Yemen’s preoccupation with the leafy stimulant qat is having dire consequences. Credit: Cam McGrath/IPS.
SANAA, Jan 31 2014 (IPS) – The Yemeni capital of Sanaa is reputed to be over 2,500 years old, making it one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. But it is living on borrowed time.
Economists warn that if poverty trends continue, by 2030 more than half of the Sanaa’s projected four million inhabitants will be unable to afford their basic food needs. But before that happens, the city will run out of water.
“Sanaa is using water much faster than nature can replace it,” says Noori Gamal, a hydrologist at the Ministry of Water and…
Philippe Cori, director of the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) European Union Partnership Office in Brussels, says over the last decades, development assistance from partners like the EU and its member states has been critical to expanding and improving the quality of basic social services, especially for the poorest and most marginalised children.
UNICEF says in many parts of the African continent children are living beyond their fifth birthday, more children are going to school and more children are better equipped for the challenges of the 21st century. Pictured here are students at Motshane Primary School, Mbabane, Swaziland. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/I…
Seventeen states currently grant gay couples the right to marry. Credit: Bigstock
WASHINGTON, May 16 2014 (IPS) – Honouring the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Friday emphasised progress in advancing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons, but a new report on criminalisation of LBGT people suggests that there is still a long way to go.
“Today of all days, we are reminded that the cause of justice can and must triumph over hatred and prejudice,” said Kerry said in a statement.“The United States arrests and prosecutes more people on the basis of their HIV status than the r…
This is the first story in a three-part series on HIV and contraception in Africa
The contraceptive needs of HIV positive women are often put on the background. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS
NAIROBI, Aug 14 2014 (IPS) – In the rush to save babies from HIV infection and treat their mothers, experts warn that a key element of HIV prevention is being neglected in Africa – contraceptives for HIV positive women.
Yet contraception is the of successful prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child (PMTCT), along with preventing infection among women and babies, and caring for those infected.
“The contraceptive needs of HIV positive women are o…
Alicia is one of the millions of Chilean women who have had an illegal, unsafe abortion because in their country terminating a pregnancy is punishable with up to five years in prison, regardless of the circumstances. Now the country is moving towards legalising therapeutic abortion. Credit: Marianela Jarroud/IPS
SANTIAGO, Sep 24 2014 (IPS) – Chile, one of the most conservative countries in Latin America, is getting ready for an unprecedented debate on the legalisation of therapeutic abortion, which is expected to be approved this year.
In Chile, more than 300,000 illegal abortions are practiced annually – a scourge that is both cause and effect of many other social pro…
Over 2,000 paraplegic women have received treatment and training at the Paraplegic Centre of Peshawar, in northern Pakistan, enabling them to earn a living despite being confined to a wheelchair. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
PESHAWAR, Pakistan , Nov 24 2014 (IPS) – When a stray bullet fired by Taliban militants became lodged in her spine last August, 22-year-old Shakira Bibi gave up all hopes of ever leading a normal life.
Though her family rushed her to the Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar, capital city of Pakistan’s northern-most Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, doctors told the young girl that she would be forever bed-ridden.
Bibi fell into a…
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 2015 (IPS) – The government of Guatemala has been praised for a programme helping young women avoid unwanted pregnancies and finish their education.
On the opening day of the Commission on the Status of Women at U.N. headquarters in New York on Monday, Guatemala was held up as an example of how governments can develop frameworks to protect and promote the rights of young women.
Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, praised Guatemalan Vice President Roxana Baldetti for her government’s ‘PLANEA’ initiative, providing sexual education to adolescents.
“Young people can break away from the cycle of poverty and create a sustainable future, but first we have to invest in their health, s…
NEW YORK, Apr 22 2015 (IPS) – On Earth Day, Apr. 22, Kenyan activist Phyllis Omido takes the stage in Washington DC to receive the Goldman Environmental Prize for her efforts to defend her community from lead poisoning and force the closure of a lead smelting plant that was emitting fumes and spewing untreated acid wastewater into streams, poisoning the neighbourhood – including her own baby.
Courtesy of the Goldman Prize.
“At first we thought he had malaria or typhoid, but doctors found he was suffering from lead poisoning,” Omido recalled. The lead was traced to a smelter where Phyllis had recently started work as a community liai…
Lucy Cadena is co-coordinator of the Climate Justice and Energy Programme for Friends of the Earth International
Is the G7 commitment to an energy transition that aims to gradually phase out fossil fuel emissions this century to avoid the worst of climate change just hot air? Credit: CC BY-SA 2.5
LONDON, Jun 11 2015 (IPS) – One of the promises made by the leaders of the world s seven richest nations when they met at Schloss Elmau in Germany earlier this week was an energy transition over the next decades, aiming to gradually phase out fossil fuel emissions this century to avoid the worst of climate change.
Let us be clear: a target of zero…
is a Senior Adviser in the Office of the President of Kenya. Follow her on twitter:@ruthkagia. is the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative to Kenya. Follow him on twitter: @sidchat1
The First Lady of Kenya, Governor Ali Roba and the Executive Director of UNFPA, Dr Osotimehin, in Mandera County. Credit: UNDP Kenya
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 9 2015 (IPS) – Mandera in northeastern Kenya, has often been described as “the worst place on earth to give birth.” Mandera’s maternal mortality ratio stands at 3,795 deaths per 100,000 live births, almost double that of wartime Sierra Leone at 2,000 deaths per 100,000 live births.
But Mandera also demonstrates wha…