Female Genital Mutilation Costs $1.4 Billion Annually: UN Health Agency

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 06 (IPS) - Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) poses serious risks to the health and well-being of women and girls, but it also exacts a crippling economic toll, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  Read...

WHO Declares Coronavirus a Public Health Emergency, Highlights Need to Support Countries ‘Weaker Health Systems’

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31 (IPS) - Weeks into widespread panic about the "Coronavirus" that has so far killed at least 170 people in China, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday declared it a public health emergency. As of Friday, the disease had spread to all the...

Top UN Court Orders Myanmar to Protect Rohingya from Genocide

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 23 (IPS) - Myanmar must take steps to protect its minority Rohingya population, the top UN court unanimously ruled on Thursday. Read the full story, “Top UN Court Orders Myanmar to Protect Rohingya from Genocide”,...

From Digital Diplomacy to Data Diplomacy

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, Jan 20 (IPS) - Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook is a German and American national and the founding Executive Director of the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), which examines the challenges to negotiation and statecraft in...

Terror Attack

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 16 (IPS) - The United Nations Country Team in Kenya is deeply distressed by the rising cases of terrorist attacks on schools, teachers and learners, especially in the north-eastern regions of Kenya. While we stand in solidarity with the affected communities,...

Not all Trade is Good – the Case of Plastics Waste

BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan 06 (IPS) - Alexey Kravchenko is Associate Economic Affairs Officer, Trade, Investment and Innovation Division at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Currently, approximately 300 million tons of oil-based plastic waste...