The Week with IPS

   2017/2/10

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	No Hidden Figures: Success Stories Can Help Girls’ STEM Careers Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka What makes a young girl believe she is less intelligent and capable than a boy? And what happens when those children face the ‘hard’ subjects like science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)? A recent study, ‘Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence ... MORE > >
	Supporting Local Organisations: A Syrian Perspective Lyndal Rowlands Just 0.2 percent of humanitarian funding goes directly to local and national NGOs, according to a major UN review of humanitarian financing published ahead of the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. Yet nearly one year after the summit, little has changed. International donors continue to ... MORE > >
	A Dire Vacuum in a World in Crisis Baher Kamal “The world is in a crisis, not least because governing élites have estranged themselves from the needs and aspirations of ordinary people. This sense of being left behind has lead the latter to rebel against their country’s stratified governance,” warns a Geneva-based human rights and dialogue ... MORE > >
	Dubai Global Centre of Green Economy in UAE’s Vision 2021 Razeena Raheem When former UN Secretary-General Ban K-moon was in Abu Dhabi for the World Future Energy Summit last year, he singled out the key role played by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in “safeguarding the future of our planet” by showcasing clean, sustainable energy --- a centre piece of the UN’s post-2015 ... MORE > >
	Indigenous Peoples Lands Guard 80 Per Cent of World’s Biodiversity Baher Kamal They are more than 370 million self-identified peoples in some 70 countries around the world. In Latin America alone there are over 400 groups, each with a distinct language and culture, though the biggest concentration is in Asia and the Pacific– with an estimated 70 per cent. And their ... MORE > >
	Human Rights For Rohingya Worsening, Warns Special Rapporteur Tharanga Yakupitiyage A UN Special Rapporteur has expressed grave concern over escalating violence and discrimination against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. Following a fact-finding mission, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee expressed concern over atrocities committed ... MORE > >
	Innovative Credit Model Holds Out Lifeline to Farmers in Honduras Thelma Mejía In this village in southern Honduras, in one of the poorest parts of the country, access to credit is limited, the banking sector is not supportive of agriculture, and nature punishes with recurrent extreme droughts. But over the past two years, the story has started to change in Paso Real, a ... MORE > >
	US Threatens to Penalize Allies on UN Voting Thalif Deen The United States and most Western donors have traditionally exercised their financial clout to threaten developing nations who refuse to fall in line on critical UN voting either in the Security Council, the General Assembly or the Human Rights Council. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider The ... MORE > >
	US, EU Food Standards Major Hurdle for Caribbean Exporters Jewel Fraser As Caricom countries struggle to move away from their traditional reliance on a single industry or major crop in the face of growing economic uncertainty worldwide, they are finding it increasingly difficult to enter markets in the EU and North America with new types of food products. But ... MORE > >
	Female Genital Mutilation is a Gruesome Impediment to the Empowerment of Women Ruth Kagia and Siddharth Chatterjee On 06 February 2017, the world marks the 14th International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Consider this, approximately 200 million girls and women alive today globally, have undergone some form of FGM. One cannot but despair at the indolent pace towards ... MORE > >
	IFAD 2017 – It’s Women’s Turn in Rural Development Mario Osava and Baher Kamal Josefina Stubbs, from the Dominican Republic, may become the first woman to preside over the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which is dedicated to eradicating rural poverty. IFAD is a United Nations agency created in 1977 to invest in poor farmers in developing countries, ... MORE > >
	Pakistan Moves to End Impunity for Rapists Irfan Ahmed Amid a wave of reforms to tighten the country’s laws on honour killings and sexual assault, on Feb. 2, the Sindh Assembly passed a law making DNA testing in rape cases mandatory in the province. It follows on the heels of a unanimous vote by Pakistan’s Parliament last October to plug gaps in the ... MORE > >