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Friday, May 12, 2017

The Week With IPS 5/12/2017

   2017/5/12 Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter   

Using Agriculture and Agribusiness to Bring About Industrialisation in Africa
Akinwumi Adesina
No region of the world has ever moved to industrialised economy status without a transformation of the agricultural sector. Agriculture, which contributes 16.2% of the GDP of Africa, and gives some form of employment to over 60% of the population, holds the key to accelerated growth, ... MORE > >

Poor Rural Communities in Mexico Receive a Boost to Support Themselves
Emilio Godoy
Jilder Morales, a small farmer in Mexico, looks proudly at the young avocado trees that are already over one metre high on her ejido - or communal - land, which already have small green fruit. “These were little-used lands. Now the people see that they can be worked. We seek a balance between a ... MORE > >

Who Are the Best ‘Eaters’ and How to Use Eggplants as a Toothbrush
Baher Kamal
The news is this: Japan is a global model for healthy diets and it currently has the lowest rate of obesity among developed countries--below four per cent. This is on the one hand. On the other, African eggplant gorongo is often used as toothbrush. None of this is based on any personal, ... MORE > >

Gender Equality Can Save Women’s Lives in Disasters - We must not miss the opportunity to set this right
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Robert Glasser
Later this month, the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) will take place in Mexico. This meeting provides an important opportunity to reboot global progress on embedding gender equality in disaster risk management and redress deadly exclusion. Even though the quality of ... MORE > >

Concerns Arise Over Freed Nigerian Abductees, Thousands Still Missing
Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Following the release of over 80 missing schoolgirls, human rights groups have expressed concerns about their rights and future. After a series of negotiations, the Government of Nigeria recently struck a deal allowing for the release of 82 girls from Chibok in Nigeria’s Borno state in ... MORE > >

Falling Between the Sun-Scorched Gaps: Drought Highlights Ethiopia’s IDP Dilemma
James Jeffrey
Displaced pastoralists gather around newly arrived drums of brown water as a water truck speeds off to make further deliveries to settlements that have sprung up along the main road running out of Gode, one of the major urban centers in Ethiopia’s Somali region. Looking at the drums’ ... MORE > >

World Bank fudges on inequality
Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – collectively drafted and then officially agreed to, at the highest level, by all Member States of the United Nations in September 2015 – involves specific targets to be achieved mainly by 2030. The Agenda seeks to “leave no-one behind” and claims roots ... MORE > >

African Migrants Bought and Sold Openly in ‘Slave Markets’ in Libya
Baher Kamal
Hundreds of migrants along North African migration routes are being bought and sold openly in modern day ‘slave markets’ in Libya, survivors have told the United Nations migration agency, which warned that these reports “can be added to a long list of outrages” in the country. The International ... MORE > >

Poverty Drives Wages Down
Erik Larsson
H&M has made promises to raise wage levels and increase worker influence in the garment factories of Cambodia. The validity of these supposed ambitions is being criticized. ”What have they actually achieved? Nothing!”, says Sajsa Beslik, sustainibility banker at Swedish Nordea. At night, ... MORE > >

Equal Rights in Education: The Case of Bahrain, Colombia, Sri Lanka
IPS World Desk
The role of education in enhancing equality of citizenship rights and diversity within communities affected by inter-communal civil strife will be top on the agenda of a meeting in Geneva on May 12. Experts with extensive knowledge in the field of education, particularly in post-conflict ... MORE > >

When It Comes to Fracking, Argentina Dreams Big
Daniel Gutman
Since a US Energy Information Administration (EIA) report announced in 2011 that Argentina had some of the world’s biggest shale oil and gas reserves, the dream of prosperity has been on the minds of many people in this South American nation where nearly a third of the population lives in ... MORE > >

Global Climate Policy in an Uncertain State of Flux
Martin Khor
Global climate change policy is in a state of flux, with all other countries waiting for the United States to decide whether to leave or remain in the Paris Agreement. That treaty, adopted by 195 countries with great fanfare in December 2015 and came into force in November 2016, symbolizes the ... MORE > >

Time to Find 'Magic Formula' to Stop Hatreds - Baku Forum
Rahul Kumar
It is time to find that “magic formula” that will encourage people to stop conflicts, the rise of violent extremism and hatreds, and live together in peace, urged a United Nations senior official at the end of a UN-backed conference on intercultural dialogue in Baku, Azerbaijan. In her closing ... MORE > >

In France, ‘Us and Them’ Amid Elections
A. D. McKenzie
Launched in the run-up to the French presidential elections, a daring exhibition in Paris is sparking dialogue about the origins and nature of racism, both in Europe and elsewhere. Titled “Nous et les Autres: Des Préjugés aux Racisme” (Us and Them: From Prejudice to Racism), the exhibition’s aim ... MORE > >

Mega-Projects Have Magnified Corruption in Brazil
Mario Osava
It cannot be categorically stated that corruption has increased in the country in recent years, because there is no objective information from earlier periods to compare with, according to Manoel Galdino, executive director of Transparency Brazil. But recent revelations give the impression of a ... MORE > >

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