The Week With IPS 8/18/2017

2017/8/18	Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
	Women Slowly Break Barriers in Bangladesh Mahfuzur Rahman When one thinks of Bangladesh, its political leadership naturally comes to mind as the leaders of the country’s major parties are women, including the Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader and the Speaker of the National Parliament. When it comes to gender equality in daily life, the reality is ... MORE > >
	Soy Changes Map of Brazil, Set to Become World’s Leading Producer Mario Osava “Our wealth lies in the climate, not in the land,” said Antonio Galván, president of the Rural Union of Sinop, a municipality created just 37 years ago, which has prospered due to the continued expansion of soy in Brazil. Sinop, population 133,000, is the biggest city in northern Mato Grosso, a ... MORE > >
	When Policies Speak the Same Language, Africa’s Trade and Investment Will Listen Busani Bafana The rising Maputo-Catembe Bridge is a hard-to-miss addition to Mozambique’s shoreline. The 725-million-dollar bridge – billed to be the largest suspension bridge in Africa on its completion in 2018 – represents Mozambique’s new investment portfolio and a show of its policy commitment to boosting ... MORE > >
	Minamata Convention, Curbing Mercury Use, is Now Legally Binding IPS World Desk The Minamata Convention -- a legally-binding landmark treaty, described as the first new environmental agreement in over a decade – entered into force August 16. The primary aim of the Convention is "to protect human health and the environment” from mercury releases, which are considered both ... MORE > >
	Population Aging: Hallmark of the 21st Century Joseph Chamie While rapid population growth may be the defining feature of the 20th century, with world population nearly quadrupling from 1.6 to 6.1 billion, the hallmark of the 21st century is likely to be population aging. The consequences of the population aging are reverberating across the globe. The ... MORE > >
	What Does “Climate-Smart Agriculture” Really Mean? New Tool Breaks It Down Desmond Brown A Trinidadian scientist has developed a mechanism for determining the degree of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) compliance with respect to projects, processes and products. This comes as global attention is drawn to climate-smart agriculture as one of the approaches to mitigate or adapt to ... MORE > >
	FEATURED VIDEO: New Tool Separates Wheat from Chaff for Climate-Smart Ag Finance Desmond Brown Climate-smart agriculture seeks to achieve food security and broader development goals under a changing climate and increasing food demand. CSA initiatives sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce/remove greenhouse gases, and require planning to address tradeoffs and ... MORE > >
	Will Renewable Energies Finally Get Their Chance in Argentina? Daniel Gutman The first thing anyone who looks at any official document this year in Argentina will read is: “2017, the year of renewable energies.” This indicates the importance that the government gives to the issue, although translating the slogan into reality does not seem as easy as putting it in the ... MORE > >
	Yemen: African Migrants Beaten, Starved, Sexually Violated by Criminal Groups Baher Kamal African migrants who arrive on Yemen’s shores --that’s if they are not forced into the sea to drown—risk to fall in the hands of criminal networks who hold them captive for several days to extort money in exchange for their “freedom,” according to UN sources. During captivity, the migrants ... MORE > >
	Promise or Peril? Africa’s 830 Million Young People by 2050 John Dramani Mahama and Siddharth Chatterjee Last month, Spanish charity workers rescued 167 migrants arriving from Africa aboard a small boat. 2016 was the deadliest for migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, with at least 3800 deaths recorded. Most know the dangers they face on the route, yet still choose the possibility of ... MORE > >
	Conservation Agriculture Sprouts in Cuban Fields Ivet González At the entrance, the Tierra Brava farm looks like any other family farm in the rural municipality of Los Palacios, in the westernmost province of Cuba. But as you drive in, you see that the traditional furrows are not there, and that freshly cut grass covers the soil. “For more than five years ... MORE > >
	Jordan Makes Strides Toward Inclusive Green Economy Safa Khasawneh Jordan may be one of the smallest economies in the Middle East, but it has high ambitions for inclusive green growth and sustainable development despite the fact that it lies in the heart of a region that has been long plagued with wars and other troubles, says the Director-General of the Global ... MORE > >
	One Earth: Why the World Needs Indigenous Communities to Steward Their Lands Manipadma Jena “Showing them a picture-book crow, I intone ‘kaak’ in Bengali, the State language. While others repeat in chorus, the tribal Santhali first-graders respond with a blank look. They know the crow only as ‘koyo’. They’ll happily roll out glass marbles to count but ask them how many they counted, they ... MORE > >