The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
history was created on July 23, 2001 at Bonn, Germany, when 180 countries finally reached an agreement on rules to implement the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to combat global warming, after almost six months of political uncertainty on the issue. "We felt that we needed that the result (the …
The us President George Bush’s obdurate stance on climate change has driven negotiations under the critical un Framework Convention on Climate Change (unfccc) to a feverish pitch. The world has now two options
The global pharmaceutical industry is feeling the heat. Following the industry's embarrassing withdrawal in April from a case against the South African government over the issue of access to cheap aids drugs, the us government dropped its complaint against Brazil's law dealing with the same issue at the World Trade …
Several eyebrows have been raised over the Cipla offer to supply anti- aids drugs at one-third the current price to developing countries like South Africa. On March 7, 2001 Cipla Ltd of Mumbai, formally requested the South African department of trade and industry to issue compulsory licenses to patents on …
When roads become an extension of living rooms When Hannes Linck moved in August 1999 to Quartier Vauban, a newly-built neighbourhood in the southern German city of Freiburg, he decided to sell off his car. Hannes lives with his wife and two children in a flat built by a housing …
Whereas European cities are making an effort to return to walking and cycling through innovative ways of pedestrianisation and car-restraint policies, the tradition of cycling and walking is being squeezed out of Asian cities. Only Japan and Singapore are making some efforts to revive these practices. In Chinese cities, where …
children exposed to ddt (dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane) attain puberty at a much younger age, reveals a new study. The study shows that girls exposed to ddt develop breasts and start their menstruation cycle by the age of ten, both processes which generally start at the age of 12. The study carried out …
T he Global Environmental Facility’s ( gef ) governing council meeting held in Washington dc , in early May, has approved grants totalling us $12 million for the first phase of two projects in India and China to facilitate the use of fuel cell buses ( fcb s). Both projects …
even as the us reiterated its rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union ( eu ) has decided to ratify it. "The eu will stick to the Kyoto Protocol,' announced Goran Persson, eu head and Swedish prime minister, at a one-day eu - us summit held at G
High levels of ‘ecological poverty’ – defined as the lack of a healthy natural resource which is essential for human society’s survival and development – are a key cause of the economic poverty of the world’s rural poor. Conversely, healthy lands and ecosystems, when used sustainably, can provide all the …
A dozen notoriously toxic chemicals have been outlawed, or restricted around the world under a landmark United Nations treaty signed in Stockholm in May. It is a rare piece of good news for the global environment. The accord will ban, phase out or severely cut back a range of industrial …
More than 500,000 tonnes of obsolete pesticides are threatening the environment and the health of millions of people in almost all developing countries, warns the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Asia accounts for 200,000 tonnes of these pesticides, Africa for 100,000 tonnes and eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent …
at least 120 countries have agreed to become signatories to a un treaty banning or restricting the use of 12 toxic chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants ( pop s). The treaty, known as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, was signed on May 23, 2001, and will become …
pesticide companies, that are members of the Brussels-based Global Crop Protection Federation ( gcpf ), have taken up the responsibility of cleaning up their products in developing countries. " gcpf companies will contribute financially once they have been able to identify which of their products are truly obsolete,' said Chris …
You were a professor of computer sciences at the University of Arizona, usa , how did you move to the field of genomics and bioinformatics? In 1994, I read about Craig Venter ( acknowledged as the guru of the shotgun sequencing approach ) and his team at The Institute of …
jhum is slash-and-burn agriculture. It comes naturally to Khrieni Meru, 45, farmer from Khonoma village of Nagaland in India's Northeast. But it isn't half as violent a practice as it may sound from the term
Shifting cultivation has been considered destructive to the ecology, but rarely have constructive solutions been suggested. Several scientists feel the pressure on these ecologically fragile areas will worsen with an increase in population. However, contrary to popular belief, population increase is not always the culprit for deforestation. A review of …
Create a scientific community that can interact with farmers and, on the basis of their study, draft a knowledge database, suggests Ramakrishnan. He feels government agencies should wake up to the unsuccessful trials and adopt better alternatives, "which can be conducted after an extensive study with good background data.' He …
