JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Oct 12 (IPS) - Investing in youth by developing their potential through education, job creation and instilling the values that advance the cause of humanity is the most daunting, yet promising challenge facing world leaders.

ABIDJAN, Côte d'Ivoire, Oct 12 (IPS) - The African rural world is one I know well. I grew out of rural poverty myself and went to a rural school without electricity and lived in a village where we had to walk for kilometers to find water. We had to study after dark with candles or kerosene lanterns. By God's grace, I made it out of poverty to where I am today. But for tens of millions of those in similar situations, especially in rural Africa, the outcomes are not like mine. For most, the potential has simply been wasted.

NEW YORK, Oct 12 (IPS) - There is much to celebrate in the Nobel Peace Prize Committee's decision to award this year's prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

NAIROBI, Oct 12 (IPS) - A growing number of African countries are increasingly becoming food insecure as delayed and insufficient rainfall, as well as crop damaging pests such as the ongoing outbreak of the fall armyworm, cause the most severe maize crisis in the last decade.

WASHINGTON DC, Oct 11 (IPS) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and climate change do not often appear in the same headline together. Indeed, environmental issues have been, at most, peripheral to the Fund's core functions. But now economists inside and outside the IMF are beginning to understand that climate change has significant implications for national and regional economies, and so it's worth reconsidering the Fund's role in addressing the climate challenge.

STOCKHOLM, Oct 11 (IPS) - The Iran nuclear deal has demonstrated that diplomacy can triumph in nuclear non-proliferation: dialogue, rather than military action, can convince states to forgo pursuing nuclear weapons. The European Union has long played an instrumental role in the multilateral diplomacy that produced the historic deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

MONTPELLIER, France, Oct 11 (IPS) - We are at a moment of huge opportunity in the world's food system. We can continue on our current trajectory of consuming too little, too much, or the wrong type of food at an unsustainable cost to the environment, health care and political stability. Or we can change course. Fixing the food system will help solve humanity's greatest challenges – creating jobs, reducing emissions, and improving health.

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, Oct 11 (IPS) - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently announced that the number of hungry people in the world has increased by 38 million in the past year due to climate change, conflict and slow economic growth. Given this setback, can we, in fact, end hunger in our lifetime? The answer is a resounding, Yes, we can. The first step is simply wrapping our minds around the reality that—yes—ending hunger is possible.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 (IPS) - One of the 11 areas that the World Bank's Doing Business (DB) report includes in ranking a country's business environment is paying taxes. The background study for DB 2017, Paying Taxes 2016 claims that its emphasis is "on efficient tax compliance and straightforward tax regimes".

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Oct 10 (IPS) - Yasmin, 26, holds her 10-day-old baby, who she gave birth to in a crowded refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, a southeastern district bordering Myanmar.