News stories by Umar Manzoor Shah, page 2

NEW YORK & SRINAGAR, India, March 19 (IPS) - A new United Nations report has warned that global water inequality remains one of the most pressing development challenges of the decade, with billions still lacking safe drinking water and sanitation – while women and girls continue to bear the heaviest burden of water insecurity.

SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan & SHRINGAR, India, March 12 (IPS) - Global wildlife is facing a deepening crisis as the latest United Nations assessment warns that nearly half of the world’s migratory species are in decline due to human activity, habitat destruction, and climate change.

SRINAGAR & NEW DELHI, February 9 (IPS) - When the rain begins in Kashmir’s capital Srinagar, Ghulam Nabi Bhat does not watch the clouds with relief anymore. He watches them with calculation. How much can the gutters take? How fast will the river rise? Which corner of the house will leak first? Where should the children sleep if the floor turns damp?

NAIROBI & SRINAGAR, India, January 22 (IPS) - The world is pouring trillions of dollars each year into activities that destroy nature while investing only a fraction of that amount in protecting and restoring the ecosystems on which economies depend, according to a new United Nations report released on today  (January 22).

UNITED NATIONS & SRINAGAR, India, January 20 (IPS) - The world has entered what United Nations researchers now describe as an era of Global Water Bankruptcy, a condition where humanity has irreversibly overspent the planet’s water resources, leaving ecosystems, economies, and communities unable to recover to previous levels.

SRINAGAR, India, December 16 (IPS) - The global refugee system is entering a period of deep strain. The delivery of protection and assistance is undergoing a transformation due to funding cuts, institutional reforms, and shifting donor priorities. Against this backdrop, a new Global Synthesis Report titled From the Ground Up highlights the many issues faced by refugees in the Middle East and Africa.

SRINAGAR, December 4 (IPS) - “I see more philanthropic support aligning with systems thinking, linking climate stability, biodiversity protection, Indigenous leadership, and community resilience,” says Michael Northrop, Program Director at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

WASHINGTON, D.C & SRINAGAR, November 21 (IPS) - A new independent evaluation of the Global Environment Facility’s food systems programs says they are delivering strong environmental and livelihood gains in many countries but warns that a narrow focus on farm production, weak political analysis, and shrinking coordination budgets are holding back deeper transformation.

SRINAGAR, India, November 17 (IPS) - In the fertile fields of Jammu’s R.S. Pura, rice farmer Mohd Yaseen Khan stares at a cracked irrigation canal, battered by erratic rainfall. “One day heavy rain, next week a dry spell,” he says, dusting his palms. “Our crop suffers. Our costs rise.”

SRINAGAR, India & BELÉM, Brazil, November 8 (IPS) - A report by the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC) and Earth Insight paints a stark picture of how extractive industries, deforestation, and climate change are converging to endanger the world’s last intact tropical forests and the Indigenous Peoples who protect them.