Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (7th District of Washington)
WASHINGTON — Today, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz (CA-25), and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) introduced the Dr. Paul Farmer Memorial Resolution, to honor Dr. Farmer’s staggering life and legacy and lay out his extraordinary vision for realizing global health equity. This resolution lays out a 21st century global health strategy that proposes spending $125 billion annually on global health aid, reforming aid to focus on building national health systems, and putting an end to the exploitation of impoverished countries to increase their domestic tax base and health spending. This resolution seeks to save over 100 million lives per decade by increasing the flow of money in the global economy.
“Dr. Paul Farmer is responsible for transforming the lives of millions and millions of poor and marginalized people around the world, bringing them health care, dignity, and justice. A true visionary, Paul insisted that all people have a right to excellent health care, and he developed the systems to deliver it in places people had written off. Gleaming world class hospitals and locally trained doctors, nurses, and community workers now exist in places like Haiti and Rwanda. Paul was not only a world-renowned leader in global health, but also a precious friend and a tireless organizer, inspiring thousands of people to actively participate in his work. All of us owe him a debt that can only be paid by carrying on his mission and legacy,” said Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. “That is why I am introducing the Dr. Paul Farmer Memorial Resolution alongside my colleagues Senator Markey and Representatives Ruiz and Jayapal. This resolution lays out a 21st Century Global Health Strategy that enshrines Paul’s vision to achieve global universal health care and end unnecessary and preventable deaths. We are the richest country in the world at the richest time in the world. As the Trump Administration rips away lifesaving aid from millions of people, it is more important than ever for those of us who care about global health and justice to rededicate ourselves to building and fully funding a robust global health strategy. Paul called on us to understand global health inequity as an injustice—a result of centuries of violence and exploitation inflicted on the global poor. We can make the choice to end global health inequity, and with Paul’s vision guiding us, we will.”
“Dr. Paul Farmer was a health care visionary and revolutionary who understood compassion and care went hand in hand. At a time when global health and well-being are strained, I am proud to introduce this resolution honoring Dr. Farmer and the transformational work he did to deliver health care to people and communities around the world. Health is the first wealth, and we must do everything in our power to ensure that people around the world are healthy, safe, and have access to the resources they need to live and thrive,” said Senator Edward Markey.
“Dr. Paul Farmer was more than a global health leader, he was my mentor, professor, and dear friend,” said Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz. “From my early years at Harvard Medical School to our work together in Boston, Chiapas, Guatemala, and post-earthquake Haiti, he showed me what it means to fight for underserved communities with unwavering dedication. I am honored to help reintroduce this resolution in his memory, as a testament to his extraordinary impact on humanity.”
“Dr. Paul Farmer changed global health for the better with his work in impoverished countries, treating infectious diseases and providing high quality care to those who needed it most. He also fundamentally altered the way we think about international aid, and his organizing and movement building has led to millions of people worldwide living healthier and longer lives. As a lifelong organizer and someone who worked in global health for years before coming to Congress, I know the importance of this work and know how devastating Trump and Republicans’ cuts to USAID and other international aid programs are. This resolution outlines a vision for a world in which we tackle the injustice of global health inequities and treat health care as a true human right. It also recognizes that to achieve these goals, we need to democratize the global financial system, including cancelling predatory debt that has often crushed low- and middle-income countries. I’m proud to co-lead it with Representatives Schakowsky and Ruiz,” saidCongresswoman Pramila Jayapal.
The proposals in the resolution are as follows:
Increase global health aid to $125 billion per year
Close the essential universal health care financing gap for low-income countries
Allow the U.S. to meet the U.N. aid target of 0.7% GNI for the first time ever
Reform global health aid
Focus on building national health systems and direct funding to local partners, not the development industry
Develop new medical technologies for diseases of poverty and ensure their availability as global public goods
Make the global economy more fair, just, and democratic
Democratizing the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization, so that poor countries have greater say over decisions that affect their economies and their ability to finance health systems
Global debt cancelation for all developing countries that need it
Ending harmful licit and illicit financial flows from poor countries—ending global tax havens and illegal practices like trade misinvoicing
Supporting global labor rights, such as a global minimum wage
“In this moment of crisis, we need Paul’s vision for global health justice more than ever. Thankfully, that vision is captured in this resolution. It provides us with a much-needed roadmap for global cooperation based on solidarity and justice by getting to the root causes of unnecessary suffering and death, or what Paul called ‘structural violence’. This includes greatly improving development assistance for health, but also going well beyond aid to address ongoing extractive colonial arrangements, which preclude local investments in health systems,” said Sheila Davis, CEO of Partners in Health.
As an infectious disease physician, Dr. Farmer earned accolades for treating patients in impoverished countries with high quality care, including those suffering from HIV and cancer. As a medical anthropologist, he was known for popularizing and deepening understandings of “structural violence,” the idea that social systems are designed to impoverish, sicken, and sideline select groups. As chief strategist of Partners in Health, he garnered plaudits for pioneering community-based treatment strategies, building teaching hospitals, and more. Dr. Farmer called on us to understand global health inequity as an injustice—an effect of centuries of violence and exploitation inflicted on the global poor. This resolution embodies that and will serve as a North Star that will guide the movement for global health equity for years to come.
In addition to Reps. Schakowsky, Ruiz, and Jayapal, this resolution is cosponsored in the House of Representatives by Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Betty McCollum (MN-04), Jim McGovern (MA-02), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Juan Vargas (CA-52).
In addition to Sen. Markey, this resolution is cosponsored in the Senate by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Issues: Foreign Affairs & National Security, Health Care
Thursday 31 July 2025, Geneva, Switzerland – Parliamentary leaders from some 120 countries gathered at the United Nations Office at Geneva for the Sixth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, a summit convened every five years by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in partnership with the United Nations (UN).
The Conference, regarded as the world’s top parliamentary forum, was held from 29 to 31 July 2025. It gathered hundreds of participants, including 102 Speakers of Parliament, 34 Deputy Speakers, MPs, diplomats, UN officials, experts, and representatives from civil society, academia and the media.
The Conference took place amid rising global tensions and regional conflicts. After three days of debate and negotiations, the Speakers adopted a Declaration outlining the key transitions that are needed to advance peace, justice and prosperity, underpinned by a renewed commitment to deepen parliamentary engagement with the United Nations through a call for stronger and more effective multilateralism.
The Declaration highlights the need for greater collaboration and enhanced political will to tackle issues including climate change, armed conflict, economic instability and digital transformation. Parliamentary leaders underscored the view that global challenges require coordinated responses and solidarity among nations.
The Speakers also stressed the need to restore public trust in democracy and in its key institutions. The Declaration urges governments to fully integrate the UN Sustainable Development Goals into national policy, to tackle the rise in misinformation, and to ensure that legislation is grounded in science and evidence.
Security, the parliamentarians declared, should not be viewed solely through a military lens. Instead, they called for a broader approach that addresses the root causes of insecurity, from poverty and inequality to environmental decline.
Gender equality was a central theme, shaped in part by the 15th Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament, which preceded the Conference. The Summit, co-hosted by the IPU and the Swiss Parliament, reinforced calls to put women’s empowerment and gender parity at the heart of efforts to build peace and foster innovation.
Discussions in Geneva covered the need for economic reform, with parliamentary leaders supporting a shift towards sustainable, people-centred models. The Declaration advocates for investment in the green and care sectors and calls for greater protection of vulnerable populations.
As part of its forward-looking agenda, the Conference also called for stronger regulation of artificial intelligence and digital technologies, ensuring they are governed responsibly and used peacefully, with respect for fundamental rights and for the benefit of all of society.
Quotes:
Michael Douglas, actor, activist and UN Messenger of Peace, opening the Conference, said: “When your faith is in short supply… look to [the] dreamers. To progress, and those who make it possible. Most of all: look to one another. To leaders willing to choose compromise over ego. To parliaments that act as lighthouses, amidst a tempest of authoritarianism. To legislative bodies, struggling towards inclusive democracy – but refusing to give up. And to the parliamentarians not just in here, but out there, linking arms with the people in the fight against cruelty, against corruption, against kings.”
Tulia Ackson, IPU President, said: “We are all products of our communities and of our interaction with others, starting with our parents, day after day, for our entire lives. In Africa we express this idea in one word: Ubuntu. Which roughly means: I am, because you are. Likewise, there is no such thing as a nation that can live and prosper in isolation from the rest of the world. There can be no national interest defined in total juxtaposition to what is good for the world as a whole. Now more than ever, as the world has grown smaller and more interdependent, countries need to work together to find solutions to their common problems.”
Maja Riniker, President of the National Council of Switzerland, said: “We must put gender equality at the very centre of peace and security, now. Conflicts disproportionately affecting women and girls, gender-based violence used as a weapon of war have to stop. Women must be in peace negotiations and peace processes equally with men. We must ensure they are not only present but empowered, supported and resourced to take decisions at every stage of diplomacy, conflict prevention, negotiations, and post-conflict recovery. We must also ensure that international humanitarian law is upheld and that the consequences of conflict are addressed in a gender-responsive manner.”
Tatiana Valovaya, Director General of the UN Office at Geneva, said: “The United Nations deeply values its cooperation with parliaments, which are the beating heart of democracy. Parliamentary leadership is indispensable to the multilateral system: you craft laws, shape budgets, and hold governments to account. We are very pleased that the new era for the Assembly Hall starts with this World Conference.”
Martin Chungong, IPU Secretary General, concluding, said: “Looking at the number of Speakers and other high-level parliamentarians who have gathered here in Geneva and spoken so passionately over the past two days about their priorities to build a better world, I am filled with a renewed hope. A renewed belief that there is a future for the multilateral system that the UN has been building for 80 years… and the IPU for 136 years. A belief that we are stronger together, that dialogue and diplomacy are better tools for solving problems than bullets and bombs, and that parliaments can play a key role in reinvigorating global cooperation.”
The IPU is the global organization of national parliaments. It was founded in 1889 as the first multilateral political organization in the world, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. Today, the IPU comprises 181 national Member Parliaments and 15 regional parliamentary bodies. It promotes peace, democracy and sustainable development. It helps parliaments become stronger, younger, greener, more innovative and gender-balanced. It also def
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samara McPhedran, Principal Research Fellow, Violence Research and Prevention Program, Griffith University
Almost every day, it seems we read or hear reports another family is grieving the murder of a loved one in a street brawl, another business owner is hospitalised after trying to fend off armed robbers, or shoppers simply going about their business are confronted by knife-wielding thugs.
The way media and politicians talk, it seems as if we are in the middle of an unprecedented violent crime crisis.
But are we?
The short answer is: no.
Comparing today with the past
Although the numbers fluctuate from year to year, Australia is less violent today than in previous years.
It is difficult to make direct comparisons over decades, because the way crimes are defined and recorded changes (especially for assault).
Weapons and violence are rarely out of the media cycle in Australia, leading many to fear this country is becoming less safe for everyday people. Is that really the case, though? This is the first story in a four-part series.
For crimes like domestic violence, the statistics are extremely hard to compare over time but even so, prevalence appears to have declined (although only about half of all women who experience physical and/or sexual violence from their partners seek advice or support).
However, if we consider homicide and robbery (which have been categorised much the same way over time), the numbers have been falling for decades.
Interestingly, this seems to have nothing to do with the weapons themselves. For instance, armed robbery and unarmed robbery both rise and fall in about the same way, at about the same time. Homicide follows a similar pattern.
Relative to ten years ago, Australians now are less likely to say they have experienced physical or threatened face-to-face assault in the previous 12 months.
Places with greater socioeconomic disadvantage typically experience more violence. In Queensland, for instance, Mt Isa has higher violent crime rates than affluent areas of Brisbane.
Despite differences between places, there is generally less violence than there used to be.
Why is violence declining?
Nobody knows quite why violence is decreasing. This is not just happening in Australia butacross many developednations.
Suggestions include better social welfare, strong economies, improved education, low unemployment, women’s rights and stable governance. Also, new avenues have opened up that carry less risk than violent crime – such as cyberfraud instead of robbing a bank.
Evidence shows these types of reactions achieve little, but in an environment of endless “crisis” it is almost impossible to make good decisions. This is made even harder in circumstances where victims and activists push politicians to implement “feel-good” policies, regardless of how ultimately fruitless those will be.
Who are the people being violent?
One thing remains the same: violent crime is primarily committed by younger men (who are also likely to be victims).
Ethnicity/migration history data is not always recorded in crime statistics, but the information we do have suggests a more complex picture.
Factors such as exposure to warfare and civil strife can certainly play a role in people’s use of violence.
However, unemployment, poverty, poor education and involvement with drugs and/or gangs tend to play a much larger part.
Reactions versus reality
If society is less violent, why are public reactions to violence seemingly becoming more intense?
Incidents that would have received little attention a decade ago now dominate public debate and single incidents – no matter how rare or isolated – are enough to provoke sweeping legislative and policy changes.
This is also about psychology: the better things get, the more sensitive people tend to be to whatever ills remain and resilience can crumble when something bad does happen.
Pandering to this by rushing to make people feel safer – while politically irresistible – has unintended consequences. When another incident occurs, as it always does, people feel even more vulnerable because they were led to believe the problem had been “fixed”.
This creates a never-ending cycle of superficial responses while underlying issues are ignored.
We cannot legislate or politicise our way out of violence. The best responses are ones that identify and address actual root causes and look at the circumstances that surround violence – rather than fixating on the violence itself.
This means moving away from emotional reactions and taking a clear look at why violence occurs in the first place.
Until this happens, any further reductions in violence are more likely to be good luck than good management.
Samara McPhedran has received funding from various Australian and international government grant programs, including the Australian Research Council and Criminology Research Council, for a number of projects relating to violence. She has been appointed to various advisory panels and committees, including as a member of the Queensland Ministerial Advisory Panel on Weapons. She does not receive any financial remuneration or other reward for these activities. She is the Executive Director (Analysis, Policy and Strategy) of the Violence Prevention Institute Australia. She is not, and has never been, a member of any political party. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
Mandela Month ended on a high note when communities and learners in the North West province receives blankets and school shoes from the Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Kenny Morolong.
The action-packed day for Morolong and his entourage started in Tlapeng Ward 19, near Taung, where 200 elderly women received the blankets from the Deputy Minister.
During the handovoer on Thursday, Morolong said former President Nelson Mandela was a global man, whose spirit of ubuntu was celebrated throughout the world.
“Nelson Mandela taught us that education is the only weapon we can use to fight poverty.
“Today, as we are wrapping up Nelson Mandela Month. The United Nations General Assembly resolved that 18 July will be celebrated as International Nelson Mandela Day. We are here to celebrate the life of an icon, a global icon, the only man referred to as the father of the nation,” Morolong said.
Nelson Mandela, the Deputy Minister said, made significant strides in the struggle against apartheid.
“We are celebrating the life of Mandela by spending time with those that he loved most — the elderly and the kids.”
Morolong said Nelson Mandela encouraged people to take care of those who are less privileged.
“We are proud today that we are tempting to follow in his big footsteps and we are proud that we are upholding to his values and teachings.”
Morolong encouraged the community to take care of children and the elderly.
One of those who received a blanket, Mme Bettina Seloko from Tlapeng, spoke toSAnews.
“It is very cold. One cannot sleep well because it’s cold. With the blanket I have received today, I am going to sleep well, as I will be feeling warm.
“Government must continue to provide for the poor and those who are unemployed.”
From Tlapeng village, the Deputy Minister proceeded to Anvonster informal settlement, where he handed over school shoes to learners. From there, he proceeded to Mmabana Cultural Centre, where he also handed over school shoes to learners from different schools.
Morolong said giving learners shoes was a way of encouraging them to attend school.
“Our former President Nelson Mandela has taught us that we should look after each other,” Morolong said.
The Deputy Minister also visited Kamogelo Primary School, where he also handed over school shoes.
This year’s Nelson Mandela International Day on 18 July was celebrated under the theme: ‘It’s still in our hands to combat poverty and inequity’.
During the month of July, government encourages citizens to donate their time to make a difference in their communities.
Earlier this year, Morolong received 470 pairs of school shoes from Capital Centric, on behalf of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), which were donated to learners.
Nelson Mandela International Day has enjoyed years of global support and solidarity since it was launched in 2009. – SAnews.gov.za
The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr Dion George, has applauded the launch of a research project investigating how private renewable energy investments in South Africa contribute to equitable social development.
“Projects like Communities and the Private Renewable Energy Sector: Distributing Social Development Benefits in South Africa (COM-PRES),which support South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), are not only welcome, but are encouraged as the knowledge that will be generated will contribute to driving innovation and investment that bolsters South Africa’s renewable energy capacity,” George said on Friday.
COM-PRES is a four-and-a-half-year research project, which was launched on 31 July 2025, led by Danish-based social researcher, Dr Marianne S. Ulriksen from the University of Southern Denmark.
It will be implemented locally, in partnership with the Centre for Social Development in Africa, at the University of Johannesburg and the Centre for Social Science Research at the University of Cape Town.
The South African government strongly focuses on integrating renewable energy projects with social development initiatives, particularly through the REIPPPP, which is also part of the country’s ambitious just energy transition agenda.
“COM-PRES aims to understand how private-sector renewable energy projects can address inequality in affected and surrounding South African communities through novel mandatory community trusts and social development interventions,” Ulriksen said.
According to Ulriksen, the knowledge and ideas generated at the community level – working collaboratively with community members, local stakeholders and independent power producers – will feed back to national stakeholders, with the aim of providing practical recommendations for designing and managing renewable energy investments to enhance socio-economic outcomes and relations between communities, the industry and government.
“South Africa can develop a resilient, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable energy sector that also supports our efforts to drive sustainable economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction,” the Minister said. – SAnews.gov.za
The ECOWAS Commission, in collaboration with the World Bank, has launched a four-day regional workshop from the 28th to the 31st of July,2025 in Dakar, Senegal focused on strengthening the capacity of francophone and lusophone Member States to evaluate and manage tax expenditures.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Representative of the Minister of Finance of Senegal, Mr. Issa Faye warmly welcomed delegates on behalf of the Government and people of Senegal. He emphasized the country’s commitment to greater fiscal transparency and effective public resource management. “Tax exemptions, if well-targeted, can be tools for growth and poverty reduction. However, their real impact must be rigorously measured” he noted. Senegal’s hosting of the event, he added, reflects its strong support for regional fiscal harmonization and cooperation.
Mr. Rajiv Kumar, representing the World Bank, acknowledged the progress made by several ECOWAS Member States and encouraged greater transparency and systematic reporting. “World Bank is pleased to partner with ECOWAS to deliver this important workshop that aims to strengthen the capacity of member states to manage the fiscal and economic impact of tax expenditures,” he stated.
In her opening remarks, H.E. Ambassador Zelma Yollande Nobre Fassinou, ECOWAS Resident Representative to Senegal, emphasized the importance of the workshop and expressed gratitude to the Government of Senegal for its continued support for regional integration efforts. She highlighted that “Tax expenditures,when not properly evaluated, can undermine domestic resource mobilization and limit the capacity of our governments to finance vital programs.” Ambassador Fassinou emphasized that the workshop is not only a platform for technical learning but also an opportunity to strengthen partnerships and enhance collective governance in line with the 2023 ECOWAS Directive on Tax Expenditures. She further noted the importance of timely submission of tax expenditure reports by Member States, in alignment with the provisions of the Directive, as an important step towards improved transparency and accountability in fiscal policy across the region.
Ambassador Fassinou also highlighted the workshop’s aim to encourage open dialogue and peer exchange, noting that participants will present their national frameworks, challenges, and best practices. “This workshop provides an ideal platform to deepen our shared understanding, align our methodologies, and enhance regional cooperation in managing fiscal incentives” she said.
The workshop features technical sessions, practical exercises, and country presentations aimed at improving governance, transparency and alignment of tax incentives with national development strategies. Participants include officials from finance ministries, tax administrations and regional and international partners.
This workshop reinforces ECOWAS’ commitment to strengthening national capacities and aligning fiscal practices with regional integration objectives.
– on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Beneath churchyards in London and Lincolnshire lie the chemical echoes of famine, infection and survival preserved in the teeth of those who lived through some of the most catastrophic periods in English history.
In a new study, my colleagues and I examined over 270 medieval skeletons to investigate how early-life malnutrition affected long-term health and life expectancy.
We focused on people who lived through the devastating period surrounding the Black Death (1348-1350), which included years of famine during the little ice age and the great bovine pestilence (an epidemic that killed two-thirds of cattle in England and Wales). We found that the biological scars of childhood deprivation during this time left lasting marks on the body.
These findings suggest that early nutritional stress, whether in the 14th century or today, can have consequences that endure well beyond childhood.
Children’s teeth act like tiny time capsules. The hard layer inside each tooth, called dentine, sits beneath the enamel and forms while we’re growing up. Once formed, it stays unchanged for life, creating a permanent record of what we ate and experienced.
As our teeth develop, they absorb different chemical versions (isotopes) of carbon and nitrogen from our food, and these get locked into the tooth structure. This means scientists can read the story of someone’s childhood diet by analysing their teeth.
A method of measuring the chemical changes in sequential slices of the teeth is a recent advance used to identify dietary changes in past populations with greater accuracy.
When children are starving, their bodies break down their fat stores and muscle to continue growing. This gives a different signature in the newly formed dentine than the isotopes from food. These signatures make centuries-old famines visible today, showing exactly how childhood trauma affected health in medieval times.
We identified a distinctive pattern that had been seen before in victims of the great Irish famine. Normally, when people eat a typical diet, the levels of carbon and nitrogen in their teeth move in the same direction. For example, both might rise or fall together if someone eats more plants or animals. This is called “covariance” because the two markers vary together.
But during starvation, nitrogen levels in the teeth rise while carbon levels stay the same or drop. This opposite movement – called “opposing covariance” – is like a red flag in the teeth that shows when a child was starving. These patterns helped us pinpoint the ages at which people experienced malnutrition.
Lifelong legacy
Children who survived this period reached adulthood during the plague years, and the effect on their growth was recorded in the chemical signals in their teeth. People with famine markers in their dentine had different mortality rates than those who lacked these markers.
For example, babies born small, a possible sign of nutritional stress, seem to be more prone to illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes in adulthood than the population at large. These characteristics can also be passed to future offspring through changes in how genes are switched on or off, known as “epigenetic effects” – which can endure for three generations.
Epigenetics explained.
In medieval England, early nutritional deprivation may have been beneficial during catastrophic times by producing adults of short stature and the capacity to store fat, but these people were much more likely to die after the age of 30 than their peers with healthy childhood dentine patterns.
The patterns for childhood starvation increased in the decades leading up to the Black Death and declined after 1350. This suggests the pandemic may have indirectly improved living conditions by reducing population pressure and increasing access to food.
The medieval teeth tell us something urgent about today. Right now, millions of children worldwide are experiencing the same nutritional crises that scarred those long-dead English villagers – whether from wars in Gaza and Ukraine or poverty in countless countries.
Their bodies are writing the same chemical stories of survival into their growing bones and teeth, creating biological problems that will emerge decades later as heart disease, diabetes and early death.
Our latest findings aren’t just historical curiosities; they’re an urgent warning that the children we fail to nourish today will carry those failures in their bodies for life and pass them on to their own children. The message from the medieval graves couldn’t be clearer: feed the children now or pay the price for generations.
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Julia Beaumont receives funding from Arts and Humanities research council, British Academy/Leverhulme.
Africa Energy Commission Executive Director, Rashid Ali Abdallah, has welcomed South Africa’s proposal – through the G20 Presidency legacy programme – to establish an energy efficiency facility.
He was delivering remarks on the sidelines of the third G20 Energy Transitions Working Group (ETWG) meeting in the North West this week.
Abdallah highlighted that for the African Union, energy efficiency is “at the core” of the development agenda through the African Energy Efficiency Strategy – which, amongst others, has set a target to increase energy productivity over the next 25 years.
“To achieve African Energy Productivity target and contribute to the global doubling [of] energy efficiency by 2030… the continent needs access to sustainable finance and a strong coordination of the institutional framework with good human capacity.
“It is for this reason that we welcome the proposal by the South African G20 Presidency to establish an energy efficiency legacy programme. This decision not only compliments our work as the African Union but reinforces the role of energy efficiency in addressing the challenge of energy security and equality,” he said.
According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Group, some 600 million Africans still do not have access to electricity.
Abdallah noted the South African government’s pursuance energy security and access.
“This agenda is particularly relevant to Africa, as the continent is lagging in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal with over 70% of the population living in energy poverty.
“Access to renewable and affordable energy is essential to powering economies and powering essential services such as healthcare, clean water and education and improving living standards,” the Executive Director said.
He added that as the African continent continues to improve sectors, including health, education, water and food security, “the importance of energy efficiency cannot be overlooked”.
“Energy efficiency in Africa spans across all sectors. For example, 40% of utility in Africa Union states report electricity losses of over 20% – a stark contrast to the 6 to 10% seen in developed countries.
“By improving this deficiency, we can save a significant amount of investment on the generation and transmission infrastructure on the continent. This compliments the implementation of the African Single Electricity Market and Continental Power System Master Plan initiative being spearheaded by the African Union,” Abdallah explained.
Savings will also be extended to cash strapped households.
“For household appliances and equipment, market transformation not only saves money but also accelerates access of modern cooking.
“Adopting efficient lighting, modern transformer and cooling appliances has the potential to save African infrastructure investment equivalent to 40GW and more than US $20 billion in savings by 2040,” Abdallah said. – SAnews.gov.za
Summer is popularly imagined as bringing joy to all young people. Yet it is not an equal break or of the same quality for all students.
Learning loss is the decline in academic skills and knowledge that can occur when students are not engaged in structured learning, especially during extended breaks like summer.
Black families face challenges in accessing culturally relevant and affirming summer opportunities. As work by education researcher Obianuju Juliet Bushi and others has documented, for many Black families, the question isn’t just “what will my child do this summer?” It’s “where can my child go to be safe, affirmed and supported?”
As the manager of research with the charitable, Black-led non-profit organization Youth Association for Academics, Athletics and Character Education (YAAACE) in the Jane Finch area of Toronto, I share insights about how culturally responsive community programs can address opportunity gaps, and how parents in Black families can support their kids’ successful transition back to school.
This article draws on insights from conversations I have had with various YAAACE program participants, parents and educators, as well as leadership, including Devon Jones, Nene, and Dave Mitchell.
The opportunity gap refers to the unequal access to resources, supports and learning experiences that affect students’ ability to succeed, often based on race, income and geography.
While these experiences shape the mental health and academic outcomes of students, schools often lack culturally relevant supports or trauma-informed responses.
Summer programs are one important part of countering anti-Black racism in schools. These can support student transitions by mitigating learning loss and helping to close the opportunity gap.
Programs that centre Africentricity and Black excellence led by staff with lived experiences provide culturally responsive and emotionally supportive environments that affirm Black identities.
This builds confidence in Black students and ensures students return to school in the fall better prepared to thrive academically, socially, emotionally and culturally.
YAAACE’s seven-week Summer Institute offers a model that affirms identity, cultivates belonging and accelerates achievement. Each summer, approximately 300 students from grades 3 through 12 attend the institute, which blends literacy and numeracy instruction with culturally responsive learning, arts-based programming, robotics, mentorship and athletics.
Students are taught by Ontario certified teachers and supported by Black staff and practitioners trained in trauma-informed care. For families who can’t afford camp fees, the program is free or subsidized.
YAAACE’s Inspire Academy Mathematics Program provides early access to high school math courses. Grade 8 graduates earn a high school math credit through an intensive summer course led by a team of teachers and teacher assistants in a supportive, inclusive environment. In cases where students are behind provincial standards, they receive additional supports with low staff-to-student ratios.
Summer is a crucial time to support children’s learning and well-being, especially for Black families navigating systems that often overlook their strengths.
Below are three practical ways to support your child during the summer break and when school starts in September.
Create routines that balance learning and Black joy: Set daily routines that include reading, writing or problem solving but just as much make space for rest, play, creativity and movement rooted in Black joy. Learning should be holistic and joyful. It’s important as parents, guardians and community leaders that we not only talk about this but more importantly model it.
‘Refresh, Revive, Thrive: Black Joy in Education’ with Andrew B. Campbell, assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Stay engaged and be an advocate: Get to know your child’s teachers and school administrators, review school policies to be familiar with how to navigate them (for example, getting accommodations for your child’s needs) and request culturally affirming resources. Don’t hesitate to raise concerns, as your advocacy helps create more supportive learning environments and shows your child that their success is worth fighting for.
Source: United States Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico)
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media, called on Arielle Roth, the recently confirmed Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), to fulfill her responsibility to fully implement programs authorized and funded by Congress – specifically, the Digital Equity Act and the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Senator Luján urged Roth to make her first act as Administrator the immediate restoration of suspended digital equity grants and the release of approved federal funding to connect all New Mexicans to broadband.
“Now that you have been confirmed as Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), I urge you to fulfill your commitments to Congress that you will ‘follow the law,’ ‘act impartially,’ and ‘deliver the best broadband service possible for all Americans,’” said Senator Luján. “Your first act as Administrator should be to immediately restore the suspended digital equity grants and swiftly approve and release BEAD funding to states like New Mexico.”
“Congressionally appropriated funds for the Digital Equity Act and the BEAD program are not optional – they are essential. They represent not only a historic investment in our infrastructure, but a statutory obligation to the people of New Mexico and every unserved and underserved community across this country,” concluded Senator Luján.
As Ranking Member of the Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media, Senator Luján is a strong champion for 100% broadband connectivity. Senator Luján has pressed Commerce Secretary Lutnick multiple times and called on President Trump directly to release funding for the BEAD program.
In the 118th Congress, Senator Luján introduced the bipartisan Tribal Connect Act to make it easier for Tribes to secure high-speed internet access at Tribal Essential Community-Serving Institutions through the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Universal Service Fund (USF) Schools and Libraries Program, or E-Rate program.
In the 117th Congress, Senator Luján introduced legislation to help close the homework gap by equipping school buses with Wi-Fi technology and improving financing options for broadband deployment.
The full letter can be found here or below:
Dear Ms. Roth:
Now that you have been confirmed as Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), I urge you to fulfill your commitments to Congress that you will “follow the law,” “act impartially,” and “deliver the best broadband service possible for all Americans.”
This responsibility includes fully implementing programs authorized and funded by Congress under the Bipartisan Infrastructure and Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), specifically the Digital Equity Act and the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Your first act as Administrator should be to immediately restore the suspended digital equity grants and swiftly approve and release BEAD funding to states like New Mexico.
The Digital Equity Act represents a Congressionally mandated $2.75 billion investment to advance digital inclusion for historically underserved populations across this county. New Mexico, a state with deep rural divides, Tribal lands, and persistent poverty, was awarded more than $8 million to launch programs such as digital navigators, workforce development, and cybersecurity training. These funds were designed to reach nearly two million residents who still face significant barriers that prevent them from fully participating in the digital world.
As you noted, “[m]aking sure Americans have the resources and skills they need to participate in the digital economy was part of the IIJA and I will follow the law.” 2 You also stated that once confirmed you would “commit to implementing NTIA’s statutory requirements, including with respect to the Digital Equity Act.” 3 Distribution of these digital equity funds is not a discretionary choice, it is a statutory obligation. You must uphold your commitment to follow the law by immediately reinstating and resuming the disbursement of funds awarded under the Digital Equity Act.
Congress also created the $42.45 billion BEAD Program to finish the job of connecting nearly 25 million Americans that continue to wait for affordable, high-speed, reliable internet service. The BEAD program is our once-in-a-century opportunity to finish closing the digital divide and states have already invested years in developing implementation plans tailored to local needs, technical realities, and the bipartisan intent of Congress.
As NTIA Administrator you must uphold the statutory flexibility given to the states. This includes:
No new delays. The BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice should not be used to further delay approvals or revisit established allocations—such as the over $675 million allocated to New Mexico.
A meaningful low-cost service option. Internet service providers that win BEAD funding must offer a low-cost service option that is affordable and high-speed, not just a box checking exercise.
Deference for local expertise. States are best suited to determine what technology is appropriate for their terrain and therefore must be afforded deference on priority project determinations, so long as they meet the speed, latency and scalability requirements of IIJA.
Failing to adhere to these statutory requirements and current approval timeline risks setting broadband deployment back by years.
Moreover, Congress also explicitly authorized states to use BEAD funding for a variety of uses beyond deployment. These uses include data collection, broadband mapping, planning, installation of Internet connections within multifamily residential buildings where low-income residents live, broadband adoption efforts, including programs to provide affordable internet-capable devices, and other uses as determined by the Assistant Secretary. It is important to follow the law and release non-deployment guidance as soon as possible.
I request that you respond to these questions by August 15, 2025.
The IIJA included $2.75 billion to support three grant programs under the Digital Equity Act to equip individuals and communities with the skills and tools needed for full participation in all aspects of society. Earlier this year, the states’ Capacity Grants were wrongfully terminated as were the Competitive Grant grantees and the others recommended for an award. In accordance with the law, when will you reinstate the grant programs under the Digital Equity Act? Please provide a specific date.
States would already have shovels in the ground if not for the delays this administration introduced with the initial 90 day extension and subsequent June 6th Public Notice. Will you commit to no further delays and approve States’ BEAD Plans within 90 days of submission?
Congress authorized BEAD funds for non-deployment uses, including affordability and adoption. Further guidance from NTIA should not hinder states’ ability to exercise discretion granted by statute to use funds for non-deployment. When will you release the updated guidance for these uses? Please provide a specific date.
We share the goals of connecting every American to broadband and ensuring that broadband is affordable to low-income Americans. Congressionally appropriated funds for the Digital Equity Act and the BEAD program are not optional – they are essential. They represent not only a historic investment in our infrastructure, but a statutory obligation to the people of New Mexico and every unserved and underserved community across this country.
As the cool nights continue, it’s the perfect time to cozy up with a new batch of captivating films and series.
This month’s streaming highlights bring a little bit of everything, from gripping true crime, to thought-provoking political drama, and a nostalgic music documentary on the life and times of piano man Billy Joel.
So grab a blanket (and maybe a snack or two). Your next binge-watch awaits.
One Night in Idaho: The College Murders
Prime Video
I remember seeing the gruesome 2022 murder of four college students in Moscow, Idaho, splashed all over the news in Australia. The world seemed momentarily gripped by the brutality of the killings, which happened in off-campus housing, while two other roommates slept downstairs.
The ensuing investigation was given significantly less attention, though. So when Prime Video dropped this four-episode limited series, well, that was my weekend sorted.
The docuseries features exclusive interviews with the friends and families of the victims, so it doesn’t feel gratuitous. It respectfully recounts the tragedy and explores its continued impact, while honouring the victims. It also builds the kind of tension and disquiet that is so beloved in the true crime genre, but not in a way that makes you feel gross watching it.
Notably, legal proceedings for the case were still underway when One Night in Idaho was released. And the series made it clear there was more to the story which couldn’t be shared with, or by, the producers.
However, the trial has since concluded, with more information now available for anyone wanting to dive deeper into the case. This makes the series an absorbing watch.
– Alexa Scarlata
The Night of the Hunter
Various platforms
In 1955, director Charles Laughton crafted The Night of the Hunter: one of the darkest, strangest fairy tales ever to come out of Hollywood.
Shortly before Ben Harper is hanged for robbing a bank and killing two men, he hides the $10,000 loot in the toy doll of his young daughter Pearl. Only Pearl and her brother John know the secret – until the deranged serial killer-priest Harry Powell hears about the money and sets out to recover it.
Harry marries Willa, Harper’s widow, and then, after killing her, pursues John and Pearl relentlessly across West Virginia.
Robert Mitchum’s depiction of pure evil is one of cinema’s most vivid creations, with LOVE and HATE tattooed on the fingers of each hand.
The film did not align with the mainstream tastes of the era. Audiences and reviewers didn’t know what to make of this abnormal mix of fairy tale logic, nightmarish imagery and biblical allegory.
Successive generations of critics and filmmakers have caught on to its brilliance. Critic Roger Ebert said it was “one of the greatest of all American films”. In 2008, French film magazine Cahiers du cinémavoted it as the second-best film of all time, behind only Citizen Kane (1941).
The Night of the Hunter remains unsettlingly modern, 70 years on.
The highest point in Denmark, Mollehoj, is 171 metres above sea level, so it is plausible to imagine the whole country being overrun by water due to rising sea levels, leading to mass evacuation. This is the basic premise of the Danish series Families Like Ours.
The cleverness of this premise is that it turns comfortable middle-class Danes into refugees, facing hostility, poverty and violence as they seek to resettle. Given Denmark’s hard line on refugees, this makes the series politically powerful, equally so for us in Australia.
The central figure is a young woman, Laura (Amaryllis August), who creates disaster for her family through what she believes is an act of huge empathy. The same is true of Henrik (Magnus Millang), who shoots an innocent man in what he believes is an act of self-defence.
Families Like Ours is not a comfortable series to watch, but it manages to raise central issues of our time, without ever seeming didactic or preachy. It succeeds in combining the personal and the political in a six-part show that is powerful – and leaves enough loose ends for a potential second season.
– Dennis Altman
The Man from Hong Kong
Various platforms
A cinematic firecracker of a film exploded onto international screens 50 years ago, blending martial arts mayhem, Bond-esque set pieces, casual racism – and a distinctly Australian swagger.
From its audacious visual style; to its complex, life-threatening stunts; to its pioneering status as an international co-production, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s The Man from Hong Kong has solidified its place as a cult classic.
A Sydney-based crime lord’s activities come under the scrutiny of a determined Hong Kong detective, Inspector Fang Sing Leng. A fiery East-meets-West martial arts showdown explodes across the Australian landscape, pushing both sides to their limits.
The movie is a playful pastiche that confidently combines martial arts action, police procedurals, spy thrillers, and Westerns, all filtered through a distinctly Australian “crash-zoom” lens.
The film was an influence to Quentin Tarantino and paved the way for films such as Mad Max (1979), particularly in what Trenchard-Smith and his partner in film, stunt legend Grant Page, might call its “cunning stunts”.
The elaborate car chases and explosive stunt setups in The Man from Hong Kong served as prototypes for iconic sequences that would inspire the Mad Max films, among others, a testament to a bygone era of practical effects and thrill seeking audacity.
The Man from Hong Kong remains an exhilarating piece of pure cinema, despite its relatively small budget. It’s an exemplar (and occasional cautionary tale) for filmmakers in terms of international co-production, its cunning stunts, and genre blending.
Based on the book series by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Dept Q is a gripping television adaptation for fans of Nordic noir and British crime drama.
In Edinburgh, Scotland, Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) has returned to work after a shooting which left him physically and psychologically wounded, his colleague partially paralysed, and another colleague dead.
With the dregs of a budget assigned to cold cases, and a team of misfit officers, Morck sets out to solve the four-year-old case of missing Crown prosecutor, Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie).
We follow Merritt’s story across various stages of her life. We see her as a teenager in the lead-up to a devastating crime that left her brother with a traumatic brain injury, as well as later in life, when she loses a major case involving a wealthy man on trial for his wife’s death.
Shortly after the devastating verdict, Merritt went missing on a ferry ride to her childhood home, on the fictionalised island of Mhòr. Returning to the present, we see she has been held captive inside a hyperbaric chamber for the past four years.
The pressure under which Merritt is kept makes Morck’s investigation high stakes from the start, while the movement between past and present highlights the impacts of past traumatic events on both characters.
Dept Q is a fast-paced, breathless thriller which will leave viewers craving its rumoured second season.
– Jessica Gildersleeve
Billy Joel: And So It Goes
HBO Max
Produced by Tom Hanks, this two-part documentary about singer/songwriter Billy Joel covers more than five decades of music. Created very much from Joel’s perspective, who is also the main narrator, the archival content is fascinating, and the music difficult to deny.
Discussion of Joel’s early suicide attempts are a shocking and terrible reminder of how different things might have been. From here, the role of the women in his life – his wives, daughters, and mother (“his champion”) – becomes vital. Beyond the headlines (particularly with his second wife Christie Brinkley), are partners who were muses, business supporters and emotional support pillars – some of whom gave Joel ultimatums when the time came to battle his alcohol addiction.
Brinkley, as well as Joel’s first wife, Elizabeth Weber, are particularly moving interviewees. They would wait at home, or stand nervously backstage as Joel “went to work” to earn, repair and rebuild against the odds. No spoilers, but let’s just say Joel ended up in trouble more than once.
On the other hand, the men in Joel’s life are often distant: Jewish grandparents who escaped Nazi Germany; a father who left when Joel was small; a half-brother discovered later in life. These losses are never really healed.
Billy Joel: And So It Goes is a five-hour epic, a story of survival and ultimately, of peace. It is, of course, also a reminder of an incredible catalogue of music – joyful, ordinary and wonderful – and the extraordinary life behind it.
– Liz Giuffre
If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14
Gardening Australia, season 36
ABC iView
Since it first aired in 1990, Gardening Australia has offered tips and inspiration from every state and territory on a weekly basis. A perennial favourite, the show seems to possess perpetual appeal for world-weary viewers open to slowing down by growing plants.
The no-nonsense host Peter Cundall helmed the series until 2008 (Cundall died in 2021 at the age of 94). The honour of “King of Compost” now rests with the gregarious Costa Georgiadis, and a wider cast of presenters that has expanded to be more diverse and engaging. One stalwart from the start, Jane Edmanson, is still flourishing in season 36: her episode 4 segment titled “Fronds with Benefits” certainly caught my eye.
Topics covered this season range from small-space innovation and passion projects, to Indigenous knowledge and bush foods, through to permaculture and climate change. Episodes 6 and 20 – specials on native plants and NAIDOC Week, respectively – are both worth a watch.
While the series can distance renters, and might not be edgy enough for younger audiences, it has managed to stake out ground in the digital realm – with a blooming online presence for budding green thumbs.
One of the longest-running Australian shows still on air, it doesn’t look as though Gardening Australia will be pulling up roots anytime soon.
– Phoebe Hart
The Buccaneers, season two
Apple TV
Loosen your corsets, The Buccaneers is back for a second season of feminist sisterhood and fabulous gowns.
Adapted from Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel, the series follows a group of outspoken young American women navigating the marriage market in 1870s Victorian England. Gleefully anachronistic with feisty girl power speeches and a contemporary pop music soundtrack, The Buccaneers is equal parts Bridgerton and Gossip Girl (complete with a character played by Leighton Meester).
Season two picks up where the first left off, with Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) and Guy (Matthew Broome) fleeing the country to escape Jinny’s violent husband Lord James Seadown (Barney Fishwick).
Meanwhile, sister Nan (Kristine Froseth) is busy back home leveraging her position as Duchess of Tintagel to help facilitate Jinny’s return – a campaign that includes wearing a showstopping red gown to a black and white ball. In keeping with the series’ M.O., this might be narrative nonsense, but it looks exquisite.
While trysts and love triangles continue to provide escapist entertainment, Jinny’s abusive marriage dominates later episodes. If season one sought to expose the isolation and entrapment Jinny endured in her marriage, season two foregrounds her resistance in the face of it, intent on highlighting how perpetrators of violence manipulate legal and medical systems to tighten the noose around victims’ necks.
Season two’s veering between frothy excess and melodrama arguably results in some tonal patchiness. Nonetheless, it should be commended for its careful treatment of the corrosive impacts and dangers of coercive control. This – more than the downloadable soundtrack and dazzling costumes – makes it good viewing.
– Rachel Williamson
Dangerous Animals
Prime Video
Dangerous Animals is perhaps the most original and entertaining shark horror film we have seen since Jaws – incorporating traditional elements of the shark thriller genre, while challenging them at the same time.
The film starts with the primal fear of being eaten alive by monstrous sharks, with gruesome shock-thrill scenes of tourists being torn apart in a blood red ocean.
But later, the narrative reminds us it is the boat captain, not the great white, who is the real sadistic killer. Predictably, we see a young bikini-clad woman who gets horribly dismembered (just like the first unforgettable victim in Jaws).
However, it is also a fearless bikini-clad woman, Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) who turns the tables on the boat captain, outwits him, rescues her boyfriend and even makes friends with the shark.
Dangerous Animals includes some interesting subtext and commentary, such as when it compares women to fish – creatures hunted for sport – and when it highlights the inherent cruelty of fishing, and the hook that impales the prey.
The film delivers sophisticated special effects and gruesome eco-horror entertainment. It is a fun, self-aware and postmodern watch that will leave you thinking.
The Australian influence is delightfully evident in the irreverent humour. And for anyone who has been to the Gold Coast, there is much pleasure in seeing the film play out across its iconic locations.
This film will trigger your childhood fear of Jaws – but with a twist.
– Susan Hopkins
Shark Whisperer
Netflix
In Shark Whisperer, the great white shark gets an image makeover – from Jaws villain to misunderstood friend and admirer.
However the star of the documentary is not so much the shark, but the model and marine conservationist Ocean Ramsey (yes, that’s her real name).
The film centres on Ramsey’s self-growth journey, with the shark co-starring as a quasi-spiritual medium for finding meaning and purpose (not to mention celebrity status).
Whisperer and the Ocean Ramsey website tap into the collective fascination with dangerous sharks fuelled by popular culture. Many online images show Ramsey in a bikini or touching sharks – she’s small, and vulnerable in the face of great whites. As with forms of celebrity humanitarianism, what I have dubbed “sexy conservationism” leaves itself open to criticism about its methods – even if its intentions are good.
Globally at least 80 million sharks are killed every year. Thanks in part to the hashtag activism of Ocean Ramsey and her millions of fans and followers, Hawaii was the first state in the United States to outlaw shark fishing.
So, Ramsey may be right to argue her ends justify the means.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey
Resolution Text (PDF)
Washington (July 31, 2025) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), along with Representatives Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Dr. Raul Ruiz (CA-25), and Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), today introduced the Dr. Paul Farmer Memorial Resolution, to honor Dr. Farmer’s staggering life and legacy and lay out his extraordinary vision for realizing global health equity. This resolution lays out a 21st century global health strategy that proposes spending $125 billion annually on global health aid, reforming aid to focus on building national health systems, and putting an end to the exploitation of impoverished countries to increase their domestic tax base and health spending. This resolution seeks to save over 100 million lives per decade by increasing the flow of money in the global economy.
“Dr. Paul Farmer was a health care visionary and revolutionary who understood compassion and care went hand in hand. At a time when global health and well-being are strained, I am proud to introduce this resolution honoring Dr. Farmer and the transformational work he did to deliver health care to people and communities around the world. Health is the first wealth, and we must do everything in our power to ensure that people around the world are healthy, safe, and have access to the resources they need to live and thrive,” said Senator Markey.
“Dr. Paul Farmer is responsible for transforming the lives of millions and millions of poor and marginalized people around the world, bringing them health care, dignity, and justice. A true visionary, Paul insisted that all people have a right to excellent health care, and he developed the systems to deliver it in places people had written off. Gleaming world class hospitals and locally trained doctors, nurses, and community workers now exist in places like Haiti and Rwanda. Paul was not only a world-renowned leader in global health, but also a precious friend and a tireless organizer, inspiring thousands of people to actively participate in his work. All of us owe him a debt that can only be paid by carrying on his mission and legacy,” said Congresswoman Schakowsky. “That is why I am introducing the Dr. Paul Farmer Memorial Resolution alongside my colleagues Senator Markey and Representatives Ruiz and Jayapal. This resolution lays out a 21st Century Global Health Strategy that enshrines Paul’s vision to achieve global universal health care and end unnecessary and preventable deaths. We are the richest country in the world at the richest time in the world. As the Trump Administration rips away lifesaving aid from millions of people, it is more important than ever for those of us who care about global health and justice to rededicate ourselves to building and fully funding a robust global health strategy. Paul called on us to understand global health inequity as an injustice—a result of centuries of violence and exploitation inflicted on the global poor. We can make the choice to end global health inequity, and with Paul’s vision guiding us, we will.”
“Dr. Paul Farmer was more than a global health leader, he was my mentor, professor, and dear friend,” said Congressman Ruiz. “From my early years at Harvard Medical School to our work together in Boston, Chiapas, Guatemala, and post-earthquake Haiti, he showed me what it means to fight for underserved communities with unwavering dedication. I am honored to help reintroduce this resolution in his memory, as a testament to his extraordinary impact on humanity.”
“Dr. Paul Farmer changed global health for the better with his work in impoverished countries, treating infectious diseases and providing high quality care to those who needed it most. He also fundamentally altered the way we think about international aid, and his organizing and movement building has led to millions of people worldwide living healthier and longer lives. As a lifelong organizer and someone who worked in global health for years before coming to Congress, I know the importance of this work and know how devastating Trump and Republicans’ cuts to USAID and other international aid programs are. This resolution outlines a vision for a world in which we tackle the injustice of global health inequities and treat health care as a true human right. It also recognizes that to achieve these goals, we need to democratize the global financial system, including cancelling predatory debt that has often crushed low- and middle-income countries. I’m proud to co-lead it with Representatives Schakowsky and Ruiz,” said Congresswoman Jayapal.
The proposals in the resolution are as follows:
Increase global health aid to $125 billion per year
Close the essential universal health care financing gap for low-income countries
Allow the U.S. to meet the U.N. aid target of 0.7% GNI for the first time ever
Reform global health aid
Focus on building national health systems and direct funding to local partners, not the development industry
Develop new medical technologies for diseases of poverty and ensure their availability as global public goods
Make the global economy more fair, just, and democratic
Democratizing the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization, so that poor countries have greater say over decisions that affect their economies and their ability to finance health systems
Global debt cancelation for all developing countries that need it
Ending harmful licit and illicit financial flows from poor countries—ending global tax havens and illegal practices like trade misinvoicing
Supporting global labor rights, such as a global minimum wage
“In this moment of crisis, we need Paul’s vision for global health justice more than ever. Thankfully, that vision is captured in this resolution. It provides us with a much-needed roadmap for global cooperation based on solidarity and justice by getting to the root causes of unnecessary suffering and death, or what Paul called ‘structural violence’. This includes greatly improving development assistance for health, but also going well beyond aid to address ongoing extractive colonial arrangements, which preclude local investments in health systems,” said Sheila Davis, CEO of Partners in Health.
As an infectious disease physician, Dr. Farmer earned accolades for treating patients in impoverished countries with high quality care, including those suffering from HIV and cancer. As a medical anthropologist, he was known for popularizing and deepening understandings of “structural violence,” the idea that social systems are designed to impoverish, sicken, and sideline select groups. As chief strategist of Partners in Health, he garnered plaudits for pioneering community-based treatment strategies, building teaching hospitals, and more. Dr. Farmer called on us to understand global health inequity as an injustice—an effect of centuries of violence and exploitation inflicted on the global poor. This resolution embodies that and will serve as a North Star that will guide the movement for global health equity for years to come.
In addition to Sen. Markey, this resolution is cosponsored in the Senate by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
In addition to Reps. Schakowsky, Ruiz, and Jayapal, this resolution is cosponsored in the House of Representatives by Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Betty McCollum (MN-04), Jim McGovern (MA-02), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Juan Vargas (CA-52).
NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber
In an emissions-focused world, do oil and gas revenues have a role to play in ending energy poverty in Africa? It may sound counterintuitive, but many would argue that they do, albeit as enablers of a future powered by alternative energy sources.
The key lies in recognizing that Africa’s situation is unique, and solutions take time, building on what we have and what we can do with it. This means that, in working towards a just energy transition, the continent’s oil and gas resources shouldn’t be viewed as obstacles that need to be immediately replaced by renewable energy sources. Instead, rather than prematurely phasing out fossil fuels in response to global pressure, Africa should harness these revenues responsibly to finance its energy transition and ultimately eradicate energy poverty.
Prioritizing Development Alongside Sustainability
Nearly 600 million Africans still live without access to electricity (https://apo-opa.co/3IV6Rd8). This access is a fundamental human right, yet energy poverty remains one of the continent’s most significant barriers to development. This undermines health systems, education, industrialization, and dignity. As the world debates how to rapidly achieve net-zero, Africa’s priority is different: how to power its people now, while building a sustainable future.
Measuring Africa’s energy transition progress against external calls for an abrupt end to fossil fuels risks leaving millions behind. Our continent contributes less than 4% (https://apo-opa.co/40Ilfvu) to global emissions, yet we are expected to decarbonize at the same pace as industrialized nations that built their wealth on hydrocarbons.
Instead, the continent’s abundance of fossil fuels should be viewed as a bridge, not a barrier. The African Energy Chamber (AEC) Africa-Paris Declaration (https://apo-opa.co/4l4JTO2) underscores this principle – Africa’s oil and gas revenues can and must be used as a financial lever to invest in electrification, clean energy, and infrastructure projects. This pragmatic and just approach prioritizes development alongside sustainability, not instead of.
There are several ways to achieve this. First, reinvesting oil and gas revenues into rural electrification can transform communities. Decentralized solutions like off-grid solar and mini-grids offer practical ways to reach remote areas. Although urban dwellers do experience power outages, for many rural populations, it’s a way of life. For the mother cooking with firewood or the student studying by candlelight, a small solar grid is life-changing. Fossil fuel revenues can finance these systems at scale, bridging the immediate access gap while longer-term grid expansions are in progress.
Second, establishing innovative financing mechanisms is essential. For instance, the fledgling Africa Energy Bank (https://apo-opa.co/4laFrh1) aims to bridge the continent’s estimated $31 billion to $50 billion annual energy funding gap by focusing predominantly on financing energy projects. Launched in 2025, the bank is poised to play a transformative role in mobilizing capital for African energy projects. Additionally, global investors are increasingly exploring energy investment opportunities in Africa. In support of this, development finance institutions, such as the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and the International Finance Corporation, are de-risking investments by offering concessional loans, guarantees, and technical assistance, making investment in African energy projects more attractive.
Third, policy reforms that create enabling environments are critical. Here, governments have a role to play in prioritizing revenue-generating projects, creating stable regulatory frameworks, and offering incentives for public-private partnerships. This will support investment, reduce risks, and unlock the transformative power of energy access.
These solutions demonstrate the importance of a fair and equitable transition and the vital role that fossil fuels will continue to play in achieving this goal. They also prove that this goal is achievable, even if it is on the continent’s own terms.
Unique Solutions to Africa’s Energy Challenges
Africa’s path to net-zero has the same end goal as the rest of the world, but it can’t mirror their journey. Our starting points are different, and our development needs are urgent. We understand that climate action can’t be delayed. But it can be just, inclusive, and rooted in African realities. And it can also be supported by revenues from our abundant natural resources.
The Africa-Paris Declaration notes that ‘a fair transition recognizes that fossil fuels remain valuable for Africa’s development, prosperity, and energy access goals. Africa doesn’t need to choose between oil and gas or renewables. Given our current position, all are important and require both strategic and sensible deployment. Fossil fuels generate the revenues to invest in solar, wind, hydropower, and grid infrastructure. They fuel industries that create jobs. They support healthcare, education, and innovation.
When managed responsibly, Africa’s fossil fuel revenue can serve as a bridge to a brighter, greener, and more prosperous continent. Will it be quick and easy? No. Will some question the approach? Most certainly. But the alternative is leaving hundreds of millions of people in the dark.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of TotalEnergies.
NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber (https://EnergyChamber.org)
In an emissions-focused world, do oil and gas revenues have a role to play in ending energy poverty in Africa? It may sound counterintuitive, but many would argue that they do, albeit as enablers of a future powered by alternative energy sources.
The key lies in recognizing that Africa’s situation is unique, and solutions take time, building on what we have and what we can do with it. This means that, in working towards a just energy transition, the continent’s oil and gas resources shouldn’t be viewed as obstacles that need to be immediately replaced by renewable energy sources. Instead, rather than prematurely phasing out fossil fuels in response to global pressure, Africa should harness these revenues responsibly to finance its energy transition and ultimately eradicate energy poverty.
Prioritizing Development Alongside Sustainability
Nearly 600 million Africans still live without access to electricity (https://apo-opa.co/3U6V4uH). This access is a fundamental human right, yet energy poverty remains one of the continent’s most significant barriers to development. This undermines health systems, education, industrialization, and dignity. As the world debates how to rapidly achieve net-zero, Africa’s priority is different: how to power its people now, while building a sustainable future.
Measuring Africa’s energy transition progress against external calls for an abrupt end to fossil fuels risks leaving millions behind. Our continent contributes less than 4% (https://apo-opa.co/4odEQxF) to global emissions, yet we are expected to decarbonize at the same pace as industrialized nations that built their wealth on hydrocarbons.
Instead, the continent’s abundance of fossil fuels should be viewed as a bridge, not a barrier. The African Energy Chamber (AEC) Africa-Paris Declaration (https://apo-opa.co/3GO1ImM) underscores this principle – Africa’s oil and gas revenues can and must be used as a financial lever to invest in electrification, clean energy, and infrastructure projects. This pragmatic and just approach prioritizes development alongside sustainability, not instead of.
There are several ways to achieve this. First, reinvesting oil and gas revenues into rural electrification can transform communities. Decentralized solutions like off-grid solar and mini-grids offer practical ways to reach remote areas. Although urban dwellers do experience power outages, for many rural populations, it’s a way of life. For the mother cooking with firewood or the student studying by candlelight, a small solar grid is life-changing. Fossil fuel revenues can finance these systems at scale, bridging the immediate access gap while longer-term grid expansions are in progress.
Second, establishing innovative financing mechanisms is essential. For instance, the fledgling Africa Energy Bank (https://apo-opa.co/4l5R2Of) aims to bridge the continent’s estimated $31 billion to $50 billion annual energy funding gap by focusing predominantly on financing energy projects. Launched in 2025, the bank is poised to play a transformative role in mobilizing capital for African energy projects. Additionally, global investors are increasingly exploring energy investment opportunities in Africa. In support of this, development finance institutions, such as the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and the International Finance Corporation, are de-risking investments by offering concessional loans, guarantees, and technical assistance, making investment in African energy projects more attractive.
Third, policy reforms that create enabling environments are critical. Here, governments have a role to play in prioritizing revenue-generating projects, creating stable regulatory frameworks, and offering incentives for public-private partnerships. This will support investment, reduce risks, and unlock the transformative power of energy access.
These solutions demonstrate the importance of a fair and equitable transition and the vital role that fossil fuels will continue to play in achieving this goal. They also prove that this goal is achievable, even if it is on the continent’s own terms.
Unique Solutions to Africa’s Energy Challenges
Africa’s path to net-zero has the same end goal as the rest of the world, but it can’t mirror their journey. Our starting points are different, and our development needs are urgent. We understand that climate action can’t be delayed. But it can be just, inclusive, and rooted in African realities. And it can also be supported by revenues from our abundant natural resources.
The Africa-Paris Declaration notes that ‘a fair transition recognizes that fossil fuels remain valuable for Africa’s development, prosperity, and energy access goals. Africa doesn’t need to choose between oil and gas or renewables. Given our current position, all are important and require both strategic and sensible deployment. Fossil fuels generate the revenues to invest in solar, wind, hydropower, and grid infrastructure. They fuel industries that create jobs. They support healthcare, education, and innovation.
When managed responsibly, Africa’s fossil fuel revenue can serve as a bridge to a brighter, greener, and more prosperous continent. Will it be quick and easy? No. Will some question the approach? Most certainly. But the alternative is leaving hundreds of millions of people in the dark.
On 10–16 March, Minister for Gender Equality Paulina Brandberg is taking part in the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68), also known as the UN women’s commission, in New York. The theme of this year’s session is combating poverty and how institutions and financing can be strengthened from a gender equality perspective. Ms Brandberg is also hosting the activities arranged by the Nordic Council of Ministers, of which Sweden is holding the Presidency in 2024. Ms Brandberg will hold two policy speeches: Sweden’s policy speech and a policy speech for an LGBTI Core Group that includes Sweden.
Individuals are classified as impoverished when they face deprivation in one-third or more of the indicators in a multidimensional poverty index. The index reflects the various influences on socioeconomic class. These include housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, nutrition and school attendance.
The index is one of the most comprehensive measures of poverty. The fact that the multidimentional index captures multiple dimensions enables it to reflect overlapping disadvantages. And provides a fuller picture of well-being. Other monetary measures such as income aren’t as comprehensive.
In South Africa, it is at around 40%. This means it experiences four in 10 of the dimensions of poverty.
The province of Gauteng is South Africa’s economic hub. Nevertheless it contains pockets of severe deprivation. About 4.6% of households are poor. In some wards up to 68% are severely deprived.
We are social scientists with research histories in food systems and livelihoods, public policy and economics of human capital. We recently conducted a study focused on Gauteng. We wanted to determine what could enable poor and vulnerable households to move out of those categories.
We used a modelling exercise that allowed us to isolate the most relevant factors for this transition.
The study found six factors: education, age, income, working time, medical aid and being a recipient of a low income municipal support grant. We concluded from this that attending to these six variables was the foundation for upward mobility.
Conversely, vulnerability to economic shocks, such as job loss or food insecurity, can trigger rapid downward mobility.
Based on our findings we make eight policy recommendations. These include boosting education and skills training, better healthcare and affordable, reliable transport.
Range of factors
Multidimensional poverty intersects with socioeconomic class structures. It reinforces inequality by placing individuals into hierarchical groups. These range from the affluent and middle class to the transient, vulnerable, and chronically poor.
These disparities shape access to resources, opportunities and upward mobility.
Lower-class households differ from middle-class and affluent (non-poor) households across multiple dimensions. These differences include income stability, consumption patterns, access to services, asset ownership, social capital and vulnerability to shocks.
In the light of this we adopted a multidimensional poverty approach to classify households. We used various dimensions and indicators of poverty to assess the extent of deprivation and associated poverty levels.
We calculated the deprivation score and classified households into three levels: not poor, moderate poverty (vulnerable), and severe poverty (chronically poor).
Working time had the strongest effect. Part- or full-time work greatly lowered odds of severe poverty (chronic poverty) and moderate poverty (transient poverty). Working time refers to the duration that a person is engaged in paid employment or work-related activities. This is usually between 35 and 45 hours per week for full-time employment. And fewer than 35 hours per week for part-time employment.
Some factors only influenced certain groups. For severe poverty, transport access, household health, food parcel reliance, household size, and skipping meals were significant. For moderate poverty, gender, food parcel reliance and skipping meals mattered. And for the vulnerable non-poor (middle class), distance from public transport was the only additional factor.
Social grants and being part of the black population group showed little influence. Transitions and the ability to transcend poverty classes were driven mainly by direct socio-economic factors.
These dynamics underscore the precariousness of low-income households. They also highlight the importance of targeted interventions to break cycles of poverty.
Higher education, stable income and access to full-time work, drastically reduce the odds of remaining in severe or moderate poverty or being vulnerable. Medical aid access and municipal assistance programmes that provide free or subsidised basic services, also serve as protective factors. These help households meet essential health and welfare needs.
However, several structural and socio-economic constraints hinder transitions out of poverty. For example, living a greater distance from public transport increases the likelihood of severe poverty and vulnerability.
Food insecurity, measured by skipping meals or dependence on food parcels, remains a persistent marker of entrenched deprivation.
Gender disparities suggest underlying labour market or social vulnerabilities that require targeted policy interventions. For example, male-headed households are more likely than female-headed households to be moderately poor.
What can be done
Escaping multidimensional poverty in Gauteng requires targeted, practical and complementary interventions. Examples include subsidised transport, decentralised clinics, or housing closer to jobs.
This will enable grants to be translated to improved well-being.
We suggest eight areas for improvement:
access to education, vocational training and digital skills. This will help to increase employment prospects
public works and youth entrepreneurship support. This will boost income generation
social protection like indigent benefits, food vouchers and subsidised medical aid
food security. This can be done through community gardens and nutrition programmes
support for female-headed households and young people
affordable, reliable public transport. Services also need to be decentralised
data-driven municipal planning to guide infrastructure and service investments
consistently tracking progress against defined objectives.
The province implements multiple poverty-reduction initiatives. These include expanded public works, township economy support, food gardens, free basic services, subsidised housing, and public transport projects.
These efforts address income, food security and mobility. But they have limited impact due to persistent barriers. This is because many, particularly young people, don’t have market-relevant skills. In addition, spatial inequality results in long, costly commutes. And housing shortages and rising food prices deepen vulnerability.
Fragmented funding, weak coordination and inadequate data tracking also undermine progress.
– 8 policies that would help fight poverty in South Africa’s economic hub Gauteng – https://theconversation.com/8-policies-that-would-help-fight-poverty-in-south-africas-economic-hub-gauteng-261388
The UK government recently expanded the warm home discount by removing restrictions that had previously excluded many people who can’t always afford to heat their homes. Now, the payment of £150 will be received by 2.7 million more households than last winter.
The UK government has two other mechanisms for reducing heating costs over winter. The warm home discount and winter fuel payment are both one-off payments that help people pay their heating bills. The cold weather payment aims to support people during spells of very cold weather.
Recipients of specific means-tested benefits in England, Wales and Northern Ireland automatically receive £25 after cold weather occurs in their region. Another policy applies in Scotland, where some people get a single winter heating payment.
While these changes to the winter fuel payment and warm home discount are welcome, the cold weather payment has long been seen as an outdated, old-fashioned scheme in need of change. For example, it is paid after cold weather happens. Ourresearch indicates that it can be improved by changing this.
The wide use of smart meters means that researchers like us can now produce data-driven studies that improve our understanding of energy use and expenditure during cold weather. Our recentstudies of prepayment meter customers’ energy use indicate ways to improve the cold weather payments.
Analysis of electricity and gas smart-meter data from 11,500 Utilita Energy prepayment customers showed that 63% of households self-disconnected from energy supply at least once a year. In this study, published in Energy Research & Social Science, we found that more homes self-disconnected from gas during cold periods than at other times. There was no evidence to show that the cold weather payment as presently designed reduced this risk.
Also using smart meter data from energy company Utilita Energy, a recent study published in the journal Energy Economics shows that prepayment gas customers in regions with high fuel poverty tend to struggle at temperatures below −4°C. Below this temperature, prepayment gas customers need to top up more often and with higher amounts. People using prepayment tend to top-up their credit in advance of cold weather.
Cold weather payments could be sent directly to customers with smart meters. Daisy Daisy/Shutterstock
The government’s payment is triggered when the average temperature falls below 0°C for seven consecutive days. As this metric is not reported by news media or meteorology services, it’s hard to know when the cold weather payment will be received. The easiest way to find out if a payment will be made, after cold weather, requires people to enter their postcode at a Department for Work and Pensions website.
If people are unsure if severe weather is forecast, they may not increase their top-up in advance. They may, however, self-ration or limit energy use to save money.
The cold weather payment is only paid once even when there are multiple periods of cold. This “overlap penalty” severely affects those living in northern England and particularly Yorkshire, which is a colder region where cold weather spells are more common.
Cause for reform
The payment should be made in advance of cold weather, and utility companies could pay it directly to customers who have smart meters. Credits could be applied for those using other types of meters. This is likely to reduce self-disconnections and self-rationing during very cold nights.
Payments should be triggered by the minimum night-time temperature. The temperature measure used at present is confusing and the money is not paid until up to two weeks after extremely cold weather, which is problematic for those on tight budgets.
To better match the support needed during cold weather, the amount paid should be increased to £10 a day for every day that minimum temperatures are forecast to be below −4°C. This would improve energy security for people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A policy will only be effective when it is clearly communicated and understood by those it applies to. To prevent self-rationing, people need to know that payment support has arrived, otherwise they may hesitate to turn up the heating on the coldest days of winter, with all the risks that involves.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Thomas Longden has recently received funding from Energy Consumers Australia and Original Power – a community-focused, Aboriginal organisation. He is a member of the ACT Climate Change Council and the NSW branch of the Economic Society of Australia.
Brenda Boardman is affiliated in the UK with the End Fuel Poverty Coalition and the Labour Party. Her research on pre-payment meter households was co-funded by Utilita Giving.
Tina Fawcett currently receives funding from UKRI. Her research on pre-payment meter households was co-funded by Utilita Giving.
When UK Conservative party head Kemi Badenoch recently declared that she aspires to be Britain’s Milei, she aligned herself with one of the world’s most radical and controversial leaders.
Javier Milei, Argentina’s self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” president, has gained global notoriety since his election in December 2023 for wielding a chainsaw at rallies, promising to destroy the so-called “political caste” and launching a scorched-earth economic reform programme.
But what has Milei actually achieved since entering office? And should Britain really be looking to his administration for inspiration?
Milei swept to power on a wave of anti-establishment anger. Styling himself as an outsider economist rallying against the ruling caste, he promised to slash state spending and replace Argentina’s peso with the more stable US dollar. He also pledged to eliminate entire government ministries, including health, education and culture.
His now-famous “chainsaw plan” proposed a dramatic restructuring of Argentina’s political and economic institutions, which he blamed for decades of stagnation and corruption. Backed by business elites and libertarian ideologues, Milei offered a vision of Argentina remade through radical individualism and state retrenchment.
His campaign, which contained some clear populist tendencies, was built as much on spectacle as substance. It contained daily media outbursts, personal attacks and an anti-caste rhetoric designed to turn governance into performance.
Inflation was central to Milei’s campaign. When he took office, annual inflation in Argentina stood at over 130%, one of the highest rates in the world. Milei promised to bring it under control by slashing the fiscal deficit and enforcing monetary discipline.
Monthly inflation doubled in the first months of his administration, forcing millions of Argentinians further into poverty. But it has fallen below 50% since the middle of 2025, which has been held by the government as a success.
However, the decrease in the inflation rate is the result of economic recession. While international markets have praised Milei’s fiscal orthodoxy, there is little sign of a growth rebound. Investment has stalled, consumption has plummeted and local industries are struggling amid cuts to public procurement.
Consumption has shown signs of recovery in the last few months, but only in the high-income segment. This has deepened a dual reality where middle-class and working sectors cannot make ends meet. Instead of helping the Argentinian economy recover, high-income consumption also pushes the trade balance to deteriorate.
Milei’s government has endeavoured to keep the Argentine peso strong. A strong currency has seen foreign investments paused and, despite ongoing capital controls, millions of US dollars leave the country with a surge in Argentinian tourism abroad. This trend is exactly the opposite of the most controversial of Milei’s promises: to adopt the dollar in Argentina.
Given the critical level of the central bank’s foreign reserves, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the release of a US$4.7 billion (£3.5 billion) loan tranche in April 2024. It is expected to loan an extra US$2 billion before the 2025 mid-term elections in October.
Squeezing Argentinian society
Job losses have been extensive. Tens of thousands of public sector workers have been laid off, and many more have seen their salaries decimated by inflation. Entire agencies have been shut, from science and housing to the post office.
Milei’s framing of public employees as part of a parasitic caste has helped him politically. It has reinforced his anti-establishment credentials and mobilised resentment among private sector workers and the self-employed. But it has further polarised an already fragmented Argentinian society.
Meanwhile, Congress has been sidelined. Milei’s critics warn of creeping authoritarianism as the president governs increasingly by decree, perhaps most notably by attempting to fill two vacancies of the Supreme Court in February.
Environmental protection and foreign policy have also been reshaped by Milei’s radical agenda. The ministry of environment was among the agencies targeted for elimination. And Milei’s sweeping law of bases bill, which became law in 2024, included provisions to weaken environmental regulations and accelerate extractive industries such as lithium and oil.
Milei dismisses environmental concerns as leftist distractions from economic freedom. This is a stance echoed in his foreign policy, which has seen Argentina pivot away from regional cooperation. He has snubbed neighbours like Brazil, withdrawn from the accession process to the Brics group of nations and has aligned himself more closely with the US, Israel and the global far right.
He frequently rails against “global socialism”, and presents himself as a figurehead of a new anti-globalist movement. This posture appeals to his domestic base and international allies, but has further isolated Argentina diplomatically and eroded longstanding regional ties.
If Badenoch wants to emulate Milei, it raises serious questions about the political and economic future she envisions for Britain. Argentina is currently living through a radical experiment in state destruction. Despite circumstantially winning praise from bond markets and libertarian circles, it has brought pain, polarisation and increasing levels of repression.
For those looking beyond spectacle, Milei’s presidency offers not a blueprint for bold reform, but a cautionary tale about the dangers of governing by chainsaw.
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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Individuals are classified as impoverished when they face deprivation in one-third or more of the indicators in a multidimensional poverty index. The index reflects the various influences on socioeconomic class. These include housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, nutrition and school attendance.
The index is one of the most comprehensive measures of poverty. The fact that the multidimentional index captures multiple dimensions enables it to reflect overlapping disadvantages. And provides a fuller picture of well-being. Other monetary measures such as income aren’t as comprehensive.
In South Africa, it is at around 40%. This means it experiences four in 10 of the dimensions of poverty.
The province of Gauteng is South Africa’s economic hub. Nevertheless it contains pockets of severe deprivation. About 4.6% of households are poor. In some wards up to 68% are severely deprived.
We are social scientists with research histories in food systems and livelihoods, public policy and economics of human capital. We recently conducted a study focused on Gauteng. We wanted to determine what could enable poor and vulnerable households to move out of those categories.
We used a modelling exercise that allowed us to isolate the most relevant factors for this transition.
The study found six factors: education, age, income, working time, medical aid and being a recipient of a low income municipal support grant. We concluded from this that attending to these six variables was the foundation for upward mobility.
Conversely, vulnerability to economic shocks, such as job loss or food insecurity, can trigger rapid downward mobility.
Based on our findings we make eight policy recommendations. These include boosting education and skills training, better healthcare and affordable, reliable transport.
Range of factors
Multidimensional poverty intersects with socioeconomic class structures. It reinforces inequality by placing individuals into hierarchical groups. These range from the affluent and middle class to the transient, vulnerable, and chronically poor.
These disparities shape access to resources, opportunities and upward mobility.
Lower-class households differ from middle-class and affluent (non-poor) households across multiple dimensions. These differences include income stability, consumption patterns, access to services, asset ownership, social capital and vulnerability to shocks.
In the light of this we adopted a multidimensional poverty approach to classify households. We used various dimensions and indicators of poverty to assess the extent of deprivation and associated poverty levels.
We calculated the deprivation score and classified households into three levels: not poor, moderate poverty (vulnerable), and severe poverty (chronically poor).
Working time had the strongest effect. Part- or full-time work greatly lowered odds of severe poverty (chronic poverty) and moderate poverty (transient poverty). Working time refers to the duration that a person is engaged in paid employment or work-related activities. This is usually between 35 and 45 hours per week for full-time employment. And fewer than 35 hours per week for part-time employment.
Some factors only influenced certain groups. For severe poverty, transport access, household health, food parcel reliance, household size, and skipping meals were significant. For moderate poverty, gender, food parcel reliance and skipping meals mattered. And for the vulnerable non-poor (middle class), distance from public transport was the only additional factor.
Social grants and being part of the black population group showed little influence. Transitions and the ability to transcend poverty classes were driven mainly by direct socio-economic factors.
These dynamics underscore the precariousness of low-income households. They also highlight the importance of targeted interventions to break cycles of poverty.
Higher education, stable income and access to full-time work, drastically reduce the odds of remaining in severe or moderate poverty or being vulnerable. Medical aid access and municipal assistance programmes that provide free or subsidised basic services, also serve as protective factors. These help households meet essential health and welfare needs.
However, several structural and socio-economic constraints hinder transitions out of poverty. For example, living a greater distance from public transport increases the likelihood of severe poverty and vulnerability.
Food insecurity, measured by skipping meals or dependence on food parcels, remains a persistent marker of entrenched deprivation.
Gender disparities suggest underlying labour market or social vulnerabilities that require targeted policy interventions. For example, male-headed households are more likely than female-headed households to be moderately poor.
What can be done
Escaping multidimensional poverty in Gauteng requires targeted, practical and complementary interventions. Examples include subsidised transport, decentralised clinics, or housing closer to jobs.
This will enable grants to be translated to improved well-being.
We suggest eight areas for improvement:
access to education, vocational training and digital skills. This will help to increase employment prospects
public works and youth entrepreneurship support. This will boost income generation
social protection like indigent benefits, food vouchers and subsidised medical aid
food security. This can be done through community gardens and nutrition programmes
support for female-headed households and young people
affordable, reliable public transport. Services also need to be decentralised
data-driven municipal planning to guide infrastructure and service investments
consistently tracking progress against defined objectives.
The province implements multiple poverty-reduction initiatives. These include expanded public works, township economy support, food gardens, free basic services, subsidised housing, and public transport projects.
These efforts address income, food security and mobility. But they have limited impact due to persistent barriers. This is because many, particularly young people, don’t have market-relevant skills. In addition, spatial inequality results in long, costly commutes. And housing shortages and rising food prices deepen vulnerability.
Fragmented funding, weak coordination and inadequate data tracking also undermine progress.
Massimiliano Tani receives funding from Australian Research Council (unrelated to this article).
Adrino Mazenda and Catherine Althaus do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The cancellation of most US funding in January means many services to the most vulnerable people have been cut or put on hold.
Multiple political, security and socio-economic crises have led to 5.7 million people suffering from a lack of food and have forced 1.3 million people to flee their homes.
With a dramatic reduction in funding Haiti faces a crucial “turning point.”
UN News spoke to OCHA’s country director, Modibo Traore, about the current situation.
UN News: What is the current state of humanitarian funding in Haiti?
Humanitarian funding in Haiti is going through a critical phase, marked by a growing gap between the needs and available resources. As of 1 July, only around 8 per cent of the $908 million required had been mobilized.
This partial coverage only allows a fraction of the 3.6 million people targeted to be reached.
UN aid agencies continue to support Haitian people with humanitarian aid.
The sectors most affected are food security, access to drinking water, primary healthcare, education and protection.
This contraction in international support is part of a global context of multiple competing crises – Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan – but also reflects a loss of political interest in the Haitian issue.
UN News: What conditions in Haiti have led to such significant funding needs?
The growing humanitarian needs observed in Haiti are the result of an accumulation of structural and cyclical factors. On the socioeconomic front, multidimensional poverty affects a large part of the population.
Haiti’s exposure to natural hazards is an aggravating factor.
The country has experienced several major hurricanes that struck the southern region less than a week after an earthquake that severely affected the area, not to mention repeated droughts that have had a major impact on agriculture and livestock farming.
The downtown area of Port-au-Prince remains extremely dangerous due to gang activity.
Since 2019, a new dimension has emerged; chronic insecurity caused by the proliferation of armed groups, particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and now in the Centre and Artibonite departments.
In 2024, the multidimensional crisis that has been shaking Haiti for years has become catastrophic.
The level of violence and insecurity remains high, with devastating consequences for the population, including massive displacement of people who were already in vulnerable situations.
UN News: How has the growing control of armed groups affected donor confidence?
The rise of armed groups in Haiti and their increasing control of strategic locations, particularly major roads and ports of entry to the capital, is a major obstacle to the safe and efficient delivery of humanitarian aid.
This dynamic has an impact on the risk perception of international donors, who now assess Haiti as a high-threat environment for intervention. Access to beneficiaries has become irregular in many areas.
The deterioration of the security situation represents a major challenge for mobilizing and maintaining financial commitments.
Donors have expressed concerns about operational risks, particularly regarding securing supply chains, preventing exploitation and ensuring accountability.
The operational cost of aid has also increased.
UN News: What is the impact of the new approach taken by the US administration?
On 20 January, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14169, which imposed an immediate suspension of all new foreign funding by US federal agencies, including humanitarian programs run by USAID and multilateral partners.
In the case of Haiti, the effects were felt through the sudden halt of approximately 80 per cent of US-funded programmes. NGO partner staff were laid off, payments were suspended, and supply chains were disrupted.
US food aid is prepared for delivery following floods in Haiti in 2022.
Beyond the structural effects, this suspension created profound uncertainty in the Haitian humanitarian system. This situation not only weakened the continuity of essential services but also affected trust between beneficiary communities and humanitarian actors.
UN News: To what extent is the current situation unprecedented?
The year 2025 marks a turning point in humanitarian aid in Haiti. This crisis is not the result of a single or isolated event, but rather a series of deteriorating situations in the context of gradually waning international attention.
The interruption of US programmes has acted as a catalyst for the crisis. USAID’s technical partners, many of whom managed community health programmes in vulnerable neighbourhoods, have ceased operations, depriving hundreds of thousands of people of vital services.
US-co-funded health centres have closed, leaving pregnant women and children without assistance.
The current crisis demonstrates the country’s growing isolation.
While previous crises had prompted rapid international solidarity, the humanitarian response to the situation in 2025 has been slow and partial.
UN News: What difficult decisions have had to be made regarding cutting aid?
The interruption of funding has forced humanitarian organizations to make ethically complex and often painful trade-offs.
In the area of protection, for example, safe spaces for women and girls have been drastically reduced.
The long-term development of Haiti is at risk as funding decreases.
Cash transfer programmes, widely used in urban areas since 2021, have also been suspended. These programmes enabled vulnerable households to maintain a minimum level of food security. Their suspension has led to a resurgence of coping mechanisms such as child labour, less food and children being taken out of school.
Resilience-building activities have also been affected. Programmes combining food security, urban agriculture, and access to water—often co-financed by USAID and UN funds—have been frozen.
This compromises not only the immediate response but also the development of medium-term solutions.
UN News: How are Haitians being affected?
Children are among the hardest hit. UNICEF and its partners have treated more than 4,600 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, representing only 3.6 per cent of the 129,000 children expected to need treatment this year.
The proportion of institutional maternal deaths has also increased from 250 to 350 per 100,000 live births between February 2022 and April 2025.
A survivor of rape rests at a site for internally displaced people in Port-au-Prince.
In terms of security, the effects are equally worrying. Gender-based sexual violence (GBV) has increased in neighbourhoods controlled by armed groups.
In short, the withdrawal of US funding has led to a multidimensional regression in the rights of women and girls in Haiti, with consequences that are likely to last for several years.
UN News: How have people in Haiti reacted?
Beneficiaries expressed a sense of despair at the sudden suspension of the services.
In working-class neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince as well as in remote rural areas, the cessation of food distributions, community healthcare, and cash transfers was experienced as a breach of the moral contract between communities and humanitarian institutions.
Humanitarian partners communicate transparently about the reduction of support, so communities are, to some extent, aware of the financial constraints.
by Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu OFMConv*Tehran (Agenzia Fides) – More than a month has passed since the ceasefire came into effect, and we are still far from a peace agreement. Everything suggests that, instead of considering negotiations, the parties involved have turned to their own arms suppliers to stock up and prepare for new hostilities.Upon leaving Castel Gandolfo on July 22, Pope Leo addressed journalists and said: “We must encourage everyone to abandon their weapons, as well as the money hidden behind every war.”Analysts who until recently spoke globally of a new Cold War climate are now evoking a Third World War. Unlike the Second World War, this is no longer about territorial conquests based on ideology, but rather about interference in foreign territories with the aim of destabilizing existing regimes.We have moved from a bipolar world—West/Soviet Union—to a monopolized world, dominated by the hegemony of the so-called “free world” in the face of a malignant threat. Today, we are evolving toward a multipolar world, with emerging powers such as those of the BRICS. The world order is, therefore, undergoing a transformation.Israel and Iran accuse each other of being at risk of annihilation. One attacks Jewish Zionism, which oppresses Muslim Palestinians; the other attacks the mullahs’ regime, which threatens Israel’s very existence with its nuclear program. The main source of conflict lies in the ideology that demonizes the other and its supposed ambitions.It is the populations, criminalized by hostile propaganda, who pay the price. Not a day goes by without reports of the deaths of so-called collateral victims.To minimize the impact of this violence, some invoke statistics showing that, unlike in previous wars, the percentage of civilian casualties is lower than in the past, in order to affirm the supposed morality of their armies. Others emphasize the right to reciprocity. These discourses fuel questions about the right to defense and the proportionality of the response.Differentiated deterrence—the supposed monopoly of nuclear weapons on the one hand and the right to defense on the other—does not aim to bring the two sides closer together. Likewise, a premeditated preventive war, justified by a supposedly imminent threat, which could unilaterally impose peace through capitulation or the overthrow of the regime, is not a solution. State terrorism, with its infiltration, violence, or support for certain countries, parties, or ethnic groups, does not lead to peace.In reality, peoples desire to live in peace. But their leaders are mired in enmities that only know the language of weapons. Since 1979, Iran and Israel have no longer had diplomatic relations and remain in a state of tension. For 46 years, there have been no attempts at rapprochement, reconciliation, or peace processes.At the international level, a notable agreement was the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which provided for concessions on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, limited exclusively to civilian use, in exchange for sanctions relief. Iranian officials have not ruled out resuming this agreement, but only if it is fair, in a win-win context.The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) not only prohibits new nations from acquiring nuclear weapons, but also dismantles those that already possess them. States that still possess nuclear arsenals, while maintaining and modernizing them, now avoid referring to them as arsenals, preferring the term “deterrents.”Dag Hammarskjöld’s quote, “The UN was not created to take us to heaven, but to save us from hell,” reminds us that when universal charters are codified, the goal is to prevent conflicts and catastrophes to avoid the worst for humanity.As Immanuel Kant wrote after the Napoleonic Wars in his essay “Toward Perpetual Peace” (Zum ewigen Frieden, 1795): “The state of peace between men living side by side is not a state of nature […]; therefore, the state of peace must be established.” To address the emergencies of the 21st century, Jeffrey Sachs asserts that “the path to peace lies in shared solutions to common problems—climate change, pandemics, poverty—and not in military domination” (Address at the Global Solutions Summit, Berlin, 2021).Just as conflicts affect the world order, peace must be a common interest, not subject to the veto of a few.In “The City of God,” Saint Augustine defines peace as the “tranquility of order” (tranquillitas ordinis). He distinguishes two levels: earthly peace (relative, which Saint Thomas Aquinas defines as “temporary”), as a necessary means for social life to avoid chaos – especially through treaties – and divine peace (absolute and, according to Aquinas, “spiritual”), which constitutes the ultimate goal of humanity and requires spiritual conversion.Jesus, shortly before his passion, reminds us that peace is a gift from God in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Even in suffering and persecution, this peace endures, because it is interior. It comes from union with God. Earthly peace is a reflection and fruit of Christ’s peace.As members of the Church, which, following in Christ’s footsteps, promotes human dignity, justice, and peace, we must be impartial, giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.We must work for peace between the parties, not for the victory of one of them (cf. 2 Cor 5:18), loving the oppressor and the oppressed, without justifying injustice (Jn 3:16). Christians are called to “hate evil” (Rom 12:9) but to “bless its enemies” (Mt 5:44).As peoples of the world, we are all children of God, created in his image. Jews, Christians, Muslims, children of Abraham, have a moral duty to respect one another as brothers and sisters, children of the same Father. Why would we want to fight against the uniqueness of others? Since we turned our weapons against our fellow human beings, these brothers and sisters have lost their value, becoming annihilated enemies. And the consequences affect not only the enemy, but the entire world.The Holy See, in its diplomatic work for peace and reconciliation, explores every possibility to offer a framework for fair negotiations. The universal Church and the local Churches are, as far as possible, instruments of peace and charity, close to all, especially the most vulnerable, without discrimination, and always at their side in prayer. This is an expression of Christian charity and a response to the Gospel call to love one’s neighbor.Pray for the victims: This means asking God to inspire leaders to seek peaceful solutions and avoid war, which can no longer be considered a solution, as its ever-increasing risks outweigh its supposed benefits.The 2025 document Antiqua et Nova reiterates that peace cannot be achieved by force alone, but must be built through patient diplomacy, the active promotion of justice, solidarity, integral human development, and respect for human dignity.Pope Benedict XVI also emphasized in 2006, on the occasion of the 39th World Day of Peace, that peace is a divine gift that demands the responsibility to conform human history to divine order, and that failure to comply with the universal moral law and fundamental human rights prevents the realization of peace. The wounds of Christ are open in today’s world. The risen Jesus, emerging from the tomb, burst into the Upper Room and showed them to the frightened disciples who had locked themselves inside. Now they invite us to open our doors to testify to the world that darkness does not have the last word. (Agenzia Fides, 30/7/2025)*Archbishop of Tehran-Isfahan
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Japan’s embassy in Laos and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a rare and unusually direct advisory, warning Japanese men against “buying sex from children” in Laos.
The move was sparked by Ayako Iwatake, a restaurant owner in Vientiane, who allegedly saw social media posts of Japanese men bragging about child prostitution. In response, she launched a petition calling for government action.
The Japanese-language bulletin makes clear such conduct is prosecutable under both Laotian law and Japan’s child prostitution and pornography law, which applies extraterritorially.
This diplomatic statement was not only a legal warning. It was a rare public acknowledgement of Japanese men’s alleged entanglement in transnational child sex tourism, particularly in Southeast Asia.
It’s also a moment that demands we look beyond individual criminal acts or any one nation and consider the historical, racial and structural inequalities that make such mobility and exploitation possible.
A changing map of exploitation
Selling and buying sex in Asia is nothing new. The contours have shifted over time but the underlying sentiment has remained constant: some lives are cheap and commodified, and some wallets are deep and entitled.
Japan’s involvement in overseas prostitution stretches back to the Meiji period (1868-1912). Young women from impoverished rural regions (known as karayuki-san) migrated abroad, often to Southeast Asia, to work in the sex industry, from port towns in Malaya to brothels in China and the Pacific Islands.
If poverty once pushed Japanese women abroad to sell their bodies, by the second half of the 20th century – fuelled by Japan’s postwar economic boom – it was wealthy Japanese men who began travelling overseas to buy sex.
Around the 2000s, the dynamic flipped again. In South Korea, now a developed economy, men travelled to Southeast Asia – and later to countries such as Russia and Uzbekistan – following routes once taken by Japanese men.
Later in the same period, the flow took an even darker turn.
Japanese and South Korean men began to emerge as major buyers of child sex abroad, particularly across Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and even Mongolia.
According to the United States Department of State, Japanese men continued to be “a significant source of demand for sex tourism”, while South Korean men remained “a source of demand for child sex tourism”.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime and other organisations have also flagged both countries as key contributors to child sexual exploitation in the region.
From exporter to destination: Japan’s new role in the sex trade
A more recent and troubling shift appears to be unfolding within Japan.
Amid ongoing economic stagnation and the depreciation of the yen, Tokyo has reportedly become a destination for inbound sex tourism. Youth protection organisations have observed a notable rise in foreign male clients, particularly Chinese, frequenting areas where teenage girls and young women engage in survival sex.
What ties these movements together is not just culturally specific beliefs, such as the fetishisation of virginity or the superstition that sex with young girls brings good luck in business, but power.
The battle to protect children
The global campaign to end child sex tourism began in earnest with the founding of ECPAT (a global network of organisations that seeks to end the sexual exploitation of children) in 1990 to confront the rising exploitation of children in Southeast Asia.
Several factors converge here: endemic poverty, weak law enforcement and a constant influx of wealthier foreign men. Add to that the digital age of information and communication technologies, where child sex can be advertised, arranged and commodified through encrypted platforms and invitation-only forums, and the crisis deepens.
While local governments often pledge reform, implementation is inconsistent.
Buyers, especially foreign buyers, often manage to evade consequences. However, in early 2025, Japan’s National Police Agency arrested 111 people – including high school teachers and tutors – in a nationwide crackdown on online child sexual exploitation, conducted in coordination with international partners.
Why this moment matters
The shock surrounding the Laos revelations and the unusually direct response from Japanese authorities offers a rare opportunity to confront the deeper systems at work.
Sex tourism doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s enabled by uneven development, transnational mobility, weak regulation and social silence. But this moment also shows grassroots activism can force institutional action.
Japan’s official warning wasn’t triggered by a government audit or diplomatic scandal. It came because Ayako Iwatake saw social media posts of Japanese men boasting about buying sex from children and refused to look away.
When she delivered the petition to the embassy, it responded quickly. Less than ten days later, the Foreign Ministry issued a public warning, clearly outlining the legal consequences of child sex crimes committed abroad.
Iwatake’s action is a reminder: it doesn’t take a government to expose a system. It takes someone willing to speak out – even when it’s uncomfortable. As she told Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun:
It was just too blatant. I couldn’t look the other way.
It’s commendable that Japan acted swiftly. But a warning alone isn’t enough. Japan should strengthen and expand its international cooperation to combat these heinous crimes.
A more decisive model can be seen in a recent case in Vietnam, where US authorities infiltrated a livestream child sex abuse network for the first time in that country. Working undercover for months, they coordinated with Vietnamese officials to arrest a mother who had been sexually abusing her daughter on demand for paying viewers abroad.
The rescue of the nine-year-old victim showed what serious cross-border intervention looks like.
But for every headline-grabbing scandal, there are hundreds of untold stories.
The Laos case should be the beginning of a broader reckoning with how sex, money and power move across borders – and who pays the price.
Ming Gao receives funding from the Swedish Research Council. This research was produced with support from the Swedish Research Council grant “Moved Apart” (nr. 2022-01864). Ming Gao is a member of Lund University Profile Area: Human Rights.
The NGO Coalition on Human Rights in Fiji has sharply criticised the Fiji government’s stance over Israel’s genocide in Gaza, saying it “starkly contrasts” with the United Nations and international community’s condemnation as a violation of international law and an impediment to peace.
In a statement today, the NGO Coalition said that the way the government was responding to the genocide and war crimes in Gaza would set a precedent for how it would deal with crises and conflict in future.
It would be a marker for human rights responses both at home and the rest of the world.
“We are now seeing whether our country will be a force that works to uphold human rights and international law, or one that tramples on them whenever convenient,” the statement said.
“Fiji’s position on the genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestinians starkly contrasts with the values of justice, freedom, and international law that the Fijian people hold dear.
“The genocide and colonial occupation have been widely recognised by the international community, including the United Nations, as a violation of international law and an impediment to peace and the self-determination of the Palestinian people.”
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would formally recognise the state of Palestine — the first of G7 countries to do so — at the UN general Assembly in September.
142 countries recognise Palestine At least 142 countries out of the 193 members of the UN currently recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state, including European Union members Norway, Ireland, Spain and Slovenia.
However, several powerful Western countries have refused to do so, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.
At the UN this week, Saudi Arabia and France opened a three-day conference with the goal of recognising Palestinian statehood as part of a peaceful settlement to end the war in Gaza.
Last year, Fiji’s coalition government submitted a written statement in support of the Israeli genocidal occupation of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, noted the NGO coalition.
Last month, Fiji’s coalition government again voted against a UN General Assembly resolution that demanded an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Also recently, the Fiji government approved the allocation of $1.12 million to establish an embassy “in the genocidal terror state of Israel as Fijians grapple with urgent issues, including poverty, violence against women and girls, deteriorating water and health infrastructure, drug use, high rates of HIV, poor educational outcomes, climate change, and unfair wages for workers”.
Met with ‘indifference’ The NGO coalition said that it had made repeated requests to the Fiji government to “do the bare minimum and enforce the basic tenets of international law on Israel”.
“We have been calling upon the Fiji government to uphold the principles of peace, justice, and human rights that our nation cherishes,” the statement said.
“We campaigned, we lobbied, we engaged, and we explained. We showed the evidence, pointed to the law, and asked our leaders to do the right thing.
“We’ve been met with nothing but indifference.”
Instead, said the NGO statement, Fiji leaders had met with Israeli government representatives and declared support for a country “committing the most heinous crimes” recognised in international law.
“Fijian leaders and the Fiji government should not be supporting Israel or setting up an embassy in Israel while Israel continues to bomb refugee tents, kill journalists and medics, and block the delivery of humanitarian aid to a population under relentless siege.
“No politician in Fiji can claim ignorance of what is happening.”
“Many more have been maimed, traumatised, and displaced. Starvation is being used by Israel as weapon to kill babies and children.
“Hospitals, churches, mosques,, refugee camps, schools, universities, residential neighbourhoods, water and food facilities have been destroyed.
“History will judge how we respond as Fijians to this moment.
“Our rich cultural heritage and shared values teach us the importance of always standing up for what is right, even when it is not popular or convenient.”
Members of the Fiji NGO Coalition on Human Rights are Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (chair), Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Citizens’ Constitutional Forum, femLINKpacific, Social Empowerment and Education Programme, and Diverse Voices and Action (DIVA) for Equality Fiji.
Also, Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) is an observer.
The NGO coalition said it stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people out of a shared belief in humanity, justice, and the inalienable human rights of every individual.
“Silence is not an option,” it added.
Fijians for Palestine Solidarity Network said it supported this NGO coalition statement.
The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities has expressed concern over the pervasive “hidden crisis” of domestic and intimate partner violence, which is highlighted in a Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) report.
Conducted in 2024, the report revealed that one in three women in South Africa have experienced physical intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
“These are not just numbers; they represent the lived realities of millions of women, who endure suffering behind closed doors,” department spokesperson, Cassius Selala said on Monday.
The study also highlighted higher victimisation among black African women and women with disabilities.
While national statistics indicate a drop in overall violent crime during the second quarter of 2024, gender-based violence (GBV) crimes continue to rise.
According to the report, between July and September 2024, 957 women were murdered, 1 567 survived attempted murders, and 14 366 were assaulted, resulting in grievous bodily harm. In addition, 10 191 cases of rape were reported during this period.
Selala said intimate domestic violence manifests in various forms, often intertwined and escalating over time – ranging from physical and sexual abuse to emotional, psychological, and economic or financial.
He said recognising these different types of abuse is a critical step in addressing the problem.
Selala also warned that the impact of intimate domestic violence extends far beyond physical injuries, and victims often experience a range of severe and long-lasting consequences.
“The greatest achievements in women’s economic progress in recent decades are potentially being eroded by domestic violence. Intimate domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behaviours used by one partner to maintain power and control over another in an intimate relationship.
“This violence is not limited to physical harm; it encompasses a range of coercive and controlling actions that can leave deep and lasting scars,” Selala said.
Globally, the World Health Organisation estimates that one in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most often at the hands of an intimate partner. In South Africa, the figures are particularly grim.
At the end of 2024, the HSRC released the First South African National Gender-Based Violence Study, which detailed the prevalence of physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and economic violence experienced by women in all nine provinces.
To discuss some of the survey’s findings, the HSRC recently hosted a webinar titled: ‘Addressing poverty and inequality as drivers of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) perpetrated against vulnerable populations in South Africa: The importance of economic empowerment interventions’.
The webinar focused on poverty and inequality as drivers of gender-based violence and femicide perpetrated against women, including women with disabilities, women from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) community, black African women, and older women (over the age of 60). – SAnews.gov.za
Populism is rife in various African countries. This political ideology responds to and takes advantage of a situation where a large section of people feels exploited, marginalised or disempowered. It sets up “the people” against “the other”. It promises solidarity with the excluded by addressing their grievances. Populism targets broad social groups, operating across ethnicity and class.
But how does populism fare when it informs state interventions to address long-standing societal issues under capitalism? Do populist state measures – especially when launched by a politically powerful leader – deliver improvements for the stated beneficiaries?
As academics who have researched populism for years, we were interested in the implementation and outcomes of such policies and programmes. To answer these questions, we analysed a populist intervention by President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda to address rampant land conflicts. In 2013 he set out to halt land evictions.
What good came of this? Did it help the poor?
We analysed land laws, court cases, government statements and media reports and found that, for the most part, the intervention offered short-term relief. Some people returned to the land, but the underlying land conflict was unresolved.
This created problems that continue to be felt today, including land disputes and land tenure insecurity. The intervention also increased the involvement of the president and his agents personally in providing justice.
It didn’t make pro-poor structural changes to address the root of the problem.
Yet, the intervention had several political benefits:
it enhanced the political legitimacy of the president and state
it offered a politically useful response to a land-related crisis and conflict
it addressed broader criticisms over injustice and poverty by sections of the public and opposition leaders, some of whom (like Robert Kyagulanyi) also relied on populist rhetoric.
The promise to deal with land evictions “once and for all” has yet to be realised over a decade later. During Heroes Day celebrations on 9 June 2024, Museveni’s speech repeated his promise to stop evictions.
Such promises of getting a grip on and ending evictions via decisive state actions, including proposed new legal guidelines, were also made more recently, for example during Heroes Day 2025. This indicates that evictions – and state responses to them – remain a top issue on the political agenda ahead of Uganda’s 2026 election.
Persistent evictions
Evictions were rampant in the 2010s, especially in central Uganda’s Buganda region. They were driven by increased demand for land amid a growing population and legal reforms that seemed to protect tenants over landlords. Some landlords, desperate to free their land of tenants, were carrying out the evictions themselves.
In response, Museveni set up a land committee within the presidency. He announced at a press conference in early 2013 that:
all evictions are halted. There will be no more evictions, especially in the rural areas. All evictions involving peasants are halted.
The dynamics of populism-in-practice
Museveni’s attempts to personally deal with evictions illustrate a continued power shift in Uganda, from institutions to the president’s executive units.
Despite its shortcomings, such as case backlogs, the judicial system offers an opportunity to present cases in a more neutral environment. It also allows parties to appeal decisions. This way, higher courts can correct errors where necessary.
The presidential land committee, we found, tended to be biased in favour of tenants, paying less attention to the landlords’ cases.
The president’s intervention wasn’t adequate to address the immediate causes and effects of the evictions, nor the root causes.
Those included land tenure insecurities. Due to legal reforms, land-rich landlords were unable to get rent at market value from tenants. Neither could they evict them lawfully where rent was in arrears.
In some cases, legal options such as land sales between landlords and tenants were applied. This was often to the detriment of tenants, especially where there was no neutral actor to oversee negotiations.
Land reforms need to be institutionalised and funded to deliver the intended outcomes. Otherwise, unlawful sales and evictions become a quick option for landlords.
Museveni’s populist initiative also unleashed new problems for beneficiaries. Some secured land occupancy in the interim but lived in fear of a relapse of conflict. Mistrust and scarred interpersonal relationships hampered cohesion in some communities. Disputes over land put political actors who would ideally be working together to restore calm at loggerheads.
Populism as power
The creation of populist presidential units has become routine in Uganda. More recently, Museveni created a unit to protect investors, which has resolved some investment-related land disputes. Another one was established to fight corruption. Both units remain very active.
Our research finds that the government needs these units and interventions for a number of reasons. It uses them to govern the country’s conflict-ridden economy and society. They allow the government to assemble a politically useful response to crises and to address some on-the-ground problems. They make the state look concerned and responsive to people’s needs. And they allow ruling party political actors to increase their popularity locally.
Museveni and his ruling party, the National Resistance Movement, therefore, benefit from a key aspect of populism. It allows the merging of disparate, competing and contradictory views, interests and demands of members of various societal classes and groups into a significantly simplified and uniform narrative that (potentially) speaks to all. This could mean: end corruption, end evictions, wealth for all, and so on.
A general election is due in early 2026. The steps Museveni has taken on evictions, and the units set up to fight corruption or protect investors, need to be seen with this political context in mind.
Museveni has put protecting people from evictions high on his government’s agenda. Speaking to party members in August 2024, he emphasised
the importance of adhering to the mass line, which prioritises the needs and rights of the masses over those of the elite.
In our view, this pre-election narrative signifies the continued political and social relevance of populism in today’s Uganda. This could result in heightened populist state activity in the run-up to and after the election.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ken Pang, Senior Principal Research Fellow and Group Leader, Transgender Health Research Group, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Gender clinics provide multidisciplinary care that helps trans people to explore and affirm their gender identity.
The number of adolescents referred to gender clinics has increased worldwide in recent years, especially among those who were assigned female at birth.
This has prompted claims that “social contagion” is driving young people – and in particular, teenagers who were assigned female at birth – to identify as trans and seek medical care.
Despite its lack of evidence, the social contagion theory has been used by critics to help fuel an international backlash against adolescent gender care.
In the United States, more than half of all states have enacted laws or policies limiting access to gender care for those under 18 years.
In the United Kingdom, laws now prohibit transgender young people under 18 from starting puberty blockers.
Evidence has now emerged of the adverse consequences of these laws in both the US and UK. This includes sharp declines in mental health and increased suicide attempts among transgender young people.
This decision was made even though a 2024 independent evaluation found that gender care in Queensland is safe and evidence-based and recommended that service capacity be increased.
Trans people seek gender care at different stages of their lives
We used data from publicly funded gender clinics in Melbourne and Amsterdam across a three-year period between 2016 and 2019. The Amsterdam and Melbourne services received 2,044 and 1,903 referrals respectively.
We found remarkably similar results in both countries. The majority of adolescent referrals (around 70%) were for trans boys and non-binary people assigned female at birth. However, among adults, this observation was flipped, with the majority of adult referrals being for individuals assigned male at birth.
Specifically, 55% of referrals of those aged in their 20s were for individuals assigned male at birth. This grew every subsequent decade, reaching around 80% for those in their 50s and beyond.
What do these findings mean?
Previous surveys from Sweden, Belgium and the United States indicate the proportion of people assigned male and female at birth who are transgender is roughly equal.
Assuming these two groups share a similar desire to access gender clinics, you would expect the number of referrals to be around the same over the course of a lifetime.
Our new findings are consistent with this expectation but the likelihood of referral to gender clinics seems to be influenced by both the sex a person was assigned at birth, as well as their age. While those assigned female at birth are more likely seek referral as adolescents, those assigned male “catch up” in later years.
So rather than an over-representation of those assigned female at birth, adolescent referral patterns most likely reflect an under-representation of assigned males.
Why is this happening?
Trans misogyny is a unique type of discrimination trans girls and women face. It combines transphobia, the hatred for and discrimination against trans people, with misogyny, the prejudice and contempt towards women.
The impact of trans misogyny is far-reaching. During adolescence, trans girls experience higher rates of bullying and victimisation than trans boys and cisgender peers.
Faced with such daunting prospects, it seems much harder for trans girls to reveal their gender identity as adolescents at an already uncertain time of their lives.
These new findings suggest we need to do more to support trans adolescents. Rather than being driven by the fear of “social contagion”, we must instead recognise and address the challenges trans adolescents, and specifically trans girls and women, face.
This article was co-authored by Freya Kahn, a paediatrician working on research projects at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Ken Pang receives research funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund. He is a member of the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and the editorial board of the journal, Transgender Health.
Anja Ravine has paid membership of the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health.
Populism is rife in various African countries. This political ideology responds to and takes advantage of a situation where a large section of people feels exploited, marginalised or disempowered. It sets up “the people” against “the other”. It promises solidarity with the excluded by addressing their grievances. Populism targets broad social groups, operating across ethnicity and class.
But how does populism fare when it informs state interventions to address long-standing societal issues under capitalism? Do populist state measures – especially when launched by a politically powerful leader – deliver improvements for the stated beneficiaries?
As academics who have researched populism for years, we were interested in the implementation and outcomes of such policies and programmes. To answer these questions, we analysed a populist intervention by President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda to address rampant land conflicts. In 2013 he set out to halt land evictions.
What good came of this? Did it help the poor?
We analysed land laws, court cases, government statements and media reports and found that, for the most part, the intervention offered short-term relief. Some people returned to the land, but the underlying land conflict was unresolved.
This created problems that continue to be felt today, including land disputes and land tenure insecurity. The intervention also increased the involvement of the president and his agents personally in providing justice.
It didn’t make pro-poor structural changes to address the root of the problem.
Yet, the intervention had several political benefits:
it enhanced the political legitimacy of the president and state
it offered a politically useful response to a land-related crisis and conflict
it addressed broader criticisms over injustice and poverty by sections of the public and opposition leaders, some of whom (like Robert Kyagulanyi) also relied on populist rhetoric.
The promise to deal with land evictions “once and for all” has yet to be realised over a decade later. During Heroes Day celebrations on 9 June 2024, Museveni’s speech repeated his promise to stop evictions.
Such promises of getting a grip on and ending evictions via decisive state actions, including proposed new legal guidelines, were also made more recently, for example during Heroes Day 2025. This indicates that evictions – and state responses to them – remain a top issue on the political agenda ahead of Uganda’s 2026 election.
Persistent evictions
Evictions were rampant in the 2010s, especially in central Uganda’s Buganda region. They were driven by increased demand for land amid a growing population and legal reforms that seemed to protect tenants over landlords. Some landlords, desperate to free their land of tenants, were carrying out the evictions themselves.
In response, Museveni set up a land committee within the presidency. He announced at a press conference in early 2013 that:
all evictions are halted. There will be no more evictions, especially in the rural areas. All evictions involving peasants are halted.
The dynamics of populism-in-practice
Museveni’s attempts to personally deal with evictions illustrate a continued power shift in Uganda, from institutions to the president’s executive units.
Despite its shortcomings, such as case backlogs, the judicial system offers an opportunity to present cases in a more neutral environment. It also allows parties to appeal decisions. This way, higher courts can correct errors where necessary.
The presidential land committee, we found, tended to be biased in favour of tenants, paying less attention to the landlords’ cases.
The president’s intervention wasn’t adequate to address the immediate causes and effects of the evictions, nor the root causes.
Those included land tenure insecurities. Due to legal reforms, land-rich landlords were unable to get rent at market value from tenants. Neither could they evict them lawfully where rent was in arrears.
In some cases, legal options such as land sales between landlords and tenants were applied. This was often to the detriment of tenants, especially where there was no neutral actor to oversee negotiations.
Land reforms need to be institutionalised and funded to deliver the intended outcomes. Otherwise, unlawful sales and evictions become a quick option for landlords.
Museveni’s populist initiative also unleashed new problems for beneficiaries. Some secured land occupancy in the interim but lived in fear of a relapse of conflict. Mistrust and scarred interpersonal relationships hampered cohesion in some communities. Disputes over land put political actors who would ideally be working together to restore calm at loggerheads.
Populism as power
The creation of populist presidential units has become routine in Uganda. More recently, Museveni created a unit to protect investors, which has resolved some investment-related land disputes. Another one was established to fight corruption. Both units remain very active.
Our research finds that the government needs these units and interventions for a number of reasons. It uses them to govern the country’s conflict-ridden economy and society. They allow the government to assemble a politically useful response to crises and to address some on-the-ground problems. They make the state look concerned and responsive to people’s needs. And they allow ruling party political actors to increase their popularity locally.
Museveni and his ruling party, the National Resistance Movement, therefore, benefit from a key aspect of populism. It allows the merging of disparate, competing and contradictory views, interests and demands of members of various societal classes and groups into a significantly simplified and uniform narrative that (potentially) speaks to all. This could mean: end corruption, end evictions, wealth for all, and so on.
A general election is due in early 2026. The steps Museveni has taken on evictions, and the units set up to fight corruption or protect investors, need to be seen with this political context in mind.
Museveni has put protecting people from evictions high on his government’s agenda. Speaking to party members in August 2024, he emphasised
the importance of adhering to the mass line, which prioritises the needs and rights of the masses over those of the elite.
In our view, this pre-election narrative signifies the continued political and social relevance of populism in today’s Uganda. This could result in heightened populist state activity in the run-up to and after the election.
– Uganda’s land eviction crisis: do populist state measures actually fix problems? – https://theconversation.com/ugandas-land-eviction-crisis-do-populist-state-measures-actually-fix-problems-260512
Populism is rife in various African countries. This political ideology responds to and takes advantage of a situation where a large section of people feels exploited, marginalised or disempowered. It sets up “the people” against “the other”. It promises solidarity with the excluded by addressing their grievances. Populism targets broad social groups, operating across ethnicity and class.
But how does populism fare when it informs state interventions to address long-standing societal issues under capitalism? Do populist state measures – especially when launched by a politically powerful leader – deliver improvements for the stated beneficiaries?
As academics who have researched populism for years, we were interested in the implementation and outcomes of such policies and programmes. To answer these questions, we analysed a populist intervention by President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda to address rampant land conflicts. In 2013 he set out to halt land evictions.
What good came of this? Did it help the poor?
We analysed land laws, court cases, government statements and media reports and found that, for the most part, the intervention offered short-term relief. Some people returned to the land, but the underlying land conflict was unresolved.
This created problems that continue to be felt today, including land disputes and land tenure insecurity. The intervention also increased the involvement of the president and his agents personally in providing justice.
It didn’t make pro-poor structural changes to address the root of the problem.
Yet, the intervention had several political benefits:
it enhanced the political legitimacy of the president and state
it offered a politically useful response to a land-related crisis and conflict
it addressed broader criticisms over injustice and poverty by sections of the public and opposition leaders, some of whom (like Robert Kyagulanyi) also relied on populist rhetoric.
The promise to deal with land evictions “once and for all” has yet to be realised over a decade later. During Heroes Day celebrations on 9 June 2024, Museveni’s speech repeated his promise to stop evictions.
Such promises of getting a grip on and ending evictions via decisive state actions, including proposed new legal guidelines, were also made more recently, for example during Heroes Day 2025. This indicates that evictions – and state responses to them – remain a top issue on the political agenda ahead of Uganda’s 2026 election.
Persistent evictions
Evictions were rampant in the 2010s, especially in central Uganda’s Buganda region. They were driven by increased demand for land amid a growing population and legal reforms that seemed to protect tenants over landlords. Some landlords, desperate to free their land of tenants, were carrying out the evictions themselves.
In response, Museveni set up a land committee within the presidency. He announced at a press conference in early 2013 that:
all evictions are halted. There will be no more evictions, especially in the rural areas. All evictions involving peasants are halted.
The dynamics of populism-in-practice
Museveni’s attempts to personally deal with evictions illustrate a continued power shift in Uganda, from institutions to the president’s executive units.
Despite its shortcomings, such as case backlogs, the judicial system offers an opportunity to present cases in a more neutral environment. It also allows parties to appeal decisions. This way, higher courts can correct errors where necessary.
The presidential land committee, we found, tended to be biased in favour of tenants, paying less attention to the landlords’ cases.
The president’s intervention wasn’t adequate to address the immediate causes and effects of the evictions, nor the root causes.
Those included land tenure insecurities. Due to legal reforms, land-rich landlords were unable to get rent at market value from tenants. Neither could they evict them lawfully where rent was in arrears.
In some cases, legal options such as land sales between landlords and tenants were applied. This was often to the detriment of tenants, especially where there was no neutral actor to oversee negotiations.
Land reforms need to be institutionalised and funded to deliver the intended outcomes. Otherwise, unlawful sales and evictions become a quick option for landlords.
Museveni’s populist initiative also unleashed new problems for beneficiaries. Some secured land occupancy in the interim but lived in fear of a relapse of conflict. Mistrust and scarred interpersonal relationships hampered cohesion in some communities. Disputes over land put political actors who would ideally be working together to restore calm at loggerheads.
Populism as power
The creation of populist presidential units has become routine in Uganda. More recently, Museveni created a unit to protect investors, which has resolved some investment-related land disputes. Another one was established to fight corruption. Both units remain very active.
Our research finds that the government needs these units and interventions for a number of reasons. It uses them to govern the country’s conflict-ridden economy and society. They allow the government to assemble a politically useful response to crises and to address some on-the-ground problems. They make the state look concerned and responsive to people’s needs. And they allow ruling party political actors to increase their popularity locally.
Museveni and his ruling party, the National Resistance Movement, therefore, benefit from a key aspect of populism. It allows the merging of disparate, competing and contradictory views, interests and demands of members of various societal classes and groups into a significantly simplified and uniform narrative that (potentially) speaks to all. This could mean: end corruption, end evictions, wealth for all, and so on.
A general election is due in early 2026. The steps Museveni has taken on evictions, and the units set up to fight corruption or protect investors, need to be seen with this political context in mind.
Museveni has put protecting people from evictions high on his government’s agenda. Speaking to party members in August 2024, he emphasised
the importance of adhering to the mass line, which prioritises the needs and rights of the masses over those of the elite.
In our view, this pre-election narrative signifies the continued political and social relevance of populism in today’s Uganda. This could result in heightened populist state activity in the run-up to and after the election.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Chief Executive John Lee today led 21 principal officials in attending the 2025 Policy Address District Forum to gather views and suggestions form members of the community ahead of the current-term Government’s fourth Policy Address.
Held at Ma Tau Chung Government Primary School (Hung Hom Bay), the forum was attended by about 120 people from different backgrounds.
The two-hour forum consisted of two sessions. In the first, the Chief Executive and principal officials listened to the views of members of the public. Matters raised straddled land and housing; transport; innovation and technology; financial services; culture and sports; education; youth issues, poverty alleviation; healthcare; and social welfare.
In the second session, community participants, divided into four groups, focused on “pursuing development and economic growth” and “improving people’s livelihood and building our future together” as they engaged in extensive exchanges with the Chief Executive and the officials. Mr Lee also held discussions in turn with each of the groups and listened to their views.
He said: “There are issues that members of the public care deeply about, so I attach great importance to district consultations.
“These views will let me have a better grasp on formulating policies and allocation of resources when I prepare the Policy Address.”
Principal Officials attending today’s event included Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki; Financial Secretary Paul Chan; Secretary for Justice Paul Lam; Deputy Chief Secretary Cheuk Wing-hing; Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong; Deputy Secretary for Justice Cheung Kwok-kwan; Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang; Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Christopher Hui; Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung; Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan; Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Algernon Yau; Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau; Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn; Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho; Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung; Secretary for Innovation, Technology & Industry Prof Sun Dong; Secretary for Home & Youth Affairs Alice Mak; Secretary for Labour & Welfare Chris Sun; Secretary for Transport & Logistics Mable Chan; Secretary for Culture, Sports & Tourism Rosanna Law; and Acting Secretary for Education Sze Chun-fai.
The Government said it will continue to gather input from a wide variety of organisations and individuals over the coming month through consultation sessions and district visits. Members of the public can also give their views via the Policy Address website, social media platforms, hotlines, email, fax and post.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Cesar Martins, executive vice president of Sao Paulo State University, speaks at the second China-Latin American and Caribbean States Roundtable on Human Rights in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 25, 2025. Experts from China and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) exchanged their views on human rights development cooperation and the China-Latin America contribution to global governance at a meeting held here Friday. The second China-Latin American and Caribbean States Roundtable on Human Rights, themed China-Latin American and Caribbean States Community with a Shared Future and the Development of Human Rights, brought together over 130 officials, experts, and representatives from social organizations, think tanks and media in the field of human rights. (Photo by Paulo Lopes/Xinhua)
Experts from China and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) exchanged their views on human rights development cooperation and the China-Latin America contribution to global governance at a meeting held here Friday.
The second China-Latin American and Caribbean States Roundtable on Human Rights, themed China-Latin American and Caribbean States Community with a Shared Future and the Development of Human Rights, brought together over 130 officials, experts, and representatives from social organizations, think tanks and media in the field of human rights.
Wang Yanwen, deputy secretary-general of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, urged more China-LAC cooperation in human rights research, advocating ethical digital technology use, green development, and more equitable global human rights governance.
Zhang Donggang, chairman of the University Council of Renmin University of China, called for China-LAC collaboration in human rights through cultural exchange, experience-sharing, and joint governance, contributing to global solutions.
Cesar Martins, executive vice president of Sao Paulo State University, said that the event showcases how China and LAC nations, despite cultural differences, can cooperate for people’s welfare while setting a global example through civilizational exchange.
Chinese Consul General in Sao Paulo Yu Peng noted that China and LAC countries, as rising global forces, should build a shared future and enhance human rights cooperation to jointly tackle challenges and advance global human rights progress.
Shaira Downs, member of the National Assembly of Nicaragua, pledged to collaborate with China and LAC partners to defend sovereignty, peace, and human dignity.
Arley Gill, chairman of Grenada’s National Reparations Committee, linked developing nations’ progress to human rights protection, praised China’s poverty alleviation and healthcare advances, and sought stronger bilateral cooperation on human rights safeguards.
The roundtable was co-organized by the China Society for Human Rights Studies, Renmin University of China, and Sao Paulo State University, with the collaboration of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China and the Institute of Public Policy and International Relations at Sao Paulo State University.
The forum published the Sao Paulo Consensus on China-Latin American and the Caribbean States Human Rights Communication and Cooperation, and launched the China-Latin American and Caribbean States Human Rights Research and Cooperation Network.
