th anniversary of one of the world's longstanding unresolved political problems firmly entrenched on the UN agenda: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dating back to the Six Day War in June 1967. When Antonio Guterres takes over as the new UN ... MORE > >
	More of the Same: World Bank Doing Business Report Continues to Mislead Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram The World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2017, subtitled ‘Equal Opportunity for All’, continues to mislead despite the many criticisms, including from within, levelled against the Bank’s most widely read publication, and Bank management promises of reform for many years. Its Foreword claims, ... MORE > >
	New Technologies in Debate in Biodiversity Conference Emilio Godoy Synthetic biology, geoengineering and the recognition of ancestral knowledge are the issues that have generated the most heated debate in the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity, which ends in this Mexican resort city on Friday Dec. 17. The outcome of the debates on these questions will be ... MORE > >
	Right to Information Act to Redefine Sri Lanka’s Media Landscape Amantha Perera Sri Lanka’s upcoming 69th Independence Commemorations will be of special value to the island’s media - that is, if everything works as planned. The newly minted Right to Information (RTI) act will take effect on Feb. 4, 2017, according to officials at the Ministry of Mass Media and the ... MORE > >
	War of Words in UN Security Council as Aleppo's Civilians Suffer Lyndal Rowlands UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told UN Security Council members of credible reports of civilians in Aleppo being summarily executed during an emergency meeting held on Tuesday. However despite Ban’s words of warning about the unfolding crisis, divisions within the Security Council were as ... MORE > >
	For South Asian Policy-Makers, Climate Migrants Still Invisible Manipadma Jena Tasura Begum straightens up from picking a bushel of green chilis and looks at the mighty Padma River flowing by, wondering whose life it ruined today. She remembers how she and her husband fretted about the river getting closer and closer to their thatched hut and tiny farm in Bangladesh’s ... MORE > >
	Putting Women Front and Centre in the Development Agenda Robert Kibet Reengineering the framework of support by bringing in women as new actors in effective development cooperation will play a pivotal role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “We need to deliberately make sure that women are part of the development agenda,” ... MORE > >
	Developmentalism and Conservation Clash Out at Sea Emilio Godoy “We don’t have access to marine areas, because most are protected areas or are in private hands. We indigenous people have been losing access to our territories, as this decision became a privilege of the state,” complained Donald Rojas, a member of the Brunka indigenous community in Costa ... MORE > >
	Food Insecurity: An Agent for Violent Conflict Dominique Von Rohr Up to two billion people live in countries affected by violence, conflict and fragility. Often, such political instability goes hand in hand with food insecurity. “Conflicts have pushed over 56 million people either into crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity”, Kimberly Flowers, Director of ... MORE > >