ROME, Nov 14 2019 (IPS) – Pulses are highly nutritious and their consumption is associated with many health benefits. They are rich in proteins and minerals, high in fibre and have a low fat content. Pulses are produced by plants of the Leguminosae family. These plants have root nodules that absorb inert nitrogen from soil air and convert it into biologically useful ammonia, a process referred to as biological nitrogen fixation. Consequently, the pulse crops do not need any additional nitrogen as fertilizer and help reduce the requirement of fossil fuel-based chemical nitrogen fertilization for other crops. Expansion of pulse production, therefore, can play a vital role in mitigating the effects of climate change.
New opportunities to invest in the ocean economy
Jan 23 2020 (IPS) – With 95 per cent of the ocean still unexplored by humans, we are only just beginning to understand its profound influence on life on earth, including its effect on global climate and ecosystems.
As we do so, more and more countries are exploring the immense potential of the ‘blue economy’ to build wealth, create jobs and improve lives, and how this can be done in ways which protect ocean health and promote sustainability.
The value of ocean assets (including natural capital) is conservatively estimated at US, and the worldwide ocean economy is worth around US$2.5 trillion …
NEW YORK, Mar 20 2020 (IPS) – For Dr Edna Adan Ismail maternal health and midwifery is deeply personal. In an interview with Women Deliver Young Leader , Ismail recalls her mother’s devasting experiences which impacted on her own life’s choices.
Dr. Edna Adan Ismail
“As detailed in my memoir, ‘A Woman of Firsts,’ my own parents lost two of their five children because of poor maternal and child health services in my country,” the former Somaliland Foreign Minister and founder of Edna Adan Hospital says.
“My mother lost one baby to a forceps delivery when a Caesarean section could have saved the foetus that had become impacted in her narrow bony…
This playground just outside the Slovak capital, Bratislava, was sealed off to stop people spreading the virus. Similar measures were in place in cities and towns across Europe. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 2020 (IPS) – United Nations Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday pleaded with global leaders and families to ensure the protection of the world s children, millions of whom he says are vulnerable to a myriad of threats as a result of the shutdown arising from the global coronavirus pandemic.
While children are at a significantly lower health risk than adults from the coronavirus, the social and economic impacts as a result of bot…
BRISBANE, Australia, Apr 23 2020 (IPS) – Feminist responses to COVID-19 have been swift, insightful, and numerous.
There have been webinars (so.many.webinars), , , press releases and policy recommendations, and . Analysis pieces cover everything …
Woman gives birth to healthy baby in …., Democratic Republic of the Congo, facilitated by the delivery that day of emergency reproductive health kits. Credit: UNFPA
May 12 2020 (IPS) – “When I was 13… I got pregnant from my older brother… He raped me starting when I was 11,” a girl from Guatemala told one of us in 2015. She was one of the girls under 15 worldwide who give birth each year, often due to sexual violence.
The Covid-19 pandemic is putting girls like her at even greater risk. While lockdowns reduce the spread of Covid-19, they also drive a global spike in reported in the home, and leaving some women and with abusers, leading to increased unwan…
Antoinette Sayeh is deputy managing director of the IMF, and Ralph Chami is assistant director of the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development.
Credit: URDEE IMAGE/ZUMA WIRE/ALAMY LIVE NEWS
Jun 4 2020 (IPS) – The COVID-19 pandemic is crippling the economies of rich and poor countries alike. Yet for many low-income and fragile states, the economic shock will be magnified by the loss of remittances—money sent home by migrant and guest workers employed in foreign countries.
Remittance flows into low-income and fragile states represent a lifeline that supports households as well as provides much-needed tax revenue. As of 2018, remittance flows to these countri…
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 18 2020 (IPS) – How often have you heard someone lamenting or even condemning inequality in society, concluding with an appeal to meritocracy? We like to think that if only the deserving, the smart ones, those we deem competent or capable, often meaning the ones who are more like us, were in charge, things would be better, or just fine.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Meritocracy’s appeal
Since the 1960s, many institutions, the world over, have embraced the notion of meritocracy. With post-Cold War neoliberal ideologies enabling growing wealth concentration, the rich, the privileged and their apologists invoke variants of ‘meritocracy’ to legitimize …
NAIROBI, Jul 15 2020 (IPS) – While men are more likely to die from COVID-19, women are facing the full blow of the socio-economic fallout from the ongoing pandemic as well as seeing a reversal in equality gains made over the last two decades, says an all-women panel of international thought leaders, who met virtually during a discussion convened by IPS.
“The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women and Girls” took place on Tuesday, Jul. 14, with the aim to bring to the fore the dangers of neglecting gender dimensions in COVID-19 response and recovery plans.
The panel included gender and development experts with a wide range of expertise:
Catherine Bertini, a…
Aug 21 2020 – Pandemic-related lockdowns, flight cancellations, and border closures may be putting a crimp on summer vacation plans. However, the precipitous drop in tourism will have an outsized impact on countries that rely on foreign travelers—with potentially large-scale effects on their economies’ national accounts.
Costa Rica, Greece, Morocco, Portugal, and Thailand could be among the hardest hit with losses in tourism proceeds exceeding 3 percent of GDP, according to the IMF’s recently released .
The chart calculates direct tourism impacts on imports, exports, and current account balances under a scenario that envisions gradual reopenings in September but a drop of about 70 percent in tourism receipts and international tourism arrivals in 2020.
A cou…