International Women’s Day, 2021International Women’s Day: To Change the World, Women Must Choose to Challenge

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark the upcoming International Women’s Day, March 8.

LONDON, Mar 5 2021 (IPS) – Among the greatest gifts with which I have been blessed were parents who instilled in me a deep-rooted sense of identity, and the unequivocal belief that there was no difference between what a boy and a girl could achieve.

This assurance sustained me while growing up, as the tenth child out of twelve wonderful siblings, and through the numerous times when it was suggested by others that I would never succeed, simply because I was black, poor and female.

Patricia Scotland

When I set out on my career in law, a mere 3% of the profes…

Agroecology Under Threat

Credit: World Food Programme WFP

TORONTO, Canada, Jun 3 2021 (IPS) – This week*, the (CFS) is expected to endorse recommendations on agroecological and other innovative approaches for sustainable food systems, after an intense period of negotiation involving governments, UN agencies and institutions, Indigenous People’s organizations, civil society, and the private sector.

As they do so, they must also take a stance against the creeping co-option and “greenwashing” of agroecology and uphold the social and political foundations of agroecology. It is these inherent characteristics that are so crucial for the deep structural transformation of global food systems that w…