KATHMANDU, Nepal, Feb 10 2022 (IPS) – The global consensus about an international treaty on pandemic prevention is certainly a milestone towards the creation of a global health security framework.

A new treaty is likely to bind the member states to higher standards of compliance, especially if a global accountability mechanism is also enforced.

Consider the disregard towards the International Health Regulations (2005), IHRs, the only tool available to control what in jargon is referred as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

Despite numerous review exercises, some of which taken more than a decade ago in the aftermath of the first…

Africa has committed to green recovery of COVID-19, now it needs to turn policy into action, analysts say.
Credit:
Dustan Woodhouse/Unsplash
Dustan Woodhouse

KIGALI, Apr 12 2022 (IPS) – Climate change activist Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), is not reluctant to engage African governments to do what’s necessary to commit to post-COVID-19 green growth strategies.

Through Africa s post-COVID-19 green recovery pathway, initiated in July last year, governments have committed to reaching the Paris Agreement s climate change targets and prosperity objectives by adopting eco-friend…

LONDON, May 31 2022 (IPS) – At this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos which ended last week, the attention of the world’s financial and economic elite was captured by the war in Ukraine whose president Volodimir Zelensky used his address to call to “complete withdrawal of foreign businesses from the Russian market”, despite .

Many companies still present in Russia including HSBC that still maintains operations for existing clients, and Credit Suisse that is scaling them back without signalling that it would pull out of Russia due to the invasion. This is especially troubling given the leaked data in Suisse Secrets about how prior to the Russi…

BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug 30 2022 (IPS) – Asia and the Pacific is the most digitally divided region of the world, and South-East Asia is the most divided subregion. The Covid-19 pandemic detonated a “digital big bang” that spurred people, governments and businesses to become “digital by default;” a sea change that generated vast digital dividends. These benefits that have not been distributed equally, however. New development gaps have emerged as digital transformation reinforces a vicious cycle of socioeconomic inequalities, within and across countries.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

Bridging these divides and ensuring advances in technology can benefit…

A young child receives vaccine drops in Pakistan, but the region has experienced an upsurgence of cases because of vaccine refusal. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

PESHAWAR, Nov 29 2022 (IPS) – Vaccine refusal is impacting the eradication of polio in Pakistan.

Pakistan has vaccinated about 35 million children during its door-to-door campaign, but about 500,000 remained unvaccinated due to refusal by their parents, Jawad Khan Polio officer in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, recorded in 2022 so far.…

The writer is Under-Secretary-General of the UN and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

The Asia-Pacific SDG Progress Report will be launched on Wednesday, 22 March 2023, 11:00-12:00 hours (Bangkok time, UTC+7), at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand, and Online via Zoom.

BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 20 2023 (IPS) – As we reach the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it is an opportune moment to reflect on the Asia-Pacific region’s progress and accelerate efforts to achieve our goals.

This year’s Asia-Pacific SDG Progress Report published by ESCAP features pace-leaders of the r…

BANGKOK, Thailand, Sep 5 2022 (IPS) – Most of the 2.1 billion strong workforce in Asia and the Pacific are denied access to decent jobs, health care and social protection but there is an array polices and tools that governments can use to remedy these deficiencies and ensure that the rights and aspirations of these workers and their families are upheld and that they remain the engine of economic growth for the region.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

A new report released today, the , offers tangible solutions to immediately address alarming trends that both preceded the new coronavirus and were exacerbated by the pandemic.

While 243 million new people…

Russia’s new law banning any promotion of what is seen as “non-traditional sexual relations” could stigmatise the LGBTQI community and put HIV/AIDS prevention at risk.

BRATISLAVA, Dec 16 2022 (IPS) – A new law banning LGBTQI ‘propaganda’ in Russia will further stigmatise LGBTQI people in the country and could worsen what is already one of the world’s worst HIV/AIDS epidemics, critics have warned.

The legislation, approved by President Vladimir Putin at the start of this month, bans an…

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is Former President of the Republic of Mauritius

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Mar 30 2023 (IPS) – On 12th March 2023, The Republic of Mauritius celebrates 55 years of post-independence history. It would be an understatement to just say that there has been a lot of water under the bridge on our journey to self-determination!.. Indeed, we have made massive progress since we lowered the Union Jack and unfurled our own flag. It was and remains a moment of great pride whenever I see our flag in any international event, I participate in.

We are a small vulnerable island, deprived of natural resources and at the …

“Remove corn and beans from NAFTA!” at a 2008 protest in Ciudad Juarez. It has been a longstanding demand the Mexican farmers’ movement. Credit: Enrique Pérez S.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. , Jun 6 2023 (IPS) – On June 2, the U.S. government escalated its conflict with Mexico over that country’s restrictions on genetically modified corn, initiating the formal dispute-resolution process under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

It is only the latest in a decades-long U.S. assault on Mexico’s food sovereignty using the blunt instrument of a trade agreement that has inundated Mexico with cheap corn, wheat, and other staples, undermining Mexico’s ability to p…