A YEAR ago, most people would have drawn a blank if asked about Zika. Since then, an outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus that began in early 2015 in Brazil has spread to more than 60 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific islands.
When a piece of sophisticated technology breaks down in Kinshasa, the largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, finding a replacement part can be difficult. And for the doctors and nurses throughout the sprawling city, which contains larg
Why did UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon travel to Los Angeles last month to pitch the Sustainable Development Goals to a roomful of entertainment industry writers and producers?
The annual opening of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) is a noisy affair and, like Churchill’s pudding, often lacks a coherent theme. This year is different. World leaders will convene two special sessions to address the flood of refugees and migrants
Given the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, local residents in different parts of the country have – in the absence of sufficient government action against the insurgents – taken up arms to defend themselves. While in some provinces such vigi
There’s an election on, and the top candidates include a Vladimir Putin favorite and a lifelong socialist who mismanaged a global humanitarian organization. We speak of the race to become the next United Nations Secretary-General.
A year ago at the United Nations General Assembly, world leaders from 193 nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with a bold set of new sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Is it still true to say you can’t point to any single extreme weather event and claim you can’t link it to human-caused climate change?
The Middle East tripled renewable energy investment last year despite fewer energy dollars being spent globally, with industry insiders characterising the region as a hot spot for green investment.
The war robbed him of a homeland but in the refugee camp there was no future. That's why Abdallah and his friends returned -- to fight as child soldiers against Mali's hated government.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is set to offer his vision in a State of the Union speech Wednesday morning in Strasbourg. EU leaders — apart from Britain’s Theresa May — will meet Friday in Bratislava to kick around ideason how the
The Taliban has drastically ramped up its presence on services like Twitter and WhatsApp in the past few years.
The deadly flood in Louisiana and the severe fire season in southern California in the United States are part of a worldwide rise in climate-related floods, storms, droughts, and wildfires.
The history of African women working, fighting and ruling alongside men stretches back thousands of years. Queens like Cleopatra of Egypt, Nzinga M’Bandi of Angola, and Taytu Betul of Ethiopia, spiritualist leaders like Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana of
North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test (second in 2016) on September 9, 2016, the sixty-eighth anniversary of the country’s founding. North Korea claimed the test would enable it to build a nuclear warhead that is “able to be mounted on strateg
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is increasingly expected to control the estimated $19-billion illegal trade in endangered plants and animals. However, a recent paper for the South African In
Since its inception seventy-one years ago, the United Nations General Assembly has been a forum for lofty declarations, sometimes audacious rhetoric, and rigorous debate over the world's most vexing issues, from poverty and development to peace and s
It’s been almost one year since heads of state and government adopted ‘Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ – the ambitious agenda which contains 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and 169 targets during a special
Sustainable agriculture is a popular concept. It’s warmly embraced as a guiding light for the future of food production. But there is still a great deal of disagreement about what the concept actually means and entails.
Scientists are closely monitoring a key current in the North Atlantic to see if rising sea temperatures and increased freshwater from melting ice are altering the “ocean conveyor belt” — a vast oceanic stream that plays a major role in the global cli
War and violence cost the global economy $13.6tn (£10.2tn) in 2015, according to the annual global peace index. Terrorism is at a record high and the effects of conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa have been felt far beyond the region.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Center (ISC) in Singapore. In those ten years, ReCAAP ISC has gro
Commentary around recent developments in the economies of sub-Saharan Africa has centered on a trifecta of threats: low commodity prices, China’s slowdown, and the rising cost of external borrowing. The region’s robust growth over 2000-2014, analysts
Although international attention has focused on continued developments in North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, commercial satellite imagery indicates that Pyongyang is also improving its conventional military forces. Notably, serious
During a recent series of talks with academics and analysts on the prospects for the G20 Leaders Summit in Hangzhou on Sept 4 and 5, Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Center for International Political Economy (ECIPE), made two points that imp
