News headlines in May 2018, page 7

UNITED NATIONS, May 07 (IPS) - Patrick Keuleers is Director, Governance and Peace Building, UNDPSince the beginning of the year the world has witnessed 24 national elections in which nearly 100 million people cast their votes. All together in 2018, there will be a total of 68 planned electoral processes in 45 countries ranging from presidential and legislative to local elections. Elections remain one of the key democratic processes through which people express their opinion on the way their country and communities are managed.

BANGKOK, Thailand, May 07 (IPS) - Mobilizing finance for sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth.Asia and the Pacific remains the engine of the global economy. It continues to power trade, investment and jobs the world over. Two thirds of the region's economies grew faster in 2017 than the previous year and the trend is expected to continue in 2018. The region's challenge is now to ensure this growth is robust, sustainable and mobilised to provide more financing for development. It is certainly an opportunity to accelerate progress towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

STOCKHOLM, May 07 (IPS) - Africa has long been one of the world's most beleaguered continents – singled out mostly for its conflicts, political and economic instability, rising poverty and hunger, inequalities and its environmental challenges.And in international circles, it is described as "Afro-pessimism."

May 07 (IPS) - Fares al Badwan moved to Buenos Aires alone, from Syria, in 2011. He was 17 years old then and the armed conflict in his country had just broken out. Since then he has managed to bring over his whole family and today he cannot imagine living outside of Argentina. "I like the people here. No one makes you feel like a foreigner," he said.

RUSAPE, Zimbabwe, May 07 (IPS) - Every year, Amos Chandiringa, 43, a farmer in Nemaire village in Makoni district in northeastern Zimbabwe, laboriously waters his tobacco nursery with a watering can. The toil of the job often leaves him without the energy or time to do other household chores.

NANTERRE, France, May 05 (IPS) - "It's good to be in Paris on a sunny May day and see many universities occupied … and the strikes against neo-liberalism," declared British Pakistani writer and activist Tariq Ali at an event in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on May 3. "That's very pleasing."

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 04 (IPS) - Jan Eliasson* is Chairman of the Governing Board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Four months ago UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a "red alert", noting that instead of progressing towards greater peace, the world had moved in reverse towards deepening conflicts and new dangers: "Global anxieties about nuclear weapons are the highest since the Cold War.

WASHINGTON DC, May 04 (IPS) - Sanam Naraghi Anderlini is Co-Founder & Executive Director, International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)New York and Washington DC may be three hours apart geographically, but in global affairs, they are worlds apart. With the wars in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere unabating, at the UN in New York, terms like ‘conflict prevention' and ‘sustaining peace' are back in vogue, with world leaders attending a major summit. Meanwhile in Washington while the talks with North Korea took center stage behind the scenes the drum roll of war against Iran is revving up.

UNITED NATIONS, May 04 (IPS) - Dr. Natalia Kanem is a United Nations Under-Secretary-General & Executive Director of UNFPA, the UN Population Fund.A staggering 258 million people migrated internationally in 2017.While many of these migrants chose to leave their home countries in search of jobs, education, or to reunite with family, many others had no choice but to leave--to escape poverty, violence or a dearth of opportunities for a better life.

ROME, May 04 (IPS) - Soil pollution is posing a serious threat to our environment, to our sources food and ultimately to our health.The Food and Agriculture Orgaization of the United Nations (FAO) warns that there is still a lack of awareness about the scale and severity of this threat.An FAO released a report titled "Soil Pollution: A Hiddel Reality" at the start of a global symposium which has been taking place 2-4 May, 2018 at FAO headquarters, participated by gathering experts and policymakers to discuss the threat of soil pollution in order to build an effective framework for a cohesive international response.