News headlines for “Free Trade and Globalization”, page 214
Keeping Climate Ambition Alive: Challenges Remain but Signs of Progress Abound
- Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON DC, Dec 03 (IPS) - For those of us in the international climate action community, 2020 isn’t ending the way we expected when we rang in the new year.
Even before 2020 dawned, countries were hard at work planning for their first updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in line with the Paris Agreement’s five-year NDC revision cycle.
NDCs are official statements, prepared by countries themselves, outlining the commitments they are making to reduce national emissions and adapt to climate change’s impacts. They are at the heart of putting the Paris Agreement into practice and pursuing action on a global scale.
Digitisation Could Transform African Agriculture
- Inter Press Service
MBABANE, Dec 02 (IPS) - Placing an online order for farming inputs saves Velebantfu Dlamini about USD12 in transport fees for a round trip of about 320 kilometres. The 26-year-old vegetable farmer from Nkhungwini in the Shiselweni Region, south of Eswatini, uses a portal to order from the National Agriculture Marketing Board (NAMBoard) Farm Store. NAMBoard then delivers his order leaving Dlamini with time to stay in the field and look after his crops.
Pacific Data Hub to Make Data Accessible for All
- Inter Press Service
Dec 01 (IPS) - Pacific Governments, agencies, donors and civil society now have a central source of reliable and current data to help them to make decisions that affect Pacific Islanders.
Will the New Fiscal Crises Improve International Tax Cooperation?
- Inter Press Service
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 01 (IPS) - COVID-19 recessions have hit most countries, requiring massive fiscal responses. While most developing countries struggled with mounting debt even before the pandemic, many developed countries also face unprecedented macroeconomic pressures despite earlier spending cuts due to ‘fiscal consolidation’ policies.
UN Special Session on COVID-19 Must Recognize Right to Health & Access to Vaccines
- Inter Press Service
BRUSSELS, Nov 30 (IPS) - The UN General Assembly is holding a Special Session on the Covid-19 pandemic at the level of Heads of State and Government on 3 and 4 December. It took more than a year of discussions to overcome the opposition of certain states, notably the United States and President Donald Trump.
The holding of this Special Session (the 37th in the history of the UN) is of considerable importance. It is a unique opportunity to define and implement joint actions at the global level to fight the pandemic in order to ensure the right to life and health for all the inhabitants of the Earth. As the President of the UN General Assembly wrote in his letter of convocation: "Let us not forget that none of us are safe until we are all safe".
G20 Puts More into Fossil Than Green Energy in Covid-19 Recovery Packages
- Inter Press Service
BUENOS AIRES, Nov 26 (IPS) - As the world’s leading economies direct trillions of dollars towards Covid-19 recovery packages, a significant proportion is going to fossil fuel industries without climate stipulations, according to the 2020 edition of the Climate Transparency Report – which has assessed the climate performance of G20 countries.
Millions of New Poor Are on the Way Who Cares?
- Inter Press Service
ROME, Nov 26 (IPS) - The recent meeting of the G20 – scheduled to take place in Riyadh but held virtually due to the Coronavirus pandemic – has been an eloquent example of how the world is drifting, in a crisis of leadership. It was, in a sense, a showcase. Everybody had to accept the view that the host of the meeting, the ailing King Salman of Saudi Arabia, was accompanied on TV screens by his apparent heir, Prince Mohamed bin Salman, who is clearly the mastermind of the brutal assassination, dismembering and disappearance of the body of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Can Africas Third Industrial Development Decade Deliver?
- Inter Press Service
VIENNA, Nov 26 (IPS) - Industrial development in Africa has been sluggish for some decades. Now, as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic kick in, hopes for better progress, at least in the short term, appear to be fading. But if countries grasp the right opportunities, the next decade can deliver the industrial change needed to meet the challenges ahead. Industrialization and development go hand in hand. There is hardly a country in the world that has developed without building a strong manufacturing base. But for Africa – sometimes referred to as the continent of the future – the fruits of industrialization have often seemed just out of reach.
Food as Prevention Rising to Nutritional Challenges
- Inter Press Service
NAPLES, Italy, Nov 25 (IPS) - The risks factors contributing to the dramatic rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in recent decades have been known for a long time but the Covid-19 pandemic has brutally exposed our collective failure to deal with them.
CARE Offers Policies That Engender Success for Young People in Agribusiness
- Inter Press Service
IBADAN, Nigeria, Nov 25 (IPS) - Often cited as Africa’s greatest asset, its youth are also among the most vulnerable and volatile.
A large and growing population of talented young people has the potential to drive economic growth and well-being of societies across the continent but, as the African Development Bank warns, current conditions of severe unemployment are translating into poorer living conditions, higher flows of migration, and greater risks of conflict – in short, a social disaster in the making.
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