News headlines for “Food and Agriculture Issues”, page 34
Civil Society: The Last Line of Defence in a World of Cascading Crises
- Inter Press Service

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay / LONDON, Mar 20 (IPS) - In a world of overlapping crises, from brutal conflicts and democratic regression to climate breakdown and astronomic levels of economic inequality, one vital force stands as a shield and solution: civil society. This is the sobering but ultimately hopeful message of CIVICUS’s 14th annual State of Civil Society Report, which provides a wide-ranging civil society perspective on the state of the world as it stands in early 2025.
International Day of Forests: ‘Now is the time for decisive, collaborative action’
- Inter Press Service

SRINAGAR, Mar 20 (IPS) - The Forest Declaration Assessment Partners have called for urgent reforms to the international financial system to halt deforestation and protect biodiversity. It has also pitched for redirecting the public subsidies to mitigate the direct and indirect environmental risks from both public and private finance.
Epilepsy Patients in Africa Fight Stigma and Neglect
- Inter Press Service

BENIN, Nigeria, Mar 19 (IPS) - When Angela Asemota’s son began having seizures at six years old in 1996, people gossiped that he was possessed by evil spirits, leading her to seek healing from native healers and religious clerics. He underwent several traditional rituals and drank various concoctions, but the seizures persisted. It was not until his fourth year in secondary school in 2004 that she took him to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with epilepsy and began taking medication.
Pioneering Sustainable Energy Solutions in Africa
- Inter Press Service

LONDON, Mar 18 (IPS) - The 12th Sankalp Africa Summit, held on Feb 26-27 in Nairobi, brought together a pivotal cohort of start-up innovators, investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers to accelerate the innovation needed to enhance Africa’s energy transition.
Funding Disruptions Are a Systemic Failure – Philanthropy Must Do What’s Right and Support Local Leadership
- Inter Press Service

SORIA, Spain, Mar 17 (IPS) - The slashing of US aid funding by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and cuts or planned cuts in international support by several European states, threaten to cut off the oxygen supply to a civil society already in a critical condition. At CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, activists and grassroots groups have shared with us time and again that shifting and volatile donor priorities are one of the top funding challenges they face, alongside limited resources for strategy and restricted funding.
WTO: Standing Tall as the Winds Howl
- Inter Press Service

BRUSSELS/ GENEVA, Mar 17 (IPS) - Winds are also changing in trade policy. As they get rougher and more unpredictable, the much-criticised multilateral trade regime of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has so far proved surprisingly resilient. Paradoxically, Donald Trump’s tariff policy could actually strengthen the WTO.
UN Chief's Ramadan Solidarity Visit Revives Rohingya Refugees Hope
- Inter Press Service

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Mar 15 (IPS) - When United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appeared before the Rohingya refugees wearing a traditional white panjabi, a costume of Muslims, to join an iftar party in Ukhiya refugee camp, thousands who had gathered waved to welcome him.
United Nations’ New Efficiency Initiative is Aiming for Structural Changes to Operations
- Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS) - The United Nations chief announced on Wednesday (March 12) a new initiative that aims to assess areas of efficiency and improvement for the international organization to expand its efforts and recognize the need “for even greater urgency and ambition.”
Gaza Counts Costs of Catastrophic Impacts of Israeli Bombardment on Healthcare
- Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS) - With enough steel and concrete, the hospitals that have been smashed to bits in Gaza can be rebuilt. But a construction plan paired with an army of bulldozers will not be enough to reconstruct the entirety of Gaza's health care system, which, after many months of war, has been decimated by the Israeli military forces.
Agriculture for Economic Resilience During Political and Financial Crisis - The Case of Bangladesh
- Inter Press Service

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Mar 11 (IPS) - The recent student movement in Bangladesh demanding reform of the quota system for public jobs led a ‘march of the people’ towards the official Residence of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 5th of August 2024. The security forces of the country, including the army, refused to open fire on the marching crowd. Fearing an imminent attack on her residence without the protection of the army, Sheikh Hasina fled to neighbouring India after being in power continuously since 2008. With Sheikh Hasina fleeing to India on 5th of August 2024 her authoritarian and corrupt rule of 15 years just melted away.
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