A food garden at UN headquarters in New York City. Credit: Phillip Kaeding / IPS.

NEW YORK, Jul 11 2016 (IPS) – Habitat III, the UN’s conference on cities this coming October will explore urban agriculture as a solution to food security, but here in New York City, it has shown potential for much more.

Record-high levels of inequality are being felt most prominently in the world’s cities. Even In New York City, the heart of the developed world, many urban communities have food security issues.

Since the year 2000, New York City food costs have increased by 59 percent, while the average income of working adults has only increased by 17 percent.

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Jomo Kwame Sundaram is a former economics professor who served as a senior UN official during 2005-2015. Tan Zhai Gen is an University of Oxford biochemistry graduate currently involved in research. Both are Malaysians.

Antibiotics are used to ensure better health and survival of animals bred for food, but they are also believed by many farmers to promote growth. Credit: IPS

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 4 2017 (IPS) – The greatly excessive use of antibiotics in food production in recent decades has made many bacteria more resistant to antibiotics. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that antibiotic use in animal husbandry, poultry…

Congolese refugee (Bora, second from right) arrives at Cape Town International Airport with her friends. She is being relocated to France with her children under a UNHCR scheme to resettle the most vulnerable refugees. Credit: UNHCR/James Otaway

ROME, Jun 13 2017 (IPS) – Against the backdrop of increasing refugee numbers around the globe, fuelled by crisis and insecurity, and an ever-widening gap in places to resettle them, the top United Nations official dealing with refugee issues has called on governments to “step up” and deliver places for refugees in line with the commitments they have made.

“The fact is global resettlement needs today far outweigh the pla…

Nurse treats cholera victims. Credit: IPS

NEW YORK, Sep 6 2017 (IPS) – A recent cholera outbreak in North-Eastern Nigeria has resulted in at least 186 suspected cases and 14 deaths as of Sep. 1, according to Borno State’s Ministry of Health.

The outbreak, which coincided with this year’s annual World Water Week, occurred in Muna Garage, a camp sheltering an estimated 44,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno state, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A rapid response to the outbreak by Borno State’s Ministry of Health, along with WHO and other humanitarian partners, is underway.

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The UN flag. Credit: Sriyantha Walpola/IPS

ROME, Nov 30 2017 (IPS) – While the top priority of any development strategy is still the same to leave no one behind the new challenges that have emerged show the need to adapt the actions necessary to face them.

This appears to be the key rationale behind the new 21 century development plan, which identifies six “signature solutions” against which the UN development agency will align its resources and expertise to make a real impact on poverty, governance, energy access, gender equality, resilience and environmental sustainability.

“This is a new plan for a new era,” said Achim Steiner, Administrator …

Elizabeth Campbell is Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees’ Representative Office in Washington, D.C.

Displaced children in a UN-run school in the Shujaiyeh neighbourhood of Gaza.Credit: Khaled Alashqar/IPS

WASHINGTON DC, Mar 9 2018 (IPS) – As people across the globe marked International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8, the safe and secure education and possibilities for the future of millions of young girls and women who are Palestinian refugees across the Middle East remained in danger.

Unfortunately, a recent decision by the United States to significantly reduce expected financial support to the (UNRWA), has put at …

In order to make access to water adequate and equitable, we must shift our focus from water sources to water resources. Both science, and community participation and cooperation, are key to addressing our water woes.

Photo Courtesy: ACWADAM

Jun 4 2018 (IPS) – A growing demand for water implies the need for an improved understanding of our resources, and the ability to manage that demand in an equitable and sustainable way.

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Ruth Romer is Private Sector Advisor, WaterAid UK

Credit: Abir Abdullah/WaterAid

LONDON, Aug 27 2018 (IPS) – Tea picker Bina, 45 from Sylhet, Bangladesh, used to walk for an hour each day to collect water from a well, also using water from a nearby stream, which was contaminated. Bina and her children were often sick as a result; leading to missed work and a loss of income.

WaterAid worked with the owner of the tea estate to introduce clean water and toilets in the tea gardens and surrounding areas. The new pumps and latrines have transformed Bina’s life, and have benefitted the estate to…

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 24 2019 (IPS) – The widespread innovations in modern digital technology have a devastating downside to it: the accumulation of over 50 million tonnes of electronics waste (e-waste) globally every year.

And that’s greater in weight than all of the world’s commercial airliners ever made, or enough Eiffel Towers to fill the borough of Manhattan in New York city, warns a new report released at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, January 24.

Currently only 20% of e-waste—including desktop computers, cell phones, laptops, television sets, printers and a wide variety of household electrical appliances is formally recycled.

If noth…

IPS correspondent Tharanga Yakupitiyage speaks to WHO’s Coordinator of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation DR. ANN LINDSTRAND on the challenges of immunisation and the way forward.

A young boy in Pakistan receives an oral polio vaccine (OPV). Over the last 30 years huge progress has been made against polio and it is now only endemic in 2 countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, with only 33 cases confirmed cases last year. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 2019 (IPS) – Since the introduction of vaccines, diseases such as measles and polio were quickly becoming a thing of the past. However, the world’s progress on immunisation is now being threatened.…