The Week with IPS 8/4/17

2017/8/4	Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
	Latin America Discusses How to Make Environmental Rights a Reality Daniel Gutman The final declaration of the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 stated that “Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens.” However, this rarely happens in Latin America and the Caribbean. That was acknowledged by most countries in the region, ... MORE > >
	Gender Equality? It’s Still a Man’s World Anna Shen Gender inequality is the greatest moral and social issue of our time -- and the world’s most critical economic challenge. If half of the global population cannot fulfill their human potential, the world’s economic growth will falter. Anna Shen We are being robbed as we speak: if women ... MORE > >
	Guyana’s Model Green Town Reflects Ambitious National Plan Desmond Brown At the head of Guyana’s Essequibo River, 50 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, you will find the town of Bartica. Considered the gateway to Guyana’s interior, the town has a population of about 15,000 and is the launching point for people who work in the forests mining gold and ... MORE > >
	UN Analytical Leadership in Addressing Global Economic Challenges José Antonio Ocampo and Jomo Kwame Sundaram The United Nations recently released the 70th anniversary issue of its flagship publication, the World Economic and Social Survey (WESS). First published in January 1948 as the World Economic Report, it is the oldest continuous publication analyzing international economic and social challenges. The ... MORE > >
	International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples IPS World Desk Over the centuries, Indigenous peoples who have in-depth and locally rooted knowledge of the natural world , have been increasingly dispossessed of their lands, territories and resources and have lost control over their own way of life. Traditional indigenous lands and territories contain some ... MORE > >
	Collectively Managing South Asia’s Stressed Water Resources Rafiqul Islam Experts and policymakers here say regional cooperation is a must to resolve long-standing water problems in South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal, and to harness the full value of water. There are many transboundary rivers, including the Ganges, Brahmaputra and ... MORE > >
	Zaatari Camp Marks Fifth Year With 80,000 Refugees Roshni Majumdar Jordan’s Zaatari camp, which opened in 2012 as a makeshift camp to house Syrian refugees fleeing the war, marked its fifth year on June 28. The camp was opened by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the United Nations (UN) to cope with the humanitarian crisis in Syria—which has recorded ... MORE > >
	Climate Change Brings Migration from the Dry Corridor to Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast José Adán Silva If the impact of drought and poverty in the municipalities of the so-called Dry Corridor in Nicaragua continues pushing the agricultural frontier towards the Caribbean coast, by the year 2050 this area will have lost all its forests and nature reserves, experts predict. Denis Meléndez, ... MORE > >
	Central America Fights Climate Change with Minimal Foreign Aid Diego Arguedas Ortiz Despite the fact that Central America is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, it has half-empty coffers when it comes to funding efforts against the phenomenon, in part because it receives mere crumbs in foreign aid to face the impacts of the rise in temperatures. According to a ... MORE > >
	Last Mile Connectivity to Bangladesh’s Impoverished North Mahfuzur Rahman Life for Bangladesh’s rural people, particularly in its remote north, is still miserable. Seasonal flooding, river erosion, and the low quality of rural infrastructure and lack of connectivity have made things harder for poor northerners. Though the country has been elevated to the lower ... MORE > >
	US Lags Far Behind in Banning Dental Health Hazard Thalif Deen The United States is lagging far behind its Western allies – and perhaps most of the key developing countries – in refusing to act decisively to end a longstanding health and environmental hazard: the use of mercury in dentistry. The 28-member European Union (EU), with an estimated population ... MORE > >
	A Green Energy Shift in Barbados, One Streetlight at a Time Desmond Brown The ever-escalating and volatile price of oil, and the high cost of importation, have left Barbados and other island nations in the unenviable position of having the highest electricity prices in the world. But a new shift towards renewables is driving down greenhouse gas emissions from ... MORE > >
	Millions of Women and Children for Sale for Sex, Slavery, Organs... Baher Kamal It is happening now. Millions of humans are forced to flee armed conflicts, climate change, inequalities, and extreme poverty. They fall easy prey to traffickers lurking anyone who can be subjected to sexual exploitation, forced labour and even sell their skin and organs. Just as tragically, ... MORE > >
	Value of Water Is on the Rise Rafiqul Islam In the wake of recent water-related disasters in Bangladesh, including water-logging and floods that displaced thousands of families, a high-level consultation in the capital Dhaka on valuing water will look at ways to optimize water use and solutions to water-related problems facing South ... MORE > >