Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON, Aug 27 2008 (IPS) – From the party platform ratified by delegates between speeches Monday, to primetime, headlining speeches by two heavy hitters in the election Sen. Hillary Clinton and first-lady hopeful Michelle Obama the initial two days of the Democratic National Convention were dominated by women.
Michelle Obama addresses delegates at the Democratic National Convention, which ends on Aug. 28. Credit: rklau…
William Fisher
NEW YORK, Mar 18 2010 (IPS) – Despite the fact that the United States spends more on maternal health than any other country in the world, deaths in childbirth among U.S. women are on the rise and already surpass the morbidity rates in most developed countries.
That s the principal conclusion reached in a new study by Amnesty International and data from the Organisation for Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the U.N. s World Health Organisation (WHO).
The Amnesty study, entitled Deadly Delivery , reports that deaths from pregnancy and childbirth in the United States have doubled in the past 20 years from 6.6 per 100,000 live births in 1987 to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2006.
That would mean that, of the four million women who give…
Brahima Ouédraogo
OUAGADOUGOU, Nov 9 2010 (IPS) – Elizabeth Kaboré says she has paid for each of her visits to the clinic, despite a government promise that prenatal check-ups in health centres would be free.
Far from being free, at each consultation, I ve had to pay 600 CFA francs (around $1.20) to see the midwives, says Kaboré, several months pregnant. For an injection, I pay 100 FCFA and the mid-wife explained to me that this money was for the guards at the facility. Human rights organisation Amnesty International points to financial obstacles as one of the leading obstacles preventing the reduction of high rates of maternal mortality in Burkina Faso.
In our society, it s men who decide; women never have the power. Women are deprived of a number of their ri…
ROME, May 14 2018 (IPS) – Many believe that the food and agricultural sector is different to all other economic sectors, that it is unique, and that it requires special economic models to thrive. After all, we expect the global food and agricultural system to respond to many different goals. It needs to deliver abundant, safe, and nutritious food. It needs to create employment in rural areas while protecting forests and wildlife, improving landscapes, and preventing climate change through lower food production emissions. Well-functioning food systems are also considered essential for social stability and conflict prevention. In fact many politicians today go as far as to argue that food systems need to thrive so as to stem rural-to-urban migration and the cross-border flow of desperate …
Kundhavi Kadiresan is Managing Director, Global Engagement and Innovation, CGIAR System Organization. CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security.
A mother homeschools her children in Shamva district, Zimbabwe, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 10,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa; Zimbabwe and South Sudan among most vulnerable. Credit: WFP/Tatenda Macheka
WASHINGTON DC, Dec 18 2020 (IPS) – Africa, compared to Asia, Europe and the US, has largely escaped the devastating death toll of COVID-19, accounting for a fraction of …
APIA, Samoa, Mar 8 2021 (IPS) – In the February 12th editorial on the issue of illicit drug use, the Samoa Observer stated that “… there is no data currently available to show that drug abuse including meth consumption levels in Samoa have reached crisis levels, which would warrant the government considering decriminalizing drug use and consumption.” The United Nation’s position on this is clear, we must not sit by and wait for a problem to blight our communities before acting. The evidence shows that it is cheaper and more effective to prevent drug use than to deal with the consequences. To be clear, my concerns are for the drug users and their families and not for the criminal dealers.
This article is part of special IPS coverage of International Women’s Day on March 8 2020
Gender equality is a basic human right and a prerequisite for sustainable development, so why does inequality persist in so many countries, and what can we all do to address it?
The economic inequalities plaguing much of the world today are reinforced by many other forms of inequality, including inequalities in sexual and reproductive health-Dr. Natalia Kanem, ED UNFPA. Credit: UNFPA Kenya / Douglas Waudo
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 6 2020 (IPS) – Development efforts over the past two decades have seen millions of people freed from poverty and hunger, an…