ROME, Apr 15 2020 – For millions of children around the world, the COVID-19 outbreak means not getting the most important, if not the only, meal of the day.

‘We estimated that around [out of 380 million] do not have access to those meals … Of those children, about half of them are in low and lower-middle-income countries’, Carmen Burbano, director of the ’s School Feeding division, told Degrees of Latitude.

The most affected are the poorest, those kids already struggling because of war, , and poverty, being refugees or internally displaced. Of great concern, there are countries, especially in the Horn of Africa, that have been impacted already…

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 31 2020 (IPS) – As the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic shifts from China to the developed West, all too many rich countries are acting selfishly, invoking the ‘national interest’, by banning exports of vital medical supplies.

US President Donald Trump has reportedly gone further by seeking to a future coronavirus vaccine, although the report has been denied by a German drug company and some investors believed to be involved.

Europe first
Following now also want to ban the export of certain types of protective equipment and gear, prompting Stella Kyriakides, the EU Health Commissioner, to contradict them, insisting instead that “Solidarity is key”.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 18 2020 (IPS) – How often have you heard someone lamenting or even condemning inequality in society, concluding with an appeal to meritocracy? We like to think that if only the deserving, the smart ones, those we deem competent or capable, often meaning the ones who are more like us, were in charge, things would be better, or just fine.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Meritocracy’s appeal
Since the 1960s, many institutions, the world over, have embraced the notion of meritocracy. With post-Cold War neoliberal ideologies enabling growing wealth concentration, the rich, the privileged and their apologists invoke variants of ‘meritocracy’ to legitimize …

During the first month of the virus spreading across the globe, one of the regions that governments and health experts were concerned about was South Asia. The region is home to large slums in places such as India and refugee camps in Banglad…

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.

The writer is CEO of Sanitation and Water for All

A young girl collects water from a tanker truck in an IDP camp in northwest Syria.
Meanwhile, the UN commemorates the anniversary of the Human Rights Declaration to Water & Sanitation on July 28th. Credit: UNICEF/Khaled Akacha

LISBON, Portugal, Jul 28 2021 (IPS) – The water we drink and the air we breathe are the basis of life. With universal access to clean water and sanitation, we will be healthier, our economies will be stronger, gender equality will be more achievable, and more children will stay in school.

However, the many benefits of universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene are unde…