Nearly 65% of adults in the Arab region remain excluded from formal financial systems, according to a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Annual SDG Review 2025 paints a sobering picture of persistent financial exclusion that is undermining the region’s ability …
The compilation of briefing papers produced as part of the Life as Commerce Project by Equations in partnership with the Global Forest Coalition. Focuses on prevalence and impacts of ecotourism in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. This compilation of briefing papers is produced as part …
The municipality of Contagem in the State of Minas Gerais, despite being known as an industrial centre, has an enormous potential to develop urban agriculture. The current administration recognises this, and supports the development of agriculture as an important strategy for consolidating its Municipal Food and Nutritional Security Policy.
For many years there has been the assumption that the negative impacts of climate change and the efforts to mitigate them have similar effects on both women and men. However, the world has progressively recognized that women and men experience climate change differently, and that gender inequalities worsen women
The need of the hour is to amend the 73rd Amendment to promote women's equal participation in three tiers of panchayats. All women's organisations and civil society organisations should form a common platform with a single agenda.
May 31: The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, has directed officials to set up a Credit Guarantee Fund that will benefit 30 lakh women under the Indiramma Housing Scheme. The fund, with an initial corpus of Rs 15 crore, will stand guarantee to banks which have been hesitating to …
With more than 3.5 million animals, Ethiopia has the largest cattle population in Africa. Milk production, however, is very low, and its per capita consumption is lower than the African or the world
Once, the women of Muddana Guddi, a village in Raichur district, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, suffered from drought and poverty. With no alternatives except cursing their own troubles, they used to migrate to neighbouring states for work. Now, they are earning their own livelihoods by running a …
High levels of income inequality, rapid urbanization, persistent and pervasive social polarization, increasing food prices, a lack of government attention to agriculture and rural development, and the mounting effects of climate change - droughts, floods and cyclones - are just some of the reasons why more than 1 in 5 …
This paper provides an overview of the main risks and opportunities that may arise from liquid biofuel production and use in developing countries. Both the potential environmental impacts and the socio-economic effects of liquid biofuel production and use are discussed, focusing, in particular, on the household-level implications. A few country-levels …
Maharashtra is the first state in India to formulate a women policy in 1994, which was subsequently revised in 2001. This policy provides for participation, protection, economic development, capacity building and creation of a supportive environment for women. Recognising the spirit of this policy, many development projects and programmes in …
Pune In probably the first of its kind move in Pune, a women self-help group has set up a polythene bag producing industrial unit with an investment of Rs one crore. Set up by the Swamini Mahila Bachat Gat Akhil Mahasangh, Yamuna Nagar, it will be inaugurated by Shirur MP …
The hookah, a waterpipe, originated in India and became popular for smoking tobacco. It spread elsewhere and acquired other names like nargile, shisha, goza and hubble-bubble, before its popularity declined in India. A resurgence of hookah smoking is occurring in India and around the world, and is being promoted as …
How have women been coping in the aftermath of farmer suicides in Punjab? This article is based on detailed interviews with 32 women in three districts of the state. Accosting the reality of women caught in the vortex of the agrarian crisis, one painfully comes to terms with the newer …
Climate change is real, it is happening already, and its impacts on people are not gender-neutral. It is affecting men and women all over the world differently, especially in the world
This document details the IFFDC Wasteland Forestation Project plantations in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The project has assisted farmers, especially women, to promote forestation on wastelands and marginally productive lands by organising Primary Farm Forestry Co-operatives (PFFCs) and thus making it a people's participative programme. …
This book of case studies represents a collaborative effort to explore the potential of biofuels to provide sustainable livelihoods and local sources of energy for people in rural areas of developing countries, with a special emphasis on women. Although there are many forms of bio-energy that can be useful in …
India is recognized as one of the countries having the oldest, richest and most diverse cultural traditions associated with the use of herbal medicines. But due to over-harvesting in their natural habitats, many medicinal plants have been put on the endangered list of IUCN. The Tamil Nadu experiment in Vellore …
