The Week With IPS 2/172017

2017/2/17	Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
	Washington Rules Change, Again Jomo Kwame Sundaram Over the last four decades, the Washington Consensus, promoting economic liberalization, globalization and privatization, reversed four decades of an earlier period of active state intervention to accelerate and stabilize more inclusive economic growth, associated with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and ... MORE > >
	Energy Access Builds Inclusive Economies and Resilient Communities Manipadma Jena Jaipal Hembrum runs three one-man home enterprises - a bicycle repair shop, a tiny food stall and a tailoring unit in Kautuka, a remote village in eastern India. Sewing recycled clothes into mattresses late into the evening, the 38-year-old father of three girls says two light bulbs fed by a solar ... MORE > >
	Corruption Brings Down an Empire: Odebrecht in Brazil Mario Osava People in Brazil have been overwhelmed by the flood of news stories about the huge web of corruption woven by the country’s biggest construction company, Odebrecht, which is active in dozens of fields and countries. The business empire built by three generations of the Odebrecht family is ... MORE > >
	Worst Drought in Decades Drives Food Price Spike in East Africa IPS World Desk The most severe drought in decades, which has struck parts of Ethiopia and is exacerbated by a particularly strong El Niño effect, has led to successive failed harvests and widespread livestock deaths in some areas, and humanitarian needs have tripled since the beginning of 2015, the United Nations ... MORE > >
	Sri Lanka Shines Light on Public Sector Governance Amantha Perera Sri Lanka’s long-awaited and much-debated Right to Information (RTI) Act became law this month without much fanfare. There was no big PR campaign on the part of the government to unveil it on Feb. 3, a day before the island’s 69th Independence celebrations. There was not even a public event, a ... MORE > >
	Togo to Lead the Fight against Rural Poverty IPS World Desk Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, former Prime Minister of Togo, has been appointed as the sixth President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised UN agency and international financial institution that invests in eradicating rural poverty in developing countries around ... MORE > >
	The Algerian Emir Who Set a Protection of Prisoners Code in 1842 IPS World Desk As far back as the 1830s, Algerian Emir Abd el Qader el Jazairy was known for having introduced, among others, rules concerning the humane treatment of prisoners, which developed in 1842 into his Code for the Protection of Prisoners. “The Emir’s Code prohibited mistreatment of prisoners and ... MORE > >
	No to Palestinian Peace Envoy: US to UN Lyndal Rowlands The failed appointment of former Palestinian-Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as the UN’s peace envoy to Libya has shown that divisions over Palestine still run deep at the world body. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ pick as his Special Representative in Libya, was quickly vetoed by U.S. ... MORE > >
	Mistrust Hindering Global Solutions, says Secretary General Tharanga Yakupitiyage The global lack of confidence and trust is undermining the ability to solve the world’s complex problems, said UN Secretary-General during an international conference. UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Credit: UN PhotoThe 5th Annual World Government Summit (WGS), hosted by Dubai from ... MORE > >
	Dubai Ruler Warns Against Economic Isolation at Summit Meeting Razeena Raheem Speaking at the opening of the two-day World Government Summit in Dubai, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said economic openness is a ground reality. Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum“We, as Arabs, should not lean ... MORE > >
	Ravaging Drought Deepens in Kenya Miriam Gathigah Experts warn that Kenya is in the grip of the worst drought in recent history as government estimates show the number of people who are acutely food insecure has risen to 2.7 million, up from two million in January. This has necessitated the government to declare the crisis a national disaster ... MORE > >
	Radio: the Original Social Media Lyndal Rowlands With less than half the world’s population online, radio continues to be world’s most widely accessible source of news and information. For many of the 5 billion people who have access to a radio - it is also a form of social media - with talk radio giving people a chance to participate live ... MORE > >
	Latin America Is a Leading Influence in the Global Fight Against Hunger Orlando Milesi and Mario Osava A model for fighting against hunger and malnutrition with a global reach which has been successful within and outside the region has spread worldwide, first from Brazil and then from Latin America, notes a distinction given to the current Director-General of FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture ... MORE > >
	Every Year 700 Million People Fall Ill from Contaminated Food Baher Kamal It may sound like an endless tale of modern seven plagues: mad cows, avian flu, led-poisoned fish, swine fever, desert locusts being the most dangerous of migratory pests, let alone new, aggressive rust threatening entire wheat crops in three continents, just to mention a few. Now it is about ... MORE > >
	Argentina’s Never-ending Environmental Disaster Daniel Gutman Is it possible to spend 5.2 billion dollars to clean up a river which is just 64-km-long and get practically no results? Argentina is showing that it is. As the government admitted to the Supreme Court of Justice in late 2016, that is the amount of public funds earmarked since July 2008 for the ... MORE > >