UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS) - Ahead of the pending ‘list of shame,' the Secretary-General's Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflicts, child protection actors share concerns about the politicization of humanitarian aid putting child protection capacities at a disadvantage.

RAYALA, Nepal, Mar 12 (IPS) - Guest workers across the world send home money worth three times as much as global aid. For the Tamang family living in a shack in a Nepalese village, a job abroad can fund a new home and education for their son.NEPAL. A few chickens are running around the courtyard in front of the corrugated iron shack. The village has just awoken. A bus passes by below on the road that snakes around the mountain; it will be hours before another one passes.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 12 (IPS) - Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.Mr. Maina Kiai's account (Nation, 24 February) of the exciting dialogue hosted at Stanford University, USA does not present a true account of what transpired at that meeting.

BONN, Mar 12 (IPS) - Monique Barbut is Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat DesertificationThe international community agreed on the global Goal of achieving gender equality and women's empowerment by 2030. But we can't reach it – not even by 2050 – until we talk to each other, rather than past each other. If we are serious about empowering women and girls, we have to bridge the huge chasm that exists between the advocates of gender equality, on the one hand, and advocates of other Goals, on the other.

PRETORIA, South Africa, Mar 12 (IPS) - Emma Archer Van Garderen, Co-chair of the IPBES Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Africa, is Chief Researcher in natural resources and the environment at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa. A geographer by training, her research-focus is on drylands.This month, five landmark expert assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will be considered by Governments for final approval in Medellín, Colombia.

SEOUL, Mar 12 (IPS) - Dr. Frank Rijsberman is Director-General, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)Actions taken today in the pursuit of environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive growth path in India stand to benefit more than 17 percent of the world's population. A sustainable future for India carries an impact for the subcontinent and the entire world.

SYDNEY & KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 12 (IPS) - US President Donald Trump's recent announcement of steep tariffs on steel and aluminium imports seems to have shocked US allies, even though these were among his 2016 election promises. The European Union (EU), Australia and Canada reacted sharply, in contrast to the more restrained response from China, the main target of earlier actions.