Carmen Rosa (left) and Maria Elena in their small home in Cajamarca, Peru. Credit: Andrea Vale/IPS

LIMA, May 30 2018 (IPS) – Eighty percent of the world’s disabled live in developing nations, according to a report by the United Nations. Their identities, lives and stories are of course varied – but what isn’t is the stigma and lack of resources they face.

If one were to take a ride up a dirt road high in the Andes Mountains, one would find Roberto sitting propped up against the wall of a barn on the side of that road, watching the occasional truck whizz by. Roberto, …

The swift descent of the elderly in India into non-communicable diseases could have various disastrous consequences.

Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS

NEW DELHI, Aug 21 2018 (IPS) – Old age morbidity is a rapidly worsening curse in India. The swift descent of the elderly in India (60 years+) into non-commu…

Roberto Savio is founder of IPS Inter Press Service and President Emeritus

ROME, Jan 17 2019 (IPS) – After Theresa May’s defeat in the British parliament it is clear that a new spectre is haunting Europe. It is no longer the spectre of communism, which opens Marx’s Manifesto of 1848; it is the spectre of the failure of neoliberal globalisation, which reigned uncontested following the fall of the Berlin Wall, until the financial crisis of 2009.

Roberto Savio

In 2008, governments spent the astounding amount of 62 trillion dollars to save the financial system, and close to that amount in 2009 (see Britannica Book of the Year, 2017), According to a US Federal…

A bakery shop in Cairo, Egypt. Egyptian flatbread, known as Aish baladi or country bread is on the table of all Egyptians, even the poorest, thanks to a smartcard system that assigns certain quantities to each family to avoid unnecessary waste.

CAIRO, Apr 18 2019 (IPS) – “Unfortunately the overall nutritional panorama of Egypt does not look well,” says Dr. Sara Diana Garduno Diaz, an expert concentrating on nutrition and biology at the American University of the Middle East. Diaz’s research focuses on dietary patterns and ethnic-associated risk factors for metabolic syndrome.

“While traditionally a country known for its lavish and welcoming food patterns, the…

Yohei Sasakawa, chair of The Nippon Foundation and World Health Organisation (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, delivered a keynote address at the 20th International Leprosy Congress (ILC). Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

MANILA, Sep 11 2019 (IPS) – Forty years ago, Yohei Sasakawa saw his father moved to tears after meeting and witnessing the suffering of people affected by leprosy – also known as Hansen’s disease. Not only did the patients have a physical illness, but they also suffered from social exclusion and discrimination. It made the young Sasakawa vow to work for the elimination of leprosy from the world – just as his father had been doing.

Decade…

Teruhiko Mashiko, Japan Parliamentary Federation for Population

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 13 2019 (IPS) – The Japan Parliamentary Federation for Population represented by Mr Teruhiko Mashiko and its secretariat, the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) has made a clear and concrete commitment to endorse the ICPD25 agenda. Mashiko tells IPS that Japan, as should every country driven by the well-being of its population, should create the best possible conditions to achieve the ICPD25 agenda.

Interview by Joyce Chimbi at the ICPD25 in Nairobi, Kenya

Q. What lessons are there for developing countries from Japan to accelerate the achieve…

School feeding programme in Togo. Credit: WFP/João Cavalcante

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan 21 2020 (IPS) – If well planned, coordinated and implemented, a government funded school feeding programme for all primary school children can be progressively transformative. Such a programme, involving government departments and agencies working together, can benefit schoolchildren, their families, farmers and public health, now and in the future.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Such a scheme should comprehens…

Mar 19 2020 (IPS) – The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, recently declared a by the World Health Organisation, has taken the world by surprise. The good news is that tremendous scientific and technological advances have p…

Sustainable Agriculture Management Team, FAO

ROME, Apr 6 2020 (IPS) – Together with medical services and transportation, farming and food production have been correctly identified as ‘essential services’ by all countries under lockdown. The Covid-19 pandemic has not yet made a dent in the food supply and so far, there are no reports of shortage of essential food and agricultural goods. All cities and towns are actively coordinating with government agencies, farms, businesses and transport companies to maintain the supply chain and ensure full availability of food for the population,

Kakoli Ghosh

However, despite the efforts, farm gate prices have crashed, there …

• Truly global. Pandemics don’t respect borders, neither do the economic shocks they cause.

Credit: IMF

The is dire. We expect global economic activity to decline on a scale we have not seen since the Great Depression.

This year 170 countries will see income per capita go down – only months ago we were projecting 160 economies to register positive per capita income growth.

Actions taken

Exceptional times call for exceptional action. In many ways, there has been a ‘response like no other’ from the IMF’s membership.

Governments all over the world have taken unprecedented action to fight the pandemic—to save lives, to…