Decent Work & Economic Growth

Photo: Santosa island and Singapore harbour one of the busiest ports in the world. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS

Globalization of Job Market Riles Singapore Locals

By Kainga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – The small Southeast Asian island republic of Singapore has been praised by both global business leaders and the international media for its openness to global trade and professional talent movements. It has made this nation of just over 4 million people – 1 million of who are foreigner – one of the richest nations in the world on a per-capita basis.

But, the open economic policy that has led to this may have run its course with locals becoming increasingly resentful of having to compete with “foreign talent” for jobs.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 19 January 2020

Photo: Ola Henrikson, IOM’s Regional Director for the EU, has asked Croatia – which assumed the six-month rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) – on 1 January 2020, to encourage any discussion on migration policy as a positive contribution of migrants for inclusive growth and sustainable development, including within the EU. Credit: European Union

New Research Pleads for Recognizing Contribution of African Migrants To Sustainable Development

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – A new set of European Commissioners has taken office in Brussels. The main migration focus of the previous cabinet of Commissioners was halting migration – which led to deals with third countries on stopping and returning refugees and migrants. People evacuated from Libya, for example, are brought to Niger and Rwanda, where they are processed before those successfully registered as refugees are taken to Europe – often after long processes filled with uncertainty.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 18 January 2020

Ghana’s Year of Return Brings Call to Broaden Scope

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – When Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo pronounced 2019 as the Year of Return, his words resounded with warmth and joy to all people of African descent.

So began a year-long calendar of events including concerts, art shows, visits to heritage sites, fashion shows, movie premieres and creative economy and trade conferences, organized on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of African slaves in America.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 15 January 2020

Photo: A child stands in front of his house in Cayapas, Ecuador. In this area community schools have been set up by UNICEF in partnership with the local Catholic church, to provide basic quality education to children living in this remote area, where the vast majority of the population is Afro-descendant. Credit: UNICEF | Donata Lodi.

UN Working Group Condemns Racial Discrimination of Ecuadorians of African Descent

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – Independent experts of a UN Working Group are “deeply concerned about the human rights situation of people of African descent” in Ecuador. After an official visit, a follow-up of a similar mission in 2009, the experts said, despite the progressive provisions of the Constitution, recognition of the collective rights of people of African descent and several other positive measures, “there has not yet been effective implementation and enforcement of laws and policy to protect the rights of people of African descent”.

: Jaya Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 26 December 2019

Photo: Child labor in the mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Credit: UNICEF

Five Tech Giants Linked To ‘Cruel and Brutal Use of Children’ In Congo Mines

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Do kids work in coal mines?

In 1910, an estimated 2 million American children under the age of 15 were working in factories and mines for low wages and long shifts. Photographs by Lewis Hine of New York revealed the depraved exploitation of children, some as young as 8 years of age, in fields and in mines. Child labor was finally outlawed in 1938.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 17 December 2019

Photo: Youth activists occupied on December 11, the plenary hall in a symbolical act aimed to make clear that the climate negotiations are falling drastically behind what science demands be done to avoid the worst-case scenarios of the climate crisis. Credit: Nina Cordero / LatinClima.

Youth Call for Human Rights to Be at The Core of Climate Talks

By Fabíola Ortiz

MADRID (IDN) – The youth and human rights activists have been emphasizing since the start of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) on December 2 the pressing need of placing people in the centre of climate action. Spearheaded by the social movement ‘Fridays for Future’ initiated by the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, the youth been calling for social participation in the decision-making process and the re-shaping of national climate commitments to align with youth’s aspirations.

: Fabiola Ortiz; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 12 December 2019

Photo: An unidentified fisherman. Credit: Juma Mtanda.

Sex Bait Threatens Women’s Lives in Much of Africa

By Kizito Makoye

LUDEWA, Tanzania (IDN) – It’s almost midday in Nsisi – a fishing village nestled on the shore of Lake Nyasa – and Lucy Gwamaka is busy unfurling a canvas to dry her sardines in the sun.

For the 33-year-old mother of three, life is a daily struggle. Her wrinkled face and sun-parched skin makes her look older than her age.

Distraught and cash-strapped, Gwamaka has been grappling to make ends meet ever since her husband died four years ago after a short battle with malaria.

: Africa & ME Editor; Afrca; 05 September 2019

Collage: A glimpse of Choldala in Southern Kazakhstan. Photos by Kalinga Seneviratne, IDN-INPS

Costly City Housing Threatens Farming in Southern Kazakhstan

By Milena Melnikova*

CHOLDALA, Southern Kazakhstan (IDN) – "I work six days a week, like my wife. I can sometimes take extra hours, and she takes work home. We don’t have time to grow something or raise cattle," says Andrei Pan, who has been living in Choldala about 580 miles (or 933 km) south of the country's capital town Nur-Sultan for the past six years. He and his family moved from the nearby city Of Taraz in 2013 after numerous attempts to find affordable housing there.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; CENTRAL ASIA; 09 August 2019

Image source: OpEd in The Hindu – For a malnutrition-free India

Stunting a Hurdle to Sustainable Development in India

By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE (IDN) – India’s needs to redouble its efforts to reduce stunting among its children not only because this would improve their mental and physical development, learning capacity and life chances but also, to meet the 2022 deadline set by its National Nutrition Mission and enable the world to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

According to India’s National Family Health Service-3 and 4 (NFHS-3 and 4) figures, the proportion of its children under five years of age that are stunted declined from 48% in 2006 to 38% in 2016. While the decadal decline is significant, the reduction per year was just 1%.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 August 2019

South African Miners Win Compensation for Lung Diseases

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – A Johannesburg High Court has approved a pioneering 5 billion rand ($353 million) "class action" settlement on behalf of miners who contracted tuberculosis, silicosis and other chronic lung diseases through their work in the mines.

A class action, also known as a class action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member of that group.