More people in some of the world’s poorest communities will have access to quality health products such as top of the line mosquito nets, thanks to a new financial mechanism launched on Tuesday.

PHNOM PENH, Aug 21 (IPS) - Three notable events have boosted the democratic process in Southeast Asia in recent decades. The fall of the Marcos regime in 1986, the Reformasi that shifted Indonesian politics in the late 1990s, and Aung San Suu Kyi's victory over the military junta in Myanmar. However, today Marcos' son is president of the Philippines, Indonesian presidential candidates want to centralize power again, and Myanmar is embroiled in an armed conflict.

What is going on in the region, and what does this mean for democracy?

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 21 (IPS) - This World Humanitarian Day on 19 August, we marked 20 years since 22 of our colleagues were killed and more than 100 injured when a suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives outside the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, the United Nations headquarters in Iraq. This devastating blow to the UN sent shockwaves across the humanitarian community.

NEW YORK, Aug 21 (IPS) - A Rohingya woman tells a forum of peer counselors the story of her divorce. A survivor of domestic abuse, she has started a new life alone with her daughter. She has weathered a storm of neighbors telling her she was the problem. Now, she provides the support she didn’t have to other women like her.

Online hate is often a driver of violent physical attacks against religious minorities, said the UN chief on Tuesday, calling on governments, community and religious leaders, to “speak out against hate and incitement to violence.”

The biggest water conference of the year is now underway. You might be thinking, wasn’t that the UN Water Conference? Two separate events - but there is spillover.

An independent UN human rights expert has called for India to release an activist imprisoned since 2017, expressing concern over his persistent detention and deteriorating health.

Paying respect to the thousands lost or harmed through terrorist attacks around the world each year, the UN is launching a project to help survivors’ testimonies be heard, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday’s International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism.

More than 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis have been killed so far this year in demonstrations, clashes, military operations, attacks and other incidents, which already surpasses last year’s death toll, UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland said in a briefing to the Security Council on Monday.

A global approach to tackle the ongoing water crisis is needed as vulnerable communities in the United States face historic deluge and drought - issues very much in the spotlight at the forthcoming UN-supported World Water Week.