Nastasya Tay

JOHANNESBURG, Sep 16 2010 (IPS) – The mooted restructuring of the revenue-sharing agreement of the world s oldest customs union could lead to at least two of its Southern African members collapsing into failed states status as well as macroeconomic crises in two of their neighbours in the sub-region.

SACU s smaller members states depend on import revenue transfers for their survival. Credit: Nastasya Tay/IPS

Even before celebrating the cen…

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…

Irwin Loy

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Dec 14 2010 (IPS) – Every day, twice a day for the last seven years, Men Thol has swallowed a set of pills that gives him the strength to lead a normal life.

Intellectual property provisions could put ARV pills out of the reach of Cambodians who need them. Credit: Irwin Loy/IPS

The 39-year-old tested positive for HIV in the mid-1990s. At first, he relied on traditional medicines usually ground up tr…

Milagros Salazar* – Tierramérica

LIMA, Jan 27 2011 (IPS) – A legislative bill in Peru aims to channel the fines for environmental crimes to repair the damages to rivers, soils and other public goods that directly affect the population. Until now, the fines collected have ended up elsewhere in the government.

Caudalosa workers clean up mining tailings in the Opamayo River. Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS

The money would have to go to the area where the offence occurred. That s common se…

Stephen Leahy

KAUAI, Hawaii, U.S., Apr 1 2011 (IPS) – Be fantastic, don t use plastic! chanted a troop of 10-year- olds from President Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Honolulu at the conclusion of an international conference on the millions of tonnes of trash that enter the oceans every year, with serious consequences for marine life and habitats as well as to human health and the global economy.
Most participants were in a celebratory mood at the Fifth International Marine Debris Conference, which concluded Mar. 25 with the Honolulu Commitment to address the growing problem of marine debris.

But Captain Charles Moore, the man who brought the world s attention to the scope and scale of the problem, was not celebrating.

I ve been doing this for 30 years …

Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 30 2011 (IPS) – Is coca a dangerous drug that should be tightly regulated, or an essential part of Andean indigenous people s cultural and medicinal heritage? Or perhaps both?
In the coming months, diplomats at the U.N. body will face the thorny issue of how to address the production and use of coca plants in the Andes region of South America.

The United States and some of its European allies contend that coca leaf is a narcotic substance and that its production must be banned in accordance with the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

The Bolivian government strongly disagrees, and for the past two years has been calling for an amendment to article 49 of the U.N. anti-narcotics treaty that considers coca production unlawf…

Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY, Jun 3 2011 (IPS) – Emissions of radioactive materials from the burning of fossil fuels and the production of chemical fertilisers are another reason to come up with sustainable alternatives, experts say.
Large-scale treatment of raw materials that contain naturally occurring radioactive material can lead to the concentration of radiation in products or waste, as in the case of the production of artificial phosphate fertilisers as well as oil and gas.

The Fukushima nuclear plant disaster caused by the Mar. 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan has heightened global awareness on the dangers of nuclear energy, and has awakened new concern about all sources of radiation ahead of , celebrated Jun. 5.

Combustion of oil, natural gas and coal Me…

Isaiah Esipisu

NAIROBI, Jul 21 2011 (IPS) – The world had an opportunity to save thousands of lives that are being lost in parts of Somalia due to the famine, if only the donor community had paid attention to the early warning systems that predicted it eight months ago.

Children from families displaced by the drought line up to receive food at a feeding centre in Mogadishu. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsa…

Thalif Deen

STOCKHOLM, Aug 24 2011 (IPS) – When world leaders meet in Brazil next June for a U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, the third since the landmark 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the question lingering in the minds of many is: what really is sustainable development in the context of a fast-changing world of growing poverty, hunger, pollution, political repression and social unrest?
For Sweden, one of the key donors of development aid to the world’s poorest countries, it means good governance, democracy, capacity building, human development and people’s power.

My basic premise for global sustainability is a people-centred approach: sustainable development must consider the rights, needs and influence of everyone, says Gunilla Carlsson, Swed…

WASHINGTON, Oct 1 2011 (IPS) – Home to a fast-growing network of farmers markets, cooperatives and organic farms, but also the breeding ground for mammoth for-profit corporations that now hold patents to over 50 percent of the world s seeds, the United States is weathering a battle between Big Agro and a ripening movement for food justice and security.